Day 5 - We drove west from camp along the depression. Didn’t see much. Drove all the way to the west boundary road of the hunting area and then turned south for about 5km and did a looping track to the SE into the thick mopane forest. Then we drove across country to a couple of pans holding water and saw some small bulls and cows. We worked our way back to the boundary road.
We turned south on the road before turning off and doing another loop to the SE into appleleaf forest. Then cut across country back to the boundary road once again. This time, we turned north on the boundary road. Found a fresh track crossing the road and followed on foot. The trackers lost the track. While they were sorting it out, I spotted the bull up ahead but after getting close, we discovered it was big bodied but tusks broke off short. Walked back to the truck and then drove north on the boundary road for 2-3km when trackers spotted two bulls to the east of the road on our legal side of the road. We drove a short way and then got out to glass them before hiking to them. One looked promising so we hiked to them. Once we got close, Ronnie and I both thought it was the 65 pound bull from day 3. I wanted to shoot him and we started jogging to cut off the bull before he got to the road. He knew something was up. These elephants haven’t been hunted for seven years but this old bull had a long memory. Ronnie got a better look at the circumference at the lip. Now he said 18”!
The trackers were disappointed that we didn’t shoot this bull on day 3. This time, I said, “I like this bull and I’m shooting him!” The bull was still headed to the boundary road. After one last look, Ronnie agreed and said, “This is your elephant! I think he’s bigger now that I’ve had a better look.”
We half jogged up along side the bull to about 35 yards. He stopped for a second and made a bluff head shake at us and started walking again. I took a walking side brain shot with the .458 Lott. The bull went down immediately but something wasn’t quite right. His legs weren’t completely paralyzed. Turns out I hit the zygomatic arch and the 500gr bullet slightly deflected and passed just under the football size brain. Ronnie said he’s seen this before and that the arch is rock hard. Anyway, as the bull was now getting up slowly, I shot him in the left hip because elephant cannot run on three legs. I didn’t have the angle for another attempt at a brain shot at the time and the bull was now facing away from me. The bull slouched down in the back end after the shot. I ran around his left side and made a proper side brain shot and he was dead! Wow, what a relief! He fell about 200 yards from the boundary!
Crazy lucky to find the bull several kilometers from where we last saw him and still inside the area. Here’s some pictures.
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