Report by: PH Peter Barnard
Location: Selous Game Reserve
Date: 18 October 2006
Client : Cliff Barnes
9 October 2006, Day 1
We started our hunt in the U3 block in the Selous. Left camp early as usual on a hunt, and went out looking for hippo and buffalo. We first located a small group of hippo with a very nice bull in a small pool of water, but decided not to shoot as we want to shoot our hippo on land. So after leaving them, we found the tracks of three buffalo bulls. 
After a short follow up we could see two of them at about fifty yards, but one was about 35 inches and the other about 36 inches, so we backed off and went looking for the 3rd. We bumped him about 800 yards from the other two, and what a monster he was! He was around 43 to 44 inches, with big bosses, curls and everything on a very old bull, but unfortunately he saw us and was behind some small trees covering his chest, so did not have a clear shot. Before Cliff could go for a brain shot, he took off. We tracked those three bulls from 8am to 4pm covering about 20km, but we were never able to get a shot at the monster although we bumped them a few more times. With very sore legs, backs, etc., we retreated back to our camp for a few sundowners. Today we did see tons of game though, including serval cat, impala, buffalo, warthog, bushpig, bushbuck, hippo, hartebeest, wildebeest, wild dogs, kudu, waterbuck, duiker, elephant and zebra.
10 October 2006, Day 2
We went off looking for buffalo and hippo again, but came up with no tracks today. We walked many steam beds hoping to catch some hippo on land near them, but also found none today. Toward the end of the day we found a very nice hartebeest which Cliff took, and now all the guys have Nyama in camp.
11 October 2006, Day 3
Off we went again from the Rufiji camp in U3, got lucky today, because as we were walking along a small steam, we came across a small pool of water with a large hippo bull in it. 
As soon as he saw us, he went boiling out of the water onto the land, and as he was running Cliff gave him a couple of shots into the lung area, and he went down about a hundred yards later. What an exciting hunt, and a great way to hunt hippo, rather than head shooting them in the water. After the recovery we located three buffalo bull tracks and started to follow them. The wind was not in our favor from the start, so we only saw the tracks a few miles later where they had smelled us and ran still with the wind, so we decided to leave them. On our way back to camp around 5pm we spotted two bull buffalo in the distance and put a stalk onto them as the wind was just perfect. We got within 30 yards of them, and both bulls were very old, one bull around 38 inches and the other about 39 inches. Since Cliff has shot quite a few buffalo, we are holding out for a bull in the 40 inch range at the moment, as we still have some time. We may still end up taking a smaller one towards the end if we cannot find our monster from the 1st day.
12 October 2006, Day 4
Today we left the Rufiji camp, and picked up the three buffalo bulls from yesterday morning. Once again the elements were against us while we were following them and the wind was in our back the whole time. After two hours of tracking and realizing that they were keeping ahead of us because they were getting our wind, we decided to give up the chase on them. We headed back to camp and had some lunch, where Tubby (Cliff) got stuck into a good meal. (P.S. we go way back so it is allowed to abuse the odd client that you know real well) Any way, we packed up and moved camp to LU4 (still in the Selous) for the rest of our hunt. Quite a long drive, but I think Tubby’s fiancé will appreciate it, as the corrugations took a few pounds off his belly.
13 October 2006, Day 5
We just had one of those long unfruitful days today. Dead day, as I would say. We found tracks of a large herd of buffalo, but I decided not to follow as at this time of the year, you do not find many old bulls in the herds. So, at the moment we are just concentrating on single or groups of bulls. We found some bull tracks but they were all from the day before. We took a slow walk through the hills to a spring, but found no tracks there. We did see three wild dogs today again. 
Had a break today, got some good company in the cab, as Tubby sat on the back for a few hours, and had one of the trackers in front with me.
14 October 2006, Day 6
Leaving camp early today, we soon picked up the tracks of a single buffalo bull. We tracked him for about an hour or so, and came up on him feeding in the short grass. He was a very old bull, and was not 40 inches, but we decided that since we had two bulls on license, to take this one would mean meat for the camp staff. Cliff had already in past years shot many buffalo with me, so he was looking for something special, but since this guy was on his last legs, Cliff took him on condition that his next bull be exceptional. After loading him up, we went off looking for another buffalo but found none. Late in the afternoon we hung up a hyena bait and built a blind.
15 October 2006, Day 7
We left camp earlier today to make sure that we were in the blind for first light, stopped the car about a mile from our bait, and made a slow walk into our blind. On getting into the blind we found one hyena on our bait which Cliff shot. We took him back to camp and later on picked up the tracks of three buffalo bulls, but once we caught up to them, we saw that none of them had the trophy that we were looking for, so we let them be. 
On our way back to the camp in the evening, Cliff shot a nice warthog, about as round in the belly as Cliff.
16 - 18 October 2006, Day 8 to 10
On all these days we found buffalo tracks and followed them, some going into the Jess bush, others in the open. We saw many nice bulls, but not the right one like we had seen on the first day. We also came across several herds of buffalo, but none with old bulls, as they had moved out of the herds till the breeding season again. Late one afternoon on the way back to camp a huge blue eland bull jumped across the road. We followed him up, but darkness took over and we had to give up the chase.
Any way, much fun was had by all, lots of abuse and laughter within the team, and hopefully next year Cliff will get the big one.