Rumrunner
AH member
Really enjoying the narrative. Congrats on the hippo and croc. Good luck on the elephant.
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.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.
It isn’t too late. Donations will be accepted. Should I start a go fund me?Really enjoying this. Wish you had booked a 21 day safari
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The wind woke me up but it wasn’t really the wind.
Something sounded different. An elephant was outside my room. Less than 20 yards, eating from a tree outside my door. Then less than 10 yards eating from the closest tree to my room. Then 3 yards from my window he decided to relieve himself. Two exits, no waiting, he made a mess just next to my window. Very funny, but the wind was blowing the wrong way so if it was a prank, it failed. If it was a tuskless, he would have heard a twang as I stood there in my underwear looking at him.
After a while, I had enough and went to bed. An hour later, I was woken again. He came back with friends. Three bull elephants outside my room. One shook the tree to free up the nuts or fruit on it - not sure what kind of tree and I wasn’t about to investigate with them there. All three had ivory. Nothing super massive, but one was a shooter, probably the biggest set of ivory I have seen on this side of the Zambezi. It just was not a legal target for me on this permit.
This time, I got my flashlight so I could take some photos and video. They were unfazed by the lights.
At least I know the rifle didn’t chase off all the elephants in the area or if it did, not for long. It is now 3am and I doubt I get back to sleep. We will be up in an hour and head out for hippos.
The stress of the western world is gone. I look forward to the coming day of hunting.
Back up at 4am and crossing the river at 4:30 to the small Zambian island in the middle of the Zambezi. This time I used the thermal so there are no surprises. Saw a hippo camped out at our boat landing site, so we had to go downstream and offload a bit further down. As we traversed the island, I would periodically check for hippo. At the same spot we came across one the day before we found the entire pod had bedded down, perhaps 40 yards from where our path takes us. We were able to make our way past them undetected, but they ran into the water right as we were getting into the blind.
The morning went slowly. We could hear the hippos making a lot of noise. It made me think of my kids playing Marco Polo in the pool. They would surface, one would grunt and another couple would grunt back and it just repeated for a few hours. Unfortunately, by the time the shooting light was up, they were out of range and mostly submerged. We waited for them to settle down, but just prior to the time we expected them to surface and expose their vitals, they left. We walked the perimeter of the island and found they had traveled over to just next to what they call the Devil’s gate, a rough part of the river where our boat cannot take a full complement of passengers. Also, should the hippos charge, we cannot outrun them there.
We find a few hippos just to the south but they are not surfacing yet. We give them some time and continue to walk the perimeter looking for opportunities. We pass by the fisherman farmer who sleeps in the field with his wife to protect their crop from the hippos. His entire farm cannot be more than a few acres and wouldn’t be considered a farm in California. It looks like he waters all his corn plants by hand. That he would have to risk his life and his wife’s to protect so little from such dangerous animals is quite sad and sobering to see how good life in America is. He informs us of the animal activity in the area.
We see three hippos just in the river near his farm. It wakes a while but we wait until they start to surface so they can nap while in the water.
There is only one bull, and he will not give me a broadside shot. I sneak as close as I can and also as far to the side as possible. The hippo is about 15 degrees to the right otherwise I would be perfectly behind him. I range him at 45 yards and drop an arrow into his back.
The arrow buries to about the cresting. I look at Steven and he seems a little unsure, feeling it is a bit far back. I tell him it will go through the lung but only one lung. From the angle, I could not get a double lung shot. The hippos all go underwater and things are quiet. We see one hippo surface and then another. Neither were our bull.
Finally, half way across the river, we see a hippo surface and he sprays blood into the water. There are bubbles on the surface and it is obvious that there is a solid lung shot. He submerges a few more times as he makes his way to the opposite river bank. We are hopeful that he may exit the river right next to the skinning shed, but this hippo cannot climb the banks now.
He keeps going down river and eventually ends up in a tree and thrashes out the last of his life.
By the time we get there, we cannot see the hippo. We are told he is stuck under the tree but to be extra cautious, we send the boat downstream to look for the body. That turned out to be a good decision.
They found my hippo before he took a trip to Mozambique. We do find out how strong the mighty Zambezi can be however and the boat cannot pull the hippo carcass upstream. It can barely move upstream with it in tow - perhaps a quarter mile per hour and then the engine gives out after a few minutes of running too much power.
We fashion a rope to its leg and then take a boat upstream a couple hundred feet, tie the boat to a tree and then tug of war the hippo upstream to us. Have one small boat hold him there while the other one moves upstream and repeats the process.
The trackers are surprised the bwana wants to help but I am going to earn this animal. It is a three and a half hour recovery. I am physically exhausted but my hippo is back in camp and good lord they emit some foul odors when the gasses escape their body.
We take a trip to some little village later to try and get a new car battery for the Land Cruiser as some of the employees killed it charging their phones and running it completely dead the day before. No more hunting in the afternoon but I am so tired I am fine with that.
I sleep soundly and am not woken by elephants. Tomorrow we should look for another elephant herd
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I used the heavy bow and arrow for the hippo. 82 lbs and a 1250 grain arrow.
Will use that for the croc as well. Found a very nice croc today but could not get him to the bait. Must have been 80 years old. Super ugly and scarred. Will be a very special trophy if I can get him
It is just above the Devil’s gate.Is that island just slightly down from the hunting camp?....any idea which fishing lodge ...below the gate or above it?
On the Zambezi but I don’t know the name of the area exactly. I suppose I can pull up the GPS coordinates as I should have them geotagged on my phone.Where are you baiting for the crocs?