27/10/2024
Outfitter Permit number:202404000010472:
CAPE BUFFALO HUNT REPPORT:
Legadema’s PH'es Willie Botha and Glaeser once again hunted a couple of cape buffalo’s with their clients. We asked Willie to give a report of the cape buffalo hunt on which he guided Klaus Fischer.
Willie, 13 October: Klaus and I were up at 5am, having breakfast. We left camp at 5h30 and started looking for cape buffalo tracks. At around 6h30 we found tracks of a group of about 50 buffalo. We noticed some big bull tracksAs soon as we saw the group of buffalo we went around down-wind and started walking parallel to the buffalo keeping their pace. We eventually found some good terrain where we could close in. Klaus got his opportunity at around 7h30 as an old bul was quartering towards us. The bullet hit the bull about 10cm to the right of the shoulder, hitting a piece of the left lung and went into the stomach content. At that moment I were not sure where exactly the bullet hit and the buffalos started running away from us. We tracked the bul. It was squirting a bit of blood for about an hour whereafter the bleeding stopped. The bull cut away from the group only a few minutes after being shot which signalled that the bull was hurt. The bull waited for us in thick bush twice. Both times we saw him in time and the bull run off before Klaus could get a shot. At around 11h30 I decided to stop tracking the bull hoping that the bull will bed down giving the bullet some time to do its work. At 2h30 we started tracking the bull again. We tracked the bull for about an hour up to where it walked into some very thick bush. Looking at the tracks the bull did not show any sign of discomfort and there was no blood. Klaus were concerned asking if we were still on the right track and I affirmed that it is the correct track. The track went into an area with 3m high savanna grass. As we recently encountered lions in the area we decided not to follow the track into the long grass. We went around and confirmed that the bull did not exit on the other side. We realised that the buffalo is in this area in front of us of about 200m x 200m of long grass with some Akasia trees. I realised that there is also a group of elephant in this area standing in the shade of the Akasia trees. I was wondering how to approach the situation as we were now standing at the edge of this bush with elephants, including a baby of a few weeks old, and a wounded buffalo, hiding in the bush. It was now 3pm and I realised that the elephants will probably not move as it was very hot and they were in the shade. I did not know if the buffalo was dead or laying in the grass hiding or waiting for us. I moved downwind and then instructed my tracker to start throwing some stones in the direction of where we saw the elephants to chase them off. It eventually worked as the elephants stormed through the grass away from us. We then went very slowly into the area. As we went into an open area under the trees we saw the buffalo track going from right to left.. As we moved forward for about 10 paces we suddenly encountered the bul. He was laying upright, facing us. It only took a second or two for Klaus to pull the trigger braining the bull. I am confident that the buffalo was ready to jump up and charge if that bullet did not hit him in the brain. It was a beautiful old bull. After closer inspection I realised that the buffalo also recently escaped a lion attack as the claw marks and small puncture marks could be seen on the backside of the buffalo.
See enclosed pictures including blood on the ground while tracking (picture no 2), the thick area where the buffalo was hiding (picture no 1), the long grass(picture no 3), the lion claw marks on the skin of the buffalo (picture no 4) and a happy client (picture no 5). Afterwards we took the meat to the local people as part of our social upliftment program.
