ZAMBIA - 2019

ZAMBIA 2019 HUNT REPORT

Outfitter: Prohunt Zambia

Booking Agent: None

Airline: Emirates

Travel Agent: Steve Turner, TWG

Location: Kasempa Lunga Luswishi Game Management Area and Kafue Flats

Duration: 14 days

Professional Hunter: Andrew Baldry, assisted by Apprentice PH, Tom Baldry

Rifle: Custom Pre-64 Winchester Model 70 in .375 H&H Mag.

Game Taken: Southern impala, plains zebra, common sable, Chobe bushbuck, Nile crocodile, puku, Kafue lechwe

Game Sought But Not Taken: Leopard, hyena

We returned this week from a month in Zambia, which we began with hunting in the Kasempa Lunga Luswishi GMA, then the Kafue Flats, and finished with a week in Livingstone, Zambia, with trips to Victoria Falls and the Chobe National Park in Botswana.

Airline: Emirates performed well at every step of the trip, from Boston to Dubai to Lusaka and back. We had no problems with any of our luggage, including my rifle and ammunition, thanks to Steve Turner and his staff at TWG.

Professional Hunter: Andrew Baldry and his son, Tom, who is an apprentice PH, pulled out all of the stops in their efforts to lure a big tom leopard to bait during shooting hours, and hunt the rest of the game on my list. Tom also acted as the camp fisherman, and assisted my wife Lindy in seeking to hook and land fish - especially the delicious Kafue River bream - which we put on the dinner table more than once.

Here is a proud Lindy with a tiny, toothy and bony pike. The bream eluded her, but they did not elude Tom!

Camp: The camp was right on the bank of the Kafue River, opposite a series of rapids. It was beautiful and comfortable.

On the Fourth of July, our American Independence Day, the Zambians and even the Brit (Andrew) in camp, found a way to give camp a touch of Uncle Sam.

Trackers: We had two excellent and hard-working trackers, Jingo and Tom. Both were key members of our team of hunters:

Jingo:

Tom:

We were also assisted by one of the most personable, able and energetic game scouts I have ever met. His name is Gift, and on that choice of name I agree entirely with his parents.

Gift:

His AK had no identifying markings, but for many mis-matched numbers. I'm sure it is older than I am, and that's pretty old.

And I can't omit reference to our chef, Alex. He can do wonders with game meat (and, happily, fish), soups and desserts. We appreciated his efforts at every meal.

Alex:

Hunting: As I have said, we had a very successful hunt. We took all of the game we were after, except a big leopard - and that was not for lack of trying. We also did not take a hyena, but that was mainly because of our focus on leopard. We had multiple leopards on bait, but the big brute I wanted would not show himself in daylight. He was mating with a female and they were both feeding at the same bait.

I missed a chance at him by no more than five minutes one evening. When he finally showed up, it was just too dark to see. It was black as pitch, with no moon. He came to the bait after the female had fed for a while - and she was a big one herself. We could barely see them. We could hear the impala and zebra bones cracking and crunching, but we could not see well enough to tell them apart, and even if we could have done that, it was just too dark for a clean shot.

That big tom's track was nearly 7 cm wide. He is a smart old boy who will live on and prosper, I am sure. I am relatively certain we could have shot a smaller leopard that was hitting another bait, but that was not what I was after.

Of course, the fact that we were run out of our blind by a herd of aggressive elephants on one occasion, and a pack of twenty or so wild dogs on another, did not help matters. Fun stuff!

The Agressive Elephant Herd, Caught During Daylight: This same herd charged us wholly unprovoked and on sight, on two separate occasions. When they began to trumpet and mill around us while we were in our leopard blind, we called for the truck and beat a hasty retreat at port arms!

The Ghostly Wild Dogs: These beasts, numbering at least twenty, surrounded our blind on another lively evening. We caught a blurry image of one of them as he boldly stared at us from about 20 yards.

Game Seen: The GMA was teeming with all sorts of game. They were virtually everywhere.

Bushbuck:

Warthog:

Puku:

In addition, we saw many sable, Lichtenstein's hartebeest, Crawshay's Defassa waterbuck, impala, greater kudu, and signs of lion and many leopards.

Bait: We hung much bait on many likely trees. And made many drags of savory guts, all to attract and outsmart leopards. One cannot overstate the amount of hard work and mental effort that goes into the proper hunting of big cats.

Tom (the tracker) used his cup as much for blood and guts as he did for coffee and tea!

Lindy had a fairly effective way to deal with all of the guts and gore:

Game Taken:

Kafue impala are not particularly large, but I did put a couple in the bag, for camp meat and bait, and will mount their horns. As always, impala can be fun to hunt. Here's one:

Puku almost tied tsetse flies in numbers. I took a couple. Maybe not the smartest of God's creatures, but they are beautiful. Here's one:

Chobe bushbuck are beautiful almost beyond compare. I was very happy with this one.

This rugged and massive old sable I could not resist. We hunted him among a small herd of his females and offspring. They were not spooky. After I killed this bull, we found out why. Not twenty paces from where this bull fell, lay a dead young male, with no cause of death apparent, but for foam at the mouth. Rigor mortis had set in. The trackers and game scout surmised snake bite as the cause. He had been dead perhaps since the night before or early morning. The herd, including my bull, would not leave him. I will tell you that, after I had killed this sable, and understood the circumstances, I felt a heightened degree of the remorse and respect that I always feel after I kill a game animal.

Crocodile: I killed this croc, my first, from 125 yards across the Kafue River, with a shot to the spine from my .375. What a brute. No remorse here. Just a bit of fear as to what we might find when we cut him open!

I put another bullet into his shoulder within a few seconds of the first shot. Here is the Hirtenberger 272 grain ABC bullet the skinner cut out from under the skin of the offside shoulder:

These bullets do this every time. I will miss them when I use up my private stash.

Kafue Flats: When time forced us to give up on Mr. Spots, we headed off to the Kafue Flats.

On the ferry across the Kafue on the way to the flats:

The flats are a level and water soaked flood plain of vast and expansive area. You can see our spike camp at the extreme right of this photograph.

Kafue lechwe are amazingly graceful and immensely horned creatures. We used the sun and wind to our advantage, and got within 175 yards of this fine specimen. I dropped him with a lucky shot to the spine at that range.

I especially liked the great width and S-shape of his sweeping horns.

We finished our trip with several days' stay at the Royal Livingstone Hotel in Livingstone, situated on the Zambezi River just upstream from Victoria Falls. The falls were all that we had heard they would be. A wonder of the natural world.

To those who have not been to Zambia, I highly recommend it. Truly wild Africa awaits, full of game and replete with natural beauty.

Mike

Wilderness is my cathedral, and hunting is my prayer.

Posts: 13837 | Location: New England | Registered: 06 June 2003

Hannay

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