Outfitters: Charlton McCullum Safaris Hunt Dates: April 30-May 13 Area Hunted: Dande North
Species: Elephant Bull PH: Richard Schultz Rifle: Remington 375 H&H Bullet: Woodleigh Solid 350g

This is my first hunt report and I am no writer (as you will see), but I am going to tell it in the way it was, warts and all. The characters in this hunt are PH Rich, Trackers Clever and Tondi, Driver Sam, Camp manager Japie, and cameraman Ray.
The seed for this hunt was planted in 2008 when I hunted for tuskless and buffalo in Sapi. I figured I would get it out of my system and I would never go back. Well…in 2009 I hunted tuskless and cow buffalo in Chirisa. Surely two years in a row would get it out of my system. Well..in 2010 I hunted PAC in the Omay and shot a tusk cow. I had to admit I was addicted to the eles so I started planning for a trophy bull in 2012. I booked a hunt with CM safaris and headed on my way to Dande North. I decided to go to their fish camp for 2 days just to get my legs back under me and for my bags to catch up to me if they missed a connection. I’m not a fisher but it was nice to ride up the river to see the wildlife and the red cliffs and gorge that you read about in books.
While driving back to hunting camp, Japie (camp manager) came up with an idea to play a prank on my PH Rich Schultz. On the initial intro, I would play the “difficult client” while Ray (cameraman) got it all on film. Boy did it work, Rich was sweating rivets but was very professional. We all had a good laugh but I knew sooner or later Rich would get me back and he did big time. I knew from the start that the whole team would get along great and it was going to be a fun hunt.
Day 1: spend driving the roads looking for tracks and checking some pans to get an idea where the movement was. We didn’t see any eles but did find some Big tracks that were 1 or 2 days old. Good to see the country we could be hunting in.
Day 2: started out riding roads and checked out 2 cow herds to see if a bull was with them. Rich says these big bulls are wondering from cow herd to cow herd checking for cows in heat. That afternoon we went for a walk to look for fresh sign when we heard eles and put a sneak on two young bulls. Got up to about 20 yards and discussed the ivory, about 35# on left and broken off on the right. The bull was feeding and didn’t know we were on the same planet. He started walking straight toward us and got to 10 steps which Rich and I were going over shot placement. He finally realized we were some funny looking trees and maybe saw me move while I was practicing aiming and made a half hearted one step mock charge when Rich said “hey hey, don’t be clever”. The bull wheeled and took off with the tail sticking straight out. What I thrill, it is good to be back hunting eles.
We saw another big track on the road. These tracks are 20-21”. We think we have four Big bulls traveling in the area but they seem to be 1 or 2 days ahead of us.
Day 3: Rode the roads some but didn’t see anything fresh. We decided we would take a long walk, and try to narrow down the area where most of the movement is. We’re seeing some big tracks but they aren’t fresh. Saw a buffalo herd with one tremendous bull in it. Rich said he was about 40” but what made him so impressive was the drop he had. What a mental picture looking through binos at him. That was the high light of the day. The low light was seeing an elephant that had recently been poached. We were crossing a dry river bed and saw a poacher’s foot print and saw vultures a little ways off so we went to investigate. It was disgusting! Young bull was killed, which Rich said probably had tusks of about 15#. They cut out the ivory and left the rest to rot. It was the first time I had seen something like that in person, seeing it on TV doesn’t prepare you for the sick feeling you get.
Day 4: we have gotten into a routine now, leave camp at 6, ride roads looking for a track to follow. This morning found a decent bull track but couldn’t follow it far. He had gotten in with a cow herd and there was another cow herd going the other way on top of his tracks. That was disappointing but we came up on another set of bull tracks just a little ways down the road. It was 2 bulls together so we followed them even though we got on them a little late in the morning. The tracking was going fairly well but this late in the day the wind was beginning to blow in every direction which concerned us but you can’t control that so we kept after them. The fresher sign, leaves, and what have you, gave us hope that we were getting closer so we were encouraged, yet the wind was becoming a bigger concern. Things got real exciting when some dung was found still warm, but our spirits dropped when the tracks showed the two bulls were striding out. They weren’t running but were aware of us on a mission. We continued to follow them for a good ways but they had not slowed and were still straight lined, so we left the track. Very disappointing! After lunch we walked a dry river bed then made a loop through the jesse, saw 2 or 3 big bull tracks but they are always one or two days ahead of us and didn’t see any fresh sign in the jesse.
When we get back to camp it’s always dark so we shower and then go to the fire for a few minutes before we eat. This day was a little different. While cleaning up, I heard Rich and Ray laughing all the way across camp. I knew something was going on but had no idea what it was about. I soon found out. They had killed a cobra and put it on the porch of Japi’s chalet and filmed his reaction when he came out of his door. They got such a big kick out of it that they decided to put the snake on my porch. They had it all set up, camera rolling, hiding in the dark. When I came out of my door I almost turned inside out and jumped back in the chalet and slammed the door. They just cracked up and I knew I had been had. I peered out the door and saw the snake was dead and Rich was rolling on the lawn. Then I saw Ray hiding behind a tree with the camera. Rich said “We are even now” for the prank I played on him about being the difficult client. They took the snake and tied fishing line to it and when the cook and 2 waiters came to tell us what we were having for dinner; Japie pulled the snake out from under a counter next to them. You can imagine their reaction.
Day 5: Tracked a bull most of the morning but the wind began to swirl so we decided to pull out and each lunch. The wind settled down and we went back in and picked up the tracking. Well, we came back in to find his track and there had been a cow herd come over the top and we weren’t able to follow them. On the way back to camp we saw a cow herd and looked them over to see if there was a bull with them but couldn’t find one. The whole team is beginning to get a little frustrated by not being able to track a bull and catch up to him. We are doing the work but are not getting the reward of seeing the bull.
Day 6: Rode all day but no fresh tracks. The big bull tracks we were seeing at the first of the hunt have vanished. Late that afternoon, we checked a spring and found fresh bull tracks. Due to the fading light we followed them as fast as we could walk. We got close enough to find warm dung, but there wasn’t much light left so we almost ran in the direction Rich thought the bull was heading. Unfortunately, darkness caught up to us.
Day 7: we are half way through the hunt now and we haven’t tracked a bull down yet. It has been a very tough hunt mentally. I’m not concerned about not getting a bull, but it would be nice to track one, get up on him, and look him over. That was one thing I was really looking forward to. We rode all day and only found one bull track. It was over 12 hours old but we followed it. Didn’t go but about 300 yards and lost the track on some rocky ground. That ground was so hard you couldn’t track and bulldozer across it. The whole team is very frustrated. The guys are working their tails off but it’s just one of those hunts where things just aren’t going our way. I told the guys we just have to keep plugging. On the way back to camp we saw a group of cows and got in on them, checking for a bull. Thought we saw a bull but it was on the far side of the herd and we couldn’t get a good look. We worked around them and got on the opposite bank of the dry river bed as it looked like they would cross, but they turned and fed down the bank away from us. We left them and went to check out Baboon Springs. Found young bull drinking and then followed the spring some till we ran into 5 cows, two of which were tuskless. It was exciting to get among eles even though they were cows. It lifted everyone’s spirits. We just had to keep plugging.
Day 8: Finally tracked a bull and caught up to him. The guys were able to stick with him as he fed onto a real rocky him top and then headed to a small spring. We were just walking along with Tondi pointed and we got a quick glimpse of him. The wind was wrong and he got a whiff of us and walked away. That bull wasn’t the one we wanted, but he was a mature bull and we tracked him down. That afternoon we walked a dry river bed. We didn’t see anything but I was able to sit for a while and just listen to all the different birds. Very peaceful and relaxing.
Day 9: Been seeing lion tracks everyday but this track was huge.
Never heard any at night. Found a bull track but he was with some cows. This time Rich decided we would follow the cows and hope the bull stayed with them. We followed for a while but the trackers said they had not seen the bull tracks for some time so we left and headed back to the road. Late that afternoon we checked out baboon Springs again. We had seen a lot of activity there and this time there was 15 cows and 2 young bulls. It got real exciting when we had cows on both sides of us with one cow trumpeting. You couldn’t see 25 yards. Once again, getting in on eles helped to lift everyone’s mood and helped us to look forward to the next day.
Day 10: This morning Rich changed things up, Stewart (the skinner), who also has some tracking experience would be helping us out. The plan was to drop Clever and Stewart off with a radio to walk through the area while we drove looking for tracks. We found a huge track and It was fresh. The bull was by himself. This was what we had been waiting for. You could smell the musky odor. Everyone perked up, the farther we went the better the sign got. I told Ray that if we caught up to this bull I felt this would be the one. We hadn’t tracked long before we heard eles. Cowherd, I though not again. Tondi was having a hard time separating the bulls track from all the cows when Sam, the driver radioed and said he found a bull track crossing the road and he though it was the same bull we were on. So Rich decided to head to the road and follow from there. Well, when we got there we are not sure if it was the same bull but we are here now so we started tracking. The bull made a huge circle and by now we were sure it was not the same bull we had been following earlier in the morning. The bull eventually goes into tall grass and we lose it so we don’t have any track now. We go out to the road to eat a quick lunch and then we will go back to find the other bull. I really didn’t think there was much chance we would find the track much less catch up to him before dark. While eating lunch I was thinking about how we needed a change of luck. Now, I knew exactly what was wrong. Clever was wearing a Notre Dame hat. With me being an Alabama Crimson Tide fan, I knew that was the problem. I gave him my Alabama hat and we had a ceremony putting the ND hat under the front wheel and running over it. Our luck would change.
Riding the two track road and hoping to see the track, when the bump on the roof came. Believe it or not, this bull had crossed on a sandy patch and there was no doubt that it is the big bull we first tracked. Everyone was fired up and we take off as fast as possible. We had Clever back, so Tondi, Clever, and Stewart worked the track fast, but the bull was hours ahead. There was only 3 hours of day light ahead. We followed as long as possible until Rich decided he and I would head to the road to get out before dark. The trackers would continue on the tracks as long as light would allow. They got back to the road after dark, after having followed the track to a little spring, where there was a herd of cows drinking. What a frustrating day. We started out with so much promise, but ended without seeing a bull. It had been that way the whole hunt. Work, work, work, but get no reward.
Day 11: The plan was to ride the roads around the block that we had left the tracks the night before. If the bull had left that area, we would see his tracks. If he was still in that block, we would go to the spring and see if we could follow him from there. We needed our luck to change and it did in a BIG way. We had driven about an hour when we rounded a bend and there in the road stood this HUGE body bull.
Rich shuts off the cruiser, says “He’s a huge bull.” We hop out and he gets the sticks. Tondi hands me my rifle and I load a solid. Rich sets up the sticks in front of the truck. All this is going on while the adrenaline is flowing up by the gallons and I can’t breathe. Rich says his left tusk is 40-45 # but it is up to me. Up to me after all that we had been through and here is a huge body, old bull. Where I come from you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. The bull was quartered slightly toward us. I put the cross hairs on his shoulder and pulled the trigger. He acted like he was hit hard but before I could get another shot off, he was in the brush. We listened and thought we heard him go down. Man that happened FAST. Tondi and Ray offered me congrats – WARNING – Don’t offer congrats BEFORE you are sure the animal is down. We walked up to his tracks and there is no doubt it is the bull we had tracked the day before. We gave him a few minutes then we started following. He had not gone down. He had stopped and then started walking. It didn’t take long before the doubts about how hard he was hit started popping up in our minds. We found his dung with his blood in it. Now we really began to wonder. We followed along for a while longer then Rich and Ray looked at the shot on the camera. From what could be seen on the little screen, the shot looked good, right on the shoulder. It should have gotten at least one lung and really both lungs but the sign was telling us a different story. We tracked him for two or three more hours. During this time, Rich and Ray looked at the video clip several times. From what they could see, the shot placement was good. The only thing we could think of was somehow with the bull angled toward us, the bullet must have hit a bone or a shoulder blade and deflected back into the gut. We were finding a lot of his dung with blood in it but there was not any other blood sign. Regardless, what we saw on camera, we had a wounded bull. We continue on, but now the bull was getting close to the concession boundary and Rich had to get permission from Rorke to enter his concession so we had to stop and wait for Sam to bring the cruiser around to radio and get the OK. Meanwhile, in our minds, the bull was getting further ahead. Rich told me then it didn’t look good. We had jumped him twice and he was still striding out. We had been following him for about five hours and when Rich told me that I hit rock bottom and had to walk off by myself. I had been praying all along, but now I poured out my heart to the Lord. I didn’t want this magnificent animal to suffer and more importantly, didn’t want to put any of the team in danger. You could see it on the faces of every member of the team. Nobody was talking to each other. No smiles or jokes. This was the worst that I have felt in 50 years of hunting, because I knew the bull would die from the wound. Rich got permission so we continued on and had not gone far when we found where he had stopped and turned around several times but he wasn’t eating much. A little farther, he did the same thing, giving us some hope. He was acting like he was sick and we were catching up. We followed for about an hour when the tracks led out into some open scrub. When we crested a small rise, Tondi was the first to see him standing broadside. Rich grabs the sticks and sets them up. While I’m getting on them, he grabs his rifle. When I shot, he immediately shot. Then the bull collapsed. When I saw him go down I yelled, “He went down, he went down!” I yelled it so loud that it scared Rich. The look on his face on the video is priceless. Then all the emotions overwhelmed me and I am not ashamed to admit that I cried. To go from the highest high that morning to the absolute lowest low a hunter can reach to the highest high – what an emotional roller coaster. After I regained my composure, I walked up to that magnificent animal and went to one knee and thanked the Lord.
Clever, Tondi, and Stewart had tracked him for 7 hours. I would never wish to wound an animal but because of that, I was able to see African tracking at its absolute finest. The bull went through three cow herds. Rich didn’t tell me that until after the bull was down because I didn’t need any more bad news. They never gave up and did a job that was supernatural. The road gang was working on cutting a road for recovering the bull. Took some pics, some were with the guys wearing Alabama National Championship shirts.
Even in Africa, they know the Alabama Crimson Tide is No. 1. They got the road cut all the way in but it was too late to take many pics, so we would have to come back in the morning. Half jokingly I said, “Hope poachers don’t find it.” But that is a concern, so Clever, Tondi, and Sam would spend the night with the bull.
Day 12: Recovery day, a tractor with a big trailer was brought in to take the meat to the village. When they skinned it out, two poacher’s bullets were found. One just above his eye and the other in his foot.
The poachers cut metal rods into small pieces and put them in their muzzle loaders and just shoot the elephants anywhere. Fortunately, they don’t have modern firearms. If they did, there wouldn’t be any eles left. Also, when they pulled the hide off the right front leg, we saw where my first shot hit and the placement was good. We still aren’t sure what happened to the bullet. The next two days were spent relaxing and soaking up the feeling. We half heartedly looked for zebra, and saw some, but didn’t get a shot. I am at peace with the world.

Thanks for the report Randy and well done.
I was hunting with Buzz at the same time and we were getting second hand reports of your progress via the office each evening.
Hunting ele bulls can be the most frustrating, but also the most rewarding of all African hunting as far as I'm concerned.
Regards
Rob

Congratulations on a successful and enjoyable hunt. Great pics!

Nice report!! Congratulations on your hunt !

What a great hunt, excellent report and photos. You were even able to use a couple of big words.

War Eagle.

Great report... could feel the gloom in the wounding of the elephant with you. But all is well that ends well. Nice trophy bull, congrats!

Wonderful photography, too.

Congratulations, and the story was very well told! The pictures of those feet are awesome. That is the type of bull track we all dream of seeing -- deep cracks, well worn, outstanding.

What a wondeful report. An elephant hunter you are.

Mike

Nice job, really lovely report, glad you got your bull. Congratulations!

Great story and pics. I have had those highs and lows on a different species and I cannot imagine the feeling of relief when you got the second opportunity. Congrats. Great trophy. I am jealous. An animal I most likely will never have a chance at and I love reading the reports.

Mr. Jolly, Rich Schultz and I were hearing reports about your hunt also.We shared several laughs about the prank you pulled on them at SCI

Congratulations on a great hunt. It is no doubt the lows of following any wounded animal make the high of successfully traking and taking a magnificent Bull so much higher.
Love the Black and White and Sepia photo's they seem to bring out the feelimg of stepping back in time.

Great report and wonderful photos, welldone and congratulations.

Randy-
Congratulations on a well done hunt, and thank you for the report and pictures. Trophy bull hunting is nothing at all like grocery shopping.
The feelings of wounding an elephant, tracking and finally getting it are almost indescribable.
I will be in the DSA next April. Thanks for stoking me!

Randy

Well done on a beautiful old ele- Unfortunately I did not have the time to meet up with you as was hunting with Rob! Your hunt was certainly a whirl wind of emotions but what a grand old ele! Congrats!!

Good bull that! Buzz, Myles and company pull off another late inning win. Good on you too. It's hard to imagine the ups and downs with so much at stake, but I guess that's why we do it.

Congratulations on your hunt.I enjoyed reading your report.I am sure you heard many stories from Ray!

What a great hunting experience and well told. The experience with the poached elephant and the poacher's bullets out of your elephant are a grim but important to reveal.

Congrats!

Nice report and pics other than those God awful Dollar General, hillbilly gump sweatshirts that you passed out for pics.

Next time drop me a line before you leave and I'll ship you some proper purple and gold ones from the great state of Louisiana.

Congratulations on your hunt ! That's a magnificent bull

O

quote:

Originally posted by tygersman:


Next time drop me a line before you leave and I'll ship you some proper purple and gold ones from the great state of Louisiana.

There it is...go Tigers...

Thank you for sharing. Congratulations.

Tygersman- Loved the comment,I had so much fun with that. By the end of the hunt,I had the guys saying ROLL TIDE. Y'all have us at home 11/3, looking forward to it.

Well done on the Bull elephant
Congratulations

Very nice Elephant and great story.

Thank you

quote:

Originally posted by Randy W Martin:
Tygersman- Loved the comment,I had so much fun with that. By the end of the hunt,I had the guys saying ROLL TIDE. Y'all have us at home 11/3, looking forward to it.

There's no accounting for taste.

We'll be waiting. TIGER BAIT!

Great hunt & report. Congratulations!

Huge Congrats Randy!

Great report, thanks for sharing the emotions of the hunt; it lets a reader follow along as if part of the hunt!

Great report thanks for sharing the highs and lows of your quest . I think that this a feeling that many of have experienced that should be talked about more often. If you hunt long enough in Africa you are likely going to experience the anguish of a wounded animal and the real possibility that you will lose him and he will die a painfully death alone and many times after a long track it becomes obvious that you have.
There is nothing like the relief when you are ultimately able to find and recover your animal Had it happen to me on a cape buffalo. I Have used the 350 barns solid in front of 70 gns of r15 on elephant and had great penetration. found the bullet under the skin on the opposite side of the elephant on a going away shot at 80 yards .Fortunately for me he dropped in 50 yards with a double lung shot . and I did not have to go through the anguish you experienced. What did you think of the barns bullet performance?

Congratulations on seeing the hunt through and finally getting that bull. Good work!

465H&H

Shotgun46-I used Woodleighs, they recovered one and it was a little deformed but it must have hit the spine cause the bull went straight down on the second shot. I'm concerned about the first shot deflecting, watched the vedio on a big screen TV and it should have gotten both lungs.

Randy you may have something there. On my first elephant in 2009 I used 350 gn Woodleighs (factory loads) one of my finishing shots I hit the spine the long 350 gn bullet deformed (bent) and did veer off I have been told that round nosed bullets are more apt to do that than flat nosed solids. Could be be the answer on why your shoulder shot did not have the effect you would hope for. Well all well that ends well once again congratulations.

Awesome stuff, Randy!
Thanks for the report.

Best Regards,
Marius Goosen

Congratulations! Great trophy and wonderful report!

Best regards, D. Nelson

Excellent report and photos. Quite the emotional roller coaster. Thanks for sharing.

Real hunting related well, thanks Randy and congratulations!

Randy. congtatulations. Ray Buchanan showed me some of your video highlights of your hunt. Well deserved. More importantly, thanks for being the courier for the trail cams for me and Mike Jines for our cat hunts. They saved Alan Shearing and I lot of wasted tiem sitting in blinds and definitely helped me get my lion. I have both my leopard and lion on trail cam pics.

Rick

Rick, glad to help, it was no problem. While I was there your lion was killing donkeys and goats, the people wanted to poison them, fortunately they were able to talk them into waiting til you came over to hunt him and they could get some payment for him. I was a little concerned that they would poison him before you got there.Congrats. Did Ray show you the pranks with the snake?