Dates: September 1—September 14, 2008
Place: Binga District, Zambezi Valley, Zimbabwe
Outfitter: Russ Broom Safaris
PH: Rory Muil
Booking Agent: Atcheson’s
Game sought: Elephant and Buffalo
Game taken: Elephant, Buffalo, Hippo, and Crocodile

Rifles used: Winchester Model 70, .458 Winchester Magnum, with 450 grain handloads, North Fork solids and Barnes TSX. Weatherby UltraLightweight .300 Wby with 180 grain Nosler Partition handloads.

This was one of the greatest experiences of my life. After I arrived on a charter flight from Vic Falls, Rory picked me up and drove me about an hour to Chininga Camp, one of four that Broom maintains in his 100-mile long hunting area between Lake Kariba and Chizarira Park.

NJOVU

We started out hunting elephant and got within 50 yards of a good bull the first afternoon. Rory said to aim for the point of the shoulder, but that part was in shadow and I shot a little too far back. I also got a Texas heart shot in while the bull was retreating. Rory did not fire, despite the fact I had given him permission the previous night.

We tracked that elephant until I was just about finished. Suddenly, with a great noise, out he came—not a charge but running toward us at an oblique angle. Rory fired twice and missed the whole elephant. By its wandering tracks, the beast was clearly very sick.

The next day the trackers concluded it had probably recovered somewhat and rejoined three bulls with which we had first seen it, so we tracked them. We caught up with all four bulls but none was ours.

The third day, we found the right track but the bull went over the border into the Cheti Safari Area. This meant we had to drive all the way to Cheti, about 2 hours over a miserable excuse of a road, explain everything to the chefe de poste, pick up a govt. game scout, and drive back. Again we were hot on the track, though all the game scout, who had never been to that area of the park, contributed was to walk behind with his AK-47 pointed at our backs.

We had also arranged for an airplane, which was taking a couple of Broom employees back to Harare, to circle Cheti and look for the elephant. We saw the airplane circling and they told us the elephant was dead. They gave us the GPS coordinates. We had our own GPS of course and the elephant lay only 700 meters away, in the direction we were going. We would have found it in any case. Here is its picture.




We loaded our land cruiser with 2000 pounds of meat to make biltong, the trunk for a present to the nearest chief, 5 trackers, two game scouts, two spare tires, a heavy tool kit, and went off, on a path never meant to be a road.

NYATI

Next came buffalo. The method in this area is to drive around likely places while sending game scouts and trackers out with radios. When a good track is found, it is followed. The first three days, we either came across small herds with no good bull or spooked the buffalo when we got close. After one stalk, we saw a good buff just before dark. Rory said, “That’s a good buffalo.†I said, “He’s behind some brush.†I didn’t shoot, because the brush was up to ½†thick.

The last three days we tracked the same small group of Dagga Boys. Twice we spooked them late in the afternoon. The third day we saw the tick bird fly, and homed in on them. Our tracker pointed them out—dark shapes in thick bush about 40 yards away. Rory said to shoot the one on the right. Just then they ran. Rory said, “Take it,†and I shot a bull Cape Buffalo from behind as it was running away. Since we were slightly higher in elevation, I aimed high, toward the spine. While I missed the spine, this shot later proved to be fatal.

But in the meantime, here we were, tracking a wounded Buffalo with night rapidly falling. I wondered what I was doing there. After 200 yards or so the tracker pointed. There, 30 yards away and uphill from us, was a hulking black shape, either looking right at us head on or facing away. It was dark enough that I could not tell. (Actually, it was facing away, and just about dead.) My shot at the center of mass had no visible effect. I reflected on this while chambering the last shot in the magazine. That shot brought the buff down with a thud. He was still moving, so, having reloaded, I spined him, a bit far back, and then spined him again. 25,000 foot pounds of energy.



We hung up one of the tracker’s coveralls as a scare-crow (actually a scare-hyena) and returned next morning for the butchering.

INGWE

A big male leopard had been making tracks behind our camp. The scouts hung up a piece of buffalo, and dragged some guts down the path. The next day the leopard had fed on the bait. We sat up that night but the leopard did not return. The safari was now rapidly drawing to a close so we had no more nights to do so.

MBVUU

We spend two fruitless days near the southwest part of Broom’s concession looking for Hippo and croc. The natives were glad to show us hippo, but they were hundreds of yards for shore. We hunted the Sengwa River area the final two days instead. On the second last day, we unfortunately spooked a large croc and then muffed a stalk on a 9-footer.

On the last day, we entered a native village where there were hippos just offshore. A short walk brought us within about 100 yards and a short time later the bull raised himself mostly out of the water. I fired at the point of the shoulder and missed, shooting low! The bullet hit the water and probably didn’t penetrate to the hippo. The next time the hippo surfaced, I shot it, but just wounded it. Now it was surfacing to breathe more often, and I shot each time it did. Finally, after nine .458 shots, the hippo was furiously racing around in a small circle with the water stained with red blood for 20 feet or more.

And I had run out of ammo!

I had taken one belt holder of ten .458 cartridges that morning, and dropped one. No more ammo with a wounded hippo. I went back to the truck and got my .300 Weatherby and the ten 180 grain rounds I had brought for it. The first shot brained the hippo, which promptly sunk. The natives went out and found it with poles. One of them then dived down and got a rope on its leg. After that, we could winch it to shore from our truck.



NGWENA

We returned to the spot where we had seen the big croc and spread some very smelly hippo parts around and in the water. Then we left and ate lunch. After lunch, we saw two 8 or 9-footers sunning themselves, but to get close enough for a shot, we would have to cross a river. This meant driving upstream on an elephant path, making our road as we went. Finally we crossed and walked about three kilometers to where we could stalk directly upwind behind a large termite mound. We reached the termite mound, which was about 100 yards from the sunning crocs.

As we watched, more and more came out to sun themselves. Finally a much larger one came out. Remembering Kevin Robertson’s book, I shot this one in the spine just behind the head, a target about three inches in size, and killed it with one shot with the .300 Weatherby. I put in two insurance shots just in case, because crocs, being reptiles, don’t know when they’re dead. The croc measured 13.5 feet long.



I killed the croc at 4:00PM on the last day of the safari, many miles from home. The next morning, Rory drove me to the Binga airstrip for the first leg of my 40 hour journey home. I prevailed upon the charter pilot to divert to the Falls and make several circles of it so I could photograph it. And so I left Africa. But Africa has not left me. And I don’t think it ever will. I’m not sure what I will do for an encore now, but I hope to be able to return again to the Zambezi Valley and hunt with Rory Muil and Russ Broom Safaris. At age 63, I only have a few more years at best, because this kind of hunting is strenuous.

Everything about my arrangements was first class. We had a staff of 15 or so uniformed Tongas in our camp, who catered to my every need. Rory worked very hard, sometimes long into the night, to get me trophies I didn’t even expect I would shoot, like Hippo. And as for the airplane diversion that helped to find my elephant—they charged me not a dime for that. Rory has been hunting professionally for 17 years and has only lost two wounded elephants in all that time. I left the maximum tips recommend by Atcheson’s for Rory and the staff, and then added $1000 in total for the five trackers.

Finally, I would like to say that being in Zimbabwe was perfectly safe. The government customs personnel at Vic Falls Airport were polite and helpful in all respects.

Nice report and pics.

Congratulations on so many great trophies. How wide was the buffalo and what did the elephant tusks weigh?

I hunted with Rory in '02 and '04. He's a great PH.

When I hunted with him he had the same trackers he'd had for many years. In my experience your wounded bull would have stood no chance of getting away. Did I recognize Tedious and Samuel in your photos? Is Tino not with Rory anymore?

Kyler

Very nice report, pics and game taken. Thanks for sharing and a very nice read.

Kyler,

I estimated the tusks st 35 to 40# each and the buff at 40" or a little more. One of the buff's horn tips appeared to have been broken off some years ago.

You absolutely did recognize Tedious and Samuel. Samuel now has three wives and 33 children. If a daughter gets married, he gets a bride price dowry of five cows. Tedious is the head tracker except for Tino.

Tino is still with Rory but was preoccupied with some other assignments most of the time. Rory told me the story about how Rory was smacked down by a leopard a client had wounded, which chewed on his face and arm, and Tino settled the fight by bashing the leopard with his bush ax.

These trackers were fantastic. This being the dry season, the ground is like concrete. I could not even see tracks most of the time.

Congratulations on a VERY SUCCESSFUL trip. Great report and photos.

congratulations on a great hunt. Good report.

Great trophies, nice report. Welldone.

quote:

Rory fired twice and missed the whole elephant.

It was good that the elephant was not coming for you.

Three of the Big 6 and a croc to boot! I'd echo well-done, sir. Congrats!

Indy,
Thanks so much for the update on the trackers. That brings back great memories.

I'm glad to hear the same trackers are with Rory. Tino was awesome, he could fix anything and was a great tracker and driver as well. I don't recall Tedious's cousin/brother's (they didn't know which) name but he was a trainee on my elephant hunt. He had some terrific potential. It's great to hear Tedious is now lead, he's much better than I could ever imagine a tracker could be. After we'd hunted a week with him he turned to me and spoke perfect English! I was in shock, I had no idea he was that good with English.

When I got my elephant Samuel had 4 wives and about 30 kids. He felt one of the wives was infertile (this all through Rory) so he was planning on "upgrading". He was offering meat from my elephant to all the families with teenage girls to soften them up for wife shopping. It was a wild scene. Apparently that didn't work out if he is now DOWN to three.

Kyler

Hard to beat that trip!! Congratulations.

Sounds like you had a good hunt.

I have been to Binga...

I still remember the Binga Blondes.

Indy, what a memorable safari... great photos and great report...

Mike

Kyler,

The five current trackers are Tino, Tedius, Samuel, Damilla, and Givas.

I think Tino outranks Tedius but he was mostly busy elsewhere. In addition to being a PH, Rory supervises the other camps.

I asked Rory what the word was for Hippo in Shona. He said it and then I asked him how to spell it. Tedius replied and spelled it--in English.

There were also some younger game scouts (not to be confused with government game scouts). One I remember was named Dixon. He was in his 20s, I think, and walked with a limp because he had had Polio.

quote:

The five current trackers are Tino, Tedius, Samuel, Damilla, and Givas.

Hi Indy. Tidias and Dumela are brothers, and are the main trackers. Their uncle is Samual, who used to be Russ'es personal tracker, now he sort of works for everyone. Give-us is the driver if Tino is busy with something else, like fixing stuff. Tino is sort of the boss of the trackers/ drivers. He goes everywhere where Rory goes.

quote:

Rory did not fire, despite the fact I had given him permission the previous night.

The ammo you left for Rory where very welcome, I know he was running low on .458 ammo. We are taking extra in when we go there again in a little more than a week's time. BTW, we where hunting in the lake camp (Sengwa) while you did you hunt from Chininga.

Karl,

Are you sure we didn't meet? I visited a camp on lake Kariba with Rory. There was a PH from South Africa there with an American client hunting buffalo with one of Broom's PHs named Kevin. They got a pretty good buff. We also dropped my croc off there to be skinned on September 14. I also visited another camp where PH GAvin Rork ws fishing with his son.