bashaw
AH veteran
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2009
- Messages
- 230
- Reaction score
- 516
- Location
- Oregon most of the time
- Media
- 26
- Member of
- SCI, NRA,Oregon Hunters Assoc.
- Hunted
- USA, Zimbabwe x2 , Australia, Mozambique, Namibia, Canada & South Africa
My wife and I arrived in Victoria Falls April 23 met up with Gordon of Nhoro Safaris we ate lunch at the Bar next to the gorge where the Zipline and Canyon Swing are, my wife did the Zipline in 2019, not me I don't like heights. We stayed at Safari Lodge overlooking the water hole, had supper at The Victoria Falls Hotel, an awesome place.
Headed to camp the next afternoon, about an hour South of Vic Falls across the Matetsi along the Queens Highway. The camp is set up right now for 1 hunter.
Day 1: loaded up in the Toyota went looking for tracks driving and around water holes. The Elephants were not terrorizing the locals because there is no Corn this year due to a terrible drought, it was so dry not even the weeds grew, and weeds always grow. Didn't find many fresh tracks but a lot of sign a day or 2 old.
Day 2: Same results.
Day 3: Checked same area again in the morning still the same so we drove over towards the Matetsi River and started finding lots of sign and fresher, late afternoon we came across some hot sign but only had about 20 minutes of daylight left, but my confidence was building back up.
Our drivers name was Lucky, the way he came by that name is he has a dream of the kill not on all hunts but several, so when he has the dream Bulls are going be killed.
Day 4: We go back to where we seen the hot sign the eve before, a set of tracks left by lone Bull were there the trackers take off to figure out how far ahead of us he was, they call us about an hour later said they got a report that a Bull Elephant was standing in the highway had both lanes blocked, we picked up the trackers went to the highway found where Bull crossed he left the area we could hunt. About that time Lucky gets a call and some of the locals just seen 2 Bulls go into a thicket back on the other side of camp. Now were headed back Lucky gets off the paved road just driving like he always drives and then a Mongosse crosses the road in front of us, he looks at me with a big smile and says thats my animal, I said what do you mean, he says when I see the Mongoose it's just like my dream were going to get a Bull today, then he starts driving like Mario Andretti, we're are holding on for dear life.
a little while later he stops and says were here, there's a thicket in front of us and we are in a fairly open forest, so we take off get down wind of the thicket and then we start to move in, just get to the thicket and one of the trackers said to me can you smell them, I said no because smeller isn't what it used to be, we go in the thicket and in no time even a guy like me could tell they were close. We kept sneaking deeper in and then one of the guys said there they are, there was some real tall grass in front of me but I could see part of an Elephant at about 25 yards, first thought was this Elephant is standing in a hole or he is a small Elephant, go a little further and there he is laying on his side snoring, all the scenarios of how I was going shoot my Bull went out the window, everybody was as surprised as I was, I studied him for a second figured about where his brain would be in this position, I talked it over with the tracker and he was thinking same as me, I shot the Bull raised up exposed his brisket so I shot him again he went back down, So I shot him in the head again ended being a Jaw shot he raised one more time and I put another into the brisket, he was a dead Bull Elephant, the adrenaline dump was like I've never experienced.
Headed to camp the next afternoon, about an hour South of Vic Falls across the Matetsi along the Queens Highway. The camp is set up right now for 1 hunter.
Day 1: loaded up in the Toyota went looking for tracks driving and around water holes. The Elephants were not terrorizing the locals because there is no Corn this year due to a terrible drought, it was so dry not even the weeds grew, and weeds always grow. Didn't find many fresh tracks but a lot of sign a day or 2 old.
Day 2: Same results.
Day 3: Checked same area again in the morning still the same so we drove over towards the Matetsi River and started finding lots of sign and fresher, late afternoon we came across some hot sign but only had about 20 minutes of daylight left, but my confidence was building back up.
Our drivers name was Lucky, the way he came by that name is he has a dream of the kill not on all hunts but several, so when he has the dream Bulls are going be killed.
Day 4: We go back to where we seen the hot sign the eve before, a set of tracks left by lone Bull were there the trackers take off to figure out how far ahead of us he was, they call us about an hour later said they got a report that a Bull Elephant was standing in the highway had both lanes blocked, we picked up the trackers went to the highway found where Bull crossed he left the area we could hunt. About that time Lucky gets a call and some of the locals just seen 2 Bulls go into a thicket back on the other side of camp. Now were headed back Lucky gets off the paved road just driving like he always drives and then a Mongosse crosses the road in front of us, he looks at me with a big smile and says thats my animal, I said what do you mean, he says when I see the Mongoose it's just like my dream were going to get a Bull today, then he starts driving like Mario Andretti, we're are holding on for dear life.
a little while later he stops and says were here, there's a thicket in front of us and we are in a fairly open forest, so we take off get down wind of the thicket and then we start to move in, just get to the thicket and one of the trackers said to me can you smell them, I said no because smeller isn't what it used to be, we go in the thicket and in no time even a guy like me could tell they were close. We kept sneaking deeper in and then one of the guys said there they are, there was some real tall grass in front of me but I could see part of an Elephant at about 25 yards, first thought was this Elephant is standing in a hole or he is a small Elephant, go a little further and there he is laying on his side snoring, all the scenarios of how I was going shoot my Bull went out the window, everybody was as surprised as I was, I studied him for a second figured about where his brain would be in this position, I talked it over with the tracker and he was thinking same as me, I shot the Bull raised up exposed his brisket so I shot him again he went back down, So I shot him in the head again ended being a Jaw shot he raised one more time and I put another into the brisket, he was a dead Bull Elephant, the adrenaline dump was like I've never experienced.
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