dates: Oct 23-Nov 3
PH- Karl Stumpfe
Airline-AA/BA/Air Botswana
rifles- .375 H&H with 1.5x6 Schmidt&Binder, .416 REM with Trigicon red dot- camp rifles.
first 2 days spent getting to camp. i did use a 7 hour layover in London to take the tube downtown to see the Kilimanjaro tusks( and other things at the British Natural History Museum

arrived in camp about 5 PM and hunt started the next morning.in camp were Christos( SA neurosurgeon) and his friend, Piet( SA business man).they had finished their buff hunt days before and were just hanging out, doing a lot of bird watching. a friend of Karl, Uys and his son, Gee were also in camp trying for a trophy sable that Karl had managed to get a permit for.
Day 1- a good day/bad-Karl, me, Christos and Piet left camp about 7 am headed to the Balyerwa Conservancy. picked up the game scout and drove to the junction of the Kwando River/Linyati Swamp. left the 2 South Africans and headed into the swamp looking for buff tracks. we quickly found were a herd had entered the swamp to water but it took a while to find were they came back out. took up the track and about an hour later we bumped a different herd off to our left. changed course and after about another hour, we got in amongst the bedded down herd. found a suitable bull but he was bedded in the middle of about 35-40 others. after an hour of laying in the hot sun on the side of an anthill( buff all around 25-40 yards away), the herd spooked and took off. they quickly fell in with the first herd we were tracking, so now we have about 100 buff, all switched on. long story short we spent another hour chasing the herd in open country and hot sun.i finally got a clear shot at about 125 yards, facing me with a slight left turn of his chest. at the shot, he lunged forward like a rodeo bull coming out of the shute, flailing his left leg., then disappeared into the herd. we took up the track but quickly realized it would mean simply following the herd and sorting out a finisher. 100 buff leave a lot of tracks, so there was no way to follow an individual animal. we called up the truck and sat down to have a quick lunch before the tracking. i sat on a log and by the time the truck arrived i was nauseated and passed on eating, settling for a quick bottle of water instead. as an aside, we had been tracking/running in 95F temp with a high humidity for 5-6 hours at that point. within 2-3 minutes i got very dizzy with blurred vision. i got up off the log i was sitting on and sat down with my back against a tree. that's the last thing i remember until i woke up about 30 seconds after fainting and regurgitating the water i had just drunk. luckily there was no food in my stomach to aspirate and Christos cleared my airway and stared treatment for heat exhaustion/mild heat stroke. he checked my pulse ( which was VERY slow and weak), sat me up and started pouring cold water over me. within a few minutes i begin to feel a bit better but still very weak. Karl and Christos decided quickly that i was in no shape for the tracking job ahead( and they were quite right), so Piet took my rifle and he, Karl and 2 trackers took up the spoor. about an hour later we heard 1 shot. we thought that was it but 20 minutes later, 2 shots, followed by 6 more shots over the next half hour. buff take a lot of killing-when your first shot was about 2 inches too low and only took out 1 lung and a shoulder, as mine did. no one's fault but my own for making a poor first shot and having to live with the consequences…



looking back with 20:20 hindsight, the 1 liter of water i drank during the chase and the half liter when we stopped was not NEARLY enough. also i had only been on the ground about 17 hours when i shot- again not enough time to get over jet leg and the dehydration that comes with long plane flights. it was a near disaster that i will NOT repeat..
Day 2- we slept in, then left camp to try and help UYS find the sable he was after. no luck. in the afternoon i asked Karl about left over own use quota, hoping he had an lee left. no such luck but he did have a hippo. since there were 8 more days to go, i decided "why not"??
Day 3- again an early departure to Bulyerwa Conservacy( we were staying at Karl's camp in Sobbe Conservancy- about 1 hour drive away). arrived at the Kwando River again and loaded into a boat for a cruise into the Linyati Swamp. about an hour after we left, the game scout got a call from another area upriver that there were 3 hippos in an area known as the swimming pool- basically a wide spot in the river. back to the truck, drive to the area.from shore we can see the hippos( and they can see us) but they are too far out from shore.. we head downstream and wade in waist deep papyrus swamp/reeds to the far bank- about 300 yards, then back upstream. the hippos all know what's up so they would only show the very top of their heads( it was a young bull, a big old cow and a half grown calf). agin Karl and i wade into the reeds and set the stick up in chest deep water. i got 1 guck shot at 35 or so yards but the barrel was only about a foot off the water, the bullet hit the water about a foot in front and skipped over her head like astons. the shooting angle was simply much too shallow for such a low profile target, so we back out. luckily there was a rather tall anthill near shore so we repositioned there and waited. long story short the next shot, although a wee bit low, hit just beneath the ear and that was that-she rolled over and over for a few minutes and we shot her a few more times to seal the deal. it was a real rodeo recovering here but after about an hour, we had her dragged onto shore. since this was an "own use" hippo, it was essentially a meat animal but she was quite large- just small tusks. note the bullet hole beneath the ear



at this point my hunt was essentially done and it was time to play/fish. instead of going back to Sobbe, we left the hippo and drove to Karl's new camp at Sikunga on the Zambezi River. turns out it has sat TV and the Curry Cup( SA Rugby League final) was on that night. we pitched up in camp about an hour before kick off- the drinking/betting started in ernest as there were 3 supporters of Western Province and 2 Shark( Capetown) supporters. the Sharks won, i think.
Day 4 and 5. Uys and his son had returned to Windhoek the previous day and since Karl had payed for a trophy sable permit and had no one to shoot it, he decided to try for it himself. We returned to Sobbe and spent 2 days chasing a nice bull- and he knew exactly were the park boundary road was. several tracking sessions always led back into the park, although we did see a number of slightly smaller bulls.during this time we also saw a lot of roan, elephants,a few kudu and a lot of wildebeest, impala and zebra( but only in Bulyerwa).
Day 6-10. i won't bore you with the details as this time was spent fishing/bird watching at Sikunga. an elephant hunter and his buddy from Detroit pitched up in camp on Day 7. they were guided by Fred Bezuidenhout until Karl was done( i found out later that Karl got them a nice trophy elephant).
Day 11- we left at 7am for the 1 1/2 hour drive to Kasane. i was dropped off at the Chobe Safari Lodge, had a nice breakfast, then took a 2 hour cruise on the Chobe river into the park. saw a lot of buff, elephants, lechwe, crocs, etc. then headed home( with a 2 1/2 day stop over in England to visit friends).

After thoughts: i learned there is no such thing as drinking too much water when extended tracking sessions in 95 degree heat, blazing sun and high humidity. also, next time i may take it easy the first day to acclimate properly. i paid for my stupidity by not being able to follow up my wounded buff, but that's life.
Miscellaneous pictures:

Nice report Jerry. Great pictures. You look well in the pictures. Never know your weren't feeling well.

Also, nice chatting with you today.

Will

by the time the buff picture was taken, it was about 5 hours post collapse and i was indeed feeling better, although not 100%.

JD,
Glad your Ok, great report and pictures! The heat got me 30 years ago, water from daylight until it's over,and then some more. Two great bulls..

Nice hunt.

I have decided going forward to start spending the night in Jo-burg at Africa sky house.

Allows me to check my guns in myself - no lost guns in transit at Jo-burg and a night of sleep to get over the jet lag.

i thought about that( i had 4 hours between BA arrival and Air Bots outbound) but was too impatient. next time i will either do that( and i too really like the African Sky) or just take it easy the first day. believe me, waking up laying on my side with puked up water all over my face/chest with no memory of how i got there was not an experience i wish to repeat….

Jerry -

Sorry to hear of your difficulties. I'm sure Karl was happy to see you and I bet Sikunga Camp was quite a treat. Mike and I were there in June and Karl was completing construction (2 eles, hippo, roan, zebra). Hope to meet up with you soon.

A lesson learned Jerry. This time of year what with the humidity you should be consuming at least a litre of fluids every 30 minutes when on foot. Oral rehydration salts are a must.

Even then the midday sun is strictly reserved for mad dogs and Englishmen.

Well done on your buff.

Great report Jerry on what was certainly a memorable safari. Congrats on the fine buff and hippo and glad to hear you were well cared for during the medical emergency. I too appreciate your willingness to pass on this experience to the rest of us.

It looks like you were using Barnes "X" bullets. Were they factory or handloads? If the later, care to pass on specifics?

Jerry, Thanks for sharing the pictures and hunting report.

Glad you were able to stop at the BMNH and see the tusks. The neat thing about London is there is so much to see/do while you are in transit.

i have to say that looking at a matched pair of 200lb, 10 feet tusks is awe-inspiring. and all it cost was a $10 train ride( museum entry is free) and about 3 hours of time. train exit was only 2 blocks from the museum.

Jerry:
Very sorry to hear of your ordeal. As bad as it was, you were mighty lucky besides being as far from home as that when it happened. I have a high school buddy that had a bad heat stroke at San Diego back in the early 70's. He's still not well, so thank you maker and fixer uppers for helping you out.

Nice story and pics, thanks for sharing with us.
Have a few things I'd like to discuss with you on pm, if you're willing.
George\\PS: Stay away from the Texico!!!

JD, don't feel bad...I had the exact same symptoms the first time I met Karl...and that was in Dallas!!!! :-)

Been there done that with the heat stroke. Sucks and was quite embarrassing for me. Glad you recovered and had a good hunt.

Jeff

quote:

Originally posted by Biebs:
JD, don't feel bad…I had the exact same symptoms the first time I met Karl…and that was in Dallas!!!! :-)

you should see him when he gets wound up( after a few drinks) about cheering for the losing team in a rugby game….

Yes, when he gets fired up, I think I can detect the faint smell of Bull Elephant musk :-)

FAINT????

good story,good buff and good photos, the little camera does a great job...makes me want to go on our hunt next May right now...hell,if I had known that you wanted to pass out,you could have come home and we could have run you around the edge of the swamp a few times...jokes aside,that is a sick feeling,I did the same thing in Argentina a few years ago and I am to old for that crap , we all think it will not happen to us...we get excited while hunting/tracking and pass up the water and should be drinking tons of it...congrats on good trip and glad to have you back....

Jdollar looks like you had a great time. Good write up and photos.

After looking at your and others photos think I I had better get a decent camera before I head back to Africa.

good go on the hunt

I did a hunt in that area this time of year few years back

yes it was hot as hell

thanks for the pic of the big tusk er

quote:

Originally posted by Bwana Bunduki:
Been there done that with the heat stroke. Sucks and was quite embarrassing for me. Glad you recovered and had a good hunt.

Jeff

Never heard of that remedy. What goes on tour stays on tour.

Glad you're ok. Nice trophies and hard earned. After having heat stroke twice, once on deployment in the Corps and the other time in Moz, I make sure and take enough water dang near to bath in. No fun at all.

Hey Jerry,

I know you had a grand time with Karl.

Regarding the dehydration, this is a serious issue and much more common than is spoken of. On my first Ele hunt in 1998, after flying from SFO to Bulawayo, we started on a bull track on the first morning. Those long flights have a tendency to dehydrate you and alcohol and coffee only exacerbate the issue. I was not fully aware of the impact in those days. After about 4 hours we caught up to the bull and I got a good heart-lung shot into him and a follow-up into his rear end which missed the spine. Almost immediately, probably from the adrenaline dump, I began to suffer the effects of dehydration. After catching up to my dead Ele, I had to lay down in the available shade and drink what water we had available as a tracker was sent to gather the recovery team. It took an hour before I began to feel a bit better.

As a result of that very uncomfortable, and dangerous, experience I began to drink only water on the flights over and to wear a water bladder on my back while hunting. Whenever I leave the hunting truck the CamelBak goes on, just like the ammo belt.

Later I found the NUUN tablets used by long distance runners to replace electrolytes. These are in tablet form, much neater than GatorAid powder, and can easily be broken in two along the scored mark and dropped into a bottle of water. I have used these extensively and have even put a number of them into my CamelBak when bottles are not readily available. Beau has also adopted the CamelBak and NUUN tablets as part of his safari kit.

There is good reason why the U.S. military now issues water bladders to our troops. Being able to drink from the drinking tube while on the move has proven to be essential in hot weather.

Tough hunt.

quote:

Originally posted by Fjold:
Tough hunt.

+1

Great hunt and pics. Glad it turned out positive in the end.

as

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:

quote:

Originally posted by Bwana Bunduki:
Been there done that with the heat stroke. Sucks and was quite embarrassing for me. Glad you recovered and had a good hunt.

Jeff

Never heard of that remedy. What goes on tour stays on tour.

Damn, Andrew, you just made me blow a nice dram of good Scotch out through my nose with that one
! as an aside, i put a full tablet of electrolyte replacement in the first half liter i drank early on. problem was i only drank another half liter over the next 3 hours before we stopped for a quick lunch, when i quickly( maybe too quickly) guzzled another half liter. in retrospect, i should have had 3 liters with 'lyte replacement instead of the 1 1/2. lessons learned the hard way are those your remember best!! NEVER MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN.

Jerry,
Glad to see you had a successful hunt. Those late season hunts are blessings and curses! Usually good deals with left-over quota available but serious heat to deal with! I have had my share of episodes as well and a couple of my PH's can attest to that. In the end a good hunt with nice trophies... congrats!