Area: Coutada 9 / 13 Mozambique.
Operator: Mokore Safaris
Client : Dan, Nic and Joe Mehner & Rob Mehner
PH : Neil Duckworth
Cameraman : Luari Allanthwaite, Osprey Filming Company
Type of hunt :Lion, Sable, Nyala and plainsgame
Dates 1-21 August 2015
Rifles : 458 Dakota and a 270 Weatherby

This was a family hunt .The main animals were to be hunted by Dan and other plainsgame / baits to be hunted by his sons and Rob.
To start we started out by shooting a bunch of non trophy kudu for bait.







After collecting some baits and setting them up we took and afternoon walk along a small river bed where Dan managed to collect his first trophy, a nice bushpig



Over the next few days whilst checking baits we managed to pick up a nice hartebeest which Dan took with his 270.



On the second day we had one bait hit by two young males and a lioness feed. On the 4th night we had a bait hit by 3 males. One of them was a nice male which was missing part of his front foot in an old injury from a poachers gin trap.




The lion we called Tripod! Note part of his front right foot missing.



From here we decided to build a tree blind and get set up.









By 4:30 pm we were all set and in our tree house mansion.



After only a couple hours in the blind the first of the 3 males walked in straight under the tree blind. It was last light and was not tripod. Shortly after the second male arrived and then followed by tripod. For some reason the lions did not come to the bait for some reason. We lay there for over 3 hours ,often with all three males roaring directly under our treestand. Clearly not amused by the addition to the tree.
Eventually they started to feed on the kudu bait so I turned on the rheostat light to the minimum setting ,when it came on the 2 youner males were feeding. At first they we not to happy with the light but started to settle down. After a while Tripod ,who was lying a little way off ,moved to the bait. After increasing the light a bit Dan took him with a quartering on shot. With the classic tumble and growl the lion headed off into some long grass.
We got out of the tree stand and headed off into the long grass. After about 15 very intense minutes where we were being circledand mock charged by the two younger males not knowing where tripod was, we eventually found him in the long grass not far from one of his growling companions. We loaded him up and headed out for some photos.
A very big bodied lion with skull measuring just under 25" SCI.
Dan's long time dream had been accomplished.





The dreaded long grass we had to venture through in the dark!!




From here we had our main trophy in the salt so concentrated on getting some of the many other plainsgame trophies on offer.

Nico's nice old bushbuck ram taken last light after a long walk up the Nyampenpentwa river.






Dan's fine Nyala bull taken on a late afternoon walk up the Pompwe river. There were two bulls of similar size ,Dan hit him a little low, with a follow up with head torches we manages to follow him up and finish him of. A beautiful animal.






Dan's nice 16 " bushbuck ram.



Ngwenya the driver posing.



Nhamo my head tracker who's covered many miles with me for the last 13 years. Quiet but deadly.



Kudu country .



Nico's warthog



Nico's nice Oribi taken on the same walk as the warthog.





Nico's very nice old Common duiker.





The boys and Rob had great fun everyday competing to shoot gueneafowl.



After some hard hunting we found this very nice sable bull. 39. 5 " bull with 10.5" bases!!







We found a young elephant bull that had died some months before. Probably wounded by poachers. Nico claiming he got it with his knife..



Joe arrived half way through and got this nice kudu bull on his first day.



Big smiles from the group when we introduced Joe to our version of Cheese! Gongo ino naka !!
I won't translate it but brought lots of laughs.





Rob with the dreaded scope eye. Both boys also got one from the 458. Unfortunately we had a problem with the 270 Weatherby which was firing as soon as you closed the bolt. So all hunting from then on was with the 458 which caused a few misses and wounds after the scope eyes but still racked up some good trophies.



Rob with his first trophy.




Joe with his 15 " Bushbuck





Joe's hog. Unfortunately he wounded and missed bigger ones with the 458, but still a nice hog.



Joe catching some shut eye over lunch in camp.



Dan's chalet.



Rob's Sharpe's grysbok.



Nico's wide kudu.





Joe's nice 22" impala






Nico's nice 22 " impala




Gongo ino naka!!



Some sights!!



All in all it was a great safari with many great trophies and lots of laughs. The area is a great hunting destination as can be seen by the quality and variety of game seen here. We collected 18 trophy animals ,wounded 2 and missed several.
Thanks Dan and family for hunting with us on a great safari.

Fantastic safari Neil,

Congrats to all involved. Do you have a close up picture of the missing foot?

Fantastic! Congrats to everyone involved.

A nice team photo.

Sorry in the excitement we never actually took a photo of his missing foot.

Neil

Congrats to you and the hunters on a great hunt. And thanks for posting.

Very clean looking truck my friend!!

Many Thanks

Brett

Congratulations to the hunters.Some nice trophies.

Nicely done!

Wow, what a safari, I would love to see pics of the lions right paw

Neil,

Great stuff as usual. Coutada 9 continues to be a great destination.

Mark

Some great stuff there.

Duckworth fellas continuing to deliver time and again.

Nice work!

Cheers.

Great hunt guys congrats!
Super assortment of animals there too. Did you get a chance at any eland?

Very nicely done Neil, congratulations to both you and the lucky hunters, simply a top notch safari! Thanks for sharing

Just a few questions: Do you have two species of bushbuck in your concession? Is that the first lion you guys have taken there?

Well done! Some very nice trophies and lots of smiles to go around.

Fantastic as always Neil!!

Nice job Neil !

Some very nice trophies with excellent Lion, congratulations to everyone involved.

congratulations

Looks like everyone had a great time. Thanks for sharing.

Looks like everyone had a great time and took some super trophies along the way. Congratulations!

I am curious about Mozambique and their increased fees for gun permits. Did you experience any of these increased fees that were talked about here on AR just a short while ago?

A great family safari!

For now they have reduced the rifle permits back to $250 /rifle as it was last year whilst they review this.
However it could be increased again?

We hope there will be no more increases but as everyone is aware their approaches are always short sighted and seem to think money grows on trees.

Another great safari with Mokore - no surprises. Well done Giraffe.

What's with the Ndebvu? Too much time on the Durban beach!!!

Good stuff.

An outstanding collection of impressive trophies. The Lion is a brute and very well done to all involved.

First class safari and destination.

Excellent!

You guys did well!

Hi Manuel
This is the seventh lion we have taken there since 2007. This was probably the smallest maned lion of the 7 but still a beauty .So far 100 % success in C9 on lion hunts.
Not a lot of lion there but the population is increasing .

quote:

Originally posted by Neil Duckworth:
Hi Manuel
This is the seventh lion we have taken there since 2007. This was probably the smallest maned lion of the 7 but still a beauty .So far 100 % success in C9 on lion hunts.
Not a lot of lion there but the population is increasing .

That is great, you guys have done a great job managing that area, you should be proud. Congratulations again!

Nicely done. Great trophies

Fantastic job Neil. Great report and just outstanding trophies. Happy hunters!

Very nice! Congrats!

What a time!
Great report and fantastic pics!

Excellent hunt. I never thought I would say it, but I love that Wby MkV in the photos - kind of nostalgic, like an old Weatherby catalog.

Outstanding. Thank you for sharing. Makes my day to start with an African hunting story.

Ski+3

A fantastic bunch of trophies, looks like everyone a great time, well done!!

Great hunt. Thanks for posting.

Outstanding. Thank you for sharing.

great pics and a brilliant hunt, congrats, well done