Day 11 – 24 October
Wayne and I had discussed changing up our plan of attack the night before, we aren’t able to close the distance on this small herd of buffalo. Too many eyes and ears and well educated after the past few days. We had noticed an old lone bull track when we were tracking eland the second day so our new plan was to find this lone bull and have a look at him. We felt we had a much better chance of getting close enough to get a shot without all the additional eyes and ears. This was also in the same general area a bull had been seen at one of the water points. With a new plan hatched, we head to this area early in the morning.
We drop Cowboy and Dumasen off on an old track with instructions to poke around the back country in this area to see if they can find any fresh sign of him. If they did, they would radio back to us as we would continue looking for any fresh spoor on the roads.
We round the bend and continue on not more than half a mile, I hear Wayne say buffalo! I had been scanning out the passenger window and hadn’t seen the buff cross the road. Sam says he can see them and we slowly reverse back down the road leaving Sam to keep an eye on the herd. We head back towards Cowboy and reach him on the radio, they hadn’t gotten very far as we had left them just minutes before.
We head back towards Sam and stop short of where we initially reversed after seeing the buffalo. Sam comes out of the bush, he had climbed a tree and was watching them while we were gone. He had a direction they were heading so we quickly and quietly made our way into the bush paralleling where the buff were last seen. It was the herd we had been chasing the past few days!
We hadn’t gone 100 yards when we came to a long black piece of granite rock, only 15 feet or so high but with sloping sides and relatively flat on top. We took a few steps up the side of the rock and Wayne spots the buffalo and begins glassing as the sticks are deployed. I’m up on them but can’t see as Wayne’s field of view is higher than mine through the scope. I whisper we need to get me higher up, the wooden sticks sliding on the side of the rock. There was a crack and small flat area the bottom of the sticks found suitable purchase as I now have the scope on the herd, they seem a pretty good distance away but don’t appear to have seen us.
The buffalo are in the deep shadows of a rock ridge but there is no way we are going to get closer, nothing but open rock between us and them! The scope is on 2 power, the firedot crosshair is lit and the field of view is good as I can see multiple buffalo.
Wayne talks me through the animals, “do you see the small bull that just walked behind the other buff?” Yes, “do you see the big bull facing to the right looking this way?” Yes, “shoot hi …” and before he’s finished the 300gr Peregrine is on the way and the buffalo turn and head behind a kopje and we lose sight of them as I rack in another round. “Did I hit him”, I ask? Yes, the guys said you hit him.
I open the bolt and verify I have a Woodleigh solid in the chamber, we have a few moments so I drop the floor plate and verify I have all solids and top off with a fourth solid. I’m ready. We make our way over this large black flat granite rock towards where the buffalo had been and Wayne asks me if I had seen the calf just below the bull. NO, I HADN’T!!!
I was so focused with placing the large red firedot in the center of the bulls shoulder I had tunnel vision. Bad thoughts quickly race through my head, what if I had shot low and hit the calf? This was a much longer shot than I had imagined taking. I reason to myself that even this far the bullet wouldn’t drop that much unless I gooned up the shot.
The guys begin sorting through the tracks to identify the bull track. They had all turned around and fled in the same direction. I believe Cowboy was the first to pick up his track, we were all on high alert as the buffalo had passed between a kopje and the rock ridge, an area no more than 50 yards across and getting thicker every step. We were all cautious, expecting a charge from any direction at any moment. The guys say there are a few drops of blood then Wayne finds a small piece of what looks like lung.
We slowly make our way forward another 50 yards and I grab Wayne’s shoulder and tell him I can hear the bulls raspy breathing, catch a split second image of dark shape moving in the thick jess along the rock ridge and we can hear branches breaking! Is he coming for us?
Guns are at the ready, and then it goes quiet. We are only a few yards from the rock ridge and climb up a few yards through the boulders. I can see the boss moving back and forth, Wayne tells me to shoot if I can. I don’t know if he’s standing swaying his head back and forth or is on the ground thrashing. I can’t distinguish the body from the thick bush, made even darker by the shadows of the rocky ridge and black boulders on the ground.
I put a hydro just below his boss, aiming for the center. Wayne has taken a few steps and is now slightly above me in the rocks and lets loose a solid from his 458 Lott.
I move a few steps higher and have a clearer view of the massive bull on his side in the bush, head still moving back and forth. My initial shot was above the eye, missing the brain. When we initially heard his breathing and breaking branches, I believe he had gone down. Wayne confirmed at his shot the bull was already down but I’m all for not taking any chances of his regaining his feet. bullets are cheap! From this vantage point it was no wonder I could only see his boss as he was down with his body shielded by the clumps of brush and boulders.
Wayne and I approach closer and he’s still thrashing a bit so I send a hydro down through his shoulders to hasten his death and he gives a bellow, he is ours before 7 am!
The Oxpecker doesn’t leave his side, not knowing his meal ticket has finally run out.
The guys clear away the thick bush and gives us a bit of room to take some pictures, the Win Mod 70 Alaskan 375 H&H nestled across the horns is one of my favorites, showing the length and width of the bosses, 42 inches wide by 16 inch deep. He’s not an old dagga boy and is still a bit soft but I’m proud of him. My next buffalo will be an old beat up dagga boy if I can pull it off!
Wayne and the guys worked so hard over so many weeks, between the July and October hunts, to get a chance at a buffalo of what’s left of the great buffalo herds and rhinos that once roamed Bubiana Conservancy before the poaching and land grab destroyed such a resource. We had succeeded, well done to the entire team
@Nyamazana Safaris !
As we wait for a crew to arrive to haul him back to the skinning shed, I snapped a few other pictures:
In this side view, you can see where the Woodleigh Hydro had entered under the boss, exited the skull and entered the neck and on into the body.
How far was the shot? I went back from where the buffalo was standing to the point where the shot was taken, 175 long paces. The shot as the bullet flies was at least 160 yards, the velocity down to approximately 2050 fps. The initial shot was good, hitting the point of the shoulder, into the front of the chest cavity and lodged in the opposite shoulder.
Here’s two of the 300 grain Peregrine Bushmasters, one from a Zebra and the other from the buff’s offside shoulder. Unfortunately, the band saw found the one in the buff.
With the help of many hands we were able to load up the buff for the ride to the skinning shed.
Great perspective on the size of Nyati compared to the skinners.
What a morning! We head back to the lodge, grab some lunch, a cool box with Zambezi beers and do some bream fishing! Ahh, this is the life!
