ZIMBABWE: Nuanetsi; Hounds Over Leopard - Adroda Safaris

dchum said:

What a great big pumpkin head! Glad it ended safely.

What happened to the pump gun

Click to expand...

I’ll get to that in the wrap-up. Good catch!

Day6,7,8,9: “..herd..herd..herd..”

When Courtney and Adrian asked me about my expectations and what I was looking for in a buffalo hunt I was delighted to learn that my dreams lined up exactly with the style of hunt and preference of bull that Courtney liked to hunt.

I wanted an old bull. I wanted to find and hunt down a bull on a true old fashioned tracking hunt. I wanted to hunt hard through long days. I wanted to hunt down an old dugga-boy like it would be my one and only chance to do it and I never wanted to look back (win, lose or draw) and have any regrets. Courtney asked me what did I see him looking like in my mind? I simply pointed to the skull at the base of the tree by the fire on the deck. “Like that. Exactly like that, in fact.”



!!WARNING!! THIS THREAD IS ABOUT TO TURN FROM RATED “G” TO AN “R” RATING HERE!! My apologies for this, but it’s part of the story and I see no reason to leave it out.

For the next 4 days we all hunted hard. Very hard. Several times I was on the sticks lined up after successful stalks on fine bulls. I didn’t write down at night every single one, but I had chances at least 6 times in four days to take a bull. One time I was lined up was very, very close. But he just wasn’t “the one”. Courtney, me and the team worked so hard but we were completely committed and there was no turning back.

Then, there were other times… We would get on tracks only to have our efforts spoiled by a single word. A word that, finally, at one point when it was noiselessly mouthed back to me by Courtney, I hung my head, looked up at Courtney and said “I’m getting really tired of that word.”

“Herd.”

I’m a month removed from the first time I heard Courtney say in his refined, proper Zim/English accent that word. Yet, even now writing this I find myself tapping the keyboard just..a little harder.

“What should you like me to call it then? A fuckery?” I roared! “Yes. Absolutely! 100%! A fuckery it is!” Hence, from that point on it became our own joke. While riding in the car, tired, salt stained, dusty smoking a cigarette or a cigar and enjoying an ice cold Zambeze on the ride in I queued Courtney, “So how many head make up a fuckery?” We laughed, but we did come to a general agreement that there are several different requirements for a fuckery broken down by size as follows (ahem):

A fuckery: the base measurement; must have at least 20 head and no more than 30

Half-a-fuckery: 19 or fewer but more than 3 and must have at least one staggeringly beautiful old bull

A super fuckery: more than 30 but no more than 50

A mega-fuckery: 50-75 (very rare)

The last one a man would have to go to Tanzania to find and that is a giga-fuckery. A herd of size greater than a mega-fuckery by far.

Now, before I left for Zim, I told Courtney that I was traveling with orders from my wife, “if we get a chance at an old black bull giraffe, I don’t care how big the buffalo is, we’re stopping and hunting the giraffe.” And, that is precisely what happened on day 9.

As we were in the car to get back on the tracks of a buff bull that we let cool down and hoped for a change in wind direction, there arose a huge clamor from the back. Stop! Stop! Stop! “A huge black giraffe bull!” said Meshek. Courtney kept going a little further, stopped, got direction from Meshek, got glass on him in the distance (don’t ask me how, I couldn’t see him) and said, “Get Bonnie.”

It was an amazing stalk that showcased Courtney’s talent as a PH and my ability to not fuck things up if called upon to do so.


We (and there have been a few I’ve told this story to who’ve voiced their skepticism, but every word is true) stalked this bull down to exactly 23 paces through heavy cover and delivered a one shot kill from the .375 H&H. A perfect “culling shot” placed one foot down from the ear and centered into the neck. Courtney and I talked on this shot and we went over it many times before with different angles on pictures from his phone.

A very old bull. I was so pleased to give my wife the news on her giraffe.







Now the work begins.




Look how thick the hide is! No wonder there was no exit wound! The bullet lodged in his vertebrae and pushed it against the inside of his hide. Truly a remarkable creature. I would hunt giraffes again. No question.

So, I HERD there are are a lot of Cape Buffalo in Zimbabwe.

Seriously, you put in the hard work, and the reward is always sweeter for it. Congratulations are in order.

Well done. I have done this hunt and all I can say is that it is a rush.
Sitting in a blind does not appeal to me so hounds it was. Great fun and very active.

Congrats and thanks for sharing!

Congratulations on an amazing hunt and adventure! I grew up running deer and hogs with hounds and I can only imagine what a leopard chase would be like. Does an unwounded leopard ever bay up and face the dogs? That would probably get ugly quick.

JE245 said:

Congratulations on an amazing hunt and adventure! I grew up running deer and hogs with hounds and I can only imagine what a leopard chase would be like. Does an unwounded leopard ever bay up and face the dogs? That would probably get ugly quick.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately all the time. There is a high chance of a dog being wounded every single time that the hounds are released.

First I like your writing style!

Beautiful leopard, hunt cats is special but leopard are the ultimate chess match.

Also just remember the a fuckery of buffalo is made up by a lot of fucktards

Day 10,11,12,13,14: Night critters! Walking with a King. A galacticaly stupid decision. If a leopard falls in the bush and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound? And the trophy of a lifetime.

First, I’d like to say thank you to everyone who has stuck it out and gotten this far. I hope some value was realized by you all after investing time with my story. Some of the remarks have meant a great deal to me. Kudos to you all!

Hoo-kay!


What on earth are we going to do with all this bait!? Night Critters! I admit, I thought night critter hunting would be a piece of cake. I really did.

I think we just had so many baits set that the living was just too good. The civit cats were enormous! I had no clue how big they would get. The honey badger had a party every night. In one picture there were 4!, all at once, in several frames! Many had at least two! Brown hyenas. Bush pigs. Genet. And one spotted hyena (huge) that had a special friend that he shadowed, a gorgeous young female leopard. We have pictures of them feeding off the same bait at the same time.
The young female got so drunk and full of bait that she fell out of the tree!

Second problem to hunting night critters is; you can’t do it if you’re sleeping… I was so flipping tired after tracking buff from dawn until dusk that something had to give. So, it was me. The quest for my old dugga-boy became and all consuming effort. I had buffalo brain and, as long as I’m ratting myself out, I may just as well come clean.

So focused on buffalo was I, that I passed on one of many hunters most difficult challenges. I’m friends with an excellent and highly respected forum member here. I hid an Easter egg in a text to him about my “trophy”. It’s only now, that I know he is going to be leaving for safari in a day that I know I’m safe from him for being so stupid. Only he knows how big it was and he’s sworn to secrecy. I promised the “big reveal” in this thread.

I passed..on..a.. Sharp’s Grysbok. He stood in a dry creek bed and we watched him for..5 minutes?maybe? Courtney went on about how “rare” they are. And how, if “somebody” didn’t shoot him, we wouldn’t live much longer if he keeps conducting himself like he is. Go ahead, I know, I know. Let me have it. I deserve your condemnation. But, guys,..the Buffalo totally got in my head!

So inside my own mind was I in finding my buffalo, and so surrounded by the romance of the hunting grounds that, it all felt, ethereal. One day everywhere we tracked there were lion about. I never saw any. But we all sure heard them! All day. We were never out of their sight though, I assure you. Because the roaring was always the same distance away, no matter how far we went. And that day I know for certain that we tracked a buff for 10 clicks.
It is a day I will never forget.



There was a theme to this month long safari I went on. I was only going to concentrate on old and mature male animals on this hunt. I was not going to have any regrets. Come what may at the end of the trail I only wanted to do it right. I never caught up to my old Buffalo. And that’s ok. I hunted hard right to last light. And for my efforts I was rewarded in the last two hours of my safari in Nuanetsi.






An old recently lion scarred kudu bull. I’d love to tell the story, but this one is just for me.

I’ll do a little wrap up on training, my farm accident that led to a dislocated rib a week before I left, driving in Zim and why I’m glad I decided against bringing my 7600 Rem (since someone already brought it up).

Thanks again everyone.

Ok I will be the first. It took me two trips with Sharps grysbok as on of my primary target to get one in the salt. So yes go in the bathroom and look in the mirror and slap your self at least 10 times while quoting "I will never pass up a hard to find tiny 10 antelope ever!"

What @AZDAVE said. I’m glad you didn’t mention the grysbok in our phone conversation! I would’ve gotten sick and hung up!! Seriously though this has been an outstanding write up and on of my all time favorites.

Now that is a hunt report! Outstanding all around. Beautiful animals and phenomenal story telling.

Congratulations!

Superbly written report. Thank you for sharing and congratulations on a great leopard.

Excellent report. Well done!

What an awesome read. Very well written.

Really nice Kudu and giraffe too!

The wrap-up: research, training, preparation, and “how bad do you want it?”

Why hounds over leopard? Simple. I’m a busy-body and I’m honest with myself. I know my own strengths and weaknesses. I always knew I was going to hunt leopard, and I knew, furthermore, I didn’t have it in me to be trapped in a blind staring at bait lashed to a tree. I’ve hunted mountain lions in Utah with hounds and, everyone who reads this should understand that treeing a hundred mountain lions will never equal one leopard hunt with hounds. Ever. It’s not the same game. Hell, it’s not even the same sport.

The draw for me was, well, the challenge. Anybody with a brain intuitively knows that there is an elevated level of danger with a hunt like this. It’s fast, physically demanding, expensive, and success or failure is parked squarely on your shoulders alone. Physical and mental preparation is paramount for this hunt. Knowing and understanding terrain and conditions should guide the decisions you’re going to make in selecting everything from your weapon to your footwear.

Researching your PH/Houndsman and following his advice and instructions implicitly is also in your best interest. When I contacted Adrian I told him I wanted only an area that had a lot of cats with the highest chances of success and I only wanted him as my PH/Houndsman, and I was willing to pay for it. That sounds like a lot of gas, and I don’t mean for it to. But my wife and I approached this effort like it might be our only chance. So, if I was going to dress for the game, I was going to swing for the fence. Going cheap whether on a PH, area, bait or expenses was not an option. I like to win and if I were going to hire someone, I wanted to hire another person who likes to win just as much. And Adrian was overqualified to help me achieve my goals. Contracting Adrian was the smartest decision I ever made in my hunting career.

Training:

I don’t carry a lot of extra weight, in fact, I’m a short and skinny fella. So, at least I have that going for me. But I trained very hard daily. Mostly calisthenics, cardio, weighted burst training, weighted running, deep breathing techniques and a lot of walking. I’m glad I did. It paid off.

Rifle training: here’s where I overthought things and, ultimately disposed of what I thought I’d need for the hunt for what rifle was best for the job at the last moment.

I really wanted to take my Remington 7600 for this hunt. But, things just weren’t coming together well for the two of us. The 7600 was a finicky little fucker. Fine for whitetail. Not for a dangerous cat.

A couple months before leaving I bought a Dakota 76 .375 H&H from @Wildwillalaska
I love every .375 I’ve ever owned, I’ve always been very good with them and the new Dakota I bought was love at first sight-in. For the caliber it proved to be an absolute laser with my Swaro 3-10X42.

Talking with @Mtn_Infantry on conditions he was experiencing during his leopard/ele hunt in Zim and listening to my PH’s on conditions in Nuanetsi all contributed to my ultimate decision to divorce myself from my wants and focus on my needs. I needed to bring the weapon I was best and most confident with that provided the power and reliability to punch through heavy cover and still have enough velocity to anchor the animal while using a bullet that would hold together well enough if it had to go through branches before impact. So, Bonnie (the .375’s name) got the ball and was charged with closing the game loaded with 300gr. TBBC’s.

How bad do you want it?

A week before leaving I was transferring some new kitchen cabinets on my skid-steer to a rental house I’m remodeling. I was tracking up the road for a couple hundred yards and suddenly found myself in a ditch facing the opposite direction of my travel and looking at the remains of a blue car. Realizing that I just got hit, I got out of the machine and was shocked by pain in my ribs and sternum. No! Please! Not now! A quick trip to the ER revealed a popped rib, bruised knee, elbow and neck and a bruised scalp.


There was no way in hell I was going to miss my safari. I told my PH’s and assured them I was both coming and would not let this be an excuse to half-step. My advice to others: if you get fucked-up in an accident and want to heal quickly, go to Africa hunting. 10/10 every time.

Well, that’s about everything fellas. This report was a lot of fun and I really hope it helps others.

Oh! One last thing! I’d also like to thank a couple certain forum members for taking time to answer questions over the past year before this safari: @Scott CWO @Philip Glass @Hunt anything and @Hunter-Habib

Cheers!

Man, what a badass report! Congrats on a fantastic hunt and thanks for sharing! The buff gives you a reason to go back.

One of the best reports written here. Congratulations, well done hunt and story. As we used to say hats off to you!

7mmFan said:

Man, what a badass report! Congrats on a fantastic hunt and thanks for sharing! The buff gives you a reason to go back.

Click to expand...

Thank you! Yes. Courtney and I have unfinished business in Nuanetsi. Plans are already in motion for Buff/Eland and, who knows?, maybe even a gigantic, prehistoric, water dwelling, death lizard…

Fantastic writing of the story. Looking forward to more, and congratulations on a fantastic leopard!