The Hardest Hunt
Rainforest Buff Don’t Come Easy!
Lunch break in the Cameroon rain forest during Mark’s dwarf
forest buffalo hunt. Unworldly heat and humidity, pygmy trackers
and gorillas remind you you’re not in Kansas anymore!
During a conversation with a good friend who has hunted Africa extensively, the subject of buffalo came up. As a goal-orientated nimrod, I’ve always set personal, self-inflicted objectives to keep me from floating through life aimlessly.
For whatever reason, I wanted to take all of the sub-species of buffalo in Africa — with a handgun. I explained this somewhat crazy idea to my friend and without hesitation he replied, “Well, the dwarf forest buffalo will be the hardest hunt.” Communicating with other chaps who had a wealth of experience in Africa, all of them confirmed what my friend stated — the dwarf forest buffalo would be most challenging and difficult.
This T/C Encore in .375 JDJ has been Mark’s favorite dangerous
game handgun. The Cor-Bon 270-grain DPX load performed
flawlessly on the dwarf forest buffalo.
The Warm-Up
Prior to tackling this endeavor, I had taken Cape, Nile, Central Africa Savannah and West African Savannah buffalo. They all offered challenging and rewarding experiences and it’s easy to see why many dyed-in-the-wool African hands want to go back and hunt buffalo over and over again.
The dwarf forest buffalo is the smallest, most lightly built of the sub-species. They have smaller horns, set apart without frontal bosses. They are unique and live in the rainforest of Cameroon and Congo. Don’t be misled by their small stature compared to the larger cape buffalo — with a capricious, often foul-tempered attitude, they have charged and sent hunters to a hospital. For the unlucky souls involved, it wasn’t a pretty picture, to say the least.
The Cameroon rainforest is not the place for first- or second-time African safaris. You don’t see a lot of game due to the dense, often impenetrable undergrowth. There is also a great deal of walking in this less-than-friendly environment notable for mindboggling heat and humidity. Not the smartest thing I’ve ever done, but I took my wife Karen along so she too, could experience this level of “fun.”
The rainforest is home for some of the most highly sought-after African trophies. A previous hunt yielded a magnificent bongo and a forest sitatunga. This hunt would target the dwarf forest buffalo and the several species of duikers, a small forest antelope, inhabiting this unique ecosystem.
It looks like the set of “Jurassic Park” but is actually the
rainforest of Cameroon. The trackers are methodically
searching a buffalo wallow in the swampy savannah for fresh tracks.
Following Spoor
The days start by looking for fresh tracks. Our pygmy trackers are masters of their craft. They can follow tracks where most of us can’t see any prints in the ground. It is an amazing sight to witness these guys in action. The alchemy of their tracking ability defies logic. They possess more than just a well-trained eye but an ingrained instinct.
Ideally, we were hoping to find a solitary bull’s track. Small herds of females and young often will have one or two bulls in the mix. However, with so many eyes and ears watching and listening, it can be problematic to get close enough to distinguish the proper bull without spooking the herd. Our first day ended with a lot of exercise but no fresh tracks.
The second day wasn’t much different. We searched a lot of different areas to no avail. During the afternoon, Patrick, our eccentric Professional Hunter (PH), suggested we try calling for duikers. I was game. The pygmies hold their nose and make sounds like a duiker in distress. Shotguns are utilized with #4 shot as the duikers come running in quickly. The target is small and moving at lightning speed through thick vegetation. I thought this would be easy — I was badly mistaken.
I cleanly missed the first blue duiker streaking by like a flash of light! We called several places and got a glimpse of a couple of duikers but couldn’t get a shot. This reminded me of turkey hunting somewhat but the gobblers don’t run nearly as fast!
Our third day started like the others but we picked up tracks at the edge of the road leading in to the jungle. The trackers started slowly, methodically following them deeper into the rainforest. Periodically I would try to see the tracks but only occasionally would I see a part of the hoof mark. How these guys do it is beyond me. We never did catch up to this herd.
Since it hadn’t rained for several days, it was difficult to determine how old the tracks were until we ran across some old dung. With two trackers, the PH, Karen and myself traipsing through the jungle, we were making more noise than I preferred. I told Karen, “I don’t see how this is going to work successfully.”
A fresh gorilla track with a .357 JDJ round for comparison.
The Pygmy trackers checking out a huge wallow
hoping to find fresh buffalo tracks.
Big Surprise
Later in the afternoon, we left the tracks and started calling for duikers. One of the trackers and I walked several hundred yards from the truck and set-up. The rest of the gang waited patiently back at the truck. As the pygmy started calling, I rested the shotgun on my knee as I would while turkey hunting. Both of us were sitting with our backs against a tree. Watching intently, I noticed the pygmy stared at me with his eyes bigger than golf balls. I turned around slowly and will never forget the sight — two gorillas were 20 feet away! One of them was a big silverback.
This might be the most impressive, intimidating sight I’ve witnessed in my hunting career, other than being charged by elephants! Apparently they were curious about the distressed call of the duiker and came to see what all the commotion was about. My heart was pounding so fast! Fortunately, they turned and slowly disappeared back in the forest. We didn’t call in any duikers. Good thing — I couldn’t have hit one anyway in my current state!
Early the next morning, Patrick wanted to hike down to a small stream and search for tracks. It was a departure from the areas previously hunted. After a long trek we finally reached an open area, not the jungle we had been hunting but more like a grassy savannah. It was early in the morning and a mist drifted over the area, creating a scene like out of a movie.
A cacophony of sounds assaulted our ears. Monkeys and bird life kept us entertained in the sauna-like atmosphere. We found some huge wallows where forest elephants had been frequenting along with gorilla tracks. The trackers meandered through the tall grass when suddenly they dropped to the ground. Patrick pointed to the buffalo directly ahead of us. All you could see was the top of their backs due to the tall vegetation.
We eased closer as my pulse began racing. Finally, we worked in position only to see a few females and young ones. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a bull in the mix. We spent the rest of the morning searching for more tracks and eventually worked our way back to the vehicle. It was a long, hot day but at least we got to lay eyes on buffalo.
The next morning we found tracks at the edge of the road. It was one set of tracks alone and the trackers said this was a bull. Patrick loaded his .458 Win Mag and I dropped a round in the Encore chambered in 375 JDJ. We hadn’t been on the track for an hour when I heard a crashing sound and only got a glimpse of the bull. We had spooked him!
Mark and Karen are all smiles after he took this dwarf
forest buffalo on his hardest hunt ever. Mark sure knows
how to show a girl a good time!
Surprise Encounter
Patrick was angry at the trackers for not spotting the bull. As we continued to follow tracks, I didn’t have much confidence we would ever see the buffalo again. Then, about an hour later as we were slowly following the spoor, I looked up and couldn’t believe my eyes. Not 20 steps ahead, the buffalo was facing us with a menacing and humorless look!
The trackers, looking down on the ground as they followed tracks, hadn’t seen the bull. The buffalo had enough and fled. Patrick threw a king-sized fit and let out all his frustration on the trackers.
We continued to follow the tracks and at this point, I was almost certain we would never see the bull again. The trackers were really dialed-in now as they were constantly looking ahead while following tracks most of us can’t even see.
Two hours later I had lost all hope and my mind drifted elsewhere when suddenly both trackers dropped to the ground and pointed. About 25 steps away was the bull turning to look at us when Patrick whispered, “Shoot!” It didn’t take me a second to put the crosshairs on this odd-looking buffalo and drop the hammer. He immediately dropped in his tracks! Everyone was elated, to say the least. We all were soaked in sweat and couldn’t have been any happier!
The pygmy trackers are incredible to watch, and the overall rainforest adventure was epic! Of all the sub-species of buffalo I’ve taken in Africa, my friend was right — the dwarf forest buffalo is definitely the hardest hunt!
