- Report by:
- PH Nigel Theisen
- Client:
- Rick Hunt
- Area:
- Selous, Madaba
- Date:
- 11 August 2007 - 31 August 2007
I meet Rick Hunt and his taxidermist/camera man, Hubert Vick at the Sea Cliff Hotel on the evening they arrived from the States, minus all their luggage. After a short discussion we decided that rather than wait in Dar es Salaam for their kit to arrive, we would fly into camp on the charter the following morning as scheduled. The problem was that Rick is a serious bow hunter with specialized equipment so we could not get his hunt started until this all arrived a couple of days later. Being a “pukker” bow hunter, Rick will not even pick up a rifle, and so Ph Andriess Van Der Walt began shooting bait animals for cats and hyena and putting them out at likely spots. In the mean time we carried out a reccie of the Madaba concession.
){kind=link}
Soon after Rick received all his equipment we were stalking various plains game species, which at this time of year proved unsuccessful. We simply made too much noise on the fallen leaves, burnt tufts of grass, twigs, sticks and a very unforgiving, erratic wind. These plains game species in areas like the Selous have serious predator pressures. They have to be wide awake if they are to survive and this means we were spotted and marked well before we got into bow range. I believe the best way to hunt these species would be over water or a salt lick which was not possible at this time of year with all the surface water in the area.
)
We had a number of interesting buffalo stalks with one bull walking right passed us at several yards. Rick was unable to pull the bow as he was afraid of spooking the bull as it kept looking right at us. He ended up getting a wiff of our scent which sent him back to where his buddy had been. His buddy had already gotten our scent and long since left, so he was walking around sniffing the ground like a tracker dog until he got on his pals scent and started following him in this way. This proved to be his down fall as he was so busy sniffing the ground that he did not pay much attention to us. Rick got an arrow into him, but it was not a killing hit so he called for me to shoot the bull with my rifle. Soon after this we stalked a heard to within bow range where there was a young bull close enough for the bow, but because of his soft bosses we opted to let him go and look for something older. )
A good opertunity came when we spotted a bull grazing in long grass with a strong wind in our favour. We stalked this bull to within 17 yards, when Rick made a perfect shot angling forward just on the last rib. The arrow passed through both lungs and lodged in the joint of the off side shoulder. That bull probably went about 60 yards and was dead within a few minutes.
Next up was hippo as we really needed bait as we had seen a few good size lion tracks. This is easier said than done. As Rick says, the hippo is probably the most difficult animal to kill with a bow, circumstances and situation have to be perfect. We checked out a number of hippo bulls but could never get the right set up until 3 or 4 days later. We found a big bull lying in shallow water but not offering the right shot. We tried to manuver into a better position for Rick to take a shot when he moved to leave. Because of him seeing us and the wind he soon moved off at a rapid pace not offering a shot. We spent the rest of the afternoon following this bull until Rick managed to get what looked like a good shot into him, behind the shoulder. There was a good blood trail, and as it was getting late in the day, we opted to follow right away. We had the bull visual until it got to dark to continue. Early the next morning we were on his tracks again, the blood soon disappearing until there was none at all. We continued on his large track until we found him, again in a shallow pool. Rick got into position and drew his bow but unfortunately the bull soon turned directly away from us causing his arrow to hit too far back instead of behind the last rib angling forward. We were soon on his blood trail again, only this time he did not go to far and chose some thick riverine vegetation to charge us from. I ended up shooting the hippo at point blank range as it was about to get hold of Rick.
Early the following morning we were in the Leopard blind. We should have been working this cat earlier but had got tied up with hippo for the last couple of days. According to the pictures from the Trap Camera, this fellow had taken to sleeping on the limb right in front of the bait. This was probably to keep the female who was nearby from feeding. It turned out that legal shooting time/light is to early for bow hunting, Rick after letting off once, drew his bow again and took the shot when the cat was showing signs of leaving, he new something was up with the blind. Rick could not see his pins or sights clearly hit the cat too high through the very top of his shoulders. There was very little blood to follow and after a short while there was none at all, so unfortunately we lost this animal.
The Hyena had been giving us a run around three mornings and an evening and still we hadn’t had a chance to take one. )
I am sure they have been educated in the near vicinity of the camp, as they would appear after dark and leave as soon as the ground hornbills started beating on their drums just before dawn. Rick ended up taking a large hyena from the lion tree stand early one morning once it became clear that the lion himself was now where near. The arrow passed right through the animal, which ran about 10 yards before collapsing and dying as quick as that.
Rick only had one possible opertunity at a Lion. After finding his tracks we hung a bait and after he feed decided to put tree stands onto a large tree within 30 yards of the bait. The vehicle had no sooner left when the cat was on the bait feeding noisily. He also gave us an impressive roar almost underneath our stands. As it was getting light he was lying 32 yards away, Rick was thinking of taking a shot but decided to wait for better light. The lion kept looking up at us but did not seem to be too concerned. Then he picked up some movement or something he did not like, got up and walked away to about 75 yards where he lay down again and watched the bait. That was the closest he ever came to us again.