Buffalo/hippo and .454

[Sverre A.]

"xp-100"

Single shot at dangerous game - is not what I would use.
It`s very rare that you only shoot one shot.

My TC in 375 JDJ - will not be used for dangerous game.

We also shot 2 elephants and 1 hippo.

One of the elephants was hit in his brain - and went down immidiately.
Also the hippo was shot in the brain - and fell down where he was standing.
But we shot 3 more shots in both of them.

The second elephant was shot in the shoulder/lungs/stomach with 2 shots from the 404, and the PH shot two shots with his 458, and after tracking it 800 m - we found him the day after (when poachers was hard working to steel the tusks).

[myronman3]

great job sverre.   you are my new hero,  thanks for sharing your hunt!

[WL44]

Not from personal experience, but from all I've ever heard:

"And when you find it "stone-dead" - you shoot him again" is good advice.

Bear in mind that losing a wounded dangerous animal creates a risk for others - which is not the case with antelope. This is a matter aside from owing it to the animal to kill it humanely and as soon as possible after firing the first shot.

I've heard many cases and have several friends who have hunted buff - all with big bore rifles - many have been shot more than once.

Sverre, great going, still looking forward to seeing your pictures.

Wim

[crow_feather]

Sverre A.

Some people hunt deer with a howitzer.  you had the right weapon.

[Qaz]

Sverre- I thought the original post was about using a 454 pistol. The XP comment was a joke! Glad to see you have a sense of hummor!

[singleVI]

Whenever I see posts about stopping charging animals I remember when me and my friends would joke that the best Bear defense was a .22 pistol...so you could knee-cap the guy beside ya and run away. har har har

[mk454]

mark sullivan's hunting is not for the faint of heart and the only clients that see a charge are the ones that have requested to do so.  he has not been smeared as i just got off the phone with him.  he's good at what he does and few have the cajones to hunt like him, it's easier to smear him.  in press is the only place he's been smeared.  put it this way, he's not had anyone with him get hurt and if you ever watched his videos you'd know why he does what he does.  till then i smell whiny sour grapes.  once again, not smeared into the dirt, i just got off the phone with.  i highly recommend the movie/dvd "in the face of death".  explains alot and dispells many fallacies that are perpetuated in print, even here.

[48Dragoon]

clients request charges and he obliges them. nuff said. I grew up in africa and have met many PHs through my uncle who owns the lease on the chewore south safari area in northern zimbabwe and not one of them has an ounce of respect for Sullivan. As i have said in the past any Ph who willingly puts others lives in danger should be stripped of their Ph license, even if they request it. He is not a hunter but more a showman more interested in building a name which he has done. Yes its true that no one has been hurt with him, yet. Hopefully when that day comes it is not a client caught up in marks quest for more great charging footage.

[Dusty Miller]

Harry Selby told Robert Raurk that its the dead ones that get up and kill ya!

[2 dogs]

I have known Lynn Thompson for a long time and can tell you there is nothing crazy about him.  The man is simply not afraid of anything on this earth.  He is the kind of man who tests his products himself by putting them on the line.  If it comes out of his you mouth you can take it as fact. 

[mk454]

why should someone be stripped of anything when they're giving a paying, consenting adult getting what they're paying for?  don't much care what many ph's say, many plug hippos from the comfort of shooting sticks 200 yards away.  i personally like what sullivan talks about, and in many ways i agree.  if you want to face dangerous game on it's own turf so to speak, he will oblige, if you want to hunt cape buff from a hundred yards away or while driving from an elevated stand through long grass, so be it, go with someone else.  i would guess many ph's have a grudge b/c they simply could never muster the cojones to do what he does.  simple as that.

[jpsmith1]

I'm not 100% sure where I stand on this issue.  I agree with mk454 that a consenting adult who understands what they are getting in to should be allowed to get it.  It's legal to do stupid things, let them.  Where I start to have a problem is both with the unpredictability of the animal and the moral issue.

Animals in general are unpredictable, example is the recent death of Steve Irwin.  He knew animals and their behavior better than 99% of the people in the world and still got nailed.  As good as MR. Sulllivan may be, he cannot be 100% certain that the animal is going to behave the same way the last one or one hundred did.  Every one is a unique case.  Somewhere, there is a buffalo with his name on it and it will catch up with him.  When that happens, I hope that his insurance premiums are paid up.

The moral issue is far stickier since morals are defined by each person.  I've always been a believer in quick certain kills and the idea of goading an animal into a charge to thrill a client doesn't exactly sit well with me.  I understand that sometimes quick kills don't happen, but prolonging it to generate a thrill is wrong.  IF, and this is a big IF, shots are being intentionally aimed off to create a wounded animal to increase the chances of a charge, then it's a terrible travesty and should be stopped immmediately and all the parties jailed.  I just hate to see animals needlessly suffer.

[454Puma]

Sverre A.
  It's great to here that the lowly 454 is still up to taking the Big 5!  Great hunts!

[mk454]

this is why i said people should watch the video where sullivan discusses all of these things and why he hunts the way he does.  there is no sport in plugging a buff at 100+ yards.  there has been not one shred of evidence that he has ever taken or had a client take a shot to wound so they could get footage.  he runs a large concession and he's gotten about 15 to 20 charges on camera over the course of something like 13 years or so.  perhaps animals could be shot up from a distance and not approached but then what if they run into the long grass like we've read so much about.  he follows them up and finishes it in a couple minutes.  most of the ph's i've seen on vids or had friends hunt with shoot the buff, let it run off into the grass, let it sit for a few hours, then cringe and pray it's not still alive when they follow.  to me sullivan is doing it the quicker more humane way while giving the experience of what DG hunting is all about.  people skydive, ride motorcycles, and even marry fast women.  all are dangerous, all cost money.  this isn't different. i think some watch it and feel like they know they'd never be able to muster the courage to do so themselves.  easier to cutdown than get some guts.  it'd be like hunting whitetails without having to outsmart them.  ooooooooooooooh the challenge.

[Sverre A.]

>i personally like what sullivan talks about, and in many ways i agree.  if you want to >Aface dangerous game on it's own turf so to speak

Well – then you ……

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkktYS-TBQ8

[mk454]

then you........................................think that that's a great video that shows why poaching is something people should be shot over, think that video illustrates how much more humane hunting is with one well placed shot versus the "more natural, native way."  see no one seems to criticize indians, natives, etc. on the "humaneness" of their hunting.  wow, imagine, lynn thompson from cold steel hunted a buff with one of his spears and didn't have forty others throwing them as well.

see, the more urban we get the more we forget the cruelty of nature, as bad as some of the images are in that video, watch the national geographic vids where the lions take down the baby elephant and eat on it for a few hours and then watch as it struggles to rise and make one last effort to get away as it's missing part of it's hind quarters and half it's guts.  these are the images which make our method of modern firearm and modern bowhunting seem so much more human than anyother way an animal can die.  nature is just plain cruel.  in fact, watch that video then watch a sullivan video and you'll see none of his images fit on that youtube video as the firearm hunting vids didn't fit either unless it was to go to show how much more human that was than the pachyderm pincushion shown later.