Report by: PH John Greeff
Location: Rufiji Camp, Selous Game Reserve
Date: 14 September 2006
Clients: Ray Sasser and Mike Leggett
Greetings from Rufiji Camp, Selous Game Reserve
Today Ray and Mike arrived at 9:30 AM at our airstrip in Madaba. After they arrived we stopped in at the Madaba camp for some refreshments before heading out on our two hour drive to Rufiji camp. We arrived at 1:30PM in time for lunch at Rufiji camp which is on the banks of the Rufiji River and is in a beautiful setting under a large canopy of trees. We sighted in the rifles after lunch and saw some hartebeests on our afternoon drive.
Day 1
We started out early at 6AM looking for buffalo tracks and trying to find a hartebeest for some camp meat. We had several stalks on hartebeest and wildebeest through the day but did not get anything. We did not even find a buffalo track to follow even though we did 100 miles.
Day 2
We went into a different area for buffalo and found tracks of a herd of 100 animals after two hours of driving. We got on the tracks and caught up with the group after 20 minutes, but as we got close, the wind changed and they ran off. We followed and after four hours finally managed to look at the whole group. We found one bull in the group with a 40" spread who was still too young to shoot. The rest of the day we went through some other areas trying to locate some buffalo with no luck.
Day 3
Today we traveled 130 miles and did not find a single fresh buffalo track that we could follow. The one bonus of the day was that Ray made a really good shot on a very good impala, 22", so at least we have camp meat. We saw Andries, the camp manager from Madaba, and he said the movement of buffalo is good where the main camp is. After talking to Mike and Ray, I asked him if we could move there and that is what we are going to do tomorrow.
Day 4
After packing our stuff and leaving it for Andries to pick up, we left camp this morning and went to the Madaba area. We traveled along a river and picked up tracks of a large group of buffalo around 8:30AM. Up until now, Ray was going to be first to shoot on buffalo, but this morning the guys had decided that today Mike would be first up to shoot. We followed them and caught up to them by 9:30AM, but they were in some really thick brush so as we tried to approach them we saw that the herd was going deeper into the thick bush. After awhile I said to Mike that unless we got them in the open we would not be lucky as we already had a good bull standing 15 yards from us and we could not see enough of him to shoot. I decided to push the buffalo until they left the thick brush so as the wind was good we just kept walking at them and after about a mile they finally went down a hill through some open country and what a sight, as there were +/- 250 head of buffalo. We kept with them and the whole time our wind was good. Eventually after seeing a lot of cows, Davey, my tracker, saw a good bull off to one side. We got to 50 yards of him but a tree was covering part of his shoulder. I put up the sticks and told Mike to wait until we had a shot. The bull turned quartering away and I said to Mike to shoot and he did putting in a really good raking shot. The bull jumped nicely and disappeared. We waited five minutes then went up to look for blood and sure enough after tracking for five yards we got good blood. We went 30 yards and saw the bull standing about 40 yards off with his head down. We snuck up to 20 yards. I made sure it was the right bull and Mike shot him again dropping him in his tracks. 
We went up and Mike put a final shot into his spine for insurance and we had him. Mike was over the moon as he had always dreamed of coming to shoot a buffalo. He was a really nice old bull of 38" spread. After photos we now decided that while some of the trackers went and got the truck we would try and get back into the herd. We tracked the running herd for an hour but they had headed straight back into the thick brush. Ray nearly got a shot at a nice bull but as I set the sticks up they never set right and by the time we had sorted it out he ran off. The buffalo just kept to the thick brush so we went back to Mike’s bull to find that the truck had arrived. We loaded him into the truck and got to our new camp in Madaba at 5PM.
Tonight at dinner the guys ate a lot as we had been so busy hunting all day that all they had eaten since breakfast were two apples and a lot of water. We now have three days left to get three buffalo bulls.
Mikes turn to write his version of the last two days hunting.
Mike Leggett writing: I’ve dreamed of hunting two things in Africa: big buffalo bulls and warthogs. I got lucky enough to do both during the first four days of my hunt at Rufiji Camp.
I was hunting with my best friend, Ray Sasser, and he had the first shot at buffalo. But after three days of following tracks and getting close to one nice group of buffalo that had only bull too young to shoot, we decided to try to change our luck. Ray would pick up the camera and I would take the gun.
We found buffalo tracks early on the fourth morning and began following them by 8:30 AM. We saw the first buffalo within half an hour but the herd moved into thick under growth known as ‘’jess” bush. Suddenly my professional hunter, John Greeff, tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to a monstrous black shape standing in shadows just 15 yards away. “That’s a really good bull,” he said. “I want that bull.”
But the buffalo just wouldn’t leave the thick brush. We followed the herd in and out of thick brush for another two hours, before our tracker Davey hissed that he’d seen a good bull. We walked another 20 yards before John threw down the shooting sticks and whispered: “See that bull there. That’s the one we want to shoot. Just take your time. Make sure you don’t shoot the tree.”
I would clearly see the bull’s back half and decided to try to push one through to the bulls off shoulder. When the gun went off, the bull disappeared, but John and Davey were slapping me on the shoulder and grinning. “Congratulations,” John said. “You’ve just killed your first buffalo bull.”
We followed the blood trail and found the bull 60 yards away, standing head down and placed one more shot through the shoulders to finish the job. Full boss and 1,500 pounds, the old bull was everything we came to Africa to find.
After Ray killed a zebra on the morning of Day 5, we were following buffalo tracks late in the day to try to get him on a good bull. I had told John that I would take a good warthog. Amazingly, right in the buffalo tracks, we spotted a big male warthog.
The shot was short, but the hog was standing behind a bush. “Take him right between the ears,” John said. That’s what I did. Eleven inch tusks on top and razor sharp cutters on the bottom. It was the end of a perfect day. Now just three buffalo to go.
Day 5
John Greeff writing: we traveled through many places I had previously seen good buffalo sign and after 60 miles and four springs and pans we walked up to a huge pan and saw several waterbuck and three zebra. 
As Ray wanted a zebra we snuck as close as we could get approx 200 yards, and Ray made a great shot on the stallion. He ran 50 yards and stopped and Ray shot him again killing him. In the afternoon we drove for three hours to get to where Peter had called us and said he had seen tracks of a small group of buffalo. We got there at 4:45 PM but decided to track them to see which direction they were going so we could have a plan for tomorrow. After 30 minutes, Davey spotted a really good warthog 60 yards away but all we could see were his tusks and the top of his head. I asked Mike if he could shoot him just below his ears and Mike made a great shot killing him instantly. He was a really good pig for the area and a great way to finish the day.
Day 6
Today we went to an area Peter and his client had seen a herd of buffalo in the evening while following wildebeest. They were far from any roads so I decided we would go to a road closest to where they had seen them. We got there at 9AM and as luck would have it they had crossed the road that night so we proceeded to follow them. We caught them in an open burned area after 1½ hours. They were feeding on the new green grass heading towards a thicket. Since the wind was good, we got ahead of them. We waited and they fed towards us but as it was fairly open we could not get too close. After 15 minutes we saw a good bull and he worked his way to the front of the group. We got into position and he walked into the open 100 yards from us. I set up the sticks and Ray came up and as he got on the sticks, he took a shot. The shot went forward hitting a foot in front of the bull. He jumped and ran straight back into the group and they all ran off. We went and double checked to make sure it was a miss and found no blood. We then followed for an hour and spooked them again. I then decided we should have lunch and try in the afternoon. We followed them in the afternoon and nearly shot the same bull two more times but he moved before Ray could shoot. We had a long day but it was good fun. It was a bit of bad luck for Ray but we will see what happens tomorrow.
Day 7
Well today we were trying to locate our herd when Peter called saying he had followed four bulls that had run from him due to the wind. 
They were not going to continue following them so we decided to try. Peter gave me the GPS point where they had run off so we drove over and walked the 2 KM in to where they had last seen them. I thought we might still be lucky but we spent the whole day and just could not catch up to them after going for more than 12 KM. Once again Ray did not get his buffalo, but he is happy as he had a chance and got to do some real hunting.
I had a good talk with Mike and Ray and they both said they had a great hunt as we worked hard for all our trophies and hunted them all on foot.
I am off to Lake Natron tomorrow to hunt with my good friend Tom Waller who’s hunted with me several times, so check in to see how we do as we are doing East African species and climbing Kitumbeine Mountain 8,500 feet to hunt buffalo and bushbuck.
Cheers for now.
John