Elephant on the Botswana/RSA Border
Mike Mistelske
After six months of absolutely no rainfall, and with an overly-dense population of elephants in a particular area of southern Botswana, moisture, food, and topography combined to define a concentration of elephant movement—to funnel lots of elephants through a relatively small area and across the border into South Africa.
My friend and PH/outfitter of two prior African hunts, Jeff Smith, knows his profession well. Jeff emailed me on relatively short notice to say that he had found a good place to hunt elephant, had managed to procure one of the few CITES fully-exportable trophy elephant hunting licenses issued in the Republic of South Africa, and was I available? Does a bear sleep in the woods?
Our hunting area was a special place on the south bank of the Limpopo River. Although it’s said that water always flows in the Limpopo—at least below the surface, the 200-yard-wide river bed looked bone dry to us. To the north, in Botswana, water had recently become particularly scarce, as had food, thanks to the density of the elephant population. On the RSA side of the river, there was just enough more water and fresh vegetation to bring the elephants across.
After about three weeks of more-or-less nightly forays to the RSA side of the Limpopo for water and food, many elephants had taken to wandering across at all hours of the day—or even staying on the south side more or less throughout the day. Their crossing and foraging activity was heavy along a three-mile section of the river valley that Jeff had identified.
Suffice it to say, Jeff and I were “in” elephants almost constantly during the five days we hunted. I had reserved 12 days, just in case we needed them, but that much time was not necessary. Over the course of the five days we hunted, we saw approximately 300 elephants. Some of these were probably multiple sightings of the same animals, but every day we’d see new bulls—distinguishable by unique tusks. Daily we were within 50 yards of elephants, sometimes 20 or more animals at a time. On two unplanned occasions, we ended up within 20 yards of elephant; that gets pretty exciting!
I had practiced with my .500 NE double at 25 yards, and that was the shooting distance we had in mind. Since our license was valid in RSA, but not in Botswana, and since we were always within about a quarter mile of the border (the dry river), our intention—indeed, our mandate—was to drop our bull in his tracks. Only a brain/spine shot was acceptable. Jeff and I agreed that if, at my first shot, the bull didn’t show the classic signs of an instant kill, Jeff would then shoot to try to anchor the bull.
On most occasions, the bulls we’d look at were in company with a dozen or more cows and calves. Getting safely into our self-imposed 25-yard shooting range of a good bull in that situation was obviously going to be the tough part of our hunt; Jeff had told me as much before we ever started. One day we saw a particularly large-bodied bull, standing substantially taller than even the other large, mature bulls we were seeing. On that day, the giant bull was always on the far side of the 20 or so other elephant in the same group. Had he not carried two short, broken tusks, we’d have just had to try to find a way to get at him. Just as well, I suppose, that we were not more inclined to try such a risky maneuver. We did resolve, however, that his extraordinary body size put this bull high on our list of potential keepers, should things develop in that direction over the next few days.
In between elephant, we saw lots of other game: hundreds of impala, a few kudu, more bushbuck than I’ve ever seen on any other hunt, lots of gray duiker, quite a few warthogs, and even a large bushpig. In over five months, cumulatively, that I’d spent in the African bush, this was only the second time that I’d seen a bushpig in broad daylight, and the first time that I would have had an easy shooting opportunity—even with the open sights on my double. It was fortunate for this large boar that I wasn’t about to risk spoiling our elephant hunt by making noise shooting anything else.
On day five everything came together. At a little before two in the afternoon, we spotted a large lone bull walking through the forest. We made a stalk to within 30 yards and decided that his ivory wasn’t quite as good as we thought we could do. Not 15 minutes later, we spotted another lone bull, and this one had nice, even tusks—not as heavy as some we’d seen, and certainly not the large teeth we’d already concluded we were not likely to see, but nice sized and very even—and a large bull. The situation was good, I for one was getting weary of the 100+ degree temperatures, and Jeff and I agreed to go for this bull.
Within five minutes, we managed to stalk within 20 yards of our bull, just off his left hind quarter. As we waited for him to turn broadside, apparently the bull winded us. After raising his trunk and getting a good whiff of us, he spun around, took a few steps in our direction, stopped and stared directly at us. As I started squeezing the trigger for a frontal brain shot, I heard Jeff whisper that if I thought I had the angle correct, now would be a good time to shoot. Jeff need not have encouraged me.
Before leaving home for this hunt, I had watched hours of video about elephant shot placement, especially side and frontal brain shots. I’d watched several elephant hunts that I had recorded from the TV, always thinking about the proper aim point for the brain. On the first four days of the hunt, with so many opportunities to stalk well within 50 yards of elephants, I had worked completely through the prehunt nervousness I had about what it would be like to actually be that close, and to need to make a very controlled and precise shot. I was as ready as I could have been.
At my shot, the bull’s rear quarters collapsed, but he managed to keep his head up. My second shot came almost simultaneous with Jeff’s shot—all three of our head shots probably coming within two seconds. The bull’s head dropped, and he literally didn’t visibly move another muscle. Jeff felt no need to fire his second barrel.
After five days of constantly staying on high alert, numerous occasions of being literally surrounded by elephants, and repeatedly stalking to within close range of mature bulls, dropping this bull was simply the next step—not really anti-climactic, but easily taken in stride. Jeff paced off 13 steps to the bull; close enough!
It took a couple days to come down from the sustained concentration and tension that I had enjoyed while spending those five days among the elephant. Along with hunting Cape buffalo, elephant hunting is certainly the most enjoyable hunting that I have experienced. I look forward to hunting deer and even pigs here at home, but I’ll be counting the days ‘til I can track and stalk Africa’s larger beasts again. I might even go back to the same area where Jeff and I hunted elephants on this trip: two days after shooting mine, we made one last walk in the forest; we stalked to within 40 yards of two large bulls, one with tusks we conservatively estimated to average 70 pounds per side—much larger than anything we’d seen during our five days of hunting. Maybe next time….
EDITOR’S NOTE: Watch for two African adventures donated by Mike’s outfitter/PH, Jeff Smith (Unforgettable Safaris) for our March fundraiser. These are the two largest adventure packages we’ve ever been privileged to offer. Enjoy the fundraiser, and remember it’s for a good cause: your continued right and opportunity to hunt!