Kwa-Zulu Game Reserve: Part II

Tuesday: Trophy Cape Buffalo Taken & Hunt for Nyala

Tuesday started off pretty tough. I slept maybe one or two hours Monday night. I had not adjusted to the time change yet and had not taken an Ambien. We were out of camp just before dawn and it was cold again. We started back into the bush to find the same herd. Through luck, we took a completely new route from the previous day. We headed towards an area where some Duga boys had been sighted a week earlier – and the area that could be a logical route for the herd from the night before.

We moved along the rough road through dense bush when suddenly we sighted a cow and calf on the road. They appeared to be by themselves. We slowly made our away down the road and came to the edge of clearing were we saw a herd of around 50 buffalo. Could this be the herd we had stalked twice the day before? We carefully studied the herd, not all the animals were visible. We didn't see the large bull nor the Duga Boy. We kept looking as the herd moved around. Then Tommy sighted the big bull at the back of the herd. Justin, Schulk, and I quickly and quietly exited the truck.

The buffalo were shifting in place like they were anxious. We assumed that their intended route of travel was through our position thus they had not retreated. The previous day we were following from the rear and perhaps this pushed them along – especially with the help of the baboons. We carefully studied the herd. The large Bull started moving towards the front of the herd where we could see him better. He was clearly the leader of the herd. He started to move the herd at a right angle to our position and paused behind some tall grass less than 30 yards award.

He was facing to our right quartering towards us. Justin instructed me to aim about 6 inches left of nose and down into chest. I fired. The 300 grain Swift A-Frame soft point went thru his shoulder, right lung, heart, and left lung and exited. He stumbled and started to fall to the ground. Right before he hit he gained his balance and starting running to his right. I had already chambered another round and placed a 300 grain solid thru his chest area. At this he swung around and ran to our left, back across the road. At this point Justin and I fired in quick succession – he a 500 grain solid from his .458 Lott and me another .375 H&H solid. The buff kept on running, even faster. Luckily the herd ran the opposite direction from him, making follow-up shots easy. We had to make sure that with each shot we were clear behind him as we did not want to have any pass throughs wound another buffalo. As he crossed the road he went to the grass again. He was headed for some thick bush. The first shot was a kill shot, but how long it would take and how far he would get we were unsure – thus the reason for the follow-ups. You definitely don’t want to hunt a wounded buff in the bush. We again each fired a shot – this time into his rump to try and hit his spine or send a round lengthwise down his body. Solids are deadly. At the right distance and velocity they can transverse the entire length of a Cape Buffalo. The two shots put him on the ground after he ran a few yards. He stopped moving. He started to get up and collapsed again. One more round thru his chest area to make sure. 5 seconds and 7 shots, he’s down. It is 6:15 AM.

Cape Buffalo

The fun and work commenced. A lot of pats on the pack, retracing our tracks and the buffalo tracks as we shot, and pictures. Lots of pictures. The trackers field dressed the buffalo where he fell – removing his digestive track, which was full of grass. Five hundred pounds we estimated. This made him lighter, maybe only 1,500 pounds now!. The crew used a combination of muscles and an electric winch to put him into the back of the cruiser. A pivot point was affixed at the center of the truck above the cab and the cable from the electric winch was pulled from the front bumper over the pivot point and to the buffalo – pretty neat trick. Not every hunting trick was invented in Texas. However, I still want to try to Mexican bag of water trick in Africa and see if it keeps the flies away. Maybe someone else has tried, but the locals think its "bad juju" and don’t use it.

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We took the Buffalo to be fully processed, skinned, and caped. We headed back to the lodge for lunch. As usual, first class. Fresh antelope meat, salad, fruits, drinks, and dessert. We Texans could learn a thing or two about hunting from the Afrikaans. After lunch I crashed for 45 minutes. I could have slept through the day and night; no sleep the night before and an adrenaline crash after the buffalo hunt.

Mfuze River Valley

That afternoon we headed back out to a new area. The Mfuze river was at its heart, with steep hills and mountains all around covered in very thick semi-tropical cover. We were only a few miles from where took the buffalo, but it could have well been hundreds. Our next quarry was Nyala – the medium sized, elegant spiral horned antelope. We saw several during our hunt for a buffalo, but nothing extraordinary. The terrain and bush was so steep and thick that we decided to drive to cover as much area as possible. We could only see 20 yards, perhaps, into the bush. We searched for several hours, but were unsuccessful. Night fell and we headed back to the lodge. A hot bath, excellent dinner, drinks, and bed.