Folks,

I've had some great hunters this year and the two guys in the report below need to be acknowledge for their fortitude. Their leopards did not come easy and many might have just given up as there were so many frustrating "All Mosts".

Mark

Booking Agent - Mark Young & Sadie Hockenhall - Mark's Exclusive Adventures
Outfitter - Johnny & Laura du Plooy - Muchinga Adventures
PH - Billy Miller
Friends PH - Jody Higgins
Hunt Dates - 23rd June - 6th July 2019
Area - Mulobezi GMA, Kafue, Zambia
Rifles - .375 H&H Chapuis Double Rifle / Blaser R93 .300 Weatherby Magnum
Ammunition - .375 H&H Hornady 300 Gr DGX / .300 WM 150 Gr GMX
Bow - Elite Hunter 70lb Draw / Garmin A1i Bowsight















Introduction -

Following a very successful archery Elk / Whitetail hunt that I booked with Mark in 2018, I started discussions with him about a hunt for a friend and I in Africa. Leopard was my main interest and my friend was considering either Leopard or Elephant. It was great having Mark's experience and contacts to look at varying different options, especially as due to my friends work commitments the hunt would have to take place mostly in the month of June. To cut a lot story short we ended up going for a 2x2 Leopard hunt in Zambia. Mark always spoke very highly of the du Plooys and I can now see why. Although their main area is the Chifunda GMA on the Luangwa river, they only had one leopard license left for '19, however Johnny and Laura had a good contact with the owner of the Mulobezi GMA in the Kafue, as well as a couple of PH’s who had hunted there previously. Mark, Laura and Johnny were very open and honest about the area, they did suggest that it may not be as game rich as some of their other areas but that the Leopard hunting there is very good. All I will say is if they suggest Mulobezi isn’t so game rich, I would love to see their areas on the Luangwa.

The travel process was very smooth to Lusaka. Jamie who deals with MEA’s logistics was brilliant and made sure everything was in place. We took a small charter from Lusaka to an airstrip near the Kafue national park and then drove the last two hours into the area, partly through the national park which allowed us an immediate feel for the area.

We arrived at Camp just before dark, this was pretty impressive considering we left at 20:05 Zambian time and arrived at 19:00. The camp was great and just perfect for us. Nothing flash but in a nice setting over looking the somewhat dry Mulobezi river with a couple of fresh burns beyond the river which regularly had game on them. The camp was clean and comfortable and very private with 5 en suite chalets, and a main lodge for dining etc.

Day 1 :

The first day started with the customary check of our rifles a couple of Km’s up river. Everything had survived the travel and all was in good order. I even brought a couple of pieces of foam from an old target so I could check my bow too. On the way up the river we came across game immediately after leaving camp, Defassa Waterbuck, Impala, Reedbuck and Liechtenstein Hartebeest were seen even in the short drive to the range. It was a great sight and good for us to see, it really gave a positive feeling to the start of the hunt.

During that first morning Billy & I discussed the plans for the hunt and what I wanted to achieve from the hunt. I explained to Billy that my passion has really become bow hunting, however I also realise that we are on a Leopard hunt and that we must not lose focus on that just because of the bow hunting. In fairness Billy was quick to admit that he hadn’t guided a lot of bow hunters however he said that he was looking forward to the challenge and we would make the most of opportunities with the bow when possible. I can tell you now that Billy was a top draw PH for a bow hunter and a lot could be learnt by other PH’s from him, the reason being very simple, his attitude. From the word go he was positive, he pushed me to hunt with my bow and he took the challenge on. Even throughout the hunt there were times when I said should we just take the rifle - to which I got a look from Billy that I quickly realised meant “why would you take the easy option.”

The first morning had us driving around the area doing some exploring to see what the game was doing. Although the east of Zambia had experienced fantastic rains this year, the Kafue was very much the opposite. There had been a bad drought and the signs were quickly clear of that. Very little water, not too much grass and the game was concentrated to dambos with water sources still in them. The first dambo we visited was on the Kantente river, this quickly became a favourite haunt over the two weeks for Billy and I. Not only did the top part of the river look like Leopard paradise, the bottom part had a large open dambo that look. After stalking down a dambo in the long grass we came to 76m of the bull which was now slowly grazing towards us, he was obscured by a bush but close to coming clear, he needed one more step when a cow further down busted us and took off. The bull soon followed, I was disappointed being so close and although he was a nice bull, Billy said he was actually happy as he felt we could do better in such a good area. To give you an idea Billy estimated that bull at 41-42 inches.

The first day was one of the few that we returned to camp for lunch. Although it was nice when we did, sat in the shade looking out over the river and burns watching game seems a very apt way to spend lunch in Africa. After lunch we headed off to explore some new areas, it wasn’t long before we spotted a small grysbok move through some long grass and into the edge of the forest. We weren’t sure how many opportunities we were going to get at Grysbok because of the cover so on this occasion we took the rifle and followed. After a short stalk, Billy spotted the buck and gave the thumbs up, saying its a nice male. The Grysbok then worked his way slowly left and came into a shooting lane, a small bark and he stopped and I made a good shot. The first animal in the salt, not much bait but a great trophy to start the trip. I do appreciate these small antelope of Africa and even this fella with just two inch horns makes a smart trophy.

After taking some photos we carried on our way, in the morning we had seen some Oribi but nothing mature enough worth taking, then we came to this large burn surrounded by long grass and out in front of us stood two Oribi. One was a nice mature ram and we discussed options, part of the discussion was, we are looking for bait and we have just taken a Grysbok and now we are looking at Oribi, anyway we said as its day one we will give it a shot. We worked our way around the burn using the long grass for cover and to be honest the Oribi were pretty relaxed and didn’t take long to settle down again. After a short stalk I came to the edge of the grass, however the Oribi were still a little ways out, I was also unsure of how much these African antelope would jump the string. Anyway using a lone bush I slowly crept closer and closer, when I reached the bush I ranged the ram at 74m, they were slowly feeding to the left so I decided to move around the bush and then I should have a 70m shot. I had got into position without these small antelope being aware of my presence so I took my time, drew and squeezed off. I must admit I was expecting them to jump the string, but there was no reaction to the shot initially and the next think I saw the arrow strike the ram, slightly back but certainly fatal. It is hard to say whether it was my shot which was slightly back or whether at the last moment the ram jumped, however I was happy, my first archery animal on this trip and a good confidence boost for us all.

After we had finished with the Oribi time was ticking and we decided to head back in the direction of the lodge. We saw more hartebeest and also roan on the way back but never in a suitable place for a stalk. We did see a small herd of sable with what looked like a nice bull with them, it was certainly worth a closer we next discovered was one seriously disappointed Leopard, just meters from the spring from the rough grass appeared a big female cat, she must have been laying there in wait, and just at that critical moment we turned up and spoilt the party. We did make up for it though, as for the next couple of days she proceeded to feast on our Waterbuck haunch we had hung in the tree not too far away. It was another special moment during this safari, to see a Leopard at 10am in the open is not something everyone is going to witness. The rest of the day we went to explore some new spots both for plains game and potential leopard sites. Again we saw game but apart from a big common reedbuck, we didn’t really see much worth hunting so it was a quiet and relaxing afternoon for all of us on the cruiser.
That was the end of a rather eventful first day, and although we didn’t have any bait as such we had certainly laid the foundations for a great safari.

Day 2 :

We started off just after daybreak which was about 7am. The plan was much the same as the morning before, we would head up the river for a few Km’s and see what was happening there and then head on a similar loop as the day before. We saw game again from word go but nothing that really got us excited, we did see one waterbuck who was fairly good and got me pretty excited but Billy was of the opinion it was just a bit young, no dramas and off we went. It wasn’t long before we came to our favourite dambo, again there were Kudu and Waterbuck grazing away. This time though the Waterbuck were on our side and in a more promising position, however they had clocked us and started moving slowly into the forest, Billy was much more excited by this bull and said its worth trying to get around them and catch them on the edge of the trees. As we came close to where we thought they may have ended up we bumped a small herd of Kudu just inside the tree line, this wasn’t ideal and thought it may well have scuppered our chances. We decided to hold back and let things settle for a few minutes and carry on, when we started again we hadn’t gone 100m when Billy spotted a Waterbuck cow moving on the edge of the tree line, assuming the bull will be close by we made our way in slowly. Then suddenly Billy froze and pointed out the bull, at first there was some confusion as he was behind a bush, was he standing / laying, was he looking at us or looking away, after a short while it became apparent he was actually laying down looking away from us. Then the usual happened again, wind started swirling and a couple of the cows looked in our direction. The bull then stood up and looked in our direction too, I ranged him at 49m, all his vitals were covered but it looked like enough of a whole above him for the arrow to fly over the branches and drop into his chest. I drew and squeezed, as the arrow left we heard it clip a branch about half way between us and him, for a moment my heart sank and then the bull jumped and I heard a solid thump as the arrow stuck home. I was still nervous but also was quietly confident his reaction was good and the only place really bad the arrow could have ended up from what we could see would have been high. Anyway we sat back and discussed the options, we decided to track him and try and find some sign or the arrow. After a short distance I found the arrow and it didn’t look like I got much penetration, we followed a bit further and there wasn’t a great deal of blood. I now am really starting to think its high, then suddenly the blood started flowing and flowing far too much for a high shot. After a few hundred meters we found the bull laid up, he stood up and I made a finishing next shot at 39m to which he went a few meters and dropped. The first shot wasn’t too bad just a bit far forward, ever since my first visit to Africa I have enjoyed hunting Waterbuck, to take a Crawshay’s Defassa with my bow was amazing and as a result we had bait.

After lunch we caped the bull and then quartered him for bait. That afternoon was spent hanging 3 baits in places we had identified looked like likely Leopard haunts. Hanging baits was certainly time consuming but it was also very exciting, I tried to get involved where possible, learn the reasons why certain things were done and weren’t done, and it was good to step back and visualise a tom jumping in the tree in each of the locations. After all of our preparation work we headed back to the lodge for a relaxing evening knowing we had baits in the tree and excited to see what had happened that night, the following morning.

Day 3 :

The next morning we set off to explore our baits. The first two had drawn blank with no sign, however on approaching the third we were treated to a special surprise. A small family of warthogs crossed the dirt road in front of us and were heading to a small spring. As we rounded the corner and drove down towards the spring the pigs took off up the bank away from us, nothing out of the normal there. However what showed a rare green lush look and was full of game almost every time we passed during the trip. On that morning when we first entered the long dambo we could see game straight away. Kudu cows and some young bulls, a herd of some 20 odd waterbuck with a nice bull, reedbuck and two hartebeest. Billy scanned and suggested we take a closer look at the Hartebeest as they looked like bulls and were in the most suitable place for a stalk with the bow. So off we headed in a loop through the forest along the edge of the dambo to get some cover between us and the grazing animals. The two bulls where feeding near a small clump of trees on the river which we used to get close. After a short stalk we managed to get through the trees unnoticed, when the bulls came into view they were 118m, Billy had a good look and immediately identified one of the bulls as a very good trophy bull, the other he said was an old bull but with a broken horn. It is surprising to say that for really the only time on the trip too much water was a problem, between us and the bulls was a deep pool and there was no way around it without exposing ourselves. We ended up being patient and just sitting down to see what happened, when the usual African thing happened, the wind must have swirled and the bulls became agitated and ended up moving off into the forest. The larger bull made an appearance most days on our trip being in a similar place and often out grazing when we were on our bait checking rounds. There is more of the story later in the report about him and Mr broken horn.

The morning continued with more exploring and we saw good numbers of Kudu, Sable and Chobe Bushbuck on our journey. We had a stalk on a lovely sable bull, but he always had our number from the start, never settling after he had initially spotted us. It was certainly one of the highlights to see so many sable during the trip. They for me are one of the most magnificent looking antelopes and the quality of the bulls was exceptional. If hunting with a rifle I would think in 2 days it would be more than possible to shoot a 42 inch plus old sable bull.

Day 4 :

Having checked the baits and ascertained there was no exciting Tom action we headed back through the Kantente dambo to see if Mr Hartebeest had returned. When we drove through there was no sign but we decided to go right down the river and then come back. We got a little distracted on the way and by the time we had come back and were looking for somewhere to have lunch, a herd of Hartebeest had appeared on the far side of the dambo close to where the bull had been seen previously. It was hard to tell at that distance whether or not the bull was with the herd but we decided it was worth a closer look. The wind this time was perfect and so was the lay of the land, things were set up nicely. However our plan took a bad turn when a loan young bull had decided to leave the herd and wonder up over the ridge, he half saw us and sensed something was up, after a long staring match he decided he had seen enough and ran back to the herd. As he was disappearing over the ridge, we could see further up the dambo that 4 bulls had also come out to feed. Looking over them, Billy was pretty sure that the two bulls from the other day were part of the group. The problem we now had was a rather nervous group of Hartebeest between us and them, as seemed to be the case with most of the hartebeest, they managed to wind each other up and the herd moved off up the dambo and into the trees. Luckily the bulls didn’t seem overly bothered and just carried on feeding up the dambo. We gave them some more time to settle back down and then carried on our approach, when we came to the next ridge we could see that 3 of the bulls had moved off to the left but one had moved into the tree line on the right. It was hard to see which bull it was but we decided to at least have a shot at getting close to him. Billy and I managed to get a bush between us and the bull standing under a shady tree and covered some of the open ground as quickly as possible, I was almost in range when the bull decided he wanted to join the others again and moved away from the tree line. However still with good wind we decided to edge our way closer hoping that he returned, it wasn’t long before I noticed one of the other bulls was walking back towards the loan bull in a rather threatening looking manner. His posture certainly worked and the loan bull headed back towards us, at this point billy pointed out the loan bull was the broken horn bull and that the one looking rather menacing was the big bull from day 1. The reality is when you are bow hunting sometimes you have to take what you are given, not every day were we going to get in range of mature bulls and to have a good old bull in range I would have been crazy not to take the opportunity. However there was another twist, I had the bull ranged at 81m and was sure he was going to stop under the same shady tree again, all prepared I waited as the bull approached and then for no apparent reason he started running past the tree and into the tree line. I managed to get a quick range as he slowed at 86m and barked at him as I drew. In hindsight its not a shot I would take again but the adrenaline was pumping and I felt confident with my bow, the bull stopped and I squeezed holding just above the bulls back with my 80m pin, no reaction to the bow going off except he just turned and looked at me, the next moment the arrow struck him mid body but slightly back and the bull took off. Initially I was worried, its always nerve-racking when you know you have not made the perfect shot but things soon got a lot better. The bull took off on an immediate death run, arced 50m and came back stood looking straight at me. I knocked another arrow, and by the time i looked up again, the bull had crashed to the floor. I must say for all the criticism of bow hunting and broad heads etc especially mechanical broad heads I have rarely seen a bullet placed in the same position have such an immediate effect. It may not have been the big bull but we had an old bull down and with a bow a mature hartebeest was a big hartebeest for us. We arguably had achieved the hardest task of the safari as the hartebeest were certainly the most wary antelope that we tried to hunt on the trip.

Day 5 :

The same plan was made for this morning, check baits but also be aware of potential hunting opportunities on the way. The same female had fed again and also another female, and we found a large Tom track in an area that looked really good next to a large thicket, so we ear marked this for a place we could move one of the other baits too later in the day. There was an ongoing joke in camp between myself and my friend / our PH’s regarding game we had seen and where we had seen it. It went along the lines of whenever one asked, “oh where did you see that” the response came back “in the bush”. This was very much lighthearted and only played out in less serious requests for information during the trip, as we really did work as a team of 4 during the whole hunt. On the night of day 3 whilst sitting around the campfire and enjoying the tales of each others day, my friend and Jody said how they had seen a seriously good warthog in one of the dambos, of course when we asked where we got the standard response of “in the bush”. At the time we didn’t really take much notice and on Day 4 they actually shot a really nice old boar themselves so that was that. However on Day 5 we ended up going to check one of their baits for them as they had gone to the far end of the concession to look for Leopard sign and maybe hang a new bait. We had finished checking their bait which had no action and were on our way back to check another one of our baits when we saw two warthogs in a dambo alongside one of the tracks. At first glance there was a clear size difference between the two and we assumed it was a sow and piglet, and therefore didn’t take a great deal of notice. Also to mention I had shot some nice warthogs before and it wasn’t at the forefront of my mind during this trip. It was only when we came closer that we slowed the vehicle and soon realised that just with our eyes at some 100m one looked like it had a lot of tusk showing, Billy stopped the car and immediately on raising his binoculars said that looks like a seriously good boar. We didn’t stop long as they started making their way into the grass, we drove on a little ways and parked the car. Then we quickly took the rifle and sticks and made a hasty retreat back up the track, only to round the corner and see the two boars making their way almost into the forest some 190m away. I quickly set up the sticks and found the big boar at the front of the two, I only had a few meters left before the disappeared, i barked almost instinctively having hunted roe bucks for most of the summer back home and got know reaction, as they were quartering away just enough I decided to just hold on the boars nose and squeeze off, he dropped on the spot with a perfect bullet to the back of the shoulder. Billy and I smiled and enjoyed the moment, there is something about all pigs which makes them exciting and fun to hunt and this was certainly the case again even though it was a short affair. I of course had seen the boar closely in the scope but to be honest hadn’t really studied him anymore than just seeing he was a very nice boar, it was only when we approached him when I realised how special a boar I had just shot, never had I seen anything like the enormity of this boar. He was also almost perfectly symmetrical and was just a stunning beast, certainly I was relieved that we had made the decision to take him. It turned out he was 14.5 & 15 inches boiled out. The even better news was that evening in camp we had the last laugh, when we told them were we had shot this fantastic boar, it was exactly where they had seen him just two days before. I was very relieved my friend had already shot a good boar at that point.

Having sorted the boar we were then back on track to check our last bait of the day, when we rounded a corner, actually in the same place we had seen two nice male lions the day before, I spotted a nice bushbuck ram, it took me a few trips to Africa to finally connect with a bushbuck in the cape last year and I have always loved the way they behave and act, as well as the challenges of hunting them. I took my bow and off we went in pursuit, after a slow and careful stalks spotted the ram under some dark trees, I quickly ranged him at 35m and held just on the bottom of his shoulder. I have always found that 30-50m seems to be the worst ranges for animals jumping the string so this was why I held a touch low, as I was certain he would sit a bit, I drew and squeezed, the shot looked good most of the way but the sound wasn’t quite right and the bushbuck ran into the thicket. I asked Billy if he dropped on the shot and he said he didn’t think he moved at all, I was then a bit concerned so opted to take the rifle immediately on the follow up. The first thing we did was round the bush to see if we could see him, this was a good option as I suddenly caught a glimpse of him and then he bolted across a small open section of dry grassland. I was still unsure and although he moved well I decided to take him running with the rifle, its not something I like to do however I have done a fair amount of driven hunting both in the field as well as in training cinemas, so I felt confident, thankfully luck was on my side and I made a good shot and the bushbuck took the shot and tumbled some 20m later just at the edge of the thicker bush. On arriving it was lucky I did take the shot, the arrow shot was just low on the shoulder and it could have been touch and go whether the ram would have survived going forward. The result was good though, a nice mature Chobe bushbuck ram and the second animal of the day.

We headed for the last bait but nothing had hit it, so we decided to take this bait down. We had a Waterbuck and Bucharest in the tree and Billy wanted to try something smaller, he liked Warthog for baiting however I had decided to take a life-size of the boar so that was difficult so we went for bushbuck as we could cape him quickly. On the way back to camp we took a slight detour to an area where Billy had a big Tom feed on another bait the previous year on the next door concession. When we scouted the area along the river we found a well used spring with lots of game in the vicinity and we both felt good about the area straight away, so then the usual process of just trying to find the right tree was next. It took some time and a lot of bush bashing in Billy’s cruiser but eventually we found the right place and the bait was hung. Even though it was such an eventful day we were back in camp early for some good refreshments and to watch the sun set. This was also a big relief to the skinners who had also been landed with a beautiful old sable bull that my friend had shot that day.


Day 6 & Day 7 :

These days followed much of the same pattern, checking baits, looking for Tom tracks and seeing if we could find anything else interesting to hunt. We had a few attempted stalks on Baboons, Impala etc with the bow but apart from that nothing really presented a good opportunity apart from species that we had already taken. It was really at the stage of the hunt where we decided we had enjoyed some great hunting but it was now crunch time for the Leopard hunting and we had to give that 100% focus and attention.

Day 8 :

It was much of the same story this morning, we checked one of our baits and saw a big kudu which we attempted to stalk with the bow however he ventured away from his cows and by the time we had got there he was well into the bush on the other side of them so we decided to back out and carry on. We were on our lucky dambo heading to the bait we hung the night before and we saw a huge Sable bull, he was just magnificent stood in the early morning sun, I had already shot a sable bull with my bow and on arriving in Zambia I wasn’t sure if I was going to look to take another one. However with the challenge of the bow and the excitement of such a prestigious animal its always hard to not say, why don’t we just have a go. Now that sounds halfhearted but believe me after a few steps into the stalk it was 100% concentration as instinct just took over. Unfortunately when we came to where we had last seen the bull feeding he was know where to be seen, we scouted the area some what but there was so many tracks and then the long grass it was virtually impossible to see where he had gone so we decided to retreat again and try and regain leopard focus.

We then arrived at our bushbuck bait and at first we couldn’t make out with the morning sun in our eyes what the situation was, at first the skirt looked untouched, then maybe, then we noticed that the bushbuck or what was left of it was actually sitting on top of the branch. Billy seemed to get excited and we headed to the base of the tree. It was typical that this was the first bait we didn’t have a trail camera on so it was very much the traditional way of looking at tracks. Initially hopes faded when we could clearly see several average size leopard tracks which they indicated as female, however then the tracker pointed out two tracks and immediately even I could see this looked more serious, the track was best part twice the size of the female and bigger than anything we had seen. The discussions then began, the tricky part was, Billy said by the number of tracks at the base of the tree from the female it looks as though she has done most of the feeding and that he maybe didn’t even get in the tree and if he did then he most likely only jumped in once. Billy said normally in this instance, especially as we had another bait to check he would prefer to leave a camera and see what happens tonight, however the hunt was ticking on and a couple of the females we had feed, only fed for 1 or 2 nights before stopping. In the end we decided to take a punt, rush and check our other bait and then get back as quickly as possible to build a blind and sit that evening. Therefore off we headed to the other bait nothing there and so we headed back, collecting everything we needed to build a blind on the way. I have always been impressed by the African bush craft but the way these guys built this blind, not only the detail, but the speed, with natural resources and incredibly quietly was just amazing it was really a very special part of the whole experience.

After all the excitement and running around it was 16:45 and we were in the blind sitting for Leopard, it really felt real now and the reality started to set in, that maybe shortly I was going to have to be on top of my game to make arguably the most important shot of my life to ensure the safety not only of myself but Billy and our great team. It was a quiet first 45 minutes but just after 17:30, Billy raised his hand slowly and signaled their was a cat in the tree, not long after I could hear a cat scratching at the skirt, at this moment I slowly peered past my scope and could see a cat in the tree eating what remained of the bushbuck. My instinct was that it wasn’t a big cat, but I was still hopeful, however a couple of moments later Billy turned to me and mouthed “female’. As disappointing as it was, it was also incredibly special to actually sit and watch a cat feed just 40m away in the last of the African sun, its certainly something I will never forget. As the light was fading and hopes of our Tom showing up were also fading, the female left the tree, we were unsure had she heard / seen us what happened. Not long after there was a commotion behind the blind, Billy said later that it was a Leopard. At first he thought it was her and that she had come to investigate however not 5 minutes later she was back in the tree feeding away happily. In hindsight Billy thought it was unlikely it was her, as if she had spooked so dramatically as the cat behind us had then its unlikely she would have walked straight up to the tree and jumped back in. Therefore we assumed it was our Tom, the doubts now started running, had we blown it, should we have held off and let him feed. It wasn’t long then until dark and we radioed for the cruiser to come and fetch us and we headed back for camp.

Back at camp we discussed what we should do, however in the end we decided to go and sit again, the female was feeding confidently we were pretty sure he was back and in the area and at the end of the day, there is a lot of fun in sitting so why not, its better than sleeping thats for sure.

Day 9 :

Off we set at 4am for our hour long drive to the blind, it was really cold that early in the morning, for me its one thing but I am used to it but I felt for the guys on the back at 0 degrees c. Anyway the good thing was they got to go and build a fire once they had dropped us off. That morning was quiet and we heard nothing, the bait had clearly been hit pretty hard that night however the camera revealed that no sign of our Tom in the tree at least. Disappointed but not disheartened we set off to check our baits and do our usual rounds. However it was a quiet night all around for the cats and nothing showed up on our other baits. We decided to move a couple and then head back to camp and relax for the day and catch up on some sleep before we decided to sit again that evening and see what happened.

The evening soon came and we were back in our blind ready to go at 16:30. Much like the night before the evening was quiet and it stayed that way until the light started to fade when at 18:00 again a cat jumped in the tree. There were a few anxious moments when again we hoped it was the Tom but sadly not it was again the female. She fed and then soon 18:30 came and the car arrived and we left and headed back to camp.

It was again an dinner full of deep discussions between us all as to what was the best way forward. We decided in the end that we wouldn’t go to the blind in the morning but instead leave it quiet and see if that made a difference.

Day 10:

We arose on the 10th day somewhat subdued, we had a Tom at least near a bait but couldn’t really get him in the tree and certainly not when we were there and my friend had also had several different females feed and also Tom’s walk close to baits but they just wouldn’t feed like normal. However this was supposedly much of the same story as Billy and some of his friends had found so far this season in Zambia.

We decided to check our other baits first as if one of them had been hit then we would need to build a blind and that would be time consuming so better to start early. There was nothing new on the other baits so we headed back to our bait at the blind, on our way we saw a fantastic old male lion. A couple of the other lions we had seen were nice lions but this was the best we had seen by far, even to me he looked old, he just looked like a dark warrior. It was amazing to see him and get relatively close to take some nice photos of him laying out in the dry dambo.

When we arrived and checked our camera sure enough, yes you guessed it at 07:36 Mr Tom spots was sat in the tree. He hadn’t fed all night at that bait, despite him looking extremely full in his belly but he had a good 20 minute feed before leaving that morning. What a boost this was for us, not only to see him and just confirm it was a Tom the second Leopard but also to see him in the tree in daylight. With this boost we set off back to the lodge to relax and prepare ourselves for another evening sit.

One thing I haven’t been mentioning is that every night before we go to the blind and sit I would take a test shot with the rifle just to check. I found it not only sensible but also extremely reassuring, not only are you keeping yourself familiar with your rifle but also eliminating anything that could have happened to your rifle in the previous 24 hours, which when driving on those tracks and the rifle not always in your immediate possession could be many things.

Again we were sat back in the blind at 16:30 waiting for our cat to turn up and sure enough at 17:45 a cat jumped in the tree but again it was the female. We sat patiently and again enjoyed watching her feed away, although there was no doubt that she appeared more nervous tonight. There was a bit more wind and this could have been the reason but something seemed different. Just as time was running out and dark was approaching she left the tree, we thought this is just normal until just a few minutes later there was an almighty commotion by the tree and the sound of cats snarling and chasing followed. Surely our Tom had turned up… 5 minutes later a cat jumped in the tree. We were sure it was him, it looked bigger, its head looked bigger but the light had defeated us, and with the upmost respect for his decision Billy said we just cant shoot. However it did turn out to be our cat and even though we didn’t know this until the following morning we were confident and again it gave us more positive feelings.

Day 11 :

The next morning we were back in the blind with our renewed hope. It wasn’t 10 minutes after the car left we were treated to more exciting Leopard blind behaviour. Just from our right we could hear a cat coming into the bait not so much calling but more snarling and hissing as it came, surely this was our Tom. After some minutes the cat jumped in the tree and started to feed, snarling away, crunching bones a completely different behaviour to that of the female that had fed before. It was just starting to break light and we were hoping our cat would hold on when suddenly all went quiet. Then just minutes later we could hear scratching on trees and scrapping on the bush floor, we were sure that our Tom had fed. We sat deadly still hoping he was just taking a break and that he would be back. Some minutes later again there was growling and a commotion, then silence. One hour we sat in the blind with no a sign or peep more. This was getting unbearable. After a bit more time we decide to leave it again until the evening and call the cruiser. When the cruiser comes they tell us that the Tom’s tracks are walking down our entry road after we had come in this morning, which was a great surprise as we said well he was in the tree. However something that really shocked us, was when we watched the footage it was the female in the tree and not the Tom. However what also was clear is that he was never far away, hence her behaviour, hence him marking, hence another fight and also his tracks down the road. He hadn’t fed again that night, surely wherever he was feeding has got to run out soon we were thinking. Anyway one thing is for sure this was just an amazing exciting experience, even if we weren’t hitting the jackpot.

Off we went to check our baits anyway just in case and of course my friend was still looking for a cat. We hadn’t gone far from our blind when we saw a really good common reedbuck, it wasn’t in a great position and I was hesitant of wasting time but Billy said lets have a good. Anyway we got into a dry river bed and made our way closer, when we popped out the ram was in long grass looking in our direction at 80m or so. Again I was a little hesitant but Billy said lets go a bit further along and get out to that anthill and see what happens. Sure enough Billy made a good call and when we go to the anthill I ranged him at 70m or so but he was moving to our right which was slightly closer and most importantly some slightly shorter grass. I ranged a bush that he was going to pass close by at 60m. He slowly but surely moved towards the bush and eventually passed just behind the bush at I guess 62-3m. When he stood to look forward I drew slowly in the shadows and settled the 60 pin 2/3rds up his body and squeezed, this was probably the most time and the best feeling I had about a shooting opportunity all trip with my bow and really wanted to make it count. I squeezed the trigger and the arrow flew and thumped into the ram, he took off and after only a few meters I could see blood pumping out of the ram, not 30m from the shot he spun around stood for a couple of seconds a toppled over. On arrival at the shot sight we found the arrow and the signs showed what we already knew that the shot was good, we followed up the short distance anyway and came to the fantastic ram. He was old and a really good trophy and the shot was perfect. Its not very often whilst spot and stalking with a bow you get time to set yourself like I did in this instance but I am glad I made it count.
It was another bonus to an already amazing trip, and a big thanks to Billy for pushing me into this one as without him we would have been racing around checking baits. Again there wasn’t much interesting sign on our travels to our baits, some new fresh tracks on the roads and sightings of lots of different game but we were really in Leopard mode now. Again back for lunch and again back to the blind for 16:30… could tonight be the night…

Again you guessed it at 17:45 our female friend jumped into the tree again to feed. Also to mention we were now on warthog & sable with a few bushbuck bones… she had a good menu so no wonder she kept coming back. Again she seemed nervous and tonight was a very still evening, so we guessed that by now it was probably more to do with the presence of the Tom. Just after 18:00 we heard some noise behind the blind and with that she jumped out the tree. Just a minute or so later there was another fight and the sound of leopards running and growling whilst chasing each other right past the blind is fairly interesting lets say, you just hope one doesn’t choose to try and hide in your blind. When the dust had settled we heard some noise back at the bait tree, more scratching and scraping and then suddenly the sound of a leopard clawing at the bait. I slowly got ready again and Billy observed. The cat was laid in a slightly awkward position so we couldn’t see “his batteries” as the guys loved to say but it looked like him for sure. He fed for a couple of minutes then he stood up to leave and walk along the branch, in the fading light I saw a glimpse of “his batteries” I said “okay” no response from Billy. I then asked again and no response. Then just as the cat went to look forward to step down Billy said “okay”. I was ready and I squeezed off. The cat jumped into the air and went crashing off through the bush growling and snarling. After a few seconds all went quiet, Billy asked about the shot and I said I’m sure its good on that front shoulder even though he was quartering too a bit. Billy said it sounded a good reaction but just to sit quiet. Before we could even pick the radio up we could hear the car racing in… I’m not sure if this was planned but they were excited and who could blame the guys, they were 5 minutes away from another 4am, 0 degree 1 hour flu injection!!!. The cruiser turned up and Billy and I jumped on the top and we slowly moved forward to the tree and headed in the direction of the final noise from the cat. Then there 15m to the right of the tree lay this incredible beast, all the waiting and the close calls had been worth it, for arguably the best hunting experience I have ever had and certainly the most turbulent in terms of positive and negative emotions. The cat was incredible and the weight in the cat for not an overly big animal is just incredible, they do say muscle weighs. We then loaded the cat and hurried back to the lodge, the excitement of the guys on the cruiser and also back at camp was another amazing experience. The best news of all when we returned to camp was that my friend had a nice Tom feeding too, so their luck was looking up too.

That evening was great, although we didn’t celebrate too much as only half the job was done, it was great to be able to relax a bit and take in all the emotions which we had been through over the past 11 days of our hunt. I think both Billy and I were looking forward to a good nights sleep and a relaxing start to the next morning.

Day 12 :

It was strange waking up in camp with no pressure and such a relaxing feel, it certainly had been growing away from that over the last few days. My friend had left early to check baits and then was planning on sitting that evening. We had agreed we would go check our baits to see if anything else had happened and whilst driving see if anything interesting presented although I was more than satisfied with what we had already achieved.

There wasn’t much happening at the baits and we hadn’t seen much worth looking at plains game wise when we were heading back towards our blind to take that down when we spotted a dark shape in the mopane trees feeding away. At first I thought buffalo because of the dark colour but quickly realised I was dreaming, it was a beautiful sable bull. We watched him feed through the trees some 200m away and it was probably the best bull we had seen all trip. I looked at Billy and he said what do you think. I was half thinking I am done, but then also thinking, if I never come back to this part of Zambia I may well never get the chance to shoot a sable of this size again and especially with a bow. I said come on then lets have a go, the set up was pretty good for us, there was a strong breeze which was quartering from our right and that was going to cover a lot of the sound from the dry bush floor. We started to crawl in and make ground on the bull which had gone behind a large anthill, we had made it to about 100m from where the bull was last seen when suddenly Billy spotted a cow looking at us from our right. Things weren’t looking great at this point, especially when one cow became several and what we thought was a lone bull was actually a herd. We sat tight for several minutes as the bull hadn’t re appeared and they didn’t seem to be moving far. The cows began to somewhat settle and move off to our right so I carried on making ground but edging to the right to try and get between the bull and the herd somewhat. As I came to about 80m of the anthill the bull appeared walking over the corner of the hill and stared in my direction, he was probably wondering what all the cows were checking out. I sat tight for a few minutes and then used a tree to crawl in a few more meters and then decided this was as far as I was going to get and now it was just a staring match. I ranged a bush on our side of the anthill at 75m and waited, eventually the bull started to settle somewhat and he moved right handed just in front of the bush. He then stopped and looked again, I have already clipped onto the d loop and there was a tree a few meters in front of the bull, my plan was when we walks behind this tree I will stand and draw at the same time, hoping as he re appears he catches my movement and will stop in the shooting lane. Sure enough this happened and he stood perfectly broadside, I steadied the bow and squeezed off, the arrow flew and then a solid thump came, the bull lunged and took off. I saw a flash of red as the bull turned and I couldn’t work out if it was a little back or not, either way the bull disappeared off in a cloud of dust into the bush, it turned out the herd was some 50 animals strong. The trackers then arrived and we decided to leave it for 30 minutes, the herd although took off at a fair speed I am sure wouldn’t have gone too far as there isn’t much sound from a bow and just the charging bull probably scared them more than anything.

We went to the shot sight and initially there wasn’t a lot to see although the tracker was pretty confident he had picked up the bull track. After about 10m we found my arrow, or a third of it to be more precise, it had broken off. This made me much happier as I knew the height was good and that the bull hadn’t run past any trees where the arrow could have broken off, so it must have been the force of the shoulder breaking the shaft. Then as we continued to track we started to find a bit more blood and the bull was clearly still going at full tilt which again wasn’t suggesting that he had been hit back. After 250m I looked forward and could see a dark shape, I stopped and thought no its just a shadow or burnt piece of wood, we then walked on, only a couple of more steps I looked again and I could definitely see horns, there he was with a perfect double lung shot, it looked like he had virtually crashed in his tracks. I really couldn’t believe the sheer size of this bull when we came up to him, it was really incredible and simply beautiful, they do have to be one of the most special animals to roam Africa. An exciting hunt and more success with the bow which was certainly great for me and another great memory from the trip.

Exceptional trophies taken with a bow. That gent must surely know how to sling an arrow. Congrats

Andrew,

Johnny said he was the best bow hunter he'd seen since he hunted Steve Kobrine years ago. I believe Steve was the first modern day hunter to take a sitatunga with a bow.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
Andrew,

Johnny said he was the best bow hunter he'd seen since he hunted Steve Kobrine years ago. I believe Steve was the first modern day hunter to take a sitatunga with a bow.

Mark

Very impressive Mark. Do you know if they have taken a lion yet in Mulobezi? Sounds like they saw a couple of good ones on this hunt.

Yes! Jody's client killed a monster lion and tremendous leopard right after my clients left. I think it was the lion my client has mentioned in the above report.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
Yes! Jody's client killed a monster lion and tremendous leopard right after my clients left.

Congratulations one last question..will you see elephants in Mulobezi?

As I recall they did see elephant. I'll check on that.

Mark

Checked. They did see ele but only at night.

Mark

Great write up. Mark your clients did very well. Excellent trophies and awesome stories for them to tell. Congrats
Bruce

Mark, thanks for the report. I'm really getting excited about next year hunting with the du Plooys. During my trip last month, I met 4 people who either knew or had hunted with them and all were very high on them.

Randy,

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the amount of game you'll see in Chifunda as well as lots of elephant. The river makes quite a huge difference in game densities.

Mark

Congratulations great hunt thanks for sharing

Wow! Leopard with a bow... great trophy the hard way. Well done.

quote:

Mark, thanks for the report. I'm really getting excited about next year hunting with the du Plooys. During my trip last month, I met 4 people who either knew or had hunted with them and all were very high on them.

Never hunted Chifunda but hunted with the Du Plooy's twice. Once in Nyaminga and then in Tondwa. They are great hosts. You should have an excellent safari!

Fantastic trophies, congrats to the hunters.

That Warthog is so huge it almost looks Photoshopped! I’ve killed a few really nice warties in my five trips to Namibia, but that beast makes mine look like piglets

I was in camp at the same time as both of these guys. We came in for five days in the middle and saw one cat, Jody took his after we left. Both of these guys and their respective ph’s worked hard running a ton of baits. We checked some for them as well. They had SOOO many close calls.
We were there for only five days after sable and other things. There is good amounts of game there, my hunting buddy shot 7-8 species in five days! We left there and worked our way thru Kafue flats and onto Chifunda. There is WAAAYY more game in Chifunda! Place is amazing. Mulobezi is good, just that Chifunda is outstanding.
We saw no elephants during our five days and little sign. Also saw no buffalo and little sign. I believe they move in later in year.
Camp was nice and food excellent.
We had 4 hunters going out daily. We saw leopard hunters occasionally as they were of course driving and checking baits. It was necer a hinderance.

Very good report. Nice the way the
game pictures are posed too. Can tell
the size of things this way.

Leopard question: "Most spotted cats
are being held up, or slung over a
shoulder.
I've wondered if they have fleas like
our coyotes and if the folks handling
them get the bugs doing so"

Thanks,
George

George, I held a Kafue leopard a week ago. No fleas or ticks were transmitted. I'm sure there were at least ticks on him.

Congrats to the hunter. Archery in that crunchy terrain would be tough. Huge warthog.

Jeremy