By John E. Phillips
United States -(AmmoLand.com)- I went on an interesting hunt for Cape buffalo in Mozambique, Africa, in 2011.
I flew into Johannesburg, South Africa, where I met-up with my guide, who was an avid bowhunter and had taken a wide variety of African game with his bow, including elephants. We flew to Mozambique and then took a private plane to our base camp.
When the time came to hunt, the outfitter took us to a swamp in a helicopter and dropped us off for the day’s hunt.
There were herds of buffalo, often 200 to 300 in each herd, living and feeding in that swamp. The hunt basically involved our falling around in the swamp’s mud. This country was some of the wildest I’d ever hunted. We were in water holes from knee-deep to waist-deep. We crawled in the mud, while the buffalo were on the high ground.
We located the buffalo by driving an Argo ATV around the outer edges of the swamp and looking for white egrets, which fed on the insects on the backs of the buffalo. So, when you spotted the egrets you could locate the buffalo. We stayed a long way away from the swamp and used binoculars to find the egrets and the buffalo. Then we made long stalks to try to get within bow range. Each stalk would be for at least 1/ 2- to 3/ 4-mile.
Another problem we encountered in the swamp was elephant holes. The elephants, like the buffalo, moved in and out of the swamp. Several times I was walking in knee-deep water, stepped in a hole where the elephants had been and fell into water up to my armpits.
When we finally reached the herd where I took my bull, we had to crawl across a mud flat that was almost like quicksand. A couple of our guides had to drag me out of the mud when I got stuck. One of my concerns was I had mud all over my PSE Omen Bow.
Finally, I crawled-up to within 15 yards of the bull I eventually took. I was actually trying to stalk a bull that was about 40-or 50-yards away. But when this bull I finally took, walked right in front of me, I didn’t hesitate to take the shot. This bull had 36-inch horns, and I got a double lung shot.
The bull took the arrow and returned to the herd. Then the herd started moving-off. Fifty yards from where I shot him, he finally dropped.
To learn more about hunting The Most Dangerous Game with a Bow click here http://tiny.cc/39kfay
About the Author:
For the past 40+ years, John E. Phillips of Vestavia, Alabama, has been a fulltime outdoor writer, traveling the world interviewing hunters, guides, outfitters and other outdoorsmen about how they hunt and fish. An award-winning author, John has been hunting and fishing since his kindergarten days.