ZAMBIA: Zambia Sitatunga Hunt

Congratulations on a very successful trip. Look forward to the hunt report continueation
 
So just completed the second part of our trip in South Africa, and now I have some time to catch up. We hunted in Zambia in 2024 for hippo, croc, and Kafue Lechwe. That trip got me thinking about coming back for Sitatunga. I started chatting with Steven Rufus and met him in Nashville at SCI. We decided to pull the trigger and book the hunt for late May 2026. We booked our flights with Qatar Airways, but the Iran war caused us to change our flight route. Qatar gave us an instant full refund, and we rebooked on American Airlines going through Heathrow which now meant I wouldn't be bringing my rifle. Disappointing, but it all worked out fine. We arrived in Lusaka and spent the night at the Protea airport hotel before catching our charter the next morning out to Kasonso GMA. It was an hour and a half flight to camp. We got settled in camp, checked the rifle at the range, and then went out on the truck to have a look around. The concession where we would be hunting is under contract to Fico Vidale. We were hunting early season after a very wet rainy season. The grass was still quite high and not burned off yet. That said, we still managed to find everything we were looking for, just had to work a bit to get them. Back in camp, we went over the game plan for the next morning when the real hunting would begin.
 
A few pics of camp.
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The area where we would hunt the Sitatunga was 45 kms from camp on trails, so it took about an hour and a half to get there. We had to leave camp at 0400 to make it in time to get there and up in the machan before daylight. There is about an hour and a half window in the morning to hunt them, and then they are back in the thick papyrus swamps. We had 4 machans with shooting lanes cut in the papyrus. The first two days we didn't see anything, so we moved to a different machan and started seeing Sitatunga. Mainly cows and young bulls, but at very first light on day 5, a shooter bull came out. It was difficult to get a good luck at him in the grey light and mist from the swamp. Before we could make a determination on him , he stepped back in the high grasss. Fortunately he reemerged in the next shooting lane, and now we had our chance. I lined up on him at just over 210 yards. One shot from the 7mm Rem Mag did the job. He went about 20 yards and died just in the high grass.
 
Once the Sitatunga was down, the recovery part was interesting to say the least. The apprentice PH was a former pro rugby player about 6'5". He made a misstep and went in the swap almost to his neck. The swamp is full of hippos and crocs, so exciting times to put it lightly. Once the guys got the Sitatunga back on dry land., we took some time to drink some coffee and savor the moment.
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A few things I learned and/or didn't fully understand or appreciate:
1. How far the hunting area was from camp and how cold the ride there in the morning would be. The extra jacket I didn't think I would need was a poor decision on my part! The typical day was get up at 0330 have coffee and hit the trail by 0400. After the morning hunt we had coffee and sandwiches and then hunted our way back to camp for other species on our list.
2. This is a well known area for high quality lions. The area where we hunted was the same area for lion, and we saw them every day. We walked about 20 minutes in the dark to get to the machan, and we undoubtedly passed right by lions and hippo along the way. One morning we pulled up and a hippo cow and calf ran right in front of us. Another day we thought we heard a truck engine, and after the hunt we heard from the guy we left with the truck that he had to move because the lions got too close to him. The hunter coming in after me was going for lion, so they hung baits after we were done hunting right in that same vicinity. Lions were on the bait immediately.
 
We got everything on the list I was looking for and even an add on buffalo after we had a chance contact with a herd of about 30 with two good bulls in the group. The game quantity and quality was exceptional. It was truly a highly memorable wild Africa adventure that I will always cherish. The camp, staff, meals and PH were top notch. One thing I found interesting was they used a Starlink Mini terminal on the hunting trucks to keep in communication in the bush, and they worked very well. I would not hesitate to hunt with Steven again in the future.
 
Congratulations on your Zambian Safari, you took some outstanding trophies.

John Ed
 
Cecil Hammonds said:
A few things I learned and/or didn't fully understand or appreciate:
1. How far the hunting area was from camp and how cold the ride there in the morning would be. The extra jacket I didn't think I would need was a poor decision on my part! The typical day was get up at 0330 have coffee and hit the trail by 0400. After the morning hunt we had coffee and sandwiches and then hunted our way back to camp for other species on our list.
2. This is a well known area for high quality lions. The area where we hunted was the same area for lion, and we saw them every day. We walked about 20 minutes in the dark to get to the machan, and we undoubtedly passed right by lions and hippo along the way. One morning we pulled up and a hippo cow and calf ran right in front of us. Another day we thought we heard a truck engine, and after the hunt we heard from the guy we left with the truck that he had to move because the lions got too close to him. The hunter coming in after me was going for lion, so they hung baits after we were done hunting right in that same vicinity. Lions were on the bait immediately.
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Yes, it’s a bit of a drive to the main swamp from camp. There are a couple smaller swamp areas that are closer but not as dependable.

Fico takes some of the best lions in all of Africa but they are quite expensive.

There are big sable there. Did you hunt sable?
 
Congratulations on a great hunt and some great trophies. Getting back to Zambia and chasing a Sititunga is very much on my list.
 
Cecil Hammonds said:
We got everything on the list I was looking for and even an add on buffalo after we had a chance contact with a herd of about 30 with two good bulls in the group. The game quantity and quality was exceptional. It was truly a highly memorable wild Africa adventure that I will always cherish. The camp, staff, meals and PH were top notch. One thing I found interesting was they used a Starlink Mini terminal on the hunting trucks to keep in communication in the bush, and they worked very well. I would not hesitate to hunt with Steven again in the future
Click to expand...

Did you run across any roan? What all species did you see?
 
Scott CWO said:
Yes, it’s a bit of a drive to the main swamp from camp. There are a couple smaller swamp areas that are closer but not as dependable.

Fico takes some of the best lions in all of Africa but they are quite expensive.

There are big sable there. Did you hunt sable?
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Saw a nice Sable, but didn't take a crack at it
 
Rakman said:
Did you run across any roan? What all species did you see?
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We did run across a group of 15 or so Roan. Saw large herds of Puku and Red Lechwe, Blue Wildebeest, Buffalo, warthog, bush pig, Oribi, Duiker, Reedbuck, Waterbuck, Cheetah, Lion, Elephant, Hartebeeste Bushbuck, and probably a few I am forgetting. It was really amazing.
 
Congratulations and a very successful hunt.
 
Cecil Hammonds said:
We did run across a group of 15 or so Roan. Saw large herds of Puku and Red Lechwe, Blue Wildebeest, Buffalo, warthog, bush pig, Oribi, Duiker, Reedbuck, Waterbuck, Cheetah, Lion, Elephant, Hartebeeste Bushbuck, and probably a few I am forgetting. It was really amazing.
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Did you see a good number of elephant and buffalo ?
 
Congrats and thanks for sharing!
 
Safari1 said:
Did you see a good number of elephant and buffalo ?
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Big herds of buffalo there, but not really a great area for elephant
 
I forgot an interesting detail on the buffalo hunt portion of this safari. When the skinner caped him out, he found a lead ball from a muzzle loader in the bull's face near the eye. It was not noticeable at all when we had him on the ground, and there was no visible wound from it. They had a few confiscated homemade muzzle loaders taken from poachers in the camp. They were very crude and routinely blew up in the user's face. If you run across a guy who has lost his right eye, he was likely a poacher in that area. I saw a couple working around the area. Here is a picture of the recovered lead ball from the buffalo.
 

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