Dates: March 11 – March 30, 2013
Areas: Dande East/Ward 11 (Zimbabwe)
Outfitter: Charlton McCallum Safaris
Professional Hunter: Buzz Charlton
Airline: Emirates (Houston-Dubai-Harare)
Travel Agent: Steve Turner and Susan, Travel With Guns
Rifles Used: Heym PH .500 NE and Krieghoff Big Five .500 NE (Loaded with North Fork FPS)
Cigars: Macanudo Gold Label Shakespeare and La Aroma de Cuba Belicoso

[In the interest of time, I intend to get a quick hunt report up and will work on supplementing the report over the next couple of weeks. I must confess that I have sort of grown fond of the hunt reports that are long on pictures and shorter on narrative, so I will try to stick with that approach for this report.]

This hunt was booked as an early season double bull elephant hunt. We wanted to do the hunt while the pans in the East were still holding water to see if we could catch elephant bulls wandering into the East from Mozambique. All of the normal early season challenges were in play on this hunt, including, rain, temperatures, insects, thick bush and tall grass. In contrast to the normal wintertime hunt in the Zambezi Valley, early season the bush is actually quite pretty. Everything is lush and green and there are a wide variety of wild flowers in bloom. Of course, the insects are out in full force too although fortunately we did not have serious teste fly issues, just mozzies, mopane flies, black flies, wasps and the occasional caterpillar. Dung beetles were everywhere and were fascinating to watch as they did their thing.

This was a very demanding hunt physically and emotionally. We hunted hard from sunrise to sunset every day. Over the course of the hunt a conservative estimate is that we walked more than 250 kilometers. There were many days when our tracking sessions extended straight through lunch without stopping. On several days we hunted through the rain, following tracks as best we could until rain made it impossible to follow the tracks further. For the first time in my elephant hunting career I actually walked blisters on my feet. Thankfully I had salt tablets to minimize cramps. By the end of the hunt, I even think Buzzer was a little worn down.

Many of our tracking sessions took us into areas of sand ash. For those unfamiliar with sand ash, it makes hunting in the jesse feel like a walk in the park. One of Buzz’s trackers, Nyati, summed up the sand ash best when he said, “Sand ash is f**k.” Sand ash is an evergreen bush that grows to a height of between 5’ and 8’. It grows in dense clusters that makes it hard and quite noisy to walk through. The height of the bush is such that it is virtually impossible to see elephant over the sand ash unless you are right on top of them. Unlike jesse, it has foliage all the way to the ground so you cannot kneel down and look under it to locate elephant. In the sand ash, the elephants hold all the cards. They can hear you coming, they can smell you coming and you cannot see them. Sand ash also seems to be the place that wasps like best early season. Being third or fourth in line, seemed to mean that I would end up on the receiving end of the disturbed nests more often than not. Nasty stuff sand ash.

For the first 18 days of the hunt we tracked and caught a number of bulls. We were presented with multiple shot opportunities but really wanted to focus on bulls that were 40-50+ pounds. The trackers did yeoman’s duty and only occasionally would we lose tracks when a bull got into a group of cows or we ended up tracking the bull into an area where the long grass had been flattened and matted. We saw a variety of plainsgame during the tracking sessions including, roan, sable, impala, warthog, kudu, duiker, grysbok as well as porcupine and hyena. There were a considerable number of buffalo in the area too and we could have tracked and hunted buffalo virtually everyday. We saw more than our fair share of snakes, including several mambas. I could actually do without the snakes.

On Day 19, shortly after leaving camp, around 8:00 a.m., we located a nice bull track. We loaded up and started off on the track. We tracked the bull together with two other smaller bulls for several hours until the larger bull broke away from the others. Tracking through lunch we caught the bull resting early afternoon under a baobab tree. While we could not see the bull we could hear his stomach noises. As we moved to get into position for an approach into the wind, a group of buffalo that we were unaware of and that had been resting in the jesse got our wind. As they took off so did our bull. The bull ran for a considerable distance before he started to slow down and browse. As a consequence he had put a significant distance between him and us. As the afternoon dragged on, the trackers became concerned that we would not catch the bull unless we dramatically picked up the pace of the march. From approximately 4:00 p.m. until we caught the bull at around 5:30 p.m. we actually tracked at what I would consider a slow trot. At this point, credit to the trackers, they were “in the zone”. Their level of intensity was amazing and you could tell they were focused like lasers on catching the bull.

When we caught the bull he was moving slowly to our left through a field interspersed with trees and bushes. We positioned ourselves such that he would walk in front of us broad side after clearing some brush. He cleared the brush but was now quartering away. I fired a side brain shot that was slightly low and then a raking shot as he turned. We ran forward and as he turned to face us a frontal brain shot finished the hunt.

The official weights are not in yet, but the left tusk weighed 47 pounds at the local clinic, the right tusk, which was broken off about 2 ½' outside the lip, weighed 35 pounds.

Since it was late in the evening, we then enjoyed a 4.5 kilometer walk through the jesse at night without flashlights to cut the road . . . but that is story in and of itself . . .

This bull was my fourteenth elephant. I can honestly say, this hunt was the most demanding, the most physical, the most emotionally draining and by far the most rewarding of all of my hunts. They say the greater the challenge, the richer the reward. I agree.

Thanks to Buzz and his team for a memorable and rewarding hunt. Until next time my friend . . .

Rain in the Valley



Sunrise on the Hunt



Early Season: Brush is Thick and Green




Early Season Pans




Bush is Alive with Flowers and Insects











Tracking and Checking Spore






Bull Down






Drying Out



Until Next Time

Well done Mike. Great pics!

Congratulations on what sounds like a terrific hunt. Its the hard ones that you remember most.

Arjun Reddy
www.huntersnetworks.com

I was just wondering about you and your hunt today.

Congrats and welcome home.

Mike

As always you have furnished us with a great report, and fantastic photos. 19 days of seeking- Well Done!!

Many Thanks

Brett

Nice Job Mike. Always much better hunt report than I could ever wish to write.
Congrats.

Well Done!

Enjoyed the early season pictures.

Outstanding! Thanks for sharing, great photos!

I can't wait till I can be there for 18 days, I am jealous for sure.

Way to go!
.

Sounds like a great hunt, Mike. Congrats to you!

Man, I gotta find a way to get over there this year!

Mike nice bull, and great way to start off the season. Buzz has a Heym now, huh? You guys must tip well :-)

Congratulations Mike, a fine hunt and great report. Looks like you worked very hard for this one,!

Congratulations on a nice bull from a well earned hunt. Nice report.

Superbly simple and simply superb! You have developed a penchant for the old broken-up boys, my friend. Well done and well hunted. Kudos to you and Buzz.

Excellent Mike!!!! Some cool pics too - congrats my friend.

Great stuff Mike. Congrats as usual to you and buzz. beauty of an old bull...

Great job all around !

Love it - Well done!

Did you use the K-gun or Heym for the dastardly deed?

Nice one Mike!

I dream of a hunt like that. Congrats. Well done.

quote:

Originally posted by safari-lawyer:
Did you use the K-gun or Heym for the dastardly deed?

Will, I carried the Krieghoff every day. I like the Trijicon sight on the Krieghoff versus the Docter Optic on the Heym.

Great report Mike. Thank you for taking the time to do so. I must count many, many days before I walk in your footsteps in 2015.

Cheers
Jim

Hello Mike,

I was keeping up with your hunt through email and the front office. Glad you had a great time. Looks like a nice old bull.

I'm in total agreement with you about the amount of effort going into a hunt making it all the more special. Your pictures, as well as Mac's from his early season ele hunt, really depict a beautiful time afield in the valley that I haven't had the good fortune to experience yet.

I got word sometime around day 14 or so of your hunt that you guys were still on the track. I remember thinking it must be taking an emotional toll at that point, but that you were probably loving every moment of the hunt.

I look forward to the remainder of your report and of course, more pictures. Welcome home.

Well done. Congrats!

Nice report and pictures. Congratulations.

Great photos and a great report!!
Well done...

You earned that one!

Great photos!

Well done!

Great bull and fine report. Perseverance paid off.

Congratulations. Sounds like a lot of perseverance & strength of character!

Nice report. Thanks and congrats.

Congratulations on a hard earned trophy, makes them all the more sweeter. Love the photo's.
Scott

Mike,
Congratulations on a grand bull ele trophy. Man you are
Certainly wearing out the shoe leather in Dande lately, that's
Got to be 2 19 day hunts in the last 7 months! Well earned indeed.
Can't wait to get back there in SEP for my double ele !
Well done to CMS once again!

Cheers guys

Nick

Very Nicely done Mike! Congratulations. Good hunt report.

Mike,
Beautiful pictures,a hard hunt,you have done well once again,congratulations!

Well done Mr Jines
I can tell from the photographs that it was a tough hunt beause I'm sure that you and Buzz were both taller before you set out.
Dont believe the friendly tone in Todd William's post and his pretence that he had been following your hunt out of concern. He was just waiting to see if you had left him any spare quota again !!

My Favorite Pom,

Don't try and lay that off on Todd, I know full well that you were already working on Myles before the hunt was even over to try to arrange a late season special. I may just go back later this year and fill that second tag myself!

Congrats Mike well done. You need to get back into the Cheetos and beer to build yourself back up before the next hunt.

quote:

You need to get back into the Cheetos and beer to build yourself back up before the next hunt.

Butch, so THAT'S your secret!!! :-)

quote:

Originally posted by R.Jolly:
Well done Mr Jines
I can tell from the photographs that it was a tough hunt beause I'm sure that you and Buzz were both taller before you set out.
Dont believe the friendly tone in Todd William's post and his pretence that he had been following your hunt out of concern. He was just waiting to see if you had left him any spare quota again !!

What can I say? Some of us are relegated to scraps left over from the "respectable" clients!!