Itch not scratched. 2025 Cape Buffalo

[pdk25]

So, it has been an interesting year for me.

My wife was away on a packing trip on the Continental Divide trail for large portions of the Spring and Summer, so I picked up alot of overtime to put money aside for hunting trips.  This was somewhat necessary due to having to pay the government a large amount of money due to some glitches (through no fault of my own) from when I changed jobs back in 2021.  I lost money that I had put aside in savings, as well as productivity bonuses from a prior job and a signing bonus from my current job.  Then in late spring I developed an infection that became an abscess.  I was on antibiotics for a few weeks and ended up needing surgery. I ended up with a colonic infection from the antibiotics, which ended up being resistant to multiple antibiotics.  The last-ditch antibiotic ended up working, after finally getting it approved through my insurance.  In the end, I lost around 30# of body weight in 2 months, as well as a significant amount of strength.  All this being said, I didn't miss any of my regular work shifts, or the overtime that I had scheduled, even though it meant working 10 hour shifts on my knees at times.

As luck would have it, around a week after I had completed the last antibiotic, I got contacted around midnight while I was still working unexpectedly from a gentleman in South Africa.  This gentleman is a Professional Hunter that I had reached out to before about a potential Cape Buffalo spot and stalk archery hunt with my recurve for 2028, which would have put me at 60 years old.  It turned out, that he had been established as the PH for a new wilderness hunting concession in Tanzania, adjacent to the largest national park in East Africa.  Nyerere National Park, which is around 7.5 million acres.  Due to the timing, there would only be one hunt possible for me before the rainy season started, which gave me around a month and a half to prepare.  I thought about it for a few minutes.  This was going to be difficult.  I had lost the strength to handle my heaviest bows under hunting conditions but ultimately decided to book the hunt.  I had worked hard to put money aside and was able to take on some extra shifts and rearrange my work schedule to accommodate the hunt dates.

Now the fun began.   I had to try to regain strength and come up with a hunting setup that was energetic enough for me to feel comfortable hunting Cape Buffalo, and be able to dominate the setup under hunting conditions.   This posed a little bit of a dilemma.  I was still able to pull 90#, but certainly not able to control it under hunting conditions.  I ended up deciding to try a set of Backwoods Composites MOAC limbs that I had.  They are significantly more efficient that my prior buffalo rigs, but also significantly lighter in draw weight.  I should mention that while I normally shoot lefthanded, I have slightly different form between shooting rh and lh, drawing a little over an inch longer righthanded.  These limbs were around 71-72# with a 30.5" draw length righthanded, and around 67-68# with a 29.5" drawlength lefthanded.  I simply could not afford to give up that much energy,  and opted to tune arrows to shoot out of a righthanded setup.  Fortunately, 2 people really stepped up for me, given my time constraints.  Danny Villarreal of Safari Tuff made me a set of arrows, and Garrett Schlief of Grizzlystik also made me a set of arrows, both of which ended up tuning well using different point weights.

The amazing thing is, these limbs ended up performing better than my prior setups, despite the  decreased poundage.  I was able to shoot the 950 grain Grizzlystik setup 172 fps, where as my prior rig that was 82#@30 with morrison carbon foam longbow limbs shot the same arrow 156 fps, and my rig with morrison max 1 recurve limbs that was 77# @ 30" shot the same arrow 161 fps.  The MOAC limbs also shot the 720 grain safari tuff arrow 195 fps.  So thankful to have those guys make me the arrows, and for the input from Jack Spinks on the lighter weight arrow build.  I ended up having some of each arrow in my quiver for the hunt.

Regarding the hunt, it was scheduled to be a 12-13 day hunt to give me the best opportunity possible.  I packed 2 bags, including a bag with the Morrison Max 1 limbs and riser.  Each bag had clothes and equipment that would allow me to hunt even if one bag got lost. This was going to be a very challenging hunt, with low foliage of the late dry season for cover, and nominal buffalo numbers in this natural mountain setting.  The PH estimated around a 40-50 percent chance of getting a shot opportunity within 25 yards (my self imposed maximal shot distance) with a trad bow, with probably closer to 80 percent shot opportunity using a compound.  I was still okay with this.  I had already shot a Cape Buffalo bull and cow out of a blind, and this extra challenge was an itch that I needed to scratch. 

Long flights and work schedule combined for me to be up for around 52 hours before reaching Dar es Salaam (The capital of Tanzania).  From there it was another flight to Songea, and a 5 hour drive to the concession.  Unfortunately, both of my bags were lost by Qatar Airlines.  I had a decision to make.  Flights to Songea were only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  I had arrived on a Tuesday.   I decided to hope that my luggage arrived before my scheduled Wednesday flight and not change my plans.  Worst case, they would get my luggage and put it on a bus for Songea on Thursday, or fly the bags to me on Friday. As it turns out, this is not how things happened.

Unfortunately for me, things didn't go as planned.  Tanzania had elections on Wednesday, which quickly turned into riots.  The government jailed the top opposition opponent on trumped up charges and didn't allow the other major opposition party to participate.  The people were furious.  The government was shutdown, internet access in the country shutdown, airports shutdown for a time.  Curfews, and people not allowed to assemble on the streets.  While I sat in the hotel lobby in Songea, police where shooting at people 50-60 yards from me as people scattered.  It was crazy.  You couldn't pay for anything with credit cards.  Getting cash from an ATM was the only way to pay for things.  Petrol stations were intermittently closed.

The relaxed the restriction on Songea, but maintained them in the capital, and we were able to drive the hunting camp on Saturday, but I didn't get my luggage until Tuesday.  The internet being shutdown caused problems with my license acquisition.  Long story short, my 12-13 day hunt became a 6 day hunt, that really decreased my odds of success.  We had intended to drive 3 hours to the north part of the camp and setups tents near the park border to find other buffalo, but with the limited amount of time, we hunted the one herd that we knew were centered on parts of the Likuyu, which was mostly dry, but with a large number of waterholes remaining. 

Now to the hunt:

For those not aware, there are different rules in different countries for hunting.  As far as I know, you are not able to bowhunt for dangerous game in Zimbabwe and Mozambique with traditional archery gear.  In Tanzania, you are allowed to, with no restrictions on your gear, but with recommendations for draw weight and arrow weight.  You must be accompanied by Game Scouts (Wardens) when hunting dangerous game.  We had 2 of them.  They are likely to ensure that you only shoot what you have licenses for and pay the appropriate trophy fees, but also provide a rifle backup, in addition to what the PH provides.  I was a little concerned about this, as I am accustomed to hunting by myself, with at most a PH with me.  This didn't turn out to be a big deal.  The hunting party was me, the PH, a game tracker, 2 Game Scouts  and an additional person that carried extra water and was able to track.

The method of hunting was a little different than what I am used to, but is largely the reason that the large hunting party wasn't a problem, and was actually beneficial.  Basically, with slightly limited water (although not as much as you would like), you would leave around 4 am and drive to arrive at a water source around first light that you hoped that the buffalo had visited before dawn, hope to find fresh tracks and then track the buffalo as the fed before bedding down ( Once they bedded down in thick stuff, it would be impossible to get close enough for a shot, and it was dangerous in thick brush as a result of the large number of leopards, lions, and elephants in the area, not to mention the buffalo).  If you are unable to find fresh sign you move to the next most likely water source, usually int he landcruiser.  Anytime driving the few roads, either the PH or trackers are looking for fresh tracks along the road as well.  If you don't find fresh sign by the 3rd place you check, the odds are poor of catching up to the herd or daggabulls before they are bedded, especially since it was a full moon during the hunt and they tended to bed down early.  There was then a lull, and you would mostly check around 4pm for fresh sign after they were up feeding and heading to water.  If you had an idea of where they would drink, you could set up an ambush.  We tried that a couple times, but guessed wrong.

So, my shortened hunt decreased my chances not only by the number of days, but also because we ended up chasing what became an increasingly wary herd for the duration of the hunt.  That being said, I very nearly tagged a bull in the first 3 hours of the hunt.

The first water hole we checked had very good sign, and we tracked the herd and were able to catch sight of them in a few hours.  Everyone other than myself and the PH dropped back, and we were able to get in front of the feeding herd, with the wind in our faces.  They had just reached the edge of a dried up river tributary and looked like they would feed straight across and come right to us.  Unfortunately, the lead cow and a nearly fully hard bossed bull quickly turned to our left down the river rather than coming across.  The PH said I should shoot the bull, but the closest he came was 33 yards, with the closest shot opportunity being 36.  Too far, especially since I had only shot 4 arrows with a light strapped to my quiver that morning, the first in over a week.  We still may have been okay, but they continued to our left as the rest of the herd slowly came to the rivers edge, and then the wind swirled from our right to left.  If that bull had come to the middle of the river, he would have been in range, or if the wind hadn't swirled, it is likely I could have shot a different bull if they entered the river and spread out.  Just not to be, but exciting nonetheless.

Most of the rest of the trip we guessed wrong.  We struggled to find lone bull tracks.  Perhaps they were with the herd, in the park, or in different areas of the concession.  We stalked up on a small herd of cows and calves that had splintered off, I think on day three of the hunt.  They spotted motion and spooked out of there, and we didn't try to get back on them since there were no bulls in the group. 

Had another great opportunity, I think on day 3 of hunting, we hadn't had any luck during the day.  Right before dark, on the way back to camp we decided to look for fresh sign on the south portion of the river from camp to see if it would be a good place to start the following morning.  We found some tracks that looked several hours old and followed them for a bit.  Then we ended up finding a different set of tracks and super fresh sign.  We followed them and were able to locate a herd that had entered a thicket and was actively feeding.  We were losing light, but got hunkered down 10 yards from the thicket with a small shooting lane.  We were seeing patches of black and were trying to locate a bull.  We could here crap hitting the ground, feeding and all manner of buffalo noises.  Wouldn't you know, a lone cow popped out of the shooting lane staring right at us from 9 yards away, and even though we weren't moving she spooked back into the thicket.  Then they were all stirred up and standing still as light was fading.  Eventually the wind shifted and we got winded by at least one and the herd ran around 100 yards deeper into the thicket.  We lost light, and our last best chance.

Still saw alot of other game, and I will post some pics/videos.  Fortunate to be able to participate in a hunt like this, but some bad luck really lessened my odds of success.

[pdk25]

I will post a couple pics later, but some pics are here.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1D1AbhabP8/?mibextid=wwXIfr

[Wudstix]

Pat;
Thanks for the write up about your adventure.