Problem leopards, marauding lions and hyenas, crop raiding bulls, the start of DG hunting for me...

[crudeoildude]

awesome stor IvW keep them coming.I have enjoyed it very much

 

[mark-hunter]

Also , l found the idea of grinding off the tips of military surplus metal covered spitzer cartridges , to make soft point bullets extremely innovative . The last time l saw someone do this was a client in 1965. But he did it to .30-06 military surplus armour piercing 168 grain spitzer black tip cartridges . He needed to shoot a forest panther , but did not possess the requisite soft point bullets for the job.

This idea is not new. Many hunters in lack of proper bullets have resorted to this. There are also records of turning bullets in casing aft part forward.

However, this method of filing off the tips, of fmj, is not without risk. There are also records when grinded bullet stripped of metal jacket, and lead passing through the barrel, and jacket remaining inside barrel. Next round can cause disaster if fired, with jacket blocking the barrel.

Caution advised.

 

[IvW]

This scenario would repeat itself another six times over the next 2 and a bit years. Except for one very old female with broken teeth the other six where all large mature males, another one of which had a Mr.A eye.

Now just to clarify that this over two years was not just a hunting apprenticeship, but also a period of some hard work done. During the rainy season there was a lot of cattle work done. Just to get it into perspective, Mr.A’s idea of cattle ranching could be compared to a large game farms (35 000 Acres of it). The cattle were basically left to their own devices and being mainly of Brahman blood became as wild as the game that was found on the property. He had no idea how many cattle he owned and when in need of money we would shoot one and haul it off to the butchery.

Now when selecting one for this purpose, you first of all needed to get into range, you then needed to select one that was fat and that was close enough to a tree offering a strong enough branch, so that it could be winched up and the “Green machine” could be reversed under it for easy loading. All in a day’s work but definitely not normal cattle ranching procedures.

The “Green machine” as mentioned, was a very well used and abused Land Rover that had long since lost both doors, the bonnet as well as the tail gate. It was used for most of the work around the ranch. It required constant mechanical attention and was notorious for snapping side shafts when loaded and not driven with the utmost attention.

The “Blue machine” was also a Land Rover, a light blue one which had 4 doors and a full door canopy on the back. It was used for clients, going to town and other important trips.

During the rainy season a lot of effort was out into dipping the cattle, or rather trying to anyway. We would go out with the horses and the three Australian cattle dogs and start rounding up cattle. We would easily start off with anything in the region of 300 and when we eventually reached the kraal and dipping area be very lucky to end up with 70. These were the wildest cattle I ever worked with. They resembled Mr. A with his own wild ways.

Every now and again, when Mr. A got tired of beef, he would send me out to shoot an Impala, when he got tired of that he would send me out to shoot a sable, yes a sable. The best meat in the bush. I was to only shoot a young bull or a heifer.

Once when Tendai and I were out hunting, we came across a sable bull with a bad limp on his one back leg. This was an old bull with substantial secondary growth on the horn bases and with well-worn down tips. Despite this, his horns where in excess of 40” probably 41-41.5”. I wanted to shoot the Sable but Tendai, suggested we run this past Mr. A first because of his fierce manner and if certain things were done without his approval we would be in the dog box. I was worried we would not find the bull again as we were far from the homestead. Tendai assured me not to worry, he would find the bull again and that it would not stray far from the water.

After explaining to Mr. A regarding the sable bull, he agreed and we decided to go back the next morning to try and find him.

We did this and true to Tendai’s word he found the Sable Bull and I shot it. The limp was caused by an old snare which had pulled tight, low on the back leg and would have caused the Sable a long suffering death. I was glad we shot him. I still have the set of horns of this sable, my first bull.

After our success with the leopards, we were suddenly confronted by a different challenge. A pride of lions had moved into the area and had started catching domestic cattle. They had not been to our ranch but had been pestering the locals further to the south/south west and also harassed some other commercial farmers. Reports came through of 7 lions being the culprits and all efforts to shoot them had failed. They moved around a lot and I wanted to go and see if we could do something but Mr. A was adamant that it was not our problem and that the problems caused were far away from us not to cause any concern.

A couple of weeks past when reports came through that 2 of the lions had been shot on a dead cow they were feeding on. One had been wounded and they had vacated the area. More weeks past and things were about to change as the next sighting of the lions, was much closer to us. They had killed again on a neighboring ranch…..

Quietly I was glad about this but did not dare make mention of it, but indeed it looked like thing s were about to change, as Mr. A took exception to the lions that had moved closer to his ranch….

 

[Major Khan]

This idea is not new. Many hunters in lack of proper bullets have resorted to this. There are also records of turning bullets in casing aft part forward.

However, this method of filing off the tips, of fmj, is not without risk. There are also records when grinded bullet stripped of metal jacket, and lead passing through the barrel, and jacket remaining inside barrel. Next round can cause disaster if fired, with jacket blocking the barrel.

Caution advised.

This is fascinating , Mark Hunter. I assume that the bullets I question were cup and core ? Could it happen to a bonded bullet as well ?

 

[Shootist43]

Major Kahn, I think is also has to do with the amount of the tip being ground or filed off. If the resulting opening of the tip is very small, I think there is little worry in doing this. However getting carried away with the process is more prone to having issues. I've never heard of anyone doing that to AP rounds, but I suppose some "Buba" has done it. Bonded bullets are a hunting related thing. I think most if not all Military bullets are still coup and core.

 

[Ridgewalker]

Very exciting stories IvW! I’m really enjoying this! Thanks for finally writing these down!

 

[mark-hunter]

This is fascinating , Mark Hunter. I assume that the bullets I question were cup and core ? Could it happen to a bonded bullet as well ?

Bullets in question are standard military surplus fmj, full metal jacket, when the tip is filled off. Then the lead core is exposed from front and back side.

For bonded bullet it should not happen, the ones I know are all constructed as soft points, and jacket fully closed on back side.

Shootist 43 has good point.

 

[Major Khan]

Major Kahn, I think is also has to do with the amount of the tip being ground or filed off. If the resulting opening of the tip is very small, I think there is little worry in doing this. However getting carried away with the process is more prone to having issues. I've never heard of anyone doing that to AP rounds, but I suppose some "Buba" has done it. Bonded bullets are a hunting related thing. I think most if not all Military bullets are still coup and core.

Thank you so much , Shootist43 for explaining it to me in such an eloquent manner. Why yes , those .30-06 Springfield military surplus cartridges had " AP " on their green container . The tips were pointed and black .
I should add that these home made soft points did not really work , because my shikar partner , Tobin Stakkatz and l had to follow the wounded panther and finish it off in the thickets , even though a lung had been pierced.

 

[IvW]

We carried on with our day to chores on the ranch and each morning we would check our leopard baits. At one point we had seven in total but then settled down on only five baits as these were manageable. During dry season we would supply artificial water at the baits of which the water supply close to the baits had dried up. This was another invaluable lesson that Tendai had showed me, explaining that raw meat was salty and the leopards needed water close to the baits in order to keep them productive.

The marauding lions had continued with their cattle killing and despite the efforts of farmers no more were shot. Reports were conflicting in that some reported 5 lions remaining and others only 4. So it was not certain if the wounded lioness had survived being shot.

At one point the lions had killed again on a neighboring area and the locals were becoming desperate. Some of them had come to see Mr. A and asked for help, as he was a hunter and they knew that Tendai was an excellent tracker and could help out. Mr. A had no interest and informed them to leave. Two days later and after the lions had killed another “mombe”, the friendly neighbor arrived and had a meeting with Mr. A.

I was not part of the conversation but from what I understood. The friendly neighbor was concerned that the lions would move and he also felt that making an effort to try and help the locals would be seen as a good thing for the community as a whole.

Reluctantly Mr. A agreed and Tendai and I were called and informed to go with the friendly neighbor and see what we could do. We were joined by some other farmers and headed off to the area in question. When we arrived there were a lot of locals present as well as one of the chiefs. There was a lot of talking and discussion going on and Tendai seemed very concerned about what they were saying, I understood only a word here and there, one of them being “Shumba” meaning lion and another ’Bere” meaning hyena. The conversation was rather heated and I could see that people were filled with fear and I did not exactly understand that they could be so fearful. I knew that there livestock was important to them but the fear factor was not proportionate with what I was seeing.

Eventually we went to the sight of the last killing. There were a lot of lion tracks about and I checked around with Tendai while he was deciphering what had happened, how many lions there were and where they had gone. Every now and again he would shake his head, pointing at the ground, mumbling some incoherent words. We determined that there were 5 lions, 1 male and 4 lioness. I was getting more confused.

As he pointed again to the ground, he mumbled “mhondoro”, “bere” and “shave bere”, I was now really confused. Tendai showed me one of the lioness tracks, problem was that one paw print had the nails showing, just like that of a hyena, only problem was it was not a hyena but just the one track, a front paw track displaying this. I was more confused.

Every now and again some of the villagers who had come with us uttered more words of disbelief and it became clear that something was terribly wrong.

Tendai then said we have to leave this is a bad place to be. I said what about the lions? He answered forget about the lions we have to go.

When we got back to the chief there was a discussion between him and Tendai and then we left.

The friendly neighbor took us back and on the way I asked Tendai what the problem was. And what we were going to do about the lions. Tendai explained to me that one of the lions was not a normal lion but rather possibly a “Shave hyena”…huh? What does that mean Tendai? was my response.

He then explained to me that when a chief dies he becomes a “Mhondoro”, a spirit that looks after the land over which he ruled, providing rain when needed and protects the crops and livestock. If witch craft takes place or murder or somebody has sex with a relative it is dis obedience of the “Mhondoro” and this will have bad consequences.

He further explains that when a chief is buried they leave a small hole in the side of the grave, from which a small lion (Mhondoro) crawls and then goes into the bush. This lion is a mane less lion and becomes the Mhondoro spirit of that chief.

I was speechless and awe struck by this explanation. I then asked seeing as the Mhondoro was there to look after the people why was this a problem and what was this “Shave hyena” he had mentioned with the hyena track of the one lion?

He then explained that some people could never become ancestral spirits, those who had had bad lives, were childless (and could not become ancestors) are “Ngozi”. Somebody who would wander around through tribal lands, and villages causing destruction, death and basically making life hard for the people.

And then those who had been witches or “muroyi”, they rode around on the backs of hyenas. They could also make themselves into hyenas, crocodiles or snakes when they wanted to.

The current chief had thought that a “Shave hyena” may have possessed the chief “Mhondoro” spirit and that this track was from a mane less lionand not a lioness and had shown this by leaving the foot print of a hyena only on its one foot. This was also why all further efforts over the past few months had been un-successful and the lions could carry on with their destruction. The chief would arrange for a meeting of the elders as to what is the best way forward, after consulting with the spirits and ancestors. This was indeed becoming a serious issue.

I was speechless and very intrigued by all of this. Having grown up on a rural farm and having been raised by a South Sotho women on my grandparents farm, and that I could speak South Sotho before I could speak my own language, I understood the power that was associated with ancestral and spiritual things and how serious this was for the people of the land.

Before the friendly neighbor dropped us off at the ranch, we went to his house. While his wife made tea for us, he went indoors. After a short while he returned and gave me a rifle in a rifle bag and a box of ammunition. It was a 375 H&H. A beautiful and well looked after rifle. He just said I know the rifle you are using now is no good for the lions, better use this one if needed.

After we finished our tea he dropped us of at the ranch and explained to Mr. A that he had borrowed me another rifle.

My head kept spinning all night about the events of the day and I was very tired the next morning as I had visions of hyenas and lions and a small black man riding on a hyena all night long…..

 

[spike.t]

Hard to get people in the first world to comprehend the power that witchcraft has over African people.. From the people in the bush to the top people who will deny it...but mostly thats a facade put on....my ex wife decided when she was at the fishing lodge and was working on a fund raiser for the local school... this approx 20 plus years ago.... That it would be a good idea to get a school back in Jersey whose children were similar age to become pen friends... and in this way possibly that school might end up also helping.... So she gave the teachers a list of simple questions for the kids to answer..... One of the questions was what are you most frightened of..... Well the no 1 answer was witchcraft... followed by elephants and lions.. Etc.....So she gave up on that idea as she figured none of the kids back there would be able to comprehend the witchcraft thing.....if staff have a fight or falling out ....there is always on one side the big fear that a spell will be put on them by the other ones..... So it's still massively serious and you don't take the piss about it or make jokes....

 

[crudeoildude]

utterly amazeing we take so much for granted

 

[CBH Australia]

Wow, in Australia the aboriginal people have various beliefs and most cultures have religion, some of these feelings run strong but many differ.
But it seems there are strong beliefs the world over.

 

[TOBY458]

Very good writing @IvW! These stories remind me of those told by John Taylor.

 

[CAustin]

@IvW Sir,
Thank you for sharing this wonderful story with all of us. It is remarkable in many respects not the least of which is that you are a regular contributor here on AH .....alive and well....so we are not reading the story of someone from long ago. Please do continue.
I can now appreciate even more the PMs you shared with me about leopard.
Charlie

 

[Mort Hill]

@lvW totally spell binding. I love that you include every detail, no matter how small, as they all form such a wonderful picture of your experiences. I also love your respect for the culture and ways of the native inhabitants. I too, while finding some of their beliefs strange and far fetched, have an immense respect for their ways and honor them when called upon to do so. Thank you so much for sharing.

 

[Uncle Sauce]

Wonderful story @IvW - can’t wait for the next installment!

 

[IvW]

After a cup of tea, I met up with Tendai and it was quite evident that he must have had the same sleepless night as me filled with visions of spirits and hyenas….

We headed off as we did every day to check on our 5 baits that were no permanent baits. Two of them needed replenishment. As always I had the fun gun with but I had also brought along the 375 H&H that the friendly neighbor had given me. When we were away from the homestead and still far from the baits, I took a shot on a mark on a tree. I found the scope to be slightly off for my aim and made the necessary adjustment to the scope. The second shot was dead on. I unloaded the rifle and placed it back in its bag.

We continued and shot two impala on the way to replenish the two baits that needed it.

Regarding baits for leopard: It is wise to use what occurs naturally in the area. Impala were plentiful and this is what we used, unless a leopard had killed a calf or foal. Contrary to popular belief baboons make bad bait for leopards. Yes leopards will kill and eat baboons but this is rather based on opportunity than preference. They stink and the long hair is not liked by the leopards. Warthogs get rotten too quickly and are only good in winter at lower temperatures. Impala and zebra make the best bait for leopard.

We checked all the baits and replenished the two that needed fresh bait. There was no fresh sign of leopards on any of the baits.

We were both exhausted and I found a shady spot and we both caught up on some much needed sleep.

After a couple of hours we headed back and I again spoke to Tendai regarding the Shave hyena come mane less lion. He wanted nothing to do with it and insisted that we should not pursue the lions until word had come back from the village elders and the ancestor spirits. I left it at that.

Over the next couple of week the lions had killed again, but the reports that came back were that there had only been 4 lions responsible and that no sign of the tracks of the “Shave hyena” had been seen. I tried to persuade Tendai that we should follow up on the lions and see if we could help the locals. He was still not convinced and was reluctant to do so.

The friendly neighbor came around and we headed off to the chief again. The neighbor and myself kept to one side and Tendai joined the meeting. The chief was of the opinion that after their consultation and whatever ritual they had performed that the spirits had made the “Shave hyena/lion” go away. Tendai felt a lot better about the whole thing after the meeting. The chief thanked the neighbor and me for our willingness to help. We asked them to let us know as soon as the lions killed again so that we could do a follow up and see if we could help them. Tendai was happy to do so in the absence of the Shave hyena and I was just as relieved as there was no way I would be following up on any lions, as I had absolutely no idea what to do.

We left and headed back to the ranch.

The next morning disaster would strike…..

 

[mark-hunter]

This is a great story telling, @IvW. It keeps me glued to the screen!

Based on the title, I suspect there is much , much more to come in next posts.

Thank you for sharing!

 

[IvW]

As we always did we headed out first thing in the morning to check our baits as we always did. The mood was a lot better after our meeting with the chief as the last two weeks had been a bit sullen and had taken its toll on us.

As we were checking baits (this took a while as we had 5 permanent baits out), I questioned Tendai about hunting lions. He explained that lions are best baited and then shot on the bait after making a blind much the same as we had been doing with the leopards. However he said lions that had started catching cattle or domestic stock and that have been harassed and shot at such as the lions that were terrorizing the locals were a different story. They would not return to the kill if anything was left over. They would also not be easy to get onto a bait either. They would also not return to the same kraal twice but rather rotate around which made it impossible to predict where they would strike next. The best would be to get word as soon as they strike again and we had to get there as soon as possible and take up the tracks and follow them and hope we could catch up. He thought that although the lions would not go too far after having fed, that the sooner we got there the better.

We had after the preceding months arranged our baits in such a way that it basically meant that we did a huge roughly circular route that took us around the right hand side of the homestead and we would eventually come out in front of the homestead about 3 km from it on the main gravel road leading up to it.

Our last bait was situated in an area where the bush changed to low blue Gwarrie bushes in an area with clay ground. A bit further on was a dry stream bed. The bait was tied to a dead Leadwood tree stump and was about 3 feet off the ground. The blind was in a big tree between the two tracks we had used to get there and was about 300 meters from this track.

As the bush opened up heading towards the blind and bait and the area was devoid of grass between the blind and bait, we could see from a fair distance off that something had been at the bait and eaten a large amount.

Now normally we would at this point retreat without disturbing the bait and just come back later and sit, but Tendai said let’s check. As we got closer to the bait and checking for tracks, Tendai froze and turned a ashen grey color, I gripped the “Fun gun” and brought it into the ready position. The tracks on the ground were large and round and were showing the nails. Tendai muttered “Bere” and started back tracking, his head flashing from left to right, eyes scanning the bush. We went backwards for a long way before turning around and heading to the “Green machine” as fast as we could.

I had not said a word during this time as it was quite clear that Tendai was terrified. As I started the Land rover and we headed off he was shaking his head and said this is very bad. He explained that this must be the “Shave hyena” that had now transformed itself into a full blown hyena and that we were now dealing with a “Muroyi”, a witch that had transformed into a hyena. This he said is why the lions had now only numbered 4 on their last kill at the chief’s side…..

We had never had any signs of hyena before and when the leopards killed they almost never dragged the carcass up a tree, preferring to stash them on the ground. That is also why we were baiting low to the ground and not up a tree. So what Tendai had said made sense.

This was a disaster as Tendai was in a worse state than what he had been in after our first visit to the chief. My main man, the one who always knew what to do, was quivering to the point of being incoherent. What a disaster.

I asked Tendai how we are going to sort this out. He said the hyena had to be killed and taken to the chief so that it can be burned. So I replied well good let us go and sit early tonight and sort out this “Bere”. He snapped his head towards my side and shook his head. He was not going with me. No amount of begging and persuasion from my side would change his mind.

How was I going to handle the rifle and the spot light? After some deliberation, I made a small stand in the workshop to hold the spot light with a screw for up and down elevation. I was worried that the front glass of the spot light may give me away on the platform as it would have to be set up so that the light was over the edge pointing at the bait. I cut a piece of hessian from an old grain bag to drape over the light. I would have to remove it before switching the light on.

I decided to go to the blind at 3 pm, when I asked Tendai to drop me off he just shook his head…I was on my own on this one..

 

[Smitty]

Thank you for your wonderful writing. I am thoroughly enjoying your story. It is fascinating and keeps me coming back for more. I would ask you to write a book, but I don't want to wait that long!