Posting for Dirk
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Dates: June 20-28
Area: Makuti, Zimbabwe
PH's: Buzz Charlton (6 days); Rex Hoets (2 days)
Trophies: tusked cow, tuskless cow, buff, warthog
Rifles used: myself, Heym PH 500 N.E. and my son used the new Ruger M77 hawkeye in 375
Bullets used: GS custom solids 540 grain and 570 grain Woodie softs. My son Derek used 300 grain Swift a-frames and Hornady solids.
Weather: 40-90F
Topo: mountainous area, need to be in good shape to thoughly enjoy this hunt. Spot and stalk 80%, find spor and track 20%.

Day 1: Morning
What a day! First ele hunt and four hours into the hunt have to shoot a full charging matriarch cow at 5 yds! We spotted five cows plus some calves with if I remember correctly had one shooter tuskless maybe two. We approached to within 35 yds and we were waiting for the last cow, which happened to be the matriarch cow (tusked) to follow the other cows which were feeding into a slight depression. Since the movement of the eles was to our left we were not in single file but fanned out from Lt. to Rt. Buzz, myself, my son Derek, with Justin (camera man) and tracker Critton behind us with Absinal (game scout) so basically two rows in parallel. All of a sudden the matriarch cow squares off with us and here she comes trumpeting, trunk tucked in, whole nine yards. At this time our camera man Justin was behind Buzz getting some good footage then as Buzz and the rest of us were backing up the lineup changed, now Buzz was beside the camera man (who is now at my immediate Lt. with my son on my Rt.) shouting the ele down saying at the same time "don't shoot". I hear one shot (game scout with AK-47) and then another shot which was Buzz's warning shot over the ele. By this time things are getting tight in a hurry, Justin the camera man who is going to be rasberry jam finally skirts around Derek and I as the cow is now 5yds away, I'm thinking gee you know I better shoot. Now the ele has been focused on Buzz and the cameraman so she is not straight on (quartering slightly) so I pick the safe shot brain-spine junction and just about simultainiously I shoot and my son shoots, my shot stops and rocks her as my son's shot ends the fray. As the dust settles here's the conclusion of what happened. The camera man Justin was caught between two small trees doing the Michael Jackson moon walk and going no where. Hindsight, Buzz on the other hand said he should have brained her because of her posture,etc. Here's the real kicker, Buzz's rifle, his trusty Ruger M77 in 416 Rigby jams after warning shot for the first time (werd bolt jam). Justin our cameraman said that was the closest he had ever come to getting it, keep in mind he does this stuff six months out of the year. The joy for me was seeing that my son had some real stones in this situation and was cool headed. The second pic is where Justin was and the ele fell, just five feet away from where he was standing.





Afternoon: Buzz, Derek and I stalk up on some buff and at the last minute see a fine dugga boy, Derek as usual makes the perfect shot off hand at 60 yds through the shoulder (breaks it) through rib then through the heart another rib with the bullet logging under the skin (Swift bullet weighed 276 grains thus retaining 92% weight) then proceeds to shoot it two more times in spine and hip done deal, buff goes total of 30 yds.





It's starting to get late so we start walking out when Buzz see's this nice warthog and says shoot this thing 500 N.E. at 70 yds and hog then runs around dead on it's feet for 70 yds giving us some moving target practice. Oh, by the way Mike Jines Buzz says this is probably the hog that was chewing on the duiker when you were after your ele bull last year so I shot him for you.




Day 2:
MMBA, spotting around 30-40 ele with only one sub-adult tuskless

Day 3:
MMBA saw a very large cevet at 50 yds but no quota for it. Saw numerous buff, some Kudu and ele.

Day 4:
MMBA actually stalked a leopard that was matting a female came close to getting a shot, more ele's with stalks but wind was contrary.

Day 5:
MMBA much of the same, a few stalks wind swirling around. Sat in blind had female under the bait with the male just out of view in the grass at 40 yds.

Day 6:
MMBA, sat in leopard blind and the lovely couple was only 30-40 yds away but no shot in the long grass. Saw 25-30 eles this day with no shootable tuskless.

Day 7:
MMBA, Buzz has to move his flight a day earlier because of air Zim to get to Ireland for his brothers wedding so Rex Hoets takes over. Got close to some tuskless, of course the wind is contrary to success and the tuskless leaves the hunting area crossing the boundary back into the Zambezi valley.

Day 8:
MMBA, got to within 50yds of tuskless in herd and again the wind did it's thing. This is the last day of the hunt so in the afternoon I told Rex lets head over to the Gorta Gorta gorge and shoot some baboons always have had a great desire to shoot baboons with the 500 so you know how things usually go when you change the menu, as was were on our way over and within a mile of the gorge at 3:30pm behold, two large tuskless in a group of five. Nice stalk, 17yds away and bingo tuskless on the ground. On this shot we were down below the ele in a small depression and she presented me with a side brain shot, being lower than her I aimmed two inches lower than for a normal side on shot thinking that would do it, wrong, missed the brain by less than an inch but being that I'm packing a 500 she pole-axed at the shot.



End note:
The reason we were having to work a little harder for these tuskless is that they had had the most rain this past rainy season and had broke a 30 year record. Thus, a lot of the pans in the Zambezi valley still had a lot of water so a lot of the eles were still in the Zambezi valley and had not migraited up into the escarpment yet. If anyone is contemplating shooting leopard this is the area, we saw leopard during the day four times on this hunt.

Great post and good job! Congratulations on a fine hunt. It is fantastic that you were able to do this hunt with your son.
Cheers!

Bill

Dirk,

Great report and glad you and your son had an exciting and problem free hunt. The .500 is a stone cold killer isn't it? Maybe old Pondoro had it right when he said that for a rifle to be suitable for elephant it needed to be capable of knocking down an elephant under any conditions. The .500 is the ticket. Thanks for taking out that piggy too, he damn near busted our bull stalk last year.

Nicely done and good work with the GS bullets in the .500! Your son did well and that buff is fantastic.

quote:

five feet away

well, at least it is not the standardized 5 yards.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MJines:
Maybe old Pondoro had it right [QUOTE]

Really?

quote:

full charging matriarch cow at 5 yds!

Sorry, there is the 5 yards!

Bill,
The five feet was the distance that the cameraman Justin was from where the cow expired. We were to the right of Justin at five yards where the shots were fired.

Dirk

Don't pay any attention to Bill. He's just crabby that he's not hunting and getting free elephant. That makes 2 of us!

Dirk,

Congrats to you and your son on a successful safari...
Also tell your son fine shooting and putting the bullet in the right place does wonders.... He stood his ground with the best of them...

Mike

Great trip and an excellent adventure to share with your son. I am sure he will always remember that charging ellie and tough buffalo bull. Congrats!

Dirk,
Great story and great hunt. Were you hunting with John Sharp or Buzz?

Wow, great hunting report

Congrats to you and your son on a great hunt.

quote:

Originally posted by dirklawyer:
Bill,
The five feet was the distance that the cameraman Justin was from where the cow expired. We were to the right of Justin at five yards where the shots were fired.

Dirk

I'm just ragging you.

That is my dream buffalo, I love when the horns are "flicked back" at the tips. Congratulations,excellent report/photos.

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:
That is my dream buffalo, I love when the horns are "flicked back" at the tips. Congratulations,excellent report/photos.

That is a very nice buff.

Congratulations to both of you. Hopefull I will be able to try out the .416 from you on one of my own buff's soon!

Way to go guys! Something to remember for the rest of your lives. There will always be the time that the two of you stood shoulder to shoulder...he'll have the confidence to tackle most anything.

I'm headed to Makuti in a month w/my oldest son for tuskless, sable and whatever else Buzz can come up with, and I appreciate the info on the area and ele movement. Besides the conditioning, anything else you would suggest?

Sounds like a fantastic hunt!

Bill, you'll do fine in Makuti. Both you and your son are in good shape, experienced and have good attitudes. No worries mate!

Great report and photos.


Thanks for sharing

Thanks Dirk
Well done on your hunt and great report.
Tell me the bit about lots of leopard again !!
I am due there for Buff, Leopard and Sable in three weeks time. I was there last year and we had a female leopard through camp most nights.
20 days and counting !!!

There are definitely a good number of leopards in Makuti. We saw sign last year and there was the infamous female who started sniffing tents when I was there early in the season. She continued throughout the season...I think she missed me.

A male leopard was in camp around the skinning shed during the daytime while were there. Charles did you see that one? Later, Buzz got that one and some others. Lots of leopard in Makuti.

Dirk & Derek,

It was a pleasure meeting both of you in the middle of an intersection in Harare nonetheless!

Wow! Not sure if there is a stronger shared experience that a father and son can go through! Thank you for saving “timber snakeâ€; Mike J and I think the world of this intrepid photo journalist.

If you are headed to Dallas next January, please give Mike or myself a shout…We would love to share some stories with you!

My best!
Bill C.

Great report and a great hunt.


TerryR

Will is just a bit testy because of the wardrobe rip-off. Great hunt and good report.

Perry

Great job guys, I would love to do a similar hunt and am desperatly looking for a really easy leopard ! So far I've had too much hunting and too few leopard. BTW Delta is a neat town and the area around Kelso mesa,Love mesa, Columbine and windy point are special to us. Regards, Adrian