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OK, probably my last few posts on this hunt. With three days left we went in search of a big buffalo. Alan knew I was fine not shooting one unless we found something excellent. We saw Dugga Boys six times that day, from lone bulls to 3 in a group. One thing Alan is pretty firm about is only...

The Selous is a very special place to hunt. I just finished a hunt on the concession directly west of the concessions this PH hunts and think whoever buys this is going to have an excellent hunt. Somebody needs to do this!

I just shot my 3rd leopard on August 30th, exactly 4 weeks ago. I primarily hunt with a .338 Win Mag for everything except big stuff like buffalo or hippo, so that’s what I shot. 225 grain Trophy Bonded Bearclaw. It is topped with a Leupold VX5HD in 2-10x42mm with Firedot reticle. A 30-06 or...

He shot a huge Sitatunga! (y)

Thanks so much for posting this. I’m very interested as I’ll be hunting with Christophe 2 years from now. Bon Chase!

I want to take time to give an insight into the meals we enjoyed. I know that some luxury operations, particularly in places like South Africa, can be pretty luxurious with excellent meals. But those places are not wilderness areas like the Selous Game Reserve where everything has to be flown...

Things that go POP… Earlier in the hunt, I think on our fifth day, I was riding as an observer on Jim’s truck. We were driving through the forest when we heard a loud ‘pop’ sound. We stopped the truck immediately, thinking we’d run over something that had punctured a tire. We all jumped down...

The next day we headed to some country we’d only been to one, early in the hunt. We found a small group of Dugga Boys, then a lone bull, but if I was going to take the final buffalo I had on quota, it had to be something special. We were enjoying just seeing game while looking for buffalo when...

Now that we had the croc in the salt we had 4 days left and really no pressure. I still had a buffalo on license since Danny only shot one and the animal I really still wanted - a big Livingstone Eland. I was fortunate to take a 41+” eland in Zambia five years ago and know the Selous is one...

On our way back to camp with the croc we were treated to an encounter not that many hunters get to enjoy - African Wild Dogs! We were fortunate to see Wild Dogs twice. On the second day we pulled up to a shady spot on the Madaba River and ran into a pack of 9 wild dogs. They were fairly...

13’2”. In a few years I believe they’ll take some crocs much bigger than this.

Danny and Jim left the next day. Alan and I headed out early to see what was left of the crocodile bait and who might be hanging out at the bait. We had a 50 kilometer drive from camp to the bait site and we’d normally hunt our way there and arrive mid-day. On this day we left camp while...

Yes, everyone should get to be the honoree of a Kabubi at least once. I hope to do just that at least one more time.

Since we were back in camp by 10:00 we decided to enjoy an early lunch in camp (normally we enjoyed lunch somewhere in the field under big shade trees, followed by a nice nap) and then spend the afternoon doing something we’d all been itching to do…. Go fishing! Madaba is going to be excellent...

Yes, Para45, there is more… The team was really stoked to get this leopard, for a couple reasons. First, it was a good Tom. Second, we’d now have a lot more time to do other stuff besides just check and sit baits. Everyone’s spirits were high on the way back to camp and the closer we got...

If I knew I was only going to have one more hunt, it’d be a 30-day full bag in Tanzania, split between the Selous (20 days) and Masailand (10 days)with Alan Vincent. As for Cameroon and Lord Derby Eland; that hunt with Alan Vincent is less than 5 months away. It better not be my last hunt!

The cat instantly leaped upward in a somersault and was gone. Before Alan could ask how the shot was I told him it felt good. We then played the video back in slow motion and all three of us broke into big smiles when we saw where the bullet struck. We knew we had a dead leopard before we...

This screenshot is rather blurry but catches the leopard airborne in the middle of a forward somersault after bullet impact.

Well, Ive been trying to upload a video of the final minute but am not able to do so. The cat became aware of the approaching truck and suddenly stood and started walking down the limb. I was tracking his shoulder with the Firedot, waiting for any pause so I could shoot then. Just before he...

Alan had a dilemma as it was now almost 8:00 and the truck should be arriving any minute, which would spook the leopard. But using the radio to alert the team to wait was also risky as the leopard would likely hear the radio mic when it keyed. Any noise like that would certainly spook the...

Danny’s hearing is much better than mine and he heard the leopard’s claws digging into the tree as it climbed up to the limb, as did Alan; but I couldn’t hear it. Danny whispered that the Tom was on the limb but looking at the blind. Finally, he said the cat was feeding and I could get on the...

You’ve got an interesting screen name. Will the Thrill provided lots of great times for me as a lifelong Giants fan. Even though I never met him, a number of buddies either duck hunted or shared a dugout with him. He’s a great guy according to those guys. Cool screen name and if that’s your...

After we left the blind site, Alan told us he wanted to sit the bait first thing in the morning. We were coming up on the Full Moon (biggest Super Moon of the year) in 2 days and Alan thought we’d have a good chance first thing in the morning. The plan was to be up at 3:00 AM, leave camp by...

Shooting a leopard is actually pretty easy. You normally have a close shot at a broadside target that is standing still. But, the consequences of a bad shot can be catastrophic and some hunters get nervous when a leopard shows up. I’ve always believed in doing everything to make the shot as...

OK, back to the leopard bait… We’d seen a good, large track that had prompted us to hang a bait at that location. The trail camera confirmed that we had a nice Tom feeding, so we started building a blind. Alan prefers to use Double Bull blinds and then add local vegetation to make them...

He has a great attitude. As soon as he got home he pulled out his bow and 28 Nosler, loaded his truck and took off elk hunting. He shot a beautiful 7x7 Roosevelt bull here in California with the rifle, then headed to Oregon to bow hunt for another Roosevelt. He didn’t get a shot the first...

Now that we had plenty of buffalo to replenish baits, the next day was spent checking leopard and croc baits. One of our baits was in a small korongo about 100 yards from where I’d shot the bushbuck. When we checked it, an entire zebra leg had been eaten so we added a buffalo leg and figured...

There was a very large splash of lung blood on the ground, at least a gallon. We started tracking the bull through mostly burned over Miombo, with occasional thick patches of brush. The blood along the track was almost non-existent despite all the blood where it had been laying. At each...

Meanwhile, we were checking and replenishing leopard baits every day. We had 7 baits set and leopards had hit 5 of those baits. We were running low on meat for baits so Alan decided that our 4th day would be focused on finding a buffalo or two. Early in the morning we walked in to a waterhole...

Now that we had a hippo, we had crocodile bait. Historically, the Rufiji River ran north of Madaba but with the new dam at Steiglers Gorge the lake was filling rapidly. The new lake has been named Lake Nyerere, after former Tanzania President Julius Nyerere and it is already about 1/3 full...

On the 4th day I was going to ride with Jim again to enjoy watching him experiencing Africa for the first time. Alan had other ideas and said he wanted to go look for a big hippo bull on dry land. That sounded better than riding as an observer so we went in search of a lone hippo bull in the...

Jim also scored on his first African animal on day two. When they rolled in I asked him if he shot anything. He said he did and said he wasn’t sure what it was but had horns on one end and a tail on the other. It was a nice Nyasaland Wildebeest. Not too bad for a nearly 80 year old on his first...

One of the few plains game I was interested in taking was a bushbuck and on the 2nd afternoon we found a very nice ram with beautiful horn shape. The location would prove to be important as the bushbuck wasn’t the only thing we were fortunate to take right there…

The first day I rode as an observer with my friend Jim, while my son Danny hunted alone with Alan. Danny shot a Crawshay’s Zebra, which are one of the most beautiful and small sub species of plains zebra.

My home for 16 days. The Madaba River is mostly dry at this time of year but is a nice setting for the camp. Of course, they do not hunt within a 2-kilometer distance around camp, so there is wildlife to enjoy watching. We had a group of 8 Dugga Boys that were around most days, sometimes less...

Alan’s camp is a traditional East African camp. There is a large dining tent of 30’x30’ and each client’s tent has 2 beds with en-suite bathroom and shower. Most people don’t stop to think about what goes into building a camp in locations such the Selous. A well has to be dug for camp water...

Here is what is left of the Selous hunting blocks, after about 60% was taken to form the new Julius Nyerere National Park. Alan’s area is listed as MA1, pretty much the center of the Selous. This map isn’t entirely accurate as the photographic area on the south side of Lake Nyerere doesn’t exist...

For those not familiar with the Selous Game Reserve, I’ll include a few maps. This first one shows the location of Alan’s Madaba concession in relation to Dar es Salaam, the point of departure. The Madaba concession is approximately 1,677 square kilometers or 468,000 acres. The area we hunted is...

Now that I’ve been back from Tanzania long enough to be over the jet lag I thought I’d share a report on my just concluded hunt with Alan Vincent on his new Selous concession, MA1/Madaba. In a word, it was Fantastic! I liked hunting Mlele 2 years ago, but I like Madaba a lot more. Madaba has a...