This is the story as was written by the P.H. Ike is the hunter that was shooting the Ele. The African was carrying his gun because he is crippled and walks with the aid of a cane.
I am posting the following for Buzz Charlton, of Charlton McCallum Safaris. Buzz asked that I make the post on his behalf. It is cut and pasted from an email:
"Hi all. I have asked Mike to put a post here on my behalf so as to explain the entire event so that everyone knows the facts.
Ike and his charming wife Kate came hunting with me in Makuti. They are both elderly people with hip and other medical problems. It was Ikes life time dream to shoot an ele bull. After that he was to shoot a buff and he had bought Kate a buffalo as a wedding anniversary present also.
During our hunt they gained my utmost respect by walking many miles in the Makuti hills which I can assure you is no simple feat as a number of members of this forum will have personally experienced. I had Criton, my tracker, carry his gun as Ike was using a cane as was Kate. (To date I have had only 2 clients who over the duration of their hunt in Makuti have not asked the trackers to carry their rifle for them.)
We looked at over 40 ele bulls before Ike decided to take his bull. Despite seeing bigger bulls, Ike decided to take, in his own words, "this grand old bull". That’s exactly what the bull was too. I personally aged him at just under 50 years old - well above the average of the Zambezi valley which is under 30 years old. Ike’s deciding to take this bull instead of several younger bulls with bigger ivory told me a lot about Ike’s character.
We got to 35 yards from the bull when I decided that Ike should take a side brain shot. We could get no closer as Ike like me suffers from being vertically challenged, "a short fellow", and he would not have seen the bull as we would have had to go into a little gully that was between us and the bull which had 6 foot grass in it. As Ike was taking the shot which was a quartering away side brain shot the bull started to turn further away making it an even more acute angle.
With the benefit of hindsight we probably should have waited, however, in the heat of the moment Ike took the shot. He was close to the brain which rocked the bull. I decided then to back up and broke the front shoulder and put a hole through the elephant’s heart. I knew that the ele was going nowhere so I then let Ike finish off the bull. There is an argument that it is the PH’s responsibilty to put an animal out of its misery. Remember from the first shot fired to the time the ele was dead was probably 2 minutes. Had Ike taken a heart lung shot and been able to brag about a "one shot kill" the elephant would have run away screaming spewing blood out its trunk and eventually died up to 10 minutes late. I guide on average 30 elephant a season of which the majority are good 1 shot brain kills, with a possible back up shot in the back of the head when the ele is on the ground. However, situations such as Ike’s happen to the best hunters amongst us. Simply put if it has not happened to you, you have not hunted enough. No one wants to see any animal suffer least of all Ike or myself.
I, like the rest of our PHs, go out of our way not to back up clients. I for one would feel extremely unhappy if I traveled all the way to Alaska to shoot a bear and had my PH back up the instant that I shot. My policy on back up is only if (1) it is a dangerous situation, (2) I feel that the animal may escape, or (3) if my client asks me to, otherwise back shots are to be avoided. Watching many dangerous game shows on TV one has to ask who is actually hunting, the PH or the client!
After the ele, Ike shot a beautiful old dugga boy with a single shot from his Blaser .416. Kate then shot hers and Ike immediately backed up as that is what they decided between them. Once again huge credit goes to Ike and Kate who said to me that they wanted big bossed old bulls and had no interest in inches which is very refreshing from a PH’s point of view. In deciding to shoot a old elephant over heavier ivory young bulls and 2 old dugga boys over wide young bulls - they proved to me exactly what they were - very competent ethical hunters hunting for the "right reason" and not for glory or inches.
In summary I would like to say that it was an absolute pleasure hunting with Ike and Kate, who rate amongst my favourite clients to guide. Despite their age and physical challenges they hunted hard, earned good quality trophies on their own two feet in an ethical manner. The shooting on the ele was not good, there is room for improvement on that , however there are not many people that can claim a perfect shot on their first ele bull under hard circumstances! I really look forward to guiding Ike and Kate again this year when Ike will shoot a buff and a tuskless and Kate will look for her dream ele, "an older bull then Ikes".
Other points that were bought up that were not covered in the above. Ike was using a .416 Blaser. Kate had a .375 H&H . Everyone is entitled to hunt and fulfill a dream despite age, physical condition or any other challenges they may be experiencing and that is what a PH should be trying to achieve - helping a fellow hunter fulfill a dream. Since this is my first post on the forum I would like to say a big thanks to all who have hunted with us in the past and the many returning this year. I set off to the valley tomorrow to pick up my team of Criton, Tino and Eddy and then head into Chirisa where i will be doing a double trophy bull hunt back to back before going out with fellow AR member, Rob Jolly, for another trophy ele bull.
Buzz"
