REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Bongo In The Congo Second Try

[sniper7]

Anxiously waiting the next installment!

 

[kdenn]

@gillettehunter, best of luck to you. Living vicariously through your journey. Like others anxious to read more.

 

[gillettehunter]

My internet seems too slow to post pictures. I’ll get some up one way or another.
So first day out. Up at 5 and gone just after 6. Little bit of confusion. Head tracker wasn’t feeling well so they grabbed another to make 5 total. Then their current best or second best dog was nowhere to be found so we went with 5 of them.
We head out of camp and down the main gravel road between town and the local lumber mill. School kids walking to school. 3 miles each way. It’s light enough to see well but sunrise is still a ways off. We go down a road that we used a lot last time I was here. Surprised me as I thought we were going the opposite direction.
Like normal the road is growing in. The jungle is aggressive. It doesn’t want to give ground up for farming or roads. We go in 10 miles and turn in a lane that I know is familiar. When we get to the salt lick/pond I recognize it as where I killed my Forest Sitatunga 20 months ago. There are fresh Bongo tracks there and we pull the card. The bull has a huge neck and thick horns. A little short but an older bull.
Christophe wants to look at him. I tell him if we bay him then we’ll kill him. He smiles and says maybe. According to the trail camera he left at 5:15. We are on his tracks around 7:00.
The dogs hunt by sight and not smell. The Pygmies track the bongo through the forest until he is jumped and then the dogs job is to keep the bongo occupied until the hunter can get close enough to shoot. 20 months ago I lost a chance because the dogs failed to hold the bongo long enough for us to get there. Christophe was rather unhappy as there wasn’t a good reason for them to not of held that bongo.
After 45 minutes we heard the first dog bark. Then the second and then the 3rd. Christophe had told me he would rush ahead to help “encourage “ the dogs to stay with the bongo. He also wanted a better look at him. So Christophe an 3 trackers run ahead leaving me to follow. Truth be told I did a pretty good job of keeping up. I now had the rifle and struggled against the jungle. Branches slapped my face and arms. Vines reached out to trip me. 3 times I stumbled but managed to not fall. After 150 yards there was the bongo just 25 yards ahead. I chambered a round in the .375 and moved up beside Christophe. The trackers stayed back so as not to spook the bongo. Christophe then moved to 20 yards and then to 15. He used his binoculars to assess the age of the bull.
He then told me to go ahead. My first shot was a solid hit but he was still on his feet. I shot 2 more times. I killed a tree with one round. It’s like it jumped in front of me. Actually I’m sure I just got excited…..
I hunted 14 days last trip and never had a chance. I later learned that the 2 hunters before me both went home without a bongo (although the second one got a sitatunga and a forest buffalo) . I was so grateful for the opportunity to hunt one of these rare and reclusive animals. Makes for a great experience. This was an old bull with nice mass. Nice animal to kill. The old saying is don’t pass up on the first day one you’d kill on the last day. This one falls in that class. Sure I’d like to kill a monster. However I’m thrilled with this one.
Back by 11 for some rest and lunch. We went back out around 3:30. Checked 4-5 salt licks with their cameras. Elephants at one. One small herd of forest buffalo but no good pics of the bull. Also a rare yellow back duiker coming in regularly to another salt lick. No shots fired but nice evening. My list now is a dwarf forest buffalo and perhaps a couple of duikers. I hate to spend the $ on a yellow back but who passes on one of the rarest animals in Africa if given the chance? Christophe also knows of a good male Pieters duiker. We’ll see if we can get a shot at him
Bruce

 

[Graham Hunter]

Congratulatios.

 

[Andrew62]

Yay Yay Yay!! Super happy for you Bruce!! Forest hunting isn’t for the feint of heart! Good luck hunting the buffalo, I never saw one on my 2 trips.

 

[DieJager]

Waidmannsheil! Anxiously awaiting the pictures

 

[Mekaniks]

Congratulations!!!!!

 

[Cme1983]

Congrats!!! Nice to have the pressure off.

 

[Beck]

Fucking awesome, congratulations!

 

[kdenn]

Congratulations!

 

[Hunt anything]

That is just great, congratulations!

 

[sniper7]

That’s great! Congratulations!

 

[channelkat]

Very very cool! Can’t wait for more

 

[7mmFan]

congrats on a well earned Bongo! Looking forward to the rest!

 

[Adipose]

First morning Bongo! Congratulations and amazing!

 

[Fatback]

Congrats on such an impressive accomplishment. Hopefully the rest of your safari is as successful.

 

[AZDAVE]

CONGRATZ!!!!!! looking forward to the pictures when you get back to more bandwidth

 

[gillettehunter]

So the mission today was to go to the far side of our area. We wanted to look at a couple of salt licks along the road, do a camera check at another salt lick with a machine and hopefully kill a monkey for bait for the yellow back duiker. There also was the matter of a really nice

 

[Nyati]

Congrats

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Congrats Bruce!