I'll work up a full hunting report sometime in the days ahead, but in the meantime here are a few pics from our trip that you might enjoy:


From The Crater


My son, Victor's, lesser kudu


My gerenuk


My oryx


Victor's white-bearded wildebeest


A Masai warrior and his son


My grants


Victor's grants, which of course, was better than mine.....


Victor's topi. We each shot one.


My Lichtenstein's hartebeest


My sable


One of Victor's zebras


My thomsons. We each shot one.


Victor's buffalo; a one-shot kill. He ran about 65 yards.


Building one of our leopard blinds


In the blind



A couple of pics of the leopard. We used a very intereresting technique to get him.




The leopard kill celebration!


My east-African waterbuck


Relaxing towards the end of our hunt

If these are preliminary, I can't wait to see the final ones. Great picts. Congrats!!

-Steve

Very nice pictures! It is great that you could share all of this with your son.

I look forward to your detailed report. Thanks for posting the pictures.

Wow. I think your son had an experience of a lifetime. It must have been great to go on safari with your son that way.

Excellent photos! Congratulations, Vic.

Fantastic Photos great Trophys looks like the perfect East African Safari...Thanks for sharing Photos !

r.
Seloushunter

Congratulations on a great hunt! An those are some amazing photos and trophies! Please say hi to your son and congratulate him as well. I`m a pretty young guy myself, and must say I`m impressed and envious.. One day though...

Spring- Congratulations. You got some great animals. Tell your son "good shooting"! Having just returned from Namibia with my son, I know firsthand what a special time you two had.

John

Excellecnt pictures,thanks very much for sharring them.

Fantastic Hunt...!!! Congratulations...!!!

I can't wait for the full story & more pics!

Regards,
Dave

Congratulations here and many thanks for sharing the pictures.Looks like you have been " working" hard.What a collection.You will undoubtedly cherish the memories forever

Great pictures, but I bet you will savor the memories even more.

Vic,

Sounds like a great safari for you and you son! Congratulations!

Absolutely great pictures from a great hunt. Thank you for sharing and I look forward to more. jorge

What a bunch of great pictures! Great Father/son stuff!

Excellent pictures! Your son's Grants is very nice.

Nice trophies and tremendous photos - there is big smile in each one. Thanks for sharing.

Well done boys!!! Can't wait for the stories......

Bob

Spring,

Awesome pictures and a lot of smiles on your son's face. Well done and thank you for sharing your hunt.

BigBullet

Great photos!!! Looks like an excellent variety of trophies and wonderful memories. Congratulations.

Phil

Don't you want another son ???


Great pictures!!!!
Congrats
L

What a fantastic safari. I am sure both you and your son will cherish these memories for your entire lives. Congratulations. I hope to be able to do the same thing for my son one day. Hugh

These are preliminary? What great photos! Thanks for sharing and congratulations on what looks like an incredible hunt.

How did the Beretta .470 work out?

Wow, isn't Tanzania a magical place? I am surprised you didn't shoot a Roan? I thought that block had a load of Roan in it?

Wow, what a fantastic adventure for a father and son to share! Congratulations on great trophies and for raising a son who obviously will follow in his old man's steps as he ages.

500,
I never used it! The area where we hunted required us to make some difficult stalks to get near the buffalo. Frequently they were well out in the plains or in somewhat open areas in large groups. Each time the buff were well beyond the comfortable reach of a double rifle, especially when I had a .375 behind me in my son's hands. I wanted to use my .470, and had it ready for the opportunity, but it was the .375 that I ultimately had to have in my hands if I wanted a down a buff. After a year of testing, preparing, and loading all my 470 softs and solids, that was disappointing!

Spring

After all that angst about the cost of ammo and going through changes to get started in reloading, you could have said you tried a shot and a branch got in the way or somesuch. Anyways, nice pics. Too bad you're killing me on dial-up, though.

quote:

Originally posted by Spring:
I never used it!.... After a year of testing, preparing, and loading all my 470 softs and solids, that was disappointing!

Dang, that is not good! I am headed into Kgosi soon and want to use my double, but will have a scoped 375 behind me as I suspected the shots may be long if you get them out on the floodplains.

Well, that last photo of you with the double looks nice at least!

Wendell,
A double does indeed look good in a pic, though I surely wish I could have used it during the hunt. I did have it ready during stalks, but we usually reached a point where trying to get closer would have ruined opportunities. I also had it out when we were looking for my son's leopard. We found it dead no more than 25 yards from where it was shot, but it ran into some thick stuff that had everyone on edge until it was found. I had the same situation when following blood in the long grass on my son's buff. It's circumstances like these that doubles feel good in your hands.
As for a roan, we did indeed look hard for one, especially as we neared the end of the hunt and had few things left on our list. Even in July getting a good burn was difficult in some areas, though in some spots it did very well. We started fires often while there. Fires they had started in late June had a tough time getting going. Hunting anything in the grass is tough, but by Sept the whole place should be burned. As young grass gets going, they say the roan are easier to find.
As for Kisigo, I hear it is second only to Moyowsi in popularity for the tsetse flies... Be ready for them.....

Vic,

Tell that young man congrats on superb shooting...Photos are exceptional...Looking forward to the rest of the story...
I too hunted with my son last year in Zim...memories of a lifetime...

Mike

Thanks for posting. Those are excellent animals, including everything one would think of for a safari from Tanzania.

Great photos and a wonderful hunt. Your youthful appearance is deceiving when next to your son. Looks like brothers.

Sounds like a great time and wonderful photos. Your son is very fortunate! When you get a chance, let us know more about how your PH judged the lions age. Was it by nose color?

My "youthful appearance"? Thanks! Using pics that show me from a distance seems to have its advantages....

SBT,
I have a video of that lion that I'd like to get online. I think some of you might enjoy seeing it. In that video you can't see the lion's nose color, but it was something we discussed as we looked at him with binocs. This lion would just sit there for a bit in the brush as we approached in the Land Rover to check the bait.
As for judging the lion's age, the PH looked for several things. He looked for mane length, nose color (this one did have it partially dark), hair towards its elbows, facial scars, ect. No one thing would tell you the age, but somewhat a combination all these. My PH, Robin Voight, showed me a series of lion pics at various ages starting at about 3 and on up to about 10. You really could begin to get a feel for how old a lion might be based upon the many pics he had. I had been making the case that this lion was old enough when seeing it, but after watching the lion sit there and later turn and walk from my left to right, I compared what I had seen with the pics Robin had and regretfully decided the lion was 5 years old. He was a big and good looking lion (body-wise) and clearly was one that would have been shot by most safari companies in the past. He would have been shot by me if I could have gotten away with it!
Probably the biggest tangible reason to argue against shooting the lion was the fact that there was a lioness there with him with 2 cubs. We were not sure of the cub’s ages, but if they were under 6 months, another male lion likely would have killed them in order to get the lioness to go into estrus rather than possibly waiting the normal 2 years.

Nice leopard and buff for your son but I really like the Grant's...absolutely beautiful.


However, given many of the things I've read on AR, I am suprised you managed to come back alive let alone actually put some animals in the salt ....my goodness not only did you use a bolt-action Blaser ....but it had a muzzle brake. Does anyone in your party have any hearing left?

Vic, it's nice to see another hunter in the making--if not already and completely MADE!

Congratulations.

Vic,

Do you mind my asking what kind of photo setup you are using? Digital? Fantastic, magazine quality photos!

My favorite of the plains animals in your bag is the grants gazelle. Although, your lesser kudu is making me drool on my keyboard. Wish those two could be found in RSA.

Vic,
Very nice pictures. Where did you hunt for the Masaailand species? Very nice Grant's!