Outfitter: Christie's Adventures
PH: Christie De Sousa
Country: Namibia
Area Hunted: Kamanjab
Date of Hunt: August 18 through September 4

This was my first African safari so some of my comments may be common knowledge and they may be the norm for this type of hunt.

This was an 18 day hunt for leopard and plains game. Christie offers a very good hunt that is far from a canned hunt. This hunt is not for someone looking for a tourist style hunt. You will hunt hard and Christie will do his best to make sure that you have an opportunity to shoot the animals on your list. Christie will also conduct his hunts in a manner that is compatible with how you want to hunt......as long as it is legal. His equipment is adequate and will probably meet your needs. His trackers and skinners are excellent. He has many areas to hunt and they are comprised of high fence, low fence and no fence areas.

My primary goal was to kill a leopard but I was not successful. We did have a few leopards hit the baits but they were all females. I did see a leopard early one morning slinking away from a bait but it was also a female. I hunted plains game when we were not putting out leopard baits. I told Christie when I arrived that I was not "hung up" on only shooting record book animals. I was just interested in shooting a mature bull/ram that was a good representation of the male of the species that I was after.

I believe the pictures below, with the exception of the kudu, represent what you could expect to see on this hunt.

I'll try to post some pictures:



















Well, I hope the picture appear instead of the URL/http address. I'm sure I missed something as this is my first hunting report so feel free to ask any questions or PM me. Although I am computer literate posting pictures is testing my skills.

Bottom line is that it was a great experience.

Beautiful animals, thanks for the report.

What gun and load did you use?

Frank,

I used a .300 Win. Mag in a Remington 700 shooting a 180 grain Nosler partition bullet.

All of the animals except the kudu went down with one shot although about two of them needed a second round to finish.

A few years ago I had trouble shooting a tight group with this set up so I replaced the original wood stock with a composite stock with a decelerator recoil pad from McMillan. I then installed a Leupold scope using Leupold rings and bases. I do not know where the problem was but now the rifle shoots like a dream. (The problem was probably in my head). I guess after spending over $1,000 on a rifle that costs less than $200 when I bought it new, it should shoot better.

Thanks for the comment.

Looks like a great trip. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Looks like you had a great trip. If Namibia does'nt change their leopard hunting regulations, sport hunters won't be killing any leopards. Land owners will kill them all.

Excellent report and pics! Great trophies!

Excellent trophies. Congratulations and thanks for the report.

Frank,

Glad you had a great hunt.

May I suggest you increase the size of your photos to at least 1024 pixels?

Yours are 480 pixels, which is great for displays of a few years ago.

Nowadays everyone has at least 1280 displays.

The photos I post are 1280 in size if you wish to compare.

Thanks for sharing. So this was your first, when are you scheduled for your second?

Thanks for sharing. So this was your first, when are you scheduled for your second?

h kittle,

Herein lies the dilemma. I am goal oriented and I do not want to be given anything. I'm over 60 years old with a bad knee. Because of this I am not able to hunt in a manner that suits me.

My first African safari was fantastic but I was barely able to hunt in a style that matched my personality.

With al of this said, hopefully I'll be in a position to return in 2012 to hunt buffalo or maybe leopard.

Thanks for your interest in my report as I just wanted to contribute to this site in a positive fashion.

That is an amazing kudu. What is the kudu population like after the rabies epidemic ??? Did you have to travel far from Kamanjab to hunt for them ??

Great trophy's and looks like you had agreat hunt!!

I'm not surprised that you didn't get your Leopard with Christie though...

I hunted with him 5 years ago for 20 days and never had even one cat touch a bait!! I went home disgusted and booked a trip to Zimbabwe with John Hunt of Georgia Safaris and killed my Leopard on the 4th night. I also hunted Leopard with Wayne Grant in Zimbabwe. After hunting safari's with John and Wayne and learning more about Leopard hunting, I think that Christie was very inexperienced (then?) with Leopards. He had access to a huge area but we only had 5 baits out. Wayne Grant put out 15! Also, Christie would sometimes not check our baits for 3-4 days, saying, "It's OK, once he starts feeding he will stay at it until we return". Checking baits daily is Leopard Hunting 101! John Hunt did a drag at every bait after checking it, Christie never did. One bait that we didn't check for 5 days was mumified upon our return.

I had a great plainsgame hunt with Christie and a great time as well but I was upset over the Leopard since I didn't think that he put the required effort into the Leopard hunt from the very begining. I would say "Are we checking baits today?" and he would tell me not to worry.

I did come over with 3 other hunters and I do understand that he wanted them to score (and get their trophy fee's as well!) so this might have distracted him from giving my Leopard 100% but he did have 2 other PH's there for them...

I would hunt plainsgame with Christie again in a second but Leopard...no way! Especially after seeing John Hunt and Wayne Grant in action in Zimbabwe...no comparison between them and Christie with Leopard.

With that said, I want you all to know that I had a great time otherwise hunting with Christie and that besides the Leopard failure it was a top shelf hunt in every way..and at a very reasonable price as well and I would recommendhim to anyone for plainsgame.

SWPAhunter:

Congratulations on your first safari! And, best of luck on your second...I'm sure you'll return.

Best regards, D. Nelson

Posted 12 September 2010 23:57 Hide Post
That is an amazing kudu. What is the kudu population like after the rabies epidemic ??? Did you have to travel far from Kamanjab to hunt for them ??
Posts: 811 | Location: Alberta | Registered: 29 November 2004


Scruffy,

I heard about the rabies epidemic but it did not seem to hurt the kudu population where I was hunting. As this was my first hunting trip to Africa, all of the kudu looked large to meso I did not fully appreciate the size of the one that I shot until later. This particular kudu was with two other bulls and the were two additional bulls a few hundred yards from the first three. This kudu was shot about 10 to 15 miles from Kamanjab. The longer horn measured 58" and the other one about an inch or so less. These are "green" measurements. Both horns have very good mass.

We would see kudu almost every day but usually they were just cows or young bulls.

quote:

Great trophy's and looks like you had agreat hunt!!

I'm not surprised that you didn't get your Leopard with Christie though...

Leopardtrack,

I understand where you are coming from. With this being my first African safari, I did not want to discuss an issue that I knew nothing about. Christie had about 8 to 10 baits out and the leopard hunter before me got a leopard so I just went along with the program. I did see a leopard while we were out early one morning trying to cut the tracks of sn eland. We went passed a bait that we hanged earlier and we saw a leopard slinking away through a clearing behind the bait. The bait was still swinging from the cat feeding on it. The head tracker said it was a female. Made no difference because I could not have gotten a shot off anyway.

Since this was my first safari, I did not want to spend the entire time waiting for a leopard. I was there by myself and I was the only hunter in camp for 15 out of the 18 days that I was there. I enjoyed hunting the plains game and IMHO one of the most difficult animal to get was the mountain zebra. I have a new found respect for them.

With this said, I once again concur with your comments. Christie is a hard working and honorable individual who stands behind what he says. He did refund me some money, as he advertizes on his website, if you do not get an opportunity at a leopard.

You did paint a very accurate picture.

Jim,

Glad that you didn't take my comments as a "lets beat-up Christie" post because I surely didn't mean it that way, just that the Zimbabwe PH's are in another class when it comes to Leopard. John Hunt and Wayne Grant have taken over 100 Leopards each for their clients, and I believe that in GENERAL, Zimbabwe is a much better habitat for Leopard than the dry and sparse terrain of Namibia. Next time go to Zim for your cat!

By the way I agree with you on the Mtn. Zebra, since I shot mine on my last day...what a hunt! We saw ton's of Kudu and Gemsbok and I had a fun time with Christie. I had a great time and hunt with him, but stand by my comments regarding the Leopard.

Does he still employ Francios and Claude as PH's? How about Frderick, Polus, and Givit??

I bet you gained weight with their cooking!

Yo !

I know Christie and have hunted with him a bit over the last 5 or 6 years. More than anything, Leopardtrack, 5 years ago Christie was just getting into learning how to hunt leopards and as you mentioned .. Namibia is a tough place to hunt them for various reasons. He has taken quite a few cats since those days ... but sometimes leopards are just not going to take baits for whatever the reason. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr !!! Zim, for sure, is a better place to go .. but I took my 14 year old son to the Save Conservancy .. home of monster and many leopards back in 1996. My PH was the 21 year old son of a famous PH who wrote the book on leopard hunting ... the nice young man .. as near as I could figure out .. had never read the book .. I never saw a cat in 14 days and the only cat that came in .. (female) .. Clive turned on the light before it started to feed and it vamoosed .. I'll bet he is a very good PH now, however ... Cheers and better luck next time ...

Hi Scruffy,

I agree with you 100% on that! As I said in my origional post I think Chrstie's lack of experience back then was the biggest factor in our failure to score. There was really no "game-plan" he pretty much just put baits out and that was that.
I'm glad to hear that he's doing better now, since he has a huge area with no competition to hunt...I'm sure has some big old males in it. I hope that he bought himself a copy of Boddington's DVD on Leopards! Seriously, I think that would help him out allot back then.
Finally, in all fairness to him and his clients as well, you just cannot mix a plainsgame hunt with a Leopard hunt...you must focus 100% on the Leopard until you score. He has the luxury of putting a ton of baits out over such a huge area, and just put the miles on the truck and do the circut until you get one feeding.
Another thing with him was that he's out of the blind by 10:00pm.
I spent many nights in the blind in Zimbabwe and I think that it's definetly worth the effort.
Anyway Scruffy take care!

Frank

SWPA: Congratulations on a great hunt. You took some fine trophies. In regard to the leopard you didn't take, well, that's just a good excuse to go back sooner rather than later!

quote:

Originally posted by Leopardtrack:
you just cannot mix a plainsgame hunt with a Leopard hunt...

Is that really true, how do you get the baits Frank ??

quote:

Another thing with him was that he's out of the blind by 10:00pm.

I thought hunting at night in Namibia is illegal.

[/QUOTE]

Jim,

A lot of factory rifles will tighten up their groups when put onto a higher quality stock like you did. Its a matter of proper bedding to the action and some other possibilites. With lower end mass produced rifles, a better stock can be the difference of 3" groups and 3/4" groups.

Dahlgren,

I shot several Warthogs for bait and Christie purchased several goats and a donkey if I remember correctly.

As for the night hunting being illegal...unless things have changed it is/was legal to kill a Leopard at night on private land...which we hunted on. It's dark by 7:00pm anyway...

I should clarify what I meant when I said that you cannot mix a plainsgame hunt with a Leopard hunt... It's your money so you can do whatever you want, but if you REALLY want to kill a Leopard, and that is your priority, you should concentrate ONLY on Leopard until you kill one and not be distracted by anything else. Killing a Kudu might prevent you from checking a hit bait that you should be sitting on that evening.

Again let me emphasize that the aforementioned was my experience with Christie 5 years ago, as Scruffy said is around the time that Christie started out Leopard hunting. from what he says, it seems that Christie is doing very well with Leopards, which I am glad to hear!

With that in mind, I would hunt with him again anytime!

Frank

Thanks for posting ! Nice animals! And Mtn Zebra are indeed tuff to get a shot on....I don't have one but tried twice in RSA.
Must be nice to hunt Leopards with lights....I had 13 days plus 14 days and about a zillion dollars of bait before I connected....maybe I shud take my hound and spotlight next time....kinda funny, bur on my last trip to Zambia for other stuff, Chipman (Kwalata Safaris) and I saw four in the middle of the day...I killed mine with Greeff in ZIM at Chirisa.
A hunt that includes Leopard shud be a Leopard hunt unless a 21 or more day hunt. This advice is based on hunting by natural light, no pre-baiting and no dawgs.

quote:

Does he still employ Francios and Claude as PH's? How about Frderick, Polus, and Givit??

Leopardtrack,

I only met one other PH and his name was Gideon. Polus is still there. His trackers/skinners are Christian, Franz and Willie.

I truly enjoyed the hunt and I am not disappointed that I did not get a leopard. I would never tarnish my otherwise successful hunt because I did not shoot any animal.

As Stonecreek said, it's a good excuse to go back sooner rather than later.

Thanks guys for the comments. It's been great.

Jim,
Glad you had a good time and that your lack of sucess with the Leopard didn't affect your hunt.

Leopard was my top priority and main reason for going, so I was disappointed!

The others are right...you have an excuse to go back.

Wait till you see that cat in the tree!! You won't believe your eyes.

Hi there, pls explain "changes law"?? I am a landowner, very curious to read ur reply./opinion.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Leopardtrack:
Dahlgren,

As for the night hunting being illegal...unless things have changed it is/was legal to kill a Leopard at night on private land...which we hunted on. It's dark by 7:00pm anyway...

Night hunting in Namibia is forbidden with good reasons, for the sake of the client and the Leopard. You can't see what you are shooting at, female, sub adult, big Tom?

Spotlight Safaris are banned too, again what do you want to see in 3 seconds until the cat is gone?

I should clarify what I meant when I said that you cannot mix a plainsgame hunt with a Leopard hunt... It's your money so you can do whatever you want, but if you REALLY want to kill a Leopard, and that is your priority, you should concentrate ONLY on Leopard until you kill one and not be distracted by anything else. Killing a Kudu might prevent you from checking a hit bait that you should be sitting on that evening.

You best combine your hunt with plains game & leopard - how else are you suppose to bait for a cat?? And it makes for a great hunt! You check bait's well after 10 am, and not before the cat might still be in the tree, scare him off and he may be gone for good.

Hello Bellbrass2010...have we met before??

I am not a PH and I never said that I am an expert on Leopards or Leopard hunting.....I am posting this from my experience regarding an unsucessful Namibian Leopard hunt of 20 days, as well as from my perspective as a sucessful client who killed my Leopard elsewhere with 2 different, highly sucessful Leopard hunters.

I stick by what I have said about focusing on nothing but Leopard if that is your priority...as well as scouting for fresh tracks, putting out new baits in different locations, replacing baits that have become mumified...checking my baits daily not every 4 days...and maybe not sleeping for 4 hours after lunch each day when you have a anxious hunter pacing the floor and nicely hinting to you to get going and make it happen!

I do understand that baits have to be taken to kill a Leopard, but baits are just that...bait. Kill bait. Shooting trophy animals, can become very time consuming. Judging the animal, stalking, recovery, etc... then you have a trophy animal which needs to be tended to..caped, etc. That is what I meant when I said to only think about the Leopard until he is killed...then you can trophy hunt, sleep, mess around with your wife, etc. and otherwise take it easy!

Hey maybe I'm wrong about being able to hunt at night on private land in Namibia, but I was out there after dark, with a Namibian PH, so I guess that he should have known that it was illegal??

Anyway, take care and good Luck !

Hi Leopardtrack! Do not if we know each other, listen, night hunting is strictly forbidden, also the use of dog packs has been banned this year after the the quota had been over utilized. I am sorry that PH feel they have to go that way, because there are alternatives. So far touching 50, I have shot many Leopards on Safaris and of course on my property, all in day light. Luck is and plays it's part too. So keep on hunting!! Stay safe.

Sorry for the tone of my response....it was as if you shot my dog with a 416 Rigby or something like that!

I hope that if Christie ever reads this he realizes that I enjoyed him and the rest of the hunt 100%, but was bent out of shape about the Leopard hunt. I think my previous posts here show how much I liked him, his set up, and his family as well...water under the bridge.

"Bellbrass2010" take care of yourself, good hunting, and let's see those Leopard pictures!

Frank,
Well done in your first Africa hunt.
I have hunted in Kamanjab in April this year, and it is a great area, special if hunting in free or low fenced concessions.

Roberto

Your first safari is always a special experience, Jim. You got a lot of trophies to show for it. Thanks for posting.

Congrats! on the mt. zebra. I hunted east of Kamanjab, north of Outjo with Burchell Frontier Safaris. I didn't even see one, just some tracks.

As far a Mr Spots goes, sitting in a blind waiting for him is easy on the old joints.

Good selection of trophies, good tusks on the pig.

Coming back to the Leopard, I heard there was only 34 or so tags for this season and no outfitter got more than one.
Did you see the tag for your hunt?

homgoreb,

I was replacing my brother-in-law on this hunt as a last minute replacement. My brother-in-law's tag was not transferable to me so the outfitter called numerous people that he knew to see if they had a tag available. He located one but I never actually saw the tag. He said that we could not hunt on his usual leopard areas and we had to hunt the areas pre registered to the original outfitter. This put him at a big disadvantage as we had to hunt areas that were not his normal territory.

I thought each outfitter was entitled to two tags but I could be wrong. I just thought I read this somewhere but you would know better than me.

Since this was my first African safari I was not adamant that we hunt/shoot a leopard. I had too many other animals to hunt to get upset by not shooting a leopard.

Hopefully I'll make it back to Africa someday and a leopard will be high on my wish list.

Thanks for the post.

Congratulations on your successful PG hunt. You managed to get many species and some excellent trophies. The leopard (and other big five) will lure you back.

Congratulations, Jim. You sure took some fine trophies. I admire your approach to hunting.

quote:

Originally posted by SWPAhunter:
homgoreb,

I was replacing my brother-in-law on this hunt as a last minute replacement. My brother-in-law's tag was not transferable to me so the outfitter called numerous people that he knew to see if they had a tag available. He located one but I never actually saw the tag. He said that we could not hunt on his usual leopard areas and we had to hunt the areas pre registered to the original outfitter. This put him at a big disadvantage as we had to hunt areas that were not his normal territory.

I thought each outfitter was entitled to two tags but I could be wrong. I just thought I read this somewhere but you would know better than me.

Since this was my first African safari I was not adamant that we hunt/shoot a leopard. I had too many other animals to hunt to get upset by not shooting a leopard.

Hopefully I'll make it back to Africa someday and a leopard will be high on my wish list.

Thanks for the post.

SWPAhunter: no sweat I was just wondering.
As you said there is always the next time.

Jim, thanks for posting...you will go back!
I was 58 when I booked ny Once In A Lifetime African hunt....booked my second before I left Zim! I am now almost 68 and this year is the first year I have missed since then with two separate Safaris one year and "dropping by" RSA for second Safaris twice. I have an artificial knee, an arturictic knee and degenerative arturitis in my neck....the only reason I did not go this year is I am saving money for an Ele! You will return!