The Utsiwacha Leopard
-The bait run from the Angwa to the Zambezi.

With Buzz Charlton , CMS



Dates 14-30. June 2015
Area: as mentioned, The whole Dande areas from south to north, Zambezi Valley, Zimbabwe.
Professional hunter Buzz Charlton + «appy» Mark
Trackers: Nyati, Criton,Morgan,Bashop
Rangers, Howard, and «Ranger»
Game on licence: Leopard,Lion,Elephant,Buffalo + baits and other plains game.
Game taken with gun: Leopard, Buffalo x2, Impala x3, Warthog.
Game taken with camera,eyes or spoor! : Lion,elephant,Buffalo,Leopard, Hyena, Impala, Warthog,Sable,Croc,Grysbok,Zebra,Kudu+++.

Rifle used: Blaser R93 with 416 Rem.mag. Handloads 410 grs Woodleigh softs and solids at 2300 fps. Zeiss 2,5-10x50 during the days and Zeiss V8 1,8-14x50 in the blind. The V8 is truly amazing....

Other gear: Clothes from Chevalier, shoes from Courtney and ammo belt/gaiters from Texashuntco.
Flight: Wideroe-Sas-Lufthansa-Saa-Saa..... Flew economy most of the time but would prefer a little better leg room. I live near the arctic circle in Norway and had to do two legs just to get to our international airport.



At the DSC show in Dallas I met up with Buzz Charlton and chatted briefly of hunting an elephant in Dande with the possibility of adding a Lion. As ever, Buzz is as friendly as one can get . Did not confirm anything there but agreed on som further correspondence via email. For me as a shy Norwegian it is not the most comforting place to discuss business in a crowded convention hall. Passed the Charlton Mccallum booth approx. Three times an hour just to get a hold of this elephant hunter. Well. Leaving Dallas that cold day in january I had the feeling that some day in life I find myself in the bush with this Charlton figure.

Several emails later we had a deal. Elephant,Lion and Leopard evolved to a Leopard/Buffalo hunt with Elephand bull/Lion as an add on. The dates were set in stone and flights booked.

Did not shoot a lot with my rifle before this hunt but I use this rifle in all my hunting so I know it fairly well. Have barrels from 22 long rifle all the way to 458 Lott but my 416 barrel is my pick most of the times. Now I can admit I only shot 11 shots from it the past 10 months but it seemed to work fine.

My girls dropped me off at our local domestic airport a beautiful saturday in june. The hugs from my little ones were a bit emotional. Going on a Dangerous Game hunt is always a concern, but so is driving a car. Well. Had all my paperwork regarding weapon/customs ready and leaving my country went smooth.



Transit Germany was ok.. Arrived Harare and got the thumbs up from Buzz while waiting for my bags to arrive. All good!




Buzz dropped me off at the Amanzi Lodge for the night. Picked me up and went for a nice dinner with Buzz and his wife the same evening. Such a hospitality makes me really feel welcome and of course puts a bench mark for the days to come....



Next day I was picked up at the Amanzi Lodge. Oh, I almost forgot, in advance of the hunt Buzz asked me if it was ok to have an extra person in camp while hunting. Of course. The gentleman, Mark,was an very interesting person who was up for an ph exam later this year. In pursuit of cat experience this was a win-win situation for us all. He had a fully equipped cruiser and two trackers. Morgan and Bashop.

Mark was a joy to spend time with . The most humorous,intelligent and warm person you ever could meet. Thanks a lot for your hospitality Mark!

Anyways, Mark picked me up at the Amanzi Lodge, met up with Buzz and headed north to the supermarked. Wich of course was a farm. Loaded the freshest vegetables you can get and hit the road.





Stopped near the edge of the escarpement and picked up some delicious mini bananas for the road. The taste of these small bananas are fantastic!




Picked up the paperwork in Mushumbi pools ranger station and rattled the last leg to camp.
Have been to Mururu camp before and knew the beauty of the camp. Settled in and had a beer. Its on!


Mururu Camp.

Shot the rifle and was good to go.

Day 1 consisted of hanging bait around the concession. Lion baits and mostly Leopard baits was on the schedual. The menu was Zebra and Kudu. Or parts of it. Off to shoot some bait. Got a impala after some stalk. First shot is always nice to put in the bulls eye.



The bait run.

Had a Zebra back end and som Kudu legs available from another hunt and now a impala or two. Baited ten different places. Some for Leopard and some combined for Lion/Lepoard. Checked baits,looked for elephant bull tracks, buffalo tracks over and over. The two cars traveled 100-200 k every day. A lot of miles. Ph Rich Tabor was conducting another leopard hunt out from Pedza Pasi camp and radioed over the news of a 60ish herd of buffaloes near a spring. Raced over there and found the tracks heading for a spring near «Sten Cedergren hill». A hill where a fatal leopard encounter had found place decades ago. Fatal on Stens Purdey that was.

Tracked slowly under the warming sun for an hour or so. Found the herd gracing on the valley floor
unaware of us. No shootable bulls. Found ourselves behind a big rock while some cows where doing their thing calmly 50 meters from us. Buzz had his eyes on a big cow and the «go when ready» was given. Slowly the buffalo moved free of the bush and I let the bullet fly. The sound from the shot echoed behind our rock, the buffalo lifted her front foot in reaction of the shot and moved only a few meters. No drama. Skinned the buffalo and had luch in the shade. Continued the bait run and had now hundereds of kilos of fresh bait.


Buffalo cow




Well. The rear part of the nyati lasted for one meal..... A pride of 7 lions had a go at it......



At one of the baits we found 9 inch black mane hair from a possible shootable lion.





Elephant. Had a look at this one but at 30ish punds a side he was not a shooter.




More bait......This little bugger ran as hell while emptying his blood leaving a trail even a blind man could follow. My best warthog ever. And only.
Nyati,Criton and Howard carried this 90-100 kilo animal in turn on their shoulders a kilometre or so... The strength of these guys are unbeliveable.



So far we were strong on the bait situation. Had a couple of female leopards feeding and had som nice male tracks wandering the baits.

Did some sitting in the blinds from ca . Day 5 but nothing to report. No lights allowed and the cats were active in the dark.

Buffalo.

Had left a large group of buffaloes in a remote valley an afternoon. Had to run back for a sitting in a blind. Next day we found the herds tracks crossing out of the Mahonde loop. Followed and whitin two hour we heard the grunts of the animals. If I were to judge the numbers I would say 60 but it was in the 200s.. Heard of over 200 buffaloes. In the Dande!

Wind was all over us and we rounded several times. Got behind a tree and on the sticks . A part of the heard cam gracing in a rather fast speed just passing by us. A bull came out and Buzz whispered that he had to look at it twice and give me a «yes» if it was the shooter. «Heeey» , the bull stoped in his tracks, gave us the look and Buzz gave me a «y» . Thump. I let the woodleigh fly a bit high on the shoulder and the bull dropped in his tracks. No drama.




Im no buffalo expert but the guys told me this was a good bull. I never asked for some silly measurement, but heard the guys mentioned it. For me it was important to get an representative of the specie. That is in other word a mature shootable, legal bull. This is one.

And I shot it.

More fillets and more bait was harvested and hung.







A solid and a beer. Not the best combination but I took the picture anyway.



Sitting number something..... Had this female feeding in daylight. She had cubs running around the dry river while she fed. Beautiful !!



More Impala, more bait. Nyati doing the work.



The Blaser.

Ok. We now were on day 12. Had been sitting 8 times in different blinds. Buzz was getting a bit frustrated but calmy said I would get my leopard. Yeah. Right.

Had this large clever cat feeding at mid day,mid night and who knows when. But never when we sat for him. Myles had some sittings for this cat last year but never connected. And so were we this year. The Leopard always outsmarted us and sent his female in front to piss us off. After we had left he would come and eat. Bloody cat.

Well. Day 12 it was. Arrived the blind record early at 1530. Walked in quiet and discoverd that a bloddy Hyena had bashed the blind and chewed my gun rest to peaces. What a start. Stuffed my jacket in the hole as a gun rest and sweared Id kill one hyena.

Hours went by and I felt like an ass for every noise I made while shifting weight from ass to back to feet every ten minutes or so. Buzz was not giving me «the» look so I guess I sat quiet enough.

Baboons. Yes they yelled. So what. It was probably the female coming.... Did not raise my heartbeat . Half an hour went by. Nothing but Baboons.

Suddenly this barefooted gentleman Buzz raised his binos and pointed at the bait. Barely recalled him whispering. «the male,wait,have to confirm,be ready» or something like that. Hell, the only thing in my mind was not messing up a shot or shooting a female.
But i knew if Buzz was feeling it was our male leopard, It would be our male. Guaranteed.

The Leopard jumped the tree and Buzz gave me the «go».

All my hunting,reading and learning. Everthing about the leopard shot was gone.
This was my moment.

The Leopard reached for the bait with both paws and sunk his teeth into the bait.

Had the crosshairs on his shoulder and squeezed. The blast of the rifle lit up the valley in a yellow color. I was blinded by the blast but Buzz was calm. I felt good but had no idea of the result.

Buzz slowly mowed the 50 meters down to the bait. I could not see a cat. All the incidents with wounded cats Buzz had scared me with. Was this one of them? F......ck.

Elbowes out. Buzz lifted his .500 high in preparation of action. Just to loose his shirt from his arms. Needed to be agile and shoot fast. Bloody hell. What is coming was my thoughts.

Mr. Charlton kneeled. I saw his Birkenstcoks soles. His double in one hand , pulling a leopards tail in the other !!! A hundered kilos off my back. Its done! We did it !

TheUtsiwacha Leopard laid dead under the tree. My leopard. Day 12, 8th sitting and my 35th day of pursuit. In my 37th year of living. My sought after Leopard was down.

Buzz asked me if I was shaking. Hell yes. I was happy. And I saw the relief in Buzzers face.
A failed leopard hunt is not in this mans vocabulary. He has been hunting Dande for 20 years or so. Ask him how many Leopard hunts he has failed. I wont tell you.
But what I will tell you is on that day in the Zambezi valley my dream came through. I shot the argueably finest animal on the planet. The Leopard.

I have no words that can describe my gratefullness of Buzz and just as important, the team , for helping me do this. Yes I pulled the trigger but those fine gentlemen did the job.




The Hunter and The Leopard.





Of course after the Leopard was in the salt and we concentrated on Hyena, Leopards were all over the place........................



Leopard at our Hyena bait.




Out looking for Zebra.





Eddie, Minister of Matombo, at the office !



The A-Team.



No comments required on this picture................



Jaws.



Paws.



Bullet wound behind shoulder. Mating? Wound in front.





Lion at one of our baits.



Know the feeling of a cold beer in the bush ?





The Master





Lion




Impala



Leopard



Utsiwacha Spring





«Balls ???????»




Leopard skull



African Camo



My Leopard. Before we met.



The Boss searching for 100 pound elephants, lions and god knows what.



Lunch in daylight.


Hunted for Hyena and Zebras the last couple of days. No luck. Had a failure on a big Hyena. The animal was feeding near our blind and was spooked by us in the blind. His mates came in 3 meters from our blind and bolted . Next time you smelly dogs. Next time.


Departure day.

Packed our gear and headed for Harare. I was a happy camper and I guess so was Buzz.
Met Myles,Alan and Justin at Mushumbi and stopped briefly and shook hands. Good guys for sure.
Did the drop-off of the team in different places and back to the Amanzi Lodge.

The next day Buzz dropped me at the airport and kindly guided me through the gun/customs/check-in.

Shook hands and in my not-too-good-english I explained to him that I was very greatfull for his hospitality and for letting me come to his hunting grounds.

It was truly an outstanding experience and I would not hesitate to come back hunting with Charlton-Mccallum`s team again.

So until next time, Thank you so much sir Buzz Charlton.

And to you girls and boys who have taken a few minutes to read my short story of my adventure, :
Thanks a lot.

And VUKA VUKA !




Odin Rørvik


-Norway

Well. I managed to mess the Pictures up.

Congrats on a great safri! You cant go wrong with Buzz. Mururu is a great camp. I took a awesome leopard last year hunting with Rich out of that camp. Cant wait to see your pics.

Great hunt report!! Congratulations on your leopard, looking forward to,the photos when you manage to get them up!!!

Cheers

Nick

Great report.............but MAN we need pictures!

.

Fantastic hunt report. Hoping the photos get sorted out.

Great report Odin !

But we have to fix those photoes. One way of doing it is sending them to me or we ask Biebs, Nick or Larry to help us out.

Morten

Odin
Super jagt rapport. Fantastisk leopard
Stort tilykke

Good Hunting
Carl Frederik

Puh.

Fixed the Pictures. Hell of a job.

Odin

It was a pleasure hunting with you my friend- we shared the highs and lows of cat hunting that is for sure but in the end it all came together!! I loved the tracking of lions we did also that was a high light and I look forward to the next adventure - a big ele bull! I am just sorry you did not take a bit of Vuka Vuka to try out!!!!!!

What a fine adventure!
Congrats on the cat. It might be the pictures but he seems to have the slickest, shiniest coat I have ever seen on one.

Im suddenly thirsty for a Castle!!!!

Odin,

A dream fulfilled, well done , and a great account of the effort that seems to come with hunting leopard.


Congrats and thanks for sharing!!

Great report and a huge congrats to you. That brought back a lot of memories of a very similar hunt I had with Buzz back in 2010...

Great trip! Did not get any mail from you

great report. Well done

Congrats, looks as though you had a great safari!

Excellent hunt report & nice pics, gotta love that big leopard!

Well done, Jim

Nice report and excellent pics.

Congrats on some fine buffalo and a nice Zambezi Valley cat!

Way to go Buzz and crew, continuing to deliver as always.

Very Creative Photography. Nice work

Well done Odin. Thanks for persevering to get the pictures posted! Congrats.

Great report and excellent pics! Thanks for sharing!

Best regards, D. Nelson

Odin. Gratulerer.
What a fine hunt you had, love that leopard of yours.
I really enjoyed your report and the pictures you (finally) posted.
Jytte

Odin, great hunt....glad you got your Leopard. Now you won't feel so bad when you strike out with Larry on a Mountain Lion :-)

Great report and pictures. Thanks for sharing.

What a great hunt, beautiful cat well earned.
I hunted a leopard out of Mururu with Buzz in 2013, also killed on day 12.
Is Good Fun still the skinner at Mururu?

Gratulerer med flott katt Odin...

Odin,

Great report and pictures,leopards are wonderful animals, they have a way of getting your respect.You did good, and so did that little PH of yours. A trip to remember for the rest of your life. Big congrats to you and Buzz!!

Awesome Tom for the Zambezi Valley!!

Well done Gents.

Congrats! Great hunt and nice report.

What? No Aquavit to celebrate your hunt? Are you sure you are not really Swedish?

Seriously, that is one fine cat. Well done on a great hunt!

Great report and pictures, and congrats on a beautiful leopard and buffalo.


Torbjørn

Grattis Odin

Great report! It seems that you like the the experience of it, not the inches and all that. Must have been awesome!!

Gratis!

Awesome! Happy for you. No better feeling than seeing a cat at the bottom of the tree. I remember it well.

Ski+3

quote:

Originally posted by Buzz Charlton:
Odin

It was a pleasure hunting with you my friend- we shared the highs and lows of cat hunting that is for sure but in the end it all came together!! I loved the tracking of lions we did also that was a high light and I look forward to the next adventure - a big ele bull! I am just sorry you did not take a bit of Vuka Vuka to try out!!!!!!

Buzz, Thanks a lot and I look forward to some ele tracking !

quote:

Originally posted by Biebs:
Odin, great hunt....glad you got your Leopard. Now you won't feel so bad when you strike out with Larry on a Mountain Lion :-)

Hey!

Thank you som much for Reading my report. I really enjoy other hunting reports and Im glad to give something back.
Anton I havent forgot it. Just have to figure how to do it!

nice cat

Great report, thanks for sharing

Congrats on a great Leopard and thanks for a great report.