South Africa - CBL "Captive Bred Lion Hunt" progress

[John Telford]

@Frederik,
You are right. CB lions are possbile to reintroduce into the wild.

Lioness Elsa, around 1956, was (I think) the first recorded case of lion cussefuly reintroduced into the wild (book: Bonr free, Joy Adamson).
And there is very recent case, when Mark Haldane, has reintroduced succefsully CBL pack of 24 lions to Zambezi delta, just few years ago.

The last 3 Adamson Lions were translocated to our farm in the Tuli block by Gareth Patterson in the early 90’s . Two lionesses and a male. The male was baited and called across the Limpopo and shot on a problem animal permit. No his name was not Cesil it was Battion. One of the females I think Rafiki had to be put down after she ate one of the Mashatu rangers in his camp! The other female lived a fruitful life and helped to widen the very bottlenecked Wild Lion gene pool in the area. So introduced lions also come with their own set of problems such as loosing fear of humans.

 

[John Telford]

Went to the range yesterday an found that after roughly 200 rounds of lott and the rifle settling in the stock the Actions screws were loos by about half a turn. Think the weather could also have had an effect anyway the rifle was shooting 5 1/2" low at 50 meters

Which gave me clarity why I shot like crap on our BASA shoot everything was low.
So afer tightening the screws and fine tuning my Trijicon SRO I am happy to say my practise rounds and my lion hunitng load is shooting 1/2' apart from each other at 50 meters.

Lesson learned, taking a picture and keeping it on record of my action screws and make sure they are tight before a hunt and a shoot.

I might let the rifle get bedded properly at a later stage.

Gavin at Wildman Centurion just bedded my Lott and made a very cool adaptor for a Red dot sight! His work is top notch.

 

[Sarg]

@John Telford, that is amazing info on the Lions & great pity that people cheat that much, I can see that happening there as it is not hard to walk back & forth in the Winter, but are you sure they were Adamson Lions as in the Born Free guys ?

As I remember I was in Kenya 89 when George was killed & Joy was murdered 10yrs before that, so I can't see the lions still being around & indeed that far South ?

 

[John Telford]

Gareth Paterson wrote a book about it called last of the free. He was a bit of an Adamson whanabe also walking around camp clothed only in khaki shorts and long blonde hair etc. He was always borrowing our .375 to shoot game to feed the young cats. I suspect this is how they became “tame”.

 

[John Telford]

 

[Sarg]

That makes sense & now you reminded me, I remember that chap from articles back in the day .

You must of had a grand time back then to I bet ?

Thanks for posting .

 

[Frederik]

79 more sleeps then its me red Kalahari sand and the lion.

 

[MarkB]

79 more sleeps then its me red Kalahari sand and the lion.

Got you beat buddy. 27 days for me, Kalahari and lion here I come. Bet we are both as excited, its like xmas as a kid again. By your location I envy your getting there, not so much mine flying from Canada. Return even worse with our dictator rules. I certainly hope this Sundays announcement by your Gov is not "show stopping" for me. Following your daily numbers, not looking great?

Come on Aug 1 a super excited Canadian is going on safari again.

MB

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

Got you beat buddy. 27 days for me, Kalahari and lion here I come. Bet we are both as excited, its like xmas as a kid again. By your location I envy your getting there, not so much mine flying from Canada. Return even worse with our dictator rules. I certainly hope this Sundays announcement by your Gov is not "show stopping" for me. Following your daily numbers, not looking great?

Come on Aug 1 a super excited Canadian is going on safari again.

MB

Good Luck to You!
I just returned from a Kalahari Lioness hunt. The most thrilling, heart beating and emotional hunt I have ever been on. Especially when you bump it off a fresh kill it had made!
Good luck and enjoy!

 

[jacques smith]

Frederik and all others planning a lion hunt
Enjoy your hunts and quit fretting about others opinions
Do remember most of these lions have lost their normal fear
of man, so be safe, remember this is dangerous game

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

Frederik and all others planning a lion hunt
Enjoy your hunts and quit fretting about others opinions
Do remember most of these lions have lost their normal fear
of man, so be safe, remember this is dangerous game

You are correct! I know on my hunt these Lions were killing game and mine as we were tracking circled us and was tracking us! They are dangerous game not a pet!

 

[John Telford]

79 more sleeps then its me red Kalahari sand and the lion.

What rifle are you bringing Fredrick? The .303 Rigby I hope!

 

[Frederik]

What rifle are you bringing Fredrick? The .303 Rigby I hope!

John, I will use my 458 Lott loaded with 480gr Woodleigh softs running just under 2200fps. Its topped with a Trijicon refelx sight 1 moa dot.
I've sold my old enfield 303 to a friend of mine when cash was scarse it has a good home now and my friend husnt with it every year about two hunts per year and brings the meat back home.

 

[Frederik]

Frederik and all others planning a lion hunt
Enjoy your hunts and quit fretting about others opinions
Do remember most of these lions have lost their normal fear
of man, so be safe, remember this is dangerous game

Jacques, I have seen it first hand when joining clients on hunts those yellow eyes piercing through you and counting and calculating their next move is something that brings old human instinct back in second or two.

 

[VertigoBE]

Looking forward to the hunting reports @Frederik @Mark Biggerstaff and @MarkB ! I can feel your excitement!

 

[MarkB]

I will certainly complete a hunting report. No guarantee it will be as good or entertain like many I have read on here. Seams lots of impressive hunters on this site are also impressive story tellers/writers.

My excitement is overflowing.

MB

 

[Nhoro]

Went to the range yesterday an found that after roughly 200 rounds of lott and the rifle settling in the stock the Actions screws were loos by about half a turn. Think the weather could also have had an effect anyway the rifle was shooting 5 1/2" low at 50 meters

Which gave me clarity why I shot like crap on our BASA shoot everything was low.
So afer tightening the screws and fine tuning my Trijicon SRO I am happy to say my practise rounds and my lion hunitng load is shooting 1/2' apart from each other at 50 meters.

Lesson learned, taking a picture and keeping it on record of my action screws and make sure they are tight before a hunt and a shoot.

I might let the rifle get bedded properly at a later stage.

I think you mentioned it is a CZ 550. Mine had a cheap plastic piece glued into the stock behind the recoil lug. So I epoxied the front barrel lug (metal) in place and then did a rough bedding job for the main recoil lug-so not a full bedding, just the back of the lug. Used loads of Cobra polish as a release agent and masking taped the front and sides of the lug. Worked very well. I have also found that you need to check the action screws regularly-458 Lott shakes them loose and you dont want to split the stock.

 

[Nhoro]

My opinion on captive bred anything is that there should be full disclosure. I think the damaging thing is when people sell an animal as wild and roaming free but they were booted it out of a crate 3 days ago.

If the customer knows the full story before he pays, then I think it is his choice. As a client, you can choose a cheaper captive lion or an expensive wild lion, whatever works with your ethics and personal opinion. I do not see that a lions life has more ethical value than my dog or a wild impala. Its life has a higher monetary value because it cost more to feed and look after.

 

[Frederik]

Nhoro, your thoughts are excatly like mine. Long ago before I have been part of such a hunt I was against it untill I experienced it and was happy how the lion was handled and hunted as a captive bred lion.

I was against leopards and dogs also untill experiencing it to target a specific male that could still get away was very thrilling where you would never know the outcome.

Then when the news came that they might stop it I had to make a plan to get it done before I would never get a chance again. This is where we are now I made a plan still working on the final finances but its happening.

Lucky my wife understands it and not going to do it while I can will just be plain stupid.

 

[DieJager]

Nhoro, your thoughts are excatly like mine. Long ago before I have been part of such a hunt I was against it untill I experienced it and was happy how the lion was handled and hunted as a captive bred lion.

I was against leopards and dogs also untill experiencing it to target a specific male that could still get away was very thrilling where you would never know the outcome.

Then when the news came that they might stop it I had to make a plan to get it done before I would never get a chance again. This is where we are now I made a plan still working on the final finances but its happening.

Lucky my wife understands it and not going to do it while I can will just be plain stupid.

Totally understand, booked my lion hunt for end of May next year with @DE KLERK SAFARIS . Now fingers crossed it is still allowed then. Looking forward to your report!