Bluey, we were following 5 bulls in the swamps, after awhile they separated, I decided to follow the 3 bulls. We were about knee deep in water, the 3 bulls went up a bank about 60 yards from us, when we got to the top of the bank they were about 30 yards from us feeding, but there was too much brush for a good shot. They slowly started to move to the left, looked like they were going back into the swamp, we moved back into swamp to get a better view and shot. The next moment I heard them running away from us. They had no idea we were there, heard them stop running, out of the blue they turned , we were still below the bank and there was no way they9 could see or know we were there, I heard them coming straight at us, the top of the bank was about 15 yards from us, next thing 3 huge black shapes came over the bank directly at us, told client take the left one, as he shot the other broke to the right, went past us, the shot hit him in the jaw, he put his head down to gnarl the client, he was already too close to take a brain shot, I stood between the client and the buffalo, put the end of my barrel on his neck between the shoulders and let the shot off ( to this day I still don't know why I put myself in the path of a wounded buffalo, besides wanting to protect my client) the buff somehow got hold of the clients gun, flicked it about ten yards away, a bit of a blur and the next moment I am being pushed on the chest by a buffalo, he knocked me off my feet, then he was on top of me, I have never felt so relaxed, must be all the adrinelin, was just waiting to feel the pain...then my cap was knocked off my head by his ball bag and he was off me, jump to my feet in a flash, still had my rifle in my hands turned to try take another shot, same time client had his rifle up, I shouted to him not to shoot!! I didn't get time for second shot. Clients whole barrel was filled with mud, if he had pulled the trigger, that barrel would have blown. Everyone cam running to me, told them I am fine, they said I was in shock and couldn't feel the pain, they saw the buffalo gnarling me...they felt my body to check....nothing, all I had was a scratch on my cheek and one down my leg. What saved my life was the mud, if I had been on dry ground, things would have been different. A smoke has never tasted so good in my life!!! actually the next 3 to 5 went down beautifully.
In the end we found the buffalo about 80 yards from us....stone dead. That was the first of the 8 buffalo we took on the safari.
