21 December 2018, 19:06
Thor KirchnerMy season 2018
Another season has come to an end. It hardly ended before I started getting excited for the next season to come. It has been a good season and this year saw me traveling around the many beautiful parts of the country.
I was again this year fortunate enough to host the Danish TV show Nak & Æd. The team is a blast to hang out and work with. Nothing ever get too serious with them. This year hippo and puku was on the menu for two separate shows. I am very proud of them for taking the risk of whacking and cooking a hippo on national TV. We did take good time to explain why it is okay to shoot a hippo. And it seems the Danes took the show very well. In an opinion poll 85% of the Danes though it was okay to shoot and cook a hippo on prime time Danish TV. In my opinion this is a good step for hunting.
I also was lucky enough to do a couple of hunts with Mr Baldy himself. It is always good fun to hunt with Andrew and there is never shortage of laughter, cold beer and Whiskey when he is around. Above one of my favourite moments with his homemade 400-yard target.
Mjølner my VC 500NE also got put to work a few times this year. The more I use it the more I appreciate the value of this serious tool.
The first part of the season I spent in Chikwa GMA
During my time in Chikwa I was fortunate enough to get an incredible sighting of a leopard that had killed what looked like a puku. A crocodile somehow managed to steal the carcass and headed for the river with it. The leopard pursued and after so scratching and growling the leopard tricked the croc and stole his meat back.
Apologize for the photo quality but it was happening 300 to 400 yards away.
For the middle part of the season I was back in the lower luangwa and hunting between Munyamadzi and the neighbouring Kazumba reserve.
For the first time, I had a failed Leopard hunt at Munyamadzi. I will be the first to admit that I’m not perfect and no area is. I was hard for me to send a client home without his main trophy. It put me in my place. But it is hunting and nothing can never be guaranteed. The main thing I to stick to your guns, never give up and do whatever you can to succeed.
How many lions can you fit in a leopard bait tree?
I have had this leopard on bait several times since 2016
This year I finally got back to Kafue. I had not hunted Kafue since my apprentice days in 2008. It took me exactly 10 years to get back. I was very excited and looking forward to this. This time I was hunting in the Mufunta concession owned and operated by Mvu Safaris. Mufunta lays on the Western Southwestern side of the Kafue national park. The area is huge and has some magnificent sable on it. You can go out any day and shoot a 40+ inch sable. And if you work for it you can find 45 and above.
Though luangwa is still my favourite Kafue has something special about it. And I hope to be back there very soon.
Here are some of the animals we hunted in Mufunta.
After Mufunta I got to spend some time in the Bangweulu for the swap species. Here we took some good trophies. The Sitatunga hunting is hard work but well worth it. And Bangweulu is a stunning diverse area with lots to offer.
I would like to thank everyone who have hunted with me and support me in my work to conserve the African bush and its wildlife and prove to the world that hunting can be sustainable and can be good for the wildlife. For those that are on Facebook or Instagram please follow me while I try and push everyone’s buttons and challenge people who don’t know what hunting is about.
Merry Christmas everyone and hope you have a good new year. Hope to see many of you at SCI and DSC
