rakhntr
New member
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2013
- Messages
- 2
- Reaction score
- 35
- Hunted
- Botswana, Cameroon, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Argentina, Greenland, Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, and Most of the Western United States
Eland at Eightyish with Faro East
My longtime good friend, Rick Dubin, and I travelled to the savanna area of Northern Cameroon to hunt with @FARO EAST NORTH CAMEROON in February 2025. Rick was after a Lord Derby Eland, commonly referred to now by SCI as the Central African Giant Eland. Rick had tried before with another outfitter with no luck. I was after West African Savanna Buffalo, Roan and other plains game. Our professional hunter was Mike Currie of South Africa. Between us, Rick and I have hunted with probably 25-30 PHs, and we agreed Mike ranked among the best. The trackers, Omaru and Cristoff , also ranked among the best, and that was a real plus since we did quite a bit of tracking over 12 days.
On day 2 we saw a very nice Eland bull but Rick could not get a clear shot. The savanna is not that wide-open plain you imagine like in East Africa, it really is made up of some open areas in a forest of Terminalia, Acacia, Combretum, and an assortment of other trees, that give great cover for the game. So, open, long distances shots, while possible, did not seem to present themselves on our trip. Everything we hunted was shot at under 200 yards.
On day 4, that Eland bull that evaded Rick on day two, was not so lucky. Rick got a clear shot when the herd milled around in the shade, during the midday sun, allowing Rick to isolate the bull. The trackers did a great job of finding the Eland, and Mike planned the shortest route with the wind in our face to approach the Eland. By the way, did I mention that Rick is 82. The Eland was just short of 50 inches around the curl – a very nice bull.
The community that lives and works at the camp have a great tradition of welcoming the returning Eland hunter and the meat with drumming and singing. Meat gives life, so it is certainly something to cheer about no matter where you live. I do not know who was more relieved that Rick got his Eland - Mike, the Trackers, Rick, the community, or me.
With the Eland hunt in the rearview mirror, and relief felt by all, we set off to track Buffalo. We made an attempt on two lone bulls Mike had tried to hunt with other clients. We came so close on day 5. I tried a shot through some trees at 180 yards. I thought I was being clever at picking out the right hole in the bush to shoot through. Unfortunately my bullet caught a tree much closer than the buffalo and it deflected some 10 feet behind the buffalo. The buffalo ran off, no blood was found, and we decided to check the gun. Some minor tuning at the range and we were off.
I managed to shoot a nice Red-flanked Duiker, Western Hartebeest, Central African Kob, and an exceptional Western Bush Duiker (more on that later) while trying to find another Buffalo.
We tracked three or four other Buffalo with no success. One late afternoon (day 9) I stood on the sticks looking through my scope at a very good bull. But Mike and I agreed that he was the herd bull and while he would have scored well in the book with long tips, he was still young with bosses that needed a few more years. He was 30 yards away in the open, and it was hard to leave after all the walking we had put in, and with waning days left in the hunt, but it was the right thing to do. We were after an old “dugga boy” past his prime.
Day 11, our dues paid in the accounting of proper Buffalo hunting, we left camp earlier than usual and went back to the scene of my criminally poor shot at the first old buffalo we chased. This was a grudge match between Mike and Omaru on one side and those two bulls who had escaped at least 4 times. Leaving early paid off with finding fresh tracks crossing the road coming from the river. About an hour into the tracking we all became aware the Buffalo had to be right around us somewhere. We were in a mixture of some head-high grass, that had somehow escaped the persistent grass burning, and some thick brushy trees. Within a moment, Mike put up the sticks and pointed into the brush at a black rectangle 25-30 yards from us in some deep shade. Mike whispered “turn your scope all the way UP” and then he said “his head is on the right”. I have to admit, I did not see an actual Buffalo – you know, like legs, horns, ears, etc. All I saw was a black rectangle. I came back from the right 1/3 of the rectangle, and down just below half the rectangle and pulled the trigger. Then I saw a Buffalo. He was hit hard on the shoulder and turned right at us before he wheeled in a circle and ran off. We waited about 15 minutes and then started to track the blood. Hit hard on the shoulder he didn’t run far before he laid down. Through a thick tangle of bush I shot him again and he ran off. Mike and I did a little running and gunning and the old bull was down for good less than 100 yards from where I first shot. Adrenaline rush.
The final day, and many days in between, we looked for Roan, Waterbuck, Oribi, Bushbuck, and Reedbuck. We saw a few Roan herds of 5-15 animals and a few loan bulls, but never had an opportunity to get on the sticks. We saw one possible shooter Waterbuck, but they were never really our focus. We were completely dumbfounded to not have seen one Oribi, but sometimes luck is like that. They usually see Oribi daily. We saw one Bushbuck ram and one Reedbuck ram. We were too early in the season to see any reliable numbers of Bushbuck and Reedbuck.
Faro East is approximately 200,000 acres of unfenced, real Africa -Lions, Leopards, Hyena, Elephants, Giraffe, and the game mentioned above. Hunting is challenging. The cover can be thick, and walking through the “worm mounds” (sunbaked 6-8 inch stalagmite shaped mounds of dirt) can be an ankle twisting experience. We also saw Warthogs, Green Vervet Monkeys, Patas Monkeys, Colobus Monkeys, and scores and scores of Olive Baboons. They also have Red River Hogs, but that takes a special kind of hunting we did not pursue. They also have Civets and Serval, again, a special kind of hunting we did not pursue.
From what we saw, Buffalo, Hartebeest, Kob, Duikers, and Baboons were plentiful. The Eland population is plentiful, but carefully managed by Faro East to insure excellent trophy quality. They know what they have and conservatively hunt it. So if Eland is your quarry, your odds are good to very good (maybe even 90%) you will find a nice bull. Roan are plentiful, but you have to put some work in to get a shot at a good bull. Waterbuck, Reedbuck, and Bushbuck are another level up in difficulty in locating, at least when we were there and in the area we covered. I do not know if we saw even half the place. Two hundred thousand acres divided by 640 acres in a square mile, translates into 312 miles of ground to cover – impossible in a 12 day hunt.
Turning to the most important part of the trip – campfire time. I brought the Arturo Fuentes and Knob Creek and Patrick Dahlan, the owner and our host, provided some excellent dishes unlike any I have had in Africa or elsewhere. We had Spur-winged Goose slow cooked in an excellent sauce. The best waterfowl I have ever eaten. A lintel and cous-cous dish that was memorable. We had Hartebeest, Buffalo and Eland that was some of the best game I have had. As a side benefit, and probably not repeatable on any other trip, Patrick had a visiting friend from France who provided some very nice, aged Bordeaux. And the actual campfire proved “wood is for free” in Africa. I think they could see our campfire from the international space station every night.
The rooms and facilities are comfortable. The rooms have A/C but we did not need it as the camp sits on a bluff with a nice breeze the time of year we were there (February). Each room is a separate round house with its own hot water heater.
Finally, some advice to make your trip run more smoothly. You have to fly Air France so download the Air France App. If you bring your own rifle, you must tell them in advance that you are flying with a rifle AND declare how many kilos of ammunition you are bringing. The correct answer on the amount of ammunition is anything less than 5 kilos. I recommend you do this a month in advance and confirm at least twice before you arrive at the airport that you are confirmed for your rifles. Check your Air France App to make sure you are confirmed for the rifles. We were delayed a day because we did not declare the ammunition. Two other hunters were also bumped off of their flight, and after another threatened bump, ended up leaving their rifles Stateside to avoid any further delay. Download the Cameroon Customs App before you get to the airport -follow the directions to declare what you are bringing. Be patient at the Cameroon Airports – everyone wants to check your rifle serial number and count your ammunition (two or three times). Bring good boots like you were going sheep hunting in the Rockies or White Mountains. There is no running to the store for anything. “Town” is 2 ½ hours away, and it does not have much. The local beer is good and Faro provides table wine at dinner. If you drink anything special (Burbon, Scotch, name-brand anything else) buy it at duty free in Paris.
Back to the Western Bush Duiker. Mr. Dubin also shot a very nice bush duiker on the trip. Since it was the only animal we hunted in common it was the bench mark for hunting greatness on that particular trip. In the annuls of hunting lore it will be documented that I will always be ahead of Rick by 9/16 of an inch, at least when it comes to duikers.
This was an excellent trip. Thank you to Patrick, Mike, Omaru, Cristoff, and the rest of the staff for a truly memorable time.
Last edited by a moderator:
