Outfit: Chifuti Safaris
Dates: May 18 - June 1, 2007
Area Hunted: Mariatsoro Fly Camp, Chewore North, Zimbabwe
Conditions: Hot and dry, daytime temps in the 90's, nighttime temps in the 60's and 70's
Very dry for this time of year!
PH: Brent Leesmay
Trackers: Alfred and Davison
Game Scout: Jimmy - he is a good one!
Species Hunted: Leopard, Tuskless Elephant Cow, Buffalo, Hyena, Zebra, Sharpes Grysbok
Rifle: Sterling Davenport .416 Rigby shooting Federal Premium 410 grain Woodleigh Weldcores and solids
Airline: SAA - Washington-Dulles-Jo'burg-Harare

This was my first trip using SAA and the Washington-Dulles connection. And apart from the fact I HATE flying economy on the SAA Airbus, it went fairly smoothly... actually flew bulkhead going over with an empty seat beside me. I met PH Ivan Carter on the plane when he overheard my conversations with another hunter regarding where we were hunting and introduced himself. Ivan and I hit it off immediately and spent some time on the plane and in Jo'Burg at the airport chatting it up. He has some absolutely amazing video of ele and buff hunts he has done on his laptop. I would really enjoy hunting with him some day.

I would also recommend using Gecko Lodge for those of you getting into Zim on the 9:00 pm flight. They helped clear us through customs and gun registration and then swept us off to stay at their nice, comfortable duplexes. In the morning its breakfast and on to your charter with help going through the local airport terminal.

Flight into camp was uneventful and enjoyed visiting with my pilot, Giles on the way out. Super nice man who has endured more than most of us could with the loss of his farm. Seems to be a recurring story in Zim these days.

Spent the first day, prehunt in the Mwanja Camp formerly run by Big 5 Safaris. The Zambezi was roiling due to the release of water at Kariba for hydroelectric power. Seems Bob owes money and uses electricity as barter material...

Later that afternoon the camp manager and I cruised the river by boat and saw lots of bushbuck, kudu, croc, hippo and elephant. I met my PH Brent Leesmay that evening after he finished hunting with our own Jeff Wemmer and he and I headed out to a fly camp near Mariatsoro Gorge the first hunting morning collecting four bait impala and a trophy grysbok on the way to the camp.

A shot of the Zambezi River flowing bank-to-bank

Mwanja Chalet


Zambezi River Elephant Bull



The next two days were spent walking dry river courses and streams looking for tracks and trees to hang baits in. We ended up with six baits hanging after I shot a zebra on day 2 and quartered him for block baits to supplement some impala and alone as a bait in a couple of areas. We tended to go back to trees where leopards had been killed in the past and it is obvious this paid off. We have five leopards on six baits when we finished leopard hunting on day 6. 3 females and 2 males.Some of the areas we hung baits for those of you who have been there... the Chigusa River, the Rutini River, ChekuCheku and Pfumbe, Chetope Springs and Along the Chewore River.

On Day 2, as we checked our bait at ChekuCheku at 8:30 am and glassed the tree, Brent whistled as he mentioned the bait had been demolished. As I lifted my Leicas I stared into the yellow eyes of a leopard. Brent was so busy assessing the bait he missed seeing the cat and a snap of my fingers and low whisper and he checked her out... a female but obviously not what finished the impala! She scooted from the tree and we headed out to collect another impala and made it back to the tree by noon to hang a fresh bait and build a blind... by 2:30 we were set... let the actual cat hunting begin!

At 4:30 that afternoon we were back in the blind and set up about 45 yards from the tree. At 5:30 the baboons let us know he was coming as they begin to bark from the cliffs of ChekuCheku. Brent glassed the tree and then the riverbed and saw the cat sitting on his haunches in the dry riverbed gazing at the bait. He turned and gave me the thumbs up and a smile... we were going to get our leopard on the first evening... at least that was our plan! Ten minutes later he turned and left the way he came. Round 1, the leopard... and so the chess game begins. The next morning we slip into the blind in the predawn darkness... as things slowly lighten he is in the riverbed again but has obviously finished feeding, Brent watches him for a minute or two and the big male calls to the female and they slip away.... Leopard 2 - hunters 0. We ease out of the blind and vow we will get him that afternoon... and begin making the rounds to check other baits.


The next afternoon is a complete bust... he never shows. Talk about feeling low!

The second morning starts with a shocker... as we get in the blind and set up, Brent checks the bait and HE IS IN THE TREE! At least we think it is him, too dark to confirm it is the male we are looking at. I am set, safety off, looking at him through the scope... he stands but Brent cannot confirm he is the male, unfortunately the wrong end of his anatomy is facing us. Brent is almost sure but waits until he turns... when he does he is out of the tree in a flash. All hope for a shot is gone. We wait 15 minutes but realize we let him slip through our fingers... better safe than sorry. As Brent explains the ramifications of shooting a female to me for the 11th time, poor guy, I tell him for the 12th time I understand and it is no big deal. We hope!

Brent has a plan and decides to move our blind location 85 yards further from the tree but with a better view of the riverbed for me. Perhaps I can catch him there and make a shot since he is obviously a morning feeder. We reconstruct the blind and build a brace for me to stand and shoot with some semblance of a rest. Sounds good to me.

That afternoon, NO CAT. We are crestfallen and make the hour drive to camp without saying much. Such is cat hunting. Trying to make a cat do some totally unnatural for him like eating something he didn't kill in an area that smells of humans and making him do it when you want him to do it! Talk about highs and lows!
You ask yourself twenty questions over and over again... should we have moved the blind, have we left too much scent, fed him too much, etc, etc.

The third morning and we move into the blind and follow the same routine, I slip my rifle into the rest, sit quietly and Brent lifts the flap from his side and checks the bait. I see him shaking his head. Damn, what now! Has he not fed this morning? Have we blown it? He leans over and tells me that just as he glassed the limb the leopard eased out of the tree and left. I just sit there... this is going to take some time! Just then, we hear the baboons let loose on ChekuCheku and the leopard begins to grunt.

Brent stands and glasses the riverbed. Slowly leaning over, he whispers to me the leopard is lying in the riverbed under a bush at 2:00 from our position... ever so slowly, I remove my gun from the rest and stand... I spot the cat immediately. He is one of the most magnificent animals I have ever witnessed in my life. Lying in the riverbed he casts a contempful glare in the direction of the baboons and grunts for the female again... Brent is whispering not to shoot until he stands.

After minutes that seem an eternity, he stands and turns to leave... the Rigby barks and I lose him in the recoil... Brent is telling me to shoot again and the cat has moved ten feet and is standing on a rock... the crosshairs settle and the rifle recoils again... we race down the riverbed and walk up to the most beautiful animal I have had the privilege to hunt.

My first shot was lungs, the second spine. As Brent says "Happy days!" Happy days, indeed.

What a camp !!!
Great cat and beatiful rifle..thanks for shearing
L

I really like that shot of the leopard in the sun light, makes him look more orange than yellow. Nice.

Great hunt!! Congrats!!

JPK

Nice report. Congratulations.

Kyler

Good report. Sounds like a fun hunt, and a great cat. Nice photos.

Congratulations,

A tremendous cat!!!

Mike

Well done. Its truly a great TOM.

Seloushunter

Very nice! What plans do you have for the cat?

Great story and a gorgeous cat, Congratulations. Say, I noticed you had a Leupold on your 416. Can you tell us what type, magnification and crosshairs and more importantly, how was it's low light performance. Thanks, jorge

Congrats on a great hunt! Damn clever of Brent to move the blind so you could see the riverbed, I probably would have told him he was crazy if he thought we'd get that lucky, but it worked so good for him. This is the first I have heard of anyone anywhere getting two cracks at a leopard, it's always slam a home run with the first whack or your out. Is that an exit wound from the spine shot at the hindquarters in the second pic? BTW nice rifle and good shooting!

Bwana, what a great hunt and well told story. It was riviting.

Russell,

Now you see what leopard hunting is. It definitely is something you can't fully appreciate until you've done it.

Beautiful tom and hunted properly. Congrats!

Mark

Thanks for the compliments all. Jorge, the scope is a Leupold 1.75x6 and I could make the shot until around 6:10 to 6:15 in the evening. After that I could still see the cat because we would have him against the white river sand, but I couldn't tell precisely where the crosshairs were. An illuminated crosshair system might have bought me 5 minutes but in the National Parks, cats can only be shot 30 minutes before sunrise and 30 minutes after sunset... which our game scout usually said was 6:15 pm.

Don't know why the cat didn't drop at the shot or haul ass after the first shot through the lungs unless he was confused and shocked... because of the acute angle of the second shot, the bullet hit him just above the hips, drove the length of the body and came to rest in the oppsite side of the shoulder a bit down the leg. I actually recovered that bullet. Remember I was shooting down and at a hard right angle with the cat at a hard quarter away.
Brent and I scratched our heads quite abit on the cat's reaction to the shot... you just never know what an animal will do!

Mark: your right! Cat hunting is like big game fishing for marlin. Lots of prep, lots of nasty bait, lots of boredom and then 15 minutes of white knuckled action! It could be addicting... now if I save my pennies for lion...

blufin: full body mount!

Thanks, Bwana. I use the same scope on my 375 and found that with the heavy duplex, I could squeeze a few more minutes out of it. Then at the recommendation of my PH, I installed a 3.5X10X50mm (puke) with an illuminated reticle and that seems to help even more. Congratulations again and that is also a very nice looking rifle. jorge

Day 7 was set to be an easy one. We were going to take all the baits down since it is required on National Parks land and then haul the nasty mess to a suitable site for baiting hyena. I really can't describe the smell of the truck after six days of cat hunting, toting baits and the gut bucket, but folks who have experienced it are probably suffering a small wave of nausea remembering that odor!

We stopped at Chetope Springs to drop the first bait on our loop and were confronted with the tracks of two dagga boys leaving the springs just mere minutes ahead of us... smoking hot spoor and the moist sand where they dribbled water confirmed they were close. Now, do we mess with the bait or track buffalo. Easy decision.

45 minutes of expert tracking by Davison and Alfred and we could hear oxpeckers churring in front of us. We leave the guys behind and Brent and I leave the tracks, gain a slight bit of elevation and swing around to get the wind and angle on the bulls.

We find him 30 yards away... glaring at us through the thick jess. Brent sets up the sticks but all I can see is eyes and boss. The buff knows something is there but can't figure us out. He snorts and throws his head... advancing slightly. I whisper to Brent at this point I can brain him. Brent asks if I can drop lower and find a lane to shoot him through the chest. But I can't, just too thick. Luckily, I have a 410 grain Woodleigh solid up the spout and as the bull tosses his head again he positions where I can see his entire head... I again suggest a brain shot and Brent hesitantly tells me to take it. As the rifle comes down from the recoil, the first thing I see in the scope are buff legs in the air. We rush in and put an insurance shot in the old boy but it is a formality at this point... he is a grand old man, past his prime and absolutely huge in body. It has been a great day and it's only 7:30am.





There are lots of buff in Chewore North. We encountered big herds on numerous occasions and kakuli tracks around most water sources. For those of you headed over for buff... you won't be disappointed with the opportunities. I enjoy tracking the bachelor herds and this is what Brent preferred but we followed several herd for photos and just to see what type of bulls were with the herds.

Chifuti absolutely wants only mature bulls taken and they are trying to gather data about the Chewore herds this year so be prepared to list where you took your bull, was he in a herd or not, estimated age, etc. This will pay off in the future as they really want to move away from shooting younger herd bulls who may score better and put the pressure on the old boys! I saw one mature bull pushing 38" but most bulls were heavy bossed and a bit narrower. One bull was broomed to about 32" and had a literal helmet of a boss! Alas, I had already shot my bull.



One last thing of note, we were surprised this bull acted as belligerent as he did, especially since his buddy ran from us on our approach. You will see a huge abcess on his stomach just forward of his sheath in the top photo. After cutting up the old boy the skinners found one of my bullets... and an old .416 solid from a few years back! I brought it home with me as a unique souvenir of time well spent in the bush and marveled that this bull had already had one trophy fee paid on him before I shot!

Great bull and great shot! right on the button. Love the horns, looks like the old boy polished them just for you jorge

bwanamrm,

Thanks again for a fine report and wonderful photos

Hamdeni

Bwanamrm, great shot on the buff, I guess you could say you missed the bulls eye, but hit the "bulls-eye"!

I'm carrying 416 Rigby on my up coming Leopard hunt and I have about settled on woodleigh bullets but that second shot left one gaping entrance hole. Is there any chance the bullets hit something before it got to the tom?

RayRay,
The only thing Brent and I concluded is that when the bullet hit the spine a fragment of bone must have enlarged the entry... we thought the same... too damn big for an entrance wound but the autopsy proved otherwise. The other entrance wound was .416 diameter and the exit slightly bigger.

After the buff we spent the day pulling baits down and loading them in the cruiser to use as hyena baits... in 11 trips I have heard plenty of hyenas but have never seen one, much less gotten a shot. Brent was determined to change that and he did!

We found a nice little valley 3 kilometers from camp with a dry watercourse snaking through it and hung all the nasty leftover leopard bait in a tree. We then built the mother of all hyena blinds on a hill overlooking the sight. No detail was overlooked as the blind was built and the guys spent as much time on this blind as they did the one for leopard, even sweeping the path clean for an early morning sneak into the blind.

The next three days saw me collect a huge civet, and not one, but two hyenas on successive mornings! How about that for breaking the hyena drought!

A nice civet!

Bait tree and it's victim!

First Hyena.

Hyena #2

Congratulations on an outstanding hunt!

Your leopard is absolutely georgous and the Civet is a true monster.

What more could you want from a Safari!

bwanamrm,

That's a huge civet.
Which caliber did you use on the hyenas and the civet?

Hamdeni

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Let's get to the cow!

Russell- what a blast!! Love the Leopard and that Civet is huge! Way to go!! I'm with Will. let's hear about the Ele real soon.

John

Right between the lookers!

quote:

Nice shootin'!

Great report and pics so far...looking forward to the ele and the conclusion.

Cheers,
Canuck

Russell, another fantastic trip! Man, you got some great picts. Beautiful leopard and civet. I really like that skull-cap buff. Congratulations.

Bwanna,

Absolutely the largest civet I have seen and generally they are not that easy to get. Hope you have a full body mount planned for the "cat".

Any word on the tuskless ele!

Dak

Russell, give them a week or two before you tell the cow ele story.

You really brought to life the highs and lows of a safari with your leopard story. The civet is a cool trophy and the buff is a real find. I love the ground down look.

Here's my idea for your trophy room: full bodied leopard on a tree limb with a hanging full body impala, have the civet cornered by the two full-bodied hyenas at the base of the tree. Have some "night time in Africa" background sounds playing on a loop. Build a working firepit in your trophy room. Maybe you should put all this in the bank lobby so you can write it off.

Thanks for sharing your story and photos.

Russell,

I withdraw the offer on the lion hunt. You do not deserve a grybok and civet as well as the rest of the easy stuff on one safari.

Mark

Russell,

Congratulations on yet another great hunt and some fine trophies! How many trips is this for you?

Was the .416 Rigby the only rifle you brought along? It looks like a real beauty.


Best Regards,
Dave

quote:

I withdraw the offer on the lion hunt.

Ouch, because of a smelly old civet and one little grysbok!

David: I actually had a 30-06 along but something happened on the trip over and she started shooting all over the place... I'm thinking busted reticle (happened to me before) or busted rear screw adjustment on Redfield type rings. My .416 worked fine... I had 10 softs and 30 solids! Came home with 14 solids and 1 soft.

quote:

Here's my idea for your trophy room: full bodied leopard on a tree limb with a hanging full body impala, have the civet cornered by the two full-bodied hyenas at the base of the tree. Have some "night time in Africa" background sounds playing on a loop. Build a working firepit in your trophy room. Maybe you should put all this in the bank lobby so you can write it off.

Forrest, I am looking for a new tax accountant who is somewhat creative, want a job!

Will told me Chewore North was lousy with elephant and he didn't exaggerate. We saw elephant every day, usually along the watercourses.

Day 2, on the way to collect bait we came across a cow herd and bailed out to follow. Because of the hilly terrain, approaches on elephant were fairly easy. After 20 minutes we were positioned in front of the cows as they fed our way with the wind in our faces... perfect. We looked over a dozen cows with 6 or 8 calves - two tuskless but both too small to shoot so early. However it was fun to work up to them, look them over, then give them our wind and watch their reactions from a safe distance.

On day 4 we got in the thick stuff with a few cows on the banks of the Chewore. There was one big tuskless in the bunch but she never showed herself and after a mock charge by a young tusked cow we backed out and left them to escape across the river into Sapi.

Day 5 as we crossed the Chewore river a herd of cows strolled out in front of us, as we bailed out of the cruiser, a lion and lioness bailed into the river in front of us watching the cow herd... we left them to their business. Damn pesky lions... we ran into them almost every day!

After the leopard and buff were in the salt, we got serious about the ellies. We tried one tracking job but there were so many elephant whose tracks intermingled it was almost impossible to follow a single herd. It was much easier to cruise loafing areas, spot elephants and then get the wind and work in and look them over. Exciting stuff but different from the long treks on tracks with Buzz in Dande South. Not better or worse, just different.

Day 10 after a long and fuitless stalk on a pair of eland bulls we caught at a waterhole, we walked right into a herd of cows coming back from the Chewore. The matriarch challenged us and as we quietly backed up a big tuskless emerged from the jess tangles to our right... Brent checked her for a calf and the the calf was 2/3 her size. I get the "thumbs up", Davison appears with the sticks and I had a 15 yard frontal brain shot presented.

At the shot the cow, pitched forward on her nose... not the classic nose up, arse down... I shot too low. However, she went down and Brent and I both gave her one as she hit the ground... game over. That quick. The other cows created a ruckus and then stormed off crashing through the thickets.

The next day as we cut her up we noticed the shot was low but the bullet penetrated into the chest cavity. Fatal but not fantastic! I guess I will be ordering Will's book now. And just when I thought I had it figured out!!!

Chewore River Cows


Chetope Springs 35 Pounder


Checking her out


Brent and I with the grand madaam

Russell,

I think I actually like the hunting reports in installments -- more to anticipate! Nice job, and congrats again.

A great report of a great hunt! Congratulations.

What a top selection of trophys!

ozhunter

Finally, I was dying here waiting for the cow report!

You had a great hunt. Congratulations Russell.

Great trophies and a great hunt - one to remember forever. Congratulations!

Fantastic hunt report. Congratulations. Your patience and preparation were well rewarded. Nice pictures also - What camera were you using?