By Harri Rissanen

This is a story of a Cape buffalo and plains game hunt in Zimbabwe that Harri Rissanen found and booked on BookYourHunt.com, told in his own words.

Hunting has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My father introduced me to it when I was just a boy, in my home country of Finland. He took me fox and hare hunting since I was four or five, and I still remember the adrenaline rush I experienced when I saw a wild fox for the first time – the feeling similar to what you get before taking a shot at game. At about that age I took my first shots with a .22 caliber rifle, although of course at paper targets.

I passed the exam for my Finnish hunter’s license at the age of 12. My first big game hunting was moose hunting, which is traditionally done with dogs here in the Nordic countries, and my experience was no different. From there I have progressed even further as a hunter, and went on three plains game safaris in Africa, two in South Africa and one in Namibia.

When I felt I was ready for the Big Five, I searched through the offers on BookYourHunt.com and booked a 7 Day Buffalo Safari with Elephant Trails. This proved to be the most authentic and adventurous hunting experience I’ve ever had in Africa. When it’s dark and your car is stuck in the long grass with a fresh buffalo carcass onboard, and you know for a fact there are lions nearby, it doesn’t get any more real or thrilling than that. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Matetsi in the Dry Season

My safari took place in early October. We hunted in two areas: Matetsi ECA and Matetsi Unit 5. In terms of pure terrain and scenery, both are quite similar. Both have lots of hills, bumpy roads, the usual southern African trees here and there with some denser areas, thorn bushes, some large and open grassy areas, and rivers that are mostly completely dried out during the dry season, exposing fully the sandy riverbeds.

The weather was sunny, hot and dry, with clear skies and not even a small chance for rain. Dryness makes animal movement more predictable: they have fewer places for drinking and eating, and they alternate between them at certain times of day. The same applies for places that offer shade during midday. Another good thing was that there were pretty much no mosquitoes either, so I’d say this is a great time for those hunters who worry about malaria. 

Foliage was nearly non-existent. This can be either a good thing or a bad thing. It allows you to spot the animals more easily but you don’t get much cover either, meaning that it’s more difficult to approach the animals. 

What really sets the areas apart is that ECA is a communal area where you have people, cattle, and some pets. They are not everywhere, but you regularly come by them. However, you also have dugga boys there, the old buffaloes living alone or in small groups. Unit 5 has more grassy areas and, during the dry season, water as well. There are no people, cattle, or pets there, just game and scouts at their station. There’s more game and several unbelievably large herds of buffalo.

After Buffalo: Can’t Shoot ‘em Near a Waterhole

We started the day early, arriving at Unit 5 right before sunrise. When there was enough daylight to see the surroundings, we started driving along the sandy roads, looking for buffalo. We had already done this a few times before in other areas without much luck. The best chance we had had was seeing a large group of buffalo from the border between Matetsi ECA and Matetsi Unit 1 – we had missed the herd by maybe 10 minutes and by that time they had entered Unit 1 where we were not allowed to hunt.

At Unit 5, after about half an hour of driving around, Shingi suddenly said: “Can you see the buffalo, Mr. Harri?” It took me a moment but then I noticed dust rising above the treeline and I finally saw it – hundreds of buffaloes! Kevin the tracker patted me on the shoulder and had a big grin on his face. He must have mirrored mine. This was the first time in my whole life that I saw real living African buffalo. 

The buffaloes were near a waterhole, so we needed to make them move elsewhere as laws in Zimbabwe do not allow hunting buffalo near waterholes. The game scout and the trackers, a.k.a. The Boys, went on foot to carefully drive the herd in the desired direction. Soon it became obvious that The Boys succeeded as there was a loud rumbling sound and many clouds of dust rising from the direction of the buffaloes. They crossed the road like a stream of black water and went exactly in the direction we wanted. 

We got off the truck, loaded our rifles, took two backpacks with water bottles and field dressing equipment, and headed out on foot.

The Long Stalk and The Missed Chance

During the following couple of hours we crossed many hills, dry riverbeds and some grassy areas, but the herd always seemed to hear or see us and darted away each time. The sun was scorching, but occasional gusts of wind and a few sips of water took away any thoughts of giving up. Unit 5, although huge, wasn’t endless, and so we were racing against time. But finally the chance came.

Between two large trees, a mature bull stood in front of the herd, head up high and a mean look on its face as if it wanted to really mess up anybody even thinking about coming closer to the herd. Shingi and I walked closer, crouching and using thin bush and a single slim tree as our cover. 

When we got next to the tree, Shingi positioned the shooting sticks and told me to shoot. I put the gun on the sticks, flicked off the safety and took aim. My heart was trying to pound itself out of my chest. I hastily squeezed the trigger and right at that moment the bull turned and ran away. The shot cracked, but I could see no reaction from the bull. Looking at the faces of Shingi and the game scout I knew this had not been a good shot at all. 

We waited a short while before we went and checked the spot where the bull had stood. No signs of blood at all. The crew spread to a larger area and each followed different tracks the best they could. After a nerve-wracking while the crew gathered again and gave their conclusion: it had been a miss.

Shingi and Team: Nothing but Praise

During the lunch break I kept going through the miss over and over again in my mind. I started to think I would be going back home without a buffalo which would have been a complete disaster. Later the driver told me that I had looked like the most miserable person in the world during that break, but that they had never given up hope. And as things turned out later that day, they had been right.

By that time I already had an immense trust in Shingi, the PH, and his crew. The thing about Shingi is that before he became a full-time PH, he used to work as a park ranger for the government. Not only does this give him extensive knowledge about various game animals and contacts with the right people, he’s also participated in elephant culls, so he can educate any man on what it really takes to quickly put down an elephant and what the most important factors are.

The team was as good as its leader. They knew the movement and behavior of each animal extremely well. They knew when and where to look so we didn’t have to try very hard to get onto fresh tracks or see a specific animal. Their competence went beyond hunting: we had several cases with the cars having various technical issues, and it was amazing how they were able to fix them time after time in field conditions and with limited tools available.

Plains Game

Buffalo was not the only quarry I pursued during this safari. I also got three impalas and two kudus in addition to the buffalo. I had never hunted either species before, but had always admired kudu trophies with the big and beautiful spiraling horns. Kudu was at the top of my list after the buffalo for this safari and impala I wanted to shoot should I get a chance. 

It turned out there were plenty of both in Matetsi. While we had a couple of good opportunities with kudu while looking for buffalo, we still needed to put in quite the effort to get one once we went after it specifically. 

One day we spent several hours chasing a single old eland bull. We were supposed to look for buffalo that day, but a local community member, who we nicknamed The Eland Man, showed us fresh eland tracks instead. Because I was also interested in eland and this was only the second full hunting day, I made the decision to go after the eland.

We successfully got quite close to it a couple of times, so well that we could hear it move and eat before it knew anything about us. Unfortunately, the bush was thick in that area and we didn’t see it well enough for attempting a shot while it was still. But we did clearly see it run away from us several times. It was a magnificently large old bull. Finally, after running out of water and being stung enough times by thorns, we just let it go and admitted our defeat.

After Buffalo Again

About two hours before sunset we headed out to a different corner of Unit 5. This was a more open area than before with big hills, long grass, lots of sharp rocks and a large dry riverbed. We had followed a circular route around the area for maybe an hour when the car was stopped after multiple hands hectically pounded the roof. I felt a sudden jolt of excitement even before I heard the people on the back whisper to us: “buffalo!” 

I looked out the window in the direction they were pointing and even without binoculars could easily see the large black mass with individual movement in it and dust clouds hovering over the mass. Yup, that was definitely a large herd of buffalo. It was later estimated that there were much more than a thousand animals, maybe even more than two thousand.

The ones that were visible were standing at a rather good spot on the bottom of a dry riverbed, surrounded by hills and long grass that would give us cover. We drove a bit closer and started the stalk on foot. We went down a rocky hill, followed a narrow path at the bottom of the hill and came to a spot with grass and trees. From there we could see the buffaloes out in the open. 

I got ready to take a shot while Shingi and the scout tried to spot a buffalo that would stand out from the group. As this didn’t happen, we decided to move closer. We were now fully visible to the animals. The herd started to move up a large hill, but did so quite slowly, almost as if they didn’t want to move anywhere from where they were. This must have been because of the lions stalking them, but we didn’t know that at the time. 

Too Many Bulls!

We had plenty of animals to choose from as it almost appeared like an endless stream of buffalo – there were so many that it felt absolutely surreal. But it was difficult to find a single animal that would have wanted to stand outside of the group, providing a shooting opportunity.

In desperation, as daylight was also fading away slowly, Shingi ran straight towards the herd in hopes of separating some of the animals. I followed Shingi to the best of my ability while the group continued going up the hill. Suddenly it started to happen: individual animals, mostly bulls, showed up separated from the herd here and there, all offering broadside shots. 

Shingi and the scout took turns pointing at each one, and I kept swinging the sticks and the gun around, trying to keep up with what they were pointing at. Finally the moment came: a single bull with a large dark body and wide horns stood still long enough for me to take a shot. He was standing maybe 60 to 75 meters away and I was completely out of breath, desperately trying to keep the crosshair steady at the shoulder. 

Shingi had time to tell me to keep calm when I squeezed the trigger. This time I could see that it was a hit as the bull jumped up and forward as if it had just felt a sudden jolt of pain. I reloaded and followed it through the scope. It ran about 100 meters, stopped and started to turn. “Look! It’s going down,” the scout yelled. And down it went, followed by the famous deep death bellow. This was a moment I will never forget.

We waited a little while and went up the hill. We approached the animal from the backside and Shingi told me to shoot him once more in the spine in the shoulder area. I did this and it was over: my lifelong dream that I had worked hard for had just come true in the most wonderful way. The moment was so powerful that tears of joy came to my eyes. There we were, standing on top of a hill with a large Cape buffalo, the African sun slowly setting in the background.

Lion Alert!

The car got stuck in a hole in the ground by its left rear wheel on the way back to camp, and it took us at least 30 minutes to get it freed. We did this by pushing the car from the back, then from the front, and repeated this until we got it properly rolling again. We also needed to unload the buffalo carcass, which was cut in two large pieces, behind the truck. While unloading, I couldn’t help but think of the chance of there being large predators around as we had seen fresh lion tracks some days before and even saw two hyenas in broad daylight the same day.

Everything seemed fine for the moment, but once we had freed the car and got everyone and everything onboard again, somebody at the back of the car started to yell “SHUMBA, SHUMBA!” It didn’t take me long to make the connection with the more familiar word “simba,” and needless to say, I felt all blood freeze in my veins.

Suddenly all hell broke loose: Kevin, the tracker and gunbearer who had been sitting on the hood of the car shining light with a torch, tried to climb the windshield only to find his only way up the back of the car was by jumping down in the grass and climbing the metallic stairs on the side. 

Shingi saw it best to take his .416 Rem Mag rifle from its pouch even if it meant tearing a hole in the pouch with bare hands. I had my window open and started to turn the crank with all force and might using both hands to shut it in record time. The car almost dug four new holes in the ground before it started to speed towards the nearest road. Shining light to the back left direction from the car with the torch revealed that two female lions had been lurking near all that time while we were stuck.

Later the crew told me that when I had taken the shot at my buffalo, the driver who stayed in the car while we stalked the buffalo on foot had heard a lion roar not far from the buffalo herd.

Plans for the Future

To reiterate, this was the most authentic and adventurous hunting experience I’ve ever had in Africa, and I would be happy to hunt with Elephant Trails Safaris again in the future. Having witnessed firsthand the damage that elephants do to local communities in areas with high elephant densities, I would be thrilled to give a helping hand and book an elephant hunt for one of those areas. 

In general, I think it’s quite fitting for me to continue with the Big Five – after the elephant, I am thinking about a leopard. Quite often the two are even hunted on the same safari.

Outside Zimbabwe, when considering other great destinations for authentic safari hunting, Tanzania interests me a great deal. Hunting in the famous Selous Game Reserve (nowadays known as Nyerere National Park) would be another dream come true. But first, let me walk on the elephant trails.

Next in Hunting Stories

If You Are Looking for Adventure, It’s the Real Thing: My Moose and Bear Hunt in British Columbia

by Ken Wicker

This is a story of a moose and black bear hunt in British Columbia that Ken Wicker found and booked on BookYourHunt.com, told in his own words.

Our destination was a primitive outpost cabin nestled deep within the wilderness of British Columbia, fulfilling our desire for a truly remote experience. Sparse supplies, pre-cooked meals, snacks, and beverages to sustain us for several days were loaded on the truck, an Argo was loaded onto a trailer, and we headed out with high hopes, especially as the area was renowned for its bull moose population. 

Eventually, we ran out of road; we transferred our supplies to the Argo and, mid day, made the final stretch from the truck to the cabin. Words cannot describe the picturesque scenery and abundant signs of game along the way. To our delight, tracks and rubs from bull moose were obvious. Our rustic cabin sat on a knoll above a small lake and was equipped with basic necessities, a propane tank stove for cooking, wood-burning heat stove, lanterns and candles, and an outhouse nearby; the stage was set for our wilderness quest. CONTINUE READING