Heym 89b 450NE Gross Box Survived Zim

[Wildwillalaska]

I still need to draft a hunt report, which as much as I enjoy writing, it’s always difficult starting when there is so, so much to say. For you fine gents, I wanted to drop a quick thread that had more eye candy and at least an attempt at few words. For the rifle, all I can say is I love it more and more every time I shoot it. It’s incredibly accurate with everything I’ve tried, which is mostly CEB and Northfork bullets, 420gr through 500gr. Had the two shots on my buffalo with 500gr NF SS actually cut the same hole, so I’m smitten to say the least.

Here are just the double rifle highlights…couple more animals with my Rigby in the hunt report once I finish it.

 

[Betterinthebush]

Oh, my…

 

[Wildwillalaska]

The Omay North contains a hippo or two, Lake Kariba to the North and river boarding its East/West boundaries. So when in Rome…had go after a hippo on land, which turned into deciding on one wet and one dry to gather the full experience.

This hippo was in a small pool with a bunch of cows and one other smaller bull. We couldn’t ever seem to catch him out feeding or invoke him to come out and play…Gareth thought he was one I’d regret passing up simply because he was standing in water and I agreed…honestly such a gorgeous place to take my first hippo. And he thought they had some additional quota where we could still look for one out roaming land. So was a no brainer.

 

[Wildwillalaska]

Two more that I thought were good or at least funny shots. Gareth is such a quiet giant of a man, making him belly laugh was worth a quick snuggle even in 104-ish heat.

While the trackers were trying to shoo away a couple crocs and attach a line to pull him back across, I tried my hand at fishing, hoping to hook a catfish. Nope, somehow caught a cow hippo, which made quick work of the light test line.

 

[SStomcat]

Excellent captures, looks a pro took the pics. Congratulations

 

[deewayne2003]

Well done, I happened across my .470 but if I had to choose I’d have a .450ne; how did you like the buff and hippo combo?

 

[Rare Breed]

Gareth is great to hunt with! took one of my buff with him!

 

[Rare Breed]

Love that buff!!! I too have a 450 NE such nostalgia with that caliber!!!

 

[Wildwillalaska]

Few days later we connected a nice hippo bull on land. Stalked several hundred yards through undulating hills of floodplain before it all came together at 40-45 yards, he was walking mostly broadside with slight quartering away, but unique part was him slightly higher elevation and walking uphill. First shot had loudest crack I’ve heard in over 40-years of hunting. Think it was a 470gr CEB Raptor crashing through the lower rear edge of his scapula which then shattered the top of his offside humerus and shoulder. He didn’t even lose his feet, but sure swayed hard on impact. He went maybe another 8-10 yards. I hit him with an immediate follow up through the vitals and hurried around to the side, sending third shot upward and quartering back into the neck which dropped him. It did leave an unsightly entry on his right jaw.

This guy was clearly a fighter and the area has many huge groups of hippo unlike the smaller more isolated pods we’d focused on earlier. He was totally covered in scars of various ages.

 

[Wildwillalaska]

The field processing of this hippo was cool to see all the villagers come out to line up for meat.

 

[Wildwillalaska]

While I had loaded up some heavier 470gr CEB Raptors and 500 NF SS for hippo and Buffalo, the first loads I ran through the rifle were pet loads Mac had worked up for his 89b also in 450NE, which is also a rifle that at least in part led to this one’s creation…

Like his, my rifle loved both the CEB 420 Raptors and 450 Solids. Here is my rifles first 4-virgin shots. The two upper holes are 420’s and the other 2 are 450’s, iron sights. Should have saved Mac’s target, it was truly impressive with this rifle…his too.

Anyway, Mac was kind enough to load me 20 rounds of the 420gr Mac Specials which I brought along for smaller game.

 

[Wildwillalaska]

Putting a 420gr Mac Special to work. This pig had red splattered from nose to tail…had to receive essentially a full bath before photos.

 

[Wildwillalaska]

This was also the work of a Mac Special and one of my favorite animals (all of these taken with this double are favs that I’ll remember for years to come). We’s tried for a nice bushbuck several times and had some close calls, just always just a little too small or just not the right situation for the double, but I was holding out. This guy proved just perfect, and we were able to stalk into 10 yards before we regained sight and he busted us, ultimately bolting out to 80 yards before Gareth was able to stop him and he turned broadside with a slow walking quartering shot, and immediate bang-drop.

 

[Wildwillalaska]

On larger animals, here are bullets recovered.

Found both my shots on the buff. He went down with the first shot, front half immediately collapsing and then ass end crumped. He struggled and within 1-2 seconds had regained his feet, I had to slide over a bit for second shot to clear some thicker/larger branches/brush and hit him with the second barrel, at least I thought. He took off at the shot. We could see lots of blood when to stood back up, so knew he was mortally wounded, and heard a slow, low, very abbreviated bellow within a few seconds of his departure. High five, and chilled for about 10-min, took photos of the fresh spoor and final tracks we had followed…and it was time to approach. From where he stood, fell and took off, blood everywhere and heavy spray to where he laid, which was within sight of where he originally stood, went maybe 25-30 yards tops.

On approach just one massive wound right on the point of the shoulder, so we figured my second shot must have struck branch or something. Washington for photos, the entry looked weird and wondered if my first shot tumbled or just how his old hide sagged on the shoulder when standing. The next day Scott had a perfectly mushroomed 500gr Northfork Semi, so still scratching me head on the weird entry shape. It wasn’t until 2 days later when the skinner gave us the other bullet he’d found and forgot to give Scott. So both bullets hit home, just happened to cut the same hole even with the second one clearly tripping in the brush and tumbling into him. The mushroomed shot was under the hide on the off shoulder. The tumbled one was slightly quartering towards me when I fired, and it was found lodged sideways in an offside rib further back.

 

[Wildwillalaska]

Here are three recovered from the two hippos. One is a Northfork Cupped Solid and the other two are 470gr CEB Raptors.

The first shot on the 2nd hippo is the CEB that swelled at the shank, and also broke off at a somewhat slanted angle, which makes sense given it was a quartering away and upward shot. Was just shocked how much it swelled without fracturing. The rocks are agates Scott and I found at the kill site.

 

[Wildwillalaska]

If I knew how to post videos, Scott made a short one of the first hippo that turned out pretty cool, and of the croc. This is a still from the hippo video.

 

[Altitude sickness]

Perfect shot placement

 

[Wildwillalaska]

Well done, I happened across my .470 but if I had to choose I’d have a .450ne; how did you like the buff and hippo combo?

I enjoyed the combination of buff and hippo, also did croc but that was with a bolt gun so saved for the general hunt report. It was a great hunt and would do again. I still just enjoy tracking Buffalo so much I’d do it every day…would have this trip too if they had quota for additional Buffalo. They are bing smart and appropriately conservative on their Buffalo harvest…really all the harvest.

We just got lucky at the end of the first day and the tracks we found just before lunch in the general area York had seen a couple nice dugga boys a week prior but got busted and couldn’t get back on, so we figured one was the old white faced bull…and after tracking them for a while, having to go around a group of feeding elephants, we caught up to them about an hour before dark…and while thick, no where near as thick as it was up till that point. It was just perfect alignment of timing, location, and wind conditions….

I was prepared for the buffalo to take us a while. Johnny was finishing up a hunt with a client in the South Omay, they just made the trip up the night before to look for a hippo, and had taken his buff on day 11 of a 10-day hunt, so when Gareth said we need to take him, I saw the white face and didn’t even hesitate. I’m used to finding success, just typically the hard way, so was happy to enjoy a day-1 bull. Except I only got to hunt buffalo 1 day…that part was unfortunate.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Heartiest congratulations ! I’m envious of that fine hippopotamus.

A Heym Model 89B in .600 Nitro Express is my dream rifle.

 

[SStomcat]

Great commentary, what is a Mac special?