Just a quick snippet of things to come, just arrived back last night from a great hunting experience for forest elephant in Cameroon, a definite must for any Elephant Hunter.

Will do full set of Photos and report in the near future

JK

Cool. Can't wait. Congratulations.

Looking forward to the report.

Anxious to hear the report..especially regarding elephant numbers seen.

Congrats

That is awesome, looking forward to the report!

Awesome hunt!

wonderful trophy!!!

Congratulations on a one of a kind trophy

Outstanding trophy. Waiting for details. Well done!

Looking forward to this report. What an incredible adventure.

Congratulations Justin...WOW!!!

Holy balls dude
Love it. Keep it coming Nice Bull, ccongratlation

That's a trophy!

Where to start,

So my good friend Jacques Hartzenberg from Chapungu safaris called me over to his booth in Vegas to have a beer and some chit chat about what we have planned for the 2014 season, soon I see he is trying to convince me into joining him on a Cameroon Safari, he was taking one of his good USA clients on a Bongo hunt and wanted to know if I was up for a quick mid-year Safari,

After hearing that I will be able to hunt a Forest Elephant Forest Sitatunga combo I was hooked.

I did not have a clue about the area or the outfitter but as I had all the faith in Jacques since we been hunting together for more than 10 years now,

So here some of the info on the Outfitter

Ngong Safaris Cameroon

Børge Ladefoged (Danish Owner been hunting Cameroon since 1991)

All was booked and paid for a 12 day Safari, when I met Børge he looked up at my 6 foot 7 frame and said “You are going to shit off big Boy”
I didn’t question him further but as I found out later there is a reason why all the Forest animals and people are truly smaller in stature,

Just to give you an idea, a fully mature Forest Elephant bull stands less than 2m at the shoulder, and my tallest Pygmy tracker was only 5 foot 2 in length,

So what now, which rifles to take to the forest, I had been warned that I should only take scrap guns as they will be ruined by the wet and humid conditions, this was a comment I kept on hearing when every I was looking for a second or third opinion.

I had always dreamed of crawling through the thick jungle with my double and finally shooting a big old bull at close range, and these comments are putting a spanner in my plans.

I went to visit by gun broker James Dunlop of African Rifles who had hunted both Cameroon and Congo in the early years for some advice, his advice was simple,

Go Box lock not side lock because of the high humidity and the wood swelling and just make sure you clean and oil the rifle every few days,
Needless to say he knew I only have side lock doubles, and landed up selling me a beautiful WR drop lock double from 1912.

So now I was set and ready to fly,

I am going to keep the written report short and will let the photos do most of the talking,
I will drop comments every now and then when needed,

There were 3 of us hunting at the same time, 1 client looking for Bongo and Sitatunga and then 2 of us looking for Elephant and Sitatunga

Brought with my Trusty 375 H&H for the Sitatunga, as always it was just below the bull at 25m, this was good enough for me.

What a sun set to end our First day in the Forest

With in the first Hour JP our head tracker had us into the Thick Forest after a good Bull

As easy as it seemed to track an Elephant in the Forest, there was such a huge population of Elephants in the area we kept bumping into small groups of Bulls or a herd of females that walked over our tracks,

7 Hours later we gave up on this Bull, we could not catch up to him



With in 30min we were back on the road and close to our Cruizer,I could not believe how he had taken us in circles

Huge congratulations jk!!!
The ivory looks very special. Do you know how many lbs? BTW did you get Sitatunga too? Thanks for posting.

Hi Dentist

Yes i did get the Sitatunga, this was just day 1 of the Safari i have posted, i will finish of with in the next few days, My guess is around 15kg on Ivory, as the Elephant is physically so small the Tusks look huge,

reg

JK

The day to day plan of action always followed the same order, 4.45am wake up and hearty breakfast before hitting the different roads and trails looking for fresh tracks, the hunting team was always on the lookout for good rains as these cooled the forest down and made it easier to age and follow the different tracks.

If no tracks were found by mid-day they you would head back to camp for lunch and an afternoon snooze,


4pm we all left to glass a chosen savannah with in the Forests, this is where the majority of the Sitatunga are hunted,


On the second afternoon we spotted a very old Sitatunga Bull in the swampy Savannah that we had chosen,

Ulik my Ph. Was well aware that I was not interested in shooting a young animal as well as not been fussed about what the animal scored out,


He had seen this animal before and said it had worn off at least 6” on both sides, this was the type of Trophy I wanted but he would not give us a shot opportunity as he was in thick cover and deep water the whole time,


At last light just as we were leaving he decided to run off into the forest, at a slit second I cycled a round in ant took him from behind about an inch from his tail,

the 300gbarns tsx travelled through his body and exited out of the front of his chest,
He was a truly great trophy and had survived many years in the forest,

And I was glad that my first shot of the safari found its mark.

Keep it coming, these photos are great. Love that Sitatunga.

quote:

My guess is around 15kg on Ivory, as the Elephant is physically so small the Tusks look huge

They really look fantastic and so equal. These jungle tusks always appear double sized.
Looks like you brained the ele for a perfect photo pose. I really enjoy your Report. Cheers

Excellent report... keep it coming!

Great hunt and report! Keep it coming.

EXCELLENT Justin...Looking forward to more!!!

JK great hunt report and well done on your elephant. Your PH does not know his sitatunga mate and their horns do not broom off.

Good to hear from you Andrew, think these Forest Sitatunga are a bit different to yours < I spent a few hours watching one rubbing its horns against trees,

It total I could have taken a few monsters well over 20" and 1 brute of at least 24",

I will have to take his side on this one as I held the horns in my hands and could see how they had been worn down,

But then again maybe we wrong, all I know is that I am happy and he is an old Bull? or is you young/

Does anyone know what is the population statistics of forest elephants ?
Also, are they also in Kongo and what is their populations there?
Too bad , we can't bring them to US.
Damn the USFWA, anytime I mention them, I feel like going postal on them.

So for the next few days be had early morning and long days of tracking crawling and sneaking up to many Elephants, there was not a day that went by that we did not get up close to either Young Bulls or breading herds,

In the end I my Tracker team with Ulik managed to put me in a fantastic position to take this great bull with my Double,

The hunt blew the pants off any experience I have ever had in the field and will defiantly be repeated sometime in the future,

Our top class team headed by Ph Ulik and Tracker JP

Few extra hands to help with the Slaughtering

Wonderful adventure. Congrats...

Wow, I would take that adventure and that bull over a big Botswana tusker every day. Well done!

What an awesome adventure!

Some really fantastic pics, thanks for sharing them and the great report.

Congrats!