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JPK's elephant hunt story relocated here.

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"30 Hunting Days, 9 Elephants"
by JPK

Returned last Wednsday morning from the hunt of a lifetime. I started a new job Friday and time is short so this report will be brief, hopefully I will insert photos tomorrow, though I'm still waiting for some to be emailed from Zimbabwe.

Outfitters for this hunt were Roger Whittall Safaris, Charlton McCollum Safaris and then Roger Whittall Safaris again. Areas hunted included Chewore South, Chete, Omay, Kwe Kwe, and Humani in the Save.

PH's were Rich Tabor of Roger Whittall Safaris in Chewore then Buzz Charlton in Chete, Omay and Kwe Kwe and then Rich again at Humani in the Save.

I hunted from Sept 14 through 29 in Chewore South with Rich Tabor. We were primarily looking for a trophy bull elephant. This wasn't the ideal time of the year for a trophy, but we had a plan and worked it hard. We didn't find our trophy bull but we had a great time and managed to shoot three tuskless, a buff, a klipspringer (with my double rifle at 75yds no less) and a zebra. We hung lion and leopard baits when it didn't interfere with our elephant hunt.

We probably could have shot a leopard which was regularly feeding but the choice came down to following bull tracks or shooting more bait and we lost the leopard opportunity to the bait going off. Trophy bull hunting and cat hunting don't mix well and we gave the cat hunting the short end of the stick. If it had worked all well and good but we were after a tophy bull.

We were so far into the back country, far beyond the last "road" in the south of Chewore, looking for good bull tracks and sign that we were walking past Kudu, klipspringers, baboons and other critters at bow hunting range - they just didn't recognize humans as a possible threat. We walked up to a 52" Kudu and his 50" pal and they just stared at us til we walked past at 30yds range.

We shot a zebra and a tuskless on Day 5. The zebra was a target of opportunity as we were headed out of camp at first light. I shot him from prone at about 160yds, and then again at about 210 or so off sticks. Photo will be inserted below.

On our way back to camp we saw a herd of 20 or so elephants a quarter mile off the road and took off after them. This began an all day hunt that was really really fun and interesting with some twist.

The herd spooked at the truck's stopping and we tracked them, catching them quickly and then parralleling their course on the down wind side looking for a tuskless. We saw one, maybe two but had difficulty makeing the approach and the elephants spooked again. We tracked them again for maybe a half hour before the headed into some very thick riverrine bush. The wind was getting ficle and we made several approaches looking for the tuskless. We found the tuskless but there was no good shot opportunity and we had to back out as a whole lot of other elephants entered the thick riverine bush.

Eventually the differnet herds spread out under shade trees and we were able to find and approach our herd. Try as we did we couldn't find a good shot opportunity that didn't put us in danger from some of the other herds resting under trees in the shade near "our" elephants. Richard suggested leaving them and returning to take up tracks at 3:00 or so after they started to move again.

We had lunch in our camp with James Rosenvelt or Western Safaris and his clients. We swapped a buff for a tuskless, since his client wan't to shoot another buff.

We were back where we left the elephants by 3:30 and they had moved, we took up the tracks and caught them in a little less than an hour. As we moved parrallel to the herd the tuskless appeared at the rear of the herd and we moved in for a twenty yard frontal brain shot. What a great day! Photo will be inserted below.

The next day, Day 6, we recovered the tuskless and then we followed bull tracks in thick riverine brush and found the bull, but he wasn't the one we were looking for. We looked at a lot of elephants, including another bull, by walking slowly and quietly through the riverine bush. We found a tuskless, but to get a shot without getting squished by the other elephants we needed her to charge. Richard tried to provoke her but she wouldn't come. Jeez, they come when you don't want them to but you can't make them when you need them to.

That afternoon we took a long scouting walk looking for bull sign in along a stretch of a river between roads. We came across a tuskless toward the end of the walk and after a discussion about the recovery options we made our approach and took a frontal brain shot at about twenty five yards. Photo will be inserted below.

We hung baits where we had seen some promising lion or leopard sign while looking for a bull and continued with our bull hunt, having the camp driver check our baits while we looked for our bull. During the hunt I saw two lions associated with our baits, but neither was mature and we didn't sit for them. Saw another six or eight lionesses and cubs and one lion in the river relaxing too. Also got a quick look at a leopard, which was a first for me. We did build a blind and sit for a leopard but he didn't feed that PM or the next AM, and we either needed to rebait or abaondon the effort. As mentioned we abandoned in favor of the elephant hunt.

We had nine more hard hunting days before deciding to spend the last day looking for another tuskless on the last day.

On Day 16 we were on cow tracks just after first light and we came across a heard of 200 or so buff. All spooked but one nice bull which held his ground forty yards from the trackers, while we were fanned out trying to decipher the cow tracks. He wasn't going to budge and clearly had an attitude problem. Since we had a bull quota we approached to 25yds or so and I killed him. Good thing too, since when we came up to him we could see that he had apparently been gored inside the left rear leg by another bull and the wound was infected and maggoty.

We recovered the buff and took the long way home, hoping to find the the elephants had crossed a road that nearly parralleled the road where we had first found there tracks. Sure enough we found fresh cow trackes and followed. We caught the elephants in about a half hour and worked parrallel to them looking for a tuskless. We found one at the front of the herd and were able to approach to 12 paces for a frontal brain shot. Photos will be inserted here.

On Sept 30 I flew from Chewore to join up with Buzz Charlton in Chete. We were hunting three tuskless elephants for ten days, at least in theory.

On Day 1 we were on tracks a bit late since we had to pick up our game scout. We tracked for three and a half hours, really long for cows, and found no tuskless. Hour and a half walk to the nearest road and our morning was finished. We took the camp boat for a scouting trip up a river drainage to the south. Lots of crocs and other game but only old elephant sign.

Day 2 had us on tracks early but again no tuskless. We took a mid day walk - and it was very hot in Chete - from shade tree to shade tree and after a couple of hours we found a herd with a tuskless. A dirct approach to fifteen yards resulted in a frontal brain shot.

We went for another boat ride to a river system to the north of camp in the evening. Saw a really pretty bushbuck and continued past, landing around a bend. We stalked back and I made the shot at about 90yds, using a lonely tree as a rest. Photos will be inserted here.

Day 3 and we were on tracks early. After two and a half hours we caught the elephants but there was no tuskless. On the way we had seen some elephants on a distant ridge and after a talk about the distances and terrain involved we went to take a look. We found no tuskless on the hill and started on a return sweep back to the truck with the sweep taking us into new territory parrallel to the track in. After about four and a half hours total time from the truck Creighton, Buzz's lead tracker saw a tuskless under a shade tree on the side of a ridge. Even with bino's Buzz had trouble seeing it, Jeez, Creighton's got some eyes.

We made our walk and then our approach and I took the frontal brain shot at about 20 yds.

On our way back to the truck, about six hours total time from the truck and about an hour more to go to get back, we heard some elephants off to our right. Buzz looked over and I knew we needed to take a look. We found the elephants in a half hour and there was a tuskless. We approached for what was going to be a difficult shot from above. The elephants spooked before we were in position, and that was probably a good thing, given the shot angles. It was about 1:30 and we were out of water so Buzz sent the guys back for water and lunch while we rested under a shade tree, After the guys got back we had a bite to eat and an hour and fifteen minutes after we spooked the elephants we took up their tracks. After thirty minutes of fantastic tracking by Creighton in difficult condition we caught the elephants and amde an approach to about fifteen yards for a frontal brain shot. WOW, WHAT A DAY! Photos will be inserted here.

We celebrated well that evening!

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