This was a Lion hunt in Zambia

Outfitter: Muchinga Adventures/ John DuPlooy
Booking Agent: Mark Young/ Adam Clements Safari Trackers
Professional Hunter: Alister Norton
Travel Agent: Shawn Kennedy/ Gracy Travel
Rifles Used: Dakota 76 African in .416 Rigby and Dakota 76 in .375 H&H Magnum
Ammo: Federal 400gr TSX in .416 and 300gr TSX in .375
Dates: 10/14/08 through 11/5/08

This hunt was originally offered to me as a cancellation hunt by Mark Young after talking with me about my long term hunting goals after my previous Zimbabwe trip. It was not quite a short notice trip with the decision being made in May, but it was definitely something that fell into my lap.

I flew out of Minneapolis on the first leg. Unfortunately the folks at the American Airlines counter had no idea how to deal with my rifles. I told them that I knew what I was doing, and asked that they call their supervisor. When she arrived, she knew the procedure and everything moved along, although it took a while as she taught all the counter folks what they needed to do. They checked my bag with all the ammo through, but would not check the guns, as they said British Airlines would not allow that. The flight to Chicago went without issue until I arrived at the baggage claim, where I found my checked bag with the ammo (it was supposed to be checked through) but no rifles. After waiting a while a guy from American came up and asked if I was waiting for "special" luggage. I told him I was waiting for my rifles, and he promptly brought them out to me. The BA folks were different to my way of looking at things, but as everything had been arranged, there was no trouble. BA apparently considers both guns and a bag with ammo as "limited release" cargo, and kept track of them separately. The agent said I could ask the steward as I boarded if it was aboard and get it verified- which I later did and I had no problems with BA. TSA in Chicago was a joke. They wiped the entire surface of both guns including sticking their fingers into the chambers to check for "explosives", and originally wanted me to stand quite a ways back and use their "key" to open the lock. It would not work right (operator error) and had me unlock the case. The flight to London was about 7.5 hours and BA's upgraded economy was about what I have experienced in Delta's business class. London Heathrow terminal 5 is a mess. compared to US airports it seemed small, and the security was run differently than here. I had to repeatedly go through the "check". Also, the security guy (a cop I believe- he had a gun) told me that while I could leave the airport, after I had asked about the firearms (in the cargo area with BA) being a issue, he asked that I not leave the airport so that there would be no "problems". I sat in the regular terminal for 12 hours as I could not buy access for the day to the business / first class lounges. On my return, I flew business and if I have to stay in Heathrow for hours in the future, I will get lounge access as it is much more comfortable.

I arrived in Lusaka at about 6:30 in the morning and Teresa from Muchinga was waiting to get me through the system. I have to commend the Zambians, when they saw that the lines were backed up, they opened up the Diplomatic line to us to get us all through. The gun permit stuff was straightforward, but they did look at each gun for chambering and serial number (asking me where to find it) and checking each cartridge for headstamp. AS a bit of advice, remove your price stickers and say that your ammo is handloads and worth $1 a round. I got nailed for VAT for 1.8 million Kwacha (which it had to be in...) which is around $500. The Barclays office also only wanted to exchange $1000 per person per day. Teresa then took me out to the parking lot where I met Alister Norton for the first time. I was still pretty groggy, and he said to toss the .375 in and we would get going. I started to unpack it, and then was told that the gun permit was needed to remain with the guns, so I would take both rifles along, and I just tossed the hard case in and then grabbed my cap and sunglasses and a box of .375 ammo and put it in the cruiser (I did neglect to bring my Zambian cash which was a wad about the size of a cigar box...don't do that...) The rest Teresa took to Johnnie and Laura's house where I would stay in Lusaka.

We drove about 2.5 hours on roads I would rate as not too bad by african standards and got to know each other a bit while we went to Blue Lagoon where I was to hunt a Kafue Flats Lechwe. We stopped at the Game office and picked up some paperwork and a game scout. We drove out about a half hour from there and then found a nice termite mound to check zero with. The .375 with its new Z6I 2-12 scope was dead on despite the trip and off we went on the flats. I was told I was lucky. As it was late in the year, I would not likely have to wade through too much mud and water. It turned out, we saw a smudge on the horizon about 30 minutes into the flats which was the Lechwe herd we hunted. After a a little glassing it became obvious that one of them was substantially larger than the others. We then spent about 2 hours playing a game of walk up, get on the sticks, have him move, walk up again. Finally he stood still long enough for me to shoot at a range of a little more than 300 yards. 1 shot and he fell over. He measured 33" X 33.3" and Alister pronounced him a excellent sample of the Kafue Flats Lechwe. This was the only animal I saw Alister put a tape measure to. I told him that I wanted a 40+" Buffalo, and one animal that people would consider a good trophy (which he defined as a SCI Gold medal animal) and the Lion as far as my expectations and desires. Here is a photo of Alister and I with the Lechwe.



We then drove back to Lusaka and I ate a meal with the DuPlooys and some of their other clients that were leaving after successful hunts.

The following morning, it was up at 5:30 to get on a charter plane to go to Bangweulu and then from there to go on to the bush camp at Chanjuzi on the Luangwa River where I was to hunt Lion. It was a bit over a 2 hour flight from Lusaka to Bangweulu. The Bangweulu swamp was the only real area of green I saw in Zambia at this late of time. The name swamp seemed somewhat a misnomer, as it floods during the rainy season (with all kinds of little walls with holes in them that the locals use for fish traps), and although there were some soft spots where we did get stuck, I did not see any standing water. We landed on the National Park airstrip and stopped at the park office where we picked up a game scout and the camp manager drove out to pick us up to go hunting. The charter pilot and the aircraft waited for us while we did this. As an aside, there are apparently some changes going on at Bangweulu. I had added the Lechwe and Tsessebe hunts as I had been told that the area was being absorbed into a new National Park area. It sounded like this is sort of happening. Where I hunted will now be part of the park, but there is another part that will still be open to hunt; but the way it is to be hunted will change. It will no longer be a one day add on, but rather you will not be allowed to hunt the same day that you fly, and they want to make the Tsessebe/Black Lechwe take at least 3 days, with required stays at a camp in Bangweulu. It will allow hunters to look over more animals, but it certainly was not hard to find them.

Here is a picture I took just after we left the Park office.



We first went looking for the Tsessebe. We were driving through more wooded higher ground than we would look for the Lechwe on. We were told by one of the local residents that he had seen a bull off by himself after we had been looking for about an hour. Alister wanted to look at him, and said that all things considered, given the heat and time of year, that if he was decent we would take the lone bull as he would rather not stress a herd by going in to it if we could avoid it. We found the bull, and tried glassing him a bit. He looked good, and we decided to drive out and get in front of him then ambush him as Tsessebe are supposed to be the fastest antelope in Africa. We got where we started looking for him in the distance to set up a stalk, and all of the sudden he appeared about 40 yards away. I tried to shoot, but had forgot to put one in the chamber given I had not yet got out of the car. He stood looking at us while I loaded and then hit him right behind the shoulder. He ran maybe 25 yards before falling over. These have a very pretty black and bay spotted coat, and Alister pronounced him a good specimen with about 18" horns.



It turned out the reason he was by himself is that he had been involved in some sort of fight. He had a goring wound on his back, and when we skinned him out his left backstrap showed signs of gas gangrene. While Tsessebe are supposed to be a delicious animal to eat, I was not really anxious to eat something that infected, nor was Alister. The local tribesmen on the other hand thought we were crazy.

We then started off looking for the Black Lechwe. Alister and I had a discussion about what I wanted. His comments were that you had two options- Look for a black Black Lechwe that looks like what he is, the so called Tuxedo look, or you can try and get a high scoring Lechwe. If you have a lot of time, sometimes you can find one with both, but its rare. I told him that I was not a book hunter, so I wanted a typical appearing male; besides I already had a really nice Lechwe from yesterday. The decisions made, we glassed a couple of parts of the herd. We found what we were looking for; one who looked like he had good horn size, yet was dark. It took about 45 minutes or so to get him where I would not have a danger of shoot through, and I got him at a bit over 100-125 yards.



Gives a bit of an idea about his coloration

Here is a photo that shows him a bit better overall.



We posed for the pictures with him, and went to the camp to eat lunch and get the trophies caped out. We ate with the pilot who is a family friend of Alister's and then drove back to the airstrip and flew down to the Chanjuzi airstrip on the Luangwa. Muchinga has two concessions here, Nyaminga and Chanjuzi. They do share a common border along the river at one point. I did visit the Nyaminga camp at one point, but all of my hunting was on Chanjuzi.

To Continue on...

We were met at the airstrip by a large group of folks, including my hunting crew. The trackers were Boniface (Boni), and Sande (I think that's how its spelled), and the apprentice PH Lameck. We also had Nelson, who was the Government Game scout. Nelson by far had the best gun discipline of any game scout I have met. We were also joined later by Joey, another PH apprentice who needed to have one more Lion hunt to sit for his exam. As we drove in, Alister gave me some interesting information. This area is where Capstick wrote Death in the Long Grass. He also stated that Capstick never held a PH's license in Zambia, and that some of the other PH's had known him. I think that Alister thought Capstick a bit of a phony, but stated that he had no personal knowledge of the man.

I then got to Chanjuzi Bush Camp, which would be home for the next 19 days. The camp was nicely situated on the Luangwa, and we saw a huge variety of game at various times from camp. When we arrived it was well over 100 degrees Farenheit, with at times it being 140 in the sun and 115 in the shade. There was a herd of Puku sleeping out in the sand of the riverbed when I got there. We saw Baboon, Impala, Puku, Zebra, Waterbuck, Kudu, Wildebeest, Bushbuck, Warthog, and Elephant out in the riverbed at various times. I was told that occasionally Buffalo would be seen, although I did not see them myself. We also had a nocturnal vistor of a Leopard one night, who decided to take a rest on top of our dining area table by the tracks. Elephant were regular visitors at night. I was told not to leave the Chalet at night. I was told that a number of years ago a hunter had wandered out into a group of Lionesses and cubs and had been killed in camp. Lion also kill a few local villagers every year as well.

View from Camp



The Chalet



Inside of the chalet



The green thing is a mosquito net, which I was told to use. It must have worked, as I had no problems with bugs in camp. The chalets had running water which was not potable, you needed to use bottled water to drink or brush your teeth. They did have hot water, and a en suite toilet and shower. You did have electricity as long as the generator was running. There were no big windows, which given our visitors was a good thing, but it did hamper the breeze. There were no fans in camp though. At night temps would get down to maybe 85 or so. The humidity climbed as the hunt went on, but for the most part I had little trouble sleeping. We had a light supper and then went to bed early.

The next morning, we got up and checked the zero on my .416. This had shifted a bit, 5" to the left. It took a total of 5 rounds to get it where I wanted it. We then started with the business at hand. In order to hunt cats, you need bait. The best way of getting this started is to shoot a big animal, and this was to be a Hippopotamus for this hunt. Alister knew where a pod tended to hang out, and in fact he had a hunter take his lion right there a short while ago, while it was sitting on a hippo kill.



This is the pod while we were cutting up the bull I shot. The hippo hunt was rather anticlimactic as the goal was to get meat fast- no try to dry-land hunt a hippo here, just whack it and go. I hurried my first shot and put it a bit low, which probably was 6" low, but given the angle hit the water maybe 3 feet away from the hippo. This made my job more difficult as now I had to hurry between hippo submergings to get him. My second shot was a bit better and hit him right in his eye. I recovered the .416 slug afterwards, and the TSX had lost 3 petals, but the shank held together and certainly the hippo was dead.



The beast was BIG. I had no real concept of how big the hippo were until now. The recovery was to wait until the animal started to bloat then have a local fisherman take a boat out and tie a rope to the hippo and haul him in. I paid the fisherman 20,000 Kwacha to do this. (About $5) I sure would not have done it! He was out poling his dugout in the middle of the hippo pod, and once hit a live hippo, which promptly moved and almost swamped his boat. When he found the hippo, he jumped in and tied the rope to its head (with all of the other hippo and the crocodile. Later I shot my croc from this same pool.) Pulling him out was a bit of a chinese fire drill. He would push on his pole, and pull it out to push again, but he forgot that the rope was tight- he would push forward, then the rope pulled him back, and he got nowhere. Finally after much shouting they got close enough that our guys could pull it close and then roll him up on the beach.



This is the hunting crew with my Hippo. I think the picture conveys how big they are. This hippo was about 25-26" tusks. I kept the skull as a trophy, and a couple of panels of skin for leather. We cut off the neck and quartered the rest to make baits. The tail was reserved for making hippo tail soup. I later found out that maybe 10% of people are allergic to hippo for some odd reason. The meat is rather strong and fatty, and apparently some folks like Alister just don't care for it. I found it pretty good, but it was fatty. I was also introduced to the "interesting" part of cat hunting. Alister called the stuff "shit" but I suppose chum would be about as accurate. It is supposed to be kind of like sourdough in that you want to have some "starter" present and it helps if it ferments a bit. You take all the grass from the animal's stomachs, throw this in with all the blood you can get, and then throw in some cut up intestines. You use this stuff to create scent and paths to your bait. You might also use a piece of intestine to drag as well. The height of you bait is critical. You want the meat to begin at about 5' off the ground, with most of it over 6' off the ground. A big female might get 6-7' up, a big male can get up to almost 10'. Under 5' and your feeding hyaenas. If its too close to the branch, a leopard will eat it, and if you don't cover it with grass or leaves the vultures will eat it. Unfortunately, at the time I was out there the bait did not last as long as it might due to the heat. We set up the 4 quarters for bait after lunch and then cleaned up, ate and went to bed.

The following day we went out and checked our baits. While we were driving out we saw numbers and varieties of animals you would think we were in a zoo. I amused Alister by not being able to identify the difference between a Puku and an Impala easily, and this "problem" persisted throughout the hunt. We saw a number of Bushbuck that Alister said "we will come back and look for him later." Suddenly Alister stopped the cruiser and whispered "get your .375 now!" we then stalked with frequent stops for glassing on his part, for maybe 30 minutes. I had learned my last hunt that I do not carry binoculars or I will be glassing when I should be shooting. Alister said there is a good Bushbuck between those two trees. I got up on the sticks and told him, I can't see his body. His exasperated response was "shoot the #$@#ing thing!" I took the shot in the neck and down he went. "Proper!" was the response. This was a very nice @ 16.5" Chobe Bushbuck that Alister said was excellent, and will go Gold with ease. Later on we saw a Kudu that Alister thought was nice. I asked him how big was "nice" I was told 49-51". I had already shot one that size and told Alister I was not interested. He told me that this was big for this area, and I still said no. Later we had a discussion regarding shooting and baits. He said he respected my stance on what I felt like shooting, but we need meat for baits, and it can be a real issue. In the future I told him if he said shoot I would shoot, but if he felt the need to ask me if I wanted it, I would tell him honestly what I thought, and that I would probably choose to not shoot a animal smaller than I already had.



We then finished checking our baits, none of which were hit. After that, we went up to the plains area to set up a fifth bait. Within 15" we had Lionesses on the bait there. I thought this was a good sign but it turned out this was a pride they had shot the male out of about a month ago and they had not recruited a new male yet.



These lionesses showed no fear of us, we drove up to within 10 yards of them and they just looked at us. After a bunch of pictures we left them alone and went back to camp. That afternoon we tried to stalk Grysbok a few times and then we found a Duiker. Alister said he had not shot a duiker in quite some time, and ended up thinking that either they are coming back or they were just in a different area than they used to be. This one was hit a little high, and all but eviscerated by my .375. It took a little doing to get a picture of him without too much mess. Alister said he was "not bad, but not real good either" He measured maybe 1.5" and these little guys eat good.



The bad news came when we got back to camp. The generator died. Alister spent several hours trying to get it working and declared it impossible until we had light. No ice or cold beer. The camp staff would have to bucket brigade water up to camp for showers.

The next day, Alister decided that we were going to move the bait where we had seen the lionesses as he knew there was no male with them. As we went up to the bait Lameck saw Zebra. Zebra are preferred feeding for Lion, so we quickly scurried over and shot one. We hung the whole Zebra up on a different spot on the plains and spent some time taking pictures of the pride without a male.

Zebra



Lioness and Cub Picture



Lioness



Hiding Lioness



Alister was unable to fix the generator, and we radioed in to get a replacement. This would be in with the next hunting group due to arrive in 2 days. We had no cool drinks, and until the generator arrived, we were not able to keep fresh food either.

The next day was worse luck. As we were checking bait, the cruiser ate its rear differential bearing. This wasted a good part of the day to get it apart enough for the cruiser to be limped in to camp. In the meantime I checked the baits with Lameck. We saw a grysbok that stood still, but he was too small.



Later that day we met a few of the local personalities. There was a South African (white) lady who works as a community organizer who came to camp trying to get Alister's support for some sort of new photo camp. Later a California lady who researches lions came in. We took her out to the pride and got within 10' of the lionesses so she could use a biopsy dart gun on them to get some DNA samples. This was as close to shooting a lion as I would get. The noise that they made when the dart hit them was a little scary, but it didn't seem to annoy the lionesses that much. She got 2 samples and then we left them alone.

The following day, luck seemed to turn around a bit. As we started to look at the baits, we saw a buffalo. We tried to get a look at him but the land rover we had borrowed was just too noisy, and scared him off. We had written Buffalo off, and continued checking baits. At the second, we drove up, and Sande told Alister that the buffalo were there. Behemoth awaits! Standing in the river was a pair of the biggest buffalo I had ever seen at that point. They were contentedly drinking. Alister and I hurried forward and got within 50 yards. Alister warned me that we needed to kill it, as we were on the concession border. He did not want it to get to the other side. he started walking along as I lined up on him Alister whistled and stopped him and I gave the closer of the two a .416 round right in the armpit. He then ran for the far side. I shot him again, and then Alister hit him in the rump, and I fired a third time at his rear. All of the shots hit where aimed, my first round wreaking his heart, but he still managed to run about 100 yards to the far side of the river. As the river was the border of the concession, we needed to get the regional ranger to come with us to pick up the buffalo.





The Buff was very good. He was about 41" and had nice conformation. I now had 2 of the goals of my safari met. As the baits were holding up, we had no refrigeration, and Muchinga has an obligation to give the local people at least half the meat they shoot, we ended up delivering the meat to a local school for the students to eat. I was also asked to shoot the first of 6 Impala that we would eventually end up shooting for Game scout or Village rations. I was not allowed to shoot a trophy impala as there were none left on quota.

That afternoon the new hunters come in, as well as our generator. John, a hunter from Chicago who was here to hunt Buffalo as part of his extended honeymoon (albeit without his wife here- she didn't want to go hunting) was joining us at Chanjuzi with Abie DuPlooy as his PH. Johnnie and Terry would be hunting 4 Englishmen over at Nyaminga 2 on 1 also for Buffalo. The Englishmen were all guests of one of the guys who has some money. I wish I had friends like that! We ended up getting our replacement generator, but unfortunately it did not have enough capacity. It would run the lights, the water pump or the ice box, but not more than any one at a time, and the icemaker would not work with it. Still, after 3 days of warm beer, with a great Buffalo down, we had a bit of a party that night, with cold beer and Buffalo Steak.

The next 2 days were similar. Check bait in the morning, and look for a good trophy in the afternoon. We had some lionesses and a Leopard on the Zebra. After seeing the leopard, I have now seen all of the big 5 in a hunting area at some point in time. The 24th was Zambian Independence day. The PH's were rather profane about this, but the black staff had a big party, with a lot of (illicit) drinking.

On the 25th we saw a "big" waterbuck on our way out to check baits. We needed more meat, but Alister thought John wanted a waterbuck so we held off. When we got back at noon, John let Alister know that he only wanted a Buffalo at that point. After he got that he would shoot a Puku, and he was somewhat upset about the situation regarding Impala not being available for quota. After discussion he later said he would shoot a Kudu, but Alister then decided if we saw the waterbuck again I would shoot it. That afternoon we went out and looked for crocodile but did not find anything worth looking at.

Daaaaang! That Lechwe is a toad! Nice animals. Good job.

Great report so far. There are some beautiful shots there.

Great report so far, takes me right back to the Luangwa Valley. Sounds like you shot very well, I am not sure how I would do a few hours after stepping off the plane. And that is a wonderful old bushbuck, love the worn-off neck.

Looking fwd to the continued installment(s)!

Thanks Guys!

To Continue...

The following day we again checked baits and on the way out to the plains area we saw the same big Waterbuck where he had been the day before. I had my .416 with me as we were hunting the lion, and he was pretty close. My first shot hit a tree, and the impact was loud enough that we thought I had hit the waterbuck. He ran about 200 yards as we followed him, and then he stood back looking at us from a small grove. I was able to get a shot at him from maybe 75 yards and hit him in the heart. He fell right over, and I have never seen so much blood from a bullet wound before. He was around 25" which Alister told me is very good for the area. We promptly caped him out and hung him in a tree next to the river as bait.



This brought up the halfway point of my Lion hunt, and we had not seen any males, or any sign of males for that matter. Rather unusually we had heard lions roar only one night at this point, and were not seeing hyaena sign or vultures either. Alister made a few comments that he was wondering where all the cats went.

The following day was notable as we surprised a group of dagga boys while checking bait. We tried a stalk on them, but were busted and they ran across the river to the other concession. Some of them looked about like the first buffalo, and it was quite exciting to stalk them. We moved one of the lion baits to see if it would get any action and scouted a few places to see if we could find some Lion sign. While doing this, a Grysbok stood still too long and I shot him with the .375. He was a typical Grysbok, but had a torn loose snare around his neck.



Later that day we found out that John had gotten a crack at a big buffalo and unfortunately wounded it. He and Abie had tracked it back to the herd and asked us to help them sort out from the herd. That afternoon we went with them to the herd that the buff had looked like it had joined. As I had a buff quota left, and we needed a bait still, Alister and I stalked the herd while Abie and John followed us. We took our time checking the herd over, but didn't see a wounded (or for that matter any) big bulls. There was one soft bossed smaller bull, but as we were cat hunting and the need for bait was upon us, Alister set the sticks up on him at about 100-150 yards facing us, even though it was just past sunset and we had maybe 10-15 minutes of light left. I took the shot, and he dropped but got back up again. Later it turned out I had flinched and jerked the shot a bit and had gut shot him through the spleen. We quickly tried to find him, but as it was dark we needed to call it off and go back. Needless to say it was a rather subdued camp that evening.

The next morning we went off to where I had shot and sent some of the camp staff to check the baits for us. Within 50 yards of were I had shot him, my buff was lying up under a tree. We saw him move so he was alive still. I shot him through the spine and then put an insurance shot through the lungs. He gave a mighty struggle to get up, but was not able to. He finally gave the death moan and we got to look at him. Unfortunately, this was the least satisfying of all my buffalo. He was green bossed and measured 37", but he was cat bait now! The next order of business was to find where the other buff had gone. We went back to where Abie had last seen blood and had Sande track him from there. It turns out he did not join the herd, but had been run off. We then started off on what was later termed the south Luangwa Death March. By mistake, we only had half the water we should have had, and it was warm (did I say it was 140 degrees before?) and we had visitors in the form of sweat bees. After a 5 hour walk, I suddenly saw Alister drop to a squat, and then saw the buffalo get to his feet. I quickly checked to make sure no one was in the firing lane while Alister shot it once, then I shot him in the only offered place, his flank. As he ran up the path John put one in him as a Texas heart shot. Now we had new blood to follow, and he crossed the break line road. We were able to radio the cruiser and thus finally got some water. Another 1.5-2 hours showed him lying down watching his back trail. At this point things were looking a little dicey, and in view of safety, Alister had John and I watch the trail, so I took a rested position and cranked the scope up to 6X and watched for him to try and sneak out to the river. Abie and Alister then stalked up to him and shot 4 shots at the beast and knocked him down. They then had John put 2 more .375 rounds in him and the game was up. This buffalo took 10 hits, half from .458 Lotts, 1 .416 and the rest from a .375. John's first shot was just a few inches from the nostril, and had took out the buffs face and ability to drink as well as damaging the shoulder, but only 2 had hit the chest cavity.



Here is a picture of the guys looking him over. I know the lighting is off, but honestly, I was thinking of other things then! I think I got a little heat exhaustion as I shortly thereafter had a bit of the GI's and felt kind of out of it for a few days.



That evening we put up 2 buffalo baits near the river because we had heard Lion again. That evening was a bit of a celebration with the wounded buff dead, and John had his first African kill!

The next day when we checked the baits, a hyaena had looked at one of them, although he did not eat anything, and the scrap of hide we had left on the ground had been taken by a croc of all things (it was quite a steep climb up the riverbank, but even I could track what happened.) That afternoon, I hit the low point in my shooting. I saw a warthog with an excellent tusk on one side. As we thought it would be good to eat, I shot him. He dropped and was up again, but I thought I had him and didn't try and shoot him twice. We started out with an excellent blood trail, and everyone was optimistic that we would find him shortly in the morning. That evening we were up late giving John his farewell dinner, as he was flying out from the nearest city at 8 am. The following day was the Zambian presidential elections (which Mr. Rupiah ended up winning), and almost all the staff took the morning off to go vote. This meant that we were working without Sande to find the Warthog. This did not work, and we decided to come back in the evening to work this out with him. That evening we were following him well, and darkness came. The following morning I was really quite ill. I managed to do our bait check. While we were doing that we saw a nice Puku. I took a shot at him, but I was shaking so bad I missed him clean at 100 yards. I was pretty dehydrated, we went back to camp and then I spent most of the rest of the day in bed. This helped. Terry, another PH stopped by and kept Alister company that day. The preceding night there had been quite a windstorm, and they were unable to find the Warthog tracks. Of course, to me the gun had to be off, so we spent 12 rounds or so checking zero which proved the rifle was 1.5" high at 100 yards the whole time, and I had been screwing up.

The next day was more on track. In the morning we were told the chief wanted 2 more impala, and after checking our baits we went off to do this. Driving out the Impala showed their usual ability to disappear when we had mayhem in mind. We stopped where the hippo pod had been, and the hippo were there, with their new bull. We also saw a few crocodile. Alister and I had discussed crocs, and my plan was to shoot one, and use the skin to provide the family women with handbags, wallets, boots etc. Alister said he knew where a 12' crocodile was, but if all I wanted was skin, I should go for a 7-8 foot croc as the squares in the hide work better for leather. I didn't want to shoot a "baby", but I honestly don't see much difference in croc size myself until they get over 15' (Personal opinion alert.) I was fine with a 8-9 foot specimen. We drove down to the beach and I took a prone position under the cruiser (cooler there) and we waited for one to crawl out on the bank. One came into the shallow water and Alister decided that was good enough. After convincing yours truely the deaf guy that that particular croc was the target, I shot him. Unfortunately I forgot that I was zeroed 1.5" high, and the bullet hit exactly 1.5" above where I aimed. This caused the croc to flip and roll, and have generally a bunch of uncontrolled activity- but he didn't try and get in the water either. I took a second shot but that hit the spray somewhere. The guys went and grabbed his tail and hauled him up on the beach where I put a second shot in his brain and knocked him out. He measured a good 9' and was rather interesting to examine up close. The skin was soft, not hard and horny like I had always thought.



To continue.

Great stories and pics. Looking forward to the next installment.

After shooting the Crocodile we found a couple of non-trophy Impala and dropped them as well. That evening we went out to check and see if we could find a wildebeest. We came on a herd of buffalo that had just came out of the park nearby. While looking at the herd for the enjoyment of it, we saw what has to be the biggest buffalo I have ever seen. Alister said he looked remarkably like the current SCI record Buffalo which came from Zambia. He was about 48" with excellent drop, and huge bosses that Alister thought would go 19". We couldn't see how much hooking his horns did, but suffice it to say it was one huge buffalo. When I tried to get the camera I lost him in the herd, and ended up not getting a picture. Later on we saw a pair of Lionesses that were stalking the herd trying to hunt. We stayed back and tried to observe for a male, but they ended up with no luck and we did not see a male. Alister thought these were the two that had been feeding on our Zebra bait.

The following day we decided to shoot a Puku when we saw a respectable one near one of the baits. This animal stood still facing me, and I shot him with the .375 at about 70 yards. This was the only plains animal that the bullet did not exit on. He was a good representative Puku with 15" horns. In the herd we shot him from there was another that was identical to him and also a few recently dropped babies (foals, lambs?).



We also came across a trio of Kudu bulls one of which was immature, one high 40's and the bigger one was 50-51". Alister said shooting was purely my option as it was now too late to worry about placing a new bait. I felt that I didn't need to take one, so we watched them walk into the bush.

That evening on the drive back one of the guys saw a hyaena, but neither Alister or I saw him, despite some looking.

The following day we checked our baits once more, and saw no hits. While we were leaving the most distant plains bait we saw the Puku that Alister had been trying to hold out for. He was obviously larger than the others near by, Alister judged him to be 19" and an excellent trophy. He's still there for someone now. That evening we drove over to Nyaminga for some camp visiting. While we were there I found out why we had not seen any lion, hyaena, or many vultures. This concession had a large die-off of both hippo and Buffalo because some of the villagers had burned a bunch of the grass that was close to water. There were 10 hippo down and a dozen to a score buffalo. Abie had seen a buff cow die on the road that morning. The Mexican businessmen hunting there had seen multiple nice lion sitting on the dead animals.

The next day was my last hunting day. We checked the baits, and had a relatively melancholy experience of pulling down the baits after we had determined that there had not been a hit at all. All of the baits showed significant rotting, although some that we had taken the hide off of showed substantial dried meat that was probably still good. At noon we did camp tipping, and I thanked all of the men who had made my trip so much fun. I think most of them were disappointed in the outcome, but it was a grand experience anyhow. I have stalked within 10 yards of Lionesses, seen more Elephants, seen more plains game than you can see in most zoos, took some great trophies, and made some new friends. I can now tell my friends that Lion hunting is definitely not a "tie a lion to a tree and shoot him" proposition.



There were a few things I learned here. First, its better to be lucky than good! Otherwise, I don't think I would deliberately plan a Lion hunt this late in the year; three major reasons. First, the cats tend to be more active when its cooler (per Alister). Second, your baits last longer. Thirdly, if you go early, there is likely to be more unassigned quota to use for baiting. I was lucky to get a chance at a second Buffalo, which we did use for bait, but it would have been easier if we had a second hippo available, then we would not have had to pick and choose which baits to update first. Secondly, don't second guess your PH on trophy quality issues when cat hunting. Who knows if shooting that first Kudu would have made a difference (although with what happened on the other concession, I doubt it made a difference.)

I fully intend to give Alister a grudge match with the lion. I broke his perfect streak, so I think I owe it to both of us...

Great report and photos!

That's one damn fine report....

Dan

I've actually come to enjoy when something evades me on a hunt, just gives me another reason to come back. Still looking for a mountain reedbuck....

I really enjoyed reading your detailed report.

Sorry about your tough luck on the lion. The odds on lion are long when hunting them late in the season. And the hippo and buff die off sure didn't help you.

Still, you killed a terrific bull buffalo - as well as some excellent plains game trophies that are unique to Zambia.

Congratulations, and thanks for sharing your experience.

Great report and photos. Your lion photos are fantastic.

Wow, Great report.

Excellent report, thank you for sharing it. Great pictures, especially the lions. Sorry you lucked out on the lion but congratulations on your other splendid trophies. As Colin Castelli suggested, failing on the lion just gives you a reason to return.....

David

Sounds like a great hunt. Was the 41" on the buff an estimate? I don't carry a tape, but he looked a bit better than that and great curls. Absolutely superb animals. You convinced me that I need to look at Zambia.

Chuck,

Great report. Beautiful trophies, especially the bushbuck and the buffalo. That buffalo sure looks bigger than 41". Congrats.

Cheers,
Andy

crbutler, congratulations on an excellent hunt, some very good photos, thanks for sharing.

Great report! Thank you for sharing it with us.

Great report. The buffalo looks way bigger than 41"! The lechwe is a toad. Sorry about the cat luck, but as stated all the more reason to go back!

Brett

Thanks guys

The numbers on all except the Kafue Flats Lechwe were to my knowlege estimates, but what were put on the form given to the Zambian Wildlife authorities. I did not see, or ask for a tape measuring of anything.

I am pretty proud of the buffalo, he just looks right to me. I think that he's the best of the trophies to me. (Not to take anything away from the Lechwe or the Bushbuck, but it IS a buffalo....)

Well-done report and some excellent trophies. That buff has a beautiful drop and curl to him... Muchinga is a great outfit and Alister is a true nutcase. I enjoyed my time with him in the Luangwa. Sorry about the lion but that is one of the best places I know for a shot at a truly wild one!

VERY nice bushbuck. They are a beautiful trophy.

great report , awesome lechwe ,
cograts on what sounds like an excellent trip in spite of not getting a lion .... thats why we call it hunting !!!

Ivan,

If only more hunters Africa bound really understood that they have bought a hunt and not dead animals. Personally I think if a hunter books a safari in good game country, the crew works as hard as they can and the hunter does his part the safari is a success regardles of the body count. Basing a safari's success on animal killed and size of trophies is missing the point. Safari is a great adventure in and of itself with the actual killing almost secondary. People should relax, enjoy the bush and let the safari flow.

Mark

Well done Mr. Butler!!! I knew you would have an awesome time. I get all giddy thinking about the Luangwa Valley and the time I had there with Johnny and the boys...including Boni the Bull.
Looks like you kept the barrel warm...congrats on some very fine trophies....and I agree with Andy...that buff looks bigger than 41".

Well done.

Gary
DRSS
NRA Lifer
SCI
DSC

Hi, just went through an old post of yours dating back to 2008. I have done the exact same routine with the Duplooy's in 2010 and 2011. Do you have any experience of hunting in Tondwa, am planning on going there next year for sable/sitatunga/roan as main stay. Pls do share your experiences. Thanks and Reagrds, Ali

Sorry to hear you we not successful on lion. This is the first time I have heard that Alistar was unsuccessful on a lion.

Wow...

This was a while back... :-)

I guess things pop up when you are gone a while.

Ali, I did hunt Sitatunga a couple months ago with Johnny. Got the Sitatunga without too much difficulty, saw a really nice Sable, but while there were Roan tracks around, I didn't see them. There is a hunt report here somewhere that I did. In any case, TAKE THE CHARTER to Tondwa...

SBT, yeah, that was Alister's first and only failure on taking Lion to date. Honestly, I think he was more worked up over it than I was, but that is the way the ball bounces sometimes. With the new rule proposals on Lion in Zambia, I suspect that it will no longer be the really high success rates there anymore, as being sure its over 5 is a bit more work.