Dates: July 10th -21st, 2018
PH: Andrew Baldry
Concession: Royal Kafue
Rifles: Jarrett Professional Hunter in 416RM. 400gn Swift A Frames.

After our successful Lion hunt in the Luangwa in 2016, Andrew and I had been trying to target one of his mature Lions at Royal Kafue.
With all the disturbances and challenges that Andrew has imposed on his concession by “fisherman” and “neighbours” making any real plan to hunt these Lions was proving difficult.
I had seen photos of these beasts and indeed other AR hunters had also tried to hunt them.
Given the uncertainty of the hunt, I booked a Buffalo hunt with Andrew and we hung a few baits to see what turned up.
We had a great 10 days and got good footage of a big male Leopard that came to one of our baits.
Unfortunately, our Lion did not make an appearance.
Another lucky AR hunter did manage to shoot this Lion on the next hunt after mine as posted by Andrew on a different post. What a brute.

We had a great 10 days together. We hunted hard with the highlights a lone cheetah , a huge Pangolin that we came across and I managed to hold ….and we took a very nice Dugga Boy in the long grass.
The grass was so long and thick that the buffalo were not moving far at all. We picked up what looked to be a day old track but not more than 400m later found the 4 bulls. A front on freehand shot from 30 yards felt good but after a 30 minute wait and 30 minutes of incredible snail pace tracking by Michael we had not found the bull.
For some reason, Michael suddenly did not like the look of the track we were following and backtracked.
The mortally wounded crafty old bull was lying in the long grass at 90 degrees and not more than 30 meters from where we were tracking and walking.
He had done the classic move of circling back to wait for his tormentors but obviously could not get up. …lucky for us.
He stood up and stumbled at 3 meters from us and died promptly in a volley of shots from Andrew and I. On examination we found a musket ball in him. NO wonder he was tough and cranky.
What a hunt. Death in the Long Grass.

Our Lion hunt is to be continued.

Well done. Superb buffalo.

A great bull! Thanks for sharing.

Steve,

Great buffalo with a little drama. Well done! I've seen three pangolins and feel very fortunate.

Mark

Well done Steve. Gorgeous buff and well written report.

Congrats to you and Andrew.

Steve;

What a safari!!!! Fantastic buff, cheetah and pangolin.... you are always a very successful hunter! And a kind one too, to leave the lion for another

Well done!!!!

Hugs, Darin

Another great safari for you and Andrew....quite a team.

Thanks for wonderful reports and pictures....here and the Sitatunga thread.

Wonderful safari.
I love to see where the bullets stop!
Congratulations.
Cal

Good stuff, thanks for posting.

Great Buff Congrats.

Great Buff, Steve!

Thanks for posting.

very nice old bull. Congrats!

Beautiful trophies! And lucky to see a pangolin. Very special.

Super Buff.
Fun in the long grass!