Heading back to the states after my first big game hunt to Africa. Hunted Buff and plains game in the Luangwa valley of Zambia. While I didn’t shoot a monster buff, I passed on a 42-44” beast that didnt give us a great shot, and was a little young. On day 6 I finally took this 38” bull at 100 yards. He wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for, but I’m really happy with him and the buff weren’t exactly playing fair. I also took a 52.5”Kudu, 16” Puku, 25.5” waterbuck, and a decent stallion zebra. Now ai just have to start saving to go back and find that monster when he gets 4 years older.
Last two. Plains game were taken with a 200gr Accubond from my 300wsm, and the buff was taken with a 400gr TSX from a .416 Rigby. All plains game were 1 shot kills.
Congrats, nice kudu. I just returned from South Africa hunting (3rd trip) with a side trip to Victoria Falls. I got a very nice 8yo sable and hunted hard for an eland, but the eland eluded me. During one of my eland stalks, we came across a nice 52- 54" kudu. Maybe I'll get my eland on the next trip.
Excellent animals! Anyone would be thrilled to get a buffalo like yours. What safari company did you hunt with?
Beautiful wood on the .300WSM; details?
RS
We booked through The Hunting Consortium and hunted with Johnny Deplooy on his nephews concession. Originally we wanted to hunt his Chifunda concession, but I guess Zambia has all the leases screwed up right now, everything is in court, and as of now, doesn’t have Chifunda. Either way, we had a great hunt and had to hunt hard.
Gun is a custom stocked Kimber 300wsm from Tsavo Custom Firearms using a nice Turkish walnut blank.
Congratulations on your first, but not last, safari. You had a good hunt! Johnny is a really good PH. He and Laura have become friends, wonderful folks! I’m next hunting with Johnny in Nov of ‘24 in Tondwa. Looking forward to it very much.
The PHs I've hunted with haven't been nearly concerned as the horn-width on buffalo as boss-width and "character," as older bulls are considered better trophies. Yours is a great old bull!
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
Terrific animals and even more important you've got some terrific memories.
It does seem to "infect" just about everyone. Of all the guys I've taken over, over the years, I think only one or maybe two were "one and done". They said they had a great time and all but...... I think they may have spent the bulk of their hunting time in the US just sitting in blinds and over there, they had to actually do some walking and not just riding around in the truck.
Really nice! Congrats! I'd rather shoot an old 38" than a young 44" any day. Some day I hope to do just that......
Tell us more about the buff. How did things play out?
Since everybody else is doing it, I might as well do the same. On the first day, we were driving up a two track next to a mostly dry river bed. We came around the corner, and saw tons of dust, but no animals. Johny asked Sean, the young pH, who is sitting next to me, if he thought they were buffalo. Based on what Sean saw, he figured they were elephants. We continue driving, and about that time, an herd of 50+ buffalo crossed the road in front of us. We jumped out, and laid chase. About 10 minutes later, in heavy trees and brush, was the first time I ever felt like I had become the hunted. The Buffalo were getting antsy, and starting to get behind us. An old cow stared us down from about 15 yards for what seemed like an eternity. Johny pulled the plug, and we backed out before anything bad happened. About an hour later, we saw the kudu I ended up shooting, behind some cows on the backside of the hill. We couldn’t see how big he was, but we knew he was decent. I shot him at 180 yards off sticks, as he was walking away from us going uphill. He ran about 50 yards and fell over dead from the 200gr Accubond. Johny and Sean both said they thought it would go 50, and after measuring, it went 52 1/2. Not a huge kudu, but my first African big game animal, and I made the perfect shot, so I was proud as hell.
We loaded the kudu into the Toyota, and headed back to camp. We saw what we believe was the waterbuck I ended up taking, but as we drove by, Johny said we were gonna let him live another day. that almost turned out to be a big mistake as he eluded us most of the trip.
That evening, we were back in the Toyota looking for Buffalo. We came over a hill and down in the bottom of the Valley, all we could see was black. Johny and Sean both figured there were 400 to 500 Buffalo in the herd. We made a roughly 800 yard stock to get close to them. Once we were about 150 yards from them, everyone stood back as Johny and I moved to a clump of brush where he put me on the sticks. 100 to 200 buffalo grazed their way towards us, but the biggest we saw was a roughly 37 inch bull, that wasn’t what I was looking for. After about 45 minutes watching the animals, sitting on the sticks, looking through my scope, trying to find something I liked, the wind switched on us and blew the Buffalo out. Watching that many buffalo head over the hill was a very impressive site. We headed back to camp as shooting light was about gone. Over gin and tonics, we decided the next days plan would be to find where they crossed the road, and put on another stalk.
Day two started out with us back on the same herd after we found where they had crossed the road. The problem was they had moved into some really tall grass, and we couldn’t see most of the herd. We worked our way to the edge, where we saw 15 to 20 buffalo feeding on the edge of the tall grass. Johny spotted a really nice 38 inch bull, with lots of drop and big bosses, which was pretty much what I was looking for. He pointed him out, I put my crosshairs on him, and was considering taking him. About that time, Johny got excited, and started saying look left. Look left. Look left. Big big big big big bull. That was the first time I’ve ever seen a really big buffalo. Johnny guessed that he was 43 to 44 inches, and he had everything. He was wide, with drop, and would look phenomenal on the wall. However, that’s when Johny told me his bosses weren’t quite solid yet. Johnny figured he was a six or seven year old bull, and in his prime of breeding age. He was staring right at us at 126 yards, and I was very comfortable taking the frontal shot with the 416 Rigby. The problem was, a frontal shot at 126 yards wouldn’t lead to much of a mistake on my part. We decided not to take the frontal shot, because it left little error, and I really didn’t want to shoot a bull that wasn’t fully mature, even if he was huge. With that said, I decided to let fait play a part. If he would’ve turned sideways, and giving me the perfect shot, I believe it would’ve meant to be. He didn’t give us that shot though, and turned quickly and walked into the brush.
Our game plan was then to get around the Buffalo, and wait for them to come out of the field. Unfortunately, it was getting later in morning, and they bedded down instead of coming out.
After that, we lost the herd for a couple of days. We found fresh tracks in other areas, but put on unsuccessful stalks. The evening of day five, we found the herd again, but again, we didn’t see any bulls worthy of taking.
On the morning of DAY6, I was cautiously optimistic. We were now into the buffalo several days in a row, and I knew we would be into them again that morning. We went back to where we saw them the evening before, and they hadn’t moved far. We jumped out of the truck, and put a half mile stock on them to get towards the front of the moving herd. We found a perfect spot, where the buffalo couldn’t see us, and they were moving from our right to the left. We watched 40 or 50 buffalo walk by, without a shooter in the group. About that time, we saw a 38 inch bull present himself at 100ish yards. He looked towards us, and I liked what I saw. Ideally, I wanted a bigger bull, but we were on day six of a 10 day hunt, and I also didn’t want to go home empty-handed. I asked Johny what he thought, and he said he was a good bull, and had really big, solid bosses. He said it was a bull anyone would be proud of, so we decided to take him. He ranged him at 110 yards, I put the crosshairs directly on his shoulder between a third, and a half way up the body, and squeezed the trigger. I lost sight of the buffalo due to the recoil, and the herd bolted back to the direction which they came from. Johny looked at me, said “great shot, thank God, because I have to pee.” I laughed as Johny walked away to relieve himself. I felt good about the shot, but I didn’t know how good the shot was, and I couldn’t see a dead bull anywhere. About that time, Sam, our tracker, walked up and said great shot. I still wasn’t sure, because the buffalo had ran off, and I didn’t see the impact. I told Sam that I thought it was a good shot, and he said it was a great shot, and he pointed into the brush. I’ll be damned, but he could see without binoculars, what I couldn’t with binoculars. Somehow, between the brush, he could see a tiny speck of black, 20 yards from where the bull had been standing. Johny finished up, and we slowly made our way towards the bull. I had double lunged him, but he still tried to stand up as we were about 50 yards away. I put a second raking shot into him from just in front of his right rear quarter, and drove the TSX into his lungs. Then put a third into him just in case, even though the first shot killed him, he just didn’t know it yet. We approached the bull and I’m not sure he even went 20 yards.
Overall, the hunt was more than I could have ever imagined, but I still want that 40+ bull. I will go back!!
Cool hunt! Thanks for sharing. Inches don't mean anything except in record books. My best bull is about 39 inches but has a boss that is polished like mahogany and had hardly any teeth. The experience is the true trophy. If I ever get back I'll be looking for a scrum cap.
I am continually astounded at how quickly people make up their minds on little evidence or none at all. Jack O'Connor
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