Finally getting a shot at an elephant with a bow!!

[Rumrunner]

Really enjoying the narrative. Congrats on the hippo and croc. Good luck on the elephant.

 

[DonPablo]

 

[Tgood1]

Another fantastic report, and great writing as well

 

[mrpoindexter]

Addendum for July 15th:

After a nice spaghetti and mince meat dinner, we head out to try out the hyena equipment. Steven has his thermal linked to his iPad so we can see on the iPad what he is seeing on his thermal. I still use mine tonight as I have a better thermal monocular, but when it comes time for me to actually shoot, I can’t use mine easily. I lose night vision if it is on my right eye and to use on my left eye makes it slow to switch to my bow. Will have to get that sorted out before tomorrow night.

Steve also has a Bluetooth speaker and plays clips from his iPhone. I know this will work because John Henry Keyser has used that with me before in Limpopo and it functioned incredibly well.

I know there is almost no light pollution here and have seen the stars at night in remote locations but the first night I get to really look up at them when traveling always amazes me. The Milky Way looks magnificent here.

We pull into a bit of a canyon like part of the trail and kick on his speaker. A hyena came in FAST. One call and he was 10 yards away. He split quickly so no shot on him but we can make some plans now.

On the evening drive, we saw a bush duiker. I still need one, but this was a female. We also saw what looked like a grysbok (another animal I need) but we could not get a clear line of sight to see if it was a ram.

Hopefully I can connect on one or two of the tiny ten while I am here. I only have one so far. They have always been on my list but never a priority aside from the Dik-Dik when I was in Namibia. That is the only one I have so far. I need two of them for the African 29 slam so they are becoming a priority. With the croc down today, I am up to 20 and still have the elephant on my list. The other two on my hunt permit (spotted hyena and chobe bushbuck) don’t progress me on that slam but are on other slams.

I have 5 days left and 3 permits to cover plus maybe a few more should I get lucky on opportunities. I expect I will sleep well.

 

[mrpoindexter]

Congrats! Can you show a picture of the entrance and exit wounds? I’m just curious about where you have to hit one to get the lungs and not the heart.

I have photos and they were skinning him yesterday. Today we will cut open the body to verify the vitals and I will put them all up at once. I got one lung and the arrow existed his soft underbelly.

 

[Graham Hunter]

Congratulations! Awesome carry on.

 

[mrpoindexter]

July 16

After a nice breakfast, we head over to the skinning shed for the crocodile autopsy. My arrow hit the front of one lung and not the heart. I must have hit a major blood vessel though as there was thick “heart blood” as described by the PH.

We head out to check the camera on the hyena bait and then on to the blind over the water holes.

Two hyenas were on the bait at 4:30am. We scout the area to check the ideal area for a blind and look to see where the hyenas came in from.

8:30am and we are driving to the water holes. I have my 70lb bow in hand and the 85 in the soft case overhead should we get word on an elephant. I replaced the croc arrow with a fresh one so I have full quivers, just in case.

We arrive at just after 9:30 to the tree with the bait for the leopard and check cameras. Two leopards that are coming in daylight. Also a genet.

Somehow, I forgot how close this was to the waterhole. We climb further in and reach the waterhole. Cameras there shown bushbuck, but no zebra or warthogs. I think that baiting leopard so near the waterhole has somewhat sabotaged my chances at a zebra or warthogs and maybe reduced my odds on bushbuck. I mention this to Steven and we have to make a decision. Take down the leopard bait and let the other animals come in, or keep it up and add a major target to the menu.

Of course, we still need the elephant. That was the star of this hunt and it must die. After that, the decision over a chobe bushbuck, a zebra and a warthog vs a leopard is not much of a choice. It is a financial decision, however.

We have some time to the leopard bait stays up and we finish setting a blind at the waterhole as well before we check to see what our scouts have found on an elephant. 5 days left including today. I have 2 of the Big 5 down with a bow and 4 of the Dangerous 7. An elephant and a leopard would leave me just a rhino away from legit completing the slams fully. (The dangerous 7 slam only requires 5 for a bow with at most 4 of the Big 5 but I want to get all 7 personally).

While a leopard would be a very expensive add on, it would cut a future leopard hunt off and if I fail to shoot one, I am hoping to save myself a full leopard hunt cost. We can discuss more back at camp tonight - hopefully with the elephant box checked off, but this would be like an African version of an add on for a stone sheep with no additional cost if you don’t connect on one. That is a hard opportunity to pass up.

We drive a long way through the bush, villages and even a paved road until we get to the Rufunsa river. It is nearly 2pm and we are still trying to get there. One of the local scouts has identified a small herd of 4 elephants, 2 of them tuskless. given how long it has taken us to get here, I am really hoping to connect today and have a bit more choices on what to hunt the rest of the week. While he discusses this with PH Steven and one of the trackers, I see another tracker sit down to talk to a woman who lives here. She complains about the elephants and is obviously not happy to have them around. I know people want elephants to exist, myself included, but none of us have to live with them and most people do not see the disruption they cause to those in the areas around them.

Finally, we head out to look for the elephants. The bush is thicker here, but I can see signs of locals starting to make charcoal here as well and know it is a matter of time before the pressure of human population takes its toll in another area.

We park the car in the shade and start a stalk. Part way in, we spot the bulls under a large tree. The wind is not right and we drop into a ravine to get ahead of them. 18 minutes later, the wind whipped around and we were busted. The elephants took off. We head back to the car and come across another small herd of 4 - a mother and her calf plus two youngish adults - ivory all around.

Once back at the car, we drive to try and get ahead of them. While driving towards them, I hear the local ranger tell the PH that there is one big male lion roaming this area as well. Nothing as exciting as wild Africa.

We hop back onto the tar road and drive to the other side of the village and then into the land behind their small settlement. We enter into some thick bush with some ridges that look like they may have at one time been the banks of a larger Rufunsa river perhaps. It adds some complexity to the terrain that should make for an interesting stalk if we can locate a lone or small group of elephants that contain a tuskless.

We do not find a small group, however. Instead, we see a much larger herd that numbers perhaps 50 elephants. There are only a couple tuskless here, but there are a lot of nursing mothers, which adds to the danger. If it were merely a matter of finding any elephant and closing to 40 yards, this would have been finished on the first day. Instead, we have a group of 50 elephants and we get to pick 2 at random that generally are in the middle of the group and then have to get close to those without getting close to the others or being seen, heard or smelled by any of them. Get too close to any of them and the stalk is over. Get too close to the wrong one and it is much worse than that.

We play a game of cat and mouse, but can never close the distance to less than 80 yards. I can shoot that far with my lighter (but still a heavy 650 grain) arrows, but there is no way I am shooting the 1,250 grain sticks that far. Twice, we face imminent danger and have to back out. One of those times, we had two bulls moving in to protect the others from what they perceived as a threat. Luckily, we didn’t have a guard take an early warning shot. Still, there is no real chance at the tuskless who is always both out of range and cannot be approached without triggering protective instincts from other members of the herd.

After a couple hours of attempts at getting a shot, it is starting to get dark and we don’t want to shoot one too late in the evening. We call it for the day and make a plan to head back early in the morning.

On the way back, I ask what about the hyena. We move over to that area and make an attempt at them; We can call them in and get a many as 5 to come in, but the bait is too high and they will not stay in a fixed spot long enough. Also, I cannot range them and fire quick enough, even with the Garmin, as they move in complete darkness and when the light kicks on, they scatter. Having bow hunted hyena before, I discuss with Steven how it worked for me in the past and what we need to do differently.

Elephants remain the priority over hyena though, so as long as I get my elephant, this hunt will be considered a success and no amount of other animals will make up for not getting the elephant. I am now down to 4 days hunting left. There is time, but not enough to squander any of it.

As if they communicated with their friends, we arrive back at camp to find elephants hassling us. I have a quick bite to eat and get some sleep. I don’t even get my log of the day’s events finished before I retire and am greeted in the morning with messages from friends asking where their update is. Luckily, I am not charged observer fees for my friends who want to hunt vicariously through me.

In the middle of the night, I am awoken by the same band of elephants. Like home town fans who go to the hotel of the visiting team to keep them from getting a good night’s rest, they do their best to wake us up, shaking trees outside our room so that the fruit falls onto the tin roofs of the hunting chalets. They cause quite a racket and I begin to question the repercussions of just shooting one in my underwear from the veranda. Sleep wins the battle of thoughts and I tune them out like kids bickering while dad is trying to rest. At least parenthood prepared me for things like this.