Dates: December 1-21 2011
Agent: Adam Clements of Adam Clements Safari Trackers
Outfitter: Tanzania Bundu Safaris
PH: Brian Van Blerk
Travel: Shawn Kennedy at Gracy Travel
Guns: Dakota 76's in 416 Rigby and .375 H&H

I had the best hunt of my life so far. Everything went really smoothly and was professionally done. This hunt started out planning about 3 years ago when I came in to some money from my Uncle Mark. I had always wanted to hunt the Masailand, but prices were such that I thought it was beyond me. Before my uncle died, he had told me that I could not take money with me, and that one of his great regrets in life was not traveling more when he was able. I could almost hear him saying "Go have fun, Charlie. It's what this is for!" So, the money was spent and off I started.

3 years of planning can cause some hitches. My main goal was to get a good Lion. I had tried previously to get one, and didn't manage to do so. The discussions with Adam principally settled around which block was best for the Lion, and when to go. I was told that there are better areas than the Masailand to go to just get a Lion, but that if I got one in the Masailand, it would be a beauty. I was told that the success rate had been around 80% historically, but Brian said when I met him at SCI that there were some changes that may cause that number to drop a bit (the 6 year rule) but since my goal was a fully maned big cat, I didn't think that would make that much of a difference. I didn't want "any" lion, I wanted a good Lion. As far as the Plains game goes, most of the Masailand species are present here, but the one that is not really that I wanted was Gerenuk. Nevertheless, I was told that in advance so there were no issues with that. I had brought a .470 double about a year ago, and I spent a long time contemplating whether or not to bring it. Adam had recommended that I not take 3 guns, and I think I made the right choice not taking something I didn't think I would shoot as well as I could so the double goes on the next DG hunt. I at least managed to get my luggage down to the area of not getting excess baggage fees. Generally, I made a pest of myself to the folks I was working with to get everything settled in advance, but even so, sleep was pretty disturbed for a week before I left.

On November 28th, I was dropped off at Minneapolis/St Paul Airport by my folks, and started on the trip. I used the economy comfort flights as I was unwilling to pay $15K for business flights. The seat difference between "Comfort Economy" and "Cattle Car" is a few inches more. To be honest, it seems to me that the Comfort Economy is what coach was 20 years ago, better that the current state, but still not really as comfortable as your average passenger car. Anyhow, 8 hours to Amsterdam, a 3 hour layover, and another 10 hours to Arusha, Tanzania's Kilimanjaro International Airport. I got there at about 8:30 PM, and stood in the line for entry. Discovered that I needed to stand in a different line for my Visa, and then go back to the first line to get through customs. Despite being told I needed a Yellow fever vaccine, no one checked anything for vaccinations. The visa process for me took all of 5 minutes, but most people seemed to be unable to fill out the form correctly and the immigration guy kept having to ask them the answers and write them in for them, making the line move like maple syrup in a cold Alaskan cook tent. I met up with some of the Rungwa Safaris staff (fortunately I knew that Bundu and Rungwa are being run together now, so I knew they were the right folks) and went to the van to get the ride to the hotel. I met with Andy McDowell, a photographer who works with Ivan Carter who was with the van as well, and they took me on a scenic 1 hour tour of Arusha in the dark. Anyone who has driven after dark in Africa realizes this really awakens you with all the folks wandering in the road. We arrived at a nice hotel called "The African Tulip" and after a glass of fresh Mango juice I was allowed to shower and get some much needed sleep. The place is quite nice, and clean with really good water pressure, which is probably not the norm for Tanzania.



November 30th

I was up really early the following morning, to the point where I went back to bed and got up at 7:30 and showered and waited for the guys at Bundu to come and get me. At 8:15 I was told that they were there, and the first snafu happened. I had forgotten to get the room key card back from the porter, so I had to ask that they send someone up to get my stuff. I then discovered that "new style bills" meant that they were to have a post 2000 date on them. Needless to say, about 1/4 of mine had 1998 dates on them, and they did not want to take them. This is apparently Africa's way to combat counterfeiting, and while it made no sense to me, you can't fight the banks... So I paid the extra 5% for a credit card and was on my way. Shortly thereafter Brian Van Blerk and the people heading out to camp arrived at the parking lot in a land cruiser and we loaded up for the drive to Lokisale camp. We stopped at a grocery to get some supplies (Toothpaste, shampoo and some stuff to drink on the ride for me, batteries and Ginger Beer for Brian.) I got to have one of his Ginger Beers, and it was not at all what I thought it was (ie Ginger Ale), and if I can ever find the stuff here, I will buy a bunch of it.



The traffic in Arusha proper was typical 3rd world. I did not understand the traffic rules, if they even exist. Arusha seemed a pretty busy place with lots of construction going on and the streets being extremely busy. As we got out of town, it became less busy, but still a lot of traffic, mostly trucks. We passed a number of police check points, where the cops are standing in the road and you stop and talk to them. I thought it was a neat way of policing, making sure everyone talks with the cops and seeing a personal element to them. I was told that really its just a way to get money by asking for bribes. We were on the T005 road and passed a number of Military installations, but that seemed to mean soldiers in uniform waiting at bus stops more than anything. There were some coffee plantations right at the edge of Arusha, but otherwise it was mostly a desert like appearance.





It was not until maybe about 30 minutes or so out of Arusha that we started to really see what I thought I would see- Masai and their cattle. Apparently the Masai let their cows wander on the road at times. Brian said that if you hit one of the cows or goats you did not stop. The Masai seemed to get more upset about hitting a cow than if you hit them, according to what I was told. We did see a few donkeys and cows that were lying bloated at the side of the road, but our trip was uneventful.



After about 90 minutes on the road we finally arrived at the edge of the concession. We still had about an hour to go on dirt roads at this point.



However, we were soon seeing wildlife. The first game animal I saw was a Ostrich. I ended up seeing a lot of them, and of course, this was one of the few animals I could not shoot, as there was no quota available at that point. In any case, after seeing them in the wild, I have absolutely no interest in shooting one. They seem to make ducks look bright.



We arrived at camp before noon.

Dining area



My home away from Home:









Fire Pit



At 4 PM things tarted happening, as that was when the Game Scout arrived. We could not sight the guns in or do much of anything in the field until he got there. We went out to the little range they had and checked sights at this time. My guns were a little off, and I spent a inordinate number of rounds getting them exactly where I wanted them, as we were supposed to be shooting stuff at a bit longer ranges that I am used to in Africa.

That evening we had some Gazelle for supper and planned the hunt the following day. Bed early and planned to be up at 6 the following morning.



December 1st- the start of the hunt.



We were up before sunrise, and headed over to the far northwest side of the concession. This area requires crossing a lot of low spots and as such, Brian wanted to get over there as soon as possible, as this is the only area of Lokisale that has the Thompson's Gazelles. On the way, we went to a vantage point to look at the status of migration from the park. This was one of 2 times that we saw any Wildebeest, and at that time they were out of the way, and Brian figured we would see lots of them, as normally they are the easiest animal to get at Lokisale.



It took us until 11 to get where we were going. Once we got out there, I was surprised how heavily populated this part of the concession was. There were a lot of buildings and farms here.

Brian at work:



After some driving and glassing, we found a pair of groups of Tommies. We initially looked at the group with one male and a bunch of females, and then we went to look at a single male that Albert, the head tracker had spotted lying by himself. Brian thought the lone guy was the better of the two, and we made a rather simple stalk of walking to about 250 yards of him, putting up the sticks, and I shot. We did have to walk up and get him as he was not really dead from the shot. That bothered me somewhat, but given the issues with all the people around, I agreed fully with not wanting .375 bullets ricocheting around.

He is a good Tommy for the area, 12.5-13" on his larger horn. Lokisale does not have some of the bigger plains game animals, and is more a dangerous game area with Buffalo being its claim to fame.



We then drove back to camp and had a late lunch. Later on in the afternoon we went out on the start of the cat hunting in earnest- namely, getting meat in a tree. Thus we started off looking for Buffalo. And did we find them! There were buffalo herds migrating in from Tarangire National park, which borders the concession. I think that until we were restricted to a small area by rain late in the hunt, we saw herds of buffalo on a daily basis. I'm sure I saw more than 1000 different bulls over the course of the hunt.



We ended up looking around for several hours and trying to find a smaller herd that would be easier to get in on. We found one bull that looked really good. He was wide, and had some damage to a horn that made him look like an old warrior. It took us a while to get him to give me a chance, but he finally gave me a 40 yard frontal shot. The .416 put a big hole right through his heart and he ran maybe 25-30 yards before falling down. He gave a number of death bellows, but I still paid the insurance on him. He's my biggest Buff to date with a 45" spread and good 12" bosses.



Here is the hunting crew with him. They were all very pleased with getting a big buffalo down right away with no fuss.



I was asked what I wanted done, and I said Euro mount as I wanted to get meat in the tree that night if possible. I know Brian was shaking his head that I was not planning on a shoulder mount, but he agreed with the reasoning. We then quickly butchered him in the field, saving his backstraps for camp meat, and his tail for soup. We then put up a pair of Lion baits and got back late that evening.



In the meantime, the other client hunters had arrived, a husband/wife team from North Carolina that was hunting with Ivan Carter for elephant. They are going to show their hunt as an episode of Tracks Across Africa so I will not put anything in about their hunt, and leave that to Ivan and Andy to document. There was some good spirited conversations around the fire and dinner table, and I have to say having them in camp with me was a wonderful experience. They also helped in the hunt as the game they killed allowed me to bait more than I would have by myself.

December 2

The second day of my hunt was also a busy one. We checked the pair of baits I had put out, and amazingly enough, one of them had been hit by a of Leopard. In fact, when we came on the hit bait, we saw a female lying in the grass not too far away, and then she ran off after I got a chance to look at her with the binoculars, but she didn't give me a chance to take a picture. In fact, that thought didn't occur to me until after she had left. The baits were out in the open, and as such, this was felt to be decidedly unleopardlike, but nevertheless, you don't look a gift horse (or Leopard) in the mouth. We went off to find more meat for the trees, in particular, Zebra. Here was when we found that the migration had already passed us by. We really had to look to find a Zebra. The previous week the place had been crawling with them, and now we only found them in a couple of their favorite spots, and not many of them. The day before, while looking for the buffalo, we had only seen a couple, and while we saw more, the thought was Zebra are great Leopard bait, and if we held off, they were only going to get scarcer on the ground. We found a nice little herd and spent some time finding the right young stallion that was good sized, yet not all scarred up by his bad behavior of fighting. I again made a shot. This was a double lung shot and he flopped and was dead within 100 yards.



We skinned him for a rug in the field, and as the day went on, repeatedly splashed water on the skin due to the heat. How fast flies laid eggs on this was something you have to see to believe. I swear by the time we got back in, there were a couple pounds of fly eggs on the skin, even though we washed them off a few times. This is a Burchell's Zebra, and as such does not have any shadow striping on the hide. Over the course of the day we saw a large number of game animals, which was typical of the concession. Today's tally was Elephant, Buffalo, Giraffe, Impala, Steenbuck, Duiker, Dik Dik, Kudu (cows), Oryx, Hartebeest, and Ostrich.



That night, we had Buffalo Tail soup and Buffalo Tongue appetizers from the one I had shot the day before.

December 3

We got up at 5:30 and were on the trail early this day. When we checked the bait, it had been hit by a good male Leopard according to the tracks. We put the game cam up at this point. The plan was if he was a good one, we would sit on him the next day. Later on, we saw a nice herd of Oryx. We attempted make a stalk on them, but were busted by a herd of Hartebeest when things got too open. When we were busted, we found that there was yet another buffalo herd here. We then went and looked them over. There was a nice hard bossed bull in the lot that Brian thought would be a good one. We needed more meat for the lion hunting, so off we went. This was a good news/bad news hunt. We got up to 75 yards, and the buffalo were getting a bit nervous and shifting around a bit. The bull we were after stepped up and started staring at us, as if daring us to challenge him. I got on the sticks, and shot a frontal shot at him. It turns out I really pulled the shot and had just grazed the outside of his shoulder, but as he started to run, Brian said keep shooting, and I made the most inspired shot I have ever done at about 125 yards offhand, hitting him at the base of his tail and breaking his back. He then began to scramble around to face us on his front legs alone. We walked up to about 30 yards and I put a finisher in. He didn't fall over right away, so I shot again, and heard Brian say ouch. He was rubbing his ears and said that he had not expected me to shoot twice. When we got up to him, I saw how bad the first shot was, and we both agreed that it was better to be lucky than good sometimes. This guy was the smallest of the buffalo I shot on this trip. He was a 44" buff with not a lot of drop and 10-11" bosses, but very hard.



I asked that they do a flat skin on him so that we could turn him in to some saddle leather so I can get some gun cases made out of him. Again, they were wondering why I did not plan a shoulder mount. (Really I don't have room for many more big heads at home, so that was part of it.) In any case, we got two lion baits out of him. After getting him cut up, we started back for lunch. As we were getting ready to cross some low ground, we saw a herd of Fringe Eared Oryx. Brian thought the one was quite good, and told me to take him. I shot at a little over 200 yards, and hit in the shoulder. The animal ran for over 500 yards with a blood trail that even I could find. I was up on the sticks 2-3 times for a follow up, but he ran on again just as I was starting to squeeze the shot off. I finally got a chance to hit him when he was hiding in some brush on a small rise, and he ran another 25 feet and fell. The first shot was a good heart-lung shot, but he just didn't fall. The seconds was not so good, but finally knocked him off his feet. This guy was a bit of a freak- very big, astoundingly so for the area.



The afternoon hunt was somewhat odd. We went to a different area of the concession, actually the Masai Open area, and were looking around. We saw a really nice Impala, but as we did not need bait yet, Brian did not want to shoot him yet. We then came across a Cheetah, who was really "photogenic"- he just sat there and watched us take pictures. Cheetah are not shootable in Tanzania, and he knew it. He was busy taking his "bath" so I didn't really get a good pic of his face, but he just sat and acted like a big house cat.



December 4

We had the male Leopard hit the bait over night, so the plan was made to sit for him that evening. We set up a pop up blind and camouflaged it with local tree branches. We spent a fair amount of time setting up the gun rest so that we would not have to move anything to shoot. After we had done this, we checked some more of the baits, although we were unable to get to all of them in time. We did find a nice Impala that Brian and his brother in law, Wayne had been trying to get for some time. Brian was quite pleased to "win" the competition. This Impala was a bit on the older side, but still measured 24" and was pretty impressive.



That afternoon there was quite a bit of rain, and it was impressive how quickly a dry road bed turned into a river. It also showed why there are so many big ruts around, when the erosion from rainfall hits.



One thing that I had not mentioned was the wide variety of bird life around the area. This ranged from some of the more common African birds to some of the more unusual. I think I usually saw a new bird species every day I was there. I'm not much of a birder, or a bird photographer, but here is one of the more spectacular Cranes I saw.



We sat in the evening, but the Leopard did not show up. The following morning, according to the game cam we found out he showed up 15 minutes after we had left.

December 5

We left a little after 4 AM so that we could sit in the Leopard blind in the morning. Brian saw them, but I did not. They did not go in the tree. He said the male was good. I did hear them growling as they walked by though, and given my hearing, that means they were both close and pretty loud. They decided to leave the area before shooting hours started, so it was not something that we needed to rearrange for a shot. Brian said that we needed to readjust the bait to try and get him in the tree. Later on we went on to check our Lion baits. There was a bit of a scare as a juvenile male had parked himself near the bait under a tree and none of us saw him. He jumped up almost under Brian's feet and ran off. Brian's only comment was that he was lucky it was not a Lioness, as he probably would have had to shoot her. I did not have my rifle on me as I had not asked the guys to give it to me. I learned that lesson, as not only did the Lion give us a scare, but then not even 15 feet later, we found a pair of hyena sitting near the bait. Brian handed me his .500 double and told me to shoot the one on the left. I'm not sure how I missed him, and he kind of jumped, but I tried twice (both barrels) and we found no blood or sign that he had been hit. We also set up a game cam on the Lion bait to see if it was a full pride, and whether there was a good male in the lot. That morning we also saw a pretty good sized Lesser Kudu, but his tips pointed rearward, and he was immature. We saw a real nice Bohor Reedbuck, and tried to put a stalk on him, but he moved so much that I could not get him. Brian called off the hunt when he thought that we did not have a license for him. Later on, we found a group of Hartebeest, and they were pretty flighty. Just before noon, we ran in to a big group of Eland, and saw an nice bull, but they ran before I could get a shot on the bull where he was not masked by cows. We also put out a number of new baits for both Leopard and Lion.

That evening we refreshed the Leopard bait with Impala, and sat for the evening. The Leopard did not show up, but we felt encouraged by his interest so far. While we were doing this, the guys also checked one of our other Lion baits and set another game cam up. I was surprised to find out that I did not have a Reedbuck license, but Brian said that there was quota, and that we would not have a problem with getting that set up here. A plan was made, and later on we did get the license.

December 6

We once again were up at 4 to get to the Leopard blind for a morning sit. The female was in the tree, and I got a good view of her. By the game cam, the male had been there in the middle of the night. We then went to the Lion hit bait, and looked at it. The Lion had destroyed the game cam and there were some pictures on the camera of its demise. Apparently, Bushnell's claim that game don't see the black LED's was not run by the Lions.

We were headed to a different bait when Albert said "Simba!", and Brian slammed the truck to a stop and told me to get my rifle. I unloaded and grabbed the .375 and chambered a round while looking for the cat. I saw him moving to my left, slowly at first. Brian, who was still in the truck was looking in this binoculars at him for what seemed like a brief second when he said, "That's the Lion. Shoot him. Shoot him now!" At this time, he chose to step behind a tree. I ran forward to get an angle, and he came out from behind at a good clip heading quartering away. I didn't want to risk a running shot and a wounded Lion, so I didn't take the shot. He ran to a pile of the most godawful thick thornbush I have ever seen. He also had a second, much younger lion with him. This guy was showing all the signs of a good cat. He was not with a pride. He had a swaybacked arrogant walk, a full thick mane, a scarred up face and a black nose. (I could see the gait, the mane, and the scarring. Brian had noted the nose, and his tooth wear, and that he "just looked like a 6+ year old lion) We then proceeded to play cat and mouse with him for the next 2+ hours. Whenever we got him to sit still, we would need to see where his companion was, or make sure it was the right one. Several times he would give a nasty growl and move off. I will say that noise is one of pure menace when you are within 30 yards and you are not all that sure just WHERE he is. Finally, he was behind a big branch and Brian was asking if I saw him, and I said I could make out his head and a leg. He told me to wait until he stepped out, then to hit him. After what seemed an hour, but was probably 15 minutes, he suddenly jumped backwards and I had no shot. We again readjusted making sure the crew knew where everything was and after a number of frustrating instances where Brian knew where he was, but I could not make him out until he moved, he finally made a mistake. He was sitting under a thick thorn tree, but did not have any cover in front of his face. I could see the outline of his shoulder and body, but was not sure if he was the right Lion. Brian said that he was the right one. "If you are ready, put one in him..." I fired. A big roar, and then I saw him swapping ends. I had worked the bolt automatically, but it had a solid up (because we had a chance to shoot the small antelope, the magazine was loaded with a soft then 3 solids) as Brian said shoot again, I shot a second time. I saw him flop over and a paw stick straight up in the air, then flop over. We waited for a few minutes, then took the cruiser in to the thick stuff because we were not sure where his buddy was. The driver managed to get stuck, and Brian said " I know we shouldn't do this, but I saw how you hit him. Come on, lets go pull him out!" We then walked in and found him. I was so hit with adrenalin that I could barely unload my rifle, let alone take any pictures- I had to give my camera to Brian to get pictures of where he fell.



I finally had my Lion!

Everybody was acting kind of goofy, me probably the most. Brian said that he wasn't sure if we were going to get a Lion, but that we had managed to get a great one. Albert was laughing and saying "Kabubi, Kabubi!" over and over. Everybody had to grab my hand and give it a good shake. We pulled him out a bit and set up to take the pictures. I admit I got a bit misty eyed and also a bit sad that I had killed such a beautiful animal, and then a real feeling of satisfaction set in. The first round had hit him in the chest on the right frontally, the second hitting in the left rear leg and exiting the upper chest on the right, and creasing his jaw. Both were fatal shots.











We measured him for the Tanzanian Government forms. There is a lot of new paperwork involved with the Lion now. Brian said all of these things take a lot of the fun out of it, and he wishes for the "good old days" when all he had to worry about was trophy quality. He agrees with the need for a rule like the 6 year old rule, but wishes that it never had come to needing the rule. He measured 9' 8" from nose to tail and some 54" to the shoulder. He probably weighed 500#.

We then drove back to camp and did the formal Kabubi party. Brian called it a day at that point, and he and I had a bunch to drink before noon. ( Well, you don't shoot a Lion every day, so I don't think I've made the fatal plunge into alcoholism yet...) However, by 4 PM after sleeping for 3-4 hours, we both were bored and decided to go out and try and find something else that evening. We spent the afternoon looking for a Reedbuck and checking the rest of the baits we had out. At this point, I felt that all the pressure was off. I had gotten the Lion, and everything else was gravy.

December 7



We once again were up at 4. The Leopard did not show up again this morning. We checked the cam, and he was again coming in in the middle of the night. Brian was sure that the main reason for this was the area was so open. This had originally been set up as a Lion bait, and felt if we moved it to a more covered location, the Leopard would come in earlier or stay later. We made a plan to move it this evening. We then went and cut down the Lion baits, saving some of the meat for the Leopard. Here I first ran in to the world's most unlucky creature. As an aside, for those who don't know Brian Van Blerk, one of the things I found out about him is that he is doggedly persistent. If he decides that you are going to take a particular animal, that animal is doomed. This is a story in two parts about a Gazelle, a flinch, and persistence. Brian said after we had retrieved the Lion game cameras, when asked what we were going to do until we moved the Leopard bait, "well, its time to kill a Grant's, eh..." We went out and found a good sized herd of Grant's Gazelle. None of them made his required level of size and maturity. The next two herds were close together. The smaller herd had a really good one in it, even I could see how much bigger and longer his horns were than the others. Brian worked us to 175 yards of him. I proceeded to take a shot and he ran off. No hit. We then got him to stand still at 200 yards, and the same result. I ended up shooting at him 5 times, including resting on a big anthill, and I just could not hit him. Brian made a comment about my flinching, but of course, I knew better.... That evening he said, well some folks get jinxed by a certain animal. We ate lunch in the field and then started heading back to the Leopard bait to move it. On the way, we ran in to a Hartebeest that seemed to be less wild than the previous group of Hartebeest. He dropped quickly to the high lung shot.



We then went and moved the Leopard bait and got back just as the heavens opened up with a horrible rain.

December 8

On the way out we checked some baits, which showed no real activity. We continued on the way. We saw a nice Reedbuck. We spent some time setting out a few more Leopard baits. One of the sites had a Leopard's kill that had been consumed in the tree, which made it a great spot for a bait.



As we were coming up the main road to camp, the radio came alive. Apparently the other guys were stuck and would need a car to pick them up. We were maybe 20 minutes from camp, so we decided to stop there, and Brian would have the camp driver take the car down to get the other guys. They were far enough away that he said it would be after 10 PM before they got back. We ate our supper and turned in.

December 9

We got going at 8 AM and started off taking Ivan, Andy, and some of the staff to the other car. On the way out we checked the Leopard bait, and it had been hit. We were going to sit again tonight. We saw a nice Steenbuck and I tried to get on him several times, without success. We finally got to the stuck vehicle, and boy was it stuck! We ended up unrolling our winch as far as we could, tying a rope to the end and then using the winch to pull them out. This ended up just breaking the rope at the knot. We then tried using the winch and our cruiser to get them out, and this worked, after much effort. It became obvious that the far plain was no longer accessible until things dried out a bit.

We then spent some time checking a Buffalo herd, but did not see anything too inspiring. I finally got a steenbuck to stand still long enough for a shot. He was all of 30 yards away, and I lined up and hit him a bit far back. The Steenbuck was a good one, and of course, after this all kinds of them stood still in front of me if I was holding a rifle (but not a camera...)



We then spent the rest of the morning setting up the Leopard blind, which was different than planned because of how the Leopard had approached the bait.

We went out to sit at 3:30.

At 6:30 Brian mouthed "He's Here"

At 6:45 I saw the Leopard walking along side the blind.

He slowly sauntered up to the tree and contemplated it. We had moved the bait in the tree to give me the best shot angle, and he obviously was somewhat perplexed about the changes. Finally he jumped up. He started to feed, and I could hear the cracking of bone. Brian said "Shoot." I put the glowing dot on his chest, and squeezed. The next thing I noticed was a big orange blossom, and Brian slapped my shoulder and said "You got him!" We then went out to check on him. We walked up and couldn't find him. Brian said "I saw him fall..." and then we noticed that he was still in the tree. Brian noted that this was his 174th Leopard, and the first one that had stayed in the tree.



We got back to the blind, and Brian tried to get the guys on the radio. They did not answer. Brian said that we should play a joke on them. We both hid in the blind until they drove up. We then got out and acted like nothing had happened. They obviously had us figured out though, and while they did not act like I had shot anything, they also did not just grab us and go like normal either. We went up to the tree, and Brian said something like "What's that?" in Swahili, and everyone started the congratulations. We got the Leopard down, the bait out of the tree, and drove to a good log for the pictures.







I had hit him high in the neck, with the bullet exiting his shoulder, and clipping his floating bone. The skinner was later worried that we would think he broke it, but we knew that the bullet was in that spot. We radioed in that we had the leopard and the staff were raring for another Kabubi. We got in late with the shooting being right at the last instant, and the fact that we killed the truck's battery by doing the pictures with the headlights. One thing about the two cats. The Lion had a very wirey hard coat, much more like other quadrupeds while the Leopard's was really soft and like a house cat's. He was 6-9 and I think he probably weighed in the area of 120#. His teeth were really worn down, and he had a bunch of scars, showing substantial age.

December 10

When we went from the range to where we were going to look for Grant's Gazelle again, Albert tapped on the cruiser roof and Brian said "Kudu!" I got the .375, and got ready. Brian spent several minutes looking with his binoculars, and then we started in to some thick bush.



After while, Brian said that a shot was likely to be close, and to be ready. I had the scope already down to 2X and nodded to him. After maybe a 30 minute stalk, Brian pointed ahead of us and patted the top of his shoulder. I could see the striped back of a Kudu, although I was still not sure if we were following a greater or lesser species. I shot right in the middle of the chest, as I could not see the horns, it was so thick. He ran, and we started tracking. There was a good blood trail, and for the first time, I saw the animal before they did. Admittedly, it was because they were watching tracks, and I was looking for an animal. Nevertheless, he was lying there, and I saw that we had a great Lesser Kudu. This guy was very old, and somewhat losing condition. Exactly what you should be looking for... He was shot perfectly through the heart, although that was more luck than anything else. I was later told that they had spotted 3 of them, 2 males and a female from the road, and decided that this guy was the one to follow. I did not see any of them until I shot the one I shot, and I didn't see him clearly then either. Albert's eyes really amaze me at what he can see with no help.



We then move on to part two of the Unlucky Grant's story. We were now out looking for the Grant's Gazelle again. We found him, and got a shot opportunity on one at about 215 Yards. I lined up on him, but shot a bit low, and cleanly missed him. Oh no. Not again. I have a jinx with these guys! We try again. Brian takes me through a small korongo (a dry stream bed) and we come out, there he is about 120 yards away. I line up right and shoot again. This time I hit him. He walks maybe 25 yards and falls. Brian then said, "you know he's the same one?" This was the same guy that I shot 5 times at 3 days ago. It took 7 shots to get this guy. Probably the least inspired shooting I have ever done. Nevertheless, I ended up with an excellent specimen of a Grant's Gazelle.



That day, we had our issues with the roads and ground. We got stuck a couple of times, and had to jack out of the mud and pile tree trunks and branches under the wheels to get out.



That evening, we got a chance to get a nice Dik Dik. This guy ran us around a bit as well. I shot him a bit back with a solid so as to not ruin the hide. He repeatedly got up and ran off. Brian tried to grab him by sneaking up on him, and then grabbing him, but the thing kicked him, jabbed him with his horns, and then ran off. We may have lost him, except our Game Scout saw him sneaking back to where we had shot him. The Dik Dik lied down, and I was told to hit him again. I shot, and there was this awful whine of a ricochet. Given the number of people around, this was part of why we tried to avoid shooting repeatedly at non dangerous animals. Given that I was shooting a .375 at things that should be adequately dispatched with a .22 rimfire, even poor shot placement was fatal, just not immediately so.



December 11th

This was the official start of the down stretch of the Safari. We were much more relaxed now, and got up at 7 am for the rest of the hunt. We looked at buffalo today, but did not see anything that we wanted to shoot. I had a stalk on a duiker that got away. We also saw a Honey Badger, but he was also too quick for me to get. We saw a Lesser Kudu but did not connect with him for pictures.

That evening, we did a hunt for Reedbuck. This involved going in to the swamp and walking for a couple of miles. Most of the time, while it was wet, it was not sucking my feet in, until after we got the Reedbuck, then I fell over a couple of times and really was out of breath for a while. When we saw the Reedbuck, my first shot missed clean, but Brian said "Aim", and that really was the issue there, I just saw the animal in the scope and fired without really paying attention to the sight picture. He ran a few feet and stopped. I took my second shot and spine shot him. Everybody was running up, and I tried to keep up, and I hit a cow hole, and down I went. The rifle got wet, and I really tried to slow down, but it was a real mess. Before my weight loss, I probably would not have been able to even get to the point where I shot him, so an exercise program does help you....



December 12

We looked at some buffalo again, and ended up going for a nice walk looking for a shot at a good Dagga boy. We spent a couple hours, but the wind swirled and they got away from us. We were then driving and saw some Duiker. At this point, we went after them. I finally got a shot, and got one of these little guys. Given how thick the bush is now with all the rain, it was a real challenge. He's not the biggest Duiker, but still a decent one.



As an aside, the bush was really greening up. The rain had really made things move right along. The wild flowers were also blooming all over the place.



We then cut down the last of my leopard baits, and took them to a spot for a hyena bait. We also set up a game cam to know when they came in. We had a shot in the morning at a Warthog, but he would not stand still long enough to get a shot at him. Here is what usually happened- they were running away, and you got a look at the south end of a northbound pig.



That evening, we got a pig that was willing to stand still a second too long, and I got a shot.



We had a bit of game viewing today as well. I did get a chance to see a few animals while the camera was handy, and here are some of them--

Giraffe



Waterbuck



There were Giraffe all over the place, they are considered royal game, and not hunted. The Waterbuck are not normally found in the Masailand, but one of the photo lodges have placed a bore hole, and these common Waterbuck moved in there.



December 13

We went out to check the Hyena set up, and they had not been there yet. We reset things, and went on. However, not too far away, we saw a big lone hyena. After a quick stalk, I had a shot, and hit the heart. He bit himself a few times and fell over. Rather interesting, while the guys had no issues about sticking their hands in a pile of rancid guts for cat baiting, or picking up dead animals elsewhere, they all did not want to pick up or touch the hyena, to the point where they did not want to put him in the truck until Brian and I had picked him up. They really do not like hyena, and it is a real cultural issue. Probably associated with the fact that they just put their dead out in the bush, and have the hyenas dispose of the bodies.



The next thing we tried was to look for Eland. Brian had an idea where they were, so we went and glassed the plain.



We found the herd and started trying to put a stalk on them. We had some difficulties, and stalked them a number of times, got detected, the would run, we would drive to a new spot, try and make an approach, and get blown again. I think we did this a dozen times, and while we would see them, they would bolt before we had a chance at them.

Finally, we got a chance in the early afternoon after chasing them for 5-6 hours. I got a frontal shot at 200 yards and hit it in the aorta, which caused a rather spectacular blood trail, but he was still able to go maybe 3-400 yards.



Given how late we got back, and the relative lack of things to go after with more than a week left, we just hung out in camp that afternoon.

December 14

Over the evening, it rained pretty heavily. We were going to hunt Buffalo, but we were unable to cross the river.



We did get a chance to shoot a Jackal at this crossing, however, as they jumped up just a few yards from us, and ran. About 100 yards away, they paused behind a bush, but I did have a high shot at them. Definitely not a normal trophy, but something not everyone shoots...



That afternoon, we did get out to look for buffalo, and were able to find a nice bull almost immediately. It was almost anticlimactic the way we got him. He stood neat the road, and we got out and looked at him for a while. Brian said "He's really good, I would take him." so I took the offered frontal shot. I shot him 2 times as he ran, and he was down. The insurance was paid, and I had my third buffalo down.



December 15
We spent some time with Ivan and the other clients this morning, as Brian wanted to see the Elephant they got. We then went out looking for Kudu. We saw a Serval cat for a brief second, but by the time the guys got my rifle out of the case, he was gone. We did see 3 immature Kudu bulls, but they were not shootable. The weather started turning wet, and we headed in early after lunching in the field and got back at 6 PM. On the ride back, we did see an impressive rainbow.



December 16

Today we again tried to find a Greater Kudu. We climbed a mountain to glass, namely Mount Wusambu, and while we did not see any Kudu, we did see a number of other animals and got a pretty good case of sunburn.

Oryx



Eland



Brian had talked with a PH on a neighboring concession, and found out that the Wildebeest were over on that concession. He and Ivan had made a plan for all of us to head over to that edge of the concession and look for some on our side tomorrow, if the weather holds long enough for things to dry out and go there.

December 17

We tried going to a different area for the Kudu. There are 2 spots on the concession where they are found. The other area is typically better, but since we were not finding them, we tried this spot. Fairly quickly, we found some. A young bull stood for a while, which is pretty unusual for them.

December 17

We tried going to a different area for the Kudu. There are 2 spots on the concession where they are found. The other area is typically better, but since we were not finding them, we tried this spot. Fairly quickly, we found some. A young bull stood for a while, which is pretty unusual for them.



Later on, we found a pair of mature bulls. We chased them for a bit, and they slipped across a korongo on us. Brian made a plan, and he and I snuck over to a spot that overwatched the area, and then had the trackers walk towards the korongo they were hiding in. The plan worked perfectly, they slipped out and walked right in front of us. I was told to shoot the one on the left, and nailed him. He bolted, and I missed my second shot, and then dropped him with a third shot.



We had a fair amount of rain today.

December 18

The water has put an end to any plan of trying to get a wildebeest. Brian and I are going to try and get a Bushbuck, and if a small cat shows, will shoot that, but really, the hunt is effectively over as of now. I still have an Impala on license, but given I have shot about as good as Impala as you can find here, I said that while I would shoot one for bait or food, that I did not need just to shoot something. I did tell Brian that I had no interest in leaving camp early. Somehow, that idea is just wrong to me. We did see a Serval but well after shooting hours this evening.

There was a real heavy rainstorm during the day today, as well as at night.

December 19

Did a long walk of several korongos looking for a bushbuck. We surprised a hunting Cheetah, saw some Klipspringer, and saw some really nice sights. We also got mired in deep sand in the bottom of the Korongo a couple of times. All in all, a nice 3 hour walk. And, of course, a stuck cruiser. We were getting pretty quick with jacking the cruiser up and getting out.









It rained at night again.

December 20

Did a couple of quick look arounds for Bushbuck again. We were really being restricted by how wet things were and were unable to get to most of the concession. Fortunately, as I did not have much that I could shoot at this point, we were able to take it easy. It rained overnight again.

December 21

The last day of hunting. Albert needed to leave today to get home in time for the holidays. Otherwise, we did a couple of look arounds in the morning and evening, but saw nothing of note. We had a bit of a party at the end of the day.



December 22

We headed back to Arusha and got on our respective planes today. Brian was heading home after a successful season, I was heading home broke, but happy. The picture below shows just how much greener things were at the time I left.

WOW is all I can say. That was truly a hunt of a lifetime! A huge congrats on a wonderful hunt and fantastic trophies...

Wow! Great report. Some beautiful animals there, icluding all three of those buffalo.

Great hunt congrats, Thanks for sharing
Wesley

Fantastic. Congratulations and welcome home.

And, your Uncle Mark is right. You cannot take it with you.

Damn, an entire career of hunting in one hunt. Congratulations on a spectacular experience.

Great adventure, great trophies and pictures

Jim

Congrats on a great safari! I'm sure your Uncle would be happy!
I would love to hunt Masailand someday, what unique trophies.
Your Grant's Gazelle is my favorite
Well done

Spectacular hunt, and hunt report, I have been lucky enough to hunt with Brian, several times, and for my money they just don't get any better.
You did a fantastic job, and had a hunt of a lifetime, your pictures, and report were,great....Congrats, Butch

Charles,

As my friend Tim Herald said "Wow!" Thanks for leting me be a little part of your great success.

Congrats!

Mark

Thanks for a very thorough hunt report and congratulations on a superb safari! Well done... two fine cats and three big buff, the stuff dreams are made of.

Fantastic hunt, what an amazing bag of animals, way to go!

It is nice to see Picts of Lolkisale, especially all nice and green. I missed the early rains, but even so saw lots of game. You hunted in a paradise!

Albert is a neat guy isn't he, big too, did he load half a buff in the truck by himself? Congrats to Brian also, he certainly knows that area well. He looks good with short hair.

This one will be hard to top!

WOW!! Tons of great animals and photos....

I would love to see more photos of that Eland!!

All one can say is that you had one hell of a hunt!!! Great picyures and enjoyed reading it from the first word through to the end.

WOW! Amazing! Wonderfull! Words just can't describe this Safari!
Congratulations,Your Uncle would be proud of you.
Thanks for the report
Matt

Incredible! I bet your Uncle is smiling down on you.


.

What a GREAT report! Incredible hunt!
Words cannot describe what I think of your lion, so I'll just give it a WOWx10.

GUNS HAVE ONLY 2 ENEMIES-RUST & POLITICIANS

Well done!!! Great bag of trophies. Those buffalo are fantastic...of course, the lion and leopard weren't too bad either!!!

Best regards, D. Nelson

You sure did not leave much behind. Great hunt!!

Now i have to go find a uncle.

Very nice! Thanks for sharing, the photos seemed to make it warmer here in snowy Vermont.

Lots of nice trophies, congrats to you!!!

chuck - hope that your travels home went well , it was great to share a camp with you-

Jeebus, that's one hell of a trip!

Nice buff, lion, leopard....blah, blah, blah.

Pretty amazing, congrats to you on an amazing safari, enjoyed the read and all the pictures.

Safari of a lifetime. Awesome

Fantastic hunt, the gods were with you.

Thanks for all the kind comments!

Ivan, the trip back was no more painful than the usual, always worse going back than heading there!

How did Emirates end up treating you?

Here are some more photos of the Eland...

Amazing. Congrats!
Safari of a lifetime... or hopefully the 2nd best after your next, who knows?

O

That Eland is a classic old bull. What a hunt!

Fantastic trip, thanks for taking the time to post it up.

Congratulations, and thank you for sharing via a great report! I appreciate seeing pics of the area as well as game.

Very proper safari that and congratulations to all involved.

Congratulations! Your next trip is going to have to be very good indeed to beat this one!

Pete

Thanks for sharing! I showed my wife this hunt report; she said you're not going to Tanzania until I go to Hawaii!!!

Hawaii here we come

Congratulations on an outstanding hunt and a wonderful story. Your uncle is proud of how you spent your inheritance!

You forgot the pic of the 80# elephant.

Amazing safari - congratulations!

Awesome hunt, great trophies and a great way to honor the memory of your Uncle Mark!

Another Wow from me - what an amazing mix of animals and 3 Buffalo!!

Looks great country to hunt in as well.

I'm sure that somewhere your uncle Mark is smiling. First class trip (and report).

Dean

Great report and trophies! Thanks for sharing.

ddj