One Heck Of A Ride

85 is motionless, even when he’s only a few yards away. For example, there were eight of us walking in single file (Chris said we would need all the help we could get when I shot an elephant) and following the tracks of another bull as quietly as we could, when one of the trackers behind me got my attention and pointed to something behind me. It took several seconds before I saw the flash of something white about six or seven feet off the ground in the trees and brush just twenty to thirty feet away. When I realized I’d seen ivory tusks, I finally saw the elephant. He was standing in the shade sound asleep. Every few minutes, he would slowly fan himself with his outsized ears. Our large group of men with lifetimes of experience with elephants had walked right past him! The tracker picked up several gravel-size stones and tossed them one at a time to get Chris to come back to us. When he did, Chris looked at the bull’s tusks and whispered that they weren’t big enough and we continued on. Another time, we found a big bull only because we heard him snoring. He was lying down and out of sight less than thirty yards away. When we moved closer, we couldn’t see both of his tusks. Chris and I got ready in case we needed our rifles, and a tracker started throwing rocks and sticks over the animal to get him to stand up to give us a better look. It surprised me how quickly he got on his feet, then turned around and stared at us. “Don’t shoot unless he comes toward us,” Chris said. “He’s not big enough.” Zimbabwe 1981 This old bull elephant was taken with a Safari Grade .458 Winchester Magnum Model 70 rifle author saw in Shotgun News and bought for $100 He didn’t have to add that we would have little time to react if that young bull decided he wanted to kill us. My rifle was on my shoulder, the safety was off, and the scope’s crosshairs were following where I thought the beast’s brains were located when he turned and slowly walked away. Deka was unlike any tent camp I’d ever seen. My tent had a bed, a small table and chair, a smooth, hard-packed floor and a toilet, shower, and washbasin. Gasoline lanterns lit the camp in the evening and early morning. In addition to separate tents for clients and Chris, there also were tents for cooking and dining. The staff’s huts and a skinning area with a place for storing hides, horns, and skulls were perhaps fifty to seventy- five yards downwind from the main camp. The walkways between the tents were swept daily and everything was clean and orderly. On our fourth or fifth full day of elephant hunting, we finally found a suitable bull. To get a clear shot, Chris and I left the trackers behind and crouched and crawled as slowly and quietly as we could until just fifteen long steps separated us from him. I was kneeling when the bull saw me. When an elephant bull throws his big ears out, he