Quest for a Cape Buffalo

In the video of part one you saw a huge Cape buffalo approach a water hole very cautiously.  I had been waiting six days for this opportunity and I was anxious to shoot.  When the bull turned broadside, I began squeezing the trigger, but the bull turned back just as the arrow released.  The arrow hit the horn and clipped the brisket.  With the sun on the horizon, there was no safe way to track the buffalo in the dark, so we headed back to camp to watch the video and determine the next step.

For the next three days, two Professional Hunters and I tracked and tried to anticipate the bull’s movements, yet we never saw it again.  One time it approached within 50 yards, but the wind swirled, and I heard it crash away.  Stalking the bull through dense brush seemed like a kamikaze mission.  We had to walk into the wind so that the bull could not smell us coming.  Even with two PH’s and two monster rifles, an attach would have been deadly for at least one of us.

225-Grain Phat Head and New Bow

Luckily, no hunter killed “my” bull during the rest of the season, and I made plans for a do-over.  This time I switched to a Mission Sub1 and a speed-adjustable scope.  I still believed that the CAMX 330 could kill a buffalo, but the Mission gave me much greater speed and the quality scope.  I stayed with heavy arrows and the Steel Force Phat Head broadheads which were as sharp as razor blades.  Despite their large size, I cut my hand installing one.

Another Bust?

Prior scouting showed that the big bull and several smaller buffalo drank at one particular waterhole, and we tried the tree stand strategy again.  After two nights, the buffalo showed no pattern of approaching and high winds made our ambush attempt futile.  On the third day, we tried another ambush on the ground which ended in disaster.  The group caught our wind and stampeded such that one of the bulls was spotted on a different ranch eight miles away.  Was my bull still on the property?

Giant Pool of Blood

Had my one chance at a second chance evaporated?  The next afternoon, we headed toward a waterhole ambush site when Piet Otto, my PH whispered, “There he is.”  We were cruising in a UTV, and the driver knew enough not to stop.  We continued on and considered what to do.  The animal had heard this vehicle many times on the ranch and probably would remain bedded.  We considered waiting at water, yet evening was approaching, and the bull had been badly spooked the day before.  The decision was to make a wide circle, pass by the bull again, and I’d do a butt slide toward it.  It was still in the same spot about 50 yards in dense cover.  I butt-scooted about 10 yards when the bull stood up.  In one step, it would vanish into the bush.  I quickly aimed and released, causing the bull to turn and run away, thankfully.  Late in the day, we decided to track the animal immediately and I soon came upon enough blood to fill a child’s swimming pool.  As unlucky as my shot was the previous year, this arrow was blessed as it cut a major artery and we found the bull 100 yards away.  This was an incredibly exciting hunt and the bull acted like a six-year-old whitetail buck that rarely stepped into the open and was constantly on the alert.  The right gear and a knowledgeable PH made the difference.