3.30AM April 21st 2011
Picked up my friend Simon with short drive to Birmingham International Airport. From there we caught a flight to Paris and from there caught a connection to the capital of Burkina Faco, which is only a 5 hour flight. Arrived at 4PM where we were met by our PH Richard. The first thing that struck us was the heat which was over 45C. Spent the first night in Hotel Ricardo, which was very comfortable. After breakfast the next morning we left for the hunting area which was a 4 hour drive. Richard had been given special permission to hunt a Lion on the presidential hunting ground. There has only been 4 lions shot there in the last 5 years. Arrived at the camp which was very comfortable Friday afternoon. After lunch we sighted in the rifles. Saturday was the first day of the hunt. Within the first 15 minutes we had seen buffalo, elephant and roan. This is the dry season for Burkina Faco so water was very limited. We hunted Lion by parking a vehicle within half a mile of watering holes and walking in. the first water hole we checked we came up on Lion tracks almost right away. When we got closer to the water hole a herd of hartabeast came running towards us, just after that we saw what appeared to be a good male Lion and a female walking away. We tracked the Lion for awhile but lost tracks in the long grass, on checking the third water hole we came upon a Lioness and a very small cub, thingss were looking very promising.

Day 2 Sunday
We saw 1 small male and a good size female lying under a tree at about 20 yards, we also saw alot of buffalo, roan, elephant, bushbuck, reidbuck, wharthog, orib. By 11AM the temperature was very uncomfortable at around 45-48C, so hunting ciesed until 3PM. We would just lay under a tree and try get some shade

Day 3 Monday
Was spent the same way. Leaving the toyota around half a mile from the water holes and walking in. On the first water hole there were 2 mature Lionesses lying under a tree no further than 50 yards away.

Day 4 Tuesday
At around 9AM when we were checking the first water hole of the day the tracker saw a Lioness and a good male waling away from the water hole. I had a look at them through the bino's and was very pleased at what I saw, with the sticks up and ready I took aim on it's shoulder and squeezed. The Lion fell on the spot kicking for awhile and all was quiet. We watched him from a distance for around 10 minutes and then walked over to check him out. Boy what a Lion. In the seven days of hunting there we saw 21 Lions 3 of which was shootable males. I have hunted Lions in Zimbabwe a total of 4 times. I have shot a male and female Lion before and spent over 40 days hunting them. I have seen less than 10 Lion before this hunt. If anyone wants a good chance of getting a Lion at a reasonable price, I don't think Burkina can be beaten. I hope to go back one day and try for Lion number 4.

It sounds like you had a fun time. Good show.

Great pictures, sounds like a hell of a hunting area.

Congrats Ian!! Did you hunt other game?
What rifle did you use?

That is a great Burkina lion

Excellent lion. Congratulations. Sounds HOT!

Dear Ianh

Looks like a great hunt and well done.

Would love to see more pic's

Regards Mark

Love the picture of the Poacher with the Air Rifle.. and that Lion must have a big scull.
What type of mount will you be doing?

Dreadful trophy pictures of what looks to be a nice Lion.

Congrats on a damn nice lion from western Africa! A very good mane for Burkina!

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
Dreadful trophy pictures of what looks to be a nice Lion.

It is had to argue with that.

Composing a good trophy photo always takes some thought. Unfortunately, the cycle of stress/relief/elation that comes with taking the greatest beast in the world is not conductive consideration of anything except the "moment".

I think this is why we have historically seen so many poor trophy photos of lions.

And with the heat in BF I'm sure the heat forces the photo sessions to be as short as possible in order to let the lion in the salt.

In Burkina they really don't pay much attention to picture taking. When I shot my lion last month, the PH and trackers started loading loading my lion without any pic taken. I told them I would at least like a few pics if it wouldn't be too much trouble. I had to tell them how to position each animal that I shot. I believe it is the same in Benin.

quote:

I believe it is the same in Benin.

Actually when I hunted there with Cub Faune in '08 they were pretty fastidious about the trophy photo business...

I wonder if it helps if the PH understands the value of good pictures? But Lion are buggers to Photo well.

Thanks for sharing your hunt with us!

STIG

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
Dreadful trophy pictures of what looks to be a nice Lion.

Just like the people complaining about a lion's age, the above is a great way to discourage people from posting their reports/pics. Bad form. It just blows my mind that someone can shoot an unbaited lion that was actually tracked and not shot as a target of opportunity and people on this board will STILL find a reason to run down the thread.

it is like water of a ducks back how many lion has that guy shot the memoires will last for ever

quote:

Originally posted by ianh:
it is like water of a ducks back how many lion has that guy shot the memoires will last for ever

I guess you are referring to Fairgame, but I will chime in.(I believe he has shot a few)

As for myself, I have killed one lion. My trophy photos are pretty poor in spite of the fact that I put a fair amount of thought into it and shot several rolls of film.

Lions trophy photos are hard to get right, just ask OzHunter. He shot a beautiful lion and all of the photos he has posted... Well lets just say they show the hunter's elation better than the lion's beauty.


I

Welll done. You have done something I dream of.
THANKS FOR POSTING

Fairgame load some photos of your lion.and show us how the photos should have been done, These field photos will only be a small part of the life of the Lion, when this Lion is made into a full mount then it will be seen in it's full glory,
ianh load some photos of your other lions so that they can be seen by all
Si

No need to get defensive here. There was no ill-intent by fairgame with his comment.

From a professionals' point of view, it is frustrating to see when other professionals don't seem to pay much attention to smaller details of a hunt, such as taking good trophy pictures! It costs nothing more but adds great value to a hunt of a lifetime. JMHO

Yes, pls post all the trophy pics you might have of lions, pg or any other.

Guys - Here's a picture of "Fairgame" himself, with a beautiful lion! I posted this for him, as he's hunting at the moment.



Another good trophy photo taken by Fairgame.

Is the hunter in the 2nd photo above wearing "The mask of Zorro"?

I do not think any malice was intended. Just like anything else, some people are better than others at photography. I find that most of my PH's are damn good photography. Of course,digital cameras give one the ability to correct a mistake.

A couple of years back,I was sent a bunch of pictures from TZ. The pictures had to be the worst thing I have ever seen. This gentleman spent north of $100k on his safari. Oh well, as long as he was happy.

I have added this photo of Ians other Lion's, I hope that when Ian has the Birkina Lion mounted I will load some photos of that as well, The other is not a very good photos but I liked it and it was the only one I had


Si

quote:

Originally posted by Simon H:
Fairgame load some photos of your lion.and show us how the photos should have been done, These field photos will only be a small part of the life of the Lion, when this Lion is made into a full mount then it will be seen in it's full glory,
ianh load some photos of your other lions so that they can be seen by all
Si

Hi Si,

I think for many trophy photos are important and the Lion is one the most handsome of our game. I felt the photographs did not do this creature any justice.

Let us say you did not get your skin then the photos maybe all you have left of your great safari.

Enclosed are a couple more crap photos that I took and the Lion covered himself in his blood during his last moments. This was his best side and I made a real hash of wiping it down but managed to clean up the face and mane. It was dark after the follow up and the flash on my camera did not seem to work properly but I finally got off a couple images even though he would not stop bleeding.

Hi Fairgame

I understand what you are saying, and you are correct, but if your poor at taking photos you get what you get, for me I’m left with great memories of the hunt that will stay with me for ever and I can say that I have been and hunted Lions in the wild, (in their living room so to speak)

I think that there is an art to taking good photos, and when you look at your own they are personal you remember so much more then just what you are seeing
For others that look, they see thing that I would not have seen,

Ian had a plan, that if he was successful to shoot a Lion he would have it made into a fully mount and it would be set in an hunting scene just about to make a kill of a Bush Buck, after the Lion was shot he then shot the Bush Buck, when the work is complete I will list some photos,

One of the most impressive thing about these Lion’s are that they live in Ian’s living room so they are a constant reminder of his hunting trips

Thanks Si

Totally agree mate look forward to seeing the full mount and the Lion in all his glory.

Any pictures of the bushbuck?

Cheers

Andrew