SOUTH AFRICA: Buffalo With Craig Boddington

[Green Chile]

Thank you. I feel the same...very fortunate to take that sable.

Good question on Boddington. He setup 4 weeks in a row with a different hunter each week...he was an observer during each hunt. He did take a buff for himself a few days before I got there. He told me it was about 1/3 smaller than my buff. Craig is easy to be around and is not distracting or hogging the attention. He was there to connect with me and it was very comfortable having him on the hunt. It was fun having him on the tracking, glassing, recovery, etc. He carried his double when we were hunting buff but otherwise, he was carrying a camera and it seemed like he's as into Africa as ever. I was kind of blown away by his feelings about the animals we took together. He was over the moon with his compliments on these amazing animals. Pretty cool. I personally think he should do more of this with his readers and impart more of his wisdom/experience in his later years. He's early 70's now and talking about hunting less. I will be hunting with him on his farm in KS this fall for deer and looking forward to that.

 

[RR 314]

I am never one to grab a tape measure but the PH tells the tracker to go get the tape from the bakkie and he runs off to get it. I look at Craig and the PH and they are shaking their heads slowly. I break the silence and say I don't know what I'm looking at here...he's huge...I've never seen one this big. Craig says very slowly, "I have NEVER seen one this big either." The tape measure arrives and I stand back while Craig and Chico take some measurements....11" bases...48.5" length.

View attachment 621569

Beautiful sable! That is awesome! I have seen bigger, but the bigger ones I have seen all had rubber stoppers on the ends of their horns with a harem of cows to breed. .

 

[cajunchefray]

I was sorry to break the trailer but the PH was more amazed than irritated by it. Craig's statement was what Ruark really meant to say was "use enough trailer".

Made me laugh! That trailer looks a bit small for a huge bovine.

Lots of good roasts, meat for some biltong, and ground meat to feed a lot of Africans.

 

[One Day...]

To begin with, heartfelt congratulations Green Chile! I am so happy for you, and I really mean it.

Amazing Buffalo and Sable indeed. All I can add is that I wish, without jealousy, that they were mine...

A quick reaction to the following two posts:

I read in one of his books that he’s a big fan. But hearing that directly from him in person holds even more water.
That 416 R8 should be perfect. I’m about 90% sure that’s what I’m taking to Zim next year for Ele and Buffalo.

The one thing I keep considering is do I go bigger for ele on the R8...to 458 Lott. I know personally the 416 does just fine on ele but a bigger bullet doesn't hurt. I own several 458 Lotts but not in the R8 platform yet. I'm not a small bore guy for DG anyway. I do look forward to using the R8 416 for buff and lion in Nov. One thing about the R8 that I look forward to is having a smaller gun case. I'm tired of dragging the Tuffpak all over creation. I had to get it in a helicopter last year in Africa and it almost didn't fit!

There is no question whatsoever that the .416 Rem will be a near-perfect killer on Buffalo and Elephant.

But, for what it is worth, my own path has been to skip the .416 Rem and go for the .458 Lott. Why?

KO factor

I subscribe to the commonly held thought that the role of a client and the role of a PH are not to be confused, hence the need for a stopping caliber may not be as relevant for a client. However, every year it seems we hear a handful of documented reports when the client had to shoot in self defense, and even occasionally when the client had to shoot to save the PH, or in the worst cases, after the PH was killed or badly mauled. It is rare indeed, but it does happen. This is factual.

From this perspective, there is no arguing that the .458 Lott is a better choice than the .416 Rem.

I am not aware of too many modern folks having more experience than John Howard "Pondoro" Taylor and I see little rationale for questioning his conclusions, shared, it must be noted, by a comfortable majority of "White Hunters" of lore. In John Taylor's parlance's the baseline for stopping power is around ~70 KO. The .458 Lott / 500 gr meets the requirement. The .416 Rem / 400 gr does not (~55 KO).

Pressure

While still not meeting the required KO, the .416 Rem meets the .416 Rigby power in a much smaller case, but only at the price of a much higher pressure.

It is rumored that most ammunition manufacturers have quietly reduced their initial .416 Rem loads after repeated issues of over-pressure events and stuck actions in Africa. Whether this is true or not I cannot say, but it would make sense for them to have done so, as it is factual that the .416 Rem has been (and can still be?) sticky in Africa, even in factory loads.


To each our own, and I do not have advices to give to either of you but there you have it, the two rational reasons why I chose the .458 Lott over the .416 Rem. We will likely never need to shoot to stop, and we may never experience a stuck case on the Elephant of Buffalo spoor, but if we do............


By the way, as you already know, I cannot be more supportive of the "small" Pelican 1700 for a 3 calibers, airlines compliant <62" and <50 lbs., Blaser solution.

As to which stock to bring, steel insert or alloy insert, or both, I have come to only bring one stock, the steel insert one. It soaks up recoil on the .458 Lott, and it does not bother me to have an additional Lb. on my shoulder with the other calibers. Besides, it makes the .257 Wby virtually recoil free, hence a surgical-precision tool, and whether the third caliber is .375 H&H (cats / eland) or .300 Wby (larger PG), it makes them both a joy to shoot.


You guys enjoy your hunts, I wish I could go this year, but it is not in the cards

 

[Green Chile]

I always love your posts...factual not emotional...solid data...practical and scientific. Love it.

I experiment somewhat as I go...maybe more than I should but it's how I learn as well. I'm also well read and know there are many who will always have more experience than me and I don't want to reinvent the wheel...no need for that. I know the 375 can do it...and I've been there and got the t-shirt. It's lighter than I prefer for buff and ele, which are my fav species to hunt. 416 is better and still suitable for PG and that's no small consideration. I shoot 416 Ruger, Rigby and Rem mag...even 500/416 in a double. I like the caliber.

I also do not load any of my ammo to the redline...it's just foolish and doesn't gain you anything but might put your butt in a real sling of hurt someday. I'm not likely to be the guy having pressure issues with my 416 handloads. I run them a little slower. I also like the idea that whatever gun I'm carrying can take care of whatever I run into or Africa offers up...tiny 10? Got it. DG...got it. There are compromises here of course.

It's a whole different game when you go after ele. I think differently when they are on the menu. I take ele very seriously. Buff are big cattle...no disrespect it's just what they are. If you screw up, they WILL hammer you but most of the time it's not that hard. Ele are totally different. In ideal scenarios, 416 does just fine for me on ele. When it gets crappy, 416 feels a little light and I look at big bore doubles or big bore bolt guns. I've gone ultra heavy to 500 Jefferies, 500 nitros, etc and that's one way to dig out of it. I'm sliding back a bit in my thinking to something like the 458 Lott. That's just where I'm at right now. These are really personal decisions for all of us that get in there close to big DG and rinse and repeat. Do it once and it's whatever. Do it over and over and your thinking can change. Just my .02

On the R8 subject...I love that the platform can do anything. I don't like the idea of having one action that I will change barrels on for this or that opportunity. You go out for duiker and you find a killer waterbuck. You are looking for sable and the DG comes out. I do like the idea of having 2 guns setup differently...one for PG and one for DG. To my way of thinking, I'm getting pretty happy with the idea of having two R8's...one setup for DG and one for PG...and maybe even a 3rd barrel for some specialty like long shots in the mountains on Vaal Reebok or night shoots on little critters and cats or whatever. You get my point.

 

[Altitude sickness]

After my first Tuskless hunt and being in thick brush. No where to run. And if they come for you there is not time for small bullets to work by hemorrhage. I am a firm believer in taking more horsepower than you think you need.

You won’t feel the recoil when you shoot

 

[One Day...]

I always love your posts...factual not emotional...solid data...practical and scientific. Love it.

I experiment somewhat as I go...maybe more than I should but it's how I learn as well. I'm also well read and know there are many who will always have more experience than me and I don't want to reinvent the wheel...no need for that. I know the 375 can do it...and I've been there and got the t-shirt. It's lighter than I prefer for buff and ele, which are my fav species to hunt. 416 is better and still suitable for PG and that's no small consideration. I shoot 416 Ruger, Rigby and Rem mag...even 500/416 in a double. I like the caliber.

I also do not load any of my ammo to the redline...it's just foolish and doesn't gain you anything but might put your butt in a real sling of hurt someday. I'm not likely to be the guy having pressure issues with my 416 handloads. I run them a little slower. I also like the idea that whatever gun I'm carrying can take care of whatever I run into or Africa offers up...tiny 10? Got it. DG...got it. There are compromises here of course.

It's a whole different game when you go after ele. I think differently when they are on the menu. I take ele very seriously. Buff are big cattle...no disrespect it's just what they are. If you screw up, they WILL hammer you but most of the time it's not that hard. Ele are totally different. In ideal scenarios, 416 does just fine for me on ele. When it gets crappy, 416 feels a little light and I look at big bore doubles or big bore bolt guns. I've gone ultra heavy to 500 Jefferies, 500 nitros, etc and that's one way to dig out of it. I'm sliding back a bit in my thinking to something like the 458 Lott. That's just where I'm at right now. These are really personal decisions for all of us that get in there close to big DG and rinse and repeat. Do it once and it's whatever. Do it over and over and your thinking can change. Just my .02

On the R8 subject...I love that the platform can do anything. I don't like the idea of having one action that I will change barrels on for this or that opportunity. You go out for duiker and you find a killer waterbuck. You are looking for sable and the DG comes out. I do like the idea of having 2 guns setup differently...one for PG and one for DG. To my way of thinking, I'm getting pretty happy with the idea of having two R8's...one setup for DG and one for PG...and maybe even a 3rd barrel for some specialty like long shots in the mountains on Vaal Reebok or night shoots on little critters and cats or whatever. You get my point.

100% agreed on all the above, especially the false promises of red-hot loads

As to the .500s, you are more man than I am, these (except the .500 NE which is mild) are just too much fun for me

The way it works for me is that the .458 Lott too shoots flat enough to 200 yards so that if I bump into the "next world-record three-toed unicorn" (© Boddington) while on the DG trail I can take the shot. But this remains a hypothetical...

To each our own, but I have not yet bumped into something good enough to persuade me to shoot while on the Buffalo or Elephant spoor. Admittedly, if I met your sable's identical twin brother, I WOULD take the shot and run the risk of spooking a Buff I may not yet have seen 100 yards ahead down the trail

The more practical application of the Lott on PG is to bag a young imp[ala for the pot (I love fresh grilled impala liver!) on the way back to camp, or to put out of its misery an old warthog for bait after a lost Buffalo or Elephant track.

When I have DG and PG on the license, I always start with DG. I think that we all do. So chances for me to have the .257 Wby pipe on and bump into a DG that I can legally take are about zero: if my PG barrel is on, it means that my DG is in the salt.

I do not change barrels willy-nilly in the field. I only do when the safari shifts from DG to PG, or, for example, from monster Kudu one day to Vaal Rhebok the next. As to "duiker to waterbuck", or any PG combination, the .257 Wby takes care of everything. In truth it is the barrel I use the most. I DO put the .300 Wby barrel on for dedicated monster Kudu, but I have already used the .257 Wby with amazing results on Wildebeest and even Roan. This is in line with the exceptional reputation for killing way out of its weight-class that it has built on Elk in the US (although I do use the .300 on Elk...).

 

[Inline6]

After my first Tuskless hunt and being in thick brush. No where to run. And if they come for you there is not time for small bullets to work by hemorrhage. I am a firm believer in taking more horsepower than you think you need.

You won’t feel the recoil when you shoot

Took my 458Lott barrel and 375H&H barrel this trip. I never mounted the 375H&H. I would have taken it on two different occasions. I just took the 458Lott because it was set up. Have shot it at 200 yards, was comfortable with that distance.

It is a fine line of balance that is for sure.

This was also my first time taking the 1700 cases. One for my R8 the other for my wife's rifle. It was much more enjoyable moving those cases around.

Awesome report! Awesome animals! Congratulations! Looking forward to the rest of the report.

 

[Arctic97]

Great report. Loving reading it all!

 

[Green Chile]

Ok it’s the next to last day of the hunt and all of my goals and expectations have been exceeded. Craig needed to move to another location to finish his visits with outfitters. We got a later start this morning as we relaxed around the breakfast table in the lodge. I looked at Chico and said, well I’m really happy with this hunt. I don’t know what else…do you have any ideas? He said would you like to see some more buffalo on a different place? I said sure, let’s go drive around and look at more buffalo. At this point, I had no plans to hunt more buff but I always like scouting around and seeing what is out there.

As we drove out, Chico said I know a neighbor that has some really good nyala. Let’s go check it out and it’s on the way to the big ranch. We drive about 20 min to his neighbor who is outside working. We say we just wanted to look at your nyala. He pointed uphill and said they are usually over there. We get out and start walking up to that part of the property. After about 10 min walking we started getting into fresh nyala tracks. Within minutes, we bumped not 1 but 2 nyala bulls that were very nice.

We tracked those bulls all over the place and I will tell you that a nyala that’s feeling pressured is not an easy target! Long story short…we could not get setup on them and kept bumping them just in front of us. Not every setup turns out and this time the nyala beat us. That’s the way it should be sometimes. That’s what makes it fun and that was an awesome morning in the mountains.

 

[Green Chile]

After playing hide and seek with the nyala bulls, we drove over to a big ranch I hadn’t seen yet and this place was amazing…over 50k acres in the mountains with several lakes and dams and a lot of game. The first thing we did right at the gate was find a nyala trying to get into the property. We later learned it had gotten out somehow and was trying to get back into its home territory. The trackers ran up and down the ditch trying to get it back in and we almost succeeded but in the end, it moved off. I hope it got back in sometime and it clearly wanted to.

We are driving into this ranch and I am blown away by the quality of this place. The buildings are all very well maintained…the interior roads are incredible…the game is in great shape and there is a lot of water around. I see tons of variety…ostrich, big groups of eland, nyala, hartebeest, ankole cattle (it’s a working cattle ranch), warthog, etc. I even see a black impala in the yard of one of the buildings. I ask about the owner and find out he owns a road construction company in South Africa and flies a helicopter from home to the ranch on the weekends. No wonder his roads are so nice…he’s got graders, dozers, front end loaders, etc on the property. I learned that one of the owner’s interests is in breeding Cape buffalo and trying to improve the genetics. Ok, sounds interesting! I also learn this is the ranch that Craig shot his buff on last week.

We start driving around on the roads to get a sense of what is visible. There is a storm system coming in this day and the next. Right away, we start finding buff on the sides of the mountain getting some sun before the storm gets here. We are seeing small groups of bulls everywhere. I lost track of the numbers but it was at least 50 bulls scattered around on the mountain. I am at a loss for words on the quality of these bulls. Many of them look like they are at LEAST 40 inches…several are 45+ and they all look very healthy and heavy in body weight. I remember saying what is this place…the garden of Eden for buff?!?

Then we drive around this little curve in the mountain and find a group of 8-10 bulls bedded in the trees and sleeping in the late morning sun. They were all good bulls but then I saw one that I will never forget…it’s the only time I’ve looked at a buff and actually felt my stomach flip flop. His bosses were massive and his horns were very heavy and dropping very low. He was sleeping just off the road only 20 yards away in the trees. He looked like some kind of black dragon resting…a truly spectacular bull. I have never seen anything like him. We slowly back out and Chico says what do you think? I said that’s the most incredible buff I’ve ever seen but I’m not going to shoot him sleeping beside the road. Chico laughs and says no that wouldn’t be right. Let’s go drive around some more and then go talk to the owner about taking one of his bulls.

We drove around some more and found some great kudu and klipspringer up in the high rocks but my mind kept going back to that bull sleeping in the trees. We found the owner and he agreed that we could take a bull as long as we didn’t shoot the biggest bodied bull. We drove back to the lodge that evening and kept talking about the bulls we had seen that day late into the night around the fire.

Tomorrow, the conclusion to this story….

 

[ACM]

Congrats on a terrific sable! Can’t wait to hear how this one comes to an end!

 

[Sideshow]

After my first Tuskless hunt and being in thick brush. No where to run. And if they come for you there is not time for small bullets to work by hemorrhage. I am a firm believer in taking more horsepower than you think you need.

You won’t feel the recoil when you shoot

In a dream world where money was no issue I’d have a double with two sets of barrels in different calibres.
One to practice and one for hunting. That way the recoil really doesn’t mater. Say 400/450 and then bigger for your troubles.

 

[Green Chile]

So, the final day of this hunt has arrived. It doesn’t seem quite right…the travel to get to Africa is long and then the days in the field go by so quickly. I guess that’s why we keep coming back…there is more we want to do in this place. I’ve had an incredible week and had NO plans to hunt 2 buff but after seeing the quality of bulls on the mountain yesterday, I’m game to see what we can do. I will tell you I didn’t sleep well last night thinking about that black dragon sleeping in the trees beside the road. I would love to see him again!

We get on the road early to spend the whole day if needed on the mountain. The weather has changed overnight and it’s colder today with a lot of wind. Not ideal but we will find them. We systematically took that mountain apart from top to bottom. We looked into every corner and terrain feature we could find….no buff. In fact there is very little game out that we can find. The weather has turned and it’s like a whole new place compared to yesterday. We spend all morning glassing and driving to different parts of the mountain. We even go up to the top a couple of times looking on a big plateau up there….zip, zero, nada.

 

[Green Chile]

Ok, no problem. We will take a lunch on the mountain and make a plan as they say. We get the sandwiches out and talk about different ideas on where they might be. Chico says it’s like they found a cave and all crawled into it to get out of the cold wind. We decide to keep working the mountain as it just feels like we are either ahead of them or behind them somehow. They are here somewhere. We were hoping the cold wind would die down but so far it’s still cold and blowing. We are all still wearing our coats from the morning chill. It has even rained a little bit, which is very unusual for this time of year. Maybe the weather will improve or if not, we will just keep on looking.

We decide to go to a spot where we can glass while we send the trackers up into the rocks to make a big loop and check for sign. While we are glassing and waiting for the trackers, we get out the dog to let him stretch his legs. They are training a young dog for tracking and he is inexperienced. Their best dog died last season from old age and the replacement wasn’t ready yet.

As the dog is walking around he gets interested in the rocky hill in front of us. He turns to face the hill and keeps his nose high. I say look at that…he smells something. Then the dog growls and our heads snap around in his direction. He is looking up the hill. I get my rifle out of the truck and stand there quietly looking uphill. Then we hear a rock clatter down. Something is definitely up there!

 

[Green Chile]

The next moments were pretty strange and I would have a hard time believing it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. The hill was very steep with large boulders covering the hillside. There was a loud snort above us (that’s not a kudu!) and what looked like a wave of buff came crashing down the rocks. It looked like the movie scene in Man from Snowy River where the wild horses run down the side of the mountain. I run back to the truck and watch as they go pouring past us. How they managed to do that without breaking their legs, I will never understand. It was all over in a few seconds and I think I forgot to breathe! It was the most incredible thing I have seen buff do to get out of a place they didn’t want to be in. They had been up in those rocks and either the trackers scent brought them down or we had been too close to make them comfortable and they bolted together. I wish I had photos or videos of this but we were all scrambling to get out of the way!

The PH starts whistling for the trackers and in 10 min they are back at the truck. We make a quick plan and grab our gear and fall in behind the trackers who move quickly through the rocks to follow the herd. We certainly can’t move as fast the buff in these rocks but after awhile, the trail turns into some grassy areas and we pick up the pace. We are jogging behind the trackers now and covering some ground quickly. The buff haven’t slowed down and are still moving at a good pace well ahead of us. We can’t even see their dust. The wind isn’t helping as it shifts around…sometimes from the side, sometimes in our face and dreadfully, sometimes behind us.

We keep this up for several miles with no sign of them slowing down. I look at Chico and he says this is no good. They are too worked up. Let’s go back to the truck and circle around and try to get ahead of them. I ask did you see the big heavy bull in this group? He says no but it was hard to tell when the group came rushing down the hill. We know there are good bulls here and the tracks are large but we don’t have a good sense of what is going on.

 

[Arctic97]

Great write up. Have enjoyed reading your adventures. Waiting here this morning for the other shoe to drop....or not....(I read your Leopard report )

 

[Green Chile]

By the time we get back to the truck, it’s mid-afternoon. We circle well ahead but their tracks don’t come out. They have stopped or found some hole to hide in. We keep driving and looking in all of the areas that could hold the group all the while looking for even just 1 buff by himself somewhere on this mountain. There are over 50 bulls here somewhere!

As the hours went by I thought, well it’s been an awesome hunt no matter what happens today. Anything extra is just gravy. I also think, never quit because you never know what can happen in the last minutes of a hunt. I have had that happen so many times over the years in the final hour or even final minutes of a hunt or last day of the season. Never give up!

With little more than 1 hour of daylight, we decide to go back up top again and look at the big plateau. We have really covered this mountainside and it feels like we are turning in circles all day. We drive up high again and break out onto the plateau. We are slowly driving when the trackers see something from the back of the truck. Out on the edge of our view, there are dark shapes under the trees! We stop and glass and there are 6 bulls in the trees. We can’t define them well but let’s check them out.

 

[Green Chile]

We get within about 200 yards and there is just no cover really. There are little groups of trees and lots of dead grass but nothing to hide us. We watch the buff as they move around under the trees. There are some big bulls but we can’t be certain of what is there. We are running out of daylight.

Chico says I think if we drive in a circle we can get closer and use that small group of trees for cover. Maybe we can get a shot from there? As he drives in a big circle I think this is kind of crazy…will it work? We are in full view of the buff the whole time. I keep holding my breath thinking they are going to bust out of here any second. Somehow they hold in the trees while we get to the small group of trees. We range the distance and it’s about 90 yards. Further than I like on buff but let’s see what happens. We get into position as close as we can and I setup on the sticks. We are looking, looking at these bulls but most of them are inside the trees and hard to see. Some are milling around the edges and we can see some good bulls. Chico says I want to make sure we see everything that is there if we can before we make a decision. I look at the sun and there’s not much time.

A couple of agonizing minutes go by but we have the wind fortunately. I keep seeing a wide buff edging around the trees as he picks through the dead grass. I look at Chico and he says that is the widest buff on the mountain…take him.

 

[Sideshow]

Don’t stop there!!!! Your a bloody tease @Green Chile im going to buy you a bikini if you keep this up