NAMIBIA: Heading To Namibia 6 Aug 2021 With Ekuja Hunting Safaris

[Randy F]

Walk it off buddy, my addiction to these reports is slamming me right now.

 

[AZDAVE]

Up early and head out to secure some more bait for two of the bait sites, The 9.3x74 puts impala right down when you hit through both shoulders. Get out and check all the baits and refresh two farthest out for the lodge and drag the impala innards around both baits. Grab some dinner out of the cold box and get set for the nights sit. Very excited to sit for the first night on leopard.

The winds have died down and the temp is dropping. This is a cat that has been hunted before and is very clever. He has been coming to feed just at last light for a hour or 2 on some days and coming in right before first light so we are prepared to sit the for the last two hours before dark and to have a quite path to exit the blind and return just before first light. The sit before dark had no Mr spots and walking back to the truck we head back to the lodge for dinner and plan for the next day. Upon viewing the game cameras we could see that a brown hyena came in around midnight and a couple honey badgers tried climbing the termit mound to get at the bait with no success.


Day three
We plan on checking all the baits after breakfast breakfast. The second farthest out bait had a hit by a very large tom. He came in about a hour before dark and ate off and on all night leaving around 8 am. So new plan go back and tear down the blind and relocate. Get the blind set up and discover a small problem. Directly behind the bait from where the blind shooting lane is a large 5000 gallon wind mill filled cement and block water tank used to water the cattle on this side of the cattle farm. . I have a brief thought of my 9.3 proceeding through a leopard and making a hole in the tank, which would result in my having to plug the hole with a finger while waiting for a mason to be called to fix my opps. So with a plan firmly in place we head back to the lodge for a nap,food and get the outfitters 300 WSM with ballistic tipps to the range and sighted to me.

 

[AZDAVE]

We arrived back at the blind and got in around 4PM with high hopes and a good wind from the bait towards the blind. It is always interesting to see all the birds and animals come into the water. It was very pleasant watching and listening to all birds. About 6PM we heard a couple kudu cows bark and leave the area in a hurry. Everything got very quite. about 10 minutes later a jackal crossed between the bait and the blind looking over his shoulder. We have all read and watched on videos that one second there isn't anything and the next the leopard in there. He just walks right up to the bait and lays down right below the bait. He is yawning and just doing cat streches. He is completely relaxed and has no idea we are here. Drikus asks me if i have a good angle for the shot, but the way he is laying there is not a good angle to the vitals. The good part of that is it gave me time to just get my breathing back to normal and relaxed behind the rifle. My guess is that we have 15-20 minutes of shooting light left and Mr Spots is just happy laying there looking around. a few minutes pass and he stands up and walks directly away towards the water. Finally he makes a turn to the left and Drikus gives me the green light if I have a good shot. He stops and looks back towards our blind setup. I have a good quartering away angle. When the shot breaks you can hear the solid whap, he goes down and is back up and gone. Drikus said the cat moved just as I shot and the shot hit a little behind where I was aiming but looked like it was a solid hit in the lungs.

The adrenaline dump is starting to wear down, we call for the truck and open the cool box and have a snack and water to give about an hour before we start our follow up.

 

[Randy F]

Edge of my seat stuff right there!

 

[AZDAVE]

We take the truck up to the bait area and look for spoor, about 10 yards from the bait we find the first blood and it is bright red lung blood, first sigh of relief. We secure the bright flashlights and talk through the follow up procedures. So we start one very slow step at at time, we are 99% sure he is down but with leopard you never know. The next 35-40 minutes were very tension filled. We followed the blood into some very thick bush and found my cat down. There was 3 very big sighs of relief followed by hand shakes and congratulations. Drikus and Max head back to get the truck and find a way to get it closer to the cat. I am alone with my thoughts and just can't believe that we are successful on day 3, I spoke with many leopard hunters that didn't get one till their 5-6 tries. So i am feeling very lucky and blessed as I sit here stroking my cats fur. We get the cat loaded and he is a big guy. Go back and recover the blind and game cameras and make a plan to come back out in a couple day to recover the cameras on the other 9 baits. Stop by the landowners house so he can see the cat and he is very thankful and congratulates us. It takes us several hours to get back to the lodge with all the animals out along the roads. Everyone is there when we get back, My wife is very happy and we have a late dinner and a glass of very good red wine to toast my leopard. Plan is to sleep in in the morning and decide what to do towmrrow.

 

[AZDAVE]

I figured you might want to see a picture

We weight him and he was 72 KG, and if we measured his skull correctly it is 16 3/4.

 

[Jörg Krüger]

That is a really nice Tom. Congrats Dave

 

[BourbonTrail]

A beast of a cat for certain, congratulations!

 

[shootist~]

Great story. Congrats on Mr Spots!

 

[Randy F]

Awesome! Congratulations Dave! Nice Cat!!

 

[jasyblood]

Congratulations!!!

 

[gillettehunter]

Very nice looking cat. Congrats
Bruce

 

[Ravensview]

Congratulations!

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats on a great cat!!

 

[VertigoBE]

Waidmannsheil @AZDAVE ! That is a great looking leopard! Well done on the shot and I could feel the tension from the stalk and tracking the spoor until here! Cheers!

 

[CAustin]

I figured you might want to see a picture

We weight him and he was 72 KG, and if we measured his skull correctly it is 16 3/4.

View attachment 420942

Congratulations on a fine hunt Dave! You got yourself a great cat!

 

[AZDAVE]

We slept in the next day and just took it easy for the morning, the afternoon was spent retrieving game cameras and other equipment out at each of the bait sights. Back to the lodge for a nice meal and reflection around the fire of the hunt and how lucky we are to have a great cat on the ground and in the salt on day 3. I attribute much of that to Drikus's hard work before we arrived and being in a great area for leopard. Now we are switching gears to hunt plains game, with the leopard done it has taken alot of the stress off the outfitter and tracker and we can proceed at a easier pace. We laughed and joked through the rest of the hunt and just had a great time.

My wife has decided that she is going to become a member of AH and write her own report so I won't put her hunts in mine. I will say that she shot great and that I am very proud of her!!!

 

[AZDAVE]

The next morning we are working on my wife's list and the couple animals on my list. I am looking for a old large oryx and a Hartmans Zebra. We hunted the morning with out seeing a animal that I was looking for, we did see some very nice Kudu, Eland,Burchell Zebra, Giraffe, springbok, blue and black wildebeest.
The winds were up and cold so the animals weren't moving and were skittish. We went back to the lodge and grabbed a nap after lunch with plans to head out that afternoon. The wind has dropped and we are seeing all the animals up and moving. Saw a couple zebra with the correct stripes but it was mostly their butts headed away quickly. About a 1/2 hour before dark we spot the Oryx I have been looking for on several safaris. Drikus gets me to about 150 and I have a small window through the bush for a shot, up go the sticks and I make a shot that just hits a small branch. The shot deflects about 6 in below where I was aiming and he takes off. We get on his track and there is a good blood trail. We jump him about 100 meters later and get a second shot in him and he goes down. Put a finish shot and I have the oryx I have wanted for a long time. He is old and his teeth were worn down to the gum line. All that I have left is the hartmans and I will never turn down a big warthog or jackal if Africa decides to put one in front of me.

 

[kdenn]

Congratulations on the great trophy. Like I've told others thanks for sharing your hunt.Looks like our NZ red stag hunt will be cancelled for the second year in a row. so these reports you all are sharing are much appreciated.

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats on a nice gemsbok also!