Date: 1st - 15th July 2015
PH - Pierre Hundermark
Operator: Martin Pieters Safaris
Blog: www.intothejesse.com

The clients from the USA booked through Martin Pieters Safaris arrived in the Omay on the 30th of June. They were another husband and wife team on a 14 day leopard, hippo, and crocodile plains game hunt.
Having just finished the safari with the previous clients ( see earlier post) we still had some semi fresh baits out. So our plan of action was to check the baits we had out and get some new bait out using some goats and cows that we could buy from the local villages. Pretty much the same plan as my previous safari.

We set out on our first day and bought a cow from a villager. After loading up the cow we went to check the baits we already had out. Things got very exciting on our first day as we found that the big male leopard that had been disturbed by the two lions had returned and fed on the new bait we had put up on the last day of my previous safari.

With the blind already built we just refreshed the bait with a quarter of beef that we had got that morning and set up a trail cam to see what time he was feeding. We decided to leave him one more night to feed.

The next day we went to the bait and found that the leopard had returned. By looking at the trail cam pictures he had come in just before eight. We also saw that it was the big male we had feeding on the previous safari so we decided we would sit in the blind and try get him.

We got settled in our blind by 4.00pm and started the wait for the leopard to arrive. Soon after dark the hyenas arrived at the bottom of the bait tree. The hyena were just pacing back and forth irritated that they were not able to get to the meat. At 8.45 the silence was shattered as the male leopard arrived at the bait tree and started chasing and growling at the hyenas. Our nerves were shot as we listened to the growls of the leopard rattling through the night. After waiting a few minutes I heard him clawing his way up the tree and start feeding. Telling the husband to get ready we slowly made our way to the shooting blind. Getting him tucked in behind his rifle I whispered for the agent to hit the light. When the light came on the leopard was standing on the branch at the bait with his head and part of his shoulder behind the bait. I told the husband not to shoot until I told him as I wanted to see the leopards head to make sure he was a mature leopard. The leopard carried on feeding for three minutes having not noticed the light. He eventually stopped feeding and stood up where I got a good look at the whole leopard. Seeing that it was a mature male I told him to go ahead and shoot. At the shot the leopard tumbled out the tree without a sound. We approached the tree to find the leopard lying dead right below the bait tree. We were all very happy at such a great hunt experience. We had got a beautiful male leopard on day two of our safari.





We spent our day three relaxing in camp after the nights celebrations we were all sporting a sore head. We also got all our gear ready to go down to the fly camp and start hunting hippo the next day.We set out north down to the lake. We set up the fly camp and started scouting for hippo. In the afternoon I decided to go check a pan with water in it, in the middle of the Mopani forest. The pans are about 5kms from the lake. I have shot some great old bulls out the pan in previous years so decided it was worth having a look. I believe old male hippo take up refuge in the pans to get away from more dominant bulls so that they are not constantly harassed by other males.
On arrival at the pan I could not see any hippo in the pan but the trackers spotted some hippo tracks in the mud around the pan. After scouting around the edge of the water we found the fresh tracks of a hippo leading away from the water along a game trail into the Mopani forest. The client had brought a double rifle with him and was hoping to get a dry land hippo so we were excited about the prospect of finding him out the water.The trackers took up the tracks of the bull and we had not gone too far when I spotted the hippo bedded down in some brush. I told him to be ready and we stalked up to the bull. On glassing the hippo I saw that it was an old male. The hippo stood up having heard or seen us. The client shot his first barrel of his double hitting the hippo on the shoulder and straight away followed up with his second. The bull was running twenty meters from our left going right. Seeing that he was still reloading I decided to put a back up shot in the bull. As my shot went off the hippo turned directly towards us and charged. Reloading as quickly as I could and almost like everything slowed down in slow motion I looked at the hippo bearing down at us over the sights of my rifle. Settling my front bead into the forehead of the hippo I squeezed off the shot. To my great relief the bull dropped ten paces from our feet. The client was extremely happy to have taken his bull on dry land and was equally excited about the experience of watching a charge Mark Sullivan style.



We returned to recover the hippo the following day. Sending the skins and skull back to camp we set out with the hippo meat to set out a bait for crocodile. We set up a blind for crocodile in a river that feeds in to the lake called the Chatakira. We had seen a number of big crocodile in the river on previous hunts. Setting up the bait we returned to the fly camp just in time for a beautiful sunset. We would sit in our crocodile blind the following day.

We woke up on day six to a beautiful sunrise and after a great breakfast prepared by our chef on the open fire we went to our crocodile blind. We put out some hippo meat as bait and climbed in to our blind. After three hours there were no crocodiles showing any interest. Either they could not smell the bait or they were not hungry.
Glassing the banks around our bait I spotted a good number of crocodiles out on the bank sun bathing. About two hundred yards to the right of our blind I spotted a huge crocodile out of the water sunning itself. I told him we needed to try stalk closer and get a shot at the reptile. Crawling on hands and knees we slowly crept out from behind our blind. There was a small rocky out crop that hid us from the crocodiles view as long as we stayed crouched down. The rocky out crop was about fifty meters from the croc so I knew if we made it to the rocks undetected we would be in good shape for him to take the shot.

Knees aching we eventually made it to the rocky out crop. Peering over the rocks I saw the crocodile fifty meters from us perfectly broadside to us. I hand signalled to the client to slowly get his rifle up on one of the rocks as a rest staying on his belly and to see if he was comfortable to take the shot. When in position he gave thumbs up that he was good to go. The shot rang out hitting the crocodile perfectly in the brain anchoring it on the spot. He then placed an insurance shot on the shoulder. Later we measured the crocodile and it taped out to 14 foot 4 inches and it had half a foot of tail missing. A truly big dinosaur of a lizard.





Loading the crocodile and gear from our fly camp we set out for the Ume camp three hours east of our fly camp. Our plan was to get the crocodile skinned and in salt as well as spend a few days at the Ume camp hunting Chobe bushbuck. We arrived at Ume later that day without incident.The next day our day seven we walked along the Ume River in the morning to try spot bushbuck. We saw a lot of game but no big bushbuck. We spotted a leopard up on the banks of the river as well as elephant,impala, warthog and bushbuck.

On our way back to camp for lunch we spotted a nice grey duiker which the client did not waste time adding the little antelope to his list of trophies and into the salt.
After lunch we walked the Mateya River in search of the illusive bushbuck. After a few hours in to our walk we spotted a good ram feeding on the side of the river. We stalked within range and he placed a good shot bagging a beautiful Chobe bushbuck.





The next day we decided to spend the day fishing and game viewing from the boat. Although we did not catch much fish we had a great day out on the lake.
We woke up on day nine and after breakfast decided to go back south to Chifudzi camp to hunt hyena. In the afternoon we collected some of our really smelly old leopard baits and put the out for hyena bait. We left the bait over night and returned the next day to build our blind. We got into the blind at six o clock. It was not long and we had hyena all around our blind whooping. I got the client ready and put on the light. Picking out the biggest one he made a perfect shot bagging a great big hyena.



On our day eleven, the client and his wife got word from home that their daughter was going to have her baby before her due date so they wanted to cut short their safari and return home to be there for the arrival of their grandchild. Early on day twelve I put them on their air charter home.

I don't know which I'd be happier with, the cat or the croc

Very nice trophies, it is a fantastic leopard and a very fine bag in general, congratulations and thanks for sharing.

Great Leopard again and a very nice set of trophies on this Safari, congratulations to everyone involved.

I don't know how a safari could get much better than that.

Congrats to all!!!!

Great Safari. I hunted with Pierre there last year and got a fantastic leopard as well. He does real well with them and is a hard working good fellow. Does he still have Furunga and Orbit tracking for him?

That Ume camp is special.

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Well done Pierre!

Pierre,


Congratulations with extremely good safari!
There are excellent trophies, especially your leopard.
And I very glad to see all crew again :-) with our game scout.

Best regards,
Rinat

Congratulations on some very fine trophies.

For you guys that don't know Pierre, he's the one on the left from my hunt in 2013.

Great trophies well done.

Nice bull Frank!

Congrats and thanks for posting Pierre.