- Report by:
- PH Alistair James
- Client:
- Barron Brittinghma
- Area:
- Selous Game Reserve, Madaba/U3 Area
- Date:
- 07 July 2007 - 22 July 2007
7 July 2007
I joined Jack Brittingham, Amy Martin, cameraman Josh Schull, and TWC PH John Greeff at the Sea Cliff Hotel in Dar Es Salaam this morning before we headed out together to the airport to catch our charter flight into Madaba. We landed late morning at the Madaba airstrip and I met Barron Brittingham whom I will hunt with for the next 16 days. Barron had already been in the Selous for the past 30 days on a work permit. This was part of his 60 days leave between graduation from the US Air Force Academy and the start of his service duty up in Anchorage, Alaska. He had been volunteering his “vacation” time to help set up the TWC camps in the Selous. He had seen plenty of game during this time, and was excited to finally be able to start hunting. We ate lunch at camp, and then planned to go out looking for game that afternoon.
We found and stalked a lone bull hartebeest which Barron killed with one shot. It was a very good trophy and a great start to Barron’s hunt.
8 July 2007
This was our first full day of hunting so we started out by looking for some buffalo. We drove to Nandanga Mountain and hunted where the trackers had recently seen some activity. At about 9:00 am we crossed the tracks of a large herd. The tracks were from the previous night, and the animals were moving quickly, so it took us until noontime before we caught up to the animals. It was a large herd with over a hundred animals. They had decided to bed down in a thick patch of riverine forest typical to the Selous. The wind was bad, but we were able to approach within 10 yards of a few different buffalo. The thick cover made judging difficult, so we weren’t able to shoot anything. It was exciting though as Barron got to see numerous buffalo at close range.
9 July 2007
Today we hunted north along the Madaba River. We found tracks of a couple different groups of buffalo but opted not to follow in hopes of finding some lone bull tracks. We saw tracks of numerous eland as well. At about 11:00 we stopped to check a water pan to see if we could find a bull hippo inside. Off to one side of the pool we saw a group of four young lions fighting with a small herd of about twenty buffalo. The buffalo had one young lion up in a tree and were chasing the other three around on the ground. We glassed the herd of buffalo for a while but didn’t see anything worth shooting. They ran off and we followed them briefly in case there was a bull inside that we hadn’t seen yet, but they turned with the wind making it difficult to catch up. While we were on the buffalo tracks, we saw two young zebra and were able to get within ten yards of the closest one before they spooked and ran.
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After lunch we drove to some hippo pools that were in the general vicinity of where we wanted to bait for lion. We looked at some nice bulls, but all were in deep water holes and were reluctant to leave. As we walked upstream looking for other hippo, we spotted a lone bull making his way back down stream along a path parallel to the bank. He walked within 15 yards of us before he spooked. Barron had time to make a great first shot and was then able to run parallel to the animal and put in a few more shots. It was an exciting kill and cameraman Josh Schull got it all on film!
10 July 2007
This morning we started out hunting buffalo for a few hours before heading north to check our lion baits from the previous day. About twenty minutes out of camp we found a lone buffalo track crossing the road. We started to follow and had gone for about a half an hour when the track started to crisscross with tracks from the previous day. The trackers went back a couple of hundred yards to make sure that we were on the correct track and I walked forward with Barron. We spooked the buffalo which surprised us both. Barron was carrying his .458 Lott with open sights and the buffalo ran and stopped to look back about 80 yards away. The trackers were behind us with the scoped .375. The shot was a little bit too far for Barron to take comfortably. After a few seconds the buffalo ran off going with the wind.
We went and checked our baits afterwards and found a small leopard on the first bait and a male lion on the second bait where I had covered the hippo carcass from the previous day. There were good mane hairs on the meat, but I decided to leave one of our Cuddeback digital automatic cameras to get a better look at the cat and not waste time sitting on the bait this night. We hung another bait farther north, close to the Rufiji River.
11 July 2007
Today we hunted north towards the Rufiji River. )
About ten kilometers north of camp we spotted a herd of Nyassa Wildebeest. We stalked up within shooting range of the animals, but struggled to find the herd bull which would be an acceptable trophy to shoot. When we had glassed the group for about 5 minutes, finally the herd animal stepped out into open view. Barron took the shot but unfortunately hit the animal slightly low. We tracked the animal for about 2 kilometers before the tracks showed that he was beginning to get tired. One of the trackers suddenly saw the wildebeest in front of us and Barron was able to run up and give him a good finishing shot. It was a very good bull and a fantastic trophy. While we were waiting for the truck to show up to pack the animal, we had a bull hippo walk down a trail about 10 meters from where we were waiting.
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In the afternoon we drove to check our lion baits. The lion that had fed the previous day on the hippo carcass had returned. Unfortunately the trail camera didn’t take any pictures last night so we didn’t have an idea of how old the lion was. Because the lion had a good track and was alone, and because there was also a good leopard track at the bait, I decided to build a machan and sit on the bait this evening.
Jack came to film Barron, and the three of us entered the machan at 4:30. The lion showed up but unfortunately was not old enough to shoot. On the drive back to camp we saw two leopard, two hyena, two civet cats, and a genet. It was an all around great day.
12 July 2007
This morning we drove out of Madaba camp and hunted the hills to the south-west of the concession. At about 7:30 we found some bull buffalo tracks from the previous night. We followed the tracks for about a half an hour and then spread out as the tracks became complicated. There were multiple tracks from many days so we had trouble deciding which track we should follow.
As we were spread out searching, the game scout who had walked ahead started calling us frantically. He had seen the buffalo that we had been following. We walked up carefully to where the game scout was standing so as not to disturb the animal and saw the old bull by himself. He was about 100 yards away, but the wind was perfect and he was grazing away from us, so I decided to take advantage of the situation and we approached to about 40 yards from the bull. )
After a seemingly endless wait, he finally turned broadside and Barron had the chance and made a great shot. The buffalo ran down into an adjacent korongo after the shot, so we waited a few minutes before following. As we started following the track, I looked up and saw what I assumed was the same buffalo standing in a clearing about 150 yards away. I set up the sticks and told Barron to shoot. He hit the buffalo well twice before he ran off again and into another adjacent korongo. As we walked to the place where the buffalo had been standing, we spotted what turned out to be the first buffalo dead in a patch of tall grass. We had shot a second different buffalo without knowing it. A brief follow up and a few shots later, and we had the second buffalo down. Both animals were old bulls that Barron was very happy to shoot.
13 July 2007
This morning we started out by gathering a couple pieces of bait from the hippo that Jack shot yesterday afternoon. We then headed North with the fresh meat to check some of our baits. On our last bait we found a very good leopard had fed. The track was big and the tom had fed late into the morning. I had a very good feeling about the situation and decided to build a blind and sit for the afternoon. It was about 4:00 when we had finished building the blind, so we sat right away and sent the vehicle away. At about 6:00 two lionesses unexpectedly showed up and ruined our chances of seeing the leopard. We watched them feed until dark. When the car showed up I moved the bait higher so that the lions would move off and hopefully the leopard would come back onto the bait. I hung another couple of leopard baits on the way back to camp.
14 July 2007
Today we started out checking baits and hunting our way northwards. When we checked the pictures on our digital camera we found an old lion had joined the younger lion that we had seen on bait the other day. We decided that tonight we would sleep on the bait and see if we could shoot the lion as the sun rises tomorrow morning.
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Before sitting in the machan, we checked a couple of other baits. Nothing interesting, but we did see a nice waterbuck bull, and managed to stalk and shoot it. It was a fantastic trophy for the area.
Tonight the lions came in late, and continued to feed and roar throughout the night. Unfortunately they both left the bait a few minutes before visible light in the morning. After both lions had left, a leopard showed up and opportunistically started feeding on the bait. He was hidden by a pile of brush, and as a result we couldn’t get a good look at him. It was a nice leopard but we opted not to shoot and try for a larger cat over the next few days.
15 July 2007
After getting out of the machan this morning, we continued hunting and checking baits. Nothing too interesting so far, but we have a couple good leopard feeding and will hopefully shoot one in the next couple of days.
16 July 2007
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This morning we drove into the lion machan before first light instead of sleeping on the bait the whole night. About five minutes after the vehicle left, the two male lion were under our tree roaring. Unfortunately they left the bait again just before suitable filming light. They moved off into the adjacent korongo and continued roaring for the next hour.
We hunted and checked baits the rest of the day and found some leopard on the baits including one that we saw in broad daylight as we were approaching the bait, but not the monster cat that we were looking for.
17 July 2007
The day of the Lion. See Barron’s report for the lion hunting action!