AHC#4 | african-hunter

Anchor 7

The Ivory Conservation Myth

By I J Larivers

Failed Conservation Strategies

Albert Einstein once said that doing the same thing over and over again and each time expecting a different result was the definition of insanity. Einstein may have lived before the age of personal computers, but he was basically right. It seems so many new conservation initiatives are simply doomed-to-fail attempts at re-inventing the wheel. In most cases, the better mousetrap, like the greener grass on the other side is an urban legend.

I find myself growing more and more cynical as time goes by. While the unkind might point to my grey beard as a possible cause, I never cease to be amazed by the First World’s attempts to solve the Third World’s problems - such as how to protect endangered species - with solutions which are untenable simply because they don’t embrace the realities of the Third World.

There are broad general calls for the “holistic” maladies of the Dark Continent - chief among them, poverty - to be redressed before local populations can be expected to show any interest in conserving their wildlife. I fear about the only thing adherents to this school of thought have gotten right is that without involving local populations in a grass roots effort, conservation efforts are pretty much doomed to failure. Looking at African politics over the past few decades, since the winds of change first fanned the continent, 21st century African governments are devolving farther and farther away from stability, transparency, and accountability. Consequently, core problems like poverty are becoming worse and worse.

One of the more contentious issues right now is whether destroying stockpiles of ivory and rhino horn will help to curtail the international trafficking in them, or whether it is merely First World symbolism imposed on Third World cultures.

Back in 2002, the Organization of African Unity promulgated Africa Environment Day to raise awareness of the various environmental challenges facing the Dark Continent, and this year it was celebrated on 3 March; the date coincides with World Wildlife Day, declared by the United Nations in 2013 so as not to be left out.

A commemorative day! Wow! And yet today, the mass slaughter of Africa’s endangered species is worse then ever before. What went wrong?

Seven Ways to Ruin a Good Safari

The Ivory Conservation Myth

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I do not believe that destroying ivory stockpiles is a solution to the poaching problem because if anything it takes the concept of local communities owning, managing and conserving their resources even further away - the government and foreign donors and “experts” become the only stakeholders. On top of, of course, the fact that even with my basic knowledge of economics I can’t see any use in destroying a tangible asset, except for symbolic reasons.

The old, hackneyed concept that wildlife must have a tangible value in order to survive was never truer. Especially in southern Africa, where we see private commercial crocodile farms, ostrich farms, game farms and nature reserves flourishing, we see grass roots-based community involvement and the protection of wildlife because it is the peoples’ asset.

Regulated sport hunting is one of the core foundations of such market-oriented schemes. True, the “average person”, whomever that may be has trouble differentiating in their mind between hunting and poaching, and the activists don’t want them to think much beyond signing a cheque anyway, but without the hunter as a legal end-user, the market value of the resources decreases and so does the urgency of conserving it.

Apply this to Africa’s elephant population and if the rural communities having to live side-by-side and compete with wildlife have no vested interest, e.g., ownership rights, why should they support the conservationists with the soccer balls and t-shirts instead of the poaching cartels with ready cash?

In Zimbabwe, the very successful CAMPFIRE program has made populations of wild animals the property of the local villagers, and they have the ultimate incentive to protect their wildlife - it belongs to them, and the poachers are stealing from them. Namibia’s communal conservancies function in the same way.

Granting ownership of wildlife to local communities is the easiest way to turn a poacher into a gamekeeper.

> US Fish & Wildlife Factsheet on Leopard & Elephant Import

africa's professional journal for serious hunters since 1994

Once, not long ago, I was young, and keen, and full of the vinegar and juice of life. I was strong and the whole world was open before me. Now, suddenly, I am “middle aged”. I am the age of people who, not long ago, I branded contemptuously as “old farts”.

Hunter's Gallery

Lion by Randy Cadwallader Randy Cadwallader with a beautiful lion taken with PH Peter Fick.	Buffalo by Dave Creamer Dave Creamer and a nice old buffalo taken with Grant Taylor & Mashambanzou Safaris Mozambique.
Nyala by Rob Walsh Rob Walsh with a beautiful nyala taken with Cheetah Safaris.	Impala by Alex Nemekla Alex Nemekla and a nice impala shot a 80 metres with a .308 and Africa Hunting Safaris, Inc.
Warthog by Ralph von Bargen Ralph von Bargen with a nice warthog shot in Chirundu with PH Jannie Meyer.

Dehydration is a Killer

For African hunters, acclimatizing to a new hunting area is seldom a problem, although where one is suddenly thrust into the Zambezi valley, and forced to walk 20 or 30 kilometres after buffalo, dehydration can affect them as much as anyone else. Salt tablets or one of the many re-hydration drinks used by athletes, taken with at least a litre of water at the beginning of the day, is often enough to bolster one’s system against the change in climate and physical demands thrust on one’s person. If feeling excessively tired in the evening, and despite the almost traditional need to imbibe alcohol, another litre of water and a couple more salt tablets are likely to be more beneficial.

For visiting hunters, the effects of dehydration can be far more real and immediate, and is often an overlooked phenomenon. Perhaps the most noticeable symptom is that of fatigue... just feeling tired and weary. In truth, the syndrome starts the moment the hunter boards his plane from the USA or Europe. The controlled environment within the aircraft reduces humidity to about 20%, and this coupled with inadequate intake of fluids, or the wrong type of fluids (like alcohol or coffee), begins the dehydration process almost immediately. It is a long haul from the USA and invariably necessitates one or more connections or delays, often resulting in sleep deprivation which adds to the problem. A hunter visiting from the United States can usually count on at least 30 hours of travel before he is sipping his first whisky in the hunting camp, while from Europe 15 hours would be about normal.

Most hunting in Africa is carried out during the dry, winter season. Clear blue skies, and an almost absolute absence of humidity, coupled with the often hot and low laying areas to be hunted (anything from 1000 to 2000 feet above mean sea level with temperatures often approaching 25-30°C), makes coping with an extended flight and its inherent jet lag almost impossible. Simply put, the syndrome needs to be recognised and managed from the moment you board the aeroplane. Drink lots of water, get up and move around from time to time, and continue drinking above average quantities of water once in the hunting camp, till your body has a chance to adapt.

They say that while walking in the bush, if you begin to feel thirsty, you have already started to dehydrate. Water should be taken at regular intervals and increased during periods of excessive activity or exertion, heat or perspiration. That said, there are African hunters who will happily walk the whole day without taking a single sip of water, and not seem to suffer any ill effects. It is all about acclimatization, and few visiting hunters are in Africa long enough to adjust naturally.

In a similar vein, many hunters struggle with the very dry air of Africa’s winter. Dust and pollen can be real problems, but can be managed with a little forward planning. Buy some good nose drops and a general purpose anti-histamine to cope with stuffy noses or reactions to dust etc. A most useful tip is to carry a small jar of Vaseline petroleum jelly (or similar). At night, rub a dab of the jelly onto the bridge of your nose and forehead before going to sleep. It is amazing how this clears the nasal passages and sinuses. Additionally, a little dab on your pinkie and smeared inside your nose at the start of the day, prevents your nasal passages from drying out and becoming uncomfortable, a process which is accelerated if you are dehydrated anyway.

Finally, the use of a good general purpose cough suppressant or bronchial dilator is a must for the visiting hunter. A greater percentage of visitors suffer some sort of cold/flu symptoms while in Africa - due in part to changing climates, the unhealthy environment on aeroplanes, or just the dry, cool air as outlined above. Even a strong mint sweet will clear the nose and throat, often controlling any niggling sniff or cough when closing in on the animal. There is nothing more annoying for either the PH or the hunter, than to have a stalk ruined by an incessant cough or sniff, ailments easily treated as stated.

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Seven Ways to Ruin a Good Safari

Depending on your level of fitness, you may encounter your first serious problem before you even arrive at your destination, in the form of a deep vein thrombosis. This is a blood clot that forms in a large vein during a protracted journey in an aircraft where movement and exercise are restricted.

Many people are prone to thromboses, and they will have a history of the condition. They will most likely be on preventative medication and will know to move about as regularly during the flight as possible.

The symptoms of DVT are swelling in the lower extremity of the affected limb below the location of the clot, and pain and sensitivity in the affected area. The body produces powerful enzymes which dissolve most of these clots, but in a worst case scenario the clot may become dislodged and travel through the circulatory system where it will become lodged in one of the blood vessels of the lungs. This will cause chest pain and difficulty in breathing, and is a potentially life-threatening condition which requires immediate medical treatment and possibly hospitalization. If you are not normally plagued by blood clots the likelihood of one developing will be greatly reduced by getting as much exercise as you can while on the flight.

Allied to fitness, good health and general wellbeing, is the need to pay attention to the smaller issues of comfort… before they become a problem. Dehydration is something which tends to creep up on you, and has the potential to spoil the overall experience of the hunt – and long before twisted ankles, blisters or sleeping sickness get to you.

I am writing this article in my head as we thread our way through the jesse looking for the client’s buffalo. Shot yesterday morning. We are not sure where, but we now think in the jaw... and... possibly also in the rump! He fired four shots, but there was no visible reaction to the first, other than the buffalo turning broadside. On the second, a clear sixty yard broadside shot, both bulls took off, two more shots crashing through the bush after them. There was bright blood for a while, then watery blood, and then just water. Not urine or stomach fluid but saliva. Lots of saliva, wherever the buff has stopped, usually under a large tree. It’s 36 degrees in the shade and sweat is pouring from our bodies as fast as we can replenish from the bottled water carried by one of the trackers in a canvas rucksack. The client stayed with us for most of the first day, until around mid-afternoon when we ran out of water. Today he made it until around midday, when it started to get really hot. He stayed with the vehicle while we pushed on, the PH and I, with our trackers leading us deep into the bush. First to a dry waterhole, then to another that held water, and now back into the folded country, blackened by fire in places, bleached everywhere by the merciless October sun now reaching its zenith. There is now an intermittent drag mark in the sand, a rear leg that has stiffened up overnight. I try to concentrate on scanning the brush, looking through it, checking every dark patch. But my concentration is wandering and I find myself stopping to cool off wherever the trail leads through shade. I recount the events of the past few days in my mind, cataloguing the errors that got us into the situation we now find ourselves in. Nobody was having fun. Not the PH, who carried the obligation to his client like a pack on his shoulders; not the trackers who grimly followed the fresh spoor; and not the writer, whose role is to get some video of this hunt, although now I am carrying a double rifle as well as my camera, thinking that death by buffalo is not part of my plan for the day...

Thankfully, most safaris go off well. The game is plentiful. The PH does his job, putting the client in position to make a clean shot. The client shoots what he came to shoot and the animals expire without a fight. He gets good trophies, plenty of pictures, and goes home with fond memories of his new best friend the PH.

However, once in a while, hunts go sour. Sometimes through no fault of anyone. Uncooperative leopards, unexpected sickness or injury, or just plain bad luck can ruin a hunt. But, in most cases, safaris that go south do so for a short list of avoidable mistakes. Here are seven that came to mind while we were trying to salvage the salivating buffalo.

Before the client boards his flight, he can stack the odds against a good experience by making the following basic mistakes:

1) The wrong hardware

The most important requirement for a successful hunt is that you are able to reliably put the right projectile in the right place under field conditions. The hunter must be intimate with his rifle and have absolute confidence in it. Shooting a few rounds from a bench at a target does not count. Yes, it helps to know your rifle will group well. But no trophy is ever shot from a shooting bench. You must be able to shoot from field positions, at partially obscured targets at unknown distances, targets that don’t stand still for long and are sometimes moving, either away from you or (gulp!) toward you. Shooting offhand, from a standing position over sticks, from the kneeling and sitting positions must be practiced, and practiced, and practiced. Did I mention practiced? That’s the only way to build confidence in a particular rifle. Until you can put the projectile in the right place every time. This projectile must be big enough, be tough enough, and have sufficient energy to puncture the vitals of your quarry from all angles. But not so big that it rattles your teeth and causes you to close your eyes as you yank the trigger. If you can’t shoot a heavy calibre without flinching, you have no business hunting dangerous game. Stick to plains game until you are ready for the bigger stuff. And you must use appropriate ammo. A lot has been written on this subject, so I won’t repeat the technicalities here, but I will refer you to a recent article in this publication on bullet performance as a must-read.

2) Inadequate fitness and footwear

Yes, many a hunt is no more strenuous than a short stroll in the bush. Particularly early in the season, when game is not skittish. For these hunts, just about anyone wearing any kind of shoe will manage. But as the season wears on, some serious hiking may be necessary to find game, and some crouching and crawling may be necessary to get into position for a shot. If an animal is wounded, be prepared for a death march. Don’t make the mistake of thinking ‘Gee, I spend all day walking around at my job/on the farm...’ Those places are generally level and you are not covering the kinds of distances you may have to cover on a hunt. So do some serious strenuous hiking wearing the footwear you plan to take on safari. In other words, buy your boots when you pay your deposit, not when you pack your bags. And walk in them, until you can walk for four hours non-stop. Even if you are fit, blisters can make your life a misery with a capital M. So get that problem out of the way before you board the plane.

3) Being unprepared for the African sun

Spending all day in the African sun is not something you can plunge into. Humidity is low in hunting season so the UV is at full volume and it will burn pale skin in one hour. So take sunblock, wear a hat, and even then, get a tan on your exposed skin before you board the plane. Winter in Africa comes during the summer months for most foreign clients. The first day of your hunt should not be the first sun your face (or bald head) have seen in months. Sunstroke, heat exhaustion, or even a bad burn will take the joy out of hunting and can end things prematurely for you.

Once the plane lands and the safari begins, there are several ways to really mess up the hunt:

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AHC.4 Ivory

AHC.4 Gallery

AHC.4 Dehydration

AHC.4 7 Ways

Anchor 12

Secret ivory found in the West

An Excerpt from the African Hunter's Guide to Bush Medicine

By Russ Gould

Firstly, the end-users in the Far East are leaving a bigger and bigger footprint in Africa. Secondly, international terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda, al Shabbab, Janjaweed, Boko Haram and ISIS are more established, more organised, and more in need of a steady and significant revenue stream. The differences between them are probably about the same as between the Gambino and Lucchese families, and they constitute a formidable force against Africa’s wildlife, if not always its ideologies.

Most African nations have conservation legislation and anti-poaching operations. Whether their efforts are mostly home-grown or coordinated through the efforts of CITES, Interpol and Traffic, most have (or claim they have) stockpiles or ivory, and sometimes rhino horn. Such hoards are legal and legitimate products of pro-conservation legislation and operations, but legally are worth about as much as Zimbabwe dollars because international protocols largely prevent trade in them. The only real contribution these stockpiles represent to the conservation effort is that they have penalised traffickers financially by their loss.

The fact that if these troves could be legally traded they would represent a great deal of income for conservation projects (or whatever) for developing countries is not lost on the respective governments holding them. One school of thought is that if these vast quantities of ivory and rhino horn could be sold they would not only bring in money but also decrease the continuing illicit trade by satiating the demand. I’m far too cynical to believe that legally selling these stockpiles will have much of an effect on demand. 1.8 billion consumers is a lot of consumers.

So, fuelled by Western culture and sadly Western donors who are either largely out of touch with African realities or animal rights activist groups whose main raison d’etre is the generation of large sums of money and oftentimes obscenely healthy salaries, many African governments have been encouraged to burn their ivory and rhino horn hoards. The theory is that by removing the ivory from the market, you remove the incentive to traffic it. Trouble is, most grade school children would realize that stockpiled ivory has already been removed the market, and it holds a value. Since 1989, Kenya has burned over thirty metric tons of confiscated ivory. Daniel Arap Moi, encouraged by Richard Leakey and various environmental activist groups in fact started the ball rolling. (Twelve years after sport hunting was banned, and local villagers were given very little reason to safeguard their wildlife, which in many instances is all but gone.) President Kenyatta has gone on record as saying that during the year Kenya will burn the remaining stockpiled ivory, estimated at some 115 tons.

It would be nice if we had tangible data to test whether the destruction of the contents of ivory stores has any impact on poaching and trafficking. We don’t. Environmentalists love it because it’s a form of grand-standing and grand-standing makes those (tax free) dollars roll in. But if it works as a deterrent, why is poaching now at an all-time high? I myself would argue that it has the opposite effect. I’m a poacher and by some bad deed I did that caused the spirits of my ancestors to turn against me I got caught selling illegal ivory. Damn! I’ve lost all that money. Better go out and get some more. And if I can’t get more to pass on to the consumers, what there is still out there on the hoof is worth even more. Economics 101.

Activists continue to argue, though, that by not destroying and instead selling stockpiled ivory and rhino horn we are somehow legitimizing the trade in illicit product. Since one hundred percent of the ivory in question has been recovered from traffickers, I fail to see the logic. The black market, and legal trade are two completely separate beasts. A side argument, of course, is that there is no way of knowing how much good revenue earned from the legal sale of stockpiles will do, since there will be a degree of corruption in its end use. OK, fair enough - we can’t quantify that.

And how important are these stockpiles in the Grand Scheme of Things anyway? The fact is, most traditional enforcement policies implemented by African countries to curb poaching and trafficking don’t seem to be working - because of a lack of resources, because of corruption, or both, or myriad other causes. In the same vein, attempts by entities such as CITES and US Fish and Wildlife, to name but two to curb ivory trade internationally are probably having little more success. As window-dressing, they’re great, but the key players in a big part of this game are governments. Who polices the police?

Dehydration is a Killer

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They move forward to examine the fallen beast, approaching from the rear. The tracker prods the buffalo with a stick, first in the rump and then in the eye. There are two holes in the shoulder. And another high in the neck, right behind the skull.

“That must be your first shot,” the PH says, thinking that this is a mediocre trophy at best, and wondering how a shoulder shot from 30 yards could have hit the buffalo behind the head?

They roll the buffalo over with some difficulty, but there are no wounds on the other side, apart from one exit wound in the neck that has taken a chip out of the offside horn.

“Congratulations on your second buffalo,” he says.

The client realizes the hunt is over and wishes he could have shot something with the Rigby.

I can read the stories of regular African Hunter contributors such as Ivan de Klasz who hunted in places like Somalia and Ethiopia half a century ago and they exude much promise for the future. I can reflect on my own extensive travels through what is now the Congo and South Sudan thirty years ago, and my impressions on how projects like the Jonglei Canal would re-shape the economy in such regions. Look at these countries today.

That amorphous entity “The West” is full of ideas like the Clinton Foundation’s Clinton Initiative, which among other thing postulates giving African countries schools and clinics. Africa is one of the richest continents on the face of the earth, and most of its countries could easily build their own universities and hospitals in the right environment. Sadly, they are moving away from that environment and farther into poverty and chaos, but giving them a sporadic infrastructure they cannot maintain only serves to make them less able to drag themselves out of the hole.

Once, in some forgettable village along the Congo river, I was shown a badly worn fragment of tin by a villager, who kept repeating something that sounded like “stally, stally!” A paratrooper, one of Mobutu’s elite presidential guard who had attached himself to me to practice his English explained as best he could that the old woman was trying to say “Stanley”. Henry Morton Stanley had, indeed, passed through this way in the 19th century after he had found Livingstone, and as a kid I had read his Through the Dark Continent. This woman had had no formal education whatsoever and her whole understanding of life, the universe and everything was through oral tribal tradition, passed down around innumerable campfires. She had no idea of who Stanley was, but she knew an ancestor had been given this trinket by him. The only conclusion I can draw is that this would have been one of the fabled “beads and (polished tin) mirrors” that early explorers used to hand out to local villagers in trade. That encounter was three decades ago, and the romantic in me hopes that if that village is still there, one of the old woman’s descendants still has “Stanley’s” mirror. The soccer balls and t-shirts handed out by Chelsea Clinton on a whirlwind tour of East African conservation areas a couple of years ago will, in contrast, have long since turned to dust and they symbolize the West’s approach to Africa’s problems. (“The East”, on the other hand, is encouraging direct foreign investment and re-colonizing Africa at an alarming rate.)

Seven Ways to Ruin a Good Safari

Dehydration is a Killer

The Ivory Conservation Myth

africa's professional journal for serious hunters since 1994

Seven Ways to Ruin a Good Safari

Dehydration is a Killer

The Ivory Conservation Myth

africa's professional journal for serious hunters since 1994

Related to the hot dry conditions through the main part of the day, is the risk of sunburn. While a wide brimmed hat keeps the sun off one’s face and ears, it is often not practical in thick bush. A cap exposes sensitive parts of your anatomy to the African sun, which can have disastrous effects. Crispy ears, a sunburned neck, and peeling nose are unpleasant annoyances which can be avoided with the judicious use of a good sun blocker. Apply it before you leave your lodge or cabin in the morning, and again later in the day if necessary to replace the covering which may have been sweated off.

Many hunters are floored by the effects of either inadequate or unsuitable sun blockers. By far the biggest downfall of sunblock products is their effects on the sensitive nature of one’s eyes. You can rest assured, that any sunblock placed above the level of the eyes, will eventually find its way into your eyes... helped along by a trickle of sweat. This, often in spite of the use of a sweat band. Murphy says this will happen while lining up for the killing shot, or glassing a field of rapidly departing buffalo for your trophy. Be aware of this potential hazard and apply the sunblock accordingly.

Seven Ways to Ruin a Good Safari

Dehydration is a Killer

The Ivory Conservation Myth

africa's professional journal for serious hunters since 1994

Vintage double rifle - pretty - but looks don't kill.

Big holes do not compensate for poor regulation in the field.

4) At the range

It never ceases to amaze me that almost every gun needs adjustment at the range. Temperature, humidity and elevation changes can cause a rifle to shoot to a different point of aim. Baggage handlers are notoriously rough on guns. And more than once I have suspected that the TSA inspectors have fiddled with scope knobs for their own perverse reasons. The corollary of this observation is that your rifle will more likely than not be out if you don’t check it. So bring enough ammo... and please, stick to one type, you can’t fiddle with your sights when you are stalking... and CHECK YOUR ZERO after EACH AND EVERY flight, relocation, or unexplained errant bullet. And if there is some kind of problem with your gun, you need to fix it before you go hunting. Loose scope mounts, broken scope internals, loose stocks bolts, the wrong bolt (yes it does happened), ammo that won’t feed or won’t eject... all of these things must be eliminated before the hunt starts. If you can’t fix the problem, borrow a rifle. A good PH will not let the hunt proceed as long as there are mechanical problems with your rifle.

5) Taking the shot

There are two ways to get into trouble here. The first is to shoot when the PH says “Don’t shoot.” This may seem unlikely to the reader but I have seen it with my own eyes. If the PH doesn’t want you to shoot, there is a reason that may not be obvious to you. For example, another animal behind the one you are looking at; the animal is lying down; there is a limb across the vitals; he’s not sure it’s a good trophy, or there is some deformity on the offside tusk/horn; he’s not sure it’s the wounded animal you have been tracking; you are in an area where the quota for that species is exhausted; it’s too far or the angle is wrong; there may be a better bull behind the bush; and so on. Paradoxically, you can also get into trouble by shooting when the PH says “Shoot!” If you aren’t sure of your shot, for example you have ‘buck fever,’ or are out of breath, you aren’t going to please the PH by shooting and wounding the animal. Or, if your PH is more interested in the size of the bill than in the size of your trophy and you know better, you may decline to shoot a mediocre animal.

6) Admiring the shot

You may think you have made a great shot but until the animal’s brain function ceases it’s still capable of getting away or giving you a nasty surprise. So it’s wise to keep shooting until the animal goes down, and then shoot some more until the eye test tells you he’s finished. Sometimes the animals that go down the fastest have the least permanent damage. A bullet that passes close to the spine or brain will knock an animal off its feet in a convincing manner, but thirty seconds later that animal will be up and ready for business with minimal, or no impairment. It’s also wise to enlist your PH to back you up... when you really need the second shot, there is very often no time to put in a second good shot. Think of it this way. If the backup shot is not necessary, then no harm is done. You killed it, the backup shot just made it go down sooner. If the backup is necessary, you will be glad you insisted on it. You will have your trophy and your own skin will be intact. So there is nothing to lose by having the PH back you up. Only the vain and the inexperienced won’t let the PH put in an insurance shot.

Hunting the Zambezi valley can require a lot of walking under a hot sun.

7) Letting your character flaws leak out

All but the saints among us have faults, imperfections and weaknesses in our character. Some just hide them better than others. The stress and excitement of a hunt on the Dark Continent has a way of revealing our flaws, and can lead to bad karma and bad decisions, either of which are not conducive to a successful and satisfying hunt. I can name a few that I have noticed. The hunter is usually a big shot at home, otherwise he wouldn’t have the financial wherewithal to be hunting in Africa. So he may not be the kind of person who readily admits his lack of knowledge or experience. On the contrary, he may play up his knowledge of guns, hunting, and African wildlife. The one ranch hunt he did three years ago could be passed off as a series of hunts. He won’t admit that he’s not sure of something. So instead of asking, he may pretend he knows what he is doing at all times and the PH may pick up on this and not be comfortable advising or helping the client on a fine point. So the hunter is unsure, but he doesn’t show it, while the PH doesn’t want to patronize his client, so he assumes the client knows what to do in a given situation. As in “I can make that shot” or “Yes I see the big bull.” Another fault that reveals itself from time to time is the tendency to blame others for your mistakes. This can really sour the hunt in a hurry. This flaw tends to appear around the time when mistake no. 5 is made. Short tempers aren’t fun when the going gets a little rough, which is exactly when they tend to erupt. If the vehicle breaks down or has another flat tyre, the PH is going to feel crappy enough without the client riding him. Alcohol is another tricky one. Overindulgence is a flaw in itself and it tends to lubricate the other flaws so they leak out as well. Be wary of it. Letting your male appendage do the thinking for you may not ruin a hunt, but it can surely ruin a marriage when the bugs floating around Africa follow you home. Suddenly the discretionary income you had to spend on guns and hunting is no longer discretionary.

The client’s feet are in bad shape, he has deep blisters on one heel and raw toes on the other foot. Every step he takes is painful. And his face and head are badly burned by the sun - he declined the hat offered by the PH on the first two days so the offer was not made again. He wants to return looking like someone who has just slain a buffalo, as he has plans to attend a meeting of the Explorer’s Club the day he gets back to the US. His legs are scratched up by thorns. The heavy double rifle he is carrying is digging a divot in his shoulder, and he now wishes he had brought a .375 bolt rifle. Three times now, he has been close to buffalo, too close, and those polished hooked horns were sobering. Instead of standing broadside as he imagined, they were all facing him, their chests obscured by grass and brush. All of them looked like they wanted to kill him. The front sight of his rifle was black and indistinct against their dark bodies, when he practice-aimed at one of the cows in the last group. His eyes are not what they used to be. At the range, the gun grouped poorly, about ten inches low at 50 yards. It did the same thing back in New York but he figures he will just get close and aim high. The gun has way more power than necessary to kill a buffalo so there is margin for error, he rationalizes. He has a large collection of guns and this is one of his favourite doubles. He fantasized about taking it to Africa many times. His assumption that buffalo present a big target so what the heck, now seemed not so. He isn't sure he can pull this off but he is committed now, deposits paid and the hunt underway. He broached the subject of taking a leopard instead, using his scoped Rigby .275 takedown, but the PH seemed annoyed by that the second time he brought it up, so he let it slide. The days are dwindling, more have passed than remain.

The daily routine is now familiar. Find tracks at the water, follow, glass, stalk, get closer, and glass some more. The right buffalo has eluded the party thus far. Suddenly, one of the trackers beckons to the side. On the other side of a rocky outcrop they spot the two bulls they have been tracking, partially obscured by brush in the bottom of a shallow ravine. The PH begins the stalk, client close behind. They move in. At sixty yards, looking down on the two bulls, they edge around an anthill undetected.

The PH lowers his binoculars and whispers, “That's a decent bull on the right, we can’t get any closer, wait until he turns broadside.”

The client is not sure. It seems too far away and when he looks down the barrel, the front sight is as wide as the bull’s hindquarters.

“This calls for a Texas Heart Shot,” he says, expecting the PH to tell him no. But the PH, who has never seen a gun that will throw a 1000 grain slug, says “If you think you can do it go ahead.”

A voice inside the client’s head says, “Get it over with, the painful walking, the sweating, the tsetse, the thorns.”

So he lines up, holding as best he can about a foot above the root of the bull’s tail, and the gun recoils hard, obscuring the scene in a cloud of white smoke.

“Hit him again..!” the PH implores, but he hesitates for a second, not sure which of the two bulls he should shoot at. The one on the right is now broadside so he aims high on the shoulder and fires again. The PH holds his fire as he was instructed not to back up, and notices that the bull shows no reaction at all to the heavy slugs. The bull is still broadside, offering an easy target. The bulls start running. Meanwhile the client reloads as the smoke clears, and now the bulls are making for the ridge. Again the client fires, aiming at no particular spot on the second buffalo. This time the gun doubles and he is knocked back off his haunches by the tremendous recoil.

Adrenaline surging through his body and still stunned by the last shots, the client hardly hears the PH telling him to reload and follow. There is blood, bright red blood. A clatter of hooves on stone brings him out of his daze. He looks up from the blood to see the black bull clearing the ridge running strongly. He follows the PH and the trackers, moving fast. More blood, watery blood. The PH smells it and says nothing.

Three hours later, the client finishes the last bottle of water, pouring a quarter of it over his red scalp and down his neck. The bull is still out ahead somewhere in the thick jesse... I shouldn’t have shot, he thinks, I should have insisted on getting within 25 yards as we discussed at the outset... If only the PH hadn’t pressured me to shoot...

The last day of the hunt begins.

There won’t be any plains game hunting with the Rigby, we are still tracking the wounded bull. Yesterday, the PH made that clear when the client wanted to go out after plains game in the evening, after tracking the bull through the heat of the day. The PH called off the pursuit when, pulling on our last reserves of energy, we spooked him along with four others the previous afternoon.

The two scouts have fallen behind so it’s just the tracker, the PH and the client. They enter an area of thick brush. Suddenly, a movement. A buffalo is walking ahead of them, an indistinct black object moving ahead of them. The PH beckons and they leave the track, looping downwind. Now he is moving across their front, limping slightly at the rear. They move with him, catching glimpses of the bull through openings in the brush. The PH wants the client to finish him, as the client has told him he wishes to do, again without backup. He signals to shoot. The client hesitates, waiting for the bull to stop. He is not sure this is the wounded buffalo. If it isn’t, and he shoots this one badly, he knows that’s an extra $5 500. He wants to be sure of taking home at least one trophy. They keep alongside for about fifty yards. He doesn’t want to mess this up again. Suddenly, the bull breaks into a run and the opportunity is lost.

I join the group when they cross the road, stopping to replenish their water. The buffalo is running now, staying well ahead of us. There is no longer any blood on the trail. There hasn’t been since we left the track on the first day. We think we hear him but we don’t catch sight of him. His tracks show he stopped briefly under a large shade tree. Looking closely at the ground, I see a small spray of saliva. I whistle quietly, beckoning the PH. He smells the clear liquid, “It's the wounded one for sure,” he confirms.

The bull leads us in a big circle, crossing the road near the spot where we left the Cruiser. He is now running downwind. The PH calls a break and we head back to camp for lunch. He is determined to see this buffalo dead and he is pretty sure he knows where to find it.

Later that afternoon, when the heat is going out of the day, they return to the spot. I stay in camp as the client has complained about too many people making too much noise. The wind is still wrong, so they make a large loop coming up on the same area of dense brush where they jumped the him earlier that day, from the downwind side. With only a couple of hours of light remaining, the client is thinking that the hunt is over. He is going home without his trophy and $10 000 poorer. He follows nevertheless, it’s automatic now.

Final hour - second buffalo spined by a shoulder shot.

Slowly they thread their way into the middle of the brush. A dark movement causes everyone to stop. Signalling the client, the PH moves forward one step at a time. He stops and squats, bringing his binos to bear. The buffalo is standing broadside but partially concealed by a thick fallen tree. He can’t see any wound and the shoulder is right behind the leaning tree trunk. The client brings his gun up, and glances at the PH as he does so. “Don't shoot...” the PH mouths the words and shakes his head. This buffalo doesn’t look right. The horns are worn down. The PH is looking at the horns when an explosion over his head stuns him for an instant. The bull drops in a heap, partially obscured in a cloud of white smoke, and the client starts forward at a run. The PH grabs the client by the collar and holds him back. He raises his .458, shoots the prostate buffalo in the shoulder, and the client follows with his second barrel.

“Where did you shoot him?” asks the PH. “In the shoulder,” replies the client. They reload.

About the Author

Russ Gould is the owner of Big Five Headquarters (bigfivehq.com), an online marketplace offering heavy calibre rifles, together with hunting safaris to Africa and Argentina. He is a licenced firearms dealer and importer, the US distributor for the FinnClassic 512S system (Marocchi), a Chapuis dealer, and the U.S. agent for Ben Kotze Safaris (Zimbabwe). He was born and raised in South Africa but now lives in Oregon, USA.

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