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From: Nitro (Original Message) Sent: 2/8/2002 1:41 PM
Here's one to test the nerves...

How close have you got to, or how close has dangerous game got to you?

Any of the big five from Africa, hippo, warthog, wild boar, an enraged bushbuck, a wounded sable, a hungry bear, a murderous water buffalo or even a scrub bull to make a matador quiver.

Any of them or others will do.

Not necessarily when hunting, but hunting, camping, fishing, working, prospecting, anytime.

And how did you overcome the situation, rescue yourself or react.

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Recommend Delete Message 8 of 22 in Discussion

From: Nitro Sent: 3/2/2002 12:59 AM
BigFive

I am feeling distinctly sick in the stomach!!!

A lion hunt in Ethiopia!!!

I certainly hope this turns out for you. Ethiopia used to be a fantastic game hunting location and now that it is opening again it sounds like a top place for you to operate.

Wasn't the Absynnian Emperors also called "The Lions of Judea"? Certainly the lion was a strong symbol for them. Absynnia beong the oldest Christian kingdom and one of two independent lands in Africa during the colonial era until the Italian invasion just prior to WW2. So it might just be an "imperial" lion.

Good luck and if it turns out, do some scouting and reserve one for me (also see the CZ Brno discussion thread).

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The Hollywood movie "The Ghost and the Darkness" is based loosely on the book by Colonel ?William? Patterson (I forget his first name and I am not at home at the moment), titled "The Maneaters of Tsavo". If anyone reading this and they have not read the book, I can greatly recommend it. It deals with two man eating lions which harrassed the building of the "Uganda Railway" in approx 1905 in Kenya in the Tsavo region.

The lions harassed and killed many Indian workers and through fear brought the entire railroad building to a halt. The problem was mentioned in the British Parliament. These lions also showed very unusual behaviour which is revealed towards the end of the book, which is a true story.

After Patterson who was an engineer running that part of the project finally killed the lions he was a treated as a hero, including travelling to Paris and being feted at the "Moulin Rouge". Some guys get all the luck!

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Recommend Delete Message 9 of 22 in Discussion

From: Nitro Sent: 3/2/2002 1:07 AM
Some other excellent books on the subject of maneaters, this time tigers and leopards, are by Jim Corbett. Corbett was an Englishman who was born and lived in India, and from his books had an extremely close affinity to nature and understanding of it. He refers to the "jungle folk" in his books, which means the beasts and birds of the Indian jungle, and by listening to them he was able to judge the movements of the maneaters and his relative safety etc.

The books include:
"The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag"
"The Temple Tiger"
"The Man-Eaters of Kumaon"
among others.

He was responsible for the hunting down and killing over the years of several of the more notorious man-eating tigers and leopards of Northern India. Some of these beasts were responsible for the killing of hundreds of human beings. Which is shocking and unheard of in todays scoiety.

Read them, I know you will enjoy them.

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Recommend Delete Message 10 of 22 in Discussion

From: Nitro Sent: 3/2/2002 2:16 AM
Everyone

Check out Moss' bear photo in his photo album

Nice bear.

And if you hunt with Moss and stay at his house, don't worry about looking for the game, they come looking for you!

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Recommend Delete Message 11 of 22 in Discussion

From: moss Sent: 3/2/2002 11:53 AM
The area where I live is prime habitat for black bear, the largest I seen shot was pushing 700 lbs. They say a very large black bear will have a front foot pad that measures 6 inches across. I've crossed tracks that measured 8 inches (these were not distorted tracks,mind you).
It is rare to be attacked by a black bear, it usally happens when you get between a mother and her cubs. Big males when coming out of there winter dens are very unpredictable. I've had them follow and track me for hours in the spring time..(pretty scary stuff)
They say in most instances that if you hold your ground, most bear charges are mock charges, and that they will then turn and take off. Well ok!! let me know when you catch up to me if it is true!! LOL
I read an article a couple of years ago about a rancher in the eastern part of Canada,(which is only 70 miles from my door step) who was killed by a black bear and half eaten. When retracing the ranchers steps, they found out that the bear had tracked him for four miles before taking him down.( the rancher was on house back the whole time) The problem with blacks is that they are so unpredictable! Lots of folks will feed them right out of their hands, (occasionally they'll end up having only one hand.) They are truly a powerfull beast. I've seen where they've bitten the top off a soup can, slashed a refrigerator door with their claws and one that chewed a metal lawn chair until it looked like aluminum foil ( never did figure that one out)Once I had a make shift tee pee made out of plastic set up back in the mts. From the inside you could see where a large bear had pushed just his claws through the plastic in a number of spots (like he was testing it) he never did enter the inside though!
Wounded bears like most any animal are extremely dangerous, any many people including hunters have been severely mauled. If they're looking for food they are very brazen, they'll bust into your home or automoble. I had one that tore a whole through the side of my shed. ( it was 3/4 inch thick ship lap and nailed) He just chewed and racked at it till he had a whole big enough to get a paw through, then snapped the planking untill he could fit his body in. then he tore off a perfectly good door to get out. (go figure) LOL
I have a huge living room with a 17 ft. cathedral cielings. At the moment I'm looking for a huge bear to hang on one off the large walls( something over 500lbs)
Black bears can live to around 50 years old.

moss

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Recommend Delete Message 12 of 22 in Discussion

From: moss Sent: 3/3/2002 1:53 PM
The second Time I was Charged by a dangerous animal!

I was chattin in the bar with this gourgous blond when out of no where comes this 6'2" jelous husband....Well I eyed him.........WAIT ..WAIT.....OOOOOPS .....wrong story....oh yea now I remember....he he..

We were hunting white tails on the side of moss ledges( my home away from home)The boy who is in college now was home for the weekend and it was the opening of big game season here.
It was on our second hunt, I was on watch and had a clear veiw of this little swamp to my left. The leaves were still on the trees and I had sat down on a deer runway. The boy was still hunting in my direction and had been working the knolls for about 30 minutes coming towards me. I heard a large crack and looking to my left, eyed a bear bolting across the swamp. He totally had beaten me ( I didn't have time to even raise my rifle) I keep peering though the brush hopeing I'd see him. Out of the brush he stepped and onto the very runway I sat on. He looked back across the swamp as my cross hairs found his shoulder. He was only 25 yds and hadn't seen me.I touched off the rifle and instantly knew it was a clean hit. However he bolted straight at me. I never had a chance to fire again as he covered the 25 yds in a flash. I jumped into the brush and quickly just pointed the gun at him.He bolted again trying to escape father down the runway. He went 20 more yds before finally going down. I'm not sure that he knew that I was on the runway when I fired the first shot. Talk about nearly sh**ing my pants.. I was laughing but I think it was because of fear! I'm still not sure if I froze in the brush or things happened so fast that I didn't get off the second shot.
I think he was running dead on his feet but it does seem that he stopped and quickly looked at me before bolting the final time.From the time of the first shot to the final end probally took less then 5 seconds.

My boy keeps telling me sometimes you get the bear.....sometimes the bear gets you...."dang little whippersnapper"!!

LOL
moss

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Recommend Delete Message 13 of 22 in Discussion

From: Nitro Sent: 3/3/2002 4:13 PM
Moss

what is more dangerous? A 6 ft 2 jealous husband of a gorgeous blonde at 2 feet, or a black bear coming at you at 25 yards?

Mmmmm. Hard to tell. (Or the enraged she-bear wife later on!!!)

You said you weren't sure whether the bear even knew you were there when he entered the ledge, but in the end it doesn't matter. If you didn't get out of his way, just because he didn't know you were there at first wouldn't stop him taking a chunk out of you on the way past.

I've had a similar experience with a deer, which after I shot it in heavy brush he ran uphill to escape, and just happened to run straight at me. He certainly wasn't coming at me, just trying to get away. When he saw me at about two metres he swerved around and then died about 10 metres further in the very heavy brush.

It makes you think though. IF he WAS a dangerous animal, he would have got me, as I fumbled the loading of the second bullet, and wasn't loaded when he was a couple of metres away. A good justification for using the most powerful round you can handle and also a good double rifle if hunting dangerous game and especially when real close.

Good Hunting

Nitro

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Recommend Delete Message 14 of 22 in Discussion

From: Nitro Sent: 4/3/2002 12:22 AM
I should finish what I started!

The two times the closest dangerous game came to me. Again neither was hunting, but if you're not armed well, I think they are pretty damgerous then.

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Canoeing on the Zambezi on the Zambian side. We were very lucky in that there was just the two of us, my wife and myself on the tour plus the river guide, who was actually a Zimb PH temporarily out of work. Two canoes only, the river guide in one and my wife and myself in the second.

The river guide forgot the life vests (idiot !!!!) and my wife can't swim. So we had to stay closer to shore in case of a capsize than usual.

Saw lots of game, crocs, elephant (see the one on the home page who just pushed down the tree), bush buck etc. Plus some hippo. I've got a nice picture of a very evil red eyed hippo that was only 20 metres or so away (will look for it an post it). This hippo was standing about 25 metres from the bank on a sand bar. The river guide went through very fast. Before going through I stopped to take a photo (yes the one I will post) and then paddled to get through. Shouldn't have stopped as stopping meant I went through a LOT slower. Two Africans came to watch and see if two stupid white Muzungo tourists were about to get stomped. Luckily he just glared at us and we went our separate ways.

Hippos are the biggest killers of humans in Africa.

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Recommend Delete Message 15 of 22 in Discussion

From: Nitro Sent: 4/3/2002 12:39 AM
The closest though was very close.

In Ambroselli Park at the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro in Kenya.

We set up camp in the camping ground which is unfenced and there was signs saying "Do not keep food in your tents."

Was there for several days. The first night we sat around the fire and then all of us except two went to bed. These two were sitting in the shadows and as soon as everyone in sight was gone, in came the elephants into camp looking for food. They told us about this the next morning.

The next night I tried sleeping with my head outside the tent as I wanted to see this, but I had this irrational thought about a hyaena grabbing hold of my head and dragging me off. Not conclusive to a good nights sleep so eventually I crawled inside. Yes the elephants did come into camp again later on.

The third and last night, I was lying in my sleeping bag and heard this "ssssshhhh" "ssssshhhh" sound. Unzipped the bag and stuck my head outside. Two elephants were in camp and banging the pots and pans around, nosing them for food. One even stood right over the embers of the campfire and was perfectly lit from below.

Next morning had a look at the ground beside the tent. The tents were in a row, with only about a metre and a half between them, with the support ropes criss-crossing the gap. Elephant tracks right between my tent and the next. The "sssshhhh" "sssshhhh" sound was compacting sand under the elephants feet and they were very quiet.

So the elephants feet would have been less than a metre and a half from my head in the tent. Imagine what that would have looked like had not the tent fabric been in the way. Lying flat and looking up right at the belly of a wild elephant.

These elephants were also dangerous and not to be approached on foot closely.

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The next morning I went for a walk to a neighbouring camp to photograph the ele's in a field feeding. This camp was about 200 metres away in the bush, the elephants in the open grass field beyond.

On the way back stopped behind a bush to relieve my bladder. Heard a noise behind me and looking over another bush only 2 metres behind me, another elephant. His/her trunk upraised sniffing the air over the bush (he was on the other side of the bush). As you can imagine I backtracked quickly (but not paniced) and left the ele to the field. Lucky the toilet stop was standing up otherwise it could have been messy!

Nitro

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Recommend Delete Message 16 of 22 in Discussion

From: redbeard Sent: 4/3/2002 3:37 PM
The meanest game that i have ever come across was when i piss off the little women,the second meanest was a tree rat that i had shot off his nose with a 22.Not much in mean game where i am from.I would rather dance with a bear than the little women with a hot flash

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From: NitroExpressCom Sent: 4/3/2002 10:37 PM

This is the evil eyed Zambezi hippo

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Recommend Delete Message 18 of 22 in Discussion

From: Bigfive Sent: 4/3/2002 11:09 PM
Nitro, why is that every oppertunity like this you don't have your trusty .375H&H with you?

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Recommend Delete Message 19 of 22 in Discussion

From: NitroExpressCom Sent: 4/4/2002 12:40 AM
B5

Don't know where the 375 was. Must have it with next time. The Guide had a 44 magnum, in camp I believe! And a 460 Wby Mag, but many kilometres away.

Some of the countryside was Zambia National Parks and unlike Zimb PHs aren't allowed to carry longarms there. Only a pistol. Only the army is allowed to hunt in the Parks there and did especially for elephant.

The first canoe safari this company did, they did take up the option of having an armed guard supplied by the Parks. He turned up with an AK47 with out any sights and ONE (1) bullet !!!!!!!! So they declined an armed guard after that.

The last camp on an island had hunting lions, roaring away in the night and then silent when they started hunting. The tents were also several hundred metres through winding foot paths in the dark and the area was "crawling" with buffalo - during dinner several buff were feeding within 50 metres of us. Luckily didn't walk into any on the way to the clients sleeping tents.

Fun time anyway.

Nitro

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Recommend Delete Message 20 of 22 in Discussion

From: redbeard Sent: 4/4/2002 12:29 PM
I under stand hippo's have killed more people than any game in africa.Watch a video of tink hitting one with a bow and the guide had to finish it with a rifle 4 shots it took.Arrow just made it mad

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Recommend Delete Message 21 of 22 in Discussion

From: Bigfive Sent: 4/4/2002 3:33 PM
Game ranger friend of mine who used to work in the Kruger National Park showed me photos of a man killed by a hippo once and it looked more like a lions work.The body of the late illegal immegrant(they come trough the park from Mosambique)was bitten in half.And this happened about 5km from the nearest water.

Yes Redbeard they are officially the biggest man killers of all animals in Africa

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Recommend Delete Message 22 of 22 in Discussion

From: Nitro Sent: 4/4/2002 9:19 PM
This hippo actually looked a lot bigger in real life than it does in the photo!

I have enlarged the photo a little for effect, but in the flesh you see the evil red glint in his eyes and malice about intruding into his territory. From memory he was 20 metres away, certainly less than 35 metres..

His? B5, do you know how you distinguish between the sexes for hippo?

What we were relying on when passing the hippo was that it is usually dangerous to be between hippo and deep water (ie their escape route). This was the opposite direction to us. But you never know. He might do nothing as this one did, flee into deeper water, or try to take very big bites out of us.

For example getting out of the canoe on a steep bank and crawling up a well walked game trail could be a problem if a hippo was feeding on the bank above you. And they move fast on land, having seen one run I believe it was in Malawi.

Hippo also used to feed on the grass around the tents at the canoe safaris base camp. Along with an insane elephant called Patches which I will leave for another time.

Later we pass on island in the Zambezi using the lesser (Northern) channel, and I managed to photograph a nice crocodile from 15 metres. But before this we spotted a small young hippo calf that had been mauled by crocodiles with large white strip flesh wounds on its sides and back. It ran along a grassy patch and jumped into deep water below us. The guide spent a lot of time looking for it, too and fro as he thought it very unusual for the mother not to be nearby.

Perhaps the hippos to worry about are the ones not seen, under your boat or canoe.

Nitro

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