Zimbabwe Bound

[Fatback]

I finally have a few minutes to do a little bit of an update. I left Joburg on September 2nd, the Airlink flight to Vic Falls was uneventful. I made it through customs and got my rifle and ammo checked by the police. Once that chore was complete, I head out to the arrivals hall and meet my PH for the hunt, Tristan Stewart and the camp manager for Matesi 2, Henry. We get the gear to the truck and loaded up. We make the drive to camp, which is very well appointed, in time to unload and gather up my rifles and head to the range. The 30-06 was dead in still but the 458 Win Mag required about a 4 inch adjustment down. Once that was sorted it’s back to camp for a shower and some campfire time before dinner. Dinner was T-bone steaks, roasted potatoes and some carrots. All were delicious. A plan is made for in the morning, we will depart at daylight to check water holes for buffalo tracks and hopefully find some worth tracking. Then it’s off to bed for some much needed sleep.

 

[Fatback]

The morning of September 3rd breaks cool and crisp, not a cloud in the sky. I am thankful to have on a stocking cap to Lee the chill of my ears. We check the first water hole and the elephants have torn the pump out of the ground overnight. Let me say this, there hasn’t been a time that we have been out in Matesi 2 that we haven’t seen elephants and lots of them. No go at the first 4 water points that we check but around 9:30, we find some promising tracks of what appears to be a small group of buffalo. We drive the block to check and see if they have left the block and they don’t appear to have. We get back to where we first found the tracks and off we go. We come to a little bit of a hill and climb up to gain some elevation to better glass the areas ahead and lo and behold the buffalo were sleeping peacefully below the hill. We all freeze in our tracks and start glassing them. They are about 100 yards from us. Tristan points out 2 really nice, shooter bulls in the bunch. As we are strategizing the best approach to close the distance, we all feel the wind shift and tickle the back of our necks. The buffalo are up and move out. We then have over a mile to close now instead of a hundred yards. They seem to settle and we make a plan to loop way out to the east of the buffalo and stalk up a dry river bed to get the wind and close the distance and see what we can sort out. Off we go and after about an hour and fifteen minutes we have closed the distance to about 500 yards but we are out of cover. Well, we drop down to our rear ends and start butt sliding toward them with rifles across our laps. We get to about 100 yards and the buffalo lay down and we can no longer see them. We don’t want to bust them out of the area as we aren’t far from the border with the next area so Tristan makes the call to back out and come back in the afternoon and see if we can find them up feeding. So it’s back to camp for lunch and a quick nap. Lunch was fish and chips and the nap afterwards was needed. The plan is to head out at 3:30 and see if we can pick them up again.

 

[Fatback]

Sept 3rd continued….

We leave camp at 3:30 to see if we can find the buffalo again. We go to where we last saw them and the tracks are easy to find out and off we go. About and hour into the track with a couple of stops so the trackers can sort them out we are about 200 yards out from the buffalo with a good steady wind in our favor. It’s back on our rear ends and butt sliding toward a small clump of trees that are about 150 yards away. We take it real slow and slow down a couple of times when we think the buffalo might be looking at us and eventually we make the clump of trees and the buffalo are 50 yards from us. We stand up behind the trees and Tristan is looking them over and we find the bull we want to take on the far right. The problem is there is no shot, his vitals are covered by brush. We are so tight to our cover that there is no way to sets the sticks. Luckily there is a small branch that is perfectly positioned for me to use as a rest. I find the bull in my scope and settled the red dot on him. We confirm that I am looking at the bull Tristan had identified as the best of the bunch and he tells me to take him when I have a clear shot. I stay on the bull as he is standing there, vitals covered, facing us but not knowing we are there. This goes on for what seems like an eternity but was actually about 3-4 minutes. Eventually the bull steps forward through the cover and turns to his left, showing me the point of his right shoulder. I only have an instant to decide to shoot or not before his vitals are covered again. Almost as if on it’s own, the 458 win mag roars, I loose the bull in the recoil and muzzle blast. The buffalo thunder off from right to left, kicking up a big dust cloud. I quickly cycle the bolt and start looking for the bull again. Tristan is telling me to wait as the buffalo are are leaving in a wad.

I then hear the words that anybody who has ever been in the position come from Tristan, “Great shot, reload and come quickly.” The buffalo are leaving stage left, except for my bull. He has stopped about 30 yards from the original position where I shot him and he is starting to get wobbly. We get into position and the sticks go up. I put the red dot on his right shoulder and send a solid on the way to pay the insurance. The bull collapses to the ground and let’s put his death bellow. What a mournful sounds that anybody who has heard it will understand. We give it a few minutes before we approach the bull from behind. During this time I offer up a prayer of thanks for such a wonderful animal and the opportunity I have had to travel half way around the world to pursue him on his home turf. I also thank God that this has gone smoothly and there will be no dangerous follow up needed. We will all be safe. As we approach the bull, I am speechless. This bull has everything I was hoping for on this trip. Completely hard bossed, old and battle scarred. A true warrior. I believe I have given him a merciful death instead of being eaten alive by lions or hyenas.

I’m not able to upload pictures now from camp. I’ll try again in a little while.

 

[Hunting Hitman]

Congrats on the Buff! Can’t wait to see the pics.

HH

 

[Hunt12025]

Good Stuff!!

 

[Fatback]

Lion scars all over his back.

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats on a nice bull! Look forward to more!

 

[Altitude sickness]

Great bull. Get that hide tanned

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

Congrats! Been waiting for the story!!
Great battle scarred old boy!

 

[TERMINATOR]

Congratulations! Great old bull!

 

[Hank2211]

Congratulations on the buffalo! And - at the risk of setting off the thread - for hunting it the way buffalo should be hunted!

Unit 2 is a great hunting area and doing very well under is current management. It’s big, it’s got lots of varied terrain, and plenty of game. I expect to hear more great things about this hunt!

 

[MontanaPat]

Congratulations on a nice bull, sounds like an exciting hunt. Hope to hear more good reports