Buffalo Hunt at Tintshaba Safaris
Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 11:32 am
I am certain that the dream to hunt a Cape Buffalo is one shared by many hunters, and for many hunters it might even be the pinnacle in hunting on the African continent.
Even before I had killed something larger than a francolin I had the need to one day stare down a Cape Buffalo over the open sights of a big bore rifle. And I’ve always been reading everything I can that applies to the hunting of past and present hunters that has had the opportunity to face these warriors of the savannah and came away to tell the story.
I’ve been keeping an eye on prices to hunt buffalo, however as we know the opportunity to hunt these beasts tend to come with a rather hefty price tag. Hunting a true trophy bull can put you back as much as R100k when hunted in South Africa; I have gotten into the habit of looking under the mattress each morning, but the fairies has not yet left me the R100k for such an adventure.
But then along came Tintshaba Lodge, and they have buffalo hunts starting at R15k; and since I have had SARS be so kind as to pay me back some money, my adventure was on. What was even more enticing was that Tintshaba lies in Mopanie veld in the Limpopo lowveld, and is bordered by Kruger National Park on 2 sides, so walking on this property you are just a likely to walk into elephant or lion as you are in finding one of the more than 200 buffalo.
Arriving at Tintshaba outside of Phalaborwa on 4 September 2011 we were impressed with the different approach that the owner Markus has taken in the layout to his hunting lodge; you still have the setting and ambiance of a typical hunting lodge at the bottom of two monolithic granite koppies (from there the name, meaning at the foot of a hill) but you also find 5 luxury thatched chalets that will sleep 6 people each, fully furnished and there is even a beauty salon should you bring your wife along (or if you break your own nail during a hunt). All the walking paths in the camp are paved and the chalets are fully serviced and all linen is supplied.
On Monday morning I set of with our tracker January, and Professional Hunter Thinus Lindeque. I was carrying my .416 Rigby Ruger No1 and Thinus his .375H&H BRNO loaded with 300gr Dzombo solids. As with typical buffalo hunting our day started with visiting watering holes on the 5,000ha farm and looking for fresh spoor before we would then set of to track down the herd in which we would then hopefully find a suitably old buffalo cow.
After about 2 hours in this fashion we had tracked down a large herd of at least 80 animals in dense mopanie and we sat down to glass the herd to see if there were suitable trophies. The herd was well aware of our presence and they were watching us just as intently and some of the younger animals gave us a couple of half hearted mock charges.
We managed to identify 3 large cows that were clearly old animals sporting large horns with plenty character; I also spotted at least 2 bulls that were monsters in presence and sheer size.
I slid a 400gr Barnes-X into the chamber and set myself up for a shot, selecting one of the animals that had so much wear on her horns that they shined in the sun. After about 20min there was what seemed like a clear shot and I squeezed the trigger with the cross hair just a bit of centre on her chest.
She soaked up that more than 5,000ft/lbs of energy turned around and ran of with the rest of the herd in a cloud of dust. The PH and tracker were both satisfied with the shot and they sat down for a smoke and a 25minute wait before we were to follow up and see how we were going to load the carcass. While they were smoking and joking I removed the telescope from the Ruger as well as the sling as one never know whether you will be faced with an animal intent on taking out its pain on your own hide, or whether you’ll find it nice and dead as it should be.
At 09h05 we stepped into the bush, I swopped the Barnes-X for A-Square super solids also in 400gr. We walked up to where she was standing when I shot; my tracker January turned to PH Thinus with a very serious face and said sternly “we have big problems” and he pointed at the clear impact mark on a small little hardekool tree not even 1” in diameter. The game plan took a serious change, we were now following an animal that had not been shot as we all believed her to be, and all we could see was that she had taken a bullet and she was leaving a blood spoor.
Off into the bush we went, and from the spoor we could see that she was the trailing animal as her spoor wider than my no9 boot was the most clear and not stepped on by another. At about 11h00 we saw her as she was lying down but she spotted as at the same time and with amazing speed she was back on her feet and crashing through the bush after the herd.
We decided let us leave her for some time, and rather return to camp for a early lunch as well as getting some water as we set of without any real supplies for a long day. We did so, and it was with an extremely heavy heart that I walked back to the Cruiser to return to camp.
By 13h00 we were back on the spoor with two trackers and with some more energy. We were on a good blood spoor although clearly a couple of hours old by now. Here again I was given a lesson in the unexpected she did not travel in a straight line for more than 50m, constantly turning and backing back on her previous path, or crossing it numerous times; all the time heading up the hills (not downhill as many wounded animals will do).
All the afternoon we tracked without stop or break and all the time expecting a black bundle of fury to charge from somewhere in the dense surrounding bush.
At 16h30 Markus got airborne in his microlight to assist in finding her before night fell and one of 2 things would happen; she would rejoin the herd and would be lost or she would be taken down during the night by spotted hyena, or the resident lions. We pointed him in the direction we were tracking and within a minute he had spotted her about 1km ahead of us and about 1km from the herd.
We immediately broke into a jog (thank goodness for the time in the gym on the treadmill) to close the distance as the sun was already touching the horizon at this time.
Within a couple of minutes we were where she had been spotted and it was time to conclude this hunt.
As we spotted her at about 70m Thinus shot first with the .375 but there was no indication that the shot had hit her and only served to motivate her around the raison bush with more fury. As I shot with the .416 it looked as if a massive hand swatted her of her feet, but no sooner had she fallen over than she was already getting up.
By now we had already closed the distance to less than 40m and as she was getting up we both fired again but with the movement both our shots hit very low in the brisket, but it did make her pause for a moment and our next volley of shots hit her high on the should, the .375 passing under the spine and the .416 a hand width higher breaking her spine and dropping her rear legs. By now we had moved to within 15m of her and even with her back legs not working she was still on her front legs facing us and shaking her head at these 2 creatures that she was intent on teaching a lesson.
Again the two rifles shot in near unison, this time the .416 being first and the bullet struck her just behind her head killing her instantly, the .375 bullet hitting her just higher up the neck.
It was over, but we were not met with a death bellow; just one more angry growl as her eyes turned glassy.
It had been nine hours since the first shot and I had my trophy. An almost ancient old buffalo cow with a trophy as good as any I could have wished for. And although I never intended to experience a confrontation with the buffalo, I also got the chance to experience it.
I got to learn that you can never rely on bullets to punch through branches and trees. And I also saw with my own eyes the different results two different rifles had in exactly the same results on the same animal, I walked away loving .416Rigby and Mr John Rigby even more. He can add my skin to the list of skins he has saved since he developed this classic cartridge 100years ago.
After the photos were taken, and she had been loaded with much effort we drove to the skinning shed under a clear star filled sky. And I got the opportunity to thank our Creator for affording me such a privilege and blessing me with a day that I will remember for as long as I will live.
Interestingly none of the .416 400gr’s were recovered all had excited, and only one .300gr .375 had been recovered, the bullet that had struck her on the should was recovered from under the skin.
I’ll be back at Tintshaba next year for another hunt, and hopefully within the next 10 months I’ll be able to add this buffalo to my other trophies.
Even before I had killed something larger than a francolin I had the need to one day stare down a Cape Buffalo over the open sights of a big bore rifle. And I’ve always been reading everything I can that applies to the hunting of past and present hunters that has had the opportunity to face these warriors of the savannah and came away to tell the story.
I’ve been keeping an eye on prices to hunt buffalo, however as we know the opportunity to hunt these beasts tend to come with a rather hefty price tag. Hunting a true trophy bull can put you back as much as R100k when hunted in South Africa; I have gotten into the habit of looking under the mattress each morning, but the fairies has not yet left me the R100k for such an adventure.
But then along came Tintshaba Lodge, and they have buffalo hunts starting at R15k; and since I have had SARS be so kind as to pay me back some money, my adventure was on. What was even more enticing was that Tintshaba lies in Mopanie veld in the Limpopo lowveld, and is bordered by Kruger National Park on 2 sides, so walking on this property you are just a likely to walk into elephant or lion as you are in finding one of the more than 200 buffalo.
Arriving at Tintshaba outside of Phalaborwa on 4 September 2011 we were impressed with the different approach that the owner Markus has taken in the layout to his hunting lodge; you still have the setting and ambiance of a typical hunting lodge at the bottom of two monolithic granite koppies (from there the name, meaning at the foot of a hill) but you also find 5 luxury thatched chalets that will sleep 6 people each, fully furnished and there is even a beauty salon should you bring your wife along (or if you break your own nail during a hunt). All the walking paths in the camp are paved and the chalets are fully serviced and all linen is supplied.
On Monday morning I set of with our tracker January, and Professional Hunter Thinus Lindeque. I was carrying my .416 Rigby Ruger No1 and Thinus his .375H&H BRNO loaded with 300gr Dzombo solids. As with typical buffalo hunting our day started with visiting watering holes on the 5,000ha farm and looking for fresh spoor before we would then set of to track down the herd in which we would then hopefully find a suitably old buffalo cow.
After about 2 hours in this fashion we had tracked down a large herd of at least 80 animals in dense mopanie and we sat down to glass the herd to see if there were suitable trophies. The herd was well aware of our presence and they were watching us just as intently and some of the younger animals gave us a couple of half hearted mock charges.
We managed to identify 3 large cows that were clearly old animals sporting large horns with plenty character; I also spotted at least 2 bulls that were monsters in presence and sheer size.
I slid a 400gr Barnes-X into the chamber and set myself up for a shot, selecting one of the animals that had so much wear on her horns that they shined in the sun. After about 20min there was what seemed like a clear shot and I squeezed the trigger with the cross hair just a bit of centre on her chest.
She soaked up that more than 5,000ft/lbs of energy turned around and ran of with the rest of the herd in a cloud of dust. The PH and tracker were both satisfied with the shot and they sat down for a smoke and a 25minute wait before we were to follow up and see how we were going to load the carcass. While they were smoking and joking I removed the telescope from the Ruger as well as the sling as one never know whether you will be faced with an animal intent on taking out its pain on your own hide, or whether you’ll find it nice and dead as it should be.
At 09h05 we stepped into the bush, I swopped the Barnes-X for A-Square super solids also in 400gr. We walked up to where she was standing when I shot; my tracker January turned to PH Thinus with a very serious face and said sternly “we have big problems” and he pointed at the clear impact mark on a small little hardekool tree not even 1” in diameter. The game plan took a serious change, we were now following an animal that had not been shot as we all believed her to be, and all we could see was that she had taken a bullet and she was leaving a blood spoor.
Off into the bush we went, and from the spoor we could see that she was the trailing animal as her spoor wider than my no9 boot was the most clear and not stepped on by another. At about 11h00 we saw her as she was lying down but she spotted as at the same time and with amazing speed she was back on her feet and crashing through the bush after the herd.
We decided let us leave her for some time, and rather return to camp for a early lunch as well as getting some water as we set of without any real supplies for a long day. We did so, and it was with an extremely heavy heart that I walked back to the Cruiser to return to camp.
By 13h00 we were back on the spoor with two trackers and with some more energy. We were on a good blood spoor although clearly a couple of hours old by now. Here again I was given a lesson in the unexpected she did not travel in a straight line for more than 50m, constantly turning and backing back on her previous path, or crossing it numerous times; all the time heading up the hills (not downhill as many wounded animals will do).
All the afternoon we tracked without stop or break and all the time expecting a black bundle of fury to charge from somewhere in the dense surrounding bush.
At 16h30 Markus got airborne in his microlight to assist in finding her before night fell and one of 2 things would happen; she would rejoin the herd and would be lost or she would be taken down during the night by spotted hyena, or the resident lions. We pointed him in the direction we were tracking and within a minute he had spotted her about 1km ahead of us and about 1km from the herd.
We immediately broke into a jog (thank goodness for the time in the gym on the treadmill) to close the distance as the sun was already touching the horizon at this time.
Within a couple of minutes we were where she had been spotted and it was time to conclude this hunt.
As we spotted her at about 70m Thinus shot first with the .375 but there was no indication that the shot had hit her and only served to motivate her around the raison bush with more fury. As I shot with the .416 it looked as if a massive hand swatted her of her feet, but no sooner had she fallen over than she was already getting up.
By now we had already closed the distance to less than 40m and as she was getting up we both fired again but with the movement both our shots hit very low in the brisket, but it did make her pause for a moment and our next volley of shots hit her high on the should, the .375 passing under the spine and the .416 a hand width higher breaking her spine and dropping her rear legs. By now we had moved to within 15m of her and even with her back legs not working she was still on her front legs facing us and shaking her head at these 2 creatures that she was intent on teaching a lesson.
Again the two rifles shot in near unison, this time the .416 being first and the bullet struck her just behind her head killing her instantly, the .375 bullet hitting her just higher up the neck.
It was over, but we were not met with a death bellow; just one more angry growl as her eyes turned glassy.
It had been nine hours since the first shot and I had my trophy. An almost ancient old buffalo cow with a trophy as good as any I could have wished for. And although I never intended to experience a confrontation with the buffalo, I also got the chance to experience it.
I got to learn that you can never rely on bullets to punch through branches and trees. And I also saw with my own eyes the different results two different rifles had in exactly the same results on the same animal, I walked away loving .416Rigby and Mr John Rigby even more. He can add my skin to the list of skins he has saved since he developed this classic cartridge 100years ago.
After the photos were taken, and she had been loaded with much effort we drove to the skinning shed under a clear star filled sky. And I got the opportunity to thank our Creator for affording me such a privilege and blessing me with a day that I will remember for as long as I will live.
Interestingly none of the .416 400gr’s were recovered all had excited, and only one .300gr .375 had been recovered, the bullet that had struck her on the should was recovered from under the skin.
I’ll be back at Tintshaba next year for another hunt, and hopefully within the next 10 months I’ll be able to add this buffalo to my other trophies.
