Report by: PH Peter Barnard
Location: Rungwa Ikili
Date: 03 September 2006 - 09 September 2006
Client : Scott and Diana Rupp
Sunday, Day 1 - 3 September 2006
Hunting in the Rungwa Ikili area, we left camp at 6 AM in the quest of buffalo. Diana was to shoot first, and not half an hour out of camp we picked up the tracks of four dugga boys. After tracking them for about an hour we bumped them, but saw that there were two very good bulls in the group. Every time we caught up with them, there was always brush in the way, so it was not good to take a shot at them. 
After about three hours of tracking, they finally crossed the boundary into the next door safari area. Back to the car and back on the road again we picked up some more buffalo bull tracks. This time there were ten in all. They had not gone too far by the time we caught up with them. After locating a very good bull in the group of bulls we put in the final stalk to about 30 yards of him. As he turned broadside Diana whacked him square in the shoulder. He only ran about hundred yards and was hurting real bad, so Diana hit him twice more before he went down. On the first day she had a fantastic 41 inch buffalo bull.
After doing the recovery we decided to carry on tracking the remaining nine bulls as I had seen another nice bull with them. 
Scott was up next and once again after tracking them for awhile we bumped them several times. We finally got the wind right when they were bedding down. We crawled again to about 25 yards of them, but they heard the noise of the leaves as we were crawling and all stood up. Scott got onto the shooting sticks very quickly and we located the good bull. As he turned to run, Scott hit him with a quartering away shot into the vitals. A short follow up and he was still on his feet so Scott hit him again and down he went. He was not as big as Diana’s going 38 inches, but sure was a pretty buffalo with nice bosses. What a first day for two first time buffalo hunters.
Monday, Day 2 - 4 September 2006
We went off looking for buffalo again as Scott and Diana each had two tags for buffalo. This time we decided to go walking up the Ikili Mountains hoping to find a group of five bulls that I had seen in the hills while scouting before the Rupp’s arrived. After about two hours into the walk up the mountain we found some tracks of a buffalo herd from the night before. We took up their trail and up, up, up they went. We caught up with them right on top of Ikili Mountain and after looking the herd over several times saw two old buffalo bulls, but they were not very large. We also saw a 42 inch buffalo, but he was still slightly young and would be very good in a years time, so we decided to leave them.
While on top of the mountain we saw another herd of buffalo in a valley about three miles away, so down the mountain we went to go and have a look at this second herd. We walked for about an hour before catching up with them. They were bedded down, so we crawled for about 200 yards to get 50 yards away from them. We looked the herd over, about 100 in total in the group, and saw a few mature bulls, but none of them were what we were looking for, so we let them be.
Tuesday, Day 3 - 5 September 2006
Diana Rupp Writing: We cut the tracks of a big herd of buffalo around 9 a.m. this morning, and Peter and his intrepid trackers took the trail, with me following in eager anticipation of what lay ahead. It turned out to be a merry chase, as we caught up to the herd in about 45 minutes and proceeded to crawl-- like lions!-- through the tall grass to get a good look. Peter spotted a great buffalo in the herd, and we got close to them and bumped them a couple more times before they moved into a more open area and we got a look at the entire herd—maybe 60 buffalo in all. That’s when Peter spotted a HUGE buffalo in the herd! He was awesome, with great deep curls and a massive spread. We moved from tree to tree in pursuit, and very soon Peter got us to about 100 yards of the herd and I put my rifle on the shooting sticks and got ready. 
He was looking right at us with that mean ol’ buffalo stare, and it seemed an eternity until he turned broadside, but he eventually did, and I shot. The buff kicked up its heels, ran 30 yards, and collapsed. We ran up to him and Peter instructed me to put one more bullet into him, just for insurance, which I was glad to do! When we got up to him I was astounded at his size. Peter taped him at a shade over 45 inches. But more importantly to me, it was an absolutely perfect hunt—challenging, exciting, and rewarding. What a buffalo—and what a day.
Wednesday, Day 4 - 6 September 2006
We left camp early again, and picked up the four buffalo bulls we had been following on the first day, but by now they were quite clever. We almost had a shot at a 40 inch old bull in the group, but he stopped in front of a tree. Then they winded us, and we never saw them again even after three more hours of tracking. For the rest of the day saw many animals including eland, elephant, roan, impala, dikdik, kudu, zebra, and hartebeest but did not shoot any animals today.
Thursday, Day 5 - 7 September 2006
Scott Rupp Writing: For days and days we’d been beaten by hartebeest. Every time we came up on them, they’d gotten the drop on us: Either they spotted us moving in, a swirl of wind gave us away, or they were in a place where it was impossible to judge them. Not this day. This time we saw them before they saw us, and the wind was perfect. Peter led us on a short stalk, getting us close enough to judge three hartebeest. It took a bit of sorting out, but Peter soon figured out that all three of them were bulls. 
After that we made one more move, and I got on the sticks and took the shot at about 75 yards. The bull ran off, disappearing behind a clump of brush, and when we got around the other side we found him stone dead.
By the time we finished taking pictures and loading the hartebeest in the truck, it was getting to be midmorning. Peter decided our best shot at finding buffalo would be to take a big hike, so we set off for the summit of a low ridge. It took maybe 45 minutes to reach the top, and after a brief break to catch our breath, we descended into a beautiful valley rimmed by house-size rocks. Our goal was to check a waterhole at the head of the valley for buffalo tracks, and while we didn’t find any of those, we spotted a trio of klipspringer and, just below the waterhole; we came upon a female lion lying in ambush in the shade of a tree. She moved off at a saunter, never pausing, and disappeared into the rocks. Half an hour later we found fresh tracks of a lone buffalo, and we scrambled up the side of the valley to follow but were unable to catch up to him. It was an unsuccessful jaunt but certainly the most beautiful scenery we’d been treated to thus far.
Friday, Day 6 - 8 September 2006
Once again woke up at 5:30 and left camp around 6:15 AM, looking for one more buffalo bull for Scott. We drove many miles, and found much buffalo sign from the day before though. One herd had crossed during the evening, but the wind was not in our favor coming in the direction they were going, so I decided not to follow. Late in the evening we located a herd of zebra, and managed to put a stalk onto them, located the stallion and Diana shot him right in the heart, he only went 30 yards and collapsed. That was a fine end to another day in Africa.
Saturday, Day 7 - 9 September 2006
Scott Rupp Writing: The morning started as so many others had: another encounter with the bachelor herd that had outwitted us on three previous days, this time giving us the slip by crossing the boundary. Not too long after that we were on the trail of a group of six animals—two cows and four bulls. We followed them across a long narrow opening filled with tall grass, and when the trail got difficult, Misheck climbed a tree and spotted them, along with a herd of elephants. We skirted the elephants, getting a real good look at them before they got our wind and trotted off, and found the buffalo on the far side. Unfortunately we were unable to get a shot because the grass was so high, and the group moved off. A few hundred yards later we ran into yet another herd of elephants and we had to sneak around them, although one young bull took offense to our presence and got pretty close. 
We got the hint. Shortly after that we spotted our buffalo, feeding above us on a low rise. Peter picked out a good bull on the left edge of the group. We had to move a few times to get in a position where I could get a shot, and about the time we figured we had it all set up, our target bull bedded down. But one more move got us into a spot where I could see him well enough to take the shot. The first one anchored him, and I gave him a second to be sure. And then we walked down to take a look at my last-day bull—a handsome old animal, 12 to 13 years old with a spread of just under 37 inches.