World’s Longest Buffalo Hunt!

Apr 5, 2023 | Archive, Hunting Stories, News

By Jim Thorn

 

I hunted with Monterra Safaris in May 2021.  On that hunt I had an opportunity to take a Cape buffalo that was giving them some problems.  Of course, my only bad shot of the entire hunt was on this buffalo.  Not nervous, not in a bad position, the PHs set me up perfectly – I just flat out pulled it to the right.  I felt terrible as the PHs had put me in the perfect spot at the right time, and I blew it.  On top of that, I felt bad for the animal that was now wounded and hurt.  My shot went too far forward, entering and exiting his brisket.  He bled enough, though finally it was down to very small droplets that stopped all together, but we were able to track him for three days until the blood trail quit. We bumped him twice, but no shots were taken as he ran away instead of towards us. I even hired a helicopter for half a day to try to find him. My time ran out and I had to leave with him still out there.

 

The PHs and I decided that if the lions or hyenas hadn’t taken him, or they found him hurting, that they would shoot him.  Or, if they found his skull, they would let me know.  About two months later I received a call from Almayne Hughes (PH), and Ross Hare (PH and owner of the property) that they found the buff. Alive! And thriving!  They recognized the distinct bosses and horns, and the oxpeckers on the entry and exit wound sites confirmed.  He had rejoined the herd and was fat and sassy.  Their question to me was: “Shall we shoot him for you or do you want to shoot him?”  Now my budget was stretched with my first trip in May, but he was thriving and not in pain and I was obsessed with having left him there, so I said I would go shoot him! (I have a most understanding wife).

Arrangements were made and I made the trip the first two weeks of October.  It took about three days, but we found him crossing a large plain.  After our squat running and then sneaking from bush to bush, the buff came into range. At about the 50-yard mark Almayne set up the sticks and I brought the .458 Win Mag to bear. I didn’t pull to the right this time. The bullet hit his shoulder and both lungs.  He ran about 30 yards and turned to face us, but he was dead on his feet.  Another opposite shoulder shot knocked him down and then the finishing spine shot brought the final bellow.  Close inspection showed the healed scars from my errant shot months before. It was an emotional close to the world’s longest buffalo hunt.

He green-scored 42”.  Because I was there, the guys put me on a really nice 51” kudu for icing on the cake. 

 

I can’t speak highly enough of the way Monterra Safaris treated me on this odyssey of mine. Not only in their hunting knowledge and professionalism but in their kindness and compassion towards me and their conservation ideals.

 

Sixty-three-year-old Jim lives with his wife of 40 years in southwest Louisiana, about 60 miles from the Gulf of Mexico and 30 miles from Texas, in the path of several natural disasters. He has hunted unguided in Louisiana, Texas, and Kentucky and in the USA, and taken guided hunts for bear and wolf in Alberta, Canada. Jim dreamed of hunting Africa for decades, researched and planned for years, packed for months, and then lived his dream for 23 days. The tattoo on his arm is the motto of the East African Professional Hunter’s Association:  “Neither fear nor foolhardiness”

Classic and Contemporary African Hunting Literature

Apr 5, 2023 | Archive, News

Cries of the Savanna

Sue Tidwell (Circle T Publishing Company, 2021, 426 pages.)
Reviewed by Ken Bailey

 

Sue Tidwell knew little about hunting in Africa or the complexities of game management, hunting ethics and human-wildlife interactions when she accompanied her husband on a 21-day hunt for leopard, buffalo and plains game in Tanzania. She returned home with her eyes and mind expanded, and spent the next three years researching, compiling and, eventually, capturing in words what she’d discovered. Cries of the Savanna is the result of those efforts.

 

Other than Ruark’s renowned Horn of the Hunter, I can’t think of a book that distills the myriad thoughts a first-time, or even experienced, hunter visiting Africa experiences on safari. In a well-organized manner she touches on everything from the emotions associated with killing hard-won, revered and charismatic animals like leopards and buffalo, to the at-times life and death challenges indigenous African people face on a daily basis living with these animals. To complement this, her in-depth research on the life history and current status of many of the species she encountered, from vultures to hippopotamus, ensures that her thoughts and emotions are balanced with science.

 

Tidwell is clearly an emotional woman, in the best sense of the word, and willingly shares with the reader her near-paranoid fear of snakes, her frequent tears of sadness and elation whenever her husband takes an animal, and her self-effacing response to ending up arse-first in a pile of eland entrails. She laughs, she cries and she finds herself immersed in deep, confounding thought as her safari unfolds; you’ll surely experience the same emotions as you read of her experiences.

 

A theme throughout Cries of the Savanna is the author’s growing relationships with the safari staff, especially Lilian, a young female game scout with whom she develops a deep bond. It’s through the lenses of these locals that Sue truly comes to understand that the harsh truths of hunting in Africa are far more complex that most visiting western hunters imagine. In fact, the heart of this book is her coming to terms with how to reconcile those differences.

 

To be honest, my expectations were muted when I purchased this book from Sue at the most recent SCI convention – I was just doing my part to support a fellow writer. But with the turn of every page I became increasing engrossed and captivated. Sue has very effectively accomplished the goal to which most writers aspire – putting into easy-to-understand language the full range of thoughts and emotions that many of us experience, but have difficulty articulating.

 

I used to tell every first-time hunter to Africa that they should read Horn of the Hunter before they embark on their safari. Move over Mr. Ruark. While your words are as compelling as ever, Cries of the Savanna offers something that Ruark simply cannot – a contemporary commentary on the African hunting experience and all its touchpoints in a world that is concurrently becoming both smaller, yet more complicated.

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GPO’s SPECTRA  6X 4.5-27x50i SFP

Mar 22, 2023 | Archive, Product News

Designed as the ultimate long-range, high-performance riflescope, the German Precision Optics (GPO) SPECTRA 6X 4.5-27x50i SFP has been built to give premium performance for those who hunt game in environments where shooting at extended ranges is often required.

 

With a second focal plane riflescope, the reticle is placed behind the magnification lenses on the erector tube assembly, and the reticle remains the same size as the scope’s variable power is turned up or down, making a fine subtension ballistic reticle with an illuminated center micro-dot for longer shots.

 

The SPECTRA™ 4.5-27x50i SFP’s large 50mm objective lens system transmits a great deal of light to your eye, while the 4.5-27X variable power range gives you ample magnification for both close and the longest-range shots. Throw in the proprietary iCONTROL™ microdot illumination and shot placement on dark targets will make you a believer. This scope comes standard with DoubleHD™ objective lens technology with fully-multi coated lenses, iCONTROL illumination, PASSIONtrac™ ZERO-STOP-LOCK turrets to assist your shooting scenario. The turrets provide +/- 30 inches/MOA of adjustment range at 100 yards.

 

Features

 

GPObright: A proprietary coating process that maximizes light transmission through each surface of an optical element. As light hits an optical surface, normal uncoated high-performance glass can reflect up to 5 percent of that light, redirecting this light so it does not transmit through the optical system. However, when these high-performance lenses are vacuum coated with GPObright lens coatings, up to 99.7 percent of the available light passes through each optical surface. Furthermore, when every surface of the entire optical system is properly coated, total light transmission can reach up to more than 92 percent, making the optical image of a GPO binocular or riflescope “bright,” even in the lowest light conditions.

 

Double HD Objective Lens Technology: This is the final product, created when multiple extra-low dispersion lenses are chemically laminated to make a single, multilayer high-performance optical lens. Laminating multiple lenses minimizes light reflection on the surface of multiple lenses, creates enhanced resolution and color contrast images, and minimizes chromatic aberrations. This benefit is clearly visible with all GPO products supporting this feature. This high-performance process is routinely found in the photographic market and with the highest-quality photographic lens manufacturers but has now transitioned into premium sporting optics.

 

iControl Illumination: This assures users always have a live battery by automatically powering down the illumination when the electronic module has been stationary for more than 3 hours, and alerts users when the battery has only 15 percent remaining battery life.

 

This scope is crafted from a one-piece 30mm anodized, nitrogen-filled aluminum main tube that has zero-stop locking turrets, precise ¼ MOA click adjustments, CCW click rotation, removable magnification throw lever, 3rd turret parallax adjustment, fast focus ocular, and multiple rotation engraving.

Maven’s New RS3.2 Riflescope

Mar 13, 2023 | Archive, Product News

Maven Outdoor Equipment Company has expanded its award-winning line of premium riflescopes to introduce the RS3.2. Based on the brand’s popular RS.3, the new RS3.2 has expanded upon the original model’s design to broaden its offering within the RS Series line-up.

 

The RS3.2 features a 5-30x magnification range on a 50mm objective lens and introduces a larger, more tactile elevation turret in addition to an internal and toolless zero-stop to offer precise dialing and adjustment capabilities. Maven also incorporated end-user feedback to include a new capped windage turret.

 

Like all riflescopes in the brand’s premium RS Series, RS3.2 also features crystal clear ED glass for tack-sharp clarity in addition to a silky focus mechanism, precision-milled adjustments, solid click detents, and durable anodizing to resist heavy use.

 

With an expansive magnification range, detailed MOA or MIL reticles, side parallax adjustment, and custom turret options, the RS3.2 is a robust first focal plane scope designed for long-range hunters and shooters. Thanks to Maven’s direct-to-consumer business model, it offers great value on a scope that provides precision, accuracy, and reliability for long-range performance, all qualities Maven is known for.

Leupold BX-4 Range HD Rangefinding Binocular

Mar 13, 2023 | Archive, Product News

Meet the BX-4 Range HD TBR/W rangefinding binocular from Leupold & Stevens.

 

The BX-4 Range HD TBR/W 10x42mm fuses Leupold’s DNA engine and ballistics software with the optical performance diehard hunters and shooters demand.

 

A true hybrid of tech and optical performance, the BX-4 Range HD combines Leupold’s DNA laser engine and ballistics software with the company’s BX-4 binocular, allowing hunters and shooters to spot and range targets at the same time without wasting valuable seconds switching between gear. Its high contrast red OLED display delivers visible readouts in any light, and its edge-to-edge resolution makes glassing sessions easy on the eyes.

 

The BX-4 Range HD is built around Leupold’s Elite Optical System. It delivers excellent dawn-to-dusk light transmission for a bright image when it matters most, elite-level glare reduction in harsh light, and the resolution and clarity diehard hunters and shooters demand.

 

Looking for a ballistic solution that promises something as simple as range, dial, shoot? Leupold’s True Ballistic Range/Wind (TBR/W) technology takes precision to the next level by offering 25 selectable ballistics groups that account for your preferred cartridge, helping you dial in the exact range of your target. Using the rifleman’s rule on an angled 600-yard shot could result in a 10-15-inch margin of error when compared to the dead-on accuracy of Leupold’s TBR/W. And with TBR/W’s 10-mph wind holds, you’ll have all the information you need to experience more first-shot hits. Combine that accuracy with Leupold’s Custom Dial System and you’ll be on target in seconds. The BX-4 Range HD ranges reflective targets at 2,600 yards, trees at 1,600 yards and deer-sized game at 1,100 yards.

 

Further, it is ambidextrous. Left-handed consumers can access the easy-to-use menu and configure the unit to be operated with the left hand.

 

The BX-4 Range HD delivers superior ruggedness and is tested for extreme climates. It is waterproof and fogproof.

Steiner Predator 8 Series

Mar 13, 2023 | Archive, Product News

Steiner, the leader in high-performance optics for military, law enforcement, and hunting has unveiled their latest riflescope series.  Boasting 8x zoom, the Predator 8 riflescopes join the Steiner Predator 4 series to provide discerning big game hunters the pinnacle of versatility and precision in premium hunting optics.

 

Built on a rugged 30mm tube chassis, the Predator 8 delivers all the key features required of a go-anywhere optic. Class-leading optical clarity with industry-leading light transmission, a massive field of view, and an illuminated reticle with 11 brightness settings ensure a fast and crisp sight picture in the most challenging lighting conditions. Foul weather and harsh climates also offer no resistance to the Predator 8’s performance thanks to the shockproof, fogproof and waterproof design and broad -13°F to +145°F operating temperature.

 

The Predator 8 is offered in three different 8x zoom ranges: 2-16×42, 3-24×50, and 4-32×56. Hunters looking to take advantage of the riflescopes’ precision reticle adjustment to accurately compensate for bullet drop at long distances will appreciate the audible and tactile 1/4 MOA ballistic turret. Included are different numbered turret rings that allow the shooter to customize the turret for quick elevation adjustment at pre-selected distances. The ballistic turret also provides a zero mode to permit fast and precise dial-back to the zero setting.

 

The Predator 8 2-16x42mm and the 3-24x50mm riflescopes both come with the Steiner E3 second focal plane reticle. Designed for the most popular big game cartridges with holdover compensation out to 400 yards and cascading windage dots to easily adjust for 10 mph crosswind, the E3 reticle quickly serves up aiming solutions when the pressure is on. For maximum long-range precision, the Predator 8 4-32x56mm stands ready with its high magnification and SCR (Special Competition Reticle) combination.

 

Delivering the best in German precision, the Predator 8 series promises apex optical and ballistic compensation performance in a tough, weather-resistant platform suitable for any hunting adventure… anywhere.