Planning:
My quest began 5 years ago. I bought a hunt for plains game in Africa from a charity auction. I took this trip in 2019. I added a Cape Buffalo to this hunt as my first Dangerous Game hunt. The outfitter wasn’t able to provide the Buffalo on his concession and I was sent to another outfitter for this game animal, as well as sable and waterbuck. We hunted these animals at Nahla Safari with Marco Smit. It was the highlight of our trip. My wife and I have remained in contact with Marco and have become good friends over the past 4 years. Marco operates the nicest hunting lodges I’ve seen. He has a huge breeding program with various animals and has connections in most of Africa. We’ve discussed my goal of hunting all of the Big 5 (and Dangerous 7) animals on multiple occasions. We planned a lion hunt for 2020, only to have it delayed by the COVID pandemic. It became a lion and leopard hunt in 2021, but delayed again by life. My wife and I have started a business that diverted hunting funds and delayed my hunting. In 2022, I was able to commit funds to put down on my dream. Marco and I started planning the ultimate Big 5 Safari hunt. Starting with lion and leopard, we added a white rhinoceros. A hippopotamus was added as a substitute for the buffalo since I had already hunted a very nice animal. We also needed bait for the leopard. Elephant was added a few weeks before I departed for the hunt to complete my Big 5 quest.
Rifle:
My initial plan was to use a 375 WSM that was built by Jon Beanland a few years ago. Andrew at McCourt Munitions designed and loaded a great round that proved very capable on Water Buffalo in Argentina, Canadian Moose, Cape Buffalo, and various other animals. We were comfortable using it on this hunt. When I added a last minute elephant, I decided that I should build a bigger rifle. Jon and I were piecing together a switch barrel rifle project over the past year. We had planned 300 PRC initially. The plan was to use a Terminus Action Zeus QC with Bartlein barrel in a XLR Chassis. I had the chassis and barrels were ordered last year. After the addition of elephant, I started looking at bigger calibers that would help me be more comfortable with hunting elephant. I started looking for available barrels and found a 416 barrel at Bartlein. It needed to be contoured to a more hunting friendly size, as it was intended for long range use. Jon was able to get Bartlein to thin it down a little in a hurry and the barrel arrived a couple weeks later. Simultaneously we were working on acquiring the action in a hurry. We had been waiting on the other barrels and I hadn’t ordered the action yet. Joel at Terminus Actions came to the rescue and was able to provide an action in a hurry. Crisis number 2 averted. The next issue became picking a 416 cartridge. Rigby, Remington Magnum and Ruger all fit the template for what I needed from a performance standpoint. Rigby wasn’t optimal in this design and we could get similar performance from a Ruger. Ammunition availability became the final decider between Ruger and Rem Mag. I was able to obtain 200 rounds of Hornady 416 Ruger and a chamber reamer in weeks time. Jon did his magic and produced an outstanding rifle in the next couple days. With the rifle coming together, I shifted my focus to optics. After researching several options and looking through my available scopes, I decided a new scope was needed. I ordered a Tangent Theta 3-15x50 Long Range Hunter for this setup from Doug at Camera Land NY, and he was able to ship it quickly. I received the rifle 3 weeks before my hunt. The scope arrived about 2 days later. I also ordered rings from American Precision Arms, but made an error in height. The rings were too short and resulted in the objective hitting the barrel. I was able to switch the rings from another rifle for the APA rings. The TT LRH now sits in a set of Seekins rings that provide adequate barrel clearance. I hit the range to test my setup. Unfortunately we ran into yet another issue. The recoil of the 416 Ruger resulted in rounds moving forward in the magazine to lodge between the front ribs. That would jam the magazine and result in malfunction in feeding. After a conversation with Jon and Andrew McCourt, the solution became to mill out one rib and narrow the front flanges to allow the rounds to feed even if they slipped forward. Jon was able to modify the magazine and return it to me in time for one last range session. The magazine functioned appropriately on the range and I packaged everything for my trip. I know it isn’t a typical safari setup, but I’m not typical.
Outfitter/Professional Hunter:
The hunts were booked through Marco Smit at Nahla Safaris. He was able to work with partners in South Africa for the lion and rhinoceros. The hippopotamus, leopard and elephant were all booked in Zimbabwe with Mbalabala Safaris (PH Pierre Hundermark) through Cape to Cairo Safari (owner Cedric Nieuwoudd).
Travel:
I chose the fly Delta Airlines out of my home airport of Oklahoma City to Atlanta and then to Johannesburg South Africa. I’ve taken 3 different routes on 3 different airlines on trips to Africa and this was by far the easiest and shortest. With permits for the rifle, invitation letter from the PH and my passport in hand, I headed to the airport on 31 Aug. I arrived in Johannesburg on 01 Sept. Marco met me there. We overnighted at the airport hotel and took a morning flight on Airlink to Harare Zimbabwe. From there we chartered a flight to Kariba for the first part of our hunt. The night was spent at Warthogs Lodge on Lake Kariba. The owner, Goat, and his wife were very accommodating. We were visited by a herd of elephants, bushbuck, waterbuck and hippos throughout the evening and night. Goat took us across Lake Kariba the next morning to begin our hunt. I hope to make it back to Lake Kariba one day to visit Goat more and enjoy fishing for tiger fish.
Hippopotamus Hunt:
This hunt started with a huge mistake. We didn’t take the time to check the zero on my rifle and it came back to haunt us. We spent a few hours searching for a large bull. We scoured the coast line near Gache Gache in the southeast part of Lake Kariba. We finally found a bull wading in a 2-3 feet of water. He was around 140 yards off the beach in a flat. We stalked down to the edge of the water and I laid prone for a head shot. I used a bipod and a rear support to stabilize the rifle for a precise shot. Unfortunately the bull spotted the remaining crew and truck parked about 50 yards off the beach in grass. He laid down in the water with his head mostly submerged. He’d raise his head briefly to look for the truck and then submerge once again. I targeted an area between his eye and ear. I placed the horizontal crosshair of the scope on the waterline and waited for him to raise his head enough for the impact of the bullet to be about 2” below the eye-ear line. After about 10 minutes of watching him, he raised his head and I sent a round towards him. The impact was called as good, but later review of the video showed that unfortunately my rifle was shooting about 0.5mil low. The bullet impacted the water just short of it’s intended target. The bull jumped up and began running away from us. I sent another round into his left hip to stop or turn him. Mistake number 2 in my opinion was using soft nosed bullets as my PH recommended. The round limited his mobility, but a monolithic bullet might have caused more damage with more penetration. Either way, the bull turned to the right and began moving out to deeper water. I cycled the action for another shot and the last two rounds in the magazine turned down into the magazine jamming. I dropped the magazine and grabbed 4 rounds that I had in my binocular case as backup. I single loaded a round and sent it at the bull. The round struck his right shoulder causing him to stumble. The round penetrated enough to ultimately be fatal, but we wanted to stop him from getting into deeper water. I loaded another round into the chamber and held for his head. The range was called as 150 yards, so I held 0.5 mil, not knowing that the first round landed short. This round landed short of the target. I loaded another round and held 1.0 mil. This round was also short. I asked for a range again and was told 200 yards as the bull was still trying to escape. Ballistics AE showed holdover of 1.2 mil for this distance. I held 1.5 mil and sent another round. Yet again the round fell short. I wrestled the last two rounds from the magazine and held 2.0 mils. I sent that round only to see it splash in the water. This time, I was actually able to see the water impact and determined it was 0.5 mil low. I loaded the last round into the chamber and sent it on a 2.5 mil hold. It impacted perfectly in the bull’s head stopping him in his pursuit for the security of deeper waters. Unfortunately he had made it into water that was about 6 feet deep and he sank to the bottom. The waiting game began at this point. After about an hour, the bull floated enough for a boat to attach a rope to his foot and drag him to the beach. We ranged the boat during recovery at 275 meters (300 yards), which was when I realized that my rifle was indeed shooting 0.5 mil low. We also reviewed the video from the first shot and saw the impact into the water. We recovered the bull and the work of processing the meat began. We loaded most of the meat into the truck and used it for bait during the remainder of the hunt. Some of it went to the local fishermen who helped us recover the bull. Overall, multiple lessons were learned and we moved on to the next adventure.
Travel:
We traveled from Lake Kariba to a camp in Makuti where we stayed the night. We then traveled through the Mana Pools National Park and the Sapi Safari Area to our destination in Chewore South Safari Area. The PH had started baiting sites in this area about 6 days before my arrival. Once we got there with the hippo meat, we hung new meat in several spots and checked the game cameras. I brought 14 new game cameras for the PH and we hung several of these to get better views of our bait sites. We also shot my rifle and confirmed it was indeed 0.5 mil. I adjusted the Tangent Theta LRH scope and it performed flawlessly for the rest of the hunt.
Leopard Hunt:
Over the next couple days, we traveled between bait sites, setting up blinds and checking cameras. We hung new meat and created drags into the bait sites using old blood from prior animal kills. This would serve to lure a leopard to the site by creating a scent trail and covering our scent from work on the site. We sat in our blinds on the first couple nights without luring a leopard into the site during daytime hours. Each night, the leopard would come feed about 30 minutes after we left. On the third day, we caught a break. We checked one of the bait sites and noted large male came into the site before 1800 and stayed until 0700 the next morning. He spent 13 hours feeding on the hippo meat. He was comfortable enough that he chewed the rope holding the meat until it dropped from the tree. He picked the piece up and brought it back into the tree to continue his feast. That tree was clearly his banquet table. He would be back for another feast and we were ready to provide the main course. We hung a new piece of meat and planned to pay him a visit that evening. We stalked in to the blind at 1500 to make sure we didn’t interfere with his arrival if he came early. We waited until shortly after 1800 and he finally showed up. Just as the sun was setting. A few minutes later and we would’ve been forced to let him feast through another night. Fortunately we had enough light to determine it was indeed a large male. He was laying on the tree limb starting to enjoy his new found buffet. I focused the crosshairs and sent the 400 grain soft point through both shoulders, heart and lungs. He rolled off the limb to the ground, never moving again. The shot proved to be almost instantly fatal. He was a beautiful old male leopard that had lived a good long life in the Zambezi Valley. He was a healthy cat that will make an amazing trophy in my house. His death quickly allowed a new male to seize his territory as game cameras showed another male in the tree at 0300 the next morning.
Baboon Hunt:
I shot a nice sized baboon while out looking for an elephant. There was a large group of baboons in a river bottom. I wanted to add the baboon to a leopard mount. My mistake here was using a soft nosed bullet. The monkey was arrogant enough to sit on a ledge near the edge of the river bank about 90 yards away from us, assuming that that distance and height above would offer him security from my rifle. He was incorrect. I quickly held the rifle off hand from a seated position on top of the truck. As the crosshairs settled on the monkey’s chest, I sent the bullet straight through his rib cage and heart. He instantly slumped to the ground. Unfortunately the exit wound ruined any thought of using the baboon in my leopard mount.
Elephant Hunt:
After harvesting an incredible leopard, we turned our attention to a bull elephant. We had seen multiple elephants every day while checking bait sites for leopard. When we focused on elephant, we went the next 2 days without seeing a single elephant. Once again the third day proved fruitful for our hunt. We found a nice set of tracks along a road through the national park. The trackers determined it was from late in the night and we started our stalk. We trailed the bull elephant for 8.6 miles over hills and through valleys until we finally got to fresh tracks suggesting he was near. The trackers spotted the bull in a dense wooded area. He was happily eating the greenery of the river valley. The PH and I stalked into a position about 40 yards from the giant beast. He was in the shade of the thick brush and was difficult for me to define a sure target. He briefly turned facing us and I focused on a frontal shot slightly above his eyes. He turned again and walked away from us a few more yards to feed again. Pierre and I stalked slowly through a dry shallow ravine and worked our way into a closer position on the bull elephant. Cedric and Marco followed closely behind. Pierre and I set up about 30 yards from the bull and waited for him to turn for a broadside shot. He turned to the left and walked into a clearing. I sent my first round into his shoulder. At the sound of the shot, Pierre fired his 470 double rifle, but ended up firing both barrels in rapid succession. The elephant stumbled and fell. He stood back up. Cedric fired a shot and I cycled my bolt to send a second round into the bull. He stumbled again, but quickly turned towards us. Pierre instructed us to retreat behind a nearby tree. I quickly moved the 10 feet to behind the tree and spun around to fire a third shot. As I aimed at the bull’s head and squeezed the trigger, all I heard was a click. In the commotion of the retreat, I hit the magazine release on the XLR chassis and dropped my magazine. I found it about 3 feet from where I was standing. I was able to grab the magazine, load and round and send a third round into the bull as he ran about 20 feet from our hiding spot. The bull turned to the right and ran away from us. He collapsed about 70 yards from the tree. Pierre and I raced towards the bull. I sent a final shot into the back of his skull ending the multiple hour stalk for this bull. The skinners spent the next 6 hours working on this beast. The meat went to feed a nearby town. The bull’s death will help the surrounding community live.
Hyena Hunt:
We were able to harvest our three intended target animals much quicker than planned, so we used the next couple days to focus on something different. We used the offal from the elephant as bait for a hyena. We built a blind overlooking the elephant after finding evidence that multiple hyena feasted on his remains the night after his harvest. We stalked in early the next morning and two hyenas were working their way into the bait site right at sunrise. A nice male was making his way to the meat and I placed the crosshairs on his lower shoulder. I sent the bullet through both shoulders and he rolled to his side to breathe he last short breath. He was dead before we could walk to him. He will make a nice addition to a leopard mount.
Travel:
We are preparing to travel to South Africa to complete my hunt… More to come….
