Headed back to Africa in 2016! <<Photos now posted starting P2>>

[BNAElkhntr]

Nice Sable!

[Rob]

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[Rob]

more.

[Rob]

Saw a few lions at the waterhole from camp.  Had a male roaring all night one evening/morning and found that lions had been in our camping compound overnight.  walked about 50 yards from our rooms.

[Rob]

Dad's Sable.

I suggested that he mount it with the protective bottles...  he said he would think about it.

[Rob]

Pretty good Reedsbuck.  Very old, even with the broken horn it will go gold.

[Rob]

For the Hippo and Croc, we boarded a houseboat and traveled 1.5 days up Lake Kariba to hunt the Sengwa River.  Very remote area.  Lots of hippos, and big crocs.  This was a real interesting experience to say the least!  The Outfitter rented a second boat and brought his extended family on that boat.  it was larger and more luxurious than the one we were on, but we were very comfortable on our boat!  ours was the Abangane, and they were on the Catalina.

[Rob]

We did the hippo hunt first.  We took small boats from the Abangane into the Sengwa river and talked with the local fishing villagers.  They were more than happy to help us get some hippos and crocs out of their backyards!  Some of the little kids had never seen a white person before and were scared of us.  They yelled "white!" and ran into the bushes/corn to watch us from afar. 
This place was thick with hippo and croc!  note the Pink hippo!

They spout like whales and wiggle there ears just like the ride at Disneyland use to point out!  (but I am sorry to report that ear wiggling does not mean they are ready to charge!)

[Rob]

It did not take us long to find a good Bull Hippo.  I took the shot from shore at about 50 yards - it was a brain shot and he went right down.  At this point, I was not prepared for what would happen next.  The Villagers came out in droves.  Some got boats and long sticks and started poking the water where the hippo went down.  They found it in short order and tied a rope to it, ran the rope to shore and gave it to other folks who lined up and pulled it in.  My hippo was large, and was around 3 tons.  They pulled it to shore pretty easily, but it took about 45 to 60 minutes and 100 plus people and a grappling hook to get it the last 6 feet onto shore!  The whole village turned out (150-200 people) and they all lined up (old women, women with babies strapped to them, kids, men, everyone!) and they all went to work to try and get it out of the water.  We tied multiple ropes to it, but brute force just did not work.  We broke ropes at least 3 times pulling.  In the end, we took three ropes (one to each set of feet, and one to the head) and then stuck a hook into the back and with all 100-150 of us pulling, rolled it 2x to get it on the beach.

[Rob]

Our outfitter hired a professional videographer for all his 2016 hunts so he can get some footage for promo purposes.  The side benefit for us was that he gave us a 70 min video of our hunt!  It is OUTSTANDING!  Professional quality, zoom in shots of the shooting and he also knew how to set up photos!  He worked very hard to keep the local villagers out of the photos - not an easy task!

here are some trophy shots of the hippo.

[Rob]

Let the butchering begin!  Our skinner managed about 6 villagers and they did the skinning work.  The folks who did the work kept a portion for themselves.  We took all four legs with us.  One we kept for us and the crew.  One we used for bait, and the other two we gave to the villagers for helping with the croc.

It took 6 of us to get the cape and head on the front of the boat - it was 500 to 800 pounds.  The rest of the skin was taken off in a single panel and was about 7 feet wide, and I am guessing 12 feet long.  This was rolled up like a carpet and another 6 to 8 people were needed to get that on the boat. 

I plan on making a floor mount of the head (top portion only, coming out of the floor like it is underwater).  I want to make two of the feet into ice buckets, and two into table legs or something.  I am going to have the tail mounted as well.  The skin panel will be made into leather.  I may have a jacket made, and some rifle cases.  Heck, I could do a couch!

[Rob]

Some more of the butchering process.  the stomach lining was very odd.  looked like a shag carpet!  Even the dogs got involved!  our boat was rated for 7 people.  We had 9 people and about 1200 pounds of hippo!  The heart was nearly as big as my torso!

After we were done, we pulled away and all hell broke loose!  The whole village charged the hippo carcass!  Axes were flying and knives were flashing.  They went crazy and pulled it apart and divided it up.  Old women, little kids, everyone was involved.  They ripped it up.  I have no idea how they managed not to cut eachothers arms off in the process.

[Rob]

Hunting this hippo was a lot of fun.  But as I found out, it was more than fun for the hunter.  It is important to the Village as well.  Here are the benefits hunting this hippo provided:
1.  Much needed meat.  This literally fed a whole village for several days.  They had some cattle, however I was told cattle ownership is like cash for them so they rarely eat them.  The hippo may be the only red meat these fishermen and their families get all year long.
2.  Crop damage.  The hippos come out of the water nightly and eat.  They will trample their crops and eat them in short order.  You think Elk are bad?  Picture a pod of 1 to 3 ton hippos in a corn field!
3.  Life damage.  Every year hippos attack and wound/kill these villagers as they fish.  It is the big bulls, or cows with calves that are doing this damage.  Keeping the population in check reduces stress on the hippos and reduces human/hippo conflict.
4.  Perks.  Hunters bring candy, clothing and toys with them.  My dad and I handed out candy to the kids (or "sweets" as they call them).  Many had never had candy before.  They mobbed us!  Dad handed out some t-shirts, and I brought a soccer ball with pump - that was a huge hit!  I should have waited to hand that out because once I did, we lost about 40 kids to help pull the hippo on shore!  They had some handmade balls they were using (looked like plastic sheeting rolled up and tied into a ball shape).  They were amazingly good with the soccer ball!
5.  Entertainment.  We were their TV.  They sat on the banks and watched us hunt.  Then came out and watched/helped us butcher.  Speaking of entertainment, they also had bongs that they built out of gourds!  I guess that stuff is everywhere!   you can see one in the photos below.

The set of tusks is below, as is the skinned skull.  You can see where I hit the brain pan - it is the lightening bolt crack behind the eye.

[BNAElkhntr]

Very cool Pictures Rob    Glad you had time with your Dad

[Rob]

Onto the croc.

I messed up a shot an a monster.  It was hard to tell, the shot looked solid - perhaps an inch or so low but should have broken the spine.  Estimate is that he was 16 plus feet long.  Very disappointing.  the only animal I have ever lost.

I elected to try again, and was successful.  This time we took no chances and I told everyone to back me up!  I took a neck shot and both PH's we had with us opened up as well.  My first shot was good, and he started shaking like they do when the spine is severed.  But he was shaking is way into the water!  We shot a total of 10 shots.  In looking at the footage over and over, here is what happened:
Shot 1.  My shot, in the neck.  he was quivering, but moving towards the water.  This was a fatal shot.  It was a quartering shot and went through the brain and lodged into the ear.  I later removed the bullet with my leatherman.
Shot 2:  PH Divan.  Way way high in the water
Shot 3:  PH Alex.  Shot over him about 6 inches
Shot 4:  My Shot.  I hit low, in the dirt.
Shot 5:  PH Divan.  Good solid hit.  behind the front leg, quartering away.  he hunched when this one hit
Shot 6:  Last shot with him on land.  PH Divan shot and went high.
Shot 7:  PH Alex  in the water, no idea if it was a hit
Shot 8, 9 and 10.  Me.  I shot every time I saw a piece of croc rolling in the water.

One of the water shots that Alex and I made nicked the tail.  So only 2 hits total.  Both looked pretty good. 


It is interesting that the bullet I was using did not go through and through on a 40 yard Croc shot.  We think that this may be why I did not recover the first croc.  that was an 80 yard shot and the bullet may not have broken the spine.