22 June 2009, 00:52
Aaron NeilsonZambia 2009 - Lion/Leopard/Roan
HUNT LOCATION: Zambia Kafue - Lunga Luswishi GMAOUTFITTER/PH: Pro-Hunt Zambia Ltd/Richard Bell-Cross
HUNT DATES: May 24 - June 13, 2009
SPECIES HUNTED: Lion/Leopard/Roan, etc, etc.
WEAPONS: .338 RUM w/225 gr. Nosler accu-bond & .375 RUM w/270 gr. Barnes Triple Shock
TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS: Gracy Travel International - Shawn Kennedy
By May 2009 the only African hunt I had scheduled for the year was a 14-day Buffalo/Elephant safari in late July. So when my friend Richard called to let me know his first Lion hunting client of the year had just canceled his hunt, I was only too anxious to take over the spot! Scheduled to start May 24th, I made some quick travel arrangements and found myself in Lusaka by May 23, 2009. I was met in London by two friends/clients from Central Mexico, Luis Romero and Carlos DeLeon. Both experienced hunters, but neither one had yet to hunt in Zambia. Mid-day on the 23rd we arrived in Richard's main camp which sits along the banks of the Kafue River. We had lunch, grabbed some additional gear and took up the additional 2 hr. drive to top camp. Arriving late in the afternoon, we did the usual shooting of the guns and then had dinner next to the calm, relaxing roll of the Lunga River!
Richard's, Lunga Luswishi GMA is one of the largest hunting blocks in all of Zambia! With something over 12,000 sq. kilometers, most of the GMA has never been hunted or even seen by Rich and most of his staff!! The GMA bounds much of the Kafue National Park on the northeast side, just opposite the area on the other side of the Lunga River, is the Lunga Busanga GMA. Over the past 6 years I have hunted this area 4 previous time, it's absolutely my favorite concession in all of Africa! Never have I seen an area with so much game! Thousands of Puku and impala, loads of big warthogs, plus numerous zebra, kudu, defassa waterbuck, hartebeest, HUGE SABLE, roan, reedbuck, etc, etc. The GMA only lacks a good buffalo population, although they are there and can be had if you are willing to spike camp and work hard for them! Perhaps one of the greatest accomplishments by Richard has been the discovery of the numerous Sitatunga filled swamps throughout his area! Since 2004 he has been 100% on Zambezi Sitatunga, averaging 28", including the NEW 35" WORLD RECORD taken in 2008. I hunted Sitatunga here in 2007, I shot a 26" bull on day 3! Really though, we were here for the cats and without a doubt this area has em!! Rich has taken some of the best Lions I have seen in the past few years, and in 2005 a client from California shot the NEW Zambian #1 all-time Leopard with him as well!! This was to be my 4th lion safari with Pro-Hunt, having shot 2 good lions over the past several years here, I knew I was in for a treat!!!
Luis & Carlos were along to shoot some of the Zambian species they had not hunted yet, plus Luis was after the Leopard, and Carlos was helping both of us with bait! Both guys have hunted Africa numerous times, and Luis has a long line of hunting in his blood! His father was a major league hunter, and his uncle Hector Quailar, is a Weatherby award winner and currently has taken more species than anyone in the world who is still alive! Man you ought to see his trophy room! Over 850 life-size mounts including things like numerous snow leopards, markhors, sheep you've never heard of, zebra duiker, several 100lb plus elephants from places like Kenya in the 60's, etc, etc, etc. It truly is the MOST amazing collection of trophies I have and probably ever will see!
For me, this was my 21st personal hunting safari to Africa and my 14th Lion hunt! I have also tagged along with clients on a few safaris over the years, including 2 lion hunts here with Rich. Of course both guys took GREAT lions, one on day 2 and the other on day 4! My luck with Rich however has been much different than most of my clients, so I was trying not to get over confident. I know the area well, and the Kafue blocks are in my opinion the best LION hunts in Africa at the moment! I felt good about our chances and was looking forward to a wonderful 3 - week safari.
DAY 1-5: Of course we started off with the intention of immediately trying to get some bait hanging!! Carlos was wanting the Hippo so off we went. By 10am on the first day Carlos had his big bull hippo, and Luis and I had a good start on the baiting game. Normally we would have got all 4 baits of the hippo out by dark, but Carlos insisted on shoulder mounting the Hippo, so we got a bit behind schedule! Just FYI, if you ever hunt with Mexicans, they mount EVERYTHING, and all of it except for the hippo was life-size! Day 2-3 we got the rest of the hippo baits out, plus Luis shot a Zebra, so we were set! With 5 Lion/Leopard baits and 3 Leopard only baits, it took most of the morning to get them all checked! Immediately we had numerous Leopards on bait, including a BIG male on one of the Lion/Leopard Baits. On the 4th evening we sat for the big leopard, but he didn't show before dark. We were back in the blind by 5am on day 5, and by 6:15am Luis had his big tom! With just enough light for filming, I got some good footage of the Leopard as Luis rolled him with my .375 RUM. We estimated his weight at roughly 160lbs, he was a beautiful cat!
Day 6-10: Carlos was guided by Alister Norton and the two of them continued their on-slot of Zambian plains game, while Richard, Luis and I now concentrated exclusively on the LION! Of course along the way we were looking for a couple of other animals, the Roan being one of them. Each of the previous times I hunted lion with Rich I was also after a Roan, but time just never allowed us to spend much effort looking for them. This time however we didn't need to look very hard. Day 7 brought a beautiful 25" bull right in front of us and we took advantage of it. Unfortunately with such short notice before we left for the hunt, I was unable to get my cameraman to come along. So needless to say, Luis will not be quitting his day job to become a videographer anytime soon. None the less, we had an awesome trophy and an animal I had been wanting for along time. The remaining time was spent doing much the same. Checking baits, but unfortunately nothing we were interested in had yet to show up!!
Day 11-14: By this point we had several baits hit by lion, but up to now nothing but females and young males! It was getting a bit frustrating, but I knew the area would produce, we just needed to be patient! Day 12 brought a very unexpected surprise, as we were checking baits we encountered a Hyena in the early morning mist and I was fortunate enough to get em. It quickly became obvious once we approached the brute why it had been so easy to get. The Hyena was missing TWO legs, yes that's right, missing two legs!! It was in excellent condition, very big, and obviously getting along quite well. The wounds were long since healed over, but they appeared to be from snares! For the past week we had been baiting a particular area along the boundary where new road construction was underway. One of the guys over-seeing the work was a ZAWA game scout named Sunday. Sunday was very familiar with the area and had been helping us place baits as every night they were hearing what he thought was a big, lone male! Sunday had been my scout on a previous hunt, so we felt confident his tale was accurate. We confirmed his story as on two different occasions we found the big pug marks on the road, but we just couldn't get him to find our baits!
Day 15-16: As we arrived at the road workers make shift camp early on day 15, Sunday was over the top with excitement! He was certain the lion had been roaring all night on one of our baits! But once again, he had somehow managed to avoid the 3 baits we had in the immediate area. However, with renewed spirits we decided to return that evening to freshen the drags and hope for the best. Upon our return we once again were extremely disappointed to see that the road crew decided to burn grass rather than fix the road!!! Quickly we hauled ass to the first bait where we were greeted with the fresh aroma of bar-b-q zebra. The entire bait, along with all the grass within 400 yards was burnt to a crisp!! We carried on to the 2nd bait which was roughly a mile away and to our surprise the fire had only gotten half way there, so we made a mad scramble to put it out. Luckily we were able to do so, and by night fall had finished dragging for the two remaining baits!!
With diminished hope for the area, on day 16 we decided to check the other bait locations first and arrived at the burn area around 10am. Immediately we saw the VERY FRESH lion tracks walking down the trail headed straight for the 1st bait location, that now was no longer there as the fire had turned it into charcoal. Now I was really pissed! The lion walked within 10 yards of the bait, and would have without a doubt fed, had it still been there. This day however, luck was to be ours. Continuing on, we followed the tracks most of the way to our 2nd bait and upon our arrival, it was obvious he had been there! Surprisingly though, the lion had fed very little. Once again we started to speculate, was he already full, had he gotten there late, or was the bait getting sour. The bait was one of the original hippo quarters that was now 16 days old. Looking at the meat, it still seemed to be pretty good so we had no choice but to remain hopeful! Quickly we went to bait 3, took it down just in case, and also brought some fresh meat back, just in case he came in after dark and we missed him. By 1pm the blind was built, the path was cleared for a morning approach if necessary, and we were headed back to camp for lunch.
The plan was to arrive back at the blind by 3:45pm, get set-up, including the video camera and be settled by 4pm. I set up the camera so all Luis had to do was turn it on and push record, I figured he could handle that! By 4pm we were all set and the truck pulled away. Richard had just finished the 2nd page of his book, and I was still fidgeting around, checking stuff and getting a drink of water. Just then, Rich and I look at eachother as we both heard something to our right. Rich put his book down and again we heard something just to the right of the bait. 30 seconds later Rich whispers "LION"!! I peeked out the hole and sure enough there he was. I couldn't believe it, we had just sat down! We both agreed he was a shooter, at 4:12pm, and only 54 yards away stood my 11th Trophy Lion! I of course asked Luis if he was recording, then carefully & quietly grabbed my gun and stuck it out the blind. The Big Lion didn't have a clue, and as he was facing almost dead on I fired the .375 RUM. He immediately collapsed, rolled up on his side a bit, and I hit him again through the left shoulder. That was it, he never moved again!! 12 minutes in the blind, and it was over! We obviously couldn't believe it, neither could the trackers as they quickly returned with the truck. The game scout was so shocked that he thought we were having a shoot-out with poachers!! Nope, just having the opportunity of a life-time to see what to me is the most magnificent creature on the PLANET.
Yes, some might say that 11 lions is a bit excessive, but to me there is nothing in the world I would rather hunt! Although I have shot lots of species and have been fortunate enough to hunt most everything in the world that is of interest to me. Nothing will ever compare in my eyes to the sight of these beautiful beasts. If I never hunt another one I will of course be satisfied, but trust me on this, I'll hunt 20 more of them if I get the chance!!! Here is a picture of another lion I shot with Rich a couple years ago!!!
As a side note - We are putting together two more GLOBAL HUNTER videos and will of course add the footage from this hunt too. We expect to have the videos available by Jan. 2010, I will let everyone know when they are ready.
Thanks, and hope you enjoy the pics.
Aaron Neilson
Global Hunting Resources
www.globalhuntingresources.com
globalhunts@aol.com
303-932-0550
