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Mozambique Safari by Art Gonzales I am back from Mozambique Africa from a Safari at Cahora Bassa Lake on the Zambezi River. The very West side of Mozambique, 10 km from the Zimbabwe border and just South of Zambia about 20 km. It's like a three corners area. We were South of the river. The area is full of elephants, hippos, crocodiles, lions, leopards, hyenas, and a few Impala, warthog, bushbuck, Kudu, baboon and of course, a good number of Cape Buffalo. We got back September 5th. 6 days later the world changed for ever. I handgun hunted and first on the list was the buff. The revolver was a Taurus 454 Casull in the Raging Bull model. The sight was the Tasco Optima 2000. It is the only sight of this type that will stay on the gun. Once zeroed, it never changed. The load was Star brass and Winchester small rifle primers. The new primers are brass colored. Powder was Winchester W296 at 27 grains. I chose W296 over H110 since I could not achieve velocity with the 110. It clocked at 1500 at 80 degrees. Now here comes the good part. The bullet used was the Cast Performance LBT 370 grain. I fired around 400 bullets in practice. I had a little timing problem in double action at around 200 rounds. No time to send back. I just bent the hand a little and we were ok. The bore on the Taurus polished out at about 200 rounds and since, it just doesn't hold any lead, just lubricant residue that may look like lead. If you just push a dry patch through the barrel, the residue comes out and the bore is clean, no lead. The shot was taken at about 60 yards after a one hour stalk, crawling hands and knees for over an hour to get the shot in 95 degree temp. The terrain was mostly flat with a woods look (almost looks like some places in Michigan) with trees about six to 10 feet apart. My PH Mark Harper got me up to this point and the bull was only visible between two trees. We can see bits and pieces of the rest of the herd. Cows kept walking in front of the bull and finally the shot was placed about half way up and down and just behind the leg. This is where Craig Boddington told me to hit him when I talked to him at the SCI show last year. The herd of 30 some, stampeded off in a cloud of dust busting branches as they went. After the PH smoked a cig, we moved up to where the bull was standing. The tracker moved up the track about15-20 yards and found blood. We stopped and almost right away the death bellow began. Smiles on the faces of the trackers. We waited another cig after the last bellow. Walking up about 50 yards the tracker spots the bull. I move up with the PH and we see a movement. Behind the bull stands the whole heard, staring at us. I glassed the bull and see an oxpecker bird on his shoulder taking his last insect off his back. No other movement. The herd is nervous. I am nervous. The PH is nervous. The herd starts to move off to the left slowly, then faster and faster and now a stampede. When the noise and dust settle, we moved up from 10 yards behind the bull. Gun up we approach, I'm ready for a spine shot. The PH cautiously checks the bull's eyes with his hand. No flicker. The bull is dead, stone dead. There is a quiet calm as the rest move up, tracker, skinner, gov scout with his AK-47 and my friend Terry Anderson who took pictures and video. After a few moments of reflecting the size and beauty of the animal, the hand shakes begin with the PH first and then all the others. The respect for a animal hunted in his open range and the taking of them in fair chase, is some times overlooked by some hunters today. It is mystical and spiritual. Some of you know what I mean. While we were waiting for the death bellow to stop, my PH Mark is fretting, "the gun is weak and has no penetration, you got only one lung". The death bellow went on for what seemed a long time, slow, low, loud and guttural. The is nothing that sounds like it. The skinner, Kephas, asked for a knife from me. It is a tradition to start the gutting with the hunter's knife. I didn't know that. By shear luck I had a Gerber 4 inch folder in my hip pocket. They liked it so much they did the whole animal with it. The game scout, who really doesn't have to do anything, cut the ribs all the way around to put the bull in half with a home made axe they all seem to have. (I bought it off him, blood and all) It took the government scout twenty minutes to cut the animal in half. The bullet went in just behind the front leg, about very slightly south of middle. It went center on the right lung, through the very top of the massive heart and through the next lung, broke through the ribs on the far side, but did not exit the hide. We thought the bullet was between the skin and rib. The shot was perfectly perpendicular. The skinner put his finger in the hole in the ribs and could not feel the bullet. It was pitch black and about 7 PM. Sun is down at 5:30. Hopes were we would find it when the bull was hung. Next morning we are out at the skinning area behind camp and still no bullet. The PH had a theory the elasticity of the hide, flung the bullet back into the big hole the bullet made in the lung. The lungs were left on the ground. Some hyena in Mozambique has a chipped tooth for sure. The hole in the lungs was big enough to easily stick your fore finger in it as well as the heart and ribs. The PH said the bull was old, around 12 to 14 years and was the herd boss. He had fended off lion attacks and fights with other bulls as his hide shows the patches where the hair did not grow back in. His left horn at the bottom of the droop, has a half bullet crease that cracked his horn laterally on the bottom side. You can not see it in the photos. This bull has real character. There is another story on the Zebra, but to make it quick, quartering away the only shot was high behind the shoulder about 5 inches. It went thirty yards, and was found stone dead. Bullet did not exit but busted both shoulders. An Elk with the same shot would have never moved. In Africa, everything runs after taking a hit. Thanks for a great bullet Cast Performance!! Art Gonzalez
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