CAPE BUFFALO

While in Zimbabwe South Africa on a 15 day

Safari I had chosen the Dangerous Cape

   Buffalo as one of my main species.  Susan

and I along with our guide Rod Martin, two

trackers and a gun barrier had just spent

 10 hours tracking 3 satellite Cape Buffalo that

had been banned from the heard because

of their impotency.  It had been a long hard

and hot day in the bush.  Everyone was in

bed early and slept very hard knowing that

we had to continue the pursuit from where

we left off today.

The next morning we were up early and getting

ready to continue our hunt for the Cape Buffalo.

Susan asked if I mined if she could stay in camp

as she was tired and sore from the previous day

and would like to spend the day reading.  That

was OK with me because we knew the day

 was not going to be easy.

Well that is not exactly the way it turned out. 

We all arrived where the tracking ended the

day before and started all over again.  This

time things were different as we went less

then 100 yards before we came upon the

grazing buffalo.  There was a tremendous

amount of brush between use and the buffalo

which made it almost impossible to get a

shot.  After a hour we were able to get within

 30 yards without being detected.

I was shooting a 416 Weatherby Magnum with

a 400 grain Solid followed by 400 grain

Swift Soft Points.  All I could see at 30 yards

was the front shoulder but that was all that was

needed as I put the first shot right in the middle

of the shoulder braking both the front shoulders.

The buffalo bolted with a limp allowing me to put

3 soft points behind the shoulder into the vitals

area.  The buffalo then disappeared into the thick

brush where we could hear him bellowing.  We

waited for about 10 minutes before went into

the brush to find him.  To my surprise he was very

much alive and came at us in a slow charge at

15 yards at which time I was able to put a well

placed solid just under the boss to stop him in his

tracks.  He fell less than 5 yards from where we

were standing.

After I stopped shaking and taking a lot of pictures

 the truck was brought to the buffalo where we

loaded it into the back.  It is a good thing that

there was a winch on the truck as the buffalo

 weighed more then 1200 pounds.

Upon our return to camp within 2 hours everyone

was surprised to see us so soon.  Susan had

gone back to bed and had to be waken to

join in the celebration, but she was really

 excited and wished she had joined us.

This was to be a Shoulder Mount.

(See Below)