So this pair was the completion of the first day hunting, which felt like 2-days since we left camp at 4am, returned to camp at 8:50pm. And while I admit to a moderate amount of hunting success in my life, rarely has it seemed easy or lucky. I always seem to find a hard way to it. And with another hunter coming up from Omay South to look for a hippo, he finally got his buffalo on day 10 of a ten day trip. He and Johnny spent two nights with us in the North camp in hopes he’d find a hippo, which they did.
Well, I got lucky on a super cool old, old bull late on day 1. Found their tracks right at the hellish heating the day, trackers followed briefly to sort what they were doing, then we broke for lunch and waited for the heat to prove less hellish. Picked up the tracks after our break and tracked the old pair for less than two hours before catching up to them. Had to veer around once due to a herd of cow and calf elephant but teachers got us right back on course. Everything went perfectly once we saw them, it was thick enough for cover but also not so bad that shooting lanes were totally obstructed. Wind was right. And we snuck in to about 35 yards totally undetected. At the same time the old guy stopped feeding away, and fed to the right allowing perfect broadside shot, even pausing in the one half-clear shooting path. I hadn’t gotten a good look at him other than his boney, saggy hind end, and Gareth said he was worn and very old, we should take him. Popped up the sticks and he paused just long enough for a thoughtful shot that I tried to snake through all the brush.
He went down HARD right where he stood, and then managed to get back up, by which time I was already back on the sticks and tried to hit him a second time right as he gained his footing, which at the shot he turned and ran strait away. We knew the first shot was great, but didn’t get the same visual response to the second. I thought it was good as well, but he had stood up a few feet from where he was when I shot the first time, and in my haste I wasn’t certain what brush or thicker tree limbs might have been in the way.
We paused for about 5-8min, did the high-five and hand shakes around before walking up to assess. We heard a very brief bellow within seconds of him turning and running out of sight. When we walked over to where he had stood, there was good blood literally everywhere and as we took a couple steps forward through thick stuff it opened up a bit, and he was down within sight not 25-30 yards away.
When we walked up and check the old man out, was super excited at my first trophy with a double, and first in Zimbabwe. He had worn bosses and white/grey forehead and just a ton of character which was everything I could have asked for.
BUT, was a little bummed that we only found the one massive hole, which was exactly where I wanted to hit him, but shocked I somehow missed the whole broadside of a barn/buffalo on my second. We figured I must have hit a tree, or tumbled off some of the brush. (That was only excuse I could find…short supply).
