Date of Hunt: 28th February – 13th March, 12 hunting days

Location: the CAR (Central African Republic) Kotto River, Center-North region of the CAR.

Animals Taken: Lion, Lord Derby Eland, Baboon, Yellow-backed Duiker, and Major Hartebeest

Game Hunted But Not Taken: Buffalo, Warthog, Bush pig, Bushbuck, Blue duiker, reddish-flanked duiker, Roan.

Game Not Hunted: The allotment had been shot: Waterbuck (largest seen 32â€), Leopard. Bongo, Giant Forest Hog, Sitatunga are present but required another type of hunting in deep jungle.

Outfitter: Kotto Safari, Michel Angelvy

PHs: Herve Houdebine, Oumar Auboussard

Booking Agent: Ol’ Sarge, w.kmatera@worldnet.att.net

Travel Agent: « Secrets du Monde» and Kathi Klimes at: kathi@wldtravel.com

Hunt Summary: I wanted to hunt with both my bow and my Sauer Model 202 in .375 H&H. Not easy goals since the shooting distances are drastically different. I was there mainly to get a nice Lord Derby Eland. To top it all off I was craving to arrow a nice buff should the outfitter allow me to put his team in jeopardy. In fact, Michel the Outfitter would have liked me to bow-hunt everything, DG or not.
Michel Angelvy, the outfitter, obtained this block 4 years ago because nobody was interested in hunting in wet and thick cover in a dicey location so near to the Sudan (rebels, guerrillas and poachers). It appeared the block was crawling with literally every type of game. Michel had many spanners thrown into the works by several of his influential and famous colleagues. In the end, he decided to do his best to ensure that his few clients get the best game and he is performing splendidly, gaining his colleagues’ envy. Bow-hunting DG was icing on the cake.

We arrived from Paris in Bangui on Sunday morning and then flew to the hunting block in a charter plane (1800 USD each). The roads are so bad that three days would have been required to cover the 300 miles. By plane it took an hour and a half.


THE MAIN HIGHWAY BETWEEN BANGUI AND THE SUDAN; it was worse than any of the tracks in our hunting zone

The first day was reserved for acclimation. The territory is primarily flat, the occasional hills are caped with dry bush, the lowlands are comprised of small plains, swamps and wide wet thick jungle or dense riverine forests. All hunting consists in spotting spoor on the trails and track, then walk and stalk. No blinds, lying in ambush or shooting from the vehicle. When driving one can spot and then stalk the odd hogs seen in the small plains or swamps. The first tracks I saw in a salt flat were heart-shaped Bongo’s. I bow hunted warthog and bushpig in the swamps and called-in duikers in the riverine forests. I had no luck with the wind whirling non-stop or only female bushbuck and duiker coming to the call.


In the evening Herve called for lion in 3 separate places, not to hunt them but to get an idea of the location of the cats. He explained to me that he had a 100% success rate calling-in lion in Tanzania where he is guiding in the four blocks of JM Latrive Safaris.

On Tuesday we searched for a limping rogue buff which is charging cars and people and followed a herd of buffalo up to a dense forest and gave up. No way to distinguish a buff at 3 yards in this vegetal nightmare, not to speak of shooting at it. As we came back to the car Jean, our beanpole of a driver, scared out of his skin, announced that 2 lions had passed by the car. At once we packed our team into the scrub on the embankment and Herve and I sat on the berm at the side of the trail. Herve unpacked his giant funnel to call the lions and taught me the basics. There are two kinds of approaching lions; the shy awkward type which come stealthily skirting around, creeping and hiding behind every clod, and the big King rocketing right up to the caller to kill his roaring rival. The sissy deserves an arrow; the mean stuff must be stopped with a rifle preferably. Herve told me that in Tanzania a couple of months ago the last lion he called was killed at 5 yards. After the first call the shivering gun bearer squealed that lions were coming, running through the plains. After the second call he muttered ‘Boss, they come fast, they are angryâ€. Herve asked me to put my bow down. When a running tawny shape appeared at 40 yards I stuck my reticle on his chest and Herve ordered me to shoot. “No, too many branches in the shooting laneâ€. “Shoot nowâ€. At 35 yards I let my 300gr Swift A frame fly to the lion’s shoulder. The lion roared and ran by us on three legs, receiving a .458 Lott 500 gr Woodleigh soft from Herve’s Heym double before he disappeared into a patch of long grass. 15 minutes later Herve and I proceeded inch by inch into the long grass. And now, was the king dead? What about the lioness? Shooting a lioness means prison for both of us and a whopping fine. The lion was dead within 25 yards. We proceeded awkwardly onward until we were sure the lioness was gone.
Jesus, what a lion! 10 feet 2 inches of lion; an old slender scarred warrior with a shockingly huge head and a good orange and black mane from the chin to the elbows. Just as I had aimed, the bullet broke the shoulder and smashed through both lungs, the heart and the liver and was bulging just under the offside skin. Herve’s snapshot Woodleigh pierced the abdomen just behind the diaphragm.



THE LION DID HIS BEST TO HIDE HIS ORANGE BLACK MANE

Upon arrival in the camp, the crew surrounded us, sang “Barama yacoue†(the lion is dead), danced waving branches and carried me in triumph. It was the first lion taken since the opening of the block four years ago.


This PH’s family are tough people, the baby is 8 days old

Our mentor Michel Vaillier, the famous taxidermist of kings and presidents known as the “dean†throughout Africa, put the spurs to the skinners, had them remove the tenderloins (lion’s white meat tastes like veal) and had them work all night long. He wants this lion for his booth at the next hunting fair; he hadn’t seen such a large old (8-10 years) lion in ten years. Later another riot occurred when my cousin brought in a wonderful eland, big black mane and 40’’ monstrously thick horns.

Michel, the outfitter was beaming. With such great success on the second day, he called Bangui via satellite to inform the country the first lion had been shot. Then he visited the 3 surrounding villages and distributed the traditional bonus of $200. He explained to the village chiefs that the 15 foot lion was killed with a bow. He added that two cars were required to bring back the beast, the first pulling and the second following in reverse gear, the lion lying in the back of the two cars. Michel is a brilliant liar.

Over the next few days we tried to arrow different buffs but the wind always ruined our close approaches. Once while tracking, Hassim, my gun bearer gave me a stare, his wide eyes rolling around his head and he muttered “Zeâ€. He had bumped into a leopard in thigh high grass and I never saw it at 15 meters. Anyway, with my bow I would have been no match.

While trying to arrow a buff, we flushed baboons in the jungle. Herve mimicked the baboon’s cries and a patriarch showed up. My arrow (Easton HIT+ 125gr Magnus=700gr) at 35 yards in spite of interspersed branches hit his chest and ripped his belly open.


30 minutes later we found the very rare yellow-backed duiker. I raked it at 120 yards. Not a big one but a rare one.



The day after, we scuttled a long valley for 5 hours and saw no game save quite a few lion tracks and two freshly detusked elephant carcasses left by poachers, a cow and a small calf. A revolting sight. The day after we harassed the buffalo for over 8 hours, I slightly wounded one, a strange tawny bull and followed him 90 minutes in very dense cover. Exhausted by the extreme nervous tension we gave up thinking to follow it again the morrow. We had to call our driver who had disappeared by shooting twice into the air. He came back drowning in tears. 7 Sudanese ele poachers heavily armed with Kalashnikovs had given him a slap in the face and stolen his cigarettes, not mine, even though all our gear was in the car. They complained we were interfering with THEIR ele “huntingâ€. We were disgusted and …. undergunned. White foreigners risk little; these poachers (former slavers) don’t want to have to deal with the French Foreign Legion in Bangui.

The next day, we gave up on the tawny bull and failed in searching for fresh Eland tracks. On Wednesday we picked up the track of a solitary Eland and got a glimpse of him 50 minutes later. I was told that one never sees a whole eland, just part of it between the foliage. So I shot at part of his chest at 140 yards and splintering a branch gutshot it. I shot 3 times again, twice in the paunch. The guide finished him with two 458 Lott .500gr hand-loaded Woodleigh softpoints. Wow! What a body size, like the Patterson’s, but mainly what a unique set of long horns (1.02m =40â€) a pity he had shed his black mane.


After hacking a 3.5 km trail in the forest, we loaded the butchered bull in the back of the Mercedes and drove back. Not for long as the vehicle’s head gasket broke for the car couldn’t take 5 men and 1600 pounds of eland when the temperature hit 100°F. Poor Jean, the beanpolelike driver who never failed facing lions and then poachers, had to run 20 miles up to the camp to fetch the Toyota. We had planned a 5 hour nap, but it wasn’t going to happen. Up to this point we had only been battling tse tse and anopheles. But billions of gnats in spite of our nets and gloves were creeping into our noses, ears and eyes and then thousand of carnivorous bees, attracted by the eland meat, dived onto us, not to mention the ants decorating our legs. We decided to walk back to the camp. As we were chattering along the way, Herve pointed at 2 hartebeests at 120 yards and said “Shoot the one on the right, it’s a monsterâ€. I picked up a forgotten 375 solid in my pocket and shot at the Major Hartebeest and spined him. What a piece of luck, a big eland and a monster hartebeest the same day.



I spent the rest of the week drooling at the many sights of a record waterbuck (>32’’) but the waterbuck quota was shot, and idling about arrowing duikers, warthog or bushpig, in vain, because of the bloody whirling wind. Anyhow I arrowed a francolin and a guinea fowl to the trackers’ satisfaction.
In addition to his monster eland, my cousin got a yellow-backed duiker, a baboon, a nice warthog and a huge bushpig. He couldn’t approach good buffs, the fault of too many reckless lions. A pity in a block harbouring over 2000 buffs. Alain the third hunter spent a long time building high stands to hunt bongo. As he didn’t want shoot to at night with a flashlight, he saw many bongos with his night vision binoculars. The last day he went eland hunting, shot a good bull in a herd after tracking him 3 hours. He craved finding the herd in which my cousin saw a well know record bull over 1.20m, the world record is 1.238m. He got lost and walked 8 hours hacking his way at night in the jungle as punishment.




Saturday evening we flew back to Bangui and stayed in the best hotel, the shabby but expensive Sofitel (120$/night). We had lunch in the mythical “Restaurant des Chasses†where we met the other hunting safaris in the CAR. Michel the outfitter was proud and beaming. This was revenge day. Our success rate for eland and yellow-backed duiker was 100% and we were the only ones to have taken a lion. The others success rates for eland varied from 0 to 66%. The fair play guys congratulated me for having arrowed a lion at 10m. Michel is a brilliant liar. Sunday morning we were checked 12 times at the airport and I paid some bribes to bring illegally my lion claws in my luggage.

So if you want to hunt unusual game in a really wild country, the CAR is your destination. Be ready to wake up at 3H30 AM, to walk 10 to 30 miles per day with the thermometer flirting 100° F, to be refreshed by sudden rainfalls, to squelch across umpteen swamps and brooks, to feed the complete set of flying bloodsuckers and you’ll be rewarded with free booze, stunning French cooking, shower and flush toilets in thatched bungalows along a nice river and a wonderful Eland at the least.
Don’t be afraid, I suffered from severe asthma and nonetheless I got what I wanted, buff apart.



The agent for KOTTO SAFARI in America will be our friend Ol’ Sarge w.kmatera@worldnet.att.net and the travel agent Kathi : [email]kathi@wldtravel.com [/email]Allow me a little time to brief Ol’ Sarge.

Jean bernard de runz jbderunz@wanadoo.fr

Many thanks to StuC and Winks who corrected my text. Many thanks to all who whish me good hunting.

Jean Bernard,
I'm afraid the photographs didn't show up on your post.

Grat report Jean. Very detailed and sounds like a superb adventure.....can't see the photos though....

Jean

Great report, photos and hunt!

That lion is a real old battle scarred "old boy". Real character to his ugly mutt.

The eland are unbelievable.

The main road to Sudan looks like fun and the "tourists" from next door interesting. Lucky for the Foreign Legion boys, hey!

Fantastic hunt!! I have read about the areas in the CAR where you could hunt derby and bongo.I would love to go there and compare the area to Cameroon.

Mike

Jean Bernard,

Excellent post! Thanks for all of the detail and congratulations!

Jean,

Excellent report and pictures. I appreciate you sharing. Sounds like an incredible adventure and some great trophies.

Regards,

Mark

Jean Bernard,

Merci pour votre histoire--I loved the details and your excellent photography. Some with slow connections may have trouble with downloading them, though, so you may want to resize them to smaller dimensions.

Does the government have any anti-poaching personnel? Is the Sudanese border uncontrolled?

Congratulations Jean. Thanks for posting the pictures and inormation.

Jean Bernard,
My congratulations for your fantastic hunt and adventure!! I take my hat Sir...

What a fantastic eland in that picture!!!!!!!!

L

Jean Bernard,

Fantastic pictures and story! Congratulations

Cheers
/ JOHAN

quote:

Originally posted by mrlexma:
Jean Bernard,

Merci pour votre histoire--I loved the details and your excellent photography. Some with slow connections may have trouble with downloading them, though, so you may want to resize them to smaller dimensions.

Does the government have any anti-poaching personnel? Is the Sudanese border uncontrolled?

You speak Frenck perfectly.
Yes the government have anti-poaching units. In fact, every block is paying anti-poaching.
The efficiency is another story. Don't forget the Sudanese were slavers. They are feared even in the
center of Africa. They are poaching the countries bordering Sudan and other countries as far as Zaïre (Democratic Republique of Congo), the Congo and such.
These guys are tough people, they fear nothing and are well organised. When they are coming back home, their camels and asses loaded with tusks, rhino horns and lion or leo pelts, they'll be attacked in their own country.
So they know how to shoot back, they are what we call in French "mad dogs" or "burnt heads". Only bullets can stop them. I have interesting datas to share. The trouble is that my full name is displayed on this forum (jean bernard DE RUNZ). I wish to fly to the CAR next year and I need a visa from the government. So, I have to find a pal whose name isn't displayed and I'll use this alias to provide you interested datas.

JB

jean
congratulations on a great hunt and pictures luke looks very happy with his trophy!
are you having the lion mounted for your wall
regards steve 64

Congratulations on a wonderful and successful adventure - LD eland and lion in the same trip! And 3 for 3 on Eland overall, excellent.

Do you know if the PH speaks English? Do you plan to return for buffalo and bongo?

Again, congratulations, and thanks for posting the story and picts.

awesome and congrats--chris

Dear Friends,

You are too kind. I just happened to pick a nice outfit.

Scirocco
« are you having the lion mounted for your wall?â€
No sir! Full mounted in the hall just like he was when I shot him. Not trotting but stiff on his legs, head high, majestically seeming to say “who wants to wrestle?â€. This week, the taxidermist is t in the King of Marocco palace to remove the dust from his trophies. Next week, Hunting fair in Rambouillet where he’ll receive the highest French distinction “legion d’honneur, officier†and then my pelt will be processed so that he could display at the next fair “Country Show†in the end of may. Then I’ll get my lion, my wife agree his being in the hall.

BillC
“Do you know if the PH speaks English? Do you plan to return for buffalo and bongo?â€

I told Hervé I’ll post on AR and that he might have English speaking clients. He is guiding in Tanzania, but he told me that he has too much French clients, so his English is improving slowly. I explained him he has to do as I did. In Alaska I took hold of Larry Kaniut books “Alaska Bear Tales, and More Alaska Bear Talesâ€. They awfully improve my English. I went with Hemingway, Ruark and Capstick on. And now I am ransacking Safari Press. As Henry. Kissinger has said “life is to short to be bored with learning foreign languages†nonetheless nothing beat hunting reports to learn a foreign language. I'll give him my books.
Anyhow the old PHs speak fairly fluently English.

JB,

As I saw on the email you sent me when you returned, your hunt has been a great success! Congratulations!

I have sent you a PM.

Bonne histoire et photos Jean-Bernard!

Le lion est vraiment impressionnant!

Aussi la chasse avec un arc en CAR n'est pas pour les poltrons.


A+

jbderunz

Great report and pictures. Really sounds like a terrific adventure.

Regards,

Mark

Congratulations on what looks like an exelent hunt. Very good report and photos. Very nice lion and Eland.

Congratulations Jean!
Sounds like the hunt of a lifetime...
-Did you have much success calling in duikers?
-Do the poachers molest eland/buffalo or are they after ivory only??
-Are the bongo high seats placed in a 'bako'(clearing) or over salt licks?

Boghossian

quote:

Originally posted by Boghossian:
Congratulations Jean!
Sounds like the hunt of a lifetime...
-Did you have much success calling in duikers?
-Do the poachers molest eland/buffalo or are they after ivory only??
-Are the bongo high seats placed in a 'bako'(clearing) or over salt licks?

Boghossian

Hi Boghossian

Fine to get news from You. How is Your splendid grandfather. I have a CD for him, Hunting horns.
Yes this safari was very nice, a pity I was sick, asthma or bronchitis but extremely debilitating.

Calling duikers is very efficient : quite any time duikers or bushbucks were coming, but fairly only females. You cannot imagine how much duikers a thicket can contain. Once our Mercedes-P4 was stuck in the mud. After having been terribly noisy, we decide to call in the jungle thicket near by. In a 5 acres thickets we called more than 12 animals, one after the others. Incredible.

Concerning poachers
I saw they don’t even pick the elephant meat. In the past the pick any meat to make biltong, they collected lion hides and eland trophies.
Now they collect only ivory and kill buff or eland, for their meat is the best.
These guys are over 3000 and have 3 huge headquarters in the CAR. My PH and a scientist flew over these camps to have GPS locations of them. They are crawling with hundreds of camels, horses and asses.
The CAR army seems not to do anything. Are they fearing them? Is there a bribe reason?
The worst is that they are always crossing undisturbed the border at the same point (between the rivers Oubangui and Chari) from the Sudan.
It would be fun for our foreign legion and paratroopers in Bangui to chase them, nice training.
Last week I met a friend Congressman and told him our poachers troubles and asked if our army could train in wiping them out. This friend is the President of the game and hunting commission in the Congress, so I hope the French government will consider this poaching exactions.

Bongo : the high stands are erected close to the salines. They to be well hidden in the trees so as not to seen by the bongo. This animal is the shiest and the most cautious animal one can imagine. I dream of getting one next year. No small task if acting fair chase.

Tomorrow I’ll meet for the first time our AR friends Edmond and Wink in the Rambouillet Fair. I’ll take plenty of pictures of rifles and express, new and old, for NitroX. If some are really interesting I’ll post them on AR.
Kind regards JB

Beau coup excellent.

great report and nice photos.

This type of report should be made mandatory for all forum members returning on hunts from africa!!

I now have email-ready brochures for KOTTO Safairs available. Save the postage and print them out on your PC, in color (and English!)

Jean,

Excellent report an great pictures!
Looks and sounds like a hell of a hunt!

My hat's off to you!
Best regards.

Salut Jean Bernard!

Congratulations on your hunts, and many thanks for sharing such a wonderful report and equally wonderful pictures. I am green with envy!

Cheers,
Canuck

One FINE report on what looks like a real hunt.
your photos are great and i am greatful for the time you took to share. I am intrested in this one.
Thanks
gene

Thanks for the excellent report and congratulations on the great adventure.

Great pictures, excellent trophies, fact-filled report! Sounds like a hell of an adventure! Congratulations.

Wink, Bwanamich, NitroX, Mlindsay, DavidW, Mark H Young, mrlexma, Pathfinder, Tcarr, Lorenzo, JOHAN, scirroco, Bill C, csutton7, Erik, Chasseur, Jaco Human, Boghossian, RIP, Nevster, Sarge, Carmelo, Canuck, invader66, Lhook7, bwanarm,

You all, thanks, You are too indulgent with me.

My heart and my spirit remains in the CAR, I am permanently thinking of this camp, so does my cousin
. I met the guide and the outfitter 3 weeks ago. They are saying they
badly need us for 4 reasons (it's their foolish opinion :

1) we are never complaining, even when a car happens to break 3
or 4 times down.

2) We are lucky.

3) When it's high time to accurately shoot, we shoot accurately (luck
and dedication?).

4) Even in our 50’s, we walk from the first to the last day. We don’t slow down whenever we are pleased with the bag we have still got. And we volunteer for 20 miles per day.
I insist, it's their opinion.
So we ask the outfitter Michel a discount in the case each of us will shoot
a bongo and a leopard. Michel said the chances are nil to get such a mythic
bag in 2 weeks but we will not have any discount because he is
absolutely sure each of us will succeed in getting these 2 rare games and
even in the 4 first days.
My God, Michel is convinced we can obtain any bag?????????
My cousin is adding the extremely rare Giant Forest Hog.

Anyhow, I am determined to track every morning the Bongo in the jungle down. If it failed then I’d track Buff and pigs with my bow. Hunting with a bow is a definite advantage for one have an orgasmic joy in shooting any big game that one is fed up with hunting with a rifle. In the evening I’d wait either the bongo or the leopard in a hide. Jeezz, it would be great to arrow a cat. Not a bongo, I’ll never let him any chance with a bow, my 375HH will be the only medicine for him.
Should I succeed in getting a bongo and a leopard, the sitatunga will be my next pick.

We are bargaining on but nothing will impede us from going next
year to the CAR again.

I got news from the outfitter Michel ANGELVY

first he has now his own website

kotto safari

Then I learnt in the best French hunting magazine that the Yellow-backed duiker which has been shot the week before I came was
the NEW WORLD RECORD.

ancient world record 7 inches 2/32 (18cm)

NEW WORLD RECORD 8 inches 8/32 (21cm)

The hunter had to fend a leopard off the shot duiker. Lucky he succeeded.

No need to say I'll be back there next year in January. We have still arrangements about 2 leopards, 2 bongos, buffs with the bow, and if possible forest hog, sitatunga and a tom with the bow.

Jean,
I very much admire your lion. That is what I see in my "minds" eye when I dream of lion. I do not care for the full maned variety. I like the old warrior that has lost much of his mane being the King.
Good on you.

Jean: Superb report and a magnificent hunt! Congratulations. I particularly enjoyed the lion hunt. Well done! jorge

Jean, I hadn't congratulated you on your hunt yet, but I want to now congratulate you on such a fantastic adventure! Beautiful animals!

Lord Derby Eland is the animal of my dreams, and yours would be a perfect trophy for anyone! Hunting in the C.A.R. is something I would very much like to do in my lifetime. What a country, with Giant Eland, Bongo, Sitatunga, Lion, Leopard and Giant Forest Hogs, not to mention the other game!

Thanks for the great report.

jbderunz I went to Kotto's website but found no information about hunting seasons and costs. Can you help out? You can PM me or send me an email to pknimrod@aol.com
Thanks, peter.

Dogcat, Gibson, Jorge, Pete,

You are too lenient. Real hunters must be hard-hearted.


Pete, I PMed You the pricings. OlSarge has all. By any standards, the CAR is not (and cannot be) cheap. Luckily Kotto is the less expensive and the most productive.

Jorge,
Your hunt was fantastic too. When I happen to read African Hunter magazine, upon seeing John Sharp advertising, I am thinking to You. I hope You'll join us in January in the CAR. Your Foreign Legion friends will greet You, the Paras as well. Better, there is some Mirages and Rafales You can play with, on the French military Airport in Bangui. You can even shoot Sudanese poachers from the air. It would be fantastic should you fly the taxiplane, it would save us buckets of money? And the year after You'll guide us in the Zim.

Jean,

Don't know how I missed your report but I must say job well done...The lion story is great...The hunting sounds like hunting should be..Will pm you...

The best,

Mike

jean: I recevied your PM, thanks!. that CAR sounds like a fantastic hunt and something i woulddefinetly would like to do someday ( Ireally like that anti-poaching tatic yu offered. I am still in awe of that great lion. Take care, jorge

Jean,

I saw your very nice article in African Hunter magazine. Congratulations!