Who has hunted Mozambique for Leopard and Sable? I am thinking of going there in August or September? Any suggestions on which is the better month.
We would be hunting in the Niassa area?
What other animals would be in good supply in this area?
Thanks

I am taking the same hunt in 2010. I have been told that September is the better month. I'll be adding Buffalo and (with luck) a Niassa wildebeest and Suni.

Eland and Bushpig are worth hunting in northern Moz.

I hunted with Bahati Adventures in Coutada 10 in 2007 and I could have shot dozens of very mature bull sable if I would have had the extra money. When I go back, it will be with Bahati (Johan is top notch!) and sable will be at the top of my list. I am not kidding, you will see them everyday and I have an incredible pic of a massive bull about 50 yards from us.

Not sure on the leopard. We heard them but once again, lack of money and time kept me from going after them. Good luck,

Monte

Most of Niassa has good numbers of Sable and Leopard.
Not the most shy Leopards ether (often taken in daylight). My PH says that the trick is to get enough bait up and find a big one amongst the lot.


A Nissa leopard, PH Stu Taylor.

Nice leopard. So with all of the Sable in MOZ, is 40" sable a realistic expectation?

Motor- I'm not sure about that 40" mark. I was on the delta north of Coutada 10 and was told that they may be classified as Roosevelts. I would say, at least from where I was that 36-38 would be realitic. The one taken while therte was 37 and OLD.

I spent all of this past October hunting Niassa -- the Johan Calitz concession, Sable Camp, Area L2.

Leopards were abundant and I took a very nice Tom with a handgun after the mandatory two eeks of finding tracks; baiting, building blinds and waiting him out. It's a truly great area for Leopard, no question about it.

Hippo were also abundant and I took an exceptional animal -- he'll be the new #2 for handguns. We had our choice of several very nice bulls -- the situation put the trophy evaluation skills of the PH's to a real test -- a test they passed with flying colors.

I had a Sable license, but really only saw one shootable bull during my stay -- and that bull saw us first and never offered a shot. I have a very nice 42 inch+ bull in my trophy room and the Roosevelt Sable avaiable at Niassa tend to be a tad smaller -- but even taking that into account, the Sable in that particular area, that month, were not abundant. Lots of other folks have had good luck in the general area, so apparently I hit a slump for whatever reason.

I took a grand East African Bushbuck and was very pleased with that. Bushbuck, in general, seemed abundant although hunting them in heavy cover is always a challenge and abundant or not you have to earn a Bushbuck.

There were lots of good Waterbuck and lots of good Reedbuck. I had a license for Lichtenstein Hartebeast and saw a few, but no good bulls. We saw lots of Warthogs, but nothing exceptional and the only big Bushpig we saw tried to run over the truck one night when we were returning late. We tried to bait Bushpig with no success, but we didn't work very hard at that. We did see a massive Eland bull -- I've shot a couple of big ones in the past, but this guy was in a different league. We tracked that big guy for several hours and many miles and were close to closing the deal when we were betrayed by the wind. Since it was very late in the afternoon and the sun was low, we determined to end the campaign and try for him another time. We never found him again -- and that's hunting -- but, just seeing that big guy was a victory, he was that impressive.

There were quite a number of Crocs around and we tried to bait a really huge one. I could quite easily have had one in the 10 foot range, but I really wanted one of 12-13 foot or longer. We had one on the bait twice, but never had a reasonable shot. Crocs only come to bait at night there and I was hunting with handguns exclusively, which added to the difficulties we had -- but the reality is that those huge Crocs didn't get huge by being careless. Even with no animals harvested, that Croc hunting was a highlight of the trip for me.

I don't know which months are best -- October was very, very hot and I would opt for earlier than that for a return. The concession PH said that it was perfect last year during September, but I have no idea about August.

MC,

The area youare considerig has loads of sable and in fact they are the most common large game. Whittal shot 3 last year all over 40". You should see 40-50 animals in a group there. Leopard are very unsophisticated. Roger told me while visiting a bait they found the leopard snoozing in the tree at 10 AM.

Mozambiue like a lot of Africa has better areas for one animals than others. Bahati's Coutada 10 has loads of buffalo and incredible numbers of sable but no kudu. Mokore's Coutada 9 has incredible kudu but a small although huntable population of buffalo and sable.

Mark

I hunted Niassa last July. In fact that was my hunting partner who took that leopard with Stu. It was a nice cat but the leopards there are not that large. Zim seems to have the biggest leopard lately. That said, you really will have a great experience leopard hunting there. Just walking around or riding in the truck, I saw 5 different leopard. I've never seen leopard like that during the day. One day while tracking buffalo, we were going through grass about waist deep and a leopard jumped out 20 feet in front of me. I'm sure he heard us coming and laid down until it was apparent we'd step on him.
I was lion hunting and every bait we had out was hit almost every night by leopard. We had both leopard and lion feeding on the same baits.
They have quite a few suni, I didn't get one but I did see several. I didn't see a lot of sable, but again hunting buffalo one day I killed a 40" sable with my 470 NE. It was a quick shot at about 80 yards and I had no time to switch to my 375.
The best time of year to hunt there is later, however the heat will be extreme. I hung a pack thermometer on a bush one day at lunch, out of the direct sun and it was 95 degrees. That's in the middle of winter. I was told, every year, they have clients that get sick from the Sept heat, so go prepared. Cover up, put sun block on, walk in the shade, take every oppertunity to get in out of the sun, and drink water till you piss every hour.

Alaska Hunter,

Did you get your lion?

Brett,
I did not get a lion. We never found one old enough. Lions need to be 6 years old there and the oldest one we saw might have been 4. I believe they only took one lion there last year and it was the last hunt of the season. I'm told that the lion hunting is better that time of the year.
I've been on a few lion hunts, I've taken one and I'm booked in Tanz. for 2010, looking for another one. Best I can tell, talking to reputable PH's, is lion hunting averages about 15% to 20% for all of Africa now, at least hunting for mature (6 year olds)lions. Not great odds and you can up the odds shooting younger ones where permissable, but hunting them is exciting. It's like flying a super cub, 95% boring, 5% pure fear. Walk amoungst them once and you'll either never want to do it again or you can't wait for the next time.

quote:

Originally posted by MotorCity:
So with all of the Sable in MOZ, is 40" sable a realistic expectation?

Yes.

quote:

Originally posted by crane:
Motor- I'm not sure about that 40" mark. I was on the delta north of Coutada 10 and was told that they may be classified as Roosevelts. I would say, at least from where I was that 36-38 would be realitic. The one taken while therte was 37 and OLD.

The Sable are not Rooselveldt, but common Sable. We have many bulls of 36-38 in C10 and enough of 40 (and more) if you work for them.

Johan,

So how do you pick out a good shooter from a herd of 103 sable? Every mature black and white bull looks so incredible that it must be a trick.

On a more serious note I think the Roosevelt sable arguement plays well if the clients are only seeing mediocre bulls.

Mark

not much problem to shoot a 40 inch bull in Coutada 10 with Bahati. don't know about leopard.

this gives you some idea of the number of sable

more of the same

Mark

Spotting the big kahuna when with a herd is normally easy. There is only one dominant bull with any herd and he either stands out like a sore thumb or he's in the edge of the forest, keeping an eye on the cows and checking for intruding bulls. He's probably resting in the shade - which is understandable when serving a herd of say 30 cows. The dark shadows make them really hard to spot sometimes. The only trick is to judge their size properly, which the guys (PH's) are good with.

This is a typical example.



If there are two large bulls, they'd probably be fighting or about to. Sable fight like crazy. They engage with an intensity that is scary and they are oblivious of anything when fighting. Seeing such a "boxing match" gives one a new respect for the Sable and it regal image. Not just a pretty face!

Sometimes the really large bulls are on their own and you know by the way the PH reacts that it is a shooter and that you need to act.

Bachelor herds of bulls are also a possibility, although these are normally younger bulls building up courage to go and challenge a herd bull somewehere for a piece of the action. These groups are small and easy to check through for a good bull.

This is a typical bachelor group.



I'll post another piece on my reasoning behind the Roosevelt Sable/Common Sable debate andwhy I say we have the Common Sable in the southern Zambezi delta area.

Why I say it is the Common Sable ...

According to my research, the Common Sable – also sometimes referred to as the Southern Sable - (Hippotragus niger niger) lives in Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. All in all – as a general rule of thumb - it seems that the common Sable lives south of the Zambezi everywhere.

The Roosevelt’s Sable (Hippotragus niger roosevelti) occurs in East Africa, between the Shimba Hill Game Reserve close to Mombasa in Kenya all the way down the coast of Tanzania and into northern Mozambique. Some authors maintain that the Roosevelt Sable (H. n. roosevelti]) is smaller in body, have smaller horns (<38”) and bulls do not have the jet black color, but rather a more brownish tone. From what I can gather, the Roosevelt Sable mainly occurs in the Selous Game Reserve and along its eastern and southern buffer zones.

It is fair to conclude that we have the common sable in Coutada 10 as we are a long way from the Roosevelt domain as described in literature, our sable are big bodied, trophy horn lengths almost always exceed 38” (43” has been taken) and mature bulls are a shiny jet black that is their attractive trademark.

This map may help the understanding of my deductions:



(The map originates from the "Game & Hunt" magazine)

Thsi summary is obviously very cryptic and there's a little more to it, (such as interaction and the Zambian Sable on one side) but enough to understand why I say it is the Common Sable.

And yes, the Roosevelt argument does suit the explanation of smaller trophies.

I just read that the southern boundary for Roosevelt's is the Ruvuma River, which is at the Moz-Tanz border.

When you look at the SCI record book the Rosevelt sable's area is well within the borders of Tanzania making making the Niassa sable the common variety. Definitely seems to be some conflicting info on this boundary issue.

Mark

When I killed my Niassa Sable they said it was a Roosevelt, I siad no it was a common. The tag they put on a few days later said Roosevelt.
I guess in there mind I lost.

The map above shows northern Moz (north east of the Zambezi) to have the Eastern Sable (Roosevelti).

Adam,

That's what I'm saying. The SCI map in the record book is much different than the one posted here.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
Adam,

That's what I'm saying. The SCI map in the record book is much different than the one posted here.

Mark

Ya, just noticed. I was replying to Alaska hunters post.
Which is right???

quote:

Originally posted by ozhunter:

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
Adam,

That's what I'm saying. The SCI map in the record book is much different than the one posted here.

Mark

Ya, just noticed. I was replying to Alaska hunters post.
Which is right???

When you go to record the animal in the SCI Record Books, they'll tell you. The SCI always gets the last word -- so, they're always "right" in that respect.