On the afternoon of day 3 we spot a couple Kudu off the trail, off to the left in the shadow of the mopane materializes two buffalo! We move around to try and get a better look at them as they start moving into the thick bush.
As the bulls are going up a hill out of the river bottom we can see horn on either side of his big old belly and an ass the size of Michelle Obama’s, this guy might be the one! We follow them until dark but never get a good frontal look at the bulls. We backed out as the wind was swirling down between the Kopjes and we were afraid of blowing the bulls out of the country! I went to bed excited to try to find the two bulls tracks in the morning.
We took up the tracks in the morning but the wind was in our face one minute and on the back of our necks the next. We had followed the bulls up onto a kopje where we located a hidden drinking hole in the rock formation, smart old buggers had themselves a secret water hole that kept them from leaving tracks around the pans! Dave decided that we climb another kopje adjacent to where the bulls had gone to see if maybe we could lay eyes on them from above and to keep the wind from spoiling our game. As we were climbing, I expected to see bighorn sheep or mountain goats at any moment as we neared the top! What a view we had from up there! The bottom of the valley was full of game, giraffes, wildebeest, zebra and a Kudu bull that Dave estimates at 57” and was still not yet completely turned out! What a dream bull he will make for someone next year! The top of the kopje had spoor from a bunch of animals as well, bushpig, hyena and leopard all seemed to favor the lovely view as well from up there.
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We climbed down off the far end of the kopje and walked to a pan that we had visited that morning to check tracks and sure enough the two bulls had visited in between us checking it and our mountaineering exercise! Praying for the wind to hold for us, we take up the tracks. The bulls walked their random pattern between mopane and thorn as they fed, we moved very slowly and carefully as we followed them, Dave and the trackers knew we were going to bump into them and I was getting excited, I just knew that the Obama bull was going to be awesome just from the way Dave acted the night before. We had looked at quite a few buffalo by this point and Dave had not gotten excited about anything yet, he really wanted a good look at this bull from last night though. I knew I was probably going to get my chance to kill a buffalo if we could get on these guys! Everyone stops Doobi and Thomas spot the buffalo ahead of us and they are still feeding and unaware of our presence. Dave and I start closing the distance between at a snails pace, every damn thing under my Courtney’s seems to be amplified and I’m waiting for that look from the PH that silently says quit making so much noise dumb ass! One bull is to our left and looks at us, he is not our bull. As the bull puts his head back down to feed Dave moved us into what I’m sure was the only open lane to shoot in that whole area and whispers that the other bull will join his buddy and wait for him to come out. Just like Dave said our bull walked out and looked dead at us, I’m on the sticks, ivory bead on the shoulder settled perfectly in the shallow V-notch of the Express sight, this bull was old and nasty! I quit looking at his head and went back to the sights waiting for Dave to say the word. “When you are ready, shoot him”. I let the bull put his leg forward to take a step and pulled the front trigger, the bull ran my left barrel cut down trees as I sent the round while swinging on the running bull in the thick bush! Reload and then we heard the death bellow! Over 30 years I have waited for that sound! We circle around to come in from behind the motionless bull, Dave has me put one from each barrel between the shoulder blades for insurance. Our bull is dead and I was for once in my life pretty damn speechless!
This bull had everything I have ever dreamed about and we hunted him the way it was meant to be done! Took awhile for it to all soak in!
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The mass on this bull really made his width hard to judge, I was honestly thinking 37-38”
Dave later measured him to be 41-1/4” with 16” bosses! If I die tomorrow my last thought will not be that I never took a great buffalo!
We radioed in the shots and location to headquarters and immediately heard from John and Tim with congratulations.
Dave went and got the truck as the guys started clearing trail from the nearest road.
About then I noticed that my grip on the rifle may have been less than tight. Lol
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Ouch!
