This is my first Hunt report on this forum.

Shaun Buffee Safari’s
(www.shaunbuffeesafaris.com)
Bubye Valley Conservancy

PH: Shaun Buffee

What was booked as an end of season Buffalo / Plains Game hunt soon turned out to be much more.
The Bubye Valley Conservancy (BVC) area is 850,000 acres and is situated in the South West part of Zimbabwe. It is made up of three areas consisting of the Main Conservancy, Ripple Creek and Malangani.
This was my 5th African safari and it was great to be hunting again with Shaun after we initially met in Tanzania four years ago. Shaun, along with three other PH’s (Pete Fick, John Sharp and Martin Nel), have recently secured most of the quota to hunt the BVC. This is especially true for dangerous game although Mazunga Safari’s does retain some quota and uses this to support a few other PH’s in conducting some Buffalo / Plains Game hunts on the BVC.
Arriving at the luxurious Lamulas Lodge on the Main Conservancy was very welcome after a long days travel. The lodge is situated on a hilltop and has a wonderful aspect and views over a waterhole. Over the next 12 days we were to see many animals drinking at the waterhole, including lion. On the drive in Shaun told me it had been a very dry year and that many of the older animals had died due to lack of feed. The bush certainly looked very dry with virtually no leaf coverage on the trees and minimum grass on the ground; but nevertheless the plains game sighted on the drive into camp gave me high expectations of the hunt to follow.
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The waterhole as seen from the verandah of Lumulas camp.
At the dinner table on the first night, Shaun advised that there was lots of radio chatter that day because Ripple Creek was having problems with Elephant. Simply put, there was little feed for the Ele’s inside the conservancy (but plenty of water in dams and waterholes) and they were ripping out gates to get into neighboring properties to feed at night and returning before dawn to water. Shaun received a call from Blondie Leetham (BVC Head Honcho) asking whether I would be interested in taking an animal from one particular herd on Ripple Creek that had about 20 animals in it and had been identified as the main culprit. The opinion of the experts was that if an animal was killed from the herd they would hopefully leave Ripple Creek and not come back. This herd included a few aggressive cows and young bulls. As this was a non trophy elephant situation, I would not be able to keep any part of the Ele. All the meat would go to local villages outside the BVC and the hide would be sold. Of course I accepted!!
Early the next morning saw our team: Shaun, Beke “eyes that see into the bush”: tracker, Innocent: cameraman and Sefus: Game Scout, on elephant tracks for about 3 hours. However the specific herd we were after had gone up into what was a steep hilly area making recovery impossible. It made no sense to take one “up there” although we could have. It was decided to come back before dawn the next day and try to get back on the herd. Returning the next morning at dawn we immediately located fresh sign and Beke soon sighted the elephant. We quickly made a decision on a stalk plan and it all got very serious in a heartbeat! We could hear the Ele’s feeding and moving through the bush. Shaun got the wind perfect and we began to move in. Shaun and Beke (not me!) sighted 2 or 3 young bulls off to the right hand side of the herd and it was decided to try to get into a position to take one of these. Shaun cut down our group for the final approach to Innocent and myself. Shaun got us into position and whispered to me that a bull was approaching and we should stay very still. Looking over Shaun’s left shoulder I saw a massive bodied elephant about 60 yards away slowly walking directly towards us. "Get ready". I raised my rifle slowly and flicked off the safety. My PH whispered “Frontal brain. Wait”. 40 yards. 30 yards. 20 yards. “Wait. Wait”. The bull stopped at about 15 yards when he saw us. He looked at us for what seemed like an eternity and then took two more steps towards us. “Take him”. The 400gn Woodleigh solid out of my .416 Rigby slammed into his forehead visibly knocking him backwards. His back legs collapsed, trunk flew up and he crashed to the ground with legs twitching. He actually fell straight down on all fours and only rolled onto his side in the last few seconds. Shaun quickly moved me around the bull for the insurance shot into his chest. It was over. On checking he was 9 yards from us when I shot him. Shaun’s comment was “he did not even hear the shot”. Needless to say the video footage is incredible. Absolutely unbelievable. I will never forget this hunt ……despite quite a few beverages being downed that evening back at camp.
Day 3 saw the weather change dramatically from very hot to cool and rainy. Some of the Southern parts of the Main Conservancy received up to 5 inches which meant that the lower lying areas and roads that passed through “black clay” became impassable. The country sure needed the rain though. With steady rain falling we had a late start to the day. It became clear that the hunting gods were smiling on me when Shaun approached me after breakfast after getting off the phone with Blondie. They had been waiting on the authorities to issue a supplementary quota for some months and it had just come through. Included in that quota was a Lion which he offered to me. Over the next few hours we discussed the Lion on BVC and Shaun showed me some trail cam pictures from his lion hunt earlier in the year. My excitement started to grow very quickly when it became obvious that the wild lion on the BVC have amazing genetics and have been carefully and appropriately managed. I soon made the decision to take the tag. As with all cat hunting first priority is bait. As the rain had slowed to intermittent drizzle, we left camp and soon had a giraffe on the ground: perfect big cat bait!! We quartered it, loaded the cruiser and that was the end of the day.
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Shaun and I with our Elephant Bull.
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The next morning at the breakfast table Shaun told me he had put some thought into our lion hunt overnight. He told me of a particular dark maned lion. This cat was quite “famous” as it had been seen by many of the various BVC camp staff who believed it had some magical powers and could not be killed. They referred to this as “Mooti”. Shaun thought he knew the centre of this Lion’s territory and that’s where he wanted to put our baits. Whilst it had stopped raining, it was still very overcast and cool. We hung our first two baits and were proceeding to the third location when the boys on the back told us they had seen a lion. Shaun spent a few minutes glassing and then told me he had only caught a brief glimpse of the lion as it slunk off into the bush. From what he had seen it looked like a good male with a dark mane but he could not really tell. We decided not to change our plan and get our baits up. Shaun thought that the cool weather and damp ground had the lions moving at it was about 4.30pm in the afternoon. No sooner had we hung our third bait when we heard the spine chilling sound of a male lion calling. From the location of the sound it seemed to be the same lion. It was loud!
Moving to our fourth and final bait site, we were getting organized when Shaun said “Lion!” A big male was sitting down facing us about 250 yards away. Even with my naked eye I could see this was a beautiful lion but it only took Shaun 5 seconds through the bino’s to tell me to get my gun. As we started walking towards the lion and I chambered a round he nonchalantly stood up and begun to walk directly away into the bush. The site of him when he stood up took our breath away. “That’s him! Get ready!” Shaun whispered. We increased our pace in pursuit and I could see that pretty soon we were going to get into a position for a shot. Shaun cut right to improve the angle and next thing I almost ran straight into him! “Back up, back up!!” Beke started yelling as did Shaun and I glanced up to see a very agitated Black Rhino with a huge horn 40 yards away walking towards us!!! We retreated as fast as we could and when we got about 150 yards from the Rhino he calmed down. We just stood there and looked at each other in amazement. We were just about to get a shot at a huge lion and we get busted by a Rhino!!
Despite having pushed the lion a little, Shaun said we stick with our plan and we went back and hung our final bait just as the sun went down. All we could do now was hope that that he hit one of the baits that night. This was his backyard.
After a restless night’s sleep we got out of camp early with the plan to get to the first bait while it was still dark. Checking all the baits we were ecstatic to find that a male lion had fed on our fourth bait: right where we has stalked the lion the previous evening. Shaun felt there was no option but to build a blind and stay in it overnight so we could be at the bait as the sun came up. The next four hours were taken up with this task…this was a serious blind! 4 meters off the ground! The rain started to come down steadily again as we completed the blind (affectionately called Hotel Mopani or The Bubye Hilton ) and headed back to camp to pick up mattresses and cushions etc to complete the blind.
My mind was thinking about that lion and our upcoming night in the blind when I caught a glimpse of an Eland bull through the bush. Beke had also seen him and thought he looked good. With the ground so soft and damp we had an easy track to follow so we got on the ground. The rain did not stop for the whole stalk and despite bumping him twice we caught him after about 4km and I made a good shot to put him down. Very nice bull and great trophy.
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Livingstone’s Eland. Two wet but happy hunters.
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Hotel Mopani
[IMG:left][IMG]Returning to the blind at about 4.30pm Shaun, Innocent and I got settled in. It was soon dark and it was about midnight when we heard a lion roaring in the distance. Soon after, Shaun touched me lightly to let me know he had heard something. Very carefully he pushed his bino’s through the flap cut in the tarp. Soon after he whispered he could see “our” lion at the bait and we soon heard the sound of him feeding. My first experience of the noise of a lion feeding 60 yards away in the dead of night I will remember forever. Shaun asked me to check if I could see the lion through my scope however I could not see a thing!! Nothing for it but to wait! Dawn was a long time coming. The 4 hours it took for that very first light to show on what was a pitch black night were the longest 4 hours of my life. As soon as the birds started to make noise Shaun had another look through his peephole. I was behind my scope looking at the bait.“The lion is about 100 yards from the bait to the right. Can you see him?” I picked him up instantly as he began to walk towards the bait. I tracked him in the scope and told Shaun I had a shot. “Wait for him to stop”. The Lion looked unbelievable and took my breath away. I had to consciously tell myself to breath. He walked behind the bait and stopped behind a thicket. I could clearly see his colour and watched as he marked the ground by scratching the dirt and spraying everywhere. When he started to move again he walked another 20 yards to the left of the bait …..once again stopping behind a bush…..and went through the same marking motions. He then turned around and walked directly into the bush. He was gone in seconds. Shaun and I looked at each other in pure amazement. We had come so close to getting a shot at this incredible lion and then he had just disappeared in a few seconds.
We waited for about an hour for the truck to come and then checked his sign. As the ground was still damp from all the rain, his spoor was very clear. One particular print in some soft mud was amazingly clear. Shaun quickly decided we would go back to camp for a shower and some breakfast and then come straight back and get on his track. This would hopefully give him time to lie up. After the rain and overcast weather of the previous few days, this day turned into a scorcher coupled with very high humidity.
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”Mooti’s” track next to 416 Rigby.
[IMG:left][IMG]After about two hours on his track, Beke and Shaun advised that it appeared he had been joined by other lions. They could have just crossed his track but in any case Shaun decided that he felt it was not a good idea to continue. From his marking behavior there was no doubt in Shaun’s mind that Mooti was coming back to the bait. We pulled out and being all so exhausted from a long night awake in the blind and this very taxing tracking exercise that we went and slept in the riverbed for 3 hours.
Back in the blind at 4pm we readied ourselves for another long night ahead. We were praying that we would get another look at Mooti. He came into the bait at about 1am. Once again Shaun could see him through his bino’s but I could not through my scope. After what seemed like a couple of hours, Shaun touched me lightly and put his hand in the air as if to caution me. About 30 seconds later Mooti roared at us from what seemed like 10 yards. The noise was absolutely incredible and Innocent was really not very happy as it was on his side of the blind. I put my hand on his shoulder and he was trembling! As soon as we could see and hear the slightest hint of dawn Shaun looked out his peephole. Nothing. He could check an arc of about 120 degrees through the hole in the blind. He decided to stand up and check the rest. No sooner had he got his bino’s to his eyes, he came down. “He is lying directly facing us about 70 yards from the blind. You are going to have to stand up and shoot him from the top of the blind”. I quickly got into position and as soon as I got my scope up I picked him up. It was barely light enough to see but I had switched my illuminated reticle on and it is awesome for quick target acquisition in low light. No sooner had I got the red dot under his chin, he stood up and began to walk towards the bushline. He was walking steadily and I heard Shaun whisper “he’s going…take him”. The 400gn Swift A Frame knocked him off his feet. He twisted and rolled around snarling and growling. “Shoot him again”. I reloaded but he was up and running flat out for the bush line. I completely underestimated how fast he was moving and shot behind him…then he was gone.
The hour it took for the truck to come at the predesignated time of 6am was the most nerve-wracking of my life. I went through the shot over and over again and it felt good but neither of us liked the way Mooti jumped up and bolted. Shaun asked me a few questions and seemed very relaxed at the thought of following up a huge wounded lion! The truck came and we waited another 45 minutes before going to the spot where Mooti had entered the bush. There was little blood. We had not gone another 50 yards when Beke pointed and there he was 100 yards away lying under a bush looking straight at us. An offhand shot at that distance while I was shaking like a leaf was not an option. I walked forward 5 yards, leaned on a tree and shot him 3 more times. He was mine.
Walking up to Mooti is something I will remember for the rest of my life. What an incredible lion. His thick black mane and sheer physical size was unbelievable. This was truly the lion of a lifetime. We all embraced and it was a very emotional time for us all. My first shot had been perfect. He should have been dead. This only reinforced the belief that this lion had “Mooti”.
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[IMG:left][IMG]The next animal we wanted to hunt was Buffalo. Leaving camp the next morning Shaun and I were reliving our lion hunt when I spotted a Klipspringer. A short stalk later and I was lucky enough to take a beautiful trophy.
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Shaun wanted to drive some roads and water points to get a feel for where the Dugga Boys were moving. The huge amounts of rain that had fallen had caused the Bubye River to flow earlier than normal. This was a wonderful spectacle. We had seen several herds of Buffalo but having hunted Cape Buffalo quite a lot, I was not really interested in hunting the herds. Late in the afternoon we found where a group of 4 bulls had watered. One track looked very big so we decided to come back at first light the next day and get on their track. It took us about 3 hours to catch up with them and when we did, the wind was not consistent as the day heated up.
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The Bubye River flowing.
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The next morning we saw a Hyena and we got on its track. After about 500m we caught a glimpse of a big Hyena and it then stopped behind a bush. I was on the sticks and told Shaun I had a shot. The Hyena dropped at the shot but then all hell broke loose. The A Frame has passed through and wounded another Hyena standing behind which we had not seen. This wounded Hyena proceeded to make the most dreadful noise and before I could move around to finish it, we heard the noise of two other Hyenas coming from about 500m away. They came fast, growling and snarling and making that ghastly noise only Hyenas can make. In a matter of seconds they broke the bush line about 200 meters away, saw us and immediately charged! “Don’t shoot unless I do” I heard Shaun say over all the yelling going on. Shaun had a bead on the right hand animal and I the left one. They came directly at us at top speed and covered the 200m in seconds. They only broke their charge at about 15m from us and even then they only moved away another 10m or so and faced us.
I saw that I now had a shot at the wounded animal and did so. This made the two aggressive Hyenas move away a little and one more shot over their heads and they moved off completely. What an adrenalin rush! Shaun has now decided to add Hyena to his Dangerous game list!! Now that was fun and totally unexpected. Shaun told us he had decided to shoot. There was one tree that was about 10m from us that he was using as a line….. If that Hyena had come past that tree it was going to get it!
That afternoon I took a Jackal.
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[IMG:left][IMG]http://iOne animal that I had discussed with Shaun as high on my priority list was a Bushbuck. Shaun thought that our best chance for a mature ram was on Melangani around a large dam on the property. We left camp early as we wanted to get there as early as possible to get a full days hunting in if we needed to. The Bushpig boar that we saw on the way made us change our plans and after a pretty short stalk I had another nice trophy.
On arrival at Melangani dam we immediately saw several female bushbuck and some young rams. Shaun thought that the older mature rams would be holed up in some ravines that ran down to the dam that had thick vegetation. Sure enough, it was late in the afternoon when we took a very nice ram while hunting one of these locations. This is a very special trophy for me as this particular animal has been a bit of a nemesis! The drive back to camp was very enjoyable and we took the chance to relax.
With two days left of our hunt the only other trophy I had really thought about was a Giraffe. They make a beautiful rug and these animals are plentiful on the BVC. We had seen some really dark big bulls during our hunt but with everything else going on had decided not to take one. About an hour after leaving camp the next morning we had our Giraffe Bull down and the huge job of skinning commenced. Shaun and I wanted to catch up with the head Game Scout and he was patrolling close to our location so we left the team skinning the Giraffe and went to meet him.
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My beautiful Chobe Bushbuck
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Yet again the hunting gods were smiling down on us as we came across a Honey Badger on the way to meet the Game Scout. This is a really neat, aggressive and ultra confident little animal and both Shaun and I were very excited to be able to take a big old male.

The results of this hunt speak for themselves. Shaun is a gentleman, a great PH and I could not recommend him more highly. For such a young man he is wise beyond his years. His hunting zest and knowledge is a breath of fresh air.
The BVC is a tribute to game management and conservation. The quantity and quality of game seen was a huge surprise to me. We saw lion most days and on several days saw 4 of the big 5. We looked at over 30 dugga boys bulls before we decided to take our bull. The genetics of the game is impressive and Shaun tells me the trophy quality is improving year on year. I have no reason to doubt this given what I witnessed.

The motto of Shaun Buffee Safaris is “Once is not enough”…..and I cannot think of a better way of summarizing my safari with Shaun on the BVC . I will be back.

Vital Statistics:
Rifle: Custom 416 Rigby on Brno Action.
Optics: Schmidt & Bender 3-12 X 50 with IR. EAW QD Mounts.
Loads:400gn Swift A Frames, 400gn Woodleigh Solids.
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A coalition of young 3 or 4 year old lions. We saw a few of these groups.
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A group of 6 Dugga Boys.
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Wow, great hunt man!
Malangani use to be hunted by John Sharp.
Now apart of Lemco?

Yes. The four PH's i mentioned in the lead in hunt all of the BVC which includes Melangani and Ripple Creek plus the main conservancy.
It was an incredible hunt.
Lion of a lifetime.

I drove through it some years back and was impressed by the road bridges. Better than some main highway overpasses here!
They sure set that place up well..

Yep. When the Bubye flooded we had to cross at the high bridge at Dyers. Very solid and well built.

Congrats on a fantastic lion!


Torbjorn

What an awesome LION!!

Thanks Todd and Torbjorn.
Am still dreaming of the hunt at night!!

Steve, awesome hunt and great trophies, well done.

What a brute of a Lion, Mate congratulations on one hell of hunt!!
The adrenalin must have been pumping thru the system when you picked this brute up in the scope.

I cant describe the feeling. Like nothing else I have experienced in hunting.
I knew what he looked like from the first day we saw him and hunted him on foot and got busted by the Rhino.
From then on I just had to try to ignore his mane!!

WOW That lion is just to good to be true!

WOW. Thats a true lion of a life time. Great hunt report as well.

What an awsome hunt you had. That lion is a stud!

Great Hunt, great area, great PH.

Glad to see it raining in the lowveldt!

Congrats!

Brilliant hunt.
Now how are you ever going to be able to better that ???!!!!

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Originally posted by R.Jolly:
Brilliant hunt.
Now how are you ever going to be able to better that ???!!!!

I doubt this hunt can be topped

Awesome hunt! Congratulations!!

Congrats to You and Shawn. Helluva Lion...

You can even see the grass starting to green up in some of your pictures taken after the rain..this has to be a good thing..good to see the river flowing as well.

Congratulations on a great hunt.

Great report, great pics, beast of a lion.

Thank you very much for the post!

iNCREDIBLE DARK MANE ON THAT LION. whooo, he's a brute.
Congratulations!

This seems to have been an incredible year for great lions....but this one is unbelievable!

Congratulations, D. Nelson

Steve,

I'm not sure if I've ever seen a heavier maned truly wild lion. Huge congrats on the trophy of a lifetime and all the rest. Wow!

Mark

Beautiful dark maned lion!

Holy smokes, that was a great upgrade to the hunt!

Elephant, lion, nice buff.

What, no leopard?

Wow, great report and wonderful pics, congrats!

Gents,
Shaun and I knew this lion was something special from the first time we saw him.
As if it matters but unofficially his skull measures 26 1/2". Awesome.
I really appreciate all your messages and am humbled by this experience and the respect from such a knowledgable audience.
As a hunter and knowing the significance of such an incredible lion I wanted to share this with you.
Sometimes in life we are lucky and that sure applies to me ....as i said in my report I am sure the hunting gods were looking down on us.
Mootie is dead now but thankfully his genes have been passed on in the BVC. Shaun said he was at least 7.5 years old.
I am not sure that I will ever be able to better this lion....but in reality why would I want to?
I will post photo's of his full mount that hopefully will do justice to this great cat.
Best
Steve

Now that's what we would call in Zim " A BUS LION " a huge congratulations to all involved. The Bubye must be one of the best lion hunting destinations out there.

Congrats steve! Truly amazing!

Steve,

Simply amazing. Congratulations. If one did not know the facts one would look at that lion and say he escaped from South Africa!

Even Aaron the official lion slayer hasn't shot a lion like that .

Cheers

Arjun

What a GREAT black maned Lion!..WOW!!
Congratultions on your Safari and all of your trophies.

Unbelievable.

Hopefully OTHER AREAS can use the model of the BVC?

One example would be Nuanetsi...do you guy's over there in Zim think Nuanetsi, for example, COULD be as good as the BVC in time?

Wow! Congratulations to a MOST incredible lion!
Great report and beautiful pics of a super safari

Safari2,

Nuanetsi is very good as witnessed by my clients there that shot incredible leopards and PG this year. It is not an apples to apples comparison to the Buybe though as there are presently no resident lion on Nuanetsi and the buffalo are in a seperate 20,000 acre enclosure.

Mark

I have hunted 25 years in the best Lion areas in Zambia. I have seen in excess of 100 big male Lion and many of them pride males in their absolute prime and never ever have I seen anything like this Lion.

In fifty years of hunting in Zambia I doubt we have recorded a beast of such trophy quality. Kenya in its heyday only photographed three black manes that I am aware of.

Could this be possibly the best free range Lion ever taken in Africa?

Like I said unbelievable.

Great hunt and a wonderful lion!

Incredible hunt!!! What an absolutely tremendous lion and your buffalo is great too. Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us!

GREAT lion! I am 99% positive that was the lion we hunted when I was there in July, but we never could get him on bait (Pete had seen him twice the week before our safari). My client shot a great lion, but he was nothing like this one. Congratulations on an excellent cat and outstanding safari!

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Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
Safari2,

Nuanetsi is very good as witnessed by my clients there that shot incredible leopards and PG this year. It is not an apples to apples comparison to the Buybe though as there are presently no resident lion on Nuanetsi and the buffalo are in a seperate 20,000 acre enclosure.

Mark

Thanks for the reply Mark.

What I was getting at is COULD other areas be modeled after BVC. I know they are not comparable NOW but I understand the 320,000 acre "game area" (Nuanetsi)will be fenced. At that time I would assume lion and elephant reintros would be feasable. Also the buffalo would roam the entire area. Just like no one ever thought the old Lemco Ranch (basically a plains game only area 20 years ago) would become the modern day BVC.

What I am asking is it feasable to expect Nuanetsi (or other lowveldt ranches)to become like the BVC say in 10 years?