quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
Friends - we are heading to Zambia this week, via Dubai, to hunt the Bell-Cross family's Kasempa Lunga Luswishi Game Management Area with Andrew Baldry as PH.

We'll be after a variety of game, including leopard, hyena, croc, Kafue lechwe and other plains game.

I'll be taking my tried and true custom pre-64 Winchester Model 70 in .375 H&H Mag. loaded up with my favorite Hirtenberger 272 grain ABC bullets.

Can't wait!

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
Friends,

We are back from our Zambian safari, which included much good hunting with outfitter Prohunt Zambia, PH Andrew Baldry and his son, PH apprentice Tom Baldry. We hunted the Bell-Cross family's Kasempa Lunga Luswishi Game Management Area near Kafue National Park and also the Kafue Flats. In addition, we took an impromptu trip to Livingstone at the end of our trip, and stayed for a few days at the Royal Livingstone Hotel near Victoria Falls to wind things up.

We had a very successful hunt. We took all of the game we were after, except a big leopard - and that was not for lack of trying. We also did not take a hyena, but that was mainly because of our focus on leopard. We had multiple leopards on bait, but the big brute I wanted would not show himself in daylight. He was mating with a female and they were both feeding at the same bait.

I missed a chance at him by no more than five minutes one evening. When he finally showed up, it was just too dark to see. It was black as pitch, with no moon. He came to the bait after the female had fed for a while - and she was a big one herself. We could barely see them. We could hear the impala and zebra bones cracking and crunching, but we could not see well enough to tell them apart, and even if we could have done that, it was just too dark for a clean shot.

That big tom's track was nearly 7 cm wide. He is a smart old boy who will live on and prosper, I am sure. I am relatively certain we could have shot a smaller leopard that was hitting another bait, but that was not what I was after.

Of course, the fact that we were run out of our blind by a herd of aggressive elephants on one occasion, and a pack of twenty or so wild dogs on another, did not help matters. Fun stuff!

We killed good sable, multiples of puku and impala, zebra, Chobe bushbuck, crocodile and Kafue lechwe on this trip. All fine specimens that I am very happy to have hunted in truly wild Africa.

I'll add photos and post a fuller report as soon as jet lag and catch-up duties at work have run their course!