Outfitter: CHIFUTI SAFARIS
PH: MArk Vallaro
Date: July 1-14
Hunters: Dave Fulson \ Heather Wilson
Rifles: Ruger Hawkeye African.375, Ruger RCM.300
Ammo" Hornady DGX and GMX
Animals Taken:
Leopard
Giraffe
Bushbuck
Kudu
Warthog
Hyena
Impala
Zebra
Nuanetsi Conservancy is located in Zimbabwe's southeastern lowveld. Chifuti Safaris has the exclusive hunting rights at Nuanetsi with 2012 being the first year this property had been commercially hunted in 5 years. Professional hunter Brent Leesmay is the manager of Nuanetsi, and has done a fantastic job with both the game management and general operations. The camp is beautifully situated on the banks of the Muenezi River with game moving freely in front of and even through camp due to a no hunting buffer zone Brent established around camp. Wonderful photo opportunities in both morning and evening.


PH Anthony Howland is running the camp and his team runs one of the tightest safari ships I have ever enjoyed. Camp accommodations consist of both large Botswana style tents, as well as traditional A- frame thatch roof huts. Both feature on suite bathrooms with all modern plumbing including hot showers and flush toilets. Extremely comfortable in every regard.



My main goal for this safari was one of the huge leopard Nuanetsi is famous for. My partner Tim Danklef was on the first leopard hunt Chifuti conducted on Nuanetsi last season. He joined client and friend Larry Cheek and PH Andrew Dawson on the safari that had one goal, an outsize tom for Larry. In short, they soon had multiple big toms on bait and halfway through the hunt Larry took the monster leopard he had always dreamed of. Tim has taken several leopards, and like me, has hunted behind the video camera in most of Africa’s recognized leopard country. He had one word of advice when he returned, as he knew I was getting serious about another leopard for myself " Book it now, there cannot be a place in Africa with both the quantity and quality of leopards I have seen the last two weeks." I did just that, and had to sit back and watch big cat after big cat come to the skinning shed, feeling July 2013 would never get here. This was a special safari for me as my fiance Heather would be making her first trip to Africa. She has seen this place steal me away for extended periods over our relationship, and I was looking forward to her seeing the country and it’s game. She would be hunting plains game, much of which I would use as bait. Her main goals were a big giraffe bull and a zebra stallion, but I had given her the green light if additional opportunities popped up.

Mark Vallaro was my PH for this hunt, and not by accident. A full time Chifuti Ph, Mark has established himself as one of Africa’s most successful cat hunters, on both lion and leopard. I had picked a favorable moon phase as I am a firm believer in the darker the better on leopards. Unlike Chifuti’s Zambezi Valley concessions, an artificial light is legal for hunting leopard at Nuanetsi. According to Marks records, about 20% of the cats taken have been under natural light conditions, the rest with the aid of a light. Of course I was filming the hunt for a Tracks Across Africa episode.My cameraman was Renz Palermo, an ace with the camera, and another member of the team who rates leopard as his favorite hunt. The first couple of days were spent gathering and hanging bait . Heather was driving her Ruger .300RCM like a pro, and several impala and her zebra were soon hanging from trees.



Mark had just finished a 14 day leopard \ buffalo hunt with Texas client Butch Sims that resulted in both a great tom for Butch, and a ton of intel for my hunt. Within three days we had three big toms feeding, but the trail camera showed one that was without any doubt head and shoulders above the rest. A mellon of a head, broad shoulders and massive forearms that are all the signs of a truly big cat. We would keep all our baits fresh, but this clearly would become our target leopard. There was a female with a yearling cub in tow hitting the same bait, but it was clear she was not mating with our guy, as she would feed early, then beat a hasty retreat when she sensed him coming in.
The first night he came in at 9pm, the second night at 7pm, so far so good. On day four, July 4th by the way, we built a ground blind, swept our approach, and set what we all felt would be a perfect trap. I believed, although I seldom have easy leopard hunts when I’m behind the rifle, we would be celebrating a successful hunt on this July 4th. But mother nature threw us a very mean curve ball. We finished our blind around 11am. And were loading up in the truck when a storm out of South Africa blew in and changed the wind 180 degrees, blowing directly from blind to bait. Some PH’s do not give leopard credit for a developed sense of smell. Mark Vallaro does. We waited till 3pm, but the wind only picked up and Mark made his call. “ Dave, I just do not want to take a chance with this cat. If the wind stays this way all night we are going to build a tree blind over there (indicating a large tree about 70 yards down the small draw the bait was on) where the wind is out of play.” Long story short, we did just that.

Mark constructed a beautiful tree blind that was roomy enough for all three of us. Hearing the horror stories of endless sitting, Heather decided to sit out the blind sitting in favor of a warm campfire, good friends, and cold cocktails. I am marrying a smart woman! The trail camera showed the female fed at 4pm the night before, left at 5:30 and our boy showed up just after dark. Our worry was that with three good feeds under his belt, he might go on a ‘walk about’, but we got situated in the tree at 3pm hoping for the best. At exactly 5pm I got “ the squeeze” and Mark whispered “ there’s a cat five yards behind the tree laying down” I was also in the prone position and slowly rolled into shooting position. I cranked my Trijicon AccuPoint up to 9X and found the cat. I was astonished to see that it looked like the male, not the female who was always to the bait first. Renz was rolling his Sony, Mark was on the bino’s, and I was safety off on the .300. The cat took his sweet time, finally got up, moved to the base of the tree, sat down again ( blocking both mine and Renz’s shot) then in one motion walked forward, bent down, sniffed the ground, then wheeled and went back to lie down behind the tree. We had been very careful to make sure it was not just a tom, but OUR tom, and we now knew it was. What seemed like hours, but was only 12 minutes by my watch, the leopard repeated his careful approach, finally coming into the open,

sitting down to give the entire area one more look over. Renz gave the go ahead, and a frontal chest shot with a Hornady GMX simply collapsed him. No jump, growl, twitch, just what we all wanted. It had truly been the perfect set up, plan, leopard, and hunt all delivered by a talented PH who really understands these great cats. We did a bit of TV, then headed to camp where the party was soon under way. Heather was crying, as she knew what the hunt meant to me, and I was not far from it. This may very well be my last leopard with a rifle, as I will not improve on either the trophy or experience, and it was a very special moment for me.





Before our 14 day safari was over, Heather took some great plains game, all of which are abundant at Nuanetsi. Her real prize was a beautiful bull giraffe that was her main goal of the safari. I was proud of her excellent shooting, but more so on how she embraced the adventure start to finish!








Nuanetsi is a very special piece of Africa that will only improve under the steady hand of Brent Leesmay and Chifuti Safaris management. There is great buffalo hunting at Nuanetsi as well, and a 14 day safari for both species has been very popular as well as successful.
This was one of my very favorite safaris and I enjoyed sharing it with the AR family.

Fantastic all the way around Dave. Beauty of a big cat. Congrats to you both and well deserved.

Very Nice Leopard. Great trophies. Thanks for the share.

Outstanding Dave, well done.

Damn, Heather's a hottie

Great report and fantastic trophies - well done! Brent Leesmay has done one hell of a job with Nuanetsi - good to hear Ant is doing well there too!
Thanks for the great report.

Congratulations Dave, obviously a very special hunt to you on a number of fronts.

Good report, nice trophies. Congrats on the leopard.

Way to go Dave and Heather!

Outstanding all the way around Dave
Thanks for sharing the Report

Congratulations on a FANTASTIC safari Dave!
Enjoyed the report and pics

Roland

Great tom! I love it when a plan comes together.
Congratulations to you all, and thanks for the report and most excellent photos.

Super pics and great safari! And I must say, it looks like you outkicked your coverage. Congrats!

Congrats! Nice leopard!!

Beautiful cat and a great report, thanks for posting it.

Great report and fantastic cat, thanks for sharing!

A couple of good people and great friends, congrats to you both!!!!!

Dave-

Great timing for your hunt report, as I was about to call you to see how the Leopard quest in Nuanetsi worked for you. Looks like you two enjoyed a great safari with Mark.

Christy advised me today that our DVD is complete already and looks good! We should have it next week and are looking forward to viewing it. I'll give you a call afterwards.

Beau is thinking cats next and I had suggested Mark and Chifuti at Nuanetsi, so your report will be closely reviewed by him, I'm sure.

Well done!

Well done Dave, that is a helluva cat my friend!

Hey Dave - Congrats again to you and your good lady, you guys worked hard and got the results you deserved!

When I get a chance, I hope to post a report on the Chifuti clients that followed your hunt - couple more fantastic Leopard + the rest!

Good to see you again, take care and my regards to Heather.

Cheers,
Brent

Great report and hunt.
What is the tall white things in the trophy picture?

quote:

Originally posted by Billsan:
Great report and hunt.
What is the tall white things in the trophy picture?

Giraffe leg bones I believe.

Dave.

Thank you for such a fine report, with the pictures to compliment it. Congratulations to Heather and yourself, you certainly did well and enjoyed yourselves immensely by the look of it.

Your cat is a beauty and so is your fiancée. Great to see other women hunting Africa.

Jytte

Great hunt and report. However, after seeing this thread, AR needs a new hunt report forum: beautiful women on safari. No animals, no fine rifles, no stories of the hunt--just beautiful women.
Cheers,
Cal

Wow Dave, what a great hunt, super Leopard, caps intended.

It's pretty fun having your best friend go with you isn't it? I wish the girls were coming with me again this year, but things aren't working out that way. Glad you two had such a great hunt - lots of good film too I'll bet!

Awesome Dave.... Congrats to you and Heather on a fine Safari.

Outstanding Cat and trophies Dave and your hunting companion's a BABE

What kind of reticle did you have on your 3X9 Accupoint? jorge

quote:

Originally posted by pagosawingnut:
Good report, nice trophies. Congrats on the leopard.

+1

Very nice cat. Thanks for the report

Congrats to hunter and huntress, nicely done.

Great report and safari. Outstanding cat. Narrative like this will go far in putting Nuanetsi on the map!

After looking at the photos of both you and Heather, it is apparent she thinks your wealthy.

A huge CONGRATS brother Dave and Miss Heather. What a great Chui! I knew Heather would have a great time and she got her giraffe to boot. Awesome!

You guys have done well with the area as I know Larry Cheek is a very happy camper also.

Let's go out to the ranch one weekend before deer season starts. Give me a shout when you're free.

Cheers Bud!

Thanks for the nice comments guys. It really was a wonderful safari and sharing it with Heather was, to me, the most important part of the adventure.She is already asking " where next ?" which is really nice to hear! Jorge, I use the green dot reticle on my AccuPoint. It is so visible, especially in low light, really when I expected the shot on my cat. I practiced with it under a spotlight situation and it showed up beautifully.

Well done Dave, congrats to you both! Very nice tom and ditto on Heather's trophies!

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Fulson:
Thanks for the nice comments guys. It really was a wonderful safari and sharing it with Heather was, to me, the most important part of the adventure.She is already asking " where next ?" which is really nice to hear! Jorge, I use the green dot reticle on my AccuPoint. It is so visible, especially in low light, really when I expected the shot on my cat. I practiced with it under a spotlight situation and it showed up beautifully.

Same here Dave (the single post correct?) only mine is amber and it's a 1.25X4. I was amazed how quickly I got used to that one "stick" but more importantly, how precise I could be with it at 100 yards at only 4X. I'm sold on Trijicons. I only wished they made a mid-range variable like a 1.75X6X42 or so. jorge

Jorge I used a 3x9 with standard crosshairs on that hunt. Post would have been fine for the shot I had, but I like a little extra magnification on leopard. Love the post on buff, fast on target and allows for you to shoot with both eyes open.

Dave and Heather fantastic safari and super cat. Heather great shooting.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Fulson:
Jorge I used a 3x9 with standard crosshairs on that hunt. Post would have been fine for the shot I had, but I like a little extra magnification on leopard. Love the post on buff, fast on target and allows for you to shoot with both eyes open.

Thanks Dave, I saw the scope was the 3X9 so my question was if it had the post or X hairs and you answered it. I did have the X hair model for a while, but found the dot not nearly as bright as the post. Thanks again and hope to introduce myself at DSC, but you are always SO busy!

looks like an incredible trip with unforgettable trophies, thanks

Jorge
Please come by in Dallas. It is busy, as you said, but I will break free quick as I can if you come by. My pleasure!