ZAMBIA: 2018 Hunt With Strang Middleton In 2 Different Areas Of The Country

[cpr0312]

If I know Charles he is going to string this along for a little while. But the story is a good one so far!

Sorry guys, just playing catch up and trying to get this report going

 

[cpr0312]

Day 1 Hippo hunt continued.....

As I mentioned before time to head back to camp for lunch, but one more surprise was in store. As we are walking closer to the river and further downstream after the shot to quickly gauge if the hippo is done or not, blood is spotted on the water. That makes me feel better but still the wait is in store. So as we are all looking in the water and walking at the same time, something catches the corner of my right eye and at the same time the two trackers behind me see it.. HIPPO!! A running hippo! Parallel with us no farther than 40 yards to our right flank

Mouth open biting the air and trotting quickly! Strang immediately says get ready. No further explanation needed, the mood immediately shifts to hippo charge mode. I ready my rifle as does Strang, with Mike and the trackers behind us, the hippo has now stopped directly in front of us at about 40 yards. He says don't move!!! The hippo is biting the air and has a decision to make, go the additional 5 yards into the water and be on his way, or charge us head on looking down the barrels of a .470 and .375.

Its Strang that even though in my mind I knew this could get very interesting very quick, I was amazingly calm and thinking, if this thing charges you shoot and Strang will shoot and this will be one darn cool story. Well after a 5-10 second standoff that felt like 2 minutes, the hippo chose to stay alive and head for the water.

Strang let us know how close that was to a charge, and he was actually shocked it didn't charge based on his posture and the biting of the air while looking at us in disgust! What had happened was he was asleep somewhere in the brush behind us and the shot obviuosly woke him and and put him in a grumpy mood.

I wish I has some pics or video of this to share with you guys, but I figure I've got a good excuse on why I don't

Anyways, back to the river about 4 pm. When we arrive there is a few local fisherman with a rope tied to their canoe and something grayish attached! I cant understand what the trackers are saying to Strang and yelling to the fisherman some 200 yards away, but I take it as positive. Once we get down there the worry is gone and a big grin appears

 

[Ridgewalker]

And an exhilarating calm comes over everyone! And you, just a huge sigh of relief!
Fun report!

 

[cpr0312]

Recovery....

And happy hunter...

Needless to say, this Mosi and few others were very tasty that afternoon

 

[Ridgewalker]

They are MONSTERS! Great shooting!

 

[cpr0312]

And the recovery of the Swift A-Frame!! Another great job by this round. If you look closely on the left side of the hippo you can see the entry hole, this was recovered on the back side of the skull on the right

 

[CAustin]

I know that felt good to see him pulled into shore and tied up. Looks like the locals used grass or reeds to make a rope!

 

[Ragman]

What a beast! That charge would have required me to change my shorts!!!

 

[jasyblood]

Congrats on the hippo!

 

[cpr0312]

Day 2.....

Looking for some PG for Mike and start to bait for croc. Breakfast at 6 then off to look for puku, kudu, warthog, and bushbuck. Nothing worth pursuing so we go to start setting some croc baits We set upstream from the camp on a bluff looking down at a piece of sandbar about 40 yards away. It took about 1 hours for crocs to come in and another 30 min or so for one to start feeding. Eventually about 10 of them were on bait, a pretty cool thing to witness. The death rolls and raw power of these tings is frightening.

Nothing worth shooting on bait so we heard in for lunch about 1pm. Then back out after PG. We get on a puku but no luck. We then head to the area on the concession where the kudu frequent. I spot a few kudu late in the day about 4:45. Strang I'ds a good bull for Mike to take. I wont fill in his portion of the hunt but it was on now after the kudu bull.

Back to camp for a nice evening and dinner. Some of the hippos has made it to the appetizer menus as fried fritters, pretty darn tasty!!

 

[AZDAVE]

Congratz on the hippo! It is always interesting to watch their behaviour of the surviving buddies of the gent you just shot and you brain process the charge possibility of having 2 hippo's on the ground. look forward to the rest of your report.

 

[cpr0312]

Day 3............. Buffalo time for Mike

Up really early today so we can be where we need to be a daybreak which is about 5:45, so we were up at 4 and left camp by 4:45. This area of the concession is more a mixture of open grasslands, thick brush, and the mixture of the two, along with long grass straight out of the book Death in the Long Grass! We see a group of Cooksons Wildebesst first thing, pretty cool to see! Then we see a lone Elephant bull just meandering without a care in the world, another cool site!

We get on the fresh buff tracks about 6:45 then its on. We eventually catch up enough to see the dust in the air from where they have been. Slowly we solider on and get within a hundred yards of them, where they are getting ready to bed down in the before mentioned long grass. When I say long grass I mean like 10-15 foot tall stuff you cant see through! This is Mike's number 1 target on this trip. This is the part where one of the trackers, the ranger, and I hold back and the others go in pursuit.

The buff bump and scatter in 2 directions, again we cant see them but by the sounds of it there must be around 100 or more head. We go in pursuit of one of the groups and circle around the edge of the long grass. Again three of us hold back and the other 3 move on. I can see them on the sticks, and hear buff all around! They move again and get on sticks, at this point more buff start going in every direction. This is where it gets hair raising for me. Not 10 yards in front of me, I hear buff and get the sense they are coming out in our direction

Some scamper off and then I hear more that I am sure are coming right out in front of us. .375 up and ready, scope turned all the way down, and praying that nothing happens! You talk about eye opening!! Luckily they move on and so do we. Back after them for another hour or so until we catch up. Mike back on the sticks and... well that his story and report so I'll let him tell it

 

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Day 3 Continued...

In the afternoon we go and bait a new site for crocs, here are some pics of building the blind

Nothing came in big enough so we call it a night! Nice evening in camp, more hipp tonight in the form of curry, man it was tasty.

I was skeptical about hippo, but its honestly some of the best meat I've ever had. We had it two more times in the coming days in different forms!

 

[CAustin]

Glad you got to eat some hippo my friend.

 

[Ridgewalker]

Any hippo lips yet?
In that tall grass hearing the buffalo coming I think I would need to change my underwear!

 

[BenKK]

Congrats for getting that hippo!

 

[cpr0312]

Any hippo lips yet?
In that tall grass hearing the buffalo coming I think I would need to change my underwear!

No hippo lips, but tried it many ways!

Yes the buff almost made me have to change shorts for sure!!!

 

[cpr0312]

Day 4....

We start out the day with a river drive looking for bushbuck. Seeing quite a few females and young males, along with one ram who had about 2-3 years to go. There is a big ram in the skinning shed from the last hunt, which Strang thinks is the big ram he had pegged when he was last in the concession. No luck on puku or warthog wither today.

We then head back to one of the croc blinds we have made in the past two days. Put a smaller piece of fresh bait back out. No luck on any big guys showing up. But along the way to the blind we spot 2 big ones in the river and one of the camp staff has spotted one the other way from camp in the past day or two. We make a plan to build a new blind on a bluff overlooking a sandbar where two of the bigger guys have been spotted then head back in around 5:30. This blind is one where we will sneak up through the woods/scrub and walk staring into it. Two shooting holes have been constructed as well. The plan will be to sneak up in the morning once the sun is good and out, catch one or both of them on this sandbar, slowly ease up to standing, ease the rifle out, calm down, then take one!

A few pics of the blind, some elephants along the way, and the evening back at camp

 

[CAustin]

I like all the blinds they built Charles

 

[Nyati]

Nice hippo, congrats !