My wife Randi and I booked a 14 day safari in the Selous with Luke Samaras at the Jan 2006 SCI show. As the date got closer, we decided that since we were flying all that way, we should make the most of it. I contacted Mark Young and he arranged a photo safari for northern Tanzania (Ngorongoro, Serengeti, etc) before our hunt and we then arranged a stay at Kinasi Lodge at Mafia Island for a little R&R after the hunt. Kathi of Wild Travel took care of the air connections.
We were met by Tom our guide for the photo safari and our driver JC of Tnaganyika Trekkers at the Kilimanjaro airport. They had a small table with refreshments waiting for us out by the truck, then took us to Mount Meru Game Lodge to spend the night. After breakfast we headed out to Tarangerie Park to do some game viewing. I always like to do a few days of game viewing before the actual hunt to practice spotting animals and let any misplaced luggage catch up. We saw a buffalo cow there that had at least a 50 inch spread but unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of her. We spent that nite on the rim of Ngorongoro at the Serena Lodge.
the next day we toured the Ngorongoro crater. We saw this old boy just as we were leaving


From Ngorongoro we drove to the western Serengeti for more game viewing, then went to Lake Manyara and then flew down to Dar. If anyone wants more detail on this part of our trip please pm me and I can go into greater detail. Suffice it to say that Mark Young and Tankganyika Trekkers did an outstanding job.
We stayed at the Sea Cliff when we got to Dar. Turns out we were fortunate as it burned extensively 5 nites later and word is won't reopen for a year. Next morning we were up early to catch the charter into the Selous where we were met by Leon Kachelhoffer, our PH and his crew. After a short ride to camp we had breakfast. In the afternoon we checked the rifles and took a drive just to see what we might run into.
That night we heard lion roaring and hyena.
Next morning we were up early and out of camp at 6:30. About 7:30 we cut the tracks of a herd of buffalo and started tracking. We tracked the herd for about 4 hours before we came up behind them. Since it was a large herd, we actually stalked up into the middle of the herd so that we had buffalo feeding on our left, right and in front of us. We couldn't find any worth shooting on the left. As we looked over the bulls on our right, Leon spotted a nice one and we set up the sticks. I sighted through the scope at an opening about 100 yards away and watched buffalo feed past as Leon kept me updated on the bull's movements. When the right bull stepped into the clearing, I let a 350 gr Woodleigh soft fly. As the herd thudered away, we sat down to take a 20 minute break to let things settle down. As we picked up the track I found blood on a small tree and told Randi that we had just bought a buffalo. We soon saw the herd and Leon told me to watch them as the wounded bull would look agitated. He no sooner said that than I saw a bull sway back and forth and collapse. I put another slug in his shoulders and then another as he turned and started to run away. He finally went down and Leon put a bullet just below his boss before he could get up again because we were starting to wonder if we had one of Mark Sullivans extras on our hands as this bull just did not want to stay down.

This is Loci (tracker), Steven (driver) me, Leon, Jeremia (game scout) and Danny (tracker)
Late that afternoon we spotted a herd near a pan and began a stalk to see if any of the bulls were worth taking. I reminded Leon that we were strictly trophy hunting at this point. As we approached the pan we heard something nearby in the jess. We had stalked between a pride of lion and the herd. After we looked over the buffalo and were walking back to the truck, I saw a male lion lying on a trail about 30 feet away. He got up and trotted away as we passed.
The next day we had lunch at a pan that was about 3 miles off of any road and a herd of zebra showed up. Randi shot this stallion at about 100 yards with her 308 Kimber.

After we loaded the zebra we were heading back to the road at dusk when some one saw a buffalo about 80 yards to out right. Leon immediately said "Randi, Shoot that buffalo!" I knew he must be a good one because Leon was calling me by my wife's name and it was only our third day of hunting and I was about to shoot the last buff on my license. I jumped out of the truck with my 375 and ran in front of the bumper and knelt to take the shot but I could only see the bull's head. I stood but still had no shot. I could see in the scope the bull's boss and drop and could tell he was everything I told Leon that I was looking for in a buffalo. I snuck quickly 10 yards to the left and knelt again but there was too much grass in the way. At this point, the bull had stood there looking at us for way longer than he should have and it was getting dark fast. 90 yards off hand with a buff facing was not my first choice of shots but it was all I had. I put the dot under his chin and touched off. At the shot he recoiled and started running to my left. I put another soft and a solid through his shoulders as Leon sent a solid through him also. I ran back to the truck to get more shells and reloaded on the run. The bull was on his knees and as I put another solid through his shoulders he rolled onto his side and I put the insurance shot through his neck. The pictures don't do him justice but he has a boss that is almost completely smooth and they don't get any harder.

That night we found out why Leon's nickname is Turbo as we didn't get back to a road until 8opm and we were still 37km from camp. We probaly hit 50mph in some spots. When we got back to camp I got out of the truck, kissed the ground and went to find the scotch bottle.
A couple of days later I took this wildebeest at about 300 yards.

Then this waterbuck.

After that I talked Randi into letting me borrow her Kimber to take the small stuff.
Here is the impala ram that Leon said was the best one he has ever taken in the Selous.

We put a lot of time and miles into finding a decent warthog. This is the best one we saw.

After the safari we chartered direct to Mafia Island and spent 4 days lying on the beach at Kinasi Lodge.



It's a great way to relax before that long airplane ride home.

A month in TZ...whew! Nice report. I really like that huge impala.

Blacktailer, congrats on the trophies. Those are very nice pictures, lots of color in the landscape. Can we get you to post some more of your photos?

Excellent trophies. Good work!

This is the camp mess hut. The sand river on the left is where I shot the camp bushbuck.


Sorting out spoor



Mrs Blacktailer shopping for zebra rugs



The skinning shed



Sundowners at the fly camp near the Refugi



Trophy time

Very nice trophies. Well done.

Great hunt and vacation... a month is the way to do it if you have the time! Congratulations on some nice trophies... no Lichensteins Hartebeest on license?

Well done, I want to "be you". Thanks for sharing.

Randi, love that zebra... Goood shot...Tell your husband his buf are nice also...Bet he would of liked to shoot that monster in the park... Welcome back..

Mike & Cherie

Thanks for the report and congratulations on a great trip!

Great post. I'm hunting the Selous with Luke next year (early September). What month did you hunt?

quote:

What month did you hunt?

We were hunting Sept 16-29. It was unusually cool and rainy at that time. Leon said they typically don't get rain until October.

As you can see we got quite a bit. We had showers on 5 out of the 14 days.

Great job Blacktailer.

Wonderful hunt & animals esp. those buff!

Best Regards,
Dave

Good show Russ. Looks like a terrific safari.

Thanks for sharing.

Kyler

Congratulations on a wonderful hunt!

Russ,

Heck of a nice trip. Glad I could help with part of it.

Mark

Russ,

Very cool! Glad you and Randi had a good time.

-Steve