Dates of trip:
August 7- August 27, 2009

Hunt dates:
August 10- August 25, 2009

Location:
Bubye Valley Conservancy
Southern Zimbabwe

I hunted with Lowveld Hunters on a 16 day buffalo and leopard combination hunt. My professional hunter was Steve Meyer. Steve is only 34 but has been a licensed PH for 15 years. His dad is Jannie Meyer who has been a PH for probably 40 years or more.

I don't think I could have had a more exciting hunt/experience. My duffel bag did not arrive in camp until the morning of the fourth day, so I used Steve's spare rifle--a Winchester Mod 70 in 338 win mag with handloads a previous client had left with him.

The first day I shot 4 female impala for bait and we proceded to place those in areas that Steve had already selected. He had 8 possible bait sites identified and the plan was to get the primary areas (6 locations) baited as soon as we could get the impala for them. Steve had been in the area a couple of weeks before I arrived and had done some prehunt baiting. The morning of the second day we started to check our first bait site and our lead tracker, Alec, spotted some impala. So off we went in need of two more female impala. We had probably gone only a couple of hundred yards, getting the wind right and working parallel to the group of impala, when a white rhino popped out of the thorn thicket about 60-70 yards off to our left. He was curious of what we were doing since he kept coming our way until we decided we needed to make a hasty retreat. By the end of the second day we had our 6 bait sites taken care of and already had hits on a couple of the first baits we hung. On the morning of the third day I shot a zebra stallion for trophy and bait since two of our baits were almost completely gone.
In the middle of the day we would work our way to a lake area that had waterbuck and eat lunch and glass for waterbuck. My duffel bag arrived in camp on the morning of the fourth day---YES. I finally had my clothes and my ammo and camera, etc.

After my ammo and clothes arrived, we checked tha zero on my rifle and made plans for the afternoon sitting in the leopard blind. I carried a Winchester Model 70 in 375H&H (McMillan stock and benchmark barrel) with 300gr Hornady round nose bullets. My second rifle was a Merkel in 470NE with Woodleigh softs and solids.

We walked in to the blind about 3:30 that afternoon and waited. About 7:30PM we heard footsteps in the river bed 25yds in front of us---elephants. They seemed to go by us without any problem and then we heard footsteps behind the blind and getting louder. Steve peeked out the back of the blind and we had an elephant coming our way in the dark apparently trying to catch up with his buddies in the river bed. we were right in between the elephant behind us and the two elephants in front of us. Steve grabbed my arm and whispered "we got to get out of here NOW". We quickly got out of the blind and stood behind it and the elephant coming up from behind finally got our scent and turned away above us. We got back in the blind and about 8:30 the guineafoul that had decided to roost around our blind all flushed at once and we heard an animal running behind the blind off to my side. About 9:00PM Steve whispered that there was too much activity in the area we might as well go in.

The next morning (day 5), we checked the bait on that site and found the leopard's tracks within 10-15 yards of the blind. We figured that was what flushed the birds and what we heard running away just minutes later. We spent a good part of the morning moving the blind further down the river bed (78yds) from the bait tree and clearing a lane to see thru. We followed the same process to walk in to get in the blind around 3:30. We checked the rifle set up again since the angle now was going to be almost from behind the leopard when at the bait. This went like clockwork--about 6:40-6:45 we heard the leopard cough, the baboons screech and then the claws on the tree. Steve let him settle for a minute or two and then tapped me on the knee to signal he was getting ready to turn the light on. He had told me that he wouyld need 2-3 seconds to determine it was a shootable cat and then would say yes or no for me to shoot. The cat did not seem disturbed with the light and I could see crosshairs perfectly. When I shot, I actually saw the cat come down rear first in the scope. It growled, gurgled and thrashed around and we heard it stop about 50-60yards from the tree. We called for the trackers and went in to find the leopard. We found a lot of blood and lung blood around the bottom of the tree but no cat. We followed the blood trail for about 100-125yds and then found where it had jumped over a Mopane tree that an elephant had pushed over and was leaning about 3' off the ground. At that point we decided to give it some more time and go back to camp for help. At camp, Steve's brother had stopped by and three PH's from a nearby camp stopped in for drinks so we all went back to follow up the trail. We found the leopard about 30-40yds from where we had stopped--dead. This was my first leopard hunt and probably my last. The leopard measured 7 feet 7 inches and they took him to a nearby camp and weighed him at 163lbs.

Day 6 we started looking for buffalo tracks around water holes and followed several until the wind went against us or we had lion tracks start covering our buffalo tracks. On one excursion following a small group of buffalo we had a black rhino seem to come out of nowhere and charge from about 10yds away. On day 7, we followed the tracks of a small herd of buffalo most of the afternoon and finally caught up with them just before dark. Steve lined me up with a huge bull at about 55yds quartering at us. I shot the right barrel with a Woodleigh softnose into his right shoulder and as the gun leveled and I had my finger on the back trigger I just caught his tail going behind a thorn bush. I swung to the other side of the bush but he turned and ran out of sight to both of us. We heard him run about 50-60yds and stop---then he started walking. We waived the trackers up and they quickly got on his tracks. We found a pool of blood with lung blood in it and one of the trackers showed me the right front hoof mark was only the front of the hoof and a drag mark. We marked the trail and were back at first light the next morning only to find that it had rained during the night and it rained and drizzled for about the first 40 minutes we were there. The rain made all of the tracks look the same.
We made several sweeps around the area with no luck and we left trackers there for a good part of the day to see what they could find also with no luck. For the next few days we drove the road beds around the area looking for his tracks, we sent trackers in one day but they got pushed around by white rhino and the head of the game scouts sent 4 game scouts into the area one day and they ran into lions.

We continued from there with a good waterbuck, a trophy impala, civet and klipspringer. We saw several white rhino and black rhino during the time we were there. We ran into lions about everyother day---they spoiled at least one of our waterbuck stalks. We also came across a cheetah that had just killed a waterbuck cow.

We left the Bubye Valley Conservancy a couple of days early and drove to the Meyer farm near Triangle Zimbabwe. I got to meet Jannie Meyer,Sr. and enjoy some Zimbabwe hospitality by the Meyer family.

I plan to book another cape buffalo hunt with Steve in the next year or two. We discussed that situation over and over and figure with the light and iron sights,etc. I probably shot a little high, but that we will never know. I have taken over 30 animals in Africa without losing one until now. I guess the odds were catching up with me. The setup was good, the sights looked good, if it had not rained I think we would have found that bull.

WELL DONE.

Nice animals all, especially the leopard and the civet cat.

Congrats! Nice kitty>>>

Very nice leopard.
Congratulation!

Andy

Congratulations on the very nice cat and a beautiful waterbuck. Sorry to hear of your lost buff.

What camp were you in? I was in Fimbiri about a month before and we saw a beautiful cat in that camp. I hunted with John Sharp and we had a wonderful African experience and some nice animals as well. I know John took two and possibly three cats after I left in the Bubye. It seems to be one of the very best areas for the cats.

Thanks for sharing it brings back memories for sure.

Outstanding leopard!!!

Brett

Beautiful cat. Ouch on the Buff.

Great leopard! Now the buff gives you a reason to return. Well done!

Great cat! Congratulations.

I would rather hunt Leopard than eat (and obviously rather hunt Leopard than sleep LOL) --and, to me, more than half the fun is associated with the exciting things that happen in a Leopard blind in the middle of the night.

I've had a mature male Lion put his entire nose through the gun port and sniff around; a different adult male Lion go to sleep right next to me, with just the thin nylon of a ready-made blind separating us; I've had a Black Rhino spend a full hour about one foot in front of me as he ate the front of my blind for dinner; I've had several Hyena try to dig a hole under the wall of the blind to get inside; I've had Elephants come to visit and literally destroy the blind after our hasty exit; and on and on. I LOVE it all -- and sometimes get to shoot a Leopard to boot!

I'll bet that you'll be drawn back to it again and again.

The camp that I hunted out of was Lamulus. John Sharp was hunting a lion near the area we were hunting. In fact we talked with him briefly the day after he shot his lion. I think he shot his lion on about the 17th day of his 18 day hunt.

Outstanding Cat!!! You make it look easy

Sucks about the buff, but that's hunting. If it were me, I'd be sick about it and it would take me a very long time to overcome....so don't be like me

Sounds like your hunt was filled with plenty of adventure and that's not something you always get to experience. Congrats!!!!

Regards,
Scott

Great cat! Sorry about the buffalo.

Welcome Home.

Great cat.....nice, real-life hunt description. Are the male leopards in Bubye becomming bait smart as they are in Save? Obviously, your big guy was cooperative. Jim

great trophies. The waterbuck looks very big

WOW!!! That leopard is fantastic. Congratulations!!! Great Report.

Regards, D. Nelson

Great trophies! Congratulations on a great hunt.

great Leopard!!!

Ed,
Man! That is a hoss of a leopard.
Nice waterbuck, too.
Hope the next time we meet that my luck is as good as yours was this time out!

Very nice cat! Well-done. Tough luck on the buff but it happens. Damn tough critters and you would probably caught up with him if the rains wouldn't have fallen. Good excuse to go back though if you are looking for a silver lining.

love the cat!!
Congrats

Congratulations on a fine safari !!!

Great leopard, well done.

Great trophys.
Congrats

Seloushunter

Hog of a kitty!! And a great little klipe as well..
Looks like a great safari was had..

Great leopard!

That Leopard is OUTSTANDING!!!

CONGRATS - what a beauty!!!

The leopard is a toad. Big congrats and well done. As for the buffalo don't beat your self up. Shit happens to us all.

Mark