375Fox
AH legend
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2020
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- Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Cameroon
I finished my second safari with Charlton McCallum Safaris the end of July this year. Alan Shearing was my PH again and I had another great hunt. The primary goal of this hunt was a trophy bull elephant during the 14 day safari and any larger plains game if I had the opportunity. I was based in Mururu camp in the Dande Safari Area but we hunted both community and safari areas during the course of the hunt.
My travel for this trip was arranged again by Jennifer at Travel Express. I flew Qatar to Harare and landed the evening of July 16th. I stayed the night at Amanzi Lodge and we started the drive to Dande the next morning. Later in the afternoon, I arrived at Mururu camp and got settled in before the hunt started the next day.
The first day of the hunt started with a trip to the rifle range. I had brought my CZ 550 in 450 Rigby with 550 gr Woodleigh FMJs with a Trijicon RMR and my Sako 85 in 375 H&H with a Leupold VX5 2-10 with 300 gr Trophy Bonded Bear Claws. Both guns were still sighted in without adjustment and we started the hunt. The plan was to cover a large area today looking for elephant movement. Unfortunately, the quota in the safari area had already been used up but there were still two bulls remaining in the community area. We drove a large part of Dande looking for tracks, but unfortunately found very little elephant movement. However, we did see good numbers of plains game and that continued for the rest of the trip. We finished the day back at camp with a good dinner and discussed the next day’s plans. Alan wanted to head south into a village area where bulls had been reported.
The second day we headed South and started finding some bull tracks. We stopped at strategic points to send the trackers to the river to look for tracks quickly then return to the truck. On the 3rd or 4th stop Alan’s driver came back to get us and we assumed they found good tracks to follow. He said the bulls were actually right below us. We got loaded up and hurried down. We found a group of 8 or 9 bulls together under the shade of a large tree and stalked in to about 20 yards. I was in shock how close we could get and I admit I was completely out of my element this close to elephants. Alan on the other hand would identify every movement they made before they even made it. There was one bull with long thin tusks and Alan said we would pass being the second day. I knew he had a tough hunt previously and it looked like a beautiful bull to me. I told him I’d be very happy with it and he said ok let’s take it. He said start walking toward bull and it faced to give me a good frontal brain shot. I took the shot and unfortunately slightly missed the brain but the energy from the 450 Rigby stunned the bull allowing for follow up shots. He went around 10 yards from the original shot and fell. We quickly put a final shot between his ears into the brain. From here the long day began. We were actually in the middle of the villages so people immediately began arriving. We got our photos and began the butchering process with more people arriving every hour. Alan had said at the start we would focus on getting the head and tusks into the Land Cruiser in case the situation for meat became chaotic but it surprisingly stayed very calm. The volume grew with each hour that passed as more people wanted their share of meat but everyone stayed back waiting until it was ready. After several hours, the tractor from Pedza camp arrived to take some of the meat to designated villages as well as the trunk for the chief. We loaded up the panels of skin and skull and tusks into the Land Cruiser and left the local head man for the area to coordinate the rest of the meat to the villagers that had arrived. Interestingly we had a visit from an NGO during the butchering process. They were apparently supposed to have a village meeting but found no one waiting for them. They had their meeting with the villagers at our elephant. They are a conservation focused organization and doing some beneficial activities for the area and were glad to see the process of elephant meat going to the villagers. We headed back to camp, had a few beers around the fire, and another good dinner. We’d be focusing on Eland from here out. The stress was now off the hunt.
The next few days were focused on Eland. Alan had seen a great eland bull with a large herd in the safari area on a previous hunt. We focused on the waterholes where they had a high likelihood of drinking. We found the herd in the safari area and we also found 2 nice bulls drinking at a solar pan in the northern community area near Mozambique. We tracked the 2 bulls on the morning of the 3rd day but unfortunately lost the track fairly quickly in old tracks coming to the water. On the 5th day we found fresh tracks from the herd and got on them that morning where they crossed the road. We unfortunately bumped them in heavy brush and the wind was not favorable at that point for us to continue. Late in the afternoon we returned to the solar pan and found Eland tracks that were worth following. After a few miles we unfortunately lost the track again in old tracks as the sun was going down. However, It was clear these two bulls were living in this area. Alan made the decision to stay on the old track and see where they have been. The track led us to a large regrown cleared area. We saw sable in the middle that we eventually spooked as well as a kudu bull that will be huge one day. We made our way into the open area and in the distance saw the two eland bulls close to the tree line, just incredible luck. We made a long stalk maybe 400 yards as we were losing light. We got to within maybe 250 yards of the bulls and set up the sticks. I never imagined needing a range finder in Dande. At the shot you could clearly hear the “thwop” of the bullet hitting. I recovered from the recoil and reloaded and Alan said to hit him again, but I had to clarify which one. It was running directly away from us and I put the bullet at the base of his tail and he immediately went down. Alan described the shot as a hand brake. We got up to the bull and realized what we had taken. Everyone was really excited. It was a beautiful old worn down blue bull with clear Livingston Eland stripes. I get really excited about hunting eland and this was a special bull. Dande is a difficult area to hunt eland. We could have easily hunted the remaining days of the hunt without being successful. We had a lot of luck on our side getting this eland. We had a very long and slow drive back to camp on rough roads with a huge eland in the back, but it was a great day. We took the next morning off after getting in late that night.
After our eland was down bushbuck became the priority. We did a lot of spring to spring walks in the hills and walks along the dry river beds hoping to bump a bushbuck ram. I really enjoyed this type of hunting and it allows you to see a lot of country. On the evening of day 7, we were doing a river walk when we heard an animal on the bank. It was a large waterbuck bull. We stopped and eventually it stepped into the river at about 40 yards. I put him down right away. It was a beautiful old bull with 26” horns. Day 8 I saw my first Leopard while hunting bushbuck. A large Leopard cub came trotting down the river. I got some cool video of it. The mother and a male were breeding in camp and we assumed kicked the cub out while they were busy. We’d find their tracks on the walking paths past our tents each morning. Day 9 we decided to take a break from the hunting and go fishing on the Zambezi. We arrived to their river camp Matombo and I was shown to my tent to get my few things unpacked. We headed out on the Zambezi for the day. Fishing was tough but we ended up catching one very nice Tiger. I saw a lot of hippo, croc, elephant, and some beautiful bushbuck coming down to the water in the evening in Chewore North safari area. It was incredible how rugged Chewore North was looking at it from the river. Got back to camp and had some eland steaks we brought to braai on the fire. The next day we resumed hunting bushbuck, but they were proving difficult. There were plenty of bushbuck but they typically saw us before we saw them. On day 10 I finally connected. We headed out from camp walking the springs in the hills directly across from Mururu camp. We found a great old broken up dugga boy today that had been living at the one spring for some time. Unfortunately he wasn’t on the list of trophies for this hunt, but I was content to watch. We continued our walk until it was time to turn around. On the way back, we bumped bushbuck ram and a ewe in the bottom of a small valley but no shot. We kept moving forward slowly and I saw the bushbuck on the ridge about 50 yards. I asked Alan quickly if that was him, I heard yes, pulled up and shot quickly before he disappeared. He went right down. We had a very nice bushbuck on the ground that ended up measuring 15”. We got our photos and our tracker carried him on his back until we met the rest of the team. From there they carried him on a pole directly into camp. Another great day. My first time walking back to camp with a trophy.
From here on, it was really just hunting as opportunity allowed, hopefully kudu. We continued spring to spring walks in promising areas and covered a lot of ground in the Land Cruiser as well. We bumped a large kudu bull from the road one afternoon and tracked him until dark but unfortunately never caught up to him again. On a different afternoon, we found a nice warthog boar while driving, and I got a shot off before he ran off. It did take me a few seconds to see it though much to the team’s frustration! On a different walk for kudu we ran into a nice elephant bull in the safari area and got to admire him a few minutes before he caught our wind, also in this walk we encountered several klipspringers including a nice ram I passed on. On a different walk we encountered a good size python waiting in ambush on the path to water. Really just a great way to end a hunt and enjoy seeing Dande and wildlife.
Dande isn’t known for being a plains game area, but I actually saw a lot during my hunt. I usually saw impala daily and passed on too many early in the hunt while focusing on other species. The final two days became windy and they disappeared so I never got one. I saw a lot of duikers and took a nice one on the 3rd morning when a good opportunity presented itself. I had opportunity to take several grysbok and passed. I saw several herds of sable including trophy bulls. I saw a lot of kudu cows and yearling bulls but the big kudu bulls were mainly hiding during my hunt. I saw a lot of baboon I could have easily shot. We saw several klipspringer and I passed on a nice ram. Klipspringer are an animal I’ll likely never taken, I really just enjoy watching them. We saw two nice herds of zebra and I could have easily taken a nice stallion on the first day but would have interfered with our elephant hunt. We only saw a handful of waterbuck and warthog but they are there and I made my shots count when I had opportunity. Fresh buffalo sign was everywhere every day but it requires tracking to see them. The area wasn’t dense with elephant but there were there and elephant cows changed our tracking plans a few times. Towards the end of the hunt we saw a huge 1 tusk bull in community area from Land Cruiser that Alan estimated at 50 lbs, very large and rare for Dande. I know other hunts in Dande don’t always see this much plains game, but from what I saw it is definitely there even if hidden in the brush. It’s clear the outfitter’s anti-poaching efforts are paying off.
I should note as well that Charlton McCallum’s Dande North is really a 3 part area. The Dande Safari area is in the center. It has no people and no villages. The community area is managed on one quota but is on both the north and south of the safari area in relatively equal parts. During a hunt here you will hunt all 3 areas. The community areas obviously have people and villages but there are large core areas where you will not see people and plenty of game. There is some game in the villages as well.
I stayed at Mururu Camp during my hunt. To me it was a perfect camp, just a small simple tented camp in the middle of the safari area. Food was simple but good. I wasn’t a fan of their pre-planned menu so we changed it up a bit since I was only client in camp. Generally we had meat, vegetables, and sadza (corn meal) or rice every meal, which I really liked then dessert. We ate extremely well after we put the eland down on day 5 including eland marrow on toast which is one of my favorites. The Zambezi beer around the fire every evening was great as well. Sleep was difficult some nights but I can’t complain. We had Hyenas at the skinning shed most nights and also a herd of cow elephants and a lion pride near camp early in the hunt but it just adds to the experience even if I lost some sleep. We had a breeding pair of leopards and a big cub in camp for a few nights, but they were quiet. We just found their tracks on our paths in the morning. We stopped for lunch the first day at Main Camp (Pedza) and again on the final day to drop off some supplies and I wanted to check out their skinning shed. Very nice camp as well but much larger, better for bigger groups in my opinion. I also stayed one night at the fishing camp. Beautiful camp with an amazing view of the Zambezi but too close the villages for me. Although the old dugga boys apparently love hanging out in the villages. To me it’s a better choice if you’re looking for a little added luxury and want to spend extra time fishing on the river or hunting hippo or croc. I was very happy they placed me in Mururu camp for my hunt. It was the best fit for me.
This was my second hunt with Charlton McCallum Safaris and Alan Shearing as PH. I really think both PH and outfitter are some of the best. The communication leading up the hunt is great. Buzz and Myles make an attempt to make it personal, more than some other outfitters I’ve hunted with. My hunt started getting picked up by Myles at the airport and breakfast with him before I left Amanzi for Dande. It finished having breakfast with Buzz and Myles and CMS’s other clients that were headed to Dande that day. I also had a very nice dinner and good conversation with those clients the night before after meeting them at Amanzi, two Swedes and a South African all hunting together. Alan is the top PH I’ve had opportunity to hunt with. Just a great guy to be around but his knowledge of hunting, the animals, and Dande is unmatched. He has been hunting there 20+ years and knows every spring, ridgeline, hill, and valley in Dande. His tracking team Maplan and Martin are exceptional as well and work together as a team with Alan extremely well. It was also nice to see PHs on the radio trying to help other PHs on their hunts and some friendly conversation. Buzz would check in most nights to see how the hunt went. It just gave the appearance of a good team working for CMS as a whole. Everyone wants everyone to be successful.
A few final notes. It was really nice to see my elephant was on his final set of teeth so he was an old bull and a good one to take. On inspection of the skull, the bullet entered where it was supposed to but exited where it should not have for the shot I thought I had. We knew the elephant had caught our wind but had a little more tolerance than usual because we were in the villages. Our guess is he began to turn his head slightly to run as my shot broke because all the other elephants had moved off at that point. The Woodleigh FMJs recovered from body shots looked perfect and were recovered on skin on far side. There was unfortunately an old AK bullet in the elephant from either poaching or Parks PAC work in the past. I used some older trophy bonded bear claws on this hunt on plains game. They didn’t perform quite as I had expected. They lost more mass and didn’t mushroom as I’ve seen with the current Trophy Bonded Bear Claws. I didn’t realize the design had slightly changed from the current design, however they did their job well still. As always I brought my 4 stable sticks. They greatly helped on the eland and the duiker, but half my shots this trip were offhand and close. I know some people really enjoy hunting elephant, but this will likely be my only elephant hunt. I enjoy hunting eland and buffalo and other game more, but I’m glad I got to take an elephant in what I feel was a proper area with the right PH and watch the community get the meat.
In summary, a really successful hunt. In 14 days I ended up taking a bull Elephant, Eland, Waterbuck, Bushbuck, Duiker, and Warthog. It would be difficult to improve on the hunt.
Photos to follow.
My travel for this trip was arranged again by Jennifer at Travel Express. I flew Qatar to Harare and landed the evening of July 16th. I stayed the night at Amanzi Lodge and we started the drive to Dande the next morning. Later in the afternoon, I arrived at Mururu camp and got settled in before the hunt started the next day.
The first day of the hunt started with a trip to the rifle range. I had brought my CZ 550 in 450 Rigby with 550 gr Woodleigh FMJs with a Trijicon RMR and my Sako 85 in 375 H&H with a Leupold VX5 2-10 with 300 gr Trophy Bonded Bear Claws. Both guns were still sighted in without adjustment and we started the hunt. The plan was to cover a large area today looking for elephant movement. Unfortunately, the quota in the safari area had already been used up but there were still two bulls remaining in the community area. We drove a large part of Dande looking for tracks, but unfortunately found very little elephant movement. However, we did see good numbers of plains game and that continued for the rest of the trip. We finished the day back at camp with a good dinner and discussed the next day’s plans. Alan wanted to head south into a village area where bulls had been reported.
The second day we headed South and started finding some bull tracks. We stopped at strategic points to send the trackers to the river to look for tracks quickly then return to the truck. On the 3rd or 4th stop Alan’s driver came back to get us and we assumed they found good tracks to follow. He said the bulls were actually right below us. We got loaded up and hurried down. We found a group of 8 or 9 bulls together under the shade of a large tree and stalked in to about 20 yards. I was in shock how close we could get and I admit I was completely out of my element this close to elephants. Alan on the other hand would identify every movement they made before they even made it. There was one bull with long thin tusks and Alan said we would pass being the second day. I knew he had a tough hunt previously and it looked like a beautiful bull to me. I told him I’d be very happy with it and he said ok let’s take it. He said start walking toward bull and it faced to give me a good frontal brain shot. I took the shot and unfortunately slightly missed the brain but the energy from the 450 Rigby stunned the bull allowing for follow up shots. He went around 10 yards from the original shot and fell. We quickly put a final shot between his ears into the brain. From here the long day began. We were actually in the middle of the villages so people immediately began arriving. We got our photos and began the butchering process with more people arriving every hour. Alan had said at the start we would focus on getting the head and tusks into the Land Cruiser in case the situation for meat became chaotic but it surprisingly stayed very calm. The volume grew with each hour that passed as more people wanted their share of meat but everyone stayed back waiting until it was ready. After several hours, the tractor from Pedza camp arrived to take some of the meat to designated villages as well as the trunk for the chief. We loaded up the panels of skin and skull and tusks into the Land Cruiser and left the local head man for the area to coordinate the rest of the meat to the villagers that had arrived. Interestingly we had a visit from an NGO during the butchering process. They were apparently supposed to have a village meeting but found no one waiting for them. They had their meeting with the villagers at our elephant. They are a conservation focused organization and doing some beneficial activities for the area and were glad to see the process of elephant meat going to the villagers. We headed back to camp, had a few beers around the fire, and another good dinner. We’d be focusing on Eland from here out. The stress was now off the hunt.
The next few days were focused on Eland. Alan had seen a great eland bull with a large herd in the safari area on a previous hunt. We focused on the waterholes where they had a high likelihood of drinking. We found the herd in the safari area and we also found 2 nice bulls drinking at a solar pan in the northern community area near Mozambique. We tracked the 2 bulls on the morning of the 3rd day but unfortunately lost the track fairly quickly in old tracks coming to the water. On the 5th day we found fresh tracks from the herd and got on them that morning where they crossed the road. We unfortunately bumped them in heavy brush and the wind was not favorable at that point for us to continue. Late in the afternoon we returned to the solar pan and found Eland tracks that were worth following. After a few miles we unfortunately lost the track again in old tracks as the sun was going down. However, It was clear these two bulls were living in this area. Alan made the decision to stay on the old track and see where they have been. The track led us to a large regrown cleared area. We saw sable in the middle that we eventually spooked as well as a kudu bull that will be huge one day. We made our way into the open area and in the distance saw the two eland bulls close to the tree line, just incredible luck. We made a long stalk maybe 400 yards as we were losing light. We got to within maybe 250 yards of the bulls and set up the sticks. I never imagined needing a range finder in Dande. At the shot you could clearly hear the “thwop” of the bullet hitting. I recovered from the recoil and reloaded and Alan said to hit him again, but I had to clarify which one. It was running directly away from us and I put the bullet at the base of his tail and he immediately went down. Alan described the shot as a hand brake. We got up to the bull and realized what we had taken. Everyone was really excited. It was a beautiful old worn down blue bull with clear Livingston Eland stripes. I get really excited about hunting eland and this was a special bull. Dande is a difficult area to hunt eland. We could have easily hunted the remaining days of the hunt without being successful. We had a lot of luck on our side getting this eland. We had a very long and slow drive back to camp on rough roads with a huge eland in the back, but it was a great day. We took the next morning off after getting in late that night.
After our eland was down bushbuck became the priority. We did a lot of spring to spring walks in the hills and walks along the dry river beds hoping to bump a bushbuck ram. I really enjoyed this type of hunting and it allows you to see a lot of country. On the evening of day 7, we were doing a river walk when we heard an animal on the bank. It was a large waterbuck bull. We stopped and eventually it stepped into the river at about 40 yards. I put him down right away. It was a beautiful old bull with 26” horns. Day 8 I saw my first Leopard while hunting bushbuck. A large Leopard cub came trotting down the river. I got some cool video of it. The mother and a male were breeding in camp and we assumed kicked the cub out while they were busy. We’d find their tracks on the walking paths past our tents each morning. Day 9 we decided to take a break from the hunting and go fishing on the Zambezi. We arrived to their river camp Matombo and I was shown to my tent to get my few things unpacked. We headed out on the Zambezi for the day. Fishing was tough but we ended up catching one very nice Tiger. I saw a lot of hippo, croc, elephant, and some beautiful bushbuck coming down to the water in the evening in Chewore North safari area. It was incredible how rugged Chewore North was looking at it from the river. Got back to camp and had some eland steaks we brought to braai on the fire. The next day we resumed hunting bushbuck, but they were proving difficult. There were plenty of bushbuck but they typically saw us before we saw them. On day 10 I finally connected. We headed out from camp walking the springs in the hills directly across from Mururu camp. We found a great old broken up dugga boy today that had been living at the one spring for some time. Unfortunately he wasn’t on the list of trophies for this hunt, but I was content to watch. We continued our walk until it was time to turn around. On the way back, we bumped bushbuck ram and a ewe in the bottom of a small valley but no shot. We kept moving forward slowly and I saw the bushbuck on the ridge about 50 yards. I asked Alan quickly if that was him, I heard yes, pulled up and shot quickly before he disappeared. He went right down. We had a very nice bushbuck on the ground that ended up measuring 15”. We got our photos and our tracker carried him on his back until we met the rest of the team. From there they carried him on a pole directly into camp. Another great day. My first time walking back to camp with a trophy.
From here on, it was really just hunting as opportunity allowed, hopefully kudu. We continued spring to spring walks in promising areas and covered a lot of ground in the Land Cruiser as well. We bumped a large kudu bull from the road one afternoon and tracked him until dark but unfortunately never caught up to him again. On a different afternoon, we found a nice warthog boar while driving, and I got a shot off before he ran off. It did take me a few seconds to see it though much to the team’s frustration! On a different walk for kudu we ran into a nice elephant bull in the safari area and got to admire him a few minutes before he caught our wind, also in this walk we encountered several klipspringers including a nice ram I passed on. On a different walk we encountered a good size python waiting in ambush on the path to water. Really just a great way to end a hunt and enjoy seeing Dande and wildlife.
Dande isn’t known for being a plains game area, but I actually saw a lot during my hunt. I usually saw impala daily and passed on too many early in the hunt while focusing on other species. The final two days became windy and they disappeared so I never got one. I saw a lot of duikers and took a nice one on the 3rd morning when a good opportunity presented itself. I had opportunity to take several grysbok and passed. I saw several herds of sable including trophy bulls. I saw a lot of kudu cows and yearling bulls but the big kudu bulls were mainly hiding during my hunt. I saw a lot of baboon I could have easily shot. We saw several klipspringer and I passed on a nice ram. Klipspringer are an animal I’ll likely never taken, I really just enjoy watching them. We saw two nice herds of zebra and I could have easily taken a nice stallion on the first day but would have interfered with our elephant hunt. We only saw a handful of waterbuck and warthog but they are there and I made my shots count when I had opportunity. Fresh buffalo sign was everywhere every day but it requires tracking to see them. The area wasn’t dense with elephant but there were there and elephant cows changed our tracking plans a few times. Towards the end of the hunt we saw a huge 1 tusk bull in community area from Land Cruiser that Alan estimated at 50 lbs, very large and rare for Dande. I know other hunts in Dande don’t always see this much plains game, but from what I saw it is definitely there even if hidden in the brush. It’s clear the outfitter’s anti-poaching efforts are paying off.
I should note as well that Charlton McCallum’s Dande North is really a 3 part area. The Dande Safari area is in the center. It has no people and no villages. The community area is managed on one quota but is on both the north and south of the safari area in relatively equal parts. During a hunt here you will hunt all 3 areas. The community areas obviously have people and villages but there are large core areas where you will not see people and plenty of game. There is some game in the villages as well.
I stayed at Mururu Camp during my hunt. To me it was a perfect camp, just a small simple tented camp in the middle of the safari area. Food was simple but good. I wasn’t a fan of their pre-planned menu so we changed it up a bit since I was only client in camp. Generally we had meat, vegetables, and sadza (corn meal) or rice every meal, which I really liked then dessert. We ate extremely well after we put the eland down on day 5 including eland marrow on toast which is one of my favorites. The Zambezi beer around the fire every evening was great as well. Sleep was difficult some nights but I can’t complain. We had Hyenas at the skinning shed most nights and also a herd of cow elephants and a lion pride near camp early in the hunt but it just adds to the experience even if I lost some sleep. We had a breeding pair of leopards and a big cub in camp for a few nights, but they were quiet. We just found their tracks on our paths in the morning. We stopped for lunch the first day at Main Camp (Pedza) and again on the final day to drop off some supplies and I wanted to check out their skinning shed. Very nice camp as well but much larger, better for bigger groups in my opinion. I also stayed one night at the fishing camp. Beautiful camp with an amazing view of the Zambezi but too close the villages for me. Although the old dugga boys apparently love hanging out in the villages. To me it’s a better choice if you’re looking for a little added luxury and want to spend extra time fishing on the river or hunting hippo or croc. I was very happy they placed me in Mururu camp for my hunt. It was the best fit for me.
This was my second hunt with Charlton McCallum Safaris and Alan Shearing as PH. I really think both PH and outfitter are some of the best. The communication leading up the hunt is great. Buzz and Myles make an attempt to make it personal, more than some other outfitters I’ve hunted with. My hunt started getting picked up by Myles at the airport and breakfast with him before I left Amanzi for Dande. It finished having breakfast with Buzz and Myles and CMS’s other clients that were headed to Dande that day. I also had a very nice dinner and good conversation with those clients the night before after meeting them at Amanzi, two Swedes and a South African all hunting together. Alan is the top PH I’ve had opportunity to hunt with. Just a great guy to be around but his knowledge of hunting, the animals, and Dande is unmatched. He has been hunting there 20+ years and knows every spring, ridgeline, hill, and valley in Dande. His tracking team Maplan and Martin are exceptional as well and work together as a team with Alan extremely well. It was also nice to see PHs on the radio trying to help other PHs on their hunts and some friendly conversation. Buzz would check in most nights to see how the hunt went. It just gave the appearance of a good team working for CMS as a whole. Everyone wants everyone to be successful.
A few final notes. It was really nice to see my elephant was on his final set of teeth so he was an old bull and a good one to take. On inspection of the skull, the bullet entered where it was supposed to but exited where it should not have for the shot I thought I had. We knew the elephant had caught our wind but had a little more tolerance than usual because we were in the villages. Our guess is he began to turn his head slightly to run as my shot broke because all the other elephants had moved off at that point. The Woodleigh FMJs recovered from body shots looked perfect and were recovered on skin on far side. There was unfortunately an old AK bullet in the elephant from either poaching or Parks PAC work in the past. I used some older trophy bonded bear claws on this hunt on plains game. They didn’t perform quite as I had expected. They lost more mass and didn’t mushroom as I’ve seen with the current Trophy Bonded Bear Claws. I didn’t realize the design had slightly changed from the current design, however they did their job well still. As always I brought my 4 stable sticks. They greatly helped on the eland and the duiker, but half my shots this trip were offhand and close. I know some people really enjoy hunting elephant, but this will likely be my only elephant hunt. I enjoy hunting eland and buffalo and other game more, but I’m glad I got to take an elephant in what I feel was a proper area with the right PH and watch the community get the meat.
In summary, a really successful hunt. In 14 days I ended up taking a bull Elephant, Eland, Waterbuck, Bushbuck, Duiker, and Warthog. It would be difficult to improve on the hunt.
Photos to follow.
