Posting for Diego aka dwarf416

Congrats Diego ! Outstanding animals as always.

All three outstanding trophies. Congratulations.

Dutch

Dreat trophts! Where from?

Look at the head and neck on that cat!

Wow!

Very nice. We need more infos on that

Very nice! What a toad of a Bushbuck! Well done!

All are outstanding trophies! Congratulations!

Look at the size of that cat!! Outstanding trophies.

All three trophies are amazing, but LOOK AT THAT CAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brett

First of all. THANKS ANTHON. This man is just incredible. He helps all the informatic nurds of thid forum. Me being one of them.
I did a plan with my wife to do some extreme spearfishing/free diving in moz plus some scuba diving plus some sea fishing plus some heavy party´s. Moz is the place. After this a cessna 210 came to fetch us to do a mini safari with my friends from Matupula hunters. I only booked a 7 day hunt with them for a hippo, some bird shooting,plainsgame if I wanted to and due to my previous failure in april with my hunt for Mr. Spots with dogs I could shot a leopard if I was able to have one hiting a bait in Sirinda no upgrade, only trophy fee. I must say I personally thought that God had being very good to me this year. A 90 pounder, a lion, Hiena.... not getting a leopard with dogs in April was a minor downlight of my previous safari. In this mini safari I new that my chances of getting a leopard where very few but.... one never knows. In Madrid I had no chances in Sirinda I had very few.
Butch told Kevin (ph) he would eat his hat if he got a cat feeding!!!!! I must say that I knew they had not shot a leopard in the last 8 years in Sirinda so the odds where.......excellent, near to zero. As I told Kevin If we got a cat it would be an old one. No shooting in 8 years, hummm.
The first day we went to Olive beattle camp. "the home of the Happy Hippo" to try to find a hippo but no luck. there was a monster but on the Zambian side. An old ph that has his fishing house there invited us for a drink an we ended up drinking and eating our way through the day. Kevin took us back to the camp at 5 pm. completelly drunk. on our way back we bought some goats for 40bucks each for leopard bait. when we got back to camp we had 4 dead goats hanging from trees and an upset wife.
Next day we checked again on those hippo with no luck. On our way there I shoot a big grey duicker that happend to be a great actor. 1 shoot with the 7mm mag and he collapsed duck diving rolling over 10 meters and having strong convulsions. As soon as I left my rifle to grab my binos he recoverd not to be seeing ever again Mr. Baldwin could have learned something from that duicker.
Back to camp we went to check a pod of hippos down river and saw a big bull. we made a plan to bag him next day. After we had lunch and went Tiger fishing. It was slow but great fun and the beer was cold. this is what I love to do in life hunt, relax, fish and drink beer .
Next day and after I received some more instructions on hippo shooting we went to see if I could get my first one. After watching, stalking and a little bit of shallow wading in the zambeze we where ready in a small Island to try and get my hippo. We studied for an hour and a half the pod and decided to shoot a very pinky bull that looked huge. At my shoot hell broke loose and we had hipos running, swimming and jumping all over. In that chaos we saw clearly the belly of my hippo when he rolled in the water. I didn´t put another one in from the 375 because they where solids and I was afraid of wounding another one if the bullet went trough. we had him. Or so we thought...
After a couple of hours it was clear that the hippo had no intention of floating in the surface. We checked the video Tim from The osprey company had done and I told them I had hit just at the top of the v between the eyes where I was aiming. This proved to be a clear case of a miscomunication due to the tension of the moment and a little help of the perfect shoot book. I should have aimed a little lower....
This brought a wild chase of our hippo tha happened to have a very distintive right ear for the rest of my safari as there was no quota left and we had to hunt the exact same hippo AGAIN. We checked a lot of hippos during this days with no success. In the meantime I hunted the Sirinda river for a huge bushback that we saw the first day. The second morning we found him drinking in the river. After a "bad" shoot we followed him through some beautiful terrain and after missing to shoots in thick stuff I finished him with a shoot in the neck. After all my first shoot was not so bad. this is my biggest Chobe bushbuck so far and the hunt was just incredible. As we checked the baits everyday we saw impala, Sharpe´s grysbuc, duicker, Kudu ( a real sod 60´´) gave us no chance, waterbuck,baboons, huge klipspringer (no rifle, tiger fishing from the boat) wich shows how Africa recovers when antipoaching measures take place. In 2008 this area was so badly poached that we only saw baboons in the 3 days we where there hunting croc.
On our 6 day of hunting I thought we would not make it with the hippo. he had dissapearde completely and we could not find him in the mighty Zambezi. we had an excellent farewell party that night and went late to bed. next morning we gave it a last try upriver and ALAS. as we where walking on the sandbank we saw a big bunch of bubbles busting not 30 meters from us. Tim told us to dive onto the sandbank and as soon as the hippo appeared Kevin saw a strange right ear and as he said so Tim told him to check the back of his head. ¡there was a white bullet hole! he dived again and we run closer.
"as he comes up clap him"
"where?"
"I will tell you"
" there he comes, shoot him at the base of his left ear"
The 375 barked and this was the end of my chase of a hippo through a safari and the zambeze.
Finally Kevin had to dive to put a rope around one leg because the hippo would not float. I found this very impressive,brave and stupid. The Zambeze is infested with crocs. Crocs decided that he was not in good shape for a midmorning snack and let him do his job unharmed. I must say it was the quickest dive I have ever seen.
Photo sesion in the camp and Kevin says we had no time to check baits and it was our last day. I thought different and told him so. Ok lets get moving. They wount say we never tried. The first bait was 2 hundred meters from the skining shed. No hit. Next bait was 5 hundred meters from the camp by the Sirinda river. Kevin and I where drinking a beer and listening rock &roll on the cruiser. He jumps out and goes to check. As he walks to the bait his face looks astonished and thumbs go up. A HIT. Last day, 12,30, no blind and a huge leopard has hit our white goat that was completelly skinned.
Kevin tells me it is a huge cat because instead of feeding from the tree he has been feeding like a lion, grabbing the bait with his front legs and standing up on his back legs.
Back to the camp in a rush, quick lunch and Kevin and Tim leave to build the blind will Ana and I decide to have our last siesta in this camp so I will be able to be awake all night if neccesary.
At 5 pm Kevin,Tim and I where sitting in, what I thought was, the worst blind I had sat in all my life. The side walls where practically inexistent the back door did not close and the front part had only one hole for my rifle. While sitting I was not comfortable and to shoot I had to lean to my right in an awkward position due to a tree that was inside the blind. the plan was to let Kevin control the bait through the hole of the rifle and if the leopard came in he would let me get into position and when ready he would shine him from over the front wall of the blind. Meanwhile Tim would set on the camera that was previously focused on the bait. I wasn´t very sure of this plan but it was the only one we had. As the night came in I was unable to continue reading so I left my book on the tree. 2 minutes later I felt a certain uneasyness from Kevin and Tim. I became a statue. Kevin had told me that the river between the bait an us would camouflage any small noise we made but I did´nt want to stand a chance.
"The leopard has come. he has tried to climb the tree because we have put the bait higher so he had to climb and gave you a broad side shoot but.... he has tried to climb and didn´t like it so he has jumped from below and grabbed the bait pulling it down. He is sitting like a dog below the bait. Can you see him?"
"NO"
"Ok, get ready and I will set the light"
" "
"Ready?"
"no"
"now"
As he switched the light I inmediatelly saw Mr. Spots sitting below the bait facing to the leftand away from us. I set the cross 2 inches behind his front leg and squeezed the trigger while I heard Kevin say...
"take your... kabooooum"
The leopard collapsed, jumped up roaring left and right
"shoot again"
Could not see a thing across the dust.See him exit to the right. My hands are shaking,my heart is pumping like mad and i feel like ants on my fingertips. We hear him cough 2 times and then.... nothing.
"how do you fill about your shoot"
"solid"
"Let´s wait 10 minutes and check"
"wooooow"
Tim sugests if we would like to check the footage to see how the shoot looks. It looks good but i just can´t stop saying;
"Why did he not stay down"
"They are tough"
5 minutes later Kevin tells me we are going and I tell him to wait 2 more minutes till I stop shaking. He says he will go alone and I said no way.
2 minutes later we come out ready Kevin on the left, Tetitsua on the rmiddle and me on the left shoulder bu shoulder. As we start walking I feel the adrenalin running trough me like a night train but as soon as we get near we see him lying down 12 meters to the right of the bait. Tetitsua throws a stone as we point at the leopard but he is stone dead. the cheers could nearly be heard in Spain. Last night of a mini safari my chase of a leopard has being fulfilled AND NOW MR . BUTCHER WILL HAVE TO EAT HIS HAT. We had a wild bolinga party that night and made Kevin one of THE BOLINGA CREW. Perfect end for a Safari. Next day terrible hangover and back home. Vic falls-Johanesburg-london-madrid.

quote:

Originally posted by Brett Adam Barringer:
All three trophies are amazing, but LOOK AT THAT CAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brett

Brett, you are not just whistling dixie.
That is a true toad of a leopard
I a, jealous.

WOW congrads

dwarf outstanding trophies and good shooting..

Mike

Very, very nice indeed. I really have no desire to hunt a hippo. But boy or boy bush buck and Mr. Spots are something else.

Report added.

Unbelievable trophies, Diego!! Congrats.. I don't think you will ever be able to top this year!

Scotty you should see Diegos forest eles and bongos...Diego have taken som crazy good quality animals last couple of years.

Whats up next Diego ?

quote:

Originally posted by A.Dahlgren:
Scotty you should see Diegos forest eles and bongos...Diego have taken som crazy good quality animals last couple of years.

I think we all should see these tropies

If Anthon is so kind to post htem You will see them. Anthon, Today I got a nice chamois in spain and last week some red deer, fallow deer, wild boar in my dad´s property down south. After... MONTERIAS in spain. then only god knows but I do enjoy bongo´s and forest elephant

90 pounder

Congrats Diego, those are remarkable tropies. Your a lucky hunter
Did you write a report about the forest hunt? This is my absolut dreamhunt!

Outstanding !

All are very, very nice.

Thanks guys for taking interest in my little hunt of this summer