African Hunter Volume 20#1

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African Hunter Vol. 20 No. 1

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African Hunter Vol. 20 No. 1


FEATURE

Buffalo Quest....................................... 10 Iimre, a Rhino Success Story................ 28

Volume 20 No 1 - 2014

Hunter's Gallery

Various Hunters and their Trophies.................................... 34

Photo: Dave Christensen

In This Issue Fact File

Isigidi Issue

Obituary

Troubleshooting Your Shooting............ 25

Isigidi is the Xhosa name for a lion (Panthera leo), the male of which may approach 600 pounds in weight, and is the world’s second-largest cat. The current range extends throughout large tracts of sub-Saharan Africa, with an endangered remnant population remaining in the Gir Forest National Park of India. Until about 10,000 years ago, the lion was probably the most widespread large land mammal after humans. Lions live an average of ten years in the wild though if it were not for constant fighting between rival males, the life span would most likely increase by around fifty percent. They are most common in savanna and grassland habitats, although they also occur in dense bush and forest. Unusually social compared to other cats, a pride of lions is comprised of related females and offspring and a small number of adult males. Though normally regarded as apex predators, as much as half of their food comes from scavenging carrion when the opportunity presents itself. Lions are primarily nocturnal, and very active in the evening and pre-dawn, being also crepuscular in nature. They are at their most dangerous as far as humans are concerned when the sun has gone down. Throughout their sub-Saharan range, lion populations are rapidly decreasing as a result of direct competition with man for a rapidly-shrinking habitat. Sadly, this decline is being seized on by anti-hunting activists as a reason to prohibit hunting of the species - which would undoubtedly put them further at threat from poachers and rural farmers who will illegally kill them to protect their livestock from predation. In Kenya, where sport hunting has been banned since 1977, the lion population is on the verge of extinction - by some estimates, within the next five years. In neighbouring Tanzania, where the animals are given a value and protected on the ground by safari operators’ anti-poaching efforts, the lion population in Tanzania is not endangered. Tanzania has an estimated 16,800 lion, perhaps forty percent of all lion left in Africa, and certainly the largest population in the world. Their numbers are stable there. Trophy hunting generated roughly $75 million for Tanzania’s economy between 2008 and 2011, so there is a clear cause and effect demonstrated between sport hunting and the conservation of a species.

Taking the Initiative - The Bumi Hills Anti-Poaching Unit.............................. 31

The African Hunter is published six times per annum by Mag-Set Publications in association with African Sporting Publications South Africa

Butterflies of Southern Africa........... 32 Brian Marsh - 1928-2014..................... 41

Tailpiece

Banning Hunting is the Easiest way to Eliminate Wildlife................................ 42

The Central African Republic Part III Sudanese Elephant Poachers & Duiker........................................... 38

REGULAR COLUMNS From The Editor....................... 4 On Target................................... 6

Bush Medicine

Ebola, in a Nutshell..............................8

Hunting Optics

The Leica Geovid HD B..................... 14

AFRICAN PERSPECTIVES The Mr X Files A Cut Above............................................. I Book Review A Field Manual for Anti-Poaching Activities............................................... III Cal on Doubles By Cal Pappas........................................IV Tales From the Great North Road Frederick Joubert Duquesne - Scout, Hunter, Soldier, Spy..............................VI

Rangecraft Update

D E PA R T M E N T S

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF - Anthony M. Williams EDITOR - I. J. Larivers. USA PUBLISHING CONSULTANT - Bill Quimby. WEST AFRICA FIELD EDITOR - Cam Greig PROFESSIONAL AFRICAN ADVISORS - Andy Hunter, Phil Oosthuysen, Charl Grobbelaar, Dirk De Bod, Pieter Bothma. TECHNICAL ADVISORS - Saeed Al-Maktoum, Charlie Haley (Forensic Ballistics), Ganyana (Ecologist), Cal Pappas (Double Rifles), Dr. Don Heath (Norma). FIELD EDITOR AT LARGE - Edd Woslum (Big Game Rifle Manufacturer). ZIMBABWE SUBSCRIPTION/ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES - Kylee. Mag-Set Publications (Pvt) Ltd. P O Box 6204, Harare, Zimbabwe, Africa, Telephone (+263 - 4) 572786 / 7 E-mail: fishunt@zol.co.zw. SOUTH AFRICA ADVERTISING AND DISTRIBUTION ENQUIRIES - Mickey African Sporting Publications - P.O. Box 10447, Aston Manor, 1630 RSA. Fax: (+27 11) 396 2729, 2526107, Fax to e-mail: (+27) 865429407, Cell: (+27) 846555044. E-mail: adhunt@mweb. co.za. “COPYRIGHT. Copyright of all material is expressly reserved and nothing may be reproduced in part or whole without the express permission of the publishers. While every care is taken to ensure the accuracy of editorial content, the publishers do not accept responsibility for omissions, errors, or their consequences. Views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the publishers, their distributors or representatives, the editor or the represented body. GENERAL. The editor welcomes contributions submitted for publication in the African Hunter. All work submitted is considered to be done so on a voluntary basis without expectation of financial compensation. Contributors maintain ownership of their work and may publish it elsewhere. By submitting material for publication, authorisation is given to edit for content, clarity or brevity. By submitting copyrighted material for review, authorisation is given to reproduce excerpts from the submitted material in connection review purposes. Although all possible care is taken with material submitted, the editor cannot take responsibility for lost articles and photographs. The African Hunter reserves the right to all material used and the right to re-publish such material at their discretion. The publishers reserve the right to deny the publication of any work for any reason.” Warning! Hunting is potentially dangerous. Hand loading and gun smithing hints, recommendations and data contained in this magazine are offered as a reference only, and relate to an individual's weapon and experience. While it may be safe in that weapon, it may not be in others. Neither the author, nor publishers are responsible for the use or abuse of this data, or the consequences thereof.

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From the Editor

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enya has recently announced plans to lower taxes related to the tourism industry in an attempt to boost tourism in the face of instability, unrest and steadily-declining populations of many species of wildlife. Entry fees for Amboseli and Nakuru national parks have been decreased, and Mombasa’s airport fees are being reduced by 40%. All airline tickets sold by Kenyan agencies will be free of VAT. At the same time, in Zimbabwe, the previous exemption of the tourist industry from VAT charges will expire in January of 2015, meaning that foreign visitors can expect to have accommodation and tourism services increase by 15% across the board. Francis Ngwenya, the president of the Zimbabwe Council for Tourism, said a 15% increase on prices would be extremely disruptive and detrimental to the industry, and would almost certainly stop growth in its tracks. But hey, why stop the gravy train there? The Victoria Falls town council has introduced a tourism tax on top of the hefty US$40 entrance fee to get into the Victoria Falls national park, to help the council pay off its debt to the central government. It is rumoured that Zimbabwe National Parks will soon include the Goose That Laid the Golden Egg (Victima stultitia) to its list of critically endangered species, possibly facing imminent extinction.

During a bit of downtime recently, I was re-reading one of my all-time favourite books, Game Wars, by the late Marc Reisner. For those who aren’t familiar with the title, the book chronicles Dave Hall, a legendary US Fish and Wildlife undercover investigator who took down poachers, corrupt politicians, and even an offshoot of the Hells Angels in his day. (With a plethora of good reads available these days in a similar vein, such as Jay Dobyns’ No Angel and Michael Levine’s Deep Cover, it is perhaps worth remembering John E Perry who was a law enforcement agent employed by the then US Biological Survey, which later became the US Fish and Wildlife Service. He is today regarded as the founding father of undercover law enforcement operations in the United States, which he carried out in the 1930s against wildlife violators. The CW is that he was the first law enforcement officer to conduct undercover operations, full stop. In other words, the FBI, ATF and DEA today all probably owe their undercover mindset to a game warden who thought outside the box.) But Dave Hall, despite his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, is still a good ole boy southerner with an abiding respect for wildlife and the environment and an intimate knowledge of the Dark Side of the game, which he spent his life fighting - and he was at the time Game Wars was written, a hunter. Queried on this seeming anomaly by

Reisner, he said "I've heard that kind of bullbleep [that they won't hunt anymore] from a lot of game wardens too. If I quit hunting, man, I'd probably turn into one of those antis who want to close it all down too. But you wouldn't stop poaching. And if I quit I'd be no good at my job. If you're a game warden you've got to hunt to understand how a goose thinks. Then, when you've got goose hunters around you know what they're doing because you know what the geese are doing. You show me a game warden who's so correct he won't hunt and fish anymore, and I'll show you he ain't worth a damn at the job." Food for thought for the legion of activists and “eco-warriors”out there who can’t differentiate sport hunting from poaching, methinks.

My friend Johan Marais - if you don’t have his Complete Guide to Snakes of Southern Africa, Snakes and Snake Bite, What’s That Snake?, and A Complete Guide to the Reptiles of Southern Africa, you’re missing some of the best herp books on the continent - recently sent me a photo taken on a field trip to northern Mozambique. It is of an elephant pitfall trap, dug along a remote bush pathway. It is some three metres deep, with sheer sides than no elephant could escape from. A crude sharpened stick protrudes from the bottom. The obvious savagery and barbarity of such an endeavour notwithstanding, it is perhaps symbolic of a categorical

The African Hunter Magazine is published six times per annum as a service to the world-wide hunting fraternity. The magazine is dedicated to the conservation of the wildlife resources of Africa through practical management and sustainable utilization. We are committed to promoting ethical hunting practices based on the concept of fair chase, and the fostering of goodwill among all beneficiaries of these resources. http://www.africanhunteronline.com Page 4

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contradiction. For the amount of work and effort that was put into its construction, by people who choose to avoid doing productive labour in favour of criminal enterprise, could achieve truly meaningful things if properly directed. Instead, this enterprise is channelled at exterminating a protected species for a fast buck. Fortunately, this sort of primitive trap is not common throughout Africa.

Kendall Jones is the latest hunter to have caused great controversy by posting hunt photos on social media. She took some really nice trophies on a wholly legal and wholly ethical African safari, and contributed financially and meaningfully toward the conservation of those same species. Sadly, 130,000 misguided petitioners caused Facebook to timidly remove the photos. 130,000 people is approximately 0.0001% of Facebook’s subscribers, which is disturbing. When I was at university, word got out that Lt William Calley - of My Lai massacre fame - was to be a guest speaker on campus. His appearance was cancelled after a vociferous protest by what was, again, a minority. That pissed me off. Not that I would have gone to hear Calley in the first place - I was pissed off because a small cadre of my peers believed that they were my moral conscience, and could make enough noise to ultimately make it so. I say “misguided” above because one of Kendall Jones’s “trophies” was a rhinoceros which had to be darted for other

African Hunter Vol. 20 No. 1

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reasons, and which she was able to “shoot” on a “green” hunt - the animal was unharmed. But from the morally outraged postings, it was clear to me that intelligibly a third of the aggrieved bleaters hadn’t gotten that far. They saw the picture of huntress and rhino and leapt upon their soap boxes in full cry, bemoaning the slaughter of such a fine animal, &c., &c. We all know the old jokes about needing to see the pictures to understand the story, and that’s also a little disturbing. Of course, all the old hackneyed stats about an elephant being killed every fifteen minutes in Africa and so on were brought to the fore. Many of them are true, but they refer to poaching, not legal and regulated sport hunting. As we know, the reason the numbers of many species of wild animals are increasing in Africa today is because of sport hunting, but that is because we’ve bothered to go beyond looking at the pictures, and learn the truth. The first world mindset is the first world mindset, and the African realities are the African realities, and never the twain shall meet.

I J Larivers

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On Target Dear Editor Another recent and tragic crocodile attack at Lake Kariba has generated a spate of media activity and some emotive and often ill-informed calls for the removal of large numbers of this species from the Lake and other inland waters. While fully aware of the tragedy of this particular situation, Wild Zambezi wishes to underline the need for a rational response to any such wildlife scenario. Crocodiles are wild and potentially dangerous to humans, as are elephant, lion, buffalo and hippo and a whole host of other species found in the African wild. However, we need to get things into perspective. In almost all cases, wild creatures are afraid of humans and will only attack us if frightened, provoked, wounded, starving or breeding. Our problem is that since we aren’t all animal behaviour experts, we can’t always tell when an animal is frightened, provoked, wounded, starving or breeding. The harsh reality is that we often unwittingly put ourselves in situations that can provoke an attack. We can reduce risk by educating ourselves about wild animals and their habits, and also by employing a good deal of precaution and common sense at all times. In the particular case of crocodiles in Lake Kariba, it is advisable to: • Remember that there are always crocodiles in the lake, even if you can’t see them; • Remember that the main diet of crocodiles is fish, but they are cunning opportunists and will ambush prey that “offers itself up” to them on land or in the water; • Never swim or wade in water along the lakeshore; • Stay well away from the water’s edge at the lakeshore at all times of the day, but particularly in the late afternoon and evening, which is the favoured hunting time for crocodiles. Remember that they are able to propel at least one third of their body length out of the water at high speed to catch prey at the water’s edge.

• When fishing never wash your hands in the water over the side of the boat – carry a bucket of water on board instead. Try not to leave a keep-net full of fish in the water at the side of a boat for too long or it may attract crocodiles. Be extremely vigilant when retrieving a keep-net, a hooked fish or a snagged line, and be particularly cautious when mooring boats either on land or tying to a tree-stump in the lake, and lastly avoid gutting fish off the back of boats or houseboat, which will attract crocodiles. • Be particularly cautious during the period June-August during the approach to the crocodile breeding season when crocodiles can become very aggressive in defending territories or the rights to females. • Do not panic. Crocodile attacks do not happen often, and sensible precautions should keep you safe. The African Fisherman magazine online has recently posted two very interesting and insightful blogs about crocodiles. Read them here: “Crocodiles – A Perspective” and “Crocodile Attack on Humans – or Vice Versa?” Sally Wynn Wild Zambezi Dear Editor I have put my oar into the furore surrounding the Texan cheerleader and her hunting by writing: May I suggest that those who don’t comprehend the difference between controlled trophy hunting and rampant poaching read the balanced narratives in the quality magazine African Hunter. We may prefer to shoot wild animals with cameras rather than rifles, but we MUST understand the dynamics of both options. Most iconic wild creatures being poached are used by ignorant Middle and Far – Eastern citizens who believe body parts of these creatures will enhance their lives or libidos. That is where the problems lie. No market, no poaching. So, go to Vietnam, for instance, and convince those who use rhino horn that it’s almost pure keratin of no medicinal relevance whatsoever, or at least use the Internet for the same purpose.

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Best Regards, and keep up your campaign! You may lose the odd battle and still win the war! Dave Scott Many thanks for a clear and concise interpretation in a nutshell! How often in the past month have I heard or seen that “an elephant is killed in Africa every fifteen seconds”, with no one seeming to comprehend the difference in “killed” between sustainable use and poaching. There is a head-on clash between the First World mindset and the Third World reality - Editor

Dear Editor There have been many media reports about crocodiles killing people in Kariba. This has sent a panic wave to would-be travellers as they fear for their safety. The true position is that the number of crocs in the lake has increased over time and as such we regard all the lake’s waters as infested with crocodiles. The bulk of those attacked are locals who disregard the basic safety precautions with regards to crocodiles. The tourism industry is very much aware of the inherent dangers posed by the crocs and always ensures clients are safe as well as well-informed. Those wishing to travel are reminded that Kariba remains a safe destination with a lot to offer to the travellers, but just like any other destination, there is need to observe and abide by the basic safety precautions. Maxton Kanhema Kariba Tourism Services Given the chance, crocodiles will eat people. It’s in their job description. They are not to blame when someone is taken, and it is up to the visitor to take relevant safety precautions at all times - Editor Dear Editor Thank you for publishing such a fine magazine as African Hunter. Every year I receive a subscription from my friends in Zimbabwe. Your Volume 19 Number 2 issue had an article on the .458 African. I also have a copy of Pierre van der Walt's book African African Hunter Vol. 20 No. 1


Dangerous Game Cartridges. After reading the article and the .458 African chapter of the book I have decided to build myself one of these for my next hunt in Zimbabwe which is scheduled for winter of 2015. Actually I will be paying a gunsmith to do the work and create the rifle of my dreams. The reason I am writing is to find out if there is any way I can communicate with Pierre van der Walt? Would you be so kind as to forward this email to him and ask him to contact me, via email. I want to make sure I have interpreted his writings and specifications correctly before starting this project. Any assistance you can provide which will help me get this right the first time will be greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future. Ron Popp USA

came from Redding, also from USA but purchased in South Africa. www.redding-reloading.com. Their catalogue price is (I think) US$ 180.00, and they also supply the case holder. Cases were bought in South Africa with Norma .404 Jeffery cases costing me about US$4.00 each! I actually have no field experience with the .458 African yet but it performs beautifully on the range with various loads from 400 grain up to 550 grain bullets, both lead and jacketed, loaded to various velocities. Very accurate

and consistent chronograph results. Although this cartridge can be loaded to get a 500 grain bullet out at 2300fps or more, I will load to 2150 - 2200fps as I feel that that is more than adequate for my needs and less punishing to fire! I have built one rifle on an FN Mauser action and another on a Remington 700. Minor modifications are needed to get the cartridge to feed well but apart from the reaming not very complicated. Ken Worsley Zimbabwe

Dear Editor Reference the .458 African conversion: My reamers for the .458 African were purchased from America, from Dave Manson Reamers. www. mansonreamers.com. With pilot bearing and two headspace gauges this cost me US$300.00. My dies

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Bush Medicine

EBOLA, IN A NUTSHELL By I J Larivers

Ebola virus virion by CDC Cynthia Goldsmith - Public Health Image Library

A

lert: As of 19 August 2014 any travellers who have visited Ebola-affected countries during the last 30 days will be denied entry into Botswana. These countries currently include Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Liberia. Additions may be made to this list should the outbreak spread. The above measure has been implemented by the Botswana Ministry of Health to reduce the“ risk of spreading the disease.� Despite the fact that the ebola outbreak in West Africa does not affect East and Southern Africa. The continent of Africa is made up of 54 sovereign, independent countries. Just to put distances in perspective, Spain is situated closer to the affected West African countries than Botswana in the southern part of the continent. But panic is panic, and panic usually stems from misunderstanding. So... At the end of July, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta issued a pre-emptive warning to discourage all non-essential travel to the West African countries currently experiencing the worst outbreak so far of the dreaded ebola virus - Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Concurrent with this was a declaration of a public health emergency by the Sierra Leone government and the introduction of enhanced medical screening for travellers entering neighbouring Ghana.

Bushmeat - Ghana by Wikiseal - Own work

First discovered in 1976 in the Sudan and the then Zaire - though hindsight being 20/20, there were outbreaks recorded much earlier that are now known for what they were - ebola is possibly the worst hemorrhagic fever the world has ever known. Caused by four viruses of the genus Ebolavirus, the onset of symptoms is typically between two days and three weeks after contracting the virus, with a fever, sore throat, muscle pains, and headaches. Typically nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea follow, along with decreased functioning of the liver and kidneys. The virus may be contracted on contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected animal - commonly fruit bats of the species Hypsignathus monstrosus, Epomops franqueti, and Myonycteris torquata, primates, and other mammals including humans. Transmission between these natural reservoir species and humans is rare, and outbreaks are usually traceable to a single case where an individual has handled the carcass of gorilla, chimpanzee, or duiker. Fruit bats are also eaten by people in parts of West Africa. With the exception of the current 2014 West African outbreak, less than a thousand people per year have been diagnosed with the disease, though the tropical regions of sub-Saharan Africa where the virus is endemic are characterised by large rural populations and the lack of a well-developed health care infrastructure, so the true epidemiology is likely unknown. Male ebola survivors are potentially able to transmit the virus as an STD through their semen for a period of up to two months after recovery. The incubation period of the ebola virus varies from two days to three weeks, and personal contact with infected persons or their body fluids and secretions is believed to be the principal mode of transmission. Airborne transmission has not been documented to date. Being a viral, and not bacterial disease, prophylaxis by vaccine is difficult if not impossible, though there are urgent efforts ongoing to try and develop some sort of serum that would be effective against ebola. Treatment is largely

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symptomatic, encompassing oral and intravenous re-hydration therapy and the use of antibiotics to curb secondary infection. It is estimated that between 50%-90% of those who contract ebola will die of the disease, making it one of the world’s deadliest. Preventative measures include attempting to decrease the spread of

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disease from the natural reservoir by culling infected animals and properly disposing of the remains where possible. Encouraging villagers to properly cook meat may also be helpful. Quarantine measures have been known to reduce the spread of ebola outbreaks. Anyone visiting outbreak areas,

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especially if they are going to be travelling to the rural locales, and particularly if they will be coming into contact with wildlife, is strongly advised to have a comprehensive medical insurance and evacuation insurance plan in place, such as those offered by Global Rescue https://www.globalrescue.com or International SOS https://www. internationalsos.com to ensure an efficient and effective response should they believe they may have come into contact with the disease.

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Feature

Buffalo Quest By Robert F Zaiglin

As professional hunter Brent Hein and tracker William methodically followed the spoor of four dagga boys deep into a sea of mopani, I stooped down and placed my finger into one of the bovine’s patties. The warmth radiating up my arm indicated that we were close, real close. Moments later, a heavy-horned bull with horns extending a hand’s width beyond its ears appeared, staring at us at less than thirty paces, and Brent whispered, “Shoot him in the neck”, but as I slowly raised my .375, the bull began to run, but not before the crack of my rifle shattered the quiescent morning.

A

fter twenty hours on three different airlines, I was ready to plant my feet onto the tarmac at the J M Nkomo International Airport in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe on 9 July. Once a rustic, corrugated metal-roofed structure, it now portrayed a more modern design, and with renovation came more efficient handling procedures for entering the country. Within a half hour, my wife Jan, younger daughter Nan, and I were through customs, and loading our gear into our good friend Frank Reynolds’ van for the three-hour drive south to the Bubye Valley Conservancy. By dark we had arrived at Fimbiri Camp to enjoy our third trip to the Bubye over the last four years. As camp staff delivered luggage to our thatched roofed huts, we enjoyed visiting with PH Brent Hein and his trackers William and Reggie. The bush is a wonderful place to catch up on what has been happening in our lives as well as what to expect over the next ten days. With gear stowed away followed by a warm shower, we enjoyed a three-course meal and some therapeutical time around the campfire before turning in. Following breakfast on day one, we departed camp, which was located on top of a series of kopjes overlooking a vast expanse of veld. The cold air hitting me squarely in the face was a welcome respite from the excessive heat in Texas. Around 08.00, an old bull giraffe was spotted, and William handed Jan her 7mm while grabbing the sticks to follow Brent into the bush. Moments later, Jan’s rifle was on the sticks, and with one well-placed neck shot, the giraffe collapsed to the sandy soil. Once the 2,000lb animal was skinned, quartered and winched into the back of the Cruiser, we headed back to the skinning shed before celebrating the event over lunch. With the African sun high in the clear afternoon sky, temperatures rose to a comfortably warm level while we negotiated the narrow, tree-lined roads throughout the concession, occasionally pausing to remove trees pushed onto our path by elephant. Sometime around mid-afternoon, we came upon two kudu at a shallow pan. Nan was again handed the 7mm-mag and followed Brent and William into the veld where she dropped a magnificent 56” kudu.

We were constantly reminded of the large population of elephant by the ubiquitous roadblocks in their wake

Jan jumpstarted our safari with a neck shot on this old bull giraffe

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By evening with two grand trophies in the salt, I simply relaxed on top of the ‘Cruiser, taking it all in. But as the sun dropped below the tallest trees, we drove up on a large herd of buffalo, and instantly we were negotiating our way through the thorn scrub attempting to get a look at some of the bulls within the herd. We never got close to the larger bulls as cows continually stampeded every time we made a move. We spent an hour trying to circumvent the fragmented herd, returning to the truck as darkness blanketed the forest. The cold, early morning hours of our second day were spent spooring shallow pans for buffalo, but only single dagga boy visits were observed, so we decided not to pursue them because of time and more importantly the probability that the bull would not be desirable. We wanted to spoor groups of three or more dagga boys in order to increase the odds of one of them supporting appropriate headgear. As the sun rose high above the veld and temperatures elevated, we began to return to camp when a herd of zebra was spotted. Nan rapidly bailed out of the ‘Cruiser, following William and Brent into an area inundated by hiphigh grass under the shade of mopane, tall marula and white syringa trees. Once they caught up to the herd, followed by another well-placed shot, Nan had a zebra on the ground. With barking zebra interrupting the quiescent morning, Brent handed Jan the rifle and off they went to take another zebra, which she accomplished off the sticks at eighty yards.

Not to be outdone, Jan took her zebra from the same herd

Considered by some to be a close relative to the elephant, hyraxes were abundant on the kopje upon which we camped

Nan’s zebra, her second in Africa, dropped with one-placed shot It was starting to appear that the ladies were on safari and I was only there to tag along, but I knew my turn would come to face what some refer to as ‘Black Death’, an event I relished, as I consider the pursuit of Cape buffalo on foot one of the ultimate experiences in Africa. With the girls’ trophies in the salt, we broke for lunch. Afterwards, I filmed hyrax, which colonized the rock formation upon which we camped. The grayish-brown herbivores are so unlike other animals that they are placed in a separate order, Hyracoidea. These small, furry mammals are considered to be the elephant’s nearest living relative, and I had a target-rich environment to film them as they gravitated to the lawn between our huts to consume the palatable grass. African Hunter Vol. 20 No. 1

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By mid-afternoon, we cut sign of three dagga boys and spoored them into thick mopane regrowth. The excessive grass cover made for difficult spooring, but we eventually caught up to them only to see them erupt from their beds in a whirlwind of dust. Pausing for twenty minutes to let them settle down, we continued onward, but busted them once again before returning to the rig. Shortly afterwards while clearing an elephant roadblock, William spotted a vine snake. Its greyish, black-coloured back skin blended so well to the branch it clung too made it oblivious to my eyes until I was only inches away - another African wonder that few get to see. Like the boomslang, it is rear-fanged and potentially lethal to man; unlike the boomslang, there is no antivenin. Shortly afterwards, while crossing a small creek, a monitor lizard plunged into the water, another rare African jewel. We failed to find fresh spoor on our third morning, but came across fresh tracks of a huge herd in the evening, catching up to them in just under two hours. As the sun dropped below the tall marula trees and the moon appeared above the kopjes to our east, we discovered ourselves on a grass-covered road paralleling the herd’s movement. The sound of grunts as the herd grazed peacefully along assured us we were close when two belligerent bulls began to clash. Their jockeying magnifying in amplitude, I was confident they would step out into the opening at any time when a duiker suddenly bounded out onto the open lane and remained there for some time, staring at the commotion of the combatants. The prolonged battle generated so much dust that the tiny antelope, enveloped in a cloud of dust, appeared as an apparition. Suddenly, silence returned to the

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bush, and as the dust settled back to the ground, a young bull appeared, looked our way, and immediately reentered the vegetated abyss. Our evening hunt was over, but the thrill of being in one of the wildest places on earth was verified by the deep, guttural grunts of a lion while we waited for the return of the ‘Cruiser, and as its engine could faintly be heard, two bulls grazed only a few yards of us illuminated by the silver light of the full moon. In the cold, early hours of day four, we spoored four dagga boys for just under two hours before catching up to them. Locating fresh spoor on the well-used sandy roads was easy, but as a result of substantial spring rainfall, the ground layer within the forest was inundated by knee-high grass that made tracking difficult. And even though William performed in an exemplary fashion, we had to deal with an ocean of mopane which relinquished little opportunity to see the bovines before they detected us. And, to make matters even worse, a swirling wind blew up, disseminating our scent. We eventually got to within thirty yards of the animals, but to no avail as they erupted into a loud, dusty gallop, allowing me to see only one of the bulls before it was swallowed up by the lowveld. Pausing for twenty minutes, we continued to spoor the bulls, but they anticipated our approach and dashed off with the grace of the smallest of antelope. Returning to camp, we filmed two lionesses comfortably lying in the shade of a tree-lined pan before they decided to slink off. Following lunch, we spoored a couple of bulls a short distance before they joined a herd of more than a hundred buffalo. Without the wind in our favour, we returned to the ‘Cruiser and spent the rest of the evening simply enjoying the panoramic vistas and the abundance of wildlife. While traversing the jungle roads in search of fresh buffalo spoor on the cold, cloudy morning of our fifth day, William and I spotted a hyaena. Travelling some eighty yards before we got Brent to stop the Land Cruiser, the curious predator exposed himself long enough for me to take this rare trophy in daylight. Shortly afterwards, we located fresh buffalo spoor and spent almost an hour on a group of four to five dagga boys, but a swirling wind forced us to return to the rig. The clouds

had dissipated by afternoon, and the sun gilded the veld. Just before sundown while cruising by a large lake, William spotted a bushbuck, and Nan followed Brent and William into the riparian vegetation circumscribing the water’s edge. Moments later, a shot rang out followed by jubilation as Nan dropped a beautiful bushbuck. We spoored a group of four dagga boys on the sixth morning. Once again, the thick mopane forest reduced visibility, but the wind was in our favour. Fresh sign was obvious, and I knew we were close. Kneeling on one knee, I placed my finger into a pancake-textured buffalo patty, and a warm sensation radiated up my arm. Suddenly a flock of noisy, red-billed oxpeckers flew overhead and abruptly dropped from the sky - a portent that the bulls were only a few yards from us. Suddenly we were glassing pieces of buffalo through the wall of foliage. At one point, a heavy-bossed bull appeared with an oxpecker dangling precariously about its neck, collecting ticks and other insects that infested the bovine. We spent several hours with the group before we could critique their horns. One exhibited the headgear I was after, but a weaker-horned old bull feeding between us prevented the opportunity to get close to it. For what seemed like eternity, we crawled right in amongst the animals with several of them glaring right at us. But with the wind in our favour, their olfactory senses were nullified, so they continued ripping away huge chunks of grass. Sitting on my haunches glassing what appeared to be an old, heavy-horned bull, Brent whispered, “Shoot that bull in the neck”, as that was all we could see. But as I raised my .375, the animal began to rapidly move off - but not before my shot shattered the tranquil morning. Immediately I could hear the other bulls dashing off in the opposite direction to which my bull had headed, and then silence returned to the jungle, but only for a minute when a loud death bellow interrupted the interjections of a loquacious grey lourie. The bull dropped only forty paces from where we sat, yet I could not see him until we were to within a few feet of this 40", twelve to fifteen year old bull. Moments later, Jan and Nan arrived with our game scout Crispin, and the celebration of taking my ninth Cape buffalo began. Now my time could be spent in search of a tsessebe.

My safari officially started on day five when we crossed paths with this hyaena in broad daylight

Conditions were right on day six and spoor led us to my ninth Cape buffalo

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Truly a rare sight - a dagga boy quenching his thirst in late morning After lunch we investigated the various lakesides where tsessebe were known to occur. At sunset, we drove up on a pair of lionesses, one of which casually walked up to the front of the ‘Cruiser, and as nonchalantly as a house cat, sat down only a few feet from us. We celebrated our sixth day dining on the tasty liver of Nan’s bushbuck around the warmth of our campfire. Over the next four days, we simply enjoyed the opportunity to view the wildlife diversity the Bubye is recognized for while hoping to see a tsessebe. On the seventh morning, we saw a black rhino but it vanished into the jesse as swiftly as an impala. I managed to capture several dagga boys who paused long enough in their escape on film, and enjoyed the rare opportunity to film a sole dagga boy satisfying its thirst at mid-morning. We also saw a rare and protected brown hyaena during our one evening excursion. On the eighth morning we chanced upon a pride of lions casually lying on a kopje absorbing the morning sun. It was unquestionably a once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity. The highlight of the afternoon was a belligerent female elephant that false-charged us several times before dissolving into the forest. We also hiked up a fairly steep kopje to several shallow caves decorated with colorful pictographs estimated to be 2,000 years old.

While looking for a tsessebe, we drove up on this pride of lions relaxing on a kopje, absorbing the warm early morning sun On day nine we took an extended drive southward to the Samanyanga camp where Brent had to pick up some trophies from a previous hunt, allowing us an opportunity to see the change in vegetation from the driest southern portion of the almost one million-acre conservancy to the well-watered northern region. While on our way back, William’s visual acuity was demonstrated once again when he spotted a monitor lizard sunning high in a mopane tree. On our evening sojourn, we spotted an abundance of buffalo and waterbuck while completing the day climbing to the top of a tall kopje hovering over a cattail-lined lake to enjoy the African sundown. Early on our last day, Brent was called to assist another PH, Pete Fick, in search of a wounded leopard, which was African Hunter Vol. 20 No. 1

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The collateral benefits to an African safari are many as Jan examines ageless pictographs

I was fortunate to capture this klippy on our last day of safari really an exciting way to spend our last morning. Upon our arrival and short get-together with Pete, the two PHs along with four trackers and Pete’s pair of Jack Russells entered the bush armed with several shotguns loaded with buckshot, as well as several rifles. But not ten minutes into their search, the Jack Russells were yapping away one very dead leopard. The overjoyed hunter, Patrick Slater, was jubilant as was his daughter Caroline, who had accompanied him. What made the event even more memorable was the fact that Patrick was a fellow Texan, demonstrating just how small the world actually is. A short drive after lunch concluded our time in the bush, but not before I captured two klipspringers on film. The following morning after breakfast we travelled back to Bulawayo with Frank where we spent two nights at the palatial Sondela House only a short walk from the city. On Monday we visited our friends at TCI, formerly known as Taxidermy Enterprises, and shopped around town, spending much time entertaining the purchase of wood carvings displayed by the local artists around the city square. The Zimbabweans’ ability to carve animals out of ironwood is nothing less than unimaginable, and the purchase of their artwork is always a fine way to complete a trip to Africa. I guess the tsessebe will have to wait.

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Hunting Optics

THE LEICA GEOVID HD B By Edd Woslum

I

am not an equipment junkie. I am not one to trade off what I have for something new every time some great hunting tool hits the market. I can immodestly brag that I still have the same rifle, knife and even wife that I started out with 55 years ago; however when it comes to optics that’s a whole different bowl of fish. I love wildlife watching and the better you can see the critters the more enjoyable it becomes. The improvements made in rifle cartridges from the early 20th century to the present are somewhat miniscule when compared to the advances made in optics. The .30-06 cartridge is today still the exact same, very effective big game cartridge that it was in 1906. During this same period, however, the general fields of cameras, binoculars and spotting scopes have gone through such a metamorphosis that there is absolutely no comparison from then to now. In the 1980s there were several companies, of German, Japanese and American origin that were manufacturing very acceptable binoculars; however, to compare these twenty to thirty year old instruments to today’s top-of-the line optics is like comparing a WWII B17 to a B2 Stealth bomber - the basic functions are still there in both models but oh, what a difference in performance. My first piece of Leica equipment was a pair of seven power Geovid Mariners that were manufactured in the early 90s. These Earth View (Geo-earth, Vid-view) instruments had outstanding ocular clarity and featured a built-in laser range finder that was accurate to 1000 yards; plus, there was a built-in push button feature that would give you, on demand, a digital readout of your magnetic heading. These bino/range finders were truly cutting edge equipment and would absolutely dazzle

the most sophisticated of hunters. The only shortcoming, if indeed there was one, was that these glasses weighed about the same as my 1959 Model 70 Winchester and were therefore usually to be found in the truck. Over the years I have kept up with the evolution of Leica products and when a significant upgrade takes place I usually weaken and absolutely have to have it. At the start of last hunting season we had a pair of Leica Ultravid 10X50s, a Leica 1600 range finder, plus a pair of 13 year old Leica 12X50s. These are all extremely fine instruments; however, during the 2012 hunting season I allowed my bride to try out my 10X50 Ultravids. MISTAKE! After only one day in the field my soulmate initiated a preemptive equipment seizure by flatly stating that she was executing eminent domain over the 10X50s. And that my friends was the dramatic end of that. The next January at the Safari Club International Convention I was fascinated to hear all about the new Leica Geovid 8X42 HD B laser range finder binocular. This instrument brags of a 5.2 exit pupil, a laser that is accurate to 2000 yards and a ballistic program that one can adapt to any cartridge for any ballistic resolution including the steep uphill/ downhill shot. In addition to the cartridge specific ballistics program there is another feature that on demand will provide the shooter with the temperature, atmospheric pressure and the exact vertical angle of the shot. My biggest surprise, however, was to learn that the Geovids are only a tenth of an ounce heavier than Leanne’s 10X50s Ultravids. This unit is also completely waterproof. I know from past experience that when Leica says waterproof they mean exactly that. Year before last I had my Leica 10 X 50s in several Alaskan

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downpours plus six twenty-mile round trips in the drenching over-spray from a shallow draft Jet boat. Throughout this waterlogged experience my binos were drenched continually. There was not, however, at any time, any sign of moisture on the inside of lenses. The warranty on this unit actually states “waterproof to over 15 feet of total submersion.” I, however, did not drop them in the icy Yukon River to verify this claim. About three months after acquiring the 8X42s I was notified by one of my friends at Leica that I could turn in my prototype pair for the 10X50s Geovids that were just coming out. About three months after acquiring the 10X50s found me on a nine day management hunt at beautiful Sentinel Ranch in Southern Zimbabwe. This excursion was then followed by eight hot days of hunting buffalo in the Zambezi valley. Anyone who has hunted these areas of the African continent from June through September are well aware that unlike the Alaskan tundra your optical enemy here is not moisture but is in point of fact the continuous attack of the extremely fine talcum like dust that accumulates on, and penetrates into, every crevice of your equipment. My usual remedy for this, to the absolute horror of my PH, is when arriving in camp after a long slog in the scrub, merely go to the closest water spigot and wash my Leicas with clear clean water. I would then dry them off with a towel. Voila, new binos. With the exception of Cape buffalo I rarely hunt trophies in Africa anymore. I am, however, quite often assigned some very specific culling assignments in order to deplete the numbers of animals that are overgrazing a particular area. These outings are for very specific target types and if you happen to shoot the wrong critter it doesn’t go over well with Digby Bristow, the land owner. The usual targets on these exercises are old male impala with short fat horns, very elderly wildebeest and on occasion zebra with no tails. For this type of shooting assignment superior optics are an absolute must. For the past five years these meat hunting excursions have mostly taken place from a 300 foot high hill that provides a 360 degree African Hunter Vol. 20 No. 1

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view of several thousand acres. The average distance for these shots is 300-400 yards and these skittish targets do not have a propensity to stay in one place too awfully long. The animals in this area are rarely seen in anything but bad light plus they are extremely wary and only leave the scrub for a few seconds at a time. To properly identify whether the animal should be taken or not requires an optic with extremely high clarity, resolution and light utilization. In the past when using my Leica Ultravids they have without fail fulfilled those criteria to the max. The only drawback to using the Ultravids was the necessity to put the glasses down and pick up the 1600 range finder, then relocate the animal, zap the laser, then try to find the critter again in the rifle scope. This only takes a few seconds but sometimes those extra heartbeats are critical to the success of the mission. The Geovids solved this particular issue by allowing me to go straight from the binos to the rifle. The elapsed time between target identification and trigger let-off is even more critical when hunting clever and conniving predators such as wolves or coyotes. I can tell you from extensive experience that the twenty or so seconds gained by using the Geovids equals a whole bunch more bagged coyotes at the end of the hunt. Immediately following this year’s biltong hunt in the Zimbabwe lowveld, my friend and PH Anthony Crick, plus my game warden friend from Northern Idaho, George Fischer, made the twelve-hour, bone rattling trip, via Toyota Land Cruiser, from Bulawayo to Dande South. Even though this journey in a heavily sprung ‘Cruiser has the potential to rearrange your anatomical structure, I still find the ground route to be much more enjoyable than a boring trip via airplane. Dande South is a Makorekore tribal trust hunting concession to which HHK Safaris has exclusive rights. I have been hunting this area for

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about fifteen years and have found the riverine, gomos, jesse and savannas to be very productive for plains game, elephant, and best of all, scruffy old big bossed, damn near hairless, dagga boys. Gawd I love ‘em! As all of you serious buff hunters know, if SCI would change the record book to where the entry criterion was strictly based on the size of the bosses, or even the scrotum size for that matter, we would have much improved buffalo herds practically overnight. Hey SCI and Roland Ward wake up! Stop encouraging hunters to shoot 40-inch soft-bossed buffalo. I have been a North American guide and outfitter for a good many years, but I am not a PH in Zimbabwe. I have, however, been on several life times’ worth of buff hunts in that magnificent country and thanks to some really switched on PHs I have managed to glean a great deal of practical how-to-do-it type info from these exciting adventures. One of the habitual client behaviours I have repeatedly observed on these various bush missions is what I call “brain failure while forgetting one’s job description.” The PH’s job is to above all keep you safe, but in addition he will with equal dedication and vigor, strive to locate you a quality trophy of the species that you are so passionately pursuing. After untold hours tracking the bush, and your trusted PH finally finds your sought-after specimen and then skillfully gets you into a reasonable shooting position he has done his job. At that moment your job is not to stand there and gawk at the creature through your binos. Your job is to shoot the blessed thing as quickly as possible. I can’t count the number of times I have been on extensive buffalo stalks in which the PH has done a great job of positioning the client on a nice old bull and then at the moment of truth he whispers, “shoot the one on the right” only to look back and see the client still staring through his or her binos. For this very reason I do not carry binos when I am the designated shooter and we are pursuing ol’ Syncerus caffer. On this latest hunt Anthony was more than happy to leave his glasses behind and substitute them with my spanky new Leicas. During the next three days we were into so many buffalo that I lost count. Even though it was midwinter it was quite hot and the critters were usually bedded in the thick stuff by 10.00. After three days it had become almost a ritual of find the spoor, track for hours, locate the sly devils, then glass for thirty minutes while Anthony, without ever taking the glasses down, would whisper, “Oh man he’s going to be a beauty in a couple of years and he’s only 76 yards away”, or “Wow there’s a bull that will go over 40 inches - but soft bosses” and on and on. With each of these tantalizing revelations he would add to the excitement by dramatically announcing the exact distance to that particular bovine. At about 10.30 on day three, we had been tracking a large

breeding herd for several hours when we got on a small splinter group that appeared to have several mature bulls within it. We followed this small flock for another thirty minutes when our leader called an abrupt halt to our column of tracker, shooter, observer and game scout. Anthony immediately got behind the glasses and after a couple of minutes of staring into the almost black jesse, he started with yet another of his soft whispered litanies. “Oh my, that cow’s only thirty two yards into the scrub and that black glob next to her is a very young bull that’s only three yards beyond her.” After what seemed to be an interminable period I was just about ready to chuck this session into the not-too-successful category. Then there came a whispered “Hold on, that’s a bull…. a very serious bull.” Then came the magic words you crave to hear “He’s laying down and at fifty two yards - if he stands up shoot him. Roger, Wilco boss, I’ll be happy to, but I can’t even see the thirty-two yard cow you’re talking about, much less the bull that’s at fifty two. “OK let’s wait him out” says the Bwana. After about thirty minutes of standing in the late morning sun I was wilting like month-old lettuce when the man says “Here comes a cow and she’s going to walk right by that bull. I’ll bet he gets up then.” About thirty seconds after those prophetic words, things got very terminal in a hurry. Bang went my .450/.400 - Oh no, he turned and went behind that bush just as I fired. “No worries” says the Bwana, “stop snivelling, you got him”. One more shot and a quick follow-up and he was exactly right, I did indeed have him. This is not in any way meant to be a scientific report; you can get all the techno-babble data you could possible want off the Internet. This is meant to be a field report on an extremely dramatic hunt, that was brought to a very memorable conclusion by a super competent PH and a remarkable pair of laser-binoculars. Pamwe Chete Pungubwe

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Range Craft

Troubleshooting Your Shooting By I J Larivers

When you’re on the range, try and get as much practice as possible in with the same combination of rifles, optics and ammunition as you will be using in the field, and assess and evaluate your performance at known ranges.

T

here are a lot of things that can spoil The Perfect Shot. Without a doubt the best preparation anyone can have for a successful hunt is as much time as possible spent on the range - and even better if it’s combined with some form of competitive hunting-related courses of fire like CHASA or even fullbore metallic silhouettes at respectable ranges. But there are just some gremlins that keep appearing from nowhere, and just being aware of them and what to do can be a big help. Good ol’ “buck fever” probably tops the list, and it’s something that haunts just about every hunter, regardless of experience or practice. I went out one fine morning many years ago in search of something suitable for camp rations, and it wasn’t long before I happened on a small herd of impala. I selected an older ram a little bit off from the rest of the group as my only personal interest in it was the liver. I was using a 6.5 Mannlicher carbine borrowed from a good friend it sported a basic four-power scope, but had been factory-fitted with a nice double set trigger. And yes, I had zeroed it for myself, but for some inexplicable reason that front trigger was a lot lighter as I came down into the aim than it had been on the range! The shot broke as I was coming into the aim, but the ram went down. And got up again in short order because a horn is not a vital area. A seventy yard shot on a nondescript old impala compromised because I’d been a little too excited. He was a little wobbly, and the second shot did the job. Not a lot I can say about “buck fever” - it happens. Be aware, and chill out. Following on from the above incident, in the heat of the moment when you’re just in a little too much of a hurry to take a shot, it can be all too easy to neglect to either position yourself correctly - where you have a clear line of sight to your quarry, unobstructed by vegetation - or to acquire a sharp, clear sight picture which can ensure that your shot placement will be correct. Any obstacle in the flight path of the bullet can cause deflection. It’s kind of like hoodoo, and it doesn’t really matter what calibre you are wielding, even the heavier bullets can be deflected by a small twig. Never try and shoot through even sparse bush if you don’t have a clear view of the vitals. When I

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first came to Rhodesia we would drive around in all manner of armoured vehicles that were built on the chassis of everything from VWs to Land Rovers. They afforded protection from insurgents’ small arms fire and also from land mines. But of course they had to have windows - which were proper ballistic glass - and with the exception of the front windscreens these were all lightly shuttered by tumble-screens - heavy wire mesh close to the pane which was intended to induce bullet deflection before the bullet impacted on the glass. Armour-piercing ammo was all too common. One fact which soon became apparent was that the closer a potential obstruction is to your target, the more likely you are to achieve a hit, but not where you wanted it. A bullet deflected at a distance is almost certain to miss the animal altogether, but one diverted closer to home is likely to wound. A hunter is ethically obligated to achieve as quick and humane a kill as possible, and the only way to do this is to ensure that you can place your shot correctly. Take the time, and be willing to pass up on an unsure sight picture. I don’t like shooting from the bench, and I don’t see much value in it as a training tool except during load development and initial sighting. So I’m going to shoot offhand as often as I can, and this includes standing, kneeling, sitting and possibly even prone. It also embodies the use of aids like shooting sticks. In the bush, it might entail the use of a rock or a tree branch or a termite mound. This is where we have to think about barrel harmonics. I am going to assume that most of the practice you’ve put in on the range has been offhand, and that the fore-end of your rifle has been held by your supporting hand. If you now plop the fore-end - or worse, the barrel - on a rock or on a tree branch, not only your harmonics but also your recoil signature will change. Maybe only imperceptibly, but enough to change your point of impact. Enough to turn a clean kill into a clean miss, or, much worse, a wounded animal. When using a natural rest, always make sure you’ve cushioned the fore-end of the rifle with your supporting hand, your bush hat, or something similarly soft. One advantage of hunting with a PH is that he will be

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intimately familiar with the trophy quality in his concession(s), and he earns his living assessing what’s good and what’s not for his clients. He will be skilled at judging an animal’s age, and in cases where there is less clear-cut sexual dimorphism he will be able to quickly tell males from females. He will have an idea of what is an acceptable trophy size, and this will vary from concession to concession. He will also have a good set of binoculars, but whether you hunt with a PH or not, you need to invest in quality optics as well. It is essential. You also need to know as much as you can about the species you are hunting so that you can distinguish between the sexes and tell the difference between a good trophy and something that may look like a good trophy. Once you have taken the shot, you don’t want to be dropping Bambi off at the taxidermists. You have walked the better part of the day on spoor. You’re tired and seriously thinking about tomorrow being another day. And then you come up out of a donga and you see your shot. It’s a bit of an uphill shot, but that’s OK because the animal looks so close. But you’ve maybe misjudged that a mite. You’re a tad impatient, but it looks like a really nice trophy, and tomorrow may see it gone to greener pastures. You take the shot and the beastie takes off like Usain Bolt. You have to follow it up for a couple of reasons - primarily because blood spoor tells you you’ve wounded it and it is expected that you will dispatch it as quickly and humanely as you can. And secondly because that cape isn’t going to mount so nicely if something like a hyaena has been chewing on it for half the night. If you’re hunting with a PH or trackers, it’s a lot easier to recover the bull, but you have to lay down a realistic cutoff time in your own mind where, if something goes wrong, you will still be able to carry out a successful follow-up before the curtain of night descends. CHASA shooters competing at 200 metres or more with state-of-the-art optics can achieve very small groups on animal diagrams even from more or less realistic shooting platforms. One thing I have seen on my range is that because it’s a tournament, not all that many shooters compete with the same rifle - or optics - they would normally hunt with. Likewise with fullbore metallic silhouettes which are shot out to 500 metres. Unlike an animal, a steel plate is down for the count whether it’s hit in the head, the foot, the tail or the. . . Honest silhouette shooters will only hail themselves on their prowess after they have checked their targets and found that the shots on the different targets achieved something of a “group”, which denotes skill more than luck. Which adds up to the one drawback to putting in a lot of rangetime that I can think of - inculcated overconfidence. When a shot on a game animal can manifest the sum total of all the potential errors we’re looking at here: “buck fever”, an unclear sight picture, not allowing enough time in the day to follow up a wounded animal, misjudging distance - and a host of others - you have to have a realistic appreciation of just how far you can place an accurate shot. In the bush It will not be what you are used to achieving on the range.

A number of factors limit your practical range at the best of times, and only you have an honest recognition of what is a safe distance for a clean and humane shot, bearing in mind that your bullet and load combinations for the field may be different from those you shoot on the range, your optics may be a little more down-to-earth on a hunt, and distances on the range are usually demarcated by little markers every few metres and so are not likely to be misjudged in the heat of the moment. The solution to this problem is simple. When you’re on the range, try and get as much practice as possible in with the same combination of rifles, optics and ammunition as you will be using in the field, and assess and evaluate your performance at known ranges. A score at the end of a match or a majority of silhouettes down does not necessarily imply consistency. I think most hunters will zero for 100 metres, offhand. That is what I do. I then shoot at greater and lesser known distances, and keep track of my performance. If I’m honest with myself, I’m going to try and get a lot closer than a hundred metres if I can these days, and I’m also going to pass up a lot more shots - it’s only fair to my quarry. I used to use open sights on most of my rifles, and these days I don’t. I also wouldn’t go afield without a decent laser rangefinder, because that’s the biggest bugbear I have always had - accurately judging range to target. Another consideration worth mentioning when talking distance is using a scoped rifle on a target that is too close. The scope is mounted above the barrel, and your line of sight will not converge with the line of the bore for probably thirty yards or so, so when you’re doing your rangework, be sure to learn where that rifle shoots at ten metres as well. A good friend and I were once out in the desert and he was firing a scoped .30-06 over the front of his car. The hole in the bonnet is funnier now than it was then. The above are probably the most common mistakes that most hunters make; there are plenty more besides, but with a lot of preparation and even a little forethought before you take your shot, your hunt will be a much more rewarding and less arduous experience.

DID YOU KNOW???

n Baboon spiders are Africa’s version of the tarantula. Baboo a give can they but s spider ous venom spiders are not the most ience exper will s Victim ssive. nasty bite and can be very aggre severe pain at the bite site, vomit and feel weak and dizzy. can Baboon spiders are large and hairy, their body size alone over by ented reach up to three inches, and they are repres and forty species. They live on the ground, build silk burrows n generally wait for their prey to amble by. Female baboo as spiders can live up to 25 years and many people choose them wild. the in ers numb their in e declin a pets which is leading to

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Feature

IM

T

IR

E

U S O N I H R A

S S E CC

Y R O ST

ers ariv L J By I

he literal translation of “imire” is “the meeting place”, and just 100km to the east of the capitol Harare lies one of the real gems of Zimbabwe. A unique environment in which to meet and interact with some truly extraordinary people and animals. After spending unfortunately - only one night at Sable Lodge I came back to town feeling refreshed and relaxed - and wondering how I could have lived in Zimbabwe for thirty five years and never been there before. The conservancy comprises some 10,000 acres and boasts a commercial agricultural side which has been dovetailed to augment the wildlife conservation efforts, and a number of diverse habitats including miombo and msasa woodlands, savannah grassland, rocky kopjes, riverine forest and thorn scrub. A typical game drive will yield black and white rhinoceros, elephant, lion, hyaena, giraffe, zebra, buffalo, warthog and a host of plains game such as sable, tsessebe, impala, waterbuck, kudu, nyala, and blesbok. The interaction is up close and personal but is in no way “canned” - it’s the real deal. Over 150 different species of birdlife can be found at Imire, including raptors such as the snake eagle, martial eagle and African hawk eagle and water birds such as the fish eagle, green-backed heron, grey heron and kingfishers, plus secretary birds and saddle-billed storks. In 1972, Norman Travers embarked on a unique experiment - the integration of cattle ranching and commercial farming with wildlife management at Imire, which was once a prosperous tobacco farm destined to become one of Zimbabwe’s leading conservancies with the re-introduction of wildlife. The wholly self-sustaining enterprise has grown to encompass a successful black and

white rhino breeding programme, a pioneering community education and outreach initiative, a volunteer scheme which gives a hands-on appreciation of conservation work, and a guest lodge. My focus in visiting Imire was the Black rhino breeding programme, which in today’s world of uncontrolled poaching, stands out internationally as a rare success story. In 1987, Norman Travers became the privileged custodian of seven orphaned baby Black rhino. While the latter part of the 1980s saw a dramatic upsurge in rhino and elephant poaching, those were arguably also the halcyon days of Zimbabwe’s internationally acclaimed anti-poaching efforts - the adoption of a shoot-to-kill policy on poachers, the introduction of minimum mandatory five-year prison sentences for illicit traffickers, and effective combined operations between National Parks, the police and the military to curb the deadly incursions. Operation Stronghold. But the writing was on the wall, and in the late 1980s

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the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management removed the remaining 120 black rhino out of the danger zones that national parks like Matusadona had become, and into Intensive Protection Zones on various private conservancies. Imire was entrusted with seven baby black rhino aged between four and six months – three males, Noddy, Fumbi, and Sprinter and four females, Cuckoo, Mvu, D.J. and Amber. All seven calves were hand-raised on a milk formula for at least eight years in order to maintain human contact and were raised together as a semi-domesticated herd. While ideally habituation to mankind is not desirable in endangered animals that may one day be released back into the wild, the real value of Imire’s nucleus herd was their potential for the gene pool - as breeding stock. Since those humble beginnings, fourteen rhino births have taken place at Imire. Nine animals were relocated to the Matusadona national park, and one was sent to Botswana. But these gains were not to be without tragedy. On 7 November 2007, unidentified insurgents wearing army camouflage gunned down three black rhino - one carrying an unborn calf - in a hail of AK-47 fire. That the perpetrators were able to escape without the prized rhino horns was little consolation - the conservancy had lost a generation of black rhinoceros in this one catastrophe. At present the conservancy is home to four sub-adult black rhino, named Gomo, KamuChaCha, Shanu and Tatenda. It is necessary for them to spend their nights in secure pens, guarded by well-trained rangers with automatic weapons; during the day they are taken out onto the ranch with their handlers to browse. It is hoped that Gomo and KamuChaCha will soon become proud parents - they have been working at it! Imire is proud to be a leading custodian of Zimbabwe’s

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Black rhino and to date no one can argue that they haven’t been successful. Running a conservancy like this, though, with no state funding, is becoming increasingly expensive. Imire is always in need of donations and support to keep their animals safe and happy. Sadly, in today’s flailing economy, Imire’s Sable Lodge doesn’t get as many visitors as it would like, but for those who make the short drive out of Harare, it is a rare, tranquil, retreat. I arrived, cunningly, at lunch time, and was shown around by Reilly Travers, Norman’s grandson. Lunch was served on a kopje not far from Sable Lodge on what was probably the first day of summer. I joined in with a handful of British tourists, and the fare was excellent. That was to be a recurring facet of my trip - Imire employs a chef, not a cook, and the results are no less than you would expect. The afternoon was spent being shown the extent of the conservancy and its wildlife. The game viewing was excellent, and in this sheltered environment the animals showed no fear and were, if anything, curious. It was the closest I’d come to Black rhino since a memorable day

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in Tanzania’s Nogorongoro Crater many years back, and “curious” is not how I would have judged that one! The rhino are de-horned on a regular basis to discourage poachers. It wasn’t hard to find Imire’s two white rhino which had been relocated from the Matopos national park, and the female is carrying a calf - who will be the first one to be born at Imire. Sundowners were overlooking a large dam which holds abundant bass, bream and barbel. It is part of an area set aside for the particular requirements of kudu and nyala, and they came down for a late evening drink as well. Across the dam were the cheerful lights of the house allocated to the volunteer staff, and early season bush fires were visible in the distance. Imire hosts a number of wildlife conservation volunteer programmes, and they are always in need of volunteers to work with the wildlife in the conservancy and the people in the surrounding rural villages. Volunteers go away knowing they have not only helped conserve the critically endangered Black rhino, but have also helped the local people to understand and appreciate the merits of conservation and how it need not be juxtaposed to their own interests. For any conservation initiatives to survive in the long term, they must incorporate a hearts-and-minds approach to the local populace. Every volunteer at Imire will help in the local schools providing teaching assistance, conservation support and environmental education to the children. Imire’s flagship Sable Lodge comprises seven comfortable chalets of varying sizes, fine home cooking and a sparkling swimming pool in a beautiful garden setting. A number of activities are on offer, from an earlymorning elephant ride to morning, afternoon - and occasionally evening - game drives, bird walks, or a trip back in time to Markwe caves, where you can see San rock art and ancient African artefacts. Sable serves up an outstanding full English breakfast, and in good weather lunch is experienced somewhere out in the conservancy. At day’s end, you will enjoy a superb three-course meal in the tastefully-decorated dining room, and a relaxing night’s sleep with only the nocturnal sounds of the African bush to lull you to sleep.

Luxurious Sable Lodge isn’t the only accommodation at Imire. For those who prefer something a little more rustic, there is Imire Bush Camp, featuring a number of thatched huts fronting onto a small riverine forest below the imposing Castle Kopje. The bush camp is ideal for school groups or larger contingents who have a specific interest like birding. The bush camp provides a game ranger, a security guard and a housekeeper - but you bring everything else! Imire also offers an Equine Management and Wildlife Conservation Programme which is for those who are intrigued by combining horse riding through the African bush with equine husbandry, cattle ranching and antipoaching patrols. The story of Imire has been captured in an engaging four-part documentary available on You Tube, There’s a Rhino in My House, and the book by local Zimbabwean author Cathy Buckle The Life and Times of Norman Travers, as told to Cathy Buckle is indeed a good read. Like all conservancies, Imire is a work-in-progress, struggling to survive in an uncertain economy against the ever present chance of a poaching incursion or other unforseen calamity, but what is certain is that they have a winning formula not only for rhino conservation, but also a quality-driven approach to eco-tourism and community outreach. I can kick myself for the last thirty five years but it won’t be long before I find myself back there.

If you would like to ma ke a donation towards the Imire Black Rhino Breed ing Programme, you are most welcome to do so. De posits can be made into the following account: Account Name: Imire Bla ck Rhino Fund Account Number: 4573 – 399451 – 202 Branch: Marondera, Zimbab we Bank: ZB Bank

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Update

Taking the Initiative - The Bumi Hills Anti-Poaching Unit

A

By Catherine Norton

black painted boat slips silently across the lake, full moon glinting on the wake. A light flickers briefly on the darkly looming island. The men in the boat, hands tight on their weapons, peer intently into the gloom. Suddenly! A shout, a shot rings out, a boat speeds away from the shore. Sounds like the beginning of a boys’ adventure story, doesn’t it? It’s not – its real, it’s scary and it might be happening as you are reading this article. The story of the battle against poachers raping our waters is a serious, non–fiction one. Here at Bumi Hills we have our own anti poaching unit - BHAPU – headed by our Conservation Manager and staffed by four committed, hard working scouts who constantly patrol our land for snares, and our waters for netting and illegal fishing. It is tempting to pity these poachers – but they are not just “trying to feed their families” – they are running businesses, netting huge quantities of fish regardless of size, type, or breeding status with lengthy, indestructible nylon nets. These nets are a death sentence not only for the fish, but for birds and animals that drink or live along the lake shores – becoming entwined in elephants’ trucks, birds’ beaks and feet, and twisted around antelopes’ slender legs. It’s not all gloom and doom, however – we have had some successes recently, arresting five Zambian poachers, and recovering five kilometres of twin net and two banana boats – one with a suspiciously new motor on the back. These operations were mounted off the back of information received from local sources – our first success was on Partridge Island, where, after hours sculling about the adjacent islands, our team flushed out poachers from Zambia, who had a well organised camp, complete with drying and smoking racks and over 40kg of fresh fish, of all sizes and types. After chasing down and apprehending one of the poachers, our team destroyed their camp, and brought both poacher and equipment back to Bumi, where he was identified as being a kingpin of the Zambian operation. The second success was a deployment at night, over on Starvation Island – under cover of darkness, and with the

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element of surprise on our side - our scouts startled a large party of poachers, whose MO is to come over from Zambia in motor-powered banana boats, switching off the engines and paddling the last kilometre, speeding back in the early hours of the morning. Several fresh snares were located on the island itself, indicating they are not restricting their efforts to fish alone. The depressing point that has to be made, however, is that without resources, relying on donations and the “kindness of strangers”, these isolated successes are just that – isolated. As we are busting a camp on one island, a replacement is springing up on another – as one net and boat is confiscated, another three are probably being dispatched to replace them. Too often, after a great deal of effort has gone into capturing and delivering suspects to the Zimbabwe Republic Police for sentencing by the court, they are issued a small fine and sent packing off home – from where they no doubt launch themselves straight back into the game. The Bumi Hills Anti-Poaching Unit, founded in July 2009, works tirelessly to prevent all forms of poaching against flora and fauna found in the Bumi Hills Wildlife area and beyond. Comprised of four game scouts, the unit has cleared over 5000 snares and over 30,000 metres of illegal gill netting. With poachers becoming more daring and developing new methods of catching their quarry the need has arisen to expand and develop BHAPU. Through this initiative individuals and corporates are encouraged to donate a fixed monthly sum which will enable us to train, employ, equip, uniform and transport our game scouts. In return we will place your branding on our website, BlogSpot, newsletter, monthly reporting collateral and scouts’ uniforms to ensure you get maximum exposure. What better way is there to advertise your business and commitment to our environment? Please e mail us on conservation@bumihills.com or phone Catherine on +263 7782040586 for more information on how you can get involved.

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Fact File

Butterflies of Southern Africa By Petrus Erasmus

The quantity of known butterfly species throughout the world number in the thousands, and the list is continually being added to. Southern Africa is well-represented, many species varying in beauty, colour and size. Many parts of Africa still remain unexplored, and the observant hunter stands a good chance of seeing both common and rare species in the field.

Black Bordered Charaxes(Charaxes pollox gazanus) This species is found throughout Africa, but this form is found in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It is commonly found in the Dondo, Amatongas and Maronga forests in Mozambique, and at Mount Selinda, Mutare, and the Honde Valley in Zimbabwe. It seems to prefer open country rather than the thick, dense forests. The males can often be found perched high up on a twig or branch with their wings open sunning themselves. Unlike other Charaxes, the males are not very territorial. Both male and female are attracted to fermenting fruit and sucking holes in damaged trees that exude sap. It can be found on the wing most months of the year. The food plants include Bersama abyssinica and Flueggea virosa.

Blue Pansy (Precis oenone) This beautiful little butterfly is common throughout Southern Africa. It is more common in the bushveld and woodlands than in the open grassland. It is very territorial and can often be found chasing other butterflies at midday at the tops of kopjes. It often settles on bare rocks or low vegetation. Sometimes they can be caught without the blue patches on the bottom wings. Although this species is found throughout the year, they don’t have seasonal variations. Their larval food plants include Asystasia gangetica, Adhatoda densiflora and Mackaya bella.

The .600 Nitro Express A Look at the World's Finest Rifles

The first thing that hit me when I was given a copy of Cal Pappas’ latest book The .600 Nitro Express - A look at the World’s Finest Rifles was the quality of the presentation. A full-size hardcover edition with a colourful dust cover depicting four magnificent rifles made a fabulous first impression - something anyone would be happy to have in their book case. - I J Larivers

Available from Cal Pappas enquiries to pappas@mtaonline.net.

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Hunters Gallery

Various Hunters with th eir trophies

A Red Duiker (Pending Num ber 2 World Rec by Jerry Waite ord) taken with his bow in Mozambique. Duckworth of PH Neil Mokore Safar is.

Impressive 52" Lord Derby Eland taken by Mr Bridges in C.A.R while hunting with PH Thierry Labat of Northern Operations Africa

e with PH son in Zimbabw aw D k ic N by n 56" Kudu take Bergh - 2011 Wayne Van Den

Alex Nemekla from Utah and PH Eleckson, Safaris Shot w Africa Huntin ith a .300 Jarr g et at 110 yards Michael Stein with a Selous dagga boy from 20 12 Hunter Vol. 20 No. 1 http://www.africanhunteronline.com Page 34 African


An impressive croc - Runde River, PH Stephen Meyer

Great lion taken by clien t Mr Facusse with PH Th ierry Labat on Sango in the Sa ve Valley Conservancy Outfitter - Zambezi Hu nters

in Chirundu po bull hunted ip h ve si as m a Mag 300 Gunther and with a .375 Win ot sh , er ey M ie with PH Jann ic solids grain monolith

111) ond buffalo (41 12; SCI Pat Wallace with his sec re ko Mo ckworth Of taken with PH Gary Du y 2014 Ma in Safaris

Dave Creamer and a respecta ble old buffalo Grant Taylor & taken with Mashambanzo u Safaris Moz ambique

If you have any trophy photos you would like seen in our Hunters Gallery, email in your pictures with a short description of where, when and how it was taken, name of your PH and safari company, and we will schedule your submission foradhunt@mweb.co.za placement in an upcoming issue of 35 the African Hunter Vol. 20 No. 1 Page fishunt@zol.co.zw magazine. Email us on fishunt@zol.co.zw


Two sable bulls showing thick bases and full curls, typical of what you find in North western Zimbabwe. Guided by Richard Cooke (rcookesafaris@gmail.com), these two were hunted by Jack Mayfield in 2013 (top left) and Doug Smellage in 2014 (top right), both of Dallas, Texas. Jack’s sable measured 41" and was taken with a .375 H&H Kimber Rifle with 300 grain Swift A-Frame at a range of Range 140m in the Forestry area. Jack has previously taken sable with Richard in Matetsi and Forestry. This is his third. Doug’s 41" sable was taken using a .375 H&H Winchester Rifle with Swift A-Frames at a range of Range 200m, also in the Forestry area. Doug failed to take a sable with Richard in Chete back in 2012 so this was his second attempt.

in the Zambezi n in Dande North ke ta o al ff bu ce a .416 Rigby A very ni esbitt - shot with N e nc La PH ith valley w with TSX bullets

Neil Kaufman and his leo

pard taken with a 70lb bo

w

tone eland bull Dave Creamer and good livings h Grant Taylor & wit ue taken on safari in Mozambiq aris Mashambanzou Saf

60.5" kudu taken by Mi ss Peccia with PH Thier ry Labat on Sango - SVC - Outfit ter Zambezi Hunters

If you have any trophy photos you would like seen in our Hunters Gallery, email in your pictures with a short description of where, when and how it was taken, name of your PH and safari and we will schedule your submission for placement in an upcoming issue of the http://www.africanhunteronline.com Pagecompany, 36 African Hunter Vol. 20 No. 1 magazine. Email us on fishunt@zol.co.zw


Hunters Gallery Various Hunters with their trophies

Drew & Rita Aliperto with a very nice eland taken with Cheetah Safaris

John Woodard and nice male lion taken with Gr ant Taylor & Mashambanzou Safaris in Mozambique 2012

and Pat Wallace with his first 41 buffalo ( SCI 107 of h wort Duck Gary PH with Bossed 16 12) taken . 2014 May in Mokore Safaris

Beautiful male leopard taken in Dande North in the Zambezi valley with PH Lance Nesbitt. Shot with a .375 H&H ma gnum with Federal SPs

Left: Impressive Yellow Back Duiker taken in C.A.R by Mr Lestico Right: 18 6/8" Limpopo bushbuck taken by Mr Devoglaer, on Sango in the SVC using his 450 Hym. Both animals were hunted with PH Thierry Labat African Hunter Vol. 20 No. 1

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Feature

The Central African Republic Part IIISudanese Elephant Poachers & Duiker By Steve Ahrenberg

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e had both major animals in the skinning shed, along with a smattering of secondary stuff. The dynamics of this safari had now changed dramatically. The team can take it easy and any pressure there was is now off. The remaining time at Mbari camp was spent calling duikers in the bakos. We were looking for the elusive Yellow Backed Duiker and several other duiker species if the opportunity were to present itself. With the first morning of duiker-calling in front of us, the first thing we needed to accomplish was to get the ‘Cruiser back on the opposite side of the Mbari river. Anyone paying close enough attention might have caught that the boat river crossing was just for the clients, trackers and the odd PH or two. The hunting car had to make its way across on an old hand built ferry. Now we needed to return the hunting car it to its original side.

The author on the Mbari river ferry As mentioned prior, the dangers of this country and region in general are many. Being as remote as we are in Africa, you tend to feel isolated from these dangers. There are no villages, no roads other than the hunting roads. We saw no bicycles. Nothing you may be used to seeing in southern and east Africa. But then there are the Sudanese, Sudanese elephant poachers to be specific. The atrocities in Darfur, Sudan are mostly funded by the illegal ivory trade. The benefactor of this illicit activity is the People’s Republic of China. Once we re-assembled everything on the correct side of the river, we were driving not far from camp. Our destination was a particular bako when the truck stopped. I looked ahead and saw them, half a dozen men, riding

smallish donkeys, almost cartoonish small. The men were all wearing dark green flannel looking army fatigues some wore black berets. The donkeys were ridden bareback. Only blankets sitting on the donkeys’ backs with a single man perched upon the blanket. AK-47’s were poorly hidden beneath the men’s legs and the saddle blankets. They passed us on my side of the vehicle. I made an odd eye contact with each and every one of them. Several tipped their heads in a passive way as we passed each other. These were, without a doubt the fiercest looking men I had ever laid eyes upon. I would have dearly loved to have photographs of them. They had high cheekbones, long, thin and pointy chins. I knew without any help who and what they were. They were Sudanese elephant poachers. After our harmless and brief encounter, Mike said, “You know what those guys are don’t you?” I replied in the affirmative. Mike asked that I not tell the other hunters. It may make them uneasy knowing they may run into them. For some reason which I did not ask, Mike stated, “Good thing you didn’t reach for your rifle.” I don’t know why I would have done that but glad I didn’t. He then went on to tell me that the ivory that is poached is brought to some unknown central gathering point. It is then sent back to Sudan via camel trains. Imagine if you can, walking from CAR to Sudan. I hunted here for 21 days and never once saw one elephant. We only saw elephant tracks one time. There were several sets of human tracks in tow. It’s a shame and a crime against nature. If you simply have a look at the SCI record books, you will see why. Four out of the top ten including numbers, one, three, six and eight elephants are all from this region - CAR, Chad and Sudan. Just imagine, if these elephant were protected for trophy hunting what we as sportsman might have as a resource. The methodology to duiker calling is not difficult. It is simply a numbers game. We would enter a bako, walk through the tangled morass ‘till we found a spot with reasonable visibility and sit down. The trackers then do their thing. They pinch their noses and basically shout through their sinuses. The first few tries we called in a Blue Duiker, a mongoose and a female bushbuck. These animals come to the calling fast and they get close. Mike had warned me, “When and if a Yellow Back comes in, just shoot it.” They do not sex Yellow Backed Duikers. We did this for several hours but no target animals were called in. We were driving from one bako to another and picked up an outstanding Red Flanked Duiker. After resuming our drive we saw a Yellow Back run from the fringes of the savanna, into yet another bako. Desiree stopped the car and Mike asked him if we could still call the duiker in? He replied in French, “Yes, but we will need to drive up a bit.” We drove forward perhaps 300 metres. Horan led as we departed the ‘Cruiser and walked into the bako. After no more than 50 metres we all sat down. Jeremy began calling. He had called

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no more than twice, when I heard it coming. Whatever was coming was obviously running. I shouldered my .375H&H and just waited. It was difficult to visually dissect the jungle. Funny enough, I was the first to see him. All that was visible was both eyes and the bridge of the nose. Remembering Mike’s instructions to just shoot, I did as instructed. The only target the animal offered was to shoot directly below where I knew the nose was. I couldn’t even tell which way the animal was even facing. I had to shoot at where I knew the throat was. This was one of the finest shots I have ever performed while hunting. Dead centre on the throat, it went down as if pole axed. The boys were ecstatic, as was Mike. I had no idea what I had just done. At the time I didn’t know they were as much of a rarity as Yellow Backed Duiker’s are. During pictures, Mike admitted that he saw me see the animal. Mike never saw the animal prior to the shot. With two fine animals in the ‘Cruiser, we decided we had finished hunting in the bongo area. We drove back to Mbari camp to offload the day’s bounty. We ate a leisurely breakfast and packed for our return to Kocho camp. We had a couple of animals yet to shoot in that area; Red River hog and Western roan. I knew what the trip would entail. A long, hot, and dusty journey through some of the most uninhabited areas in one of the least habited countries on the African continent. Along about dark we rolled into Kocho camp. I was escorted to the

the most successful French PH’s in CAR, Francois Guillet and Christophe Morio. Both had taken their bongo, eland and an equally impressive array of other animals. They also had both succeeded in the “Pig Slam”, which consists of warthog, Red River hog and the elusive, Giant Forest hog. I did not have Giant Forest hog on quota due to my booking being for 21 days. For the next three or four days we hunted persistently for roan. We would do the same thing every day, check salines for tracks and follow if any showed promise. I was now nearing the end of this safari. As usual I was going into the mode of transitioning my mind into wrapping things up. This practice has proven to me a successful way to end a safari with no remorse, or any “post safari depression.” I reconcile things in my mind and think back at all the enjoyable and successful hunting days behind me. I must now be satisfied with my hunt and be at peace with the experience and the results, and I was.

The author with a Yellow Backed duiker and a Red Flanked duiker very same chalet I stayed in the first week of the safari. A shower and a stroll to the dining room brought me back to the other hunters. I had been playing hide and seek with them both over the last two weeks. Jim and Teresa were a married couple from Oregon. They were both here doing a two-ontwo, 28 day, full bag safari. They were hunting with two of

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Steve with a magnificent red river hog On the second to the last hunting day, we were walking back to the ‘Cruiser. We had just returned from another unsuccessful roan-tracking attempt. We happened upon a group of Red River hogs. The group was fourteen strong and walking in a single file line. They were coming out of the bako we had been walking next to. They were close. The wind was perfect. Forty yards was all that separated us. Mike threw down the sticks and pointed his finger and told me, “You better not shoot the wrong one.” I re-assured him as to my listening skills and got into my rifle scope. “You see the fourth one from the…” Bang! A few laughs and some unique photos of yet another exotic jewel from this wild place. At breakfast the next day, our last hunting day, I told Mike I was perfectly satisfied with the last three week’s events. If we shot a roan, that would be great but no pressure. I honestly believe this has been the most enjoyable and likely the most successful safari of all my international hunting pursuits. No animals here came by accident or easy. You have long hot days on track for the savanna species. There are the hot humid days in the bakos for forest species. The bakos present their own unique challenges as well. There are vines that snag every damn thing you are wearing or have hanging on your belt. My Sako rifle is scoped and wears a sling. It was nearly impossible to get through some of the tighter, thicker vegetation with my hat, my rifle and my sanity. The plant life in these bakos is nothing short of breathtaking. At times the gauntlet of green entanglement is 100 percent impassible. I must have backed out to find a new route a hundred times. The trees are so numerous and so large that they literally overwhelm your senses. When in southern or East Africa, there are only so many tree species. The PHs and trackers there seem to know all the names. In CAR it has got to be virtually impossible. This place is nothing short of Eden. Mike decided we would go for broke today and we would

drive all the way to the Chinko river, Joseph Kony country. We hunted hard, tracked, walked, and glassed until lunch. We stopped right on the bank of the Chinko. Together Mike and I enjoyed our last lunch in the deep shade. We re-hashed the safari. A pleasant and meaningful conversation was had. I have been blessed to have hunted with some of the finest and most experienced professional hunters in all of Africa. I truly believe I have become a better, fuller and well rounded sport hunter from my association with these men. I had accepted that my final drive back to Kocho would be unsuccessful for roan. As the evening shadows grew long and the day’s oppressive heat began to relent. Mike asked the truck to stop and said but one word, “roan.” I simultaneously looked to the right. The same direction where Mike was looking and I saw two buffalo running. I wondered if Mike had gone mad. We both departed the high seat on my side as not to create a panic. I chambered a round. We snuck up to an anthill. Mike, for the last time of the trip planted the weathered bamboo shooting

A beautiful roan at sunset sticks. As I carefully peered over the top of ant mound, I now could see the roan. I took my shooting breath took careful aim at the animal. Just sixty yards separated us. “Click”. Somehow, I had failed to pick a round up out of the magazine. I quickly worked the bolt again. This time visually making sure a round chambered. Mike was now urging me, as patiently as he was able, to quit dawdling and to shoot the roan. A perfect shoulder shot ended the safari. In all my hunting, I had yet to shoot the entire contract of all animals on quota. This time I had. I have been a blessed man. I have been given this gift, the gift of a life full of adventure. I have hunted sub-Saharan Africa extensively. I have shot most of its trophies. In the last three weeks, I have seen things and hunted creatures found nowhere else. I can honestly say this; The Central African Republic, for all its mayhem and conflict, is. The Final Frontier.

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Obituary

BRIAN MARSH 1928 - 2014

I

By I J Larivers

t was through Don Heath that I first met a true African legend Brian Marsh. Don rented a house from Brian in Harare back in the day, and Don, Charlie Haley, and a number of like-minded friends would gravitate there weekly for a gathering known as Dinner@Don’s. Topics of conversation rarely varied from guns, shooting, hunting and anything outdoor. A good Scotch was never far from hand, and the camaraderie was a palpable thing. An alltoo-rare treat would be when Brian and his wife Jillie were visiting and could join us. A definitive gentleman of the old school, Brian Ewart Marsh was born in South Africa in 1928, and moved to Rhodesia as a child and became a Rhodesian citizen. He began his professional hunting career in the 1950s, largely influenced by the books of John Pondoro Taylor. When Marsh went to Nyasaland in 1957 to hunt crocodiles, he decided to track down the iconic Taylor and introduce himself. Taylor responded warmly to the young man, even advising Marsh to take up big-game hunting in Mozambique. Marsh's later writing career was to be greatly influenced by Taylor's life and writings. Brian Marsh didn't take Taylor's advice about Mozambique, though, joining the ranks of Africa's pioneer game ranchers when he was granted game management rights of the half-million-acre Nuanetsi Ranch in Rhodesia in the early 1960s. By expanding this to include other game areas, Marsh soon held game management rights to over a million acres.

African Hunter Vol. 20 No. 1

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When the commercial sport hunting industry was first sanctioned in Rhodesia in 1967, Brian Marsh's company ran the first hunting safari in the country, and he held Rhodesia's prime safari concessions until forced to abandon them due to the playful antics of the insurgents during the Rhodesian bush war. He then moved to Botswana to hunt for Safari South, and two hunting greats, Harry Selby and the late Tom Henley, both previously of Ker, Downey & Selby of East Africa, became personal friends. Semi-retired and living in South Africa for nearly twenty years, Brian Marsh became one of the premier writers for Magnum magazine in South Africa, African Hunter, and a number of other outdoor and hunting publications. His first novel, The Last Trophy, was published by St. Martins Press in 1982, and it was his research that resulted in Peter Hathaway Capstick's last splendid book, A Man Called Lion. Brian’s Baron in Africa, is the biography of Werner von Alvensleben, betraying Brian’s keen interest in history. Brian remained until his death the go-to guru on everything from the .375 on elephant to the venerable .458 Win Mag in all its facets. The hunting world lost a true pioneer on 10 November, when Brian passed away in Cape Town. He will be sadly missed by all who knew him, but there is no doubt that he lived a life most people can only dream about, and if we are indeed the sum total of all that we have done and seen, he passed on a very wealthy man. Rest in peace, Brian.

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Tailpiece

Banning Hunting is the Easiest Way to Eliminate Wildlife

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By Jofie Lamprecht

n 1977 Kenya banned all hunting. No sport hunting, no meat hunting – even land-owners don’t have the right to utilize the wildlife on their property. There is no legal market for either game meat or wildlife products. All consumptive use of wildlife has been illegal in Kenya since 1977. Now, after banning sport-hunting, Kenya has lost 60% to 70% of its large wildlife – even in national parks. It is predicted that most large mammals will be extinct in Kenya in the next ten to twenty years. So. if you want to eliminate all wildlife – ban hunting. Sounds counter intuitive right? “If it pays, it stays” is especially true when it comes to Africa’s wildlife. Especially in today’s world where human populations are growing unchecked and space available to wildlife diminishes daily. During this same time period Namibia’s wildlife numbers have more than doubled. An essay titled “Game Economics” written by Aldo Leopold noted that the surest way to save habitat and enhance wildlife is to allow land owners to profit from protecting habitat and enhancing game populations. At present plains game hunting in Namibia and South Africa is the most cost-efficient big game hunting in the world. Multiple species are huntable for the same cost of just one high-end single species hunt in the US. It is interesting to note that not a single tourist company in Kenya invests in wildlife or habitat management. Various scientific studies have documented that wildlife viewing is more environmentally destructive than sport-hunting. Profit per person is less – so larger numbers of tourists need to be hosted to generate the same revenue as sport hunters. Tourists also expect paved roads and fivestar accommodation, utilize water that is often a scarce

commodity, leave behind human waste and garbage. In a nutshell – tourists generate a much larger carbon footprint than sport-hunters, who are content to stay in a tent and drive on dirt tracks. A free-market system is more effective at conservation of wildlife in Africa than heavy-handed, state-run monopolies. Yes, banning hunting is the easiest way to eliminate wildlife.

Based in Namibia, Jofie Lamprecht is a licensed PH specialising in both plains game and dangerous game hunting. Additionally he is a widely-published wildlife photographer and writer. Jofie also teaches photographic seminars in the US and creates custom-tailored photographic safaris that focus on African wildlife, culture and landscapes - Editor

http://www.africanhunteronline.com Page 42 African Hunter Vol. 20 No. 1


African Hunter Vol. 20 No. 1

fishunt@zol.co.zw

adhunt@mweb.co.za

Page 43


http://www.africanhunteronline.com Page 44 African Hunter Vol. 20 No. 1


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