I hunted with John Abraham with Madubula Safaris for elephant in Botswana and rhino in the Mkuze Game Control Area in RSA. The elephant hunt was scheduled for 14 days and the rhino hunt was a 10 day hunt. My hunt started by flying from Joberg to Maun on September 2,2006. I was hunting out of the Ivory Camp in the Johan Calitz Safaris concession.
The hunt for elephant was a bit different in that the water in the Okavango Delta was so high that driving in a truck and then following tracks was impossible because the water prevented us from accessing areas by any means other than a boat. This was more of a spot and stalk hunt than traditional tracking. Although we did track some elephant bulls on high ground we saw many more from a Go-devil powered boat. We could usually tell from a distance whether the bull or bulls deserved a closer look. If so we would wade ashore and stalk to a distance to judge trophy quality.
This area is loaded with elephants at this time of year. John told me that I would probably see 100 elephant bulls before I saw a shooter. He was right. The bull I took was the 126th bull we had seen in 11 days of hunting.
We saw the bull I eventually shot several days before but he was accross the boundary of the concession in the Moremi Game Reserve. We could see from the path he left through the aquatic vegetation that he had been on our concession but had crossed minutes before we got there. It was disappointing but we knew there was a good chance that he would cross back over into the concession in a day or two.
We hunted the same area some days later and saw a bull carrying about 40 pounds of ivory standing on an island in the concession. John looked at him through binos from about 500 yards and said he was too small. Suddenly a larger elephant emerged from a tangle of brush, small trees and termite mounds. John took one look at him and said "We're going to shoot that elephant."
We took the boat about a half mile down wind and got out on the island. The old bull had heard the boat and was looking in our direction. We approached cautiously, stopping whenever he stopped feeding and looked in our direction. We had little cover so we were moving fast, as the old bull and the youg askari were feeding away from us and toward the boundary of the concession. We continued to move as fast as we could until we got ahead of them and waited for them to appear from behind a thick area of termite mounds small trees and brush. Ollie, our tracker set up the sticks as the askari came out but Ollie's movement as he moved back allerted the young bull. He trumpeted an alarm, made a bluff charge and then ran back in the direction of the big bull. I was afraid they would disappear behind the tangles of brush but instead the big bull came at us. As his head cleared a small tree John yelled for me to shoot. I shot the bull as he came quartering towards us between and below his eye level slightly to my left, which was closer to his right eye than his left. He immediately went down with the young bull now going crazy with anger. I thought for sure he would charge and we would have a real shoot-out. The big bull struggled to his feet and I shot him behind the shoulder knocking him down again. We now moved back and around some termite mounds and brush so we could see the big bull and put in a finisher.
The young bull was having none of it as he continued to bluff charge us and stand by the old bull. We continued to make noise and try to drive him away. Finally after maybe 5 minutes he moved off and we could approach our trophy.
He was truly a magnificent elephant. He was huge body wise and we knew he should be carrying close to 70 pounds of ivory a side. We radioed camp for the skinners but when the camp heard how big he was the whole camp turned out. Teresa, the camp manager even brought a bottle of champagne!
Later when the tusks were removed and weighed, the right tusk weighed 77 pounds and the left tusk weighed 76. I was really proud to have taken such a trophy as my first elephant. After we moved to Mkuze to hunt rhino, Calitz Safaris called John's home and told us it was the second largest elephant killed in Botswana in the 2006 hunting season.
I was using one of Duane Weibe's custom 416 Rigbys. It was built on a Granite Mountain action, Kreiger barrel, with beautiful Weibe carved walnut. I was using a 1.5-5x Leupold scope. My load was a 370 grain North Fork flat nose solid. I worked up a load using IMR 4350 which moves the NF at 2600 fps. I got a shoot-through on the body shot and we could not find the frontal head shot.
I will try to post pictures tomorrow as an addendum to my report. If anyone has questions about the hunt, camp, or concession I will be happy to provide any info I have. I will make a report on the rhino hunt ASAP. Mufasa

Sounds like an excellent bull -- congratulations. I look forward to the pictures.

Great Stuff Mufasa! Well doen on your first ele hunt!

That part of Botswana is beautiful isn't it? I was up there last week and you're right, this time of the year the place is crawling with elephant and buff.

Looking forward to seeing photos of your magnificent elephant.

Mufasa,

First let me congratulate you on a great elephant. Very nice! Sounds like a excellent hunt also with more than enough excitement. The delta is very special.

I hunted out of Ivory camp in '04 but only for lechwe as I took my elepahant in the Mababe Depression. In '04 I don't think elephant would have been vialbe at least in August as the water was right up to the firepit at the camp.

I believe you followed us this year at Mkuze as Garry Kelly mentioned that John Abraham was bringing a rhino hunt in the day we left which I think was 28 August. I'll be very interested in your assessment of the hunt. The Spaniard Garry was finishing up with in Mkuze as I arrived was a very experienced Africa hand and he found the rhino hunt a real challenge.

Mark

Please post a pic of your 77x76 ivory.

One more pic of big ivory will just make my day.

And congrats.

Here, I hope are the promised photos

Impressive ivory.

Congratulations.

Congrats, sounds like an exicting hunt with fantastic results! Great pics, too.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mufasa:
After hunting in Botswana we picked up Madubula's crew and headed to Mkuze. I found the rhinos much harder to approach than the elephants. Their hearing is unbelievable.
This was strictly tracking rhinos and judging the horn. Their was also an abundance of other game and I was able to take a red duiker.
Some on this forum have questioned whether there are any true wild rhino hunts left. This is certainly one. One day we tracked an old rhino bull over several foothills and down into a valley of indescibably thick brush. We busted the rhino without getting a shot. The truck was over several foothills and about 3 miles away. We left the driver in the truck so if the rhino crossed a road we could move the truck up to the road. The driver said that he saw the rhino still running and he went over several other foothills never stopping. We never saw that rhino again. Anytime we spooked a rhino we never saw that rhino again.
In short it is as hard a hunt as you want it to be. You will be run at by rhino, you will run from rhino and you will be close to rhino. If you doubt this I am sure the story of Ross Perot and his son have made it to the U.S. His son was gored and Perot was injured.Again I will be happy to share any info I have on the trip with anyone interested. Here are a few pics. I also included a pic of a 370 grain North Fork sticking out of the off side ahoulder of the rhino.

Very nice.

Thanks for posting.

Kyler

Congratulations!!! Very fine trophies indeed!

quote:

The bull I took was the 126th bull we had seen in 11 days of hunting.

Wow, sounds like a great trip and super hunt! Congratulations on what is a superb elephant this day and age! Beautiful rifle, by the way.

Mike, you should get some type of prize for taking the largest and smallest animals on a single safari.

Beautiful trophies.

Congratulations, Mike. A truly great safari and some great photos. Thansk for sharing. jorge

Outstanding!

Mike, what a great time you must have had.

126 bulls in 11 days, not to mention all of the cows and calves. Thats a lot of ele's. Glad you got a truely big one.

Then to find that monster rhino.

Way to go. That now covers the Big 6 for you.

Hog Killer

Mike: I know wherein you speak when it comes to hunting rhino. I took a beautiful rhino with a 27" front horn, in August of this year, while hunting with Brad Rolston and Ally Robins and it was NO cake walk. Rhino are much, much harder to hunt then anyone thinks. By the way, holding those horns in your hands is quite an achievement. Mine were locked in a safe immediately after the hunt and have been micro-chipped as I am sure yours will be too. They become extremely valuable once they have been removed and must be protected by all means. Again, congratulations my friend. What a great hunt!

Incredible! One heck of a bll. Congratulations!

Two incredible hunts. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Awesome trophies. Congratulations on a helluva hunt.

Mike

Super trophies...and a magnificient bull ele...

Mike

Mufasa,

Congratulations on a magnificent elephant and rhino. Thanks for sharing.

George

Wow!

I'm jealous. Congratulations!

I really like the photo where you are leaned back against the rhino. That photo shows how big that brute was. (I discount photos where all I see is the top of a guys head behind the trophy, or his head is the size of one nostril. I just assume the guy was sitting 10 meters behind the game whether he was or not.)

Congratulations on a great hunt! Fantastic ivory, an excellent rhino, and the coolest recovered bullet picture that I have ever seen!

Very impressive.....thanks for sharing

Looks like you may have exceded your limit of fun for at least this year. Most impresive trophies, congrats.

Mufasa,

Great trophies! A 77x76 is indeed a great ele and a frontal brain shot during a charge. You just live right. Good rhino too, I appreciate your info on this as well, as we have been led to believe that rhino are pussy cats,

Dak

well done and great trophies - John is a great outfitter and Ph , well done.
Graeme Pollock
Safaris Botswana Bound

quote:

Originally posted by SBT:
Wow!

x10

Mufasa
The Tenderloins must have been Great on that Rhino..
AK