Finally getting a shot at an elephant with a bow!!

[DieJager]

Waidmannsheil! Great trophy. Waiting for the croc and elephant. Keep going!

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

Congrats on the hippo! Well done!

 

[Altitude sickness]

Congratulations and good luck

 

[Tucketed]

Excellent, congratulations

 

[ACE (in CT)]

Congratulations! Shaping up to be an epic adventure.

 

[Frederik]

Congrats on a fine hippo.

 

[jomw10]

I seem to remember you brought to bow's for this hunt. what draw weight did you use for the hippo?

 

[mrpoindexter]

I used the heavy bow and arrow for the hippo. 82 lbs and a 1250 grain arrow.

Will use that for the croc as well. Found a very nice croc today but could not get him to the bait. Must have been 80 years old. Super ugly and scarred. Will be a very special trophy if I can get him

 

[mrpoindexter]

Day Four of Ten:

I wake up just after 5am. The generator isn’t on yet and all seems quiet in camp. The wake up time is 6am and I lay in bed. It is Monday morning, July 14th.

I do not feel sore per se, but I know I wore myself out yesterday pulling that hippo. I could have left it to the camp staff, but I have no regrets, at least not yet. I do feel like I earned my hippo and now that we have bait, there is more work to be done.

I hear the generator start and the light in my room flick on as I left them on until lights out the night before. I don’t feel the urge to jump up and start the day but laying in bed is not on my list of personal goals so I quickly get dressed, brush my teeth and head out for breakfast.

Steven is eating what looks like cream of wheat and I have some, along with toast and jam. Off to the skinning shed, I can see George trimming down the skin panel we cut from the hippo. My plan is to have a nice large dining table and have leather chairs, with each chair a different type of leather - buffalo, hippo, rhino, elephant, etc. In my mind, it seems nice. Hopefully it turns out as well as I imagine. This skin is THICK. Well over an inch. I don’t have others side by side to compare and working from memory, but I think it is thicker than elephant and giraffe skin to go to #1 on the thickest skin list.

I ask to see the skull and am shown the head sitting in a pit. They have not yet removed the skin. Dead hippo smell worse than live ones, so it is pretty rank here. The animal has been cut up for bait to use for hyena, crocodile and leopard. I don’t have a leopard tag. One is available, but I really cannot afford it, unfortunately. Perhaps if I see one in a tree, I will change my budget or Steven will lower his price but my guess is that a leopard will be another trip. Either way, that is a decision I do not need to make today.

We load one of the chunks of bait into the Land Cruiser, along with a 5 gallon bucket of innards and head off to set up a bait station for hyena. It is a bit of a trek, but not far from there, Steven has a spot for bushbuck that he wants to check.

The hyena bait station looks like it was made for leopard. I am getting a bit excited for this one. No blind set up here yet, but they check camera before they put up a blind. Otherwise, there won’t be enough time to set the other bait stations. After the leopardy looking hyena bait station is complete, we strike out for the bushbuck spot.

There are three trail cams there and two small water holes that are dry but somewhat damp. We pull the camera and check footage from the past 4 days. We see a couple male bushbuck, plus some females, a few warthogs and tons of zebra photos. There are so many zebra pictures, I assume they are 18 year old females with instagram accounts.

I must admit though, they look good. These are Creyshaw zebras - not Burchells. No shadow stripes and amazing looking coats. They are were not on my list. There isn’t a slam for zebra in Safari Club, but apparently I am on one now and I will have to get a Hartman’s next time I am in an area with one. I absolutely love the zebra pedestal I have in my office so I guess “Marty” will have some relatives to keep him company in the future.

The guys have shovels to dig up the well and get the water flowing again. I head over to help and work on the smaller water hole while they are getting the larger one flowing.

We reset the trail cams and pick out a good spot for a blind. I expect we will be coming back for a long day in the near future, sitting for bushbuck and zebra during the day and moving to the hyena bait in the evening. Maybe I even get a warthog finally. You read that correctly, I don’t have a warthog yet. I passed up on one on my first safari and didn’t get one the next six trips.

We had back to camp to grab some more bait and a picnic lunch to take with us. We head to another spot with a tributary to the Zambezi. Shooting a croc on the Zambezi can easily result in a lost animal, so we are looking for a spot that gives a better chance of recovery.

The guys clear a spot for a blind with some shade and a nice view of some water and drive an iron spike into the ground and chain large chunk of hippo to it.

I will be shooting at perhaps 14 yards at the croc. This is a bit closer than I would prefer as I dialed in my bow to get as much range as I could on the main setting without having to resort to the XD setting on the Garmin. (XD will allow for extra distance by lowering the entire sight housing to a preset spot and adjusts the sight to give, for example 40-90 yards instead of 20-50 I would normally have with my ultra heavy elephant arrows). The closest distance I have a pin for is 16 yards on my elephant arrows or 19 yards on my normal dangerous game arrows.

I opt to stick with the 1,250 grain arrows for the croc since I still have 11 of them. The one I used for my hippo broke during recovery. I expect this arrow will pass through and end up lost in the water. No way anybody is going to venture in to recover it when we have been baiting for crocodile.

We sit in the blind and try our luck for crocodile at 1pm. While waiting for the others, I eat two granola bars I brought from home and I am still starving.

There is no WiFi so I pass the time doing crosswords and writing the story you are reading now. Time passes slowly. I hear a croc thrashing in the water just downstream from us, be he never comes to the bait. At 2:30pm, Steven tells me there is not enough scent going down to draw the crocs in and he pushes the bait further into the water and throws some additional meat in. He tells me he saw two crocs in the main river but has no idea of their size. Back to waiting. I am caught up with writing this hunt story, so it is crossword time.

What is a seven letter word for dull that has a double “t” in it? Ah yes, SITTING.

They say in the restaurant business, the three keys to success are location, location, location. The grand opening of our crocodile diner has been a resounding flop. We are going to relocate and try again before wasting an entire day here.

3:25pm and we are ready for attempt #2 at feeding the poor and underprivileged reptiles in Africa. We have no shade tree this time so we get the sauna package today.

Within 3 minutes, we spot a crocodile. He doesn’t come to the bait but is sitting less than 100 yards away. Like a person eyeing an empty establishment and gauging his hunger, we sit inside willing him to come to the grand opening and be our first customer. Come on in! Our specials today are dead hippo, entrails and offal!

I does not help when a guy paddles by in a canoe, directly over our croc. He looks at our blind, puzzled. I am pretty sure he has no idea we are baiting crocodiles and he just took rowed over one that is longer than his boat. Steven has estimated this one at 13 feet based just on his head. 13’9” would be a top 10 for a bow, but 8 of the top 10 are farm raised crocs.

We are now directly on the Zambezi. We should have a lot more chances at a good croc, but also a good chance to lose it should I hit its heart.

20 minutes and our first potential target has not closed an inch. He also has not left, so I think he is interested. Any other croc hitting the bait would likely pull him in. We saw one small one go by but he never came in and kept heading downstream.

4pm and one is at the bait but not biting. By 4:10 it is 2 crocs and eventually 3 but they are not coming in. They are very patient - something that likely has to do with them being ambush predators. We sit in our blind while they sit in theirs - each waiting the other out. They have a slow metabolism. I one up them with perhaps another 20 pounds of fat reserves stored on my person. I should be able to wait them out.

4:45 pm and they still wait. Then they all submerge be not sure any have left. 22 minutes later and not much change but we see the bigger croc come in to make a move for the bait. Must be still. It feels imminent now. Then again, feels like filling my gas tank. Fast then painfully slow. He closes 50 feet in 60 seconds then stops 15 feet away and wants to take 10 minutes to get there.

5:20 comes and goes. Still no hit on the bait but two crocs within 20 yards of it and just not wanting to get a bite. Steven is already discussing tomorrow. It looks like perhaps our old location has kept the scent and is throwing off the crocs. We had close chances on my first actual hunting day for hippo and connected on day 2. Maybe that will be the formula for success on the croc. Still, the sun isn’t down and there is more daylight left. I am still hoping to connect so we can work on another animal tomorrow.

All the elephants we have seen today have had tusks and none of the locals have seen any. It looks like crocodile hunting tomorrow and if we can find early success, then bushbuck and zebra.

After 6pm, we call it quits but plan on coming back tomorrow. We got a good look at this bigger croc and he is just ugly. Maybe 80 years old. Massively scarred. A true warrior. Missing a large chunk of his scales on his front right side.

As Steven heads to get the vehicle, I am putting my things together when Wessels leaps across the blind and grabs the rifle as quickly as he can. It is a bit alarming and I look out to see a couple hippos half way out of the water and headed our way.

A light shines their way and they turn as the truck pulls in just beside us. The day is never fully over until you are asleep in bed, I guess.

We make a plan to relocate the bait and blind slightly. With this small adjustment, we are optimistic that tomorrow will be a successful day.

 

[TOBY458]

Day Four of Ten:

I wake up just after 5am. The generator isn’t on yet and all seems quiet in camp. The wake up time is 6am and I lay in bed. It is Monday morning, July 14th.

I do not feel sore per se, but I know I wore myself out yesterday pulling that hippo. I could have left it to the camp staff, but I have no regrets, at least not yet. I do feel like I earned my hippo and now that we have bait, there is more work to be done.

I hear the generator start and the light in my room flick on as I left them on until lights out the night before. I don’t feel the urge to jump up and start the day but laying in bed is not on my list of personal goals so I quickly get dressed, brush my teeth and head out for breakfast.

Steven is eating what looks like cream of wheat and I have some, along with toast and jam. Off to the skinning shed, I can see George trimming down the skin panel we cut from the hippo. My plan is to have a nice large dining table and have leather chairs, with each chair a different type of leather - buffalo, hippo, rhino, elephant, etc. In my mind, it seems nice. Hopefully it turns out as well as I imagine. This skin is THICK. Well over an inch. I don’t have others side by side to compare and working from memory, but I think it is thicker than elephant and giraffe skin to go to #1 on the thickest skin list.

I ask to see the skull and am shown the head sitting in a pit. They have not yet removed the skin. Dead hippo smell worse than live ones, so it is pretty rank here. The animal has been cut up for bait to use for hyena, crocodile and leopard. I don’t have a leopard tag. One is available, but I really cannot afford it, unfortunately. Perhaps if I see one in a tree, I will change my budget or Steven will lower his price but my guess is that a leopard will be another trip. Either way, that is a decision I do not need to make today.

We load one of the chunks of bait into the Land Cruiser, along with a 5 gallon bucket of innards and head off to set up a bait station for hyena. It is a bit of a trek, but not far from there, Steven has a spot for bushbuck that he wants to check.

The hyena bait station looks like it was made for leopard. I am getting a bit excited for this one. No blind set up here yet, but they check camera before they put up a blind. Otherwise, there won’t be enough time to set the other bait stations. After the leopardy looking hyena bait station is complete, we strike out for the bushbuck spot.

There are three trail cams there and two small water holes that are dry but somewhat damp. We pull the camera and check footage from the past 4 days. We see a couple male bushbuck, plus some females, a few warthogs and tons of zebra photos. There are so many zebra pictures, I assume they are 18 year old females with instagram accounts.

I must admit though, they look good. These are Creyshaw zebras - not Burchells. No shadow stripes and amazing looking coats. They are were not on my list. There isn’t a slam for zebra in Safari Club, but apparently I am on one now and I will have to get a Hartman’s next time I am in an area with one. I absolutely love the zebra pedestal I have in my office so I guess “Marty” will have some relatives to keep him company in the future.

The guys have shovels to dig up the well and get the water flowing again. I head over to help and work on the smaller water hole while they are getting the larger one flowing.

We reset the trail cams and pick out a good spot for a blind. I expect we will be coming back for a long day in the near future, sitting for bushbuck and zebra during the day and moving to the hyena bait in the evening. Maybe I even get a warthog finally. You read that correctly, I don’t have a warthog yet. I passed up on one on my first safari and didn’t get one the next six trips.

We had back to camp to grab some more bait and a picnic lunch to take with us. We head to another spot with a tributary to the Zambezi. Shooting a croc on the Zambezi can easily result in a lost animal, so we are looking for a spot that gives a better chance of recovery.

The guys clear a spot for a blind with some shade and a nice view of some water and drive an iron spike into the ground and chain large chunk of hippo to it.

I will be shooting at perhaps 14 yards at the croc. This is a bit closer than I would prefer as I dialed in my bow to get as much range as I could on the main setting without having to resort to the XD setting on the Garmin. (XD will allow for extra distance by lowering the entire sight housing to a preset spot and adjusts the sight to give, for example 40-90 yards instead of 20-50 I would normally have with my ultra heavy elephant arrows). The closest distance I have a pin for is 16 yards on my elephant arrows or 19 yards on my normal dangerous game arrows.

I opt to stick with the 1,250 grain arrows for the croc since I still have 11 of them. The one I used for my hippo broke during recovery. I expect this arrow will pass through and end up lost in the water. No way anybody is going to venture in to recover it when we have been baiting for crocodile.

We sit in the blind and try our luck for crocodile at 1pm. While waiting for the others, I eat two granola bars I brought from home and I am still starving.

There is no WiFi so I pass the time doing crosswords and writing the story you are reading now. Time passes slowly. I hear a croc thrashing in the water just downstream from us, be he never comes to the bait. At 2:30pm, Steven tells me there is not enough scent going down to draw the crocs in and he pushes the bait further into the water and throws some additional meat in. He tells me he saw two crocs in the main river but has no idea of their size. Back to waiting. I am caught up with writing this hunt story, so it is crossword time.

What is a seven letter word for dull that has a double “t” in it? Ah yes, SITTING.

They say in the restaurant business, the three keys to success are location, location, location. The grand opening of our crocodile diner has been a resounding flop. We are going to relocate and try again before wasting an entire day here.

3:25pm and we are ready for attempt #2 at feeding the poor and underprivileged reptiles in Africa. We have no shade tree this time so we get the sauna package today.

Within 3 minutes, we spot a crocodile. He doesn’t come to the bait but is sitting less than 100 yards away. Like a person eyeing an empty establishment and gauging his hunger, we sit inside willing him to come to the grand opening and be our first customer. Come on in! Our specials today are dead hippo, entrails and offal!

I does not help when a guy paddles by in a canoe, directly over our croc. He looks at our blind, puzzled. I am pretty sure he has no idea we are baiting crocodiles and he just took rowed over one that is longer than his boat. Steven has estimated this one at 13 feet based just on his head. 13’9” would be a top 10 for a bow, but 8 of the top 10 are farm raised crocs.

We are now directly on the Zambezi. We should have a lot more chances at a good croc, but also a good chance to lose it should I hit its heart.

20 minutes and our first potential target has not closed an inch. He also has not left, so I think he is interested. Any other croc hitting the bait would likely pull him in. We saw one small one go by but he never came in and kept heading downstream.

4pm and one is at the bait but not biting. By 4:10 it is 2 crocs and eventually 3 but they are not coming in. They are very patient - something that likely has to do with them being ambush predators. We sit in our blind while they sit in theirs - each waiting the other out. They have a slow metabolism. I one up them with perhaps another 20 pounds of fat reserves stored on my person. I should be able to wait them out.

4:45 pm and they still wait. Then they all submerge be not sure any have left. 22 minutes later and not much change but we see the bigger croc come in to make a move for the bait. Must be still. It feels imminent now. Then again, feels like filling my gas tank. Fast then painfully slow. He closes 50 feet in 60 seconds then stops 15 feet away and wants to take 10 minutes to get there.

5:20 comes and goes. Still no hit on the bait but two crocs within 20 yards of it and just not wanting to get a bite. Steven is already discussing tomorrow. It looks like perhaps our old location has kept the scent and is throwing off the crocs. We had close chances on my first actual hunting day for hippo and connected on day 2. Maybe that will be the formula for success on the croc. Still, the sun isn’t down and there is more daylight left. I am still hoping to connect so we can work on another animal tomorrow.

All the elephants we have seen today have had tusks and none of the locals have seen any. It looks like crocodile hunting tomorrow and if we can find early success, then bushbuck and zebra.

After 6pm, we call it quits but plan on coming back tomorrow. We got a good look at this bigger croc and he is just ugly. Maybe 80 years old. Massively scarred. A true warrior. Missing a large chunk of his scales on his front right side.

As Steven heads to get the vehicle, I am putting my things together when Wessels leaps across the blind and grabs the rifle as quickly as he can. It is a bit alarming and I look out to see a couple hippos half way out of the water and headed our way.

A light shines their way and they turn as the truck pulls in just beside us. The day is never fully over until you are asleep in bed, I guess.

We make a plan to relocate the bait and blind slightly. With this small adjustment, we are optimistic that tomorrow will be a successful day.

Great report so far!

 

[Altitude sickness]

Today’s entry was Very entertaining.

 

[Adipose]

Outstanding job on the Hippo. What a fantastic hunt this is.

 

[mrpoindexter]

I wake up at just after 5am. Generator kicks on at 6am and the day officially starts.

I brush my teeth and deal as best I can with the world as home as soon as StarLink kicks in. I wish I could leave the world behind while I am here, but life won’t wait until I am home. I have breakfast and grab my gear.

I take both bows with me this time. The 85 pounder is in the soft case and I carry the 70 pounder in the front, should a shooting opportunity arise on some random plains game encounter.

The drive to the river takes perhaps an hour. We see a female bushbuck with a baby and then a few minutes later, an entire herd of impala. Steven is pretty excited as he hasn’t seen impala here for ages.

Along the way, I have to get the perfect shot image for crocodile. I have the mini edition for Africa, but the only images they have for croc are head shots. They really should amend that book with proper bow hunting references, recommendations and photos that show the bow shots. Thanks to AfricaHunting.com, I have a photo to go by so I can judge the right spot regardless of the orientation of the croc. It is critical that I do not hit the heart. This is the only animal I can think of where that is the case.

Arriving at the river, we move bait and I have the guys build a barricade from thorny brush behind the bait to force the croc to present a broadside shot. We then relocate the blind to an area with shade on the sunny side to give us some cooler temperatures and let us get a little fresh air without light spilling into the blind.

The hippo smelled horrible yesterday. Two day old hippo is even worse. I got a small whiff ever time we had to back up the truck on the way in. I can’t imagine the vapor trail we were crop dusting through the village as we drove by.

Now as they are throwing some chun into the river, man it reeks. We have the meat in the water and a great view. From my chair, I am 21.5 yards from the hippo carcass. Now all I can do is wait. And snack on Oreos and potato chips. I will probably gain more weight here than I did at bear camp in Canada. Luckily, mountain sheep are months away - plenty of time to get in better physical shape.

Yesterday was a sauna while waiting. Today is more of a spa treatment. I hear birds singing all over behind and to the right of me, a cool slow breeze to my left from the small window I opened to keep the stench in front of me from entering the tent blind. And in front of me, a wooden stump with a dead hippo chained to it, with some brush next to it and the mighty Zambezi River beyond.

There is lush vegetation on the opposing riverbank and I can see nearly a mile long stretch of it. The river is 300 yards wide here. It is 9:30am and I don’t hear any people in any direction, save the occasional cough from one of my friends in the blind.

The gentle lapping of the river right in front of me is very relaxing and I should have brought a nice high end audio recorder to make myself some nature sounds to help me sleep in the future.

9:30 and the croc diner is open for brunch. Today’s specials are yesterday’s leftovers.

9:50am we have a young croc coming in to investigate. If he hits the bait, his feeding will attract others. Hopefully the big old ugly one from yesterday comes in.

10:30 and back on the waiting game as the young croc doesn’t seem hungry at all.

11:15 we finally get one croc eating but he is small and just having some of the chum we placed earlier. No sign of bigger crocs yet. Still, it is the most exciting development today since my iPhone’s race car landed on St. James place with a hotel.

12:15 and we are up to three small crocs all not wanting to go to the bait but comfortable just hanging around. I have a great, maybe perfect view of the bait station, but little view of the periphery as I am in the back of the blind. That position gives me plenty of room to draw my bow, but has me limited to just one channel, like only having Soviet TV.

Just after 12:30, I hear rusting from behind the blind. It gets louder until we feel something pushing the blind. “Bwana” comes a voice from outside.

The trackers have been cooking lunch up by the truck and scouting the area. They found a big crocodile sunning on the bank of the island. We decide to go to them.

We get there and one has gone into the water, while a smaller one is still on the bank. We see a large dark tail sticking out of a small channel of water with a hill between us that blocks our view. This may or may not be monster, but he certainly is big. He slides down into the water and backs out of the channel. We lose sight of him, but Steven sees another large tail. This one more greenish than brownish. We back out and come around and see a perfectly exposed shot. He is about 12 feet long, but smaller than 2 others we saw. We back up from the river and discuss options.

We can either move our camp area and catch them sunning or scare them downstream towards the bait. Steven feels scaring them down will work, as it turns out that was how the old guy came in yesterday.

We sneak back to the blind in case there is activity there, but the only thing we see is one small croc. We push the bait as far into the water as the chain will allow and get back in the blind. The trackers will throw sticks into the water and otherwise disturb the crocs so that they will swim downstream and pick up the scent from our bait, hopefully.

This is my 4th day hunting but day 5 of a 10 day safari and only one animal down so far.

Getting all 3 dangerous game is my bar for success. Other animals are a nice bonus, but I want to get the croc and elephant before I feel like I did what I set out to do. If we can close out the croc today, I will be happy.

Still no word on tuskless elephants in the area. We have time still, but it is starting to concern me. I am also starting to regret not taking that frontal quartering shot on the old croc last night. I hope that regret is short lived.

It is 1:30pm and back on the waiting game. There are some people who feel only spot and stalking is real hunting. Everybody is entitled to their own opinions, but sitting in a blind is similar to being a croc - an ambush predator. It requires patience - sometimes it gets very hard and demoralizing as lying in wait only feeds doubt, not confidence.

I am hopeful to see the old croc come in, but hope fades over time and tests one’s resolve. Like many of life’s decisions, only time will determine if we made the right choices.

2pm we hear “Bwana” again. The crocs are back on the island banks. We put in a stalk. One sees me and it goes into the water. 100% on me there. We decide the move to a shade tree and see if they get back to the bank.

A tracker tells me there is another one. We move low to get there. I crawl the last of the distance and see there is a huge one with a medium size one laying on it, blocking its side. I move further back and range the large one at 30 yards and can see the crease just past the croc laying on top of him. I decide to thread the needle on the shot.

I draw back while kneeling on the ground. Then I move up into position and loose an arrow. The crocs split and go into the water, with the big one biting the smaller before taking off. At first I thought the shot was a bit low. We check the footage: height is perfect but more concerning is how far back it is. What looked like the crease behind his leg was actually a crease behind his elbow. I am 100% convinced I hit double lung and heart. 0% chance that croc is alive. Also close to zero chance at recovery as he dies before he can get to land. We start throwing a hook on a rope and dragging the channel to see if we can get him. I am depressed and frustrated.

We continue to drag the river. I try my hands with the grappling hook. Batman made it look so easy.

I hear some yelling from downstream, so I go to investigate. It looks like we finally got a croc to come in to the bait. I look to see a dead croc there. I do not recognize it, as I thought mine was bigger. This one looks just shy of 11 feet. We look and sure enough, it is my croc. He came to the river bank to avoid drowning and died.

My arrow passed through and it on the bank of the river on the island. We have no boat and nobody wants to volunteer to swim across and get it. We take photos and pack up our gear.

On the way back, we stop by a village and a couple trackers get a fisherman to go retrieve my arrow. I plan on framing all my dangerous game arrows when I finish the slam and I have 4 of them now, Cape buffalo, lion, hippo, croc. Just need the elephant and leopard. Sadly, I cannot get the rhino unless it is with a dart.

My focus is now on the elephant. Steven has a local scout who has told him he found a couple tuskless bulls. We will make a plan tonight to go for the elephant.

As for now, we are dragging bait and setting up for hyena and will sit in the land cruiser tonight after dinner and build a blind tomorrow if it looks promising.

I grabbed my 70lb bow and put a small glow in the dark sticker on the peep. It will probably come off on the first shot, but if you do it right, you only need to shoot once. Technically, we are just observing, but if a shot presents itself, an arrow will fly.

 

[Schmidty]

I wake up at just after 5am. Generator kicks on at 6am and the day officially starts.

I brush my teeth and deal as best I can with the world as home as soon as StarLink kicks in. I wish I could leave the world behind while I am here, but life won’t wait until I am home. I have breakfast and grab my gear.

I take both bows with me this time. The 85 pounder is in the soft case and I carry the 70 pounder in the front, should a shooting opportunity arise on some random plains game encounter.

The drive to the river takes perhaps an hour. We see a female bushbuck with a baby and then a few minutes later, an entire herd of impala. Steven is pretty excited as he hasn’t seen impala here for ages.

Along the way, I have to get the perfect shot image for crocodile. I have the mini edition for Africa, but the only images they have for croc are head shots. They really should amend that book with proper bow hunting references, recommendations and photos that show the bow shots. Thanks to AfricaHunting.com, I have a photo to go by so I can judge the right spot regardless of the orientation of the croc. It is critical that I do not hit the heart. This is the only animal I can think of where that is the case.

Arriving at the river, we move bait and I have the guys build a barricade from thorny brush behind the bait to force the croc to present a broadside shot. We then relocate the blind to an area with shade on the sunny side to give us some cooler temperatures and let us get a little fresh air without light spilling into the blind.

The hippo smelled horrible yesterday. Two day old hippo is even worse. I got a small whiff ever time we had to back up the truck on the way in. I can’t imagine the vapor trail we were crop dusting through the village as we drove by.

Now as they are throwing some chun into the river, man it reeks. We have the meat in the water and a great view. From my chair, I am 21.5 yards from the hippo carcass. Now all I can do is wait. And snack on Oreos and potato chips. I will probably gain more weight here than I did at bear camp in Canada. Luckily, mountain sheep are months away - plenty of time to get in better physical shape.

Yesterday was a sauna while waiting. Today is more of a spa treatment. I hear birds singing all over behind and to the right of me, a cool slow breeze to my left from the small window I opened to keep the stench in front of me from entering the tent blind. And in front of me, a wooden stump with a dead hippo chained to it, with some brush next to it and the mighty Zambezi River beyond.

There is lush vegetation on the opposing riverbank and I can see nearly a mile long stretch of it. The river is 300 yards wide here. It is 9:30am and I don’t hear any people in any direction, save the occasional cough from one of my friends in the blind.

The gentle lapping of the river right in front of me is very relaxing and I should have brought a nice high end audio recorder to make myself some nature sounds to help me sleep in the future.

9:30 and the croc diner is open for brunch. Today’s specials are yesterday’s leftovers.

9:50am we have a young croc coming in to investigate. If he hits the bait, his feeding will attract others. Hopefully the big old ugly one from yesterday comes in.

10:30 and back on the waiting game as the young croc doesn’t seem hungry at all.

11:15 we finally get one croc eating but he is small and just having some of the chum we placed earlier. No sign of bigger crocs yet. Still, it is the most exciting development today since my iPhone’s race car landed on St. James place with a hotel.

12:15 and we are up to three small crocs all not wanting to go to the bait but comfortable just hanging around. I have a great, maybe perfect view of the bait station, but little view of the periphery as I am in the back of the blind. That position gives me plenty of room to draw my bow, but has me limited to just one channel, like only having Soviet TV.

Just after 12:30, I hear rusting from behind the blind. It gets louder until we feel something pushing the blind. “Bwana” comes a voice from outside.

The trackers have been cooking lunch up by the truck and scouting the area. They found a big crocodile sunning on the bank of the island. We decide to go to them.

We get there and one has gone into the water, while a smaller one is still on the bank. We see a large dark tail sticking out of a small channel of water with a hill between us that blocks our view. This may or may not be monster, but he certainly is big. He slides down into the water and backs out of the channel. We lose sight of him, but Steven sees another large tail. This one more greenish than brownish. We back out and come around and see a perfectly exposed shot. He is about 12 feet long, but smaller than 2 others we saw. We back up from the river and discuss options.

We can either move our camp area and catch them sunning or scare them downstream towards the bait. Steven feels scaring them down will work, as it turns out that was how the old guy came in yesterday.

We sneak back to the blind in case there is activity there, but the only thing we see is one small croc. We push the bait as far into the water as the chain will allow and get back in the blind. The trackers will throw sticks into the water and otherwise disturb the crocs so that they will swim downstream and pick up the scent from our bait, hopefully.

This is my 4th day hunting but day 5 of a 10 day safari and only one animal down so far.

Getting all 3 dangerous game is my bar for success. Other animals are a nice bonus, but I want to get the croc and elephant before I feel like I did what I set out to do. If we can close out the croc today, I will be happy.

Still no word on tuskless elephants in the area. We have time still, but it is starting to concern me. I am also starting to regret not taking that frontal quartering shot on the old croc last night. I hope that regret is short lived.

It is 1:30pm and back on the waiting game. There are some people who feel only spot and stalking is real hunting. Everybody is entitled to their own opinions, but sitting in a blind is similar to being a croc - an ambush predator. It requires patience - sometimes it gets very hard and demoralizing as lying in wait only feeds doubt, not confidence.

I am hopeful to see the old croc come in, but hope fades over time and tests one’s resolve. Like many of life’s decisions, only time will determine if we made the right choices.

2pm we hear “Bwana” again. The crocs are back on the island banks. We put in a stalk. One sees me and it goes into the water. 100% on me there. We decide the move to a shade tree and see if they get back to the bank.

A tracker tells me there is another one. We move low to get there. I crawl the last of the distance and see there is a huge one with a medium size one laying on it, blocking its side. I move further back and range the large one at 30 yards and can see the crease just past the croc laying on top of him. I decide to thread the needle on the shot.

I draw back while kneeling on the ground. Then I move up into position and loose an arrow. The crocs split and go into the water, with the big one biting the smaller before taking off. At first I thought the shot was a bit low. We check the footage: height is perfect but more concerning is how far back it is. What looked like the crease behind his leg was actually a crease behind his elbow. I am 100% convinced I hit double lung and heart. 0% chance that croc is alive. Also close to zero chance at recovery as he dies before he can get to land. We start throwing a hook on a rope and dragging the channel to see if we can get him. I am depressed and frustrated.

We continue to drag the river. I try my hands with the grappling hook. Batman made it look so easy.

I hear some yelling from downstream, so I go to investigate. It looks like we finally got a croc to come in to the bait. I look to see a dead croc there. I do not recognize it, as I thought mine was bigger. This one looks just shy of 11 feet. We look and sure enough, it is my croc. He came to the river bank to avoid drowning and died.

My arrow passed through and it on the bank of the river on the island. We have no boat and nobody wants to volunteer to swim across and get it. We take photos and pack up our gear.

On the way back, we stop by a village and a couple trackers get a fisherman to go retrieve my arrow. I plan on framing all my dangerous game arrows when I finish the slam and I have 4 of them now, Cape buffalo, lion, hippo, croc. Just need the elephant and leopard. Sadly, I cannot get the rhino unless it is with a dart.

My focus is now on the elephant. Steven has a local scout who has told him he found a couple tuskless bulls. We will make a plan tonight to go for the elephant.

As for now, we are dragging bait and setting up for hyena and will sit in the land cruiser tonight after dinner and build a blind tomorrow if it looks promising.

I grabbed my 70lb bow and put a small glow in the dark sticker on the peep. It will probably come off on the first shot, but if you do it right, you only need to shoot once. Technically, we are just observing, but if a shot presents itself, an arrow will fly.
View attachment 699991
View attachment 699992

Congrats on the croc!

 

[Slaton]

Awesome!! Congratulations

 

[TOBY458]

I wake up at just after 5am. Generator kicks on at 6am and the day officially starts.

I brush my teeth and deal as best I can with the world as home as soon as StarLink kicks in. I wish I could leave the world behind while I am here, but life won’t wait until I am home. I have breakfast and grab my gear.

I take both bows with me this time. The 85 pounder is in the soft case and I carry the 70 pounder in the front, should a shooting opportunity arise on some random plains game encounter.

The drive to the river takes perhaps an hour. We see a female bushbuck with a baby and then a few minutes later, an entire herd of impala. Steven is pretty excited as he hasn’t seen impala here for ages.

Along the way, I have to get the perfect shot image for crocodile. I have the mini edition for Africa, but the only images they have for croc are head shots. They really should amend that book with proper bow hunting references, recommendations and photos that show the bow shots. Thanks to AfricaHunting.com, I have a photo to go by so I can judge the right spot regardless of the orientation of the croc. It is critical that I do not hit the heart. This is the only animal I can think of where that is the case.

Arriving at the river, we move bait and I have the guys build a barricade from thorny brush behind the bait to force the croc to present a broadside shot. We then relocate the blind to an area with shade on the sunny side to give us some cooler temperatures and let us get a little fresh air without light spilling into the blind.

The hippo smelled horrible yesterday. Two day old hippo is even worse. I got a small whiff ever time we had to back up the truck on the way in. I can’t imagine the vapor trail we were crop dusting through the village as we drove by.

Now as they are throwing some chun into the river, man it reeks. We have the meat in the water and a great view. From my chair, I am 21.5 yards from the hippo carcass. Now all I can do is wait. And snack on Oreos and potato chips. I will probably gain more weight here than I did at bear camp in Canada. Luckily, mountain sheep are months away - plenty of time to get in better physical shape.

Yesterday was a sauna while waiting. Today is more of a spa treatment. I hear birds singing all over behind and to the right of me, a cool slow breeze to my left from the small window I opened to keep the stench in front of me from entering the tent blind. And in front of me, a wooden stump with a dead hippo chained to it, with some brush next to it and the mighty Zambezi River beyond.

There is lush vegetation on the opposing riverbank and I can see nearly a mile long stretch of it. The river is 300 yards wide here. It is 9:30am and I don’t hear any people in any direction, save the occasional cough from one of my friends in the blind.

The gentle lapping of the river right in front of me is very relaxing and I should have brought a nice high end audio recorder to make myself some nature sounds to help me sleep in the future.

9:30 and the croc diner is open for brunch. Today’s specials are yesterday’s leftovers.

9:50am we have a young croc coming in to investigate. If he hits the bait, his feeding will attract others. Hopefully the big old ugly one from yesterday comes in.

10:30 and back on the waiting game as the young croc doesn’t seem hungry at all.

11:15 we finally get one croc eating but he is small and just having some of the chum we placed earlier. No sign of bigger crocs yet. Still, it is the most exciting development today since my iPhone’s race car landed on St. James place with a hotel.

12:15 and we are up to three small crocs all not wanting to go to the bait but comfortable just hanging around. I have a great, maybe perfect view of the bait station, but little view of the periphery as I am in the back of the blind. That position gives me plenty of room to draw my bow, but has me limited to just one channel, like only having Soviet TV.

Just after 12:30, I hear rusting from behind the blind. It gets louder until we feel something pushing the blind. “Bwana” comes a voice from outside.

The trackers have been cooking lunch up by the truck and scouting the area. They found a big crocodile sunning on the bank of the island. We decide to go to them.

We get there and one has gone into the water, while a smaller one is still on the bank. We see a large dark tail sticking out of a small channel of water with a hill between us that blocks our view. This may or may not be monster, but he certainly is big. He slides down into the water and backs out of the channel. We lose sight of him, but Steven sees another large tail. This one more greenish than brownish. We back out and come around and see a perfectly exposed shot. He is about 12 feet long, but smaller than 2 others we saw. We back up from the river and discuss options.

We can either move our camp area and catch them sunning or scare them downstream towards the bait. Steven feels scaring them down will work, as it turns out that was how the old guy came in yesterday.

We sneak back to the blind in case there is activity there, but the only thing we see is one small croc. We push the bait as far into the water as the chain will allow and get back in the blind. The trackers will throw sticks into the water and otherwise disturb the crocs so that they will swim downstream and pick up the scent from our bait, hopefully.

This is my 4th day hunting but day 5 of a 10 day safari and only one animal down so far.

Getting all 3 dangerous game is my bar for success. Other animals are a nice bonus, but I want to get the croc and elephant before I feel like I did what I set out to do. If we can close out the croc today, I will be happy.

Still no word on tuskless elephants in the area. We have time still, but it is starting to concern me. I am also starting to regret not taking that frontal quartering shot on the old croc last night. I hope that regret is short lived.

It is 1:30pm and back on the waiting game. There are some people who feel only spot and stalking is real hunting. Everybody is entitled to their own opinions, but sitting in a blind is similar to being a croc - an ambush predator. It requires patience - sometimes it gets very hard and demoralizing as lying in wait only feeds doubt, not confidence.

I am hopeful to see the old croc come in, but hope fades over time and tests one’s resolve. Like many of life’s decisions, only time will determine if we made the right choices.

2pm we hear “Bwana” again. The crocs are back on the island banks. We put in a stalk. One sees me and it goes into the water. 100% on me there. We decide the move to a shade tree and see if they get back to the bank.

A tracker tells me there is another one. We move low to get there. I crawl the last of the distance and see there is a huge one with a medium size one laying on it, blocking its side. I move further back and range the large one at 30 yards and can see the crease just past the croc laying on top of him. I decide to thread the needle on the shot.

I draw back while kneeling on the ground. Then I move up into position and loose an arrow. The crocs split and go into the water, with the big one biting the smaller before taking off. At first I thought the shot was a bit low. We check the footage: height is perfect but more concerning is how far back it is. What looked like the crease behind his leg was actually a crease behind his elbow. I am 100% convinced I hit double lung and heart. 0% chance that croc is alive. Also close to zero chance at recovery as he dies before he can get to land. We start throwing a hook on a rope and dragging the channel to see if we can get him. I am depressed and frustrated.

We continue to drag the river. I try my hands with the grappling hook. Batman made it look so easy.

I hear some yelling from downstream, so I go to investigate. It looks like we finally got a croc to come in to the bait. I look to see a dead croc there. I do not recognize it, as I thought mine was bigger. This one looks just shy of 11 feet. We look and sure enough, it is my croc. He came to the river bank to avoid drowning and died.

My arrow passed through and it on the bank of the river on the island. We have no boat and nobody wants to volunteer to swim across and get it. We take photos and pack up our gear.

On the way back, we stop by a village and a couple trackers get a fisherman to go retrieve my arrow. I plan on framing all my dangerous game arrows when I finish the slam and I have 4 of them now, Cape buffalo, lion, hippo, croc. Just need the elephant and leopard. Sadly, I cannot get the rhino unless it is with a dart.

My focus is now on the elephant. Steven has a local scout who has told him he found a couple tuskless bulls. We will make a plan tonight to go for the elephant.

As for now, we are dragging bait and setting up for hyena and will sit in the land cruiser tonight after dinner and build a blind tomorrow if it looks promising.

I grabbed my 70lb bow and put a small glow in the dark sticker on the peep. It will probably come off on the first shot, but if you do it right, you only need to shoot once. Technically, we are just observing, but if a shot presents itself, an arrow will fly.
View attachment 699991
View attachment 699992

Congrats! Can you show a picture of the entrance and exit wounds? I’m just curious about where you have to hit one to get the lungs and not the heart.

 

[DieJager]

2 out of 3 ! One to go!

 

[Datchew]

I'm very much enjoying this thread. Great hippo.

 

[Datchew]

excellent croc!

 

[Tucketed]

Great hunt and write up. My many years of archery hunting has turned to Illinois whitetails with crossbow. Many memories of 23 years on Colorado elk and many more of whitetail with recurve as a kid. I am enjoying your hunt.