Walterable!

We had an unusual day today. We left camp with the intention of going first to check our leoprad bait - the one we have seen tracks of a large tom close by, and see if the trail camera has taken any photos of him. This was quite far from the camp, and it takes about 1 hour and half to get there.

Not far from the camp, we came across the tracks of a lone dugga boy, and decided to go after him. There was no wind at all. We loaded our rifles and off we went. About a mile into our track the wind started - right from behind us!?? We continued on, hoping that the buffalo would change direction.

He did not, and apparently he wasn't far off. As we found the place where he was lying down, and took off in a big hurry.

We went back to the truck and continued. We got to the bait, and by the look of things no leoprad had eaten it. Alan got out of the truck to go up the tree to get the trail camera. Just as he was about to walk there, I saw a lion get up from under a bush very close by! The lion did not seem to be bothered with our presence, and posed for us to take photos and a video of him. There was also a lioness there with him. She wasn't vedy happy about us at all. As she kept twitching her tail, lying facing us. A few minutes later she must have had enough, as growled and took off.

We continued our trip. At 11 o'clock we have some sandwiches on the go in the back of the truck. We saw all sorts of animals - steinbuk, gresbuck, sable, roan, kudu, but no sign of buffalo. We did not stop for lunch, and justr continued driving. At about 3.30 we saw some zebra and tried to shoot one. They were quite far, and the only shot we got was when a stallion came clear from the rest, but a giraffe was standing right behind him. The giraffe lept an eye on us, and as he took off so did the zebra.

A few miles further we saw another herd of zebra, and I managed to shoot one. We had a late lunch while the trackers skinned him, and headed back to camp.

Chris shot a zebra.

We had hoped we were going to have a BBQ of a duiker. But we were told that there was some "screw ups", and spagheti was the replacement.

No one would tell us what the screw up was, and each time I asked I got "mind your own bloody business" back from Walter!

We have a few more hunting days here, then on the 15th we fly to Ugala.

Great lion pictures!

Thanks for the updates.

Shumba. Wow. Super pics.

Are we not lion hunting too?

quote:

Originally posted by safari-lawyer:
Shumba. Wow. Super pics.

Are we not lion hunting too?

They are, but that was a young one (4ish yo) and the company he hunts with follows the 6 year old lion law in Tanzania.

Brett

pink on nose???

quote:

Originally posted by JohnHunt:
pink on nose???

No, he actually had a black nose, so that theory is wrong.

So what the hell theory is it? How do you tell a 4 year old from a 6 year old? Ask Al Gore?

Unfortunately they don't come with DOB painted on their side. Aging seems to be a subjective art. That lion just looks young. If you want to read up on it get the guide to aging at safari press.

Brett

That Blond is going to be a fabulous lion if he's allowed to get a few years older.

quote:

Originally posted by Will:
So what the hell theory is it? How do you tell a 4 year old from a 6 year old? Ask Al Gore?

Better yet, as Roman Polanski.

Regardless or age, what a beautiful animal!

Great pictures!

We have voted Walter off our truck for today. We heard nothing but complaints from him day before yesterday when he came with us. It was supposed to be HIS hunting day, and he refused to go shoot a buffalo. He was not too impressed that we spent most of the day checking baits - put there for animals HE is not going to shoot.

So we formed an instant committee and voted him out - with a vote of 3-0 - me, Roy and Alan.


We left camp in the early morning as usual, and a few miles out we saw the fresh tracks of some bulls. We followed them, doing our usual daily, non productive 2 hour stroll. They started off going upwind, then they turned downwind. We gave up the chase as we knew what was going to happen.

We went back to the truck and continued driving. A little while later we saw a herd take off running ahead of us. They were also downwind. They ran to our right onto a hillside. We drove on for about half a mile, stopped, had some sandwiches and a drink, then we followed the herd. We caught up with them. They were about 80-100. We managed to get to about 100 yards from them. We noticed a bull with a broken horn, and decided to shoot him. After a few attempts - he was either behind a bush or behind another buffalo - he walked through a small clearing, and I put one into his chest. He ran a few yards and dropped. He was still breathing when we got to him, so I finished him off.

His horn seems to have broken off only a couple of weeks agao, as it was infected, and stank. It was the right horn that was broken, and his right eye was also blind. We loaded him up and went back to camp to have lunch with Walter and the girls.

After lunch we went to check one of our leopard baits that was not very far from camp.
We saw that the bait has been pulled up onto the branch, so we drove behind an ant hill about 35 yards from the bait tree. Alan jumped off and climbed the ant hill. He surprised the leopard which was lying near the top of the ant hill on the other side. He growled at Alan and ran off a few yards and just walked.

We put the leopard blind up, and sat in it. The leoprad came just after sun down, and lay a few yards from our blind. He was too low to shoot because of the brush. A few minutes later, he walked off.

Our truck came and collected us, and we went back to camp to have dinner, with plans to come back early in the morning.
Chris shot some birds for the put today.

Interesting buffalo -- he must have run into some bad luck.

Hopefully you and the leopard will connect soon.

Any idea of or speculation as to what happened with the Buff's right horn?

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:
Any idea of or speculation as to what happened with the Buff's right horn?

Walter says
"it broke"

Great stories and photos, Saeed!

I especially like the young male lion (not to quibble, but he does look to me as though his nose is still somewhat pink spotted) and your broken-horned buff.

Walter is undoubtedly correct about the buff!

But buff horns don't "just break!" I would have to wonder whether it was an old gunshot wound that broke his horn. If so, it may be that when the bullet shattered his horn, a splinter broke off and was driven into his eye?

Interesting in any case!

We went very early in the morning and sat in the leopard blind. He did not show, but we saw that he had eaten quite a lot of meat from the zebra leg we had up for him. Went back to camp, had breakfast while the trackers went to add some fresh meat to his larder.

We persuaded Walter to come along with us, promising him that we will look for a Walterable zebra for him.

Sure enough, as we drove along, we spotted a herd of zebra standing in the bush, upwind, not more that 200 yards away. I loaded up my rifle, with the intention of handing it to Walter. But, Alan vetoed that idea, shaking his head, smiling, and mouthing the words "NOT WORLTERABLE". So I went along with Alan and Roy to shoot a zebra.

It took us about two hours to be able to take a shot! There were some kongoni with the zebra, and at any given time one at least was looking straight at us. Luckily the bush was very thick - to the exrtent that most of the time all we could see was the swishing tails of the animals.

Eventually a stallion came into a small gap, and I got him.

Back to camp for lunch.

In the afternoon we went and sat in the leopard blind again. Alan took a book with him, and I spent my time looking through the blind holes at all the birds that were enjoying themselves close by. An eagle came and sat on the bait branch, and I managed to get a photo of him. Then I saw some movement in the grass quite far away - about 200 yards. I looked through a pair of Zeiss Victory Range Finder binoculars, and saw a warthog walking in the grass.

The sun goes down just after 6.30.

6.30 came and still no sign of our leopard.

Five minutes later he just appeared as if by magic! There was no question of him being a shootable tom, as he looked very big. Alan was getting the video camera ready, and I was getting the rifle ready. The leopard stood for a few seconds, turned around, and was walking to go down the tree. He was at a bit of an angle facing us as I fired. He fell off the tree making a loud thud. I lost sight of him. Alan said "he is walking down the road, try to shoot it him again"
I said "I cannot see him!"
Alan, pulling his camera aside, "come this side, I think he is coming this way".
I pulled the rifle in from the hole cut out of the blind, and stuck it through the camera hole. I still could not see anything.

I said "he shouldn't go far, I think the shot was good"

The truck came - it was waiting about a few hundred yards away, and came along as they heard the shot.

We all got onto of the truck - it was getting quite dark by now, and none of us was looking forward to following a wounded leopard in that grass.

There was blood on the road - which passed by the bait tree. We could see the leopard tracks on the road for a few feet, he then turned right into the grass. We drove the truck a couple of yards, stopped, and looked with the torch. Alan saw him, saying "There, there, he is still alive shoot him"
I could not see him. Alan fired a shot at him. We were less than five yards from him. And Alan said all he could see was the head of the leopard moving up and down as he was lying on his side. Alan's shot hit him in the neck below the bone. He was still breathing, so I put another bullet into his shoulder as he lay there.

Quite a bit of unwanted excitement.

My bullet went into his shoulder, coming out right in the middle of his body on the other side. He was on his last breath lying in the grass, but, we did not want to take any chances.

We loaded him up and went back to camp - the driver informing them of us shooting the leopard. So every single individual was waiting for us for the "kabobe".

Awazi, our tracker, had us stop just outside the camp, so they could add all the decorations to me, Alan and and truck. The truck was festooned with branches, and me and Alan were wrapped in toilet paper. And just to add to the effect, they added some leopard blood to my head!

We drove into camp, and after all the noise died down, we tried to take pictures of the leopard, and everyone else. That was a job by itself, as so much dust was being thrown into the air, that all we could see in the flash photos was the dust. Eventually we took some photos.

Tomorrow will be our last day here. In the afternoon we will have the customary shooting contest for the camp staff, and in the morning we fly to our next camp.

Great Tom, well done Saeed.

Beautiful cat! Congratulations!

Congratulations on the leopard Saeed!!!

Brett

Your patience and good shooting skills rewarded you with a fine leopard.Congratulations,Saeed!

A very Walterable safari.
Or as they say,"Safari, so goodee"

Big head and shoulders on that tom! Congrats!

Love these reports and photos.

A great safari that just keeps getting better! Thanks for all the wonderful photos and narrative, Saeed.

A SAEEDable Leopard for sure....great job and thanks for taking the time to post the pics. Congratulations !!!

Great leopard! Congrats.

We are flying off to Ugala in a couple of hours.

Next report will be from there.

Glad to hear that Mr. Spots finally showed up on schedule. Congrats on the leopard.

I like that shooting contest photo with the cap down over his face. Sometimes I feel like that after a shot.

Congrats on the nice cat! Well done

Yahoo-Chris got a buff-lets hear the story my friend!!!

Great trophies and pics, as usual! Walter looks very confident in the picture with his Wartie. Walterable! Great hippo trophy and outstanding buff! Congratulations to all the mighty hunters!

Very nice work on the pictures.

Thank you for the reports. I am looking forward to the stories which go with the last photos.

Tim

Nice pig Walter! And that buff aint at all bad