REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: Bongo In The Congo

[gillettehunter]

This woman is setting up charcoal is coals to heat food to sell from the roadside.

 

[BourbonTrail]

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This woman is setting up charcoal is coals to heat food to sell from the roadside.

Is that in Brazzaville, or one of the small towns?

Welcome back to the world of Internet connections.

 

[gillettehunter]

One of the small towns on the way to Brazzaville. Finally had a little connection to post a picture. Today was my last hunting day. Driving to Brazzaville tomorrow. Flight out is Friday. I’ll start working away at this report…..
Bruce

 

[gillettehunter]

Little housekeeping. I’m hunting with Congo Forest Safaris. Apparently rifle import is not an option. The company rifle is a Ruger Hawkeye in a .375 Ruger. The ammo is Hornady 300 grain DGX . Box says 2660 fps. The barrel on the Ruger appears to be 20 inches so probably closer to 2575. In the jungle shots are under 100 yds so that’s not an issue. The scope is a Trijicon.
Humidity is high. Probably over 80% all of the time. High’s have been around 90 with low’s around 70. The humidity is tough on me. Wyoming is generally pretty dry…. You sweat basically all day.
They are using Toyota Land Cruisers for their hunting vehicles. They tell me that they spend $10K/yr in maintenance and repair for each one. The jungle is a rough environment. Only a 5 month hunting season.
CFS employes around 20 people. 10
Of those are tracker’s on 2 teams of 5. Families live on premises for the most part. Largest local employer is a lumber mill. The logs they are cutting are huge. Only 3 make a semi truck load. The logs appear to be over 4 feet in diameter with many over 5 ft!
Daily schedule is along these lines: I have been waking at 5 am in a machan. I move from the cot to my chair and watch it get light. Have my morning prayers during that time. At around 5:20 we remove the pulsar thermal attachment to the scope. At 5:40 is breakfast. Usually C (Christophe) leaves to get the truck at 6. We pack up and Leave by 6:20. We then drive around to other salt licks to look for fresh tracks. If we find tracks then we’ll pull the card from the game camera hoping for a lone bull Bongo.
Mature bulls are usually solitary unless a cow in a herd comes into heat. Then he stays with the herd for a while. Herds are usually cows and calves. Even if a bull is with a herd it’s almost useless to track them. The dogs just bay a bongo. They don’t differentiate between a bull and a cow.
The trackers are looking for tracks as we are driving as well as at the salt licks. We will follow if we can find appropriate tracks. Rain helps to see the tracks as well as seems to encourage movement. Bongo are normally the only ones followed. Sitatunga don’t bay. Buffalo kill dogs pretty regularly so they don’t follow them.
If no fresh tracks are found then we are usually back to the lodge around 9:30 or so. We eat a big 3 course lunch at 12-1. Take a nap and head back out around 3-4 pm. If the machan is the same as the night before then everything is there already. If a different one then we move cots and all of our tools that we use. Usually in the machan at around 4-5. Dark by 6:30 when we put the Pulsar thermal device on there scope.
Then we sit quietly. Usually eat between 6:15 and 7:45. I have books on Audible and earpieces that I use to listen while sitting quietly. C has a thermal 2.5X magnifier to look for animals. He also sets out 2 motion sensors to use after dark. They will notify him when an animal is within 10 yds. He sets it up to wake him when he sleeps.
Our salt licks are actually salty ponds. Best results are when there is enough rain to keep water into the shallow ponds that salt has been added to. We refreshed salt at several places over the course of the hunt.
I stay up until 8-9 pm and the quietly crawl into my cot. Apparently my snoring doesn’t keep the animals away………. I awaken at 5 am and the cycle starts again. Machans can be as big as 25X18 and as small as 14X 18 or so. Pretty good sized. Room to move around. We take off our shoes to reduce noise when we arrive.
Bruce

 

[TXhunter65]

What an adventure!

 

[Hunt anything]

I can’t wait to see the rest of this report!

 

[Green Chile]

Looking forward to more info as you have time to share! Bongo is on the bucket list.

 

[Brod]

What a unique and interesting experience.... can't wait to hear the rest.

 

[R eight]

What an amazing adventure.

 

[gillettehunter]

On arrival at camp I was able to meet Perry. He and his wife were finishing up their second 2 week hunt this year with CFS. He hadn’t killed anything. That kinda felt ominous to me. Christophe later mentioned to me that he had been hunting 2 specific animals, if I have that right. One was a large Bongo bull and the other a large Sitatunga that he thought might make top 10 SCI. In fact he passed on a broken horned Sitatunga. Here’s his trail camera picture

Christophe calls him over 25 inches on the unbroken side. I would have taken him if I had seen him before the one I got later.
The conversation with Perry served to remind me how special and difficult these animals are to hunt. The jungle is not an easy place. I went to bed in relative comfort after a nice 3 course meal. Little did I know how little time I’d get to spend in that bed. Waiting for my ride to the airport. I’ll get to the start of the hunting next.
Bruce

 

[BourbonTrail]

Safe travels Bruce!

 

[gillettehunter]

Dang it's a long way home from the Congo. 11 1/2 hrs driving. Then around 28 hrs on various airplanes and then another 7 hr drive........
We got up at 4 AM. Breakfast at 4:30 and off just after 5am. Early start to the day.
For our first hunting day C wanted to check a "bye" and and set a new trail camera on it. A bye is a opening in the jungle with a stream in it if I got that right from C. Down the road we go.
After a few miles we stop to shoot the rifle. He turns the truck on the road so I can shoot over the hood. The target is placed perhaps 40 yds away. I shoot 2 times. The bullet holes are touching. About 4 inches high and perhaps 1/2 to the left. C moves the scope down some and says its good to go unless I want to shoot again. I decide its time to get on down the road.
A short distance further down the road we find a tree across the road. This became a theme. Virtually every day we had trees down across the road. This first one was maybe 10 inches in diameter and the trackers used machetes to clear the road. Their machetes appeared to have about 20-24 inch blades. C had a small one that was 12-13 inches that he used. In 5 minutes we were ready to head on down the road.
A little further and we had another tree down. This one was more like 16 -18 inches and they broke out the chain saw to get it moved. It took more like 15 minutes to get it cleared out of the road. Once we got it removed we were back on the road.
We got a ways further down the road and got stuck in the mud..... Badly stuck. They broke out the winch to pull us out. After 3 pulls the winch stopped....... Now we're really stuck. High centered. They started digging and jacking and digging. They even pulled the tire to dig behind it. We are talking very stuck.
A few words about the soil here. Most of the rocks that I saw were basalt. When basalt weathers it turns to clay. In this case its sticky red slippery clay. Fills the tread on the tires and you just spin......
C asked me if I'd like to walk up the road and then walk into the bye with a tracker. He said it was about an "hour" to where the trail to the bye took off and about 20 minutes into the bye. I said sure. Now with my hip I wanted to baby it a bit so I wanted to warm it it up a bit and see how it would go. So I said sure lets go!
That turned into a bit of a walk. 1 1/2 hrs down the road we got to the turnoff to the bye. We could hear thunder in the distance and the trackers mimed to me that it was going to rain. Did I want to continue on or return to the truck. I figured I was going to get wet regardless so I said lets go on to the bye.
As I stepped off the road I stepped into a different world. It was cloudy to begin with but heavily shaded inside the jungle. Like going into the twilight zone. It becomes almost oppressive. They have a trail carved through the bush, actually more of a tunnel through most of it. It's like being in another world to someone from a high desert.
As we walked along the tunnel it began to rain. Steady, but not heavily. After 15 minutes the fun began. We reached the flats near the stream. The ground was clay. Yep the same greasy slippery stuff that the truck was stuck in. The issue here was the top inch or so was just freshly wet down on top of a firmer layer. The only thing I can liken it too is water on the ice when your out ice fishing. There is no traction. I starred in the new slip N slide dance step trying to not fall. The trackers eventually got me a walking staff. Otherwise I'd of had to wash off in the stream. Small steps so your center of gravity didn't move much....
The next obstacle was the greased log step. I almost didn't make it through that one unscathed. At the bye there were no animals, so we replaced the camera and headed back. The greased log aging was a major hurdle. It'd make a great olympic event. Once back to the road the rain stopped. I had been hoping that the truck would be there where the trail took off. Nope. They got the truck turned around and safely to the other side of that patch of mud. So we had to hoof it back. C met us shortly after we got on the road. Once back to the truck we headed back to the lodge for lunch. The walk was more than a warm up.
A couple of pictures and then some more hunting.
Bruce

 

[gillettehunter]

 

[gillettehunter]

 

[Hunting Hitman]

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This truck is Congo Stuck!

Can’t wait for the rest!

HH

 

[Graham Hunter]

Weeks of waiting and this little tease is all we get!!!!

 

[Beck]

Because of the poaching issue the decision was made to open a new area. They have made some roads and created some new salt licks. Anytime you’re in a new cam it can go really good or really bad. We’ll see how it goes. View attachment 558519View attachment 558520
Couple of pics sent by Christophe.

This looks and sounds like an amazing adventure

 

[Firebird]

Enjoying the details-excited to read more and share a piece of your adventure with you. Thanks for the report so far, looking forward to the rest

 

[gillettehunter]

I type slowly. Takes time for a report.....
Back to camp and lunch. Each day and usually for lunch we had a 3 course meal. A salad of some sort to start. A meat forward main dish and then dessert. Usually a short nap and then back out.
On going back out we pulled a card at a salt pond and there was a herd of 10 Bongo. Had a large bull in the group so C figured that a cow was in heat. We immediately went to lodge for cots and other items to sit in the machan that night. It was later than normal, 6 PM, before we were settled in. Then we ate a dinner/supper meal. That was a baguette with some meat, cheese and tomato on it. A coke and a package of potato chips. I then sat up in a chair until around 8:30 and then off to bed.
I awake around 5 and move to the chair to keep watch as the sun chases away the darkness. The noises in the jungle are incredible. It's a noisy place! Nothing. No movement on motion sensors. Nothing as it gets light. We eat breakfast around 6:40 and put away the thermal devices. First night on a machan is a bust.
Bruce

 

[Green Chile]

Sometimes it's hard to sit when you've come all that way. I know what that feels like in a leopard blind. As they say, you won't kill one in camp. I look forward to hearing more about all of it! You only need a few seconds of luck to get it done. Good luck to you! Hope you get a monster.