Day 2 and 3 - Buffalo Time
The next days of hunting were dominated by the pursuit of Buffalo. This was my first time experiencing a buffalo hunt, and I quickly learned one thing is that you walk. A lot. The second thing I learned is that you spend an awful lot of time in pursuit of an animal that you aren't actually seeing. Following tracks, checking the age of spoor, hoping to eventually make contact with the animal. It was all so different from any type of hunting I have engaged in prior. North America hunting is either highly visual - put eyes on an animal, put them to bed, make a stalk. Or ambush (ie- Tree Stand/Blind) in nature. Either way, spotting the animal is one of the primary steps to the hunt. The first time I saw a Cape buffalo was looking through my rifle scope, but that is getting ahead of things.
Day 2 we were in and out of the truck frequently making stalks, sometimes these were a few hundred yards, sometimes these were a few miles, but we definitely were in the thick of sign. We closed the day out by dragging roads so we could get back to tracking the morning of day 3.
Day 3 started out with some very fresh sign - we made a stalk on buffalo that took us just over 3.5 miles. We didn't lay eyes on the buffalo, but the PH had a good idea of the spot in the concession that they likely moved too based on the tracks. Instead of following the tracks in though, we repositioned to the other side of the block and came in with the wind to favor us. We would be going in "blind" from a track perspective, but it was a low risk high reward move to attempt to get a shot. As we moved deeper into the block, it became obvious where the buffalo would be hanging out. An incredibly thick, low spot in the middle of the block. We slowly stalked into the area, and we were getting closer and closer to the thick stuff. The PH said, "Make sure your scope is zoomed out, it may be a quick offhand opportunity." I don't think it was possible for my heart rate to be any higher at this point. As we continued to work deeper into the bush, the PH made the call for us to slowly back out and reposition to catch the other side of the thicket.
We backed out and worked our way around the other side of the bush. It happened fast. The PH setup the sticks, confirmed the bull was one we were after, I was able to make out the bosses, but with the dark shadows the bull was in, combined with the dark color of the animal, I had a hard time making out the details of the animal (ie - where to place the shot) even at 50 yards. I was just able to make out the frontal shot the animal was offerring, began to touch off the trigger, when the animal made a sharp turn to the right. The shot rang out while the animal was in motion. Everything happened so fast, but I did not feel good about the shot. I was immediately frustrated, not just with making a potentially poor shot, but also with all the time, effort, and energy I had spent over the last several years to have a rifle I was confident in when this exact moment arrived.
We began to track the animal and found that there was blood, but it was dark meaning the animal was likely hit back. We tracked the buffalo to the end of the block, and then decided to back out and give things a few hours to cool down.
