Location: Chewore South and North
PH: Mark Vallaro – Chifuti Safaris.
Dates- 24/3-14/4/2013
Rifle- 375 Ruger. Guides edition.
Ammo- Hornady 375 Ruger. 300 grn DGX and DGS.
Type of hunt: Lion and hippo
Animals seen- Elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard, hippo, crocodile, hyena, wilddog, warthog, bushpig, bushbuck, kudu, waterbuck, zebra, baboon and monkey.
Animals Taken: Buffalo cow, Hyena, lion, baboon, elephant bull, hippo.
This is my first attempt at a hunt report so hope it works and the pics come up as well.
Mike Fifer was my client. He is the CEO of Ruger Firearms. He is a first class guy and likes to hunt hard. He bought a Ruger 375 guides edition rifles. The rifle shot very well and we had no problems with it at all. I liked the rifle a lot cause it was nice and short and it had a nice stainless steal barrel and plywood finished stock. It was perfect for hunting in wet conditions.
It was my first hunt of the season and the roads had not been opened yet either. The road crew had done a few but not all of them. I really do like being one of the 1st into an area. It has been undisturbed for about 4 or 5 months and the animals guards may be down a little bit. With the grass being so long as well the cats are tending to move more along the rivers and main roads to get around so making baiting and finding tracks easier. It is also an adventure testing out which roads you can use and can’t and also testing your 4x4 driving skills. All good fun.

http://i1361.photobucket.com/a...-088_zps43259331.jpg

The hunt officially started on the 24th of March but Mike was not going to arrive till the 30th of March. It was my job to shoot bait and pre-bait the area before Mike’s arrival. I spent 2 days scouting around looking for lion tracks and finding out which roads I could and couldn’t use. It was still hot (90 degrees F) and humid at that time so I did not want to put bait up and have it rot before Mike arrived. On the 26th I got up early and drove 2 hours North to Chewore North to shoot a hippo cow for bait. She was dead before 8 in the morning so we went to camp and got the boat to drag her back to camp to start skinning her. I was back in Chewore South before 4pm with the hippo quarters in the back and then the bait hanging started. I got 2 up that night after getting stuck in the Chewore river for about an hour with ¾ of a hippo in the back not helping much.

The next day I headed for the Mkanga Valley to hang a bait and on the way out found where 2 male lions had chased a herd of buff into a block. Due to previous experience I went around to the eastern side in the hope they would chase the buff passed the bait. Turns out this did not happen.

From then on it was just a matter of driving around and looking for new tracks and checking the baits. On the 29th we had a lot of hyena activity on the baits but no lions yet. When we got to the Mkanga bait we decided to drive upstream from the bait to look for tracks when we rounded the corner to see a bunch of lions feeding on a warthog they had killed. We threw out our drag next to the site and headed bag to the bait.

30th of March. We checked our baits quickly and found the Mkanga bait had been fed on by a male. We built and blind and swept the path in preparation to come and sit.

I met Mike later that afternoon with the good news of the a lion feeding and asked him if he wanted to sit or if he was too jet lagged. He was keen to have a look. So off we dashed and on the way checked the rifle against a tree. It was a great looking compact rifle. Perfect for hunting in thick bush. We got in the blind around 5pm and sat for about 90 minutes. The lion did not come in. I was not worried as I thought he might be relaxing in the thick bush somewhere close by. As I got back to the car the radio was going and it was Richi Schultz calling me to see if I could come and assist in following up a leopard he had just shot with his client. Mike said it was ok so off we dashed over there. As we got there they had found it so we went to have a look. It was a very nice tom leopard.

Wake up at 330am and off by 4am to the lion blind. As we rushed along the security road and came round the corner into the middle of 6 lioness on the road. Was very nice to see but no male with them. We got to the blind in time but the was silence. No roaring or anything. Not a great sign. When we checked the trail cam it showed that the male had moved on. We then went checking our other baits. Nothing but hyenas feeding. We found where 2 male lions had walked the night before. We needed more bait as it was rotting and getting eaten as well so off after buff we went. After tracking them for a while we caught up to them and we finally managed to find an old cow. Mike made a great shot and she ran 20 yards and died. We recovered Mike’s 300grn DGX bullet on the skin on the far shoulder, mushroomed perfectly.

http://i1361.photobucket.com/a...-085_zpsf0f220c9.jpg

We skinned the buff and hung up half at the lioness tree and dropped the hippo leg. We hung the other half close to where we found the male lion tracks.
April fools day saw us checking our baits to find we had another group of 4 lioness and a 2 year old male on a bait on the Chewore. On another bait we had hyena walking around there at all hours of the day so we made a plan to come back first thing in the morning.

We got there at 1st light the morning of the 2nd of April to find the hyenas in thick bush and no shot. I called in the vehicle and was checking the trail cam when the trackers call me to say they had seen a hyena crossing the river. After a brief stalk Mike made a fabulous shot at a hyena 250 yards away.


http://i1361.photobucket.com/a...-269_zps2278830f.jpg

Nothing new on our baits that day. Tried looking for a hippo but it outsmarted us and ran off.

3rd April. Back to checking baits. We had checked 3 so far and had the Mkanga one left. As we crossed the river the trackers said the male was back. We hung up the front half of the buff cow that we took down from where we found the 2 male lion tracks as they had moved on somewhere. Checking the trail cam we saw that the male had indeed come back. We decided to sit that evening so off we went.

As we crossed the river I happened to look up and there about 100m from where we had been hanging our bait lying in the shade in the river was the big male lion. After a quick glance through my binos, we drove on a bit and then got out to sneak back and see if he was still there. Once we got back to the river on foot we could see him still lying there in the same place. We stepped out and Mike got on the sticks but could not get steady due to his excitement so he then lay down to make the shot. It was a bit further than we first thought but he still nailed the lion just behind the front shoulder and it rolled over. Its was now 12 o’clock. After taking pictures and loading him up we raced off back to camp to find out that Len Taylor and his client had shot a great elephant bull. We had a big celebration in camp with them that evening.


http://i1361.photobucket.com/a...-420_zpsf205312a.jpg

http://i1361.photobucket.com/a...-432_zpsd994e7cd.jpg

http://i1361.photobucket.com/a...-443_zpsddf50493.jpg

http://i1361.photobucket.com/a...3256_zps30a8d764.jpg

http://i1361.photobucket.com/a...3294_zps1a85b5b7.jpg

Since we still had a lot of time Mike asked what we could hunt now. So I said what would he want to hunt. His reply was elephant bull and hippo. So I radioed and found that we had both available and the prices and off we went. We tracked 4 ele bulls that days but nothing big enough. We caught up to 2 drinking at a pan and watched them playing in the mud for a little while. We also took down our remaining lion baits.

5th April we left camp looking for ele tracks. We got to the Chewore bridge to find 4 lioness and a young male just upstream from it. Probably the same ones that had been on our bait which they had now finished and were moving on. Then while going down another road we saw 2 leopards together. Judging them I would say it was a mother and her 2 year old offspring. We tracked 2 more ele bulls that day but the big bull had only one tusk and the other one was small.

6th April we picked up a track that was following some cows. They seemed to be on a mission as they were walking along paths and not feeding much. Another bull joined them but then split away again. We had been tracking for 4 hours when they split up and started feeding and while waiting in the shade for the trackers to find the out going tracks I heard them whistling meaning they had seen the bull. As we crested the ridge I knew the wind was wrong and saw the bull had smelt us and was moving off. We moved quickly down the hill and up the next while trying to keep the bull in sight and not make much noise. We were moving at a fast pace. I had seen the bull stop and listen in some thick bush close to a baobab tree so slowed down a bit to see if I could find him. I did and he was listening for us so I called Mike up and told him where the bull was and how he was facing quartering on to us and he should do a heart/lung shot as we could not see its head. The bull obviously had enough so came forward to try scare us away. He ran over a small tree about 6 inches in diameter without breaking his stride. As he dipped his head and trumpeted, I told Mike to take him. At his shot the bull went down and I put a shot into its head to keep him down. Mike put in a 2nd shot with this the ele rolled over onto his back and over. I got Mike to put in another couple of shot between its front legs and it was over. It was very exciting and Mike was pumped. We spent the rest of the day recovering the bull. We recovered 2 of Mike’s DGS 300 grn solids. You could reload both of them.


http://i1361.photobucket.com/a...-635_zps4108600c.jpg

The next day we looked for hippo but with no luck so we decided to pack up and head to Chewore North the next day to look for one in the Zambezi.

8th April we packed the cruiser and head North to Mwanja camp about 3 hours away. That afternoon we go scouting for hippo bulls and found a couple of prospects for the next morning.

9th April we head upstream from camp back to the hippo from the evening before. One pod is in the same place, the other is still down stream but moving up slowly. We were about to try catch some chessa for tiger bait when I saw a great bull in the close pod of hippo. We quickly got set up and as we got in place so we saw a cow upstream about 90 yards climb out the water and cross the sandbar to deeper water. The rest of the pod moved to follow them so we moved forward to the edge of the water. The bull followed and as he got in the middle of the sandbar Mike made a great shot and nail him right there. It turns out this is one of the bigger hippo I have guided. We tried tiger fishing but had very limited success. Mike decided it was enough for one safari and to save the rest for next year when he returns.


http://i1361.photobucket.com/a...-132_zps3fbbf9a2.jpg

http://i1361.photobucket.com/a...-137_zpsccaf0be3.jpg

Great hunt Mark..congrats!

Brings back good memories of my buffalo hunt out of Angwa camp in 89'...looks like Chewore is still producing!

Some very serious trophies there. Well done on your Lion and monster Hippo.

Great hunt, and big congrats on the lion. I noted with interest that Mike used a Ruger Guide Gun, which is the same rifle I used on my lion hunt a few weeks ago . . . two Mike's, two lions, two Ruger Guide Guns . . . .

Well done.

TREMENDOUS

Congrats to all!

Thanks for posting Mark.

Great report, Mark. Great hunt as well and congrats to Mike.


Dutch

Nice report Mark. Glad to have you here on AR.

We may be hunting Lion and Leopard with you in Chewore North for Beau next season. Hope to have that safari finalized by Christmas. See you at DSC.

Cheers

Very nice! Great pictures.

Outstanding!