Custom Designed African Hunting Safaris With Bullet Safaris

[Bullet Safaris]

Picture update

 

[Bullet Safaris]

Some more pics

 

[Bullet Safaris]

Silence in The Selous

It was silent and the sun was setting. The truck was quiet as my crew was exhausted. We had been out all day and we had tracked buffalo without getting a shot. The Selous didnt disappoint, proviing us an excellent #safari day. We saw many species from #hippo to #elephant . But the buffalo just wouldnt cooperate.

Driving along the river about 1 kilometer from camp I saw a flash of jet black hair in the bush below us. It was a cow #buffalo , she was trying to cross the trail back to the thicket. She had been the first to finish drinking in the crocodile infested water below. I readied the doc sitting next to me. He prepared to climb off the car, I loaded his #gun and then grabbed my doublerifle. My tracker knew the drill and my driver was focused on me in the side view mirror waiting for the signal to stop. I gave it, he did, we jumped.

The toyota rumbled off as my tracker appeared beside me chirping at my driver on the radio "200, 200, copy"... meaning drive 200 meters, switch off and remain quiet. The buffalo calmed down as the vehicle moved on. We moved back down the two track and circled the buffalo. There was no wind and darkness was fast approaching.

The 15 or so buffalo had grouped together as they often do when confused. They were looking towards the vehicle. As the sound of the engine left them, we had flanked them; the Doc and I were looking for a bull.

The bull had a white face and was broadside. He was old and big. My hunter was on the sticks and looking. He knew his target and I asked him to shoot. There was a delay. I repeated myself adding the word NOW.

The bullet hit home and the buffalo ran straight at us. It was closing the distance but so were the other animals behind him and we didnt need multiple blood trails. Almost instantly the herd dissapeared through a washed out ravine. I ran after them and saw the bull at the back of the group. I fired a shot on the move and missed.

Irritated at my shooting I ran into the bush after him. I lost the track then my crew. I called for a flashlight. We found blood and luckily I found reality soon after. It was too dark, we backed out. The next morning would prove even more exciting.

Daylight found us at the same spot. The sun was up but the bushes seemed even thicker then they did at dusk the day before. We slowly moved on the trail of the bull. The trackers did an excellent job as usual and led us into the thickest of the thick bushes where the buffalo had bedded down and spent the night.

I smeared the still wet blood between my finger and thumb showing the evidence that it wouldn't be long... and this was going to require more ammunition.

At this time we crawled forward on hands and knees. Our attention was focused in front when the game scout at the end of our line saw the buffalo. The animal had circled. 4 out of 5 of us had crawled past him no more than 30 feet. I rolled back on my hips as the game scout pointed and inched behind the hunter. I saw it was bedded. It was way too close, impossible to see, and very much alive. There was no chance to do or say anything.

It had to have heard us approach and I'm convinced that we were spared a charge due to the fact he circled and bedded down a second time looking back the way he came. In the dark he didnt complete the circle, he did more of a fish hook. Leaving a gap for us to crawl right next to him and past his current location. He just didnt sense us due to the dense cover and the wind in our favor. All of this dictated mostly by luck and a .375 bullet in his body (those make it hard to get out of bed in the morning).

I unloaded both barrels into the middle of the blackness. Gunpowder , dust and buffalo was instantly everywhere.

The animal took 1000 grains of bullet then stood up... moving to our left where I hit him again. At this time Doc saw the movement and made out the creature, he cycled 2 shells into him (he finally had a decent angle on him as I had moved a little when reloading).

We scrambled forward as best we could. The buffalo had finally fallen. Doc finished him off at point blank range.

All had the look of 'what the hell just happened' on our faces. This look is known best by the handful of hunters that have experienced real Africa close up and personal. It's a surreal moment that cant be enhanced by words.
Everything was silent again.

 

[Bullet Safaris]

Leopard Hunt and a Broken Arm

Chuck had not come to Tanzania to hunt leopard, he had came to hunt a lion. His lion was in the salt on day 14 of his 21 day safari. Chuck had remained focused and was rewarded with a great lion. That focus produced a few sideways looks in my direction when I asked him to lower his gun on three different and beautiful male lions. They were close to 5 years and not old enough according to the current regulations. The hunting of any lion under 6 years of age was forbidden even though these males were on their own and absolutely huge. Ecologically, ethically and population wise these lions would have been excellent animals to hunt. However we had to wait for an older one in order to call the shot.

Lions aside, this story is about a leopard. On day 10, on one of our long drives back to camp a male leopard was spotted in the road ahead of us. It was dusk and Chuck was amazed that this leopard refused to give way to our bigger, louder, human occupied Land Cruiser pickup. The cat just stared through him.

Chuck was the kind of man that you couldn't stare at for an extended period of time and expect no reaction. He questioned me on why that leopard wasn't scared of him and why it didnt run off. It was like he took it personally. I informed him that leopards aren't really 'scared' of anything and most of the time they choose to blend in rather than make a big commotion running away. I followed that up with a comment about them eating meat and that he was part of the food chain on this safari. That seemed to be the right answer as we moved on to leopard hunting soon after the lion was down.

We easily transitioned into our next cat hunt due to the large number of baits out. We eventually found the right male leopard on one of our recommissioned lion baits. We were running out of time that day so I divided my crew in order to get the most out of the daylight remaining. Two of my men stayed behind to construct a blind to be built out of grass sticks and rope. My driver and 1 tracker rode with me in order to find more meat (this leopard had polished off the hartebeest leg we placed for him). We quickly headed off in the direction of one of our old lion baits. As luck would have it, and just as I had hoped, we bumped a group of impala rams about half way there. I lined Chuck up on a suitable male and told him to shoot.

He missed. That was uncommon for Chuck and It meant that we were not hunting the leopard this evening. It also meant we had to check the zero on chuck's rifle and continue driving further down the road to collect an old bait to relocate to our ambush site.

We had a quiet ride to the old bait site where I divided my forces yet again. I asked my driver and Chuck test the rifle while my tracker and I proceeded to drop and load the old bait. This bait was a quarter of a Cape Buffalo hanging approximately 14 feet in a tree and tied with a 1 inch rope. My tracker was in the tree before I got done giving orders to the shooting team. I was watching him untie the rope when I heard the 1st test shot go off. The next thing I heard sounded like a gunshot but it came from up in the tree. It was followed by the dull thud of the meat hitting the ground and the sharp scream of my tracker.

I instinctively looked up toward the sound and saw two distinct sheared off bones sticking out of my trackers arm. The bones protruded out 3 inches and were bright white. His wrist and hand hung down in a most unnatural way, attached only by the skin.

He had manage to loop the rope around his wrist at the same time the bait fell from the tree. This resulted in a double compound fracture of his wrist.

I ran to my truck and immediately threw everyone and everything out and spun it around directly underneath my injured friend. My driver climbed the tree and held him in place. By this time he was in shock. I stood on the hunting rack and my driver handed him down to me by his belt. I lowered him into the bed of the truck.

I pulled his arm in line and with the help of Chuck's wife we splinted and wrapped it. I gave him some pain pills and cigarettes and rushed him out of the area. Headed in the exact wrong direction from my guys I had left hours before building a blind in the wilderness next to a hungry leopard.

The areas were hunt are complete wilderness and huge. I was worried that he was going to lose his arm so I drove like hell. We arrived at the village and my game ranger called ahead to the local police and they were ready for us at the main road. We were escorted to a catholic hospital in the closest town. Amazingly we found a British educated Doc and a surgeon with a digital x-ray machine on site. I threw some Americanese on them and got my guy to the front of the line. He was prepared for surgery and I left him with some money, food and a boy to look after him.

We turned back into the bush. I had to gather up the people and pieces I had left scattered about Africa. Luckily my SAT phone connected with my office and they radioed my camp and they dispatched another vehicle to pick up my crew at the blind.

The next morning we had to find another bait to move to this leopard as the lions and hyenas ate the entire buffalo that had broke Stanley's arm. They also ripped apart the cooler box, chewed up my chairs and destroyed the gut bucket that I had thrown out of the vehicle... Regardless, we were back to hunting. I was confident the cat return and we would be waiting.

As Stanley was smoking cigarettes and getting his Radius and Ulna wired back together, we were busy settling into our blind under the cover of darkness.

I'd hunted a leopard very close to this same spot a year prior, it was a very old male and he was active in the morning. This area was known for its many lions and care had to be taken moving in-and-out of this blind in the dark.

Cats see great at night, and are very confident - we can't see shit at night and your average persons confidence is directly proportional to the distance away from the lion...That's something you think about when your sitting for hours, in a grass Teepee, in the dark, in Africa, two hours away from your camp, that's three times that far away from anything else.

I was amazed at how quietly myself, Chuck, Deedee, Chuck's hunting buddy and a cameraman all settled into their chairs. 5 people hunting a leopard?... I was hesitant about this to say the least. It was like stadium seating in the blind! Luckily I knew the terain well and it was perfectly suited to the situation.

The approach of the cat was from the river on the far side of the bait.
The road which ran parallel to the river was easily modified to get us quickly into the blind.
The blind was on the opposite side of the road behind a massive wall of thick green bushes.
The wind blew from the river to the road.
The bait was in a depression of an old #saltlick and the limb the leopard should appear on was just high enough that the leopard would be in full view only after he climbed the tree, no sooner.

Most leopard hunts are foiled from the start and the guides don't even know they did it. They usually affect the cat in one way or another and the hunter never knows that they are causing the animal to react and thus unwittingly avoid a bullet.

As we waited a hyena and this leopard got into a brawl in front of our blind. That was proof to everyone that man nor beast was going to push this cat away from his meat, The sound was dark and ferocious as the 2 animals tore into each other mere meters from our blind...

It is typical for a hyena to pressure a young cat into making a mistake and dropping his me to the ground where he can steal it. Another tactic is for a group of hyena to harass a leopard so badly that it is unable to climb a tree with the carcass i.e. find a secure safe place to feed.

This meat was in the tree securely, this leopard was not inexperienced, this leopard was not scared. He chose to fight the hyena immediately upon its approach. I heard the hyena run to our left after a few seconds of intense growling and crying; a few minutes later the celebratory sawing grunt of our leopard returning to his tree.

It was around 8am when the cat came into view. I checked it was the right one and gave Chuck the signal to shoot. He settled in and fired his rifle. The cat fell out of sight. I radioed my truck and my other tracker, Martin, climbed off the rolling land cruiser as Mbasha was turning the rig around. He met me at the front of the blind and without a word we walked a few meters towards the tree while the others kept watch from the highervantage point. The outcome was the same as with the lion, it was over in a split second, the leopard was dead near the base of the tree. Martin let out a yell that was immediately answered by the Africans at the truck. The celebrations began and lasted into the night.

 

[Bullet Safaris]

Buffalo Hunt Tanzania

Buffalo Hunt Tanzania by Bullet Safaris posted Jun 11, 2020 at 1:23 AM

 

[jacques smith]

Thanks for post Nathan
R u in Missouri or Africa.?

 

[Bullet Safaris]

Leopard hunt with Bullet Safaris - close up cat footage

Leopard hunt with Bullet Safaris by Bullet Safaris posted Jun 22, 2020 at 11:58 AM

we use trail cameras extensively for scouting - all phases of scouting. Then for assessing age and trophy quality. Then we use them to time the cat we want... After that I tend to play around with the cameras to get interesting footage like this!

 

[Bullet Safaris]

Leopard Hunt Tanzania

Leopard Hunt Tanzania by Bullet Safaris posted Jun 24, 2020 at 10:59 AM

If you're in the right cat country, the right cat area, and the right cat set up, then there is no rush to shoot the cat...more on this video in the meeting tonight and why we waited so long to squeeze the trigger on this one...

 

[Bullet Safaris]

Anything Africa Part 1

Nathan Askew of Bullet Safaris presents the second Zoom meeting in his online Zoom Safaris. This meeting is about anything Africa. Professional hunter Nathan Askew covers topics from what boot to wear, what countries have the best guides, and even how to plan your first African safari.

Our website www.bulletsafaris.com is another unique resource for your hunting safari. You will find information on Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa as well as lion, leopard, kudu, buffalo, crocodile, elephant, warthog, and any other African animal.

Please feel free to contact us for more information.

Anything Africa Part 1

• Bullet Safaris
• Jul 17, 2020

Nathan Askew of Bullet Safaris presents the second Zoom meeting in his online Zoom Safaris. This...

 

[Bullet Safaris]

Anything Africa Part 2

Nathan Askew of Bullet Safaris presents the second Zoom meeting in his online Zoom Safaris. This meeting is about anything Africa. Professional hunter Nathan Askew covers topics from what boot to wear, what countries have the best guides, and even how to plan your first African safari.

Anything Africa Part 2

• Bullet Safaris
• Jul 17, 2020

Nathan Askew of Bullet Safaris presents the second Zoom meeting in his online Zoom Safaris. This...

 

[Bullet Safaris]

Anything Africa Part 3

Nathan Askew of Bullet Safaris presents the second Zoom meeting in his online Zoom Safaris. This meeting is about anything Africa. Professional hunter Nathan Askew covers topics from what boot to wear, what countries have the best guides, and even how to plan your first African safari.

Anything Africa Part 3

• Bullet Safaris
• Jul 17, 2020

Nathan Askew of Bullet Safaris presents the second Zoom meeting in his online Zoom Safaris. This...

 

[Bullet Safaris]

Leopard Hunting Part 1 Bullet Safaris

Professional Hunter Nathan Askew of Bullet Safaris describes leopard hunting In this instructional meeting.
The hunting of Lion, Leopard, Buffalo, Crocodile and many other African animals contributes to their conservation and pays millions of dollars towards habitat preservation. This type of hunting is vital to the survival of wild populations of key species in Africa.
If you are interested in more information about hunting Africa please visit our website www.bulletsafaris.com, here you will find detailed information about the important role that hunters play in conserving Africa's wildlife.

Leopard Hunting Part 1 Bullet Safaris

• Bullet Safaris
• Jul 22, 2020

Professional Hunter Nathan Askew of Bullet Safaris describes leopard hunting In this...

 

[Bullet Safaris]

Leopard Hunting Part 2 Bullet Safaris

Professional Hunter Nathan Askew of Bullet Safaris describes leopard hunting in this instructional meeting.

The hunting of Lion, Leopard, Buffalo, Crocodile and many other African animals contributes to their conservation and pays millions of dollars towards habitat preservation. This type of hunting is vital to the survival of wild populations of key species in Africa.
If you are interested in more information about hunting Africa please visit our website www.bulletsafaris.com, here you will find detailed information about the important role that hunters play in conserving Africa's wildlife.

Leopard Hunting Part 2 Bullet Safaris

• Bullet Safaris
• Jul 22, 2020

Professional Hunter Nathan Askew of Bullet Safaris describes leopard hunting in this...