Forums.NitroExpress.com

I shot my Cape along with a Tuskless last Sept with Butch Coaton of Roger Whittall Safaris in the Chewore South concession in Zimbabwe, I shot my Buff with a 400H&H and a 370gr CEB NC leaving the barrel at 2450fps. Here is the Buff excerpt from a hunt report I gave.....
Day 3 57*f-104*f steady winds...
By 8:00 we were in the same herd hard in the Jess by the Angwa River and by 9:30 they were bedding down for the morning, we backed out and piled in the truck to drive and look. We had not gone far when the boys in the back spotted two Dagga Boys on a hill side, Butch kept the truck rolling and continued to drive around the corner and up towards the ridge where we came to a stop and kitted up. With the wind blowing steady in our faces we started our approach perhaps 30 minutes later we came to the ridge line that the Boys had seen the bulls and found fresh tracks. After a quiet discussion one of the trackers moved off to the right staying with the tracks and we stayed on the ridge. We had not moved more than 40 yards when the tracker with us froze and slowly pointed, perhaps 50 yards in front was one of the bulls laying down looking directly at us. Slowly the tracker with us lay down on his side and with a small 4' bush between us and the bull Butch slowly advanced with me on his heels, one step, two, maybe three and froze. His glasses slowly came up and he studied the bull for what seemed like ages. He started to move his sticks when the bull stood up looking hard at us. Butch whispered over his shoulder asking if I was comfortable shooting offhand. I shoot left handed and not wanting to break our outline I took a half a step laterally with my left foot leaned slightly out to the left raised my gun and pressed the trigger. The bush exploded I slammed another round into the chamber and started to swing on the bull as he was moving left to right I vaguely saw a second shape behind my bull and thought I heard Butch yell don't shoot as I was pressing the trigger for a second time. I pushed hard with my forward hand and the round went in front I cycled the action again only to feel the bolt stopping a third of the way forward a quick glance showed a jammed round I ripped out the round cycled the action and the noise stopped. The pair ran down hill stopping 70 yards away my bull slowly went down while his mate lingered I topped of my magazine spun off my scope and handed it to my wife and followed Butch down the hill. At our approach the second bull ran and I put the assurance round into the downed bull's chest. As the sound from the final shot died we could see his mate standing on the next ridge outlined by the morning sky looking over his nose, ears, horns, shoulders one last look and he was gone.

I had half expected a battle when I was mentally and physically preparing for my Buff hunt and was somewhat surprised at the outcome, one shot to the chest and an assurance shot.

Besides the Gods smiling I feel that the PH put me in the right place and that the rifle and bullet did what was expected. I saw plenty of Buff in the Jess a nose here a couple of feet and a chest there. It would have been hard to have pulled the trigger with confidence with a PH telling me to shoot at the black spot next to the green leaf.
My ramblings lead me to the conclusion that any animal wild or domestic that is not respected can be dangerous, any hunting situation where a bullet is placed poorly (and were all due one or two)especially with an animal over a 1000lbs can lead to an outcome that is not of our choosing. Which is more challenging Cape or Water I hope to find out one of these days...

Post Extras