Lundu and Freestone safaris

A friend of mine Herman acquired the Lundu concession for a 10-year period. Her man asked if I would PH a few safaris for him for the 2017 season and I agreed to this as I was keen to explore this area. Lundu had not been hunted for five years.

Andrew had also done a lion/leopard hunt in early in the season and took a couple of great cats.

Lundu lays on West bank of the Luangwa river as is the furthest upriver (northeast) concession on the Luangwa river. The area is very big at 1,4m acres and has about 50 miles of Luangwa river front. It also has the Musalangu river flowing through it which is one of the most pristine and beautiful rivers I have seen in Zambia. Lundu has a variety of forest types from the classic luangwa mopane forest, riverine forest to the Kafue kind of Miombo forest.



Lundu is a big game area. The cat quality is very good especially on lion. Some great black maned lions have come out of this area in the past. Also the buffalo quality is very good but later in the season. September and on you have a good chance at getting a 42’’ plus old buffalo. I also saw some monster crocs but very clever and hard to hunt.

The plains game is not great in Lundu but hopefully this will change over time with the anti-poaching Freestone will do. There are some good Roan and Eland in the area and I saw one of the biggest kudus I have ever seen in Zambia. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a client with me at the time.

Not so long Debruin, the camp manager, sent me this photo and I’m sure it’s the same kudu.



The camp is a very combatable tented camp and power is supplied by batteries and inverter that are charged by generator during daytime, so you don’t have to listen to a generator when you siting around the fire having you evening drink.





The main hunt I did in Lundu was a leopard and buffalo. In Lundu for leopard we used hippo for bait mainly because you can get a lot of bait out and hippo are relatively easy to get early in the season.



After about 5 days of checking baits we had 6 different leopards on bait. Non were what we were looking for. We had seen a big track but he kept missing our baits. After checking trail cam photos properly we noticed that one of the male leopard had a snare around it neck.




He wasn't a great big cat but not too bad either. After explaining to the client that this leopard would probably end up dying of its wounds the client decided to take the leopard as his trophy. The first evening he only came in after shooting time so we came back next morning and we got him and put him out his misery.





The snare was still around his neck and had cut through skin and meat. Only about an inch of his skin was intact. When he was in the tree we could hear him struggle to breath from 70 yards away. There was also a female feeding with him. My theory is he was following this female around and scavenge from her kills. I don't think he could run much long at a time as he could not breath properly.

Now this is what pisses me of when ARA's want to stop hunting and its a clear example. Hunting was stoped in Zambia in 2012 and this concession was only relocated 5 years later. Non of those fucking ARA's were there to look after this poor animal when they closed hunting. And if hunting in any area in zambia is closed this is how everything will die! Slow and painful.

Anyway I'm happy Freestone Safaris have taken on the task of looking after this concession. It would be a petty to loose such a beautiful area to poaching and other habitat destruction.

Here are some of the other trophies I took in Lundu:






I was not PH on this buffalo. Client had wounded it the day before so I went to help look for it. After 3 hours tracking we found him dead.



The Lundu concession is blessed with many natural inland lagoons:




Good Hunting all

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Hats off to client and you for taking that leopard and putting the poor guy out of his misery and suffering.

Great write up. Looks like a great concession and that kudu is a monster !!

Cheers

Charlie

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Thor,

Agreed with all you have said here and I kicked off the season here with a magnificent Lion. Leopard and Buffalo.

Freestone has done well to rejuvenate the pretty piece of Africa and although the hunting can be tough the quality is superb.

Thor/Andrew:

Great job to the both of you!

I didn't know there were any Lichtenstein Hartebeest in Luangwa?

i remember that area well from many moons ago. glad to see it is still wonderful. a large well done for the client on taking that leopard

Great job! Some great trophies.

+1 more for that hunter's ethics.

Good job guys with the hunting.

That Kudu is a beast!

quote:

Originally posted by crbutler:
+1 more for that hunter's ethics.

Good job guys with the hunting.

That Kudu is a beast!

Another hats off to the client. It's a wonder that the leopard was still alive with that wound.

Some excellent trophies taken - congratulations to all involved.

Sickening to see the state of that Leopard, photos of which should be splashed all over the internet to show what kind of fate is reserved for wildlife if their domain is not protected from poachers.

Well Done!

quote:

Originally posted by fulvio:
Some excellent trophies taken - congratulations to all involved.

Sickening to see the state of that Leopard, photos of which should be splashed all over the internet to show what kind of fate is reserved for wildlife if their domain is not protected from poachers.

Being done as we speak.

WOW what a lot of wonderful trophies!!! Thanks for taking care of that Leopard!!!

I hunted Lundu in 2011 when Mike Heath had the area. Glad it is being looked after again. Truly a wild area of Africa.

Thor, thanks for sharing this. Lundu looks like a wonderful area to hunt, though Munyamadzi and others do too. Kudos to both for taking that leopard. That was a proper thing to do.

Thanks to both for all of the pictures and write ups. Great trophies. Must be some pretty happy hunters!

Damn what a kudu!

Great stuff gents.

Thor, As you saw, I took some of your leopard pictures and made a post on Facebook. Please feel free to expand upon it if you wish.

quote:

Originally posted by DLS:
Thor, As you saw, I took some of your leopard pictures and made a post on Facebook. Please feel free to expand upon it if you wish.

An amazing piece of wild Africa. The hunting is not easy but everyday you drive through the garden of Eden.

++1 Andrew!