These are a few of the many fine trophies I took while hunting this year. It was a tough hunt for me emotionally as well as physically. Phillip made it a good hunt for me.

Well Done Sir,

lb404, you did it right, and your best buddy was smiling at you, to honor him with such a great hunt...


Mike & Cherie

That's an outstanding collection!

Congratulations!
How old was that Buffalo?


Husky

Buff wasn't that old. We were in a zone with few buffalo and were running out of animals to bait lion with. I had already shot double animals of everything on quota. This was shot for bait. He went a little over 39". The boss was not hard. All in all it was a good hunt anyway. Lions are really hard to get even in areas where there are a lot of them. The ones we saw were as you see, not fully mature. We worked one old male for 12 days and he always came to the bait morning and evening. He even laid outside our blind about 50 meters a couple of times and coughed and grumbled BUT he never made a mistake. ALMOST once but too early to see him well enough to be certain. Man is that hard to do!

Excellent animals. Thank you for showing us.

Well done, nice trophies taken. Lions are hard, no question about that.

great safari ...outstanding eland , what did he measure ...

Eland 38.75/39, Sable 43.5/44, Roan Not sure but very big.??27" not sure!

Great safari, terrific trophies.

Thanks for sharing,
Kyler

Beauts Leonard, everyone of them are beauts! I love the picture of the lion... Did you use one of your Davenport rifles? Caliber... and how long did it tkae to get your leopard on bait?

I used my 375 Clayton Nelson for the leopard and plains game. I used the Davenport 404 Jeffery for the Buff and was going to use it on the Lion but no joy on that one. The leopard took the bait right away on the third day. Phillip saw the tracks and the scrapes on the tree and we made the plan. The crew made me a blind and we sat for him that evening. He came very late past shooting time. Phillip then told me we would shoot him in the morning. The set up was perfect and we had a backup plan. We drove 1.5 hours back to camp and got up at 3am to drive back. We arrived about 0430 and waited for him. Phillip and Ratief his apprentice have exquisite hearing. They both signed that they heard the cat approaching. Then he scratched the bark on the tree. Ratief signed that the cat had gone up the tree. Phillip then reached over and uncorked the shooting hole in the blind for me and told me to advance the rifle. I immediately acquired him in the scope. There was no real time to get the feaver. He said when you have him soundly in your scope, squeeze the trigger. BANG! The cat laid at the foot of the tree. He did not move a muscle. And that ended that hunt exactly as Phillip said it would. It was very exciting.

Congratulation on an excellent hunt, the lion photo is very good, well done.

Leonard,

Glad to see you got your problem sorted out and had a good hunt. - Congratulations. - I'm pleased for you.

Did you go it alone in the end or take a hunting buddy or take your wife etc?

I like the zebra there is no shadow stripes but well done they are all nice trophies

I went alone. Wife and I are no longer.

VERY WELL DONE!
WHAT AN EXCELLENT SAFARI!

Congratulations on a great hunt. Really good to see the outcome from the difficult times you shared with us.

The zebra looks really nice - got to love those Tanzania zebra.

Phil

Great trophies, congratulations!
LDK

Ib: Superb trophies! That picture of the lion was nice as well. Was he too young to shoot or did you pass him for a nicer one and never found one? jorge

Leonard- Well Done! Thanks for sharing with us.

John

I was asked not to shoot the pictured lion. Philip felt he was too young to shoot. At this point in the safari we were on the eighth or ninth day. We had see some sigh along the roads and had hopes for a more mature male. In all honestly, this was my first hunt for lion and I went with the advice of my PH. I don't think I will regret it. We had an old male on a bait the last six days and sat for him morning and evening. He didn't get old by being dumb or making stupid mistakes. I had him in my sights at least three times but it was too dark to be absolutely certain it was the big male we were looking for. To fail on that lion was a heart breaker for me. No ones fault just the vagaries of hunting!! At least I can say I have seen the lion and felt his presence. I have heard the pat of his feet as he passed a few yards away from us on his way to water. I think I have taken a richer sense of Africa home with me and will remember it forever.

Thanks for sharing! Great photos of great animals! Good luck on that lion next time `round..

lb404,
I can only immagine how hard that must have been but you did the right thing and my hat off to the conduct of your PH. You both have my respect as a hunter.

lb404

a bad hunt ? Really ?

ROAN! Very nice! I like them the more I see them. Really a rugged, character-filled animal. Excellent!

Good point Anton.

quote:

Originally posted by A.Dahlgren:
lb404

a bad hunt ? Really ?

You got me scratching my head on this one....

what have I missed?

BM:

LB404 was complaining on another thread about how he was screwed, lied to, etc by all PH's he had ever hunted with including, if I recall correctly, 4 that he referred to as world class.

This was a concession, Rungwa, was supposed to hold large herds of mature buffalo. Only one bull was found. no second/third bull to be used for baits. Large herds of elephants frequent the area. only one small herd was there and no legal bulls. This area was rife with lions, in 23 days we saw one male too young to shoot, one old lion that would not show after hint of light or before darkness.We saw one small part of a pride of lions feeding off a kill from a giraffe, all young females. This hunt was oversold on potential by Harpreet Braar. I was the solo hunter in 2+million square miles. I lost all or part of four days due to equipment issues. This the hunt where they provided me with a Cessna Caravan for one hunter and one PH. On other hunts we have used a Cessna twin to carry 4 clients and all equipment. I requested a twin but was given the caravan at a charge of $10,000.00 instead of$2500.00.Not fun. Remember this was for a 21day hunt 23 total days in camp. I got a great plains game hunt with leopard and one buff..never had a chance at elephant, lion, hippo. Hunt was oversold..

Im surprised someone didn't find the hunt report from the hunt in the Seolus in July 2003. where we burned green grass for ten days and out of the 12 animals we were allotted on 10 day license. Steve and I shot one buffalo each on the very last day. one was a mature bull but the second bull was very young. It was all that was there. We shot only one other game animal on the third day and for camp meat. Could not find anything else to shoot. Hunt over, Success rate 3/12. I think a poor hunt.
That was with john Taylor, PH from Zimbabwe with a outfitter selling hunts with Dakota firearms. A consensus at the time was we were sent in two months too early for a decent hunt. Finally the Zambia hunt was booked with peter chipman and sarge on their concession on the luanga river. This was a buffalo plains game hunt with an upgrade guaranteed in writing that allowed hippo x2 and crockery x2. Peter said we would only need 7 days to complete hunt. I asked for and paid for three extra days to give us plenty of time to be successful and see the area well. After the buff were taken and a couple of plains animals, we concentrated on hippo. That took two days as one was shot solid and the other was an assumed miss. Needed to wait 24 hours to see if a hippo surfaced. It did not so Steve could shoot at another animal. In the mean time we had the meat cut up and delivered to village chief. we each had three more animals on license in addition to a pair of crocodiles.we were then told we would not be able to hunt crock. Regardless of what the contract said. Hunt is over. New clients cumming in the AM We needed to be packed and ready to leave in AM. I complained, peter said he had no choice.????????All three of us were mad tried to get should of Wes Hixon but no go. Peter offered to send us to the bangwelu swamp for lechwe and other game which would have been a good deal. The three of us stayed in the hotel for six days. No contact from the local rep- we had her cell #, would not return calls. Called Gracy Travel to see if they could reach the US outfitter for Bus. No go. Tried to leave Lusaka but only two BA flights a week and could not arrange a flight sooner. just plain bad luck. The hunt was successful for the plains game and buffalo but we were stiffed for the crock and swamp trip. and were force out of camp 4 days earlier than need be.

Could have given other instances of corruption but you get the idea. I have had some wonderful hunts for plains game and have taken in all 6 buffalo and one leopard as well as some great plains game animals. Dont know any simpler for you all.

This is gonna be priceless.

IB:

I gotta agree with you on the Caravan. Why do two guys going in have to ride in Caravan? That really burns my ass.

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:
IB:

I gotta agree with you on the Caravan. Why do two guys going in have to ride in Caravan? That really burns my ass.

Of course that is a logical way of thinking. However, In Tz, I only know of a handful of C206's or similar that are comercially available to charter. Of these, no more than a couple I would feel "safe" in using.

So as far as Tz is concerned, there is little option.

No doubt hunts are oversold but usually by the agent (no offense to you guys) and the PH is the one to temper your expectations because he has to deliver...

I do have to admit that I was also oversold in Tanzania... old Ron Young promised a 45" buff behind every bush, God bless him! And Ridge was surly and pissed when we expected him to find them for us. I can chuckle about it now...