Nickudu has posted a great story by Tony Dyer on lions and lion hunting that brought back some great and recent memories that I will share with you.<br /><br />First, let me say that I agree with Tony Dyer. Lions are the scariest of all dangerous game. In my recent lion hunt, this past summer, we stalked and got within shooting distance of two big males in the southern Selous. We knew they were around, because some of our camp staff had heard them roaring across the river earlier that morning, while we were out checking baits. So when we got back to camp, we headed out after them in the truck. After pushing our way through the brush, all of a sudden, these two big male lions appeared, looking right at us, from about 40 yards, dead ahead in thick grass along a wide, sandy river bank. All I could see were their heads and some small part of their chests. I held under the chin of the bigger one, and squeezed off a shot. My first shot, with a .375 H&H Mag., hit him in the chest, just off center, and did not kill him. He bounded off into some thick brush on our left, and we had to follow him up. I was worried and more than a little tense. We couldn't see him, but we knew he was somewhere just ahead of us. We were also concerned about the second male, who had disappeared in the same direction.<br /><br />I have never felt more alert, alive and afraid than I did on that stalk. I turned my scope's power adjustment ring down to 1.25x and loaded another round into the magazine. We moved ahead into the brush. My PH, right next to me, had a nice, iron sighted, full-stocked, short barreled Sako .375, and he too was carrying chamber loaded ready to go. After what seemed hours, but was really just five minutes or so, one of our Maasai trackers spotted my lion moving at a sharp angle away from us across a small clearing in the brush dead ahead. He pointed and hissed "simba," and I fired a second, snap shot at 15 yards. That second shot hit the lion in the left hind quarter and (as I later found out) traversed his entire body, coming to rest under the skin behind his right front shoulder. I felt pretty good about the shot, but the lion moved off quickly into even thicker bush. As we continued moving toward him, we heard him growl and he sounded sick. We hoped it was a death growl, but he was still ahead of us and out of sight, so we couldn't take anything for granted. Looking for that lion, that I was pretty sure, but not really certain, had to be dead, in the thick brush, was the definition of peak experience. We thought we might be able to see better into the brush from the river bank. So, we circled around the large patch of tall grass where we thought he was holed up. But from our position on the sandy bank, we still couldn't see a damned thing through the grass We then headed back to where we had last seen him, and moved slowly forward into the grass. We finally came up on him lying dead in a patch of grass that was as thick as a haystack and eight feet high. We pulled him out onto the river bank for the pictures. You can see some of the thick grass in the background.<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid81/p2ec36740de40be963862aec16ac9fd7f/faf5e79e.jpg" alt=" - " /> <br /><br />I can only hope to be lucky enough to have such an experience again in my life.

Here's another picture of my lion that sort of bears this out in graphic fashion:<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid81/pb5b6ecc30a3780d28add7192cf863938/faf5e788.jpg" alt=" - " />

Thanks for the story. There is nothing like dangerous game in tall grass or thick brush to get your blood pumping.

Enjoyed the story. My thanks, also.

Thanks Mrlexma. I can't wait to experience it myself someday.

Ski+3

Good shooting. Great experience. And lots of excitement, I am sure. That is what makes a great life. My congratulations!
Mark

Thanks for sharing that story with us. I'm looking forward to my first Tanzania lion hunt in '05.

[ 10-27-2003, 03:17: Message edited by: Spring ]