TANZANIA: On Our Way Home From Tanzania

[Boatbuilder]

My wife and I are on our way back from our first African Safari in Selous game reserve in Tanzania with Kilombero North Safari's. It was an absolute hunt of a lifetime. When we get home and I get time I will post pictures. We hunted 16 days. My wife got a leopard and a buffalo (which was bigger than mine. Lol). I got buffalo, wildebeest, baboon, hippo waterbuck, impala, crocodile and a zebra. We had a videographer that captured all animals harvested on film except the baboon. The leopard was filmed from camera from the blind and had 2 go pro's set up in trees close to bait tree. Footage is great.
Can't say enough about the first class operation that Jack Franklin put on in LU2.
Can't wait to share our hunt of a lifetime.

Jim/Bev

 

[drew416]

Congrats on the "hunt of a lifetime". Sounds like you and the missus had a great time with the list of your haul of trophies.

I would really like to see any of the leopard video footage, once you have time to post, please.

 

[Red Leg]

Well done! Did you do it over 14 or 21 days? I keep edging a little closer to the Selous. My son and I will be in Moz in a couple of weeks. And getting that cat first try is a great achievement.

 

[All-American Taxidermy]

Congrats, we look forward to seeing the pictures!

 

[Wheels]

Congratulations. Looking forward to your report/photos/videos.

All the best.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Looking forward to the full report, safe travels!

 

[Red Leg]

Well done! Did you do it over 14 or 21 days? I keep edging a little closer to the Selous. My son and I will be in Moz in a couple of weeks. And getting that cat first try is a great achievement.

Duh - 16 days - I'll read closer next time. Again, my congrats.

 

[jeffpg]

Sounds like a great time was had, I can't wait to see this one!

 

[James.Grage]

Jim...

Sounds like you had a great time...

How was the elephants in your hunting block?

 

[Royal27]

One day.... Selous. ....

Congrats!!!!

 

[BRICKBURN]

Leopard on the first attempt, congratulations.

Hunt of a lifetime for sure. Looking forward to the stories, pictures and that video.

Safe trip home.

 

[harden]

Well DONE ! looking forward to seeing the pictures !

 

[Boatbuilder]

I hope this report wont be to long and boring but I will have to do report over a few posts.
Day 1
We flew into camp and got things settled in camp and we sighted rifles in. Then we went and set up 2 bait sights for leopards. Seen lots of impala, warthogs and waterbucks.

Day 2
Headed to different area along river to where they already set up a bait 3 days prior to our arrival. The bait was hit but not hard, however the trackers found a print of a good size male leopard. We left the area and hunted waterbuck for a few hours with no success. We headed back towards bait sight at about 2:00 pm and the trackers made up a blind while we ate our lunch and the cameraman set up 2 go pro cameras in trees near the bait. Our PH wanted to be in the blind by 4:00pm but we actually never finished setting up until 5:00. Didn't expect the cat to show up but decided to sit anyway. We were not in the blind for 20 minutes and there was a big cat up in tree already. He knew something was up but he was hungry enough that he went to the bait and started feeding. Never gave my wife a good shot so all we could do was wait. Finally after 20-30 minutes the cat decided to leave. He walked out onto long tree branch and stopped to look back. Perfect slightly quartering away shot. The PH told Bev to shoot for opposite shoulder. She shot and the cat fell out of tree hard. We couldn't see the cat on the ground but the go pro showed the cat actually flopped around behind the tree for about 5 seconds before taking off into the bush. My wife had every emotion going on as possible. She decided to stay in truck once the trackers showed up. After about 20 minutes we decided to follow the good blood trail. We found the cat alive about 40 yards in. The PH shot twice at the cat but he was still very much alive but hurt hard. I was about 6 yards to the left of the PH and the cat came at me. I could see his right leg was useless but I shot him between the eyes at 10 yards. That really got the heart pumping. The cat was dead and the celebration began. Went back and had my wife come look at her prize. It was a big old male cat but he was quite skinny. They estimated him to only be 130 lbs. We set up and took some great photos and video.

 

[Boatbuilder]

Day 3
We headed out today to look for Cape Buffalo after a great breakfast. We found fresh tracks so we headed out to find the herd. Caught up with them after about an hour of tracking. Followed them for about 4 miles but couldn't find an old hard bossed bull so we decided to leave them. Walked back to truck and ran into a couple wildebeest and the sticks were up and I was on them. They were stopped and looking straight at us and the PH said to shoot the one on the left and I had my first African animal on the ground after a 50 yard blood trail was followed.

 

[Boatbuilder]

Day 4
Out for a drive looking for fresh sign and found a beautiful lioness. We stopped and took pics and video. Great to see in the wild. Seen a nice herd of impala but was unsuccessful. Got stung in arm by some sort of wasp/bee. Stung for a couple hours and swelled up for day and half but was good after that.

Day 5
Had lions in camp last night and made all kinds of noise which made my wife have a hard time sleeping. About a mile out of camp we found 3 female lions and 2 males, one of which was a great big male with big mane. Again, we stopped and the cameras were to record our encounter.
Got into a big herd of about 100 cape buffalo. We got within 100 yards numerous times but couldn't pick out any old bulls.Finally we were able to come down the bank and get within 75 yards. We heard a gun shot from down river and on the other side. The buffalo heard it as well as about 5 older big bulls came to the back of herd to investigate and gave me an shot at a hard bossed bull. At the shot he ran into herd so I couldn't follow up with another shot. We waited until the herd moved off and followed blood trail for 40 yards and the bull was down. The PH told me to shoot in the spine and the bull was down for keeps. Had my first Cape buffalo down for good.

 

[Boatbuilder]

Day 6
Had another great day seeing all kinds of game animals but we never connected on anything.

Day 7
We are now looking for another Buffalo as my wife really wants one. Got into numerous herds again today but again no shooters. Bev is now getting used to the lions, hippos and hyenas that visit camp each night. She can now get some sleep at least.

Day 8
Hyenas were back again in camp last night. They are very vocal and make some real weird noises. We had breakfast and headed out towards a croc bait we had out. Seen a nice warthog so we tracked him but he never did show himself again. We sat in croc blind for couple hours but they were a no show. Went back to camp for lunch and decided to go look for a hippo for more croc bait. We found one on land but couldn't confirm it was a male so we didn't shoot. Found a big group of hippos in river and there was 2 old males in the bunch. Finally one of the old guys went up onto a sand bar and I shot him in the brain and he was dead on the sand bar. It took 2-1/2 hours to get most of the other hippos to be scared away. The truck went back to camp to get more recruits to help get hippo out of river. The trackers waded out to tie rope on leg of hippo while about 10 others pulled the hippos into current and up close to shore. The winch was then used to drag him up onto shore to skin and take some of the meat for camp use. By now it was dark out and when we shined the lights in the river there was crocs everywhere. We tied a rope onto hippo to keep the carcass for croc bait. We were back in camp by 8:00pm for a nice hot shower and another great meal.

 

[Wheels]

You know Diana is smiling down on you when your first African animal is a leopard! Really smiling on you when you set for less than an hour to get him.

Great shooting on the charge.

Looking forward to the rest of the report.

All the best.

 

[Boatbuilder]

Day 9
Went and checked hippo bait after breakfast. There was many crocs on bait not the one we were looking for. The trackers decided to push hippo carcass in water as the vultures were showing up to feed. We came back a few times during the day to check, but the croc we were looking for never showed.

Day 10
Checked bait again this morning but no luck. Decided to go look for buffalo. Our camera man spotted a huge buffalo in tall grass as we drove by. We got out and went back and the bull was still there but my wife couldn't see the bottom half of buffalo and made the decision not to shoot. The herd took off and it was getting late in the day so we decided to come look for him again in the morning.

Day 11
Headed out and found 3 lions again this morning. Our camera man, Duncan, said it was a good sign as the morning we seen lions, I shot my buffalo. We came to a river crossing and there was a herd of about 150 buffalo feeding along the river bank. We followed them for quite some time but didn't see a mature bull. They finally winded us so we tried to get way out in front of them. We actually ended up in the middle of herd in 12' tall grass. really spooky feeling when a herd of buffalo is 10 yards in front of you and cant even see them. The herd split up and some animals headed back towards river. We headed that way as it would give us an opportunity to see them in the open if they got on the river. Finally we reach the rivers edge and we found 3 bulls in the middle of dried up river. The back bull was a good bull so up the sticks went. Jack Franklin, Our PH told Bev to shoot the back bull. At the sound of the shot the buffalo dropped in his tracks. Bev made a perfect shot right thru the top of the heart. We moved in closer and gave the bull another one for insurance. Got over to the bull and we were excited. This bull had way bigger bosses than the bull I shot. I was the happiest husband in the world at that moment. Our biggest hunting dreams came true and we were delighted. We set up for pictures and field dressed the bull and loaded it up and headed for camp.

 

[Boatbuilder]

Day 12
Went for a drive to another area today to look for Zebra or Sable. Never ended up seeing either but seen some more amazing country. Had a really enjoyable looking over plenty of game but just not what we were looking for.

Day 13
Again we went up another dried up river system and headed up high into the hills. What breath taking views. Seen big herds of buffalo on other side of main river system but it was out of our area so we just enjoyed watching them for some time. We decided to head down to the river to look for a waterbuck. Our cameraman spotted a bull bedded down and the stock was on. We got within 100 yards and the sticks were up. My first shot missed clean but the bull only went short distance and gave me another shot. This one was in the boiler room. He ran 60 yards and toppled over dean. Was another beautiful trophy on the ground. Very pleased with again.
On our way back to camp we seen a nice Kudu but estimated to be 42". We decided to pass on him.

 

[Boatbuilder]

Day 14
The plan was to hunt crocs today but our PH wanted to check out another area that was only about 5 miles from camp. It was a big valley with some high ridges. We drove part way up but decided to walk the last 1/2 mile up to ridge. Once we got to the ridge we spotted 4 Zebra on far ridge. We started our stock and had to go a long way around and up another high ridge and down the other side and again back to top of opposite ridge. We came out at about 150 yards from the Zebra but they fed over the next ridge. We made our way over and spotted a male zebra about 110 yards away. He spotted us but it was to late. The sticks were up and I was on him. He snorted and stomped and turned in circle to look at us straight on. I shot him straight on and he stumbled and fell about 30 feet away. I had my zebra. They estimated him to be 20-22 years old. I was a happy camper. We couldn't get anywhere close to him with the truck so the trackers went back to truck and went to camp to get recruits. We finished pictures and butchering the zebra and he was packed out to the truck.
We went back to camp for lunch and decided to check on croc bait again. We ran into a herd of impala's on the way there and was unsuccessful in getting one though. We again checked the bait but nothing we wanted to shoot yet.