Outfitter: De Klerk Safaris www.dksafaris.com
PH - Frikkie Nieuwoudt
PH - Hans de Klerk (on the lion only as backup)
Rifles 6.5 x 55 Carl Gustav M96 Mauser
CZ 550 450 lott loaded with 480gr Woodleigh softs.
Dates 24-28th September 2021

https://youtu.be/Rv1ALnk0IVE
Link to Youtube Video of the hunt.



With the news early this year that there are plans to stop the CBL lion hunts altogether I made plans together to hunt one myself before there is no more opportunity.
Now I know lions is full of controversy and everyone has his onwn idea of what is right and wrong.
Firstly this was not a canned hunt the lions had huge area to roam and do what they please had little human intervention were not pets and cuddled when small. The hunt is completely legal and was not just a show up and shoot show.

So with that clear I researched far and wide for outfits and PH's that could fulfill my dream on a CBL lion hunt as a South African hunter. I had a few questions which I asked everybody and I must say that some of the guys were not afraid to tell me no worries your lion will be shot and down in a few hours. Red Flags waving and the outfit skipped.

I wanted to know that the lion was released well before the hunt to get use to its surrounding not being fed and very importantly not being the only lion on the this specific property of 7000 Hectares.

I finally made contact with Hans de Klerk form De Klerk safaris and all the boxes were ticked and my deposit paid and then waiting and getting ready for the hunt end of September.
My gear was ready and tested with my 458 lott topped with Trijicon's new SRO reflex sight and mounted forward with an Apex Predator mount that I designed together with a local gunsmith. Very easy to install for a Bruno or CZ 550 tap off the rear flip up sights and slide in the mount which comes in various footprints for different make of sights.
The 480gr Woodleigh bullets opened up nicely on game at a velocity of 2180fps and on the 6.5 for plainsgame the 160gr Hornady bullets did the trick at 2400fps and the mildot scope helped for the longer shooting distances.

Arrrived on Friday the 24th in the afternoon and unpacked and got my gear ready and doyble checked zero on the range they have a very comfortable range on the farm you can go out and shoot gings all the way to 600 meters.

I am not going to go into too much detail on the report as you can watch the small movie of the hunt.
What I will tell you we only spotted fresh tracks on Sunday Morning so we think the lions must have caught something and held up on the kill.
Saturday evening was decided to just check every waterhole as the lions must drink water.
From there the tracking was done and it was an extremly hot day and the lioness decided to lay down in the shade after a couple of bumps and stand her ground.
1st shot was taken at 25 meters we could have gone closer but I didn't want to lion to charge and then one of the PH might have needed to fire and took the shot from there. From the 1st shot to where she layed downed to die she managed 12 meters.

Shot a few warties for staff rations mostly from the vehicle as the grass was long and also stalked a good springbuck for about 2km untill I could get a shot at him. The steenbuck was also spotted from the cruiser and then stalked. All in all it was an incredible hunt and experience and I really hope the CBL lion hunts keep going on as it quite the experience tracking down a lion on foot and facing it eye to eye. Unfortunately North West province laws require 2 backup PH's on dangerous game hunts but that cannot be changed by law and there was no need for backup on this hunt.

But that is my only complaint about the hunt otherwise the Outfit De Klerk Safaris is superb in all their dealings and paperwork all done to the T and skinning was also high on the list and quality.

With the Video I was lucky Boela my friend who runs an outfit from KZN wanted to see De Klerk's operation on lions as he has some potential clients so he came along and Swys his partner nedeed extra days and species for his dangerous game license and he did the video for me. So I got a free video of the hunt all was filmed from an IPhone and Go Pro.

Great shooting Fred!

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Thanks for taking the time to write it and post story and pictures. Pleased for you that you had a good hunt and kudos for positing!

Well done.

ps you may want to resize some of the pictures down to 650 or thereabouts.

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Congratulations on your adventure! The video was especially a nice touch. I'm glad you got to check one of those boxes off your bucket list. I'm sure the ph was impressed with your shooting as well. Looks to be a well run operation.

quote:

Originally posted by Charlie64:

ps you may want to resize some of the pictures down to 650 or thereabouts.

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Think it is much better now thanks.