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What a way to start the hunt. The following day went out to the river area. The whole river area was covered with 7+ foot high reeds. The river was more a series of long water holes. While checking one waterhole out we saw a 1.5 mt croc and shortly after a 5mt crock in the morning.

After lunch back to one of the waterholes we checked in the morning and a pod of Hippo’s were there. So we are in a small clearing in the reeds on soft, uneven (read potholed) ground. A hippo was selected and when a side brain shot was presented, she was shot. Distance 5 mts. She dropped like a rock. I am told they take about an hour to float. We could see there was movement under the water. Apparently other Hippo’s trying to get the dead one to move.

While we were still standing where I took the shot from a great mass of floating weed and grass shot up about 3 feet, with a loud noise, about 2 meters from us. I cannot remember swing the rifle or shouldering it and looking through the scope. The black fellas made it to solid ground in no time flat. This happened a couple of times, was just a Hippo coming up for air, not charging us as we all assumed to stary with. The only reason I did not crap myself was my sphincter muscle was to scared to move. :rofl:

On the way back to camp we saw a herd of over 200 Buff. While I was watching them Fred was watching one in the buss about 30mts from us. He pointed her out to me and she was giving us the “You owe me money” look. When she moved we could see her left rear leg was injured. The Game Scout contacted his office to see if they wanted us to shoot it. After 20 minutes and no decision we left it. Shortly after we came across the carcass of a smaller buff killed by Lions. Surmised the cow buff had been injured by them.

We decided to come back the following morning to retrieve the carcass. On the way out we saw a herd of Zebra. At that time the wind was in our favour so we stalked the herd, but the wind was all over the place after. After half an hour we gave up.

On reaching the place I had shot the Hippo we found it floating about 5 mts from she was shot with crock teeth marks on her hide. With the use of a canoe, snatch straps, vehicle winch, a bit of digging and use of the Cruiser in low range the Hippo was pulled up onto the bank. A second vehicle came out with us and the cut up Hippo was loaded onto that. Some of the skin was about 35mm thick. Still looking for those photos.

You can see the side of the Hippo left hand center of pic.

Where we found the Hippo in the morning. She was shot about 5 mts to the left of where we found the carcass.

Fred and self with the cow hippo.

After lunch went looking for a Zebra again. About 15 mins into the drive a heard was found about 130mts off the track, we bailed out of the Cruiser behind a bush and the driver drove on about 400 mts. With the rifle on the sticks, and carful aim I fired. As I did the sticks sunk into the ground, and the stallion reared up on hind legs then dropped. The bullet hit a bit high and forward of where I was aiming, so put a second shot in to finish the job. The Zebra was winched/lifted into the back of a second vehicle that was called up and taken back to camp.

The rifle is a Remington M17 converted to 358/338RUM. The 225 grain Woodleigh PP are running around 3200FPS at Muzzle.

One Burchell's Zebra

Edited by Rule303 (24/12/25 08:20 AM)

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