Saturday 28.10 (Day 9)
07:00. Someone had been eating s**t with my mouth during the night. Well, life could have been worse. We had a quick breakfast and then went to take pictures of the Leopard.
After taking pictures we went to take down the microphone and removed other equipment we still had in the blind and headed back to camp for lunch. In the afternoon we got plenty of rain. We spent the afternoon taking down some nearby baits and built a blind on the first bait.
In the evening we agreed to return to Buffalo hunting the following day.
Sunday 29.10 (Day 10)
We started the day at usual time and headed close to the national park area. We drove past one of the old baits and took it down. Leopard had visited the bait and tasted it, but the meat had been too rotten. We continued driving and later one of the trackers spotted a Leopard running along the road and shortly after it I could see it crossing the road in front of us. That was the third Leopard we saw in daylight. No idea whether it was male or female, but I can tell you that it moved fast.
Shortly after the encounter with the Leopard we found fresh tracks of a large Buffalo herd. The herd had come to Chewore from Mana Pools national park and were pretty close to park border still. There was a risk that the herd would be heading back to the park. The benefit was that there could be anything in the herd, including some old nice bulls. At least there were some very large tracks so we left the bakkie and started following the tracks.
Cartridge in the picture is my .338 WinMag. The tracks were BIG.
Around 10:00 we bumped to the end of the Buffalo herd. It was in a thicket so we came too close and alerted the herd. Immediately we could see several nice bulls. The herd escaped and continued downwind. That is what the herds in here do. In case they feel threatened they will head downwind. That would mean difficult tracking. The game was on.
We continued to push and every time we could get closer the Buffalo got our wind and escaped. This continued a couple of times and finally the large herd split into two separate groups. We continued following the other one hoping that it would have the big bulls in it. Around 14:00 we caught them up. But we could not see the bulls anywhere. We continued walking and tried to get around the herd on down wind side. Then we got a lucky break. The Buffalo were feeding on a hillside and we could see that there was a nice bull some 100 meters from us. Pierre set up the sticks and I was on the sticks with the .375 again. The Buffalo didn’t have any idea that we were there so there was plenty of time to set everything up. Pierre instructed me where to find the right Buffalo. The Buffalo was broadside and although there were some bushes the vitals were visible. I took the safety off and reminded myself to squeeze the trigger and not to rush the shot. After what felt like an eternity the shot rang off and the herd made their escape over the hill. The bull that I had shot didn’t show any obvious signs of hit.
Shot had felt OK, but I remember thinking that I had to squeeze the trigger a lot harder than with my own rifle. After a cigarette break we headed to the place where the bull had stood when I took the shot. No blood. We could clearly see from the opposite hill where the bull ran so we followed its’ tracks and still could not spot blood. Pierre also checked whether the bullet would have hit branches before hitting the bull, but he couldn’t find any broken branches either. We followed the tracks some 500 meters trying to find any signs of blood but couldn’t find any. So the bullet must have missed whole Buffalo. Pierre commented that I clearly had found my nemesis. I fully agreed. The whole situation felt a little surreal. I am not used to missing this big targets. Yet I was feeling relieved or even happy that the shot had missed completely. Wounding yet another Buffalo would have been a real disaster.
We walked to the closest road and radioed the bakkie to pick us up. While waiting for the car I was thinking what could be wrong with my shooting. I realized that I had only shot the camp gun from bench. All the shots from the sticks were at Buffalo. I took the cartridges off the magazine, crabbed the shooting sticks and set everything up to cold practice. I took plenty of practice shots this way and thought that at least it would not harm. I certainly needed practice because I was not going to give up on the Buffalo. I wanted one and I wanted to get a clean shot on it.
Surprisingly little disappointed (and maybe more focused) we started our way back to the camp. We had over an hour drive ahead of us. We had travelled some 30 minutes when suddenly an Eland ran across the road, then came another one and then something huge and blue followed. A huge Eland bull ran across the road less than a hundred meters from us. The bakkie stopped and Pierre asked whether I am interested in Eland. There was a feeling of eagerness in the bakkie. I had really not thought going after Eland on this trip as I had a monster Eland earlier in Namibia. But, since there happened to be an opportunity and I wished to end the day on a positive note (compared to the buffalo incident no 2) I crabbed my rifle and said let’s go.
The road at that point was located on top of a ridge. The Eland had run across the road with plenty of speed so we were in a hurry to catch them. We ran after them. Pierre had the sticks, I had my rifle and we were followed by Tristan (apprentice PH). After running less than 200 meters Tristan spotted the 3 Eland in an open area on the valley next to the ridge. Then we got lucky. The Eland started running back towards us. There were plenty of bushes around us and we started running to a location where there was an opening to the valley. Pierre set the sticks up, told to shoot behind the shoulder and I prepared to take the shot. The three Elands were running from our right to left. The big bull stopped behind a tree and I quickly took aim. There was a branch on the way, but I thought I could take the shot if I just aimed a little higher than usual. I estimated the distance to the bull to be 150 meters, said I will aim slightly high due to branch on the way and then I squeezed the trigger.
Everything had happened fast, but still there was enough time to think the shot at the Buffalo earlier. It’s safe to say that there was some pressure at this shot. I lowered the rifle and looked the Eland bull to run away. Had I missed?? Pierre and Tristan were both following it through their binoculars. The bull ran across the valley so we could follow it for a while. Pierre told that he could see the bull to spray blood from its’ nose when it ran. That was definitely a good sign. Then the 3 Eland disappeared behind next small hill. After a short while Tristan said that he could see the 2 smaller Eland on the next hill side but the big bull was not with them. The trackers and ranger came to us and we headed down the ridge together.
We arrived to the tracks and found blood. To me it didn’t seem pink so the question was where did I hit the bull. But there was plenty of blood. We followed the tracks to the hill where we lost the sight of the bull. Everyone else was looking at the ground and following the blood trail so I decided to look the surroundings hoping to see the bull. First I saw the other 2 Eland. They were still on the next hill apparently waiting for their comrade. Another good sign. The bull should be somewhere close by, otherwise they all would have escaped already. We continued following the blood trail. Then I could see the bull. It was laying still and would never move again.
The bull had a huge body. It was and old mature bull with worn out horns. A perfect trophy that we got since luck was on our side. Apparently this was the first shot Eland in Chewore in four years. It’s not that there are no Eland, but the Eland are free roaming, cautious and continuously on move so getting them is not easy. We also found out why these 3 Eland decided to turn around and return to us. They were part of a bigger herd that had crossed the road before we arrived to the scene. So they simply were making their way back to the rest of the herd.
The shot was perfectly were I had aimed. A little high, but due to steep angle from the ridge down to valley the shot was very good. The shot took out both lungs and exited the Eland. On the way it passed through what seemed like a meter of Eland body. Impressive performance from 275gr Swift A-Frame at distance of 150 meters. It took quite a lot of time to get the bakkie to the Eland. Finding and cutting a road down the ridge was a heavy job. Then we cut the Eland into 2 pieces and loaded it to the bakkie. It was dark when we again started to make our way back to the camp.
During the day we walked a lot after the Buffalo. Bad thing was that both my normal hiking socks were being washed and were vet due to the rain on the day before. I used thicker socks today and my feet sweat pretty badly. That caused some blisters that for sure will make walking more painful tomorrow.