Last fall Mary (my wife) asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I thought about it for a couple of days, and since I don't need any more clothes or hunting equipment, LOL! I told her, I've never been to the Safari Club International banquet in Nashville. I've been to a lot of SCI chapter banquets, but not the granddaddy of them all. She said, you're not going to just "look-around" are you, you want to book a hunt? I said, maybe. I haven't been back to Africa for around 10 years, and I'd like to go back one more time, for Cape Buffalo/Sable. She floored me, by saying "I think you should go." Did I marry the best wife ever!!!
So, I began my research on where and when I wanted to hunt. I thought about Zimbabwe, Mozambique, or Zambia. But I want to do a 10-day hunt, and get both the buffalo/sable, but couldn't pull it off due to 14-day minimum timeframe, or extensive travel times to hunt both animals, plus the added costs. I did however, want to hunt "free range" if possible, and if it didn't work out, I still could hunt on private land. I must have talked with close to 20+ Safaris companies. And narrowed it down to 5-6 of them to meet at the convention.
I spent the 1st day at the convention, meeting with 6 targeted Safaris, plus a few others. By the end of the night back in my hotel room, I had narrowed it down to 2-3. The next morning, I went back and met with 2 of them again. It was an easy decision. I chose Thormahlen & Cochran for the following reasons:
- They had a great reputation and been in business for decades. They also won the SCI Outfitter of the year award.
- Offered excellent opportunities for the 2 animals I was looking to hunt
- Opportunity to hunt Free Range for half the Safari and if not successful I could always hunt on their Private Reserve -just-in-case.
- Kruger National Park was close by and I've always wanted to visit that historic park
- Most important, however, was the staff: I met my PH Christo Combrink and we became fast friends, talking about the type of hunting we were going to do, plus did my high expectations for a big buffalo match what they were offering. I also met Anso Thormahlen and she helped seal the deal with the costs, dates, logistics, etc.
Speaking about high expectations, while hunting with Limcroma Safaris 10 years earlier, the 1st night I was in camp, one of the other hunters came in at dark with a monster Buff at 42" and I was hooked.
Christo, made it clear a 40-42" Buffalo was possible on free range land but the odds are not in my favor. He only seen a couple of those in all the years he's been hunting. But on the private reserve we definitely had a good opportunity.
When Christo picked me up at the Africa Sky Lodge (great place to stay in J-burg) in late September we talked about how successful he had been in the area we'd be hunting this season. He did see one Buffalo that he thought might go 40-42" if we could find him. We dropped off my gear at the Riverside Lodge where were staying, and immediately headed out to confirm if my Remington .375 H&H rifle was sighted-in and off we went. We would be hunting on public land, specifically the Loskop Dam Nature Reserve in Mpumalanga Province that T&C had the exclusive lease rights to hunt. We spent to whole day into the evening looking for Cape Buffalo or tracks we could pick-up to track, but everything was at least 2-3 days old. Good thing we were in a Toyota Land Cruiser pickup. Those so called roads we're, brutal.
That night we decided we would take a boat out and hunt in another area up and down a reservoir/river and hunt an area that's not accessible by land. They hadn't hunted this area, very much but they did take a 3" duiker and an Eland that rivaled a Lord Derby Eland! We spend the whole day cruising and glassing miles and miles of shoreline, along with any open areas of plains that we could see. Most of which was very thick thornbush and tall grass. We did spot 2 buffs. In some tall grass, and tried to put on a stalk but a couple of Kudu cows busted us, and that ended that. Later in the morning we saw another Buff in the thornbush on a ridge, and started a stalk, Christo turned around and asked me again if I still wanted a 42" buff just to make sure. I said, let's stick with the game plan. He smiled and we continue our stalk, but the winds wouldn't cooperate, and he ambled off deep in the brush. Later that day we saw some trophy Nyala and Waterbucks. We also saw a number of Rhinos and lots of Crocs/Hippos and other game. We also hiked about 2 ½ miles inland finding lots fresh tracks, but with the wind swirling around it just wasn't possible.
We were getting towards the "Golden" hour of hunting as the sun is starting to set, when about 2 ½ miles away we spotted a couple of buffalo drinking from the river. We came ashore about ½ mile upstream and began our stalk. The light breeze was perfect as we got closer. We had to move slowly and steadily in the tall grass with no other cover for most of the stalk. However, with daylight burning we needed to proceed as quickly as possible. (Only hunters would understand those last 2 conflicting sentences). During this time the 2 buffalo never raised their heads, but their bodies were massive, so we knew they were old bulls. We stopped at 65 yards, and continued to glass, but they never raised their heads, we were just starting to move forward again, when Christo suddenly stopped, raised his binos, then turned around immediately, and within one foot away from me with a wide eyed, fierce, determined and urgent look. Said "Take the one on the left!!!" He turned around, set down the sticks and stepped to my left. My mind was racing, I had only seen a 2-3" tip of one of the horns. The only thing I could think of was the word "Trust"! Trust your PH! There was no time or reason to question his judgement. I remembered that look in his face. I set the gun on the sticks, and aimed through the grass where I knew where the shoulder was fired! At the shot I saw the buffalo drop like a box of rocks and the other buff ran into the brush 20 yards away. Christo yelled let's go, and we starting running towards the buffalo we couldn't see. I reloaded and we got within 5-10 feet before we could see him. He was down but not out. I had broken both shoulders with a broad side shot but he couldn't get back up. I fired 4 more rounds into his vitals while he was thrashing about, before he was finished. I still couldn't see how big he was until we started clearing the tall grass away from his horns, and they we're really long and massive. Christo told me this was by far the biggest Cape Buffalo he had ever taken. Both Christo and Frank, our Government Game scout estimated that he would easily go over 2000 pounds. I was overwhelmed and literally shocked by this Buffalos size. Thanks (our Tracker/Skinner) cleared out the grass with a machete to get a better look. Christo stated that he would easily go over 43" inches. He also told me just before he told me to shoot, the buff lifted up it's head for a fleeting moment and looked at Christo. He knew right then this was a huge buff!
Daylight was burning fast, so we hurried up to take some pictures and headed back to the boat. It was pitch black when we got to the boat and headed out into the dark about 4 miles back to where we launched the boat earlier that day. I was worried all night whether or not the Crocs, hyenas or a leopard would destroy this massive animal.
We headed back out before daylight to retrieve my buffalo and we're glad that nothing had touched him overnight. We took some more pictures and Wilrien de Kock T&C's videographer made a short video of our hunt. Then the hard work began, to literally skin and quarter this whole animal up and carry it to the boat one piece at a time. We spent at least 5 hours and 2 round trips with the boat to get him out. We also had 5 additional villagers go with us to help retrieve the meat, horns and hide. Once we got back to the meat processing shed, all the meat was cleaned and cut up for the local villagers to pick up. It was very gratifying to see all the villagers come down and pick up all this meat for their families. Christo finally measured the size of our Buffalo at 45".!! Simply amazing! Frank stated that in the 30 years of being a game scout in the area, he had never seen a Cape Buffalo as big both in body and horn size. A couple of days later Christo stated that he was going to enter it for the PHASA awards for Cape Buffalo of the year! Last week I found out that it is a finalist for the awards banquet!!! I'm blown away and humbled, that I had the opportunity to get such a fine animal. My one and only Cape Buffalo far exceeded anything I could have dreamed of!!!
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add a 35-40 lb. Pack to get in better shape.
After scouting around and glassing for a couple of hours, Chisto spotted a lone Sable bull over 2 miles away. I couldn't pick him up with my binos. No surprise there, we developed a game plan and closed the gap with the Land Cruiser to about 500 yds. We began our stalk and as we were gaining altitude, the Sable and us both spotted each other at the same time at 198 yards. Off he went up the mountain, and the chase began. We lost him on a couple of crests he climbed over and about 3-4 minutes later we saw him over 400 yds away on another mountain ridge. Christo asked me if I could make the shot, however, with the winds blowing and gusting at 40-45 mph, there was no way I'd take that shot. We were however, able to move farther up the mountain ridge to 298 yards, and Christo set down the sticks. There was no way to get closer since there was a deep valley between us and the Sable. The winds were picking up speed and from our vantage point, I could also see a large storm moving in. The temperature also was dropping into the high 30's (F). It was now or never.... I got on the sticks to see if I could hold steady and it wasn't pretty. I was all over the place. I knew from practicing this type of shot in weather conditions up in Alaska, if I cranked down my scope from 10 to say 3-4. I might be able to stay on target. Christo could also see my dilemma and he lowered the sticks about a foot. This really helped out a lot by reducing my profile with the wind. I also knew by practicing in this type of shooting conditions, I could make this shot pretty consistently if I didn't hesitate even a 1/10 of a second from when I acquired the target just right. (I was still using my .375 with 260 grain Nosler Partitions & 84 grains of IMR4350 compressed.)
It took me over 5 minutes to get steady enough where I thought I might be able to make this shot. In the mean time, it was a Mexican standoff between the Sable and me. Christo ranged him one last time at 313 yds. I put my head back down and said... "Come on Harry you can do this." I reacquired the Sable, got my estimated aiming point and sent off a round. Recovering from the recoil, my Sable was hit hard and dropped right where he stood. The hunting gods were with me. This was my toughest shot ever. If I never practiced this like I did, I would have never taken the shot....
When we walked up to him about 30 minutes later, he was a beautiful trophy Jet Black and about 13 yrs old, with just under 41" horns. Exactly what I was looking for.
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Less than an hour after we dropped the Sable at the skinning/processing shed, as we were heading back to the lodge, the storm hit and the fog moved in to the point where we couldn't see 10 feet in front of us. It was white knuckle driving all the way back. The next day was more of the same, we couldn't even leave camp. But that was Ok we needed the rest.
We hit the road again, dropped off my Sable at Life-form Taxidermy and had lunch with Hermann Thormahlen, Peter and Anso's son. Then off we went to the Wilderness Lodge just outside of Kruger National Park. If your ever going to South Africa, you must add Kruger National Park to your bucket list. We saw all of the big 5 and then some. The whole trip was outstanding everyone was nice, friendly and safe. I'll cherish these friendships and memories forever. I would highly recommend Thormahlen & Cochran Safaris to anyone hunting plains game up thru the big 5.
Regards, Harry
