I suppose we are going to have to beg you for updates... Please. Gives us something to look forward to. Bruce
Frankly Bruce that bears absolutely no resemblance to how I learned how to beg (once I got married), but perhaps it's done differently in other parts of the world.
Part 2, or Part 1 if Part 1 was the introduction.
May 17 – Day Minus 1
Those of you who read last year’s report might recall that I got a grysbuck and a cape kudu before my hunt even started. My PH, John Tinley, has no time for things like “your hunt starts tomorrow”. “You’re here, you have a gun, let’s hunt”, seems to be more his mantra. So even though we were T minus one, there was no time for sitting around.
I hunted buffalo last year, during the three or four days I spent at Wintershoek, and in the herd where we found my bull, there was a lone cow with an impressive set of horns. Apparently, she was sterile, and had hung around with whatever herd would have her for many years. In fact, the owner of Wintershoek estimated she was around 16 years old. When planning this hunt, I had asked Oom Strauss if she was still around, and was told that no one had shot her, but equally no one had seen her for many months. But it’s a big property, so who knew?
In any event, I worked out a deal for her, and was hopping to start looking as soon as the hunt started. Tinley equally had no time for such silliness, and had put our tracker, Cephas, on the case a couple of days before I got there. After saying, “nice to see you, hope you had a good flight” at the airport, he said “we’ve found your buffalo, let’s get moving, there’s no time to waste”. My response was the usual “My fok (spoken with a patently fake Afrikaans accent), you people don’t waste time.”
So off we went. We were at Wintershoek by 3.30 pm, I was changed by 3.45, gun sighted in by 3.55, and we were on the truck by 4. By about 4.40 we had gotten off the vehicle and followed what we believed were the tracks for about 500 yards. We were right, and caught up to the herd, but we couldn’t yet see her. We crawled around for a bit, glassing the herd as they were feeding towards water through some pretty thick brush and thorn trees. There seemed to be a fair number of buffalo in the group and they were in no particular hurry to move along. After what seemed like an eternity but likely was only about 10 minutes, we spotted the cow among a group of bulls.
At this point, slowly, carefully, I got up on the sticks, with the .416 more than ready for its christening But there was no opportunity for a shot – too many bulls around the cow, and if there wasn’t one blocking her vitals, there was another one behind her. So more patience. But if you’re patient enough, you usually get a shot, and this time was no exception. I saw an opening, found her shoulder (good argument for an illuminated reticle in the fading light), and let the Rigby do its thing. She (the cow!) bucked hard, and began to run, with the rest of the herd around her. We also began to run after them, stopping short within about 20 yards when we saw that she hadn’t moved too far, and was standing, breathing hard, with a couple of bulls around her. I quickly got another shot off, which dropped her, and sent the two bulls on their way.
At this point we carefully closed the distance, but could see that while down, she clearly wasn’t yet out, thought that was only a matter of time. Having said that, I don’t like to mess around with buffalo, so got on one knee, and put another round right into the centre of her chest. One long bellow later and it was all over. Sort of. At the bellow, the herd came back for a bit of a look-see, and we had to back off a ways. Reminded me of elephant cows. We made some noise, waved our arms, and the herd finally got the message and left, leaving us to claim our trophy and take a few pictures in the fast fading light.
She was as big or bigger than I recalled – in fact, once we measured her, she came in just below 43 inches. She looked bigger, because her head was smaller than a bull’s, but those were impressive horns nonetheless.
With some help, we loaded her on the truck, and I went off to a fine meal then to bed early before starting my hunt the next morning!
One note on the Rigby – I used to have a CZ in .416, and finally sold it because I didn't like the punishment, and was developing a flinch. So I was a bit worried about the recoil on this new gun, but whether it’s the weight, or the stock design (likely a bit of both), I find the new gun very easy to shoot. I won’t lie and say I could (or would) shoot it all day long, but it’s more of a push than a slap, and I’m quite comfortable with it.
www.africahunting.com
