CAMEROON: Cameroon Hunt With Mayo Oldiri 2019

[mark-hunter]

If I post a picture, no one reads the story!

This is a good one!

Cograts on fantastic trophy!

And thank you for a story and good pictures!

 

[Royal27]

Magnificent !!!

Congrats!

Now to go look up BIR so I will be prepared .

 

[Ragman]

Love me a Hank Report!!! Big congrats on an incredible Eland and completing your Spiral Horns! I guess the lucky straw hat worked...kinda!

 

[superdutch]

Great LDE, and what a hunt! You are a gifted writer, too. I am looking forward to your next installment in this series!

 

[MAdcox]

Great report, great hunt, Great Eland.
Thanks for sharing, can't wait for the rest of the report.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Sandals, misfires and all.
Getting it done under those conditions is impressive.
I'm not sure if I am up to this new standard of tough hunting though.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Outstanding LDE and you certainly earned it, given all the "Character building events."

 

[Hank2211]

Congratulations Hank. You seem to have a penchant for difficult hunts, at least in recent years! And to have a misfire on top of that!

It seems so, but really, I don't set out to have difficult hunts! I think it may be that recently, some of the areas I've been going to are more difficult (Ethiopia, Cameroon), but I seem to make some of the difficulties for myself (poor shooting in Ethiopia . . . although I still blame the scope!).

The misfire - and on an animal like an eland - I don't know what I could have done about that!

 

[stug]

Congratulations on a lovely bull. When is your book coming out, you are a talented writer and I am sure a book of your hunts and travels would sell well.

 

[Hank2211]

This is a good one!


And thank you for a story and good pictures!

I should point out that all of the pictures were taken with my phone . . . I had a nice new camera with me for the trip, and plans of taking fabulous pictures, but the battery quickly died, and the charging cable was in my luggage, of course, and that was nowhere to be found, of course.

I suppose this is something else I should have had in my carry on . . .but really, it was pretty full already!

 

[Hank2211]

Day 3: Monday, January 21

As it turned out, we had walked 15.3 kilometers (about 9.2 miles) chasing the eland (thanks iPhone!). In borrowed shirt and shorts, and 5 day old underwear (perhaps too much information?!). Now some may think “that’s not that far, especially in comfortable shoes.” If you’re thinking that, here’s something you should know two things. Firstly, Crocs provide no ankle support whatsoever, and have a sole which can be (and is) penetrated even by sharp remnants of thatching grass (fortunately there are few thorns in the savannah). Secondly, during the rainy season, some kind of worm emerges from the soil in the savannah and creates large mud casings, which then dry to varying degrees of hardness. Some break down when you walk on them, some don’t. And the ground is littered with them, to the point that it is virtually impossible to put a foot down on anything approaching a flat surface. On ground which has been recently burned, you can see these as you walk on them, and can try to walk on game paths, were the game has broken down many of the casings. But where the grass has not been burnt, there is no avoiding these things.

Here's what most, if not substantially all, of the ground looks like:

Note that these casings don’t just appear in patches. They are everywhere, and cover most of the ground. They also appear in mounds, almost like burial mounds. Cameroon also has an unusual form of ant hill/termite mound which is often built on top of these mounds.

Back to hunting. This morning we got up at 5.30, with our goal to be out the door at 6 am. This became our habit for the rest of the safari. The challenge for both Guav and I, now that we had the eland down, was to find something else to get excited about. There was virtually nothing in the savannah which I did not already have, so from now on this would be, I hoped, a much more leisurely safari. I should point out that in Cameroon, animals are broken down into various categories for hunting license purposes. Category A, for the savannah, consists of giant eland, roan, hippo, elephant and savannah buffalo. You are only allowed two of those animals. There were no rivers on this concession which would support hippo, and elephant had long since been poached out. That left roan and buffalo, and I was reasonably ambivalent as to which one we chased. We decided to see what the hunting gods had to offer.

And they offered up an interesting trophy – one I actually did not have – within the first few minutes. A red-flanked duiker appeared not far from the road. Guav took a quick look and said “too small.” You have to be quick because these little guys don’t stand still for long and can and do easily disappear into knee-high grass (and the grass here is head high or higher). But within a few hundred yards we saw another, and this one had Guav excited. We jumped off the truck, walked slowly back down the road hoping it would stop . . . and it did, to look back. Bad idea. A quick shot, a bit high, but enough to kill it on the spot.

The red-flanked duiker is not the same as the Natal red duiker. This one has a gray patch on its back, thus giving it the red “flanks.” A lovely little trophy and one I was glad to have.

We spent the balance of the day looking for buffalo, tracking some we had seen, losing them when the wind shifted, and generally being bettered by everything we saw. On our way back to camp around 5.30 we saw a beautiful roan bull trying to charm a female. Had we decided to hunt roan we might have taken him, but it was early days, so we let him go, with a wish for luck with the lady. We would recall this encounter the next day.

If there is one animal which appears in large numbers in this area it's Western Kob. They are everywhere, and tend to be relatively calm. Not far from the camp, just at last light, we saw a nice male, and decided to take him. The angle was bad, so Guav said “wait until he turns.” Looking through the scope, I saw him turn, and took a shot. Guav immediately asked “why did you do that?” “Because he turned,” I said. “Well, he turned the wrong way, and you shot him in the ass. Now we're in for it.” Oops. But these things can happen when you look through a scope too long.

There was a lesson in this episode, though, for those who say (as I have) that calibre can’t substitute for shot placement. Maybe that’s true, most of the time. But in this case, the bullet went in the ass and all the way to the heart, with the Kob dropping dead within 40 yards. It was a good think I was using a .375, because a lighter calibre might not have made it to the vitals. Dead is dead, regardless of the shot, but I agree, the rear end is not the best place to start.

Two nice animals down on day 3. Time to head back to camp – tonight is laundry night. I was going to wash my underwear and socks and hope they were dry enough to wear by morning. It had now been 6 days since I left home . . .

 

[neckdeep]

Crocs and socks, you are stylin! Congrats on the LDE, the most stunning of all African animals in my opinion. Not bad for day three, one of the hardest of the Tiny Ten to collect. Beautiful Duiker.

 

[Royal27]

Dead is dead, regardless of the shot, but I agree, the rear end is not the best place to start.

I'm not going to make a joke about deep penetration. Not going to do it...

 

[Hank2211]

I'm not going to make a joke about deep penetration. Not going to do it...

I believe you may just be getting "soft"!

 

[Royal27]

I believe you may just be getting "soft"!

It appears so....

That and I'm afraid that perhaps there is still an Ostrich story to be told and you might leave it out just to spite me!

 

[rinehart0050]

Wow. Congratulations on completing your spiral horns!

As always, your hunts are always filled with the highs and lows that just about any fellow hunter can appreciate. Looking forward to the rest of the story!

 

[sestoppelman]

Beautiful eland bull Hank! Nice little duiker as well. Look forward to the rest of the story! Your misfire story hit home for me. On my sons first trip to RSA a few years ago, he really wanted a bull oryx. It took a day trip to another property to hunt them and after lunch he got his chance on a nice bull, better than any oryx I have! On sticks at no more than 60 yds,, click! PH is whispering you need to load the rifle. He slowly opened the bolt and just like yours, out pops a live round! But in this case it was a light strike. Then next one worked and bull ran around the bush and piled up. I took the bolt apart later at camp and cleaned it, a light wipe with oil and wiped off again. No more problem Sounds like you just had a dud primer, rare but possible. Keep it coming, great story!

 

[Adam Stevens]

Great report and Lord Derby Eland! And with Guav too!!

If I ever get to hunt LDE it’ll be with Guav no question. You hunted them the way they should be hunted and he hunts them on foot for miles. The way that great beast should be hunted

Thanks for keeping this dream alive for a fellow Canadian.

 

[Scott CWO]

Yea

Oh goody, little green men making an appearance in a hunting story.

Yeah, that's always fun...

 

[mark-hunter]

I had a nice new camera with me for the trip, and plans of taking fabulous pictures, but the battery quickly died, and the charging cable was in my luggage, of course, and that was nowhere to be found, of course.

I suppose this is something else I should have had in my carry on . . .but really, it was pretty full already!

It sound familiar. Part of african advaneture!

I think this is tipical, african TIA, or maybe bad luck in african "tokolosh" sindrome....

On my first safari, the moment I landed my wrist watch started running fast, 15 minutes advanced every day.
For no apparent reason. And remained till now.
Wrist watch changed. Old one still advancing time, sitting in drawer.

Same safari, my camera loosed zoom function. No zoom, so for details I need to crop jpeg file, loosing rezolution.

On my next safari, again, immediately after landing and getting in the camp, I lost completely lap top battery, again for now apparent reason. Could work, only when plugged in.

And further more, my desert shoes start falling appart. Back up plan for total collapse of shoes, was either to fix it with duct tape, or continue hunting in crocks slippers.
So next time, will have to consider spare boots to have...