CAMEROON: Bongo, Sitatunga Hunt Report

[Hank2211]

Enysse, it was a great hunt, but a difficult hunt. There was no rain for the first 8 days, making tracking bongo impossible. Once we did get rain, we ended up following - and baying - two females with very large feet (!), and we found two males, which refused to bay, and just ran from the dogs. When we did find the track that eventually led to our bongo, it was about noon, and we tracked through the thickest jungle I have ever been in, for about three hours. It is not an exaggeration to say that we literally crawled through some of the bush, got wet crossing a stream, got muddy going through a swamp, and were attacked by what seemed to be every insect in the forest for the entire time. We (more likely I) were on the verge of giving up - we needed to get out of the jungle before dark - when one of the dogs let out a short bark. We assumed he'd been chasing guinea fowl, as one of the dogs had shortly before, so told one of the trackers to control the dog. Within seconds, the tracker said "le bongo est la" - the bongo is there - and we were off. I took a shot - open sights - at about 20 yards, with lots of greenery in the way. I was very lucky - as it turned out, my bullet went through a tree on its way to the bongo - and hit him a bit high, but that high shot spined him, and down he went. We ran up to him, and got the dogs clear, and I gave him one in the heart, killing him instantly. i was soaked from perspiration, and basically fell down in exhaustion at that point.

Credit goes to my PH, Guave Johnson, who didn't let up and wouldn't let me let up either. Frankly, the heat and humidity were far worse than I had imagined - I come from a colder, and very dry - climate. Here's the bongo:

And here's the tree the bullet passed through

The day after, we continued to visit all of the places we'd been looking for sitatunga. We had planned to visit one spot, but the four whell drive on the truck broke, and we couldn't make it up a hill. We turned around and decided to visit another spot we'd tried several times, which didn't require going up a muddy hill. As soon as we got there, we saw the sitatunga in the swamp, looking away. Up went the sticks, and one shot through the heart and lungs brought him down within 5 yards. So after 11 days of no luck and lots of hard work, all of a sudden, it all happened within about 24 hours. Got to love hunting.

Here's the sitatunga:

So very pleased with the final result!

 

[enysse]

Thanks for the report and pictures, amazing hunting story and great animals....I guess I have something to dream about in a few hours! Lucky shot BTW!

 

[AfricaHunting.com]

Thanks for the update Hank and congratulations on some beautiful trophies that I am sure you will cherish closely!

 

[BRICKBURN]

Thanks for posting your hunt experience.
I am glad your luck worked out.
It looks like you certainly put the effort in.

Congratulations. Very nice trophies.

 

[TOM]

Guav is the man!

 

[Wheels]

Hank, thanks for the report. It sounds like a real tough hunt. I know you will value the trophies that much more. Congratulations!

 

[BnC 04]

Great trophies! Congrads on an awesome hunt!

 

[Buff-Buster]

Beautiful trophies! Congrats and thanks for the report!

 

[Hank2211]

Thanks all. As Tom said, Guav is the man. The PH really makes the hunt and he certainly did in this case. My job is to make a decent shot and not let the PH and the trackers, who've done so much work, down. Glad I was able to do it here.

 

[svinejakt]

Bongo is an amazing looking animal. Congratulations, awesome hunt

 

[RickB]

Congrats on some fine trophies! Great memories.

 

[bluey]

congratulations hank and guav, sounds like a team .
I love both your trophies .
you must be stoked to snag them both after so much effort.
thanks for showing us

 

[Nyati]

Congrats for your hard hunt, Hank, great trophies !

Thanks for sharing.

 

[sanderson0203]

Amazing trophies and what a story of perseverance. I know I would have gotten pretty frustrated after about day 6 with no luck but what a story about sticking with it and hunting hard until the last day and last minute.

 

[sestoppelman]

Pretty much my dream hunt, nice going and beautiful Bongo!