ZAMBIA: Zambia Hunt 2019 With Royal Kafue WOW!

[jacques smith]

Chobe.

 

[SkullKeeper]

Is that bushbuck a harnessed or choke? Nicely done

Is that bushbuck a harnessed or choke? Nicely done

A Chobe

 

[cpr0312]

Great buff and bushbuck!! Thanks for sharing the pics

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

Great photos! yikes!!! There’s some scary looking bugs that time of year!

Wear those shoes!

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

Day 3 broke with bright mostly sunny skies and a lazy start on my behalf. I had my honey and toast with fruit and juice as we watched a young elephant feed off of the trees at the edge of camp about 40 yards from my tent. It pays to look out the door before making your way to get coffee. Tracker Michael and game scout Rachel saddled up and we headed off beside the river to check out a very dense area where one of the locals had been seeing a lone old buff on occasion. Along the way we passed literally hundreds of puku. We made it to the little homestead of an older gentleman that kept “intel” on any game sightings up his way. He confirmed to Andrew that the old reclusive bull was still somewhere along the river. Driving along the river road we cut some old tracks and stopped to look around. Michael milled around a bit and got on a 2 day old track to follow hoping to cut a fresh track along the way. It took us into some pretty thick stuff. Andrew and I stayed tight on Michael with rifles at the ready, solids in both barrels. In this dense river scrub we may not have much distance to work with if he happened to be in there. Andrew and Michael had confirmed that he was a loner and most likely an old boy. We followed old tracks and trails until we decided that he hadn’t been in there within the last day of two. Michael then decided to backtrack and figure out the bulls pattern. Indeed we found where he had been calling his home base. And he had been keeping to a relatively small area for the most part. Unfortunately today was not “the most part”. I’d have liked to have seen him, most likely he was a shooter. We made our way back to camp for lunch and a little nap ( there's nothing like a nap after lunch and a great morning, just saying).
All rested Andrew, myself, and a couple of his staff headed to the river bank to set out a croc bait using the Puku remains. He instructed them where to build the hide and told me that it was a fair chance of getting a good croc on bait within the time remaining. We loaded up again in the green goblin, which was undoubtedly the smoothest riding hunting car I've been in due to coil springs, to look for buff. We searched the roads and through the bush, driving over thousands of dried mud elephant tracks (which was not different than a road with infinite potholes - again, thank God for coil springs). We ran across some monster Reedbuck which I didn’t have on license since I taken one in Tanzania. We drove and drove and the day wasn’t far from closing when Michael pointed. He jumped off the truck and ran 20 yards into a grassy area to the right of the land cruiser. How he spotted tracks that far while we were driving is beyond me. Michael looked back at us and nodded. It was a go. We had no idea how far the track would take us but I wanted to find out. Michael set a good but cautious pace since it was a fairly open terrain. The wind was good and after a quarter mile or so you could catch a little whiff of buffalo now and again. The track was a single bull that was on a mission to get somewhere without stopping. Constantly expecting to see a black shape ahead at any second we pressed on quickly. And on. And on. We looked ahead 100 yards and the tracks led into a island of small saplings - a fortress of dense brush. If I thought I had a heightened sense of awareness before , I had no terminology for this. We looked along the edges carefully for any sign of the bull skirting the thicket ... but the track went straight into it. We made a plan A and B (and C). Michael went in with Andrew literally shoulder to shoulder and I was 2 steps behind. Not only was this a perfect thicket, all around it was 4 foot tall brush, trails through it zigzagging. When we made it the 100 yards out of there not stepping on this buff we looked at each other in total disbelief. Michael briefly lost him in the trails but soon his tracks were underfoot again. Now there were 2 sets. The thick brush gave way to much more open ground again and our speed quickened. We came to an open expanse and while crossing it Michael stopped mid-stride squatting down quickly with his hand outstretched toward us. Looking up on top of a slight rise 150 yards from us there was a wooded area with a black shape partially visible. We had finally caught up to them BUT we were in the wide a$$ open and zero cover. Luckily the buff was facing away and we were able to slither up to the wood line as the buff slowly moved further into the brush. It was a major disadvantage being downhill, the slight rise in terrain flattened out 75 yards ahead of us where the bull had disappeared. We caught a glimpse of a second buff and glassed them as best we could. We moved left as the one bull headed left and disappeared again. There was a big dirt mound we hid behind and peeked up over seeing to our surprise a small group which looked to be about 15 or so in number at roughly 125 yards. Through the trees we spotted 2 shooters. Andrew asked me if I had a shot as one had stepped into a spot I could see shoulder. I had nothing. It was a far shot using open sights with fading light. We had no way of approaching - if we had another hour to see good there would’ve been another chapter to this day. Suddenly one of the buff either spotted us or smelled us while we were feverishly trying to plan a closer move. We weren’t but so disappointed (barely if any really) because we got in on them as best we could. Michael’s tracking was yet again magical. We looked at buff. It was a proper stalk. Now comes the hard part - the 2 mile walk back...in the dark . If I would’ve been able to go to the eye doctor when we arrived back at the hunting car I’d have been outfitted with 3 additional pair of glasses for the other triple set of eyeballs I grew while walking out of there. It had been a great day. That evenings Puku dish was superb. I enjoyed my single malt by the little campfire listening to the hippos. I remember thinking what bugs I would be doing battle with in my tent that night. Adventure 24/7 !

Getting exciting! Thank you.

 

[Randy F]

I would have lost my mind on that spider! I would have slept outside first!

Nice bushbuck, congratulations!

 

[SkullKeeper]

LAST DAY
Don’t know how I missed getting the last day in this report - but here it is 1.75 years later lol.
We left camp that morning a little later than usual just because I really didn’t have anything else I was prepped to shoot ...except a warthog and maybe a really good kudu. Now where the kudu has been seen earlier in the season was lush and thick now and we had been through there once with no sightings but we gave it another round anyhow. It was a beautiful, almost amusement park ride - this due to Andrew having to weave around the undergrowth so much that we drove about a 1/2 mile to go 300 linear yards. We once again saw no kudu and decided to make our way back to camp at the half day mark so we could start packing up at our leisure to head back to Lusaka the next day. About halfway back to camp we were coming to the end of a dense edge on our left. As we got to the point were this turned back at 90 degrees low and behold there was a small group of warthogs coming into the open grass area, not 30 yards from the little road we were on. I quietly yelled “warthog” at Andrew and he stood on the brakes. We all went into motion at once as we could see an old boar in the group as they put their flag pipes up and ran almost straight away from us through the short grass. I heard the clanking of the sticks as Michael exited the top tier while Andrew simultaneously ordered “375”(Andrew’s scoped Cogswell & Harrison mauser). We hastily assembled at the right front of the vehicle and I chambered a round as the sticks got set. The pigs were winning the race as they were now at the 130-140 yard mark. Thinking the danger zone was behind them they had slowed to that “curious walk” we have all seen them do on TV. I found the boar in the scope, quartering away nicely as he slowly marched on. I had shot Andrew’s rifle a few days before just to check the scope. To say the trigger was a peach would be about as accurate as anyone granting the Wicked Witch of the West as the Homecoming Queen. With the Zeiss’s crosshairs behind the shoulder I started the trigger pull process. First was taking up the free slack (about 2 inches worth) and hitting the actual resistance you overcome to trip the sear. This too was a marathon as the tensioned travel, although beautifully smooth, seemed to last until my birthday. Finally there was a BOOM and the boar dropped straight onto the dirt. He didn’t have super long ivory but it was thick and worn. I was pleased as he was a old boy. What a wonderful last day bonus! We made it back to camp still plenty early to enjoy my last afternoon along The Kafue River. It had been a fabulous trip. Zambia will see me again.

 

[Red Leg]

LAST DAY
Don’t know how I missed getting the last day in this report - but here it is 1.75 years later lol.
We left camp that morning a little later than usual just because I really didn’t have anything else I was prepped to shoot ...except a warthog and maybe a really good kudu. Now where the kudu has been seen earlier in the season was lush and thick now and we had been through there once with no sightings but we gave it another round anyhow. It was a beautiful, almost amusement park ride - this due to Andrew having to weave around the undergrowth so much that we drove about a 1/2 mile to go 300 linear yards. We once again saw no kudu and decided to make our way back to camp at the half day mark so we could start packing up at our leisure to head back to Lusaka the next day. About halfway back to camp we were coming to the end of a dense edge on our left. As we got to the point were this turned back at 90 degrees low and behold there was a small group of warthogs coming into the open grass area, not 30 yards from the little road we were on. I quietly yelled “warthog” at Andrew and he stood on the brakes. We all went into motion at once as we could see an old boar in the group as they put their flag pipes up and ran almost straight away from us through the short grass. I heard the clanking of the sticks as Michael exited the top tier while Andrew simultaneously ordered “375”(Andrew’s scoped Cogswell & Harrison mauser). We hastily assembled at the right front of the vehicle and I chambered a round as the sticks got set. The pigs were winning the race as they were now at the 130-140 yard mark. Thinking the danger zone was behind them they had slowed to that “curious walk” we have all seen them do on TV. I found the boar in the scope, quartering away nicely as he slowly marched on. I had shot Andrew’s rifle a few days before just to check the scope. To say the trigger was a peach would be about as accurate as anyone granting the Wicked Witch of the West as the Homecoming Queen. With the Zeiss’s crosshairs behind the shoulder I started the trigger pull process. First was taking up the free slack (about 2 inches worth) and hitting the actual resistance you overcome to trip the sear. This too was a marathon as the tensioned travel, although beautifully smooth, seemed to last until my birthday. Finally there was a BOOM and the boar dropped straight onto the dirt. He didn’t have super long ivory but it was thick and worn. I was pleased as he was a old boy. What a wonderful last day bonus! We made it back to camp still plenty early to enjoy my last afternoon along The Kafue River. It had been a fabulous trip. Zambia will see me again.
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I don’t know how I missed this the first time around, but am really glad you decided to finish it and bring it back to the top. Andrew is a prince of a fellow, and I just had a great hunt with him last month. Congrats on a great buffalo. The Puku and Bushbuck are terrific as well. I did a late October hunt in Mozambique a few years ago and can testify to the quantity and quality of insect life in early spring!

 

[SkullKeeper]

I don’t know how I missed this the first time around, but am really glad you decided to finish it and bring it back to the top. Andrew is a prince of a fellow, and I just had a great hunt with him last month. Congrats on a great buffalo. The Puku and Bushbuck are terrific as well. I did a late October hunt in Mozambique a few years ago and can testify to the quantity and quality of insect life in early spring!

Yes sir General, I saw the photos of your animals that Andrew shared - you did extremely well !
I so enjoyed hunting with Andrew that I booked a hunt a year ago and am hunting with him again in just a few days actually.

 

[Ridgewalker]

First was taking up the free slack (about 2 inches worth) and hitting the actual resistance you overcome to trip the sear. This too was a marathon as the tensioned travel, although beautifully smooth, seemed to last until my birthday.

Too funny! I know exactly what you mean!
Excellent adventure!

 

[Edge]

Thank you for forgetting the last day of the report, missed the start of this in February!

Awesome looking insects and what a hunt, congratulations!

 

[SkullKeeper]

Thank you for forgetting the last day of the report, missed the start of this in February!

Awesome looking insects and what a hunt, congratulations!

Glad you liked it sir !

 

[gillettehunter]

Glad to see the end of your report. Andrew has had a bit of bad luck. Those that oppose him and reputedly want to steal his area have burned his camp. Not a good deal.
Bruce