- Report by:
- PH Alistair James
- Client:
- Alan Gornick
- Area:
- Selous, MA1
- Date:
- 02 September 2007 - 17 September 2007
02 September 2007
Today we were out of camp at 7:000 am. We were anxious to see what the area looked like and how the came was moving. We saw many hartebeest but decided to leave them initially for when we needed bait. We saw zebra and a large eland bull, but weren’t able to see the animals clearly for a good shot. As we were driving we spotted a herd of sable that ran off. We decided to follow and lucked onto a single bull buffalo standing in the miombo. We didn’t have Alan’s .416 with us so I sent one of the gunbearers back to the truck to pick it up. The wind was bad, and the bull trotted off. When the gun arrived, we picked up his tracks and started following. We followed for about an hour but weren’t able to catch up to the old bull.
This afternoon we hunted along the Matanda River. We saw numerous hartebeest, wildebeest, and a large group of sable. Towards dark I found a good leopard track.
03 September 2007
Today we made our way up to the Rufiji River. We found a lot of game movement in this part of the concession. We saw eland, zebra, hartebeest, and waterbuck close to the big river. At lunch we made a picnic on the river shore under the shade of a large tree. I found a very good leopard track in the sand and decided to come back and bait here once we had shot some meat. This afternoon we continued hunting and eventually made our way back to camp.
04 September 2007
Today we hunted going north. We cut some tracks early on of four bull buffalo. We followed for about fifty minutes before coming up on the animals bedded down. We were within twenty yards of the group, but the cover made it difficult to see and we didn’t get a shot off before the animals caught our wind and ran off.
We saw a very good Kudu just before lunch time but unfortunately couldn’t see him well enough to take a shot. After lunch we saw a buffalo herd but didn’t see any shootable bulls inside the group.
05 September 2007
Today we hunted up towards the Rufiji River. We found some nice areas with a lot of game sign and fresh young green grass following burning earlier in the season. Around midday we saw a large kudu. We got out of the car and after a short stalk could see the bull standing in an opening in the miombo. Alan was lined up on the sticks but at the shot I knew something went wrong. Unfortunately the bullet struck a small tree just in front of the gun, and the kudu left unscathed. We hunted the rest of the day but didn’t see much.
06 September 2007
We started today looking for buffalo. We cut tracks this morning of a group of bulls quite close to camp. We followed for about forty five minutes before coming in contact with the animals. Unfortunately they were in a patch of burnt miombo and we had trouble seeing the bulls properly in order to make a clean shot.
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Late morning we made our way to a section where we had seen some single bull hippo. It was the fifth day of the hunt, and we needed to get some bait so that we could start hunting leopard. I sent two of the trackers to scout a section of Korongo so to see if they could find something. They came back after a half an hour smiling saying that they had seen a big hippo, but that it had run off after getting their wind. We walked down to where they had last seen the bull and started following its tracks. We followed for about a kilometer before we saw the bull in a small pool of water. I couldn’t see the head properly so had one of the gun bearers throw a log at it to make it move. The hippo came charging out. As soon as I could see that it was a good bull I told Alan to shoot and he brained the animal perfectly. We now had bait.
We ate lunch there and finished cutting up and putting the meat in the truck. I hung three baits this afternoon.
07 September 2007
Today we hunted the eastern section of Madaba block. We had some bait in the car and were looking more or less for good leopard tracks to try. We saw a few groups of Hartebeest before we saw a nice trophy. Alan made a perfect shot. We continued hunting along the Matanda River and saw some buffalo sign from the last few days. We found some leopard tracks in a couple of different spots and hung some baits. After lunch we followed the Madaba River downstream for a few kilometers before turning north and hunting some new territory between the river and the Nandanga Mountain. We saw some eland and zebra but weren’t able to get a shot. We continued along and hung another bait before making our way back to camp.
08 September 2007
Today we hunted and checked baits going north towards the Rufiji River. We saw some Hartebeest and a herd of buffalo early in the morning. We followed the herd for a while but were unable to position ourselves for a shot at one of the bulls in the group. We continued on and checked the first two baits which were untouched. Our third bait had been hit by a decent male leopard on the Rufiji River. We were tempted, but decided to wait and check the other baits on the east of the concession tomorrow before we sit for this cat. We hunted back towards camp in the afternoon.
09 September 2007
This morning started out with us checking baits on the eastern side of the concession. I had seen a monster leopard track here and wanted to see if this cat had come on bait. )
On arrival at the two baits on that side, we saw that the cat had not fed. There was a large male lion in the same area that might have pushed the leopard away for a while. I decided to drive all the way across the area and build a blind at the leopard bait that had been hit the previous day on the Rufiji River. When I arrived at the bait I found that the cat had fed well the previous day. The trail camera I left on the bait only took two photos of the cat, but I could see that he had managed to lift the hippo neck up onto the branch of the tree. It was a very big leopard. We built the blind and settled in to sit at about quarter past four. The sun began to settle when at eight minutes past six the cat suddenly jumped onto the tree. )
I could see that it was a good cat and I motioned for Alan to shoot as the tom stood broadside on the tree. At the shot the cat jumped down out of the tree and growled angrily as he raced back into the cover of some riverine forest next to the bait. The shot didn’t look good. I left the blind and scanned the ground for some evidence of a hit, but couldn’t find any. I waited for darkness to fall completely before continuing with a flashlight. I searched for a long time in the forest next to the bait but couldn’t find any blood trail and had trouble seeing any tracks in the dark. I decided to come back and search again in the morning.
10 September 2007
This morning we headed back to the leopard bait where Alan had taken his shot the previous afternoon. The mood was quite tense as Andries and myself followed the tracks into the forest next to the bait. We had difficulty following the trail that the cat took as he left the bait as there was a complete lack of blood. We searched the area and found where the tom had layed down about 300 yards from the bait back in the forest. There was no sign of blood or stomach content so we concluded that the cat had been missed cleanly. We hunted back to camp and checked two other leopard baits but only small cats had fed. We ate lunch at camp and took a siesta afterwards. This afternoon we hunted close to camp and didn’t see anything of note except a huge black mamba which we inadvertently ran over with the car.
11 September 2007
Today we hunted towards the east of the concession. We had some leopard baits on this side that we hadn’t checked now for two days. We checked the first two baits and didn’t find anything feeding. )
We continued on and saw a great bull Hartebeest.
Alan was able to make a good shot and kill the animal, giving us enough meat for two more baits. We found a good leopard track close to where we killed the hartebeest and decided to hang half the carcass at a suitable spot nearby. We checked the third and final bait that we had hung previously in the area and found a leopard feeding on the meat. It appeared to be a small cat that was eating, but we added some fresh meat and set up a trail camera in order to be sure. We hunted our way back to camp. I left Alan in camp and went out again this evening to hang bait on a leopard track I had seen early this morning. Instead I found a different, larger track on the way and ended up baiting at this new location instead.
12 September 2007
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This morning Alan wasn’t feeling well and decided to spend the day in camp. I went out looking for bait for us so that we could step up the effort for the leopard which is Alan’s priority animal. Not too far from camp I found a group of three old buffalo bulls, and managed to shoot one of them.
This was helpful as we now had five more baits. After recovering the animal, I drove east along the Matanda River checking and hanging more baits. Nothing had fed so far, but I managed to hang three of the five new pieces of bait.
13 September 2007
Today I checked baits while Alan continued to rest in camp. I found one leopard feeding on my farthest bait, but decided that the cat was a young male and still unsuitable to be shot. I didn’t find anything else on any of the other baits, but did manage to find another new big leopard track, and ended up baiting this with the remainder of the meat from yesterday’s buffalo. I got back to camp around three o’clock, and took Alan out hunting this afternoon. We saw some impala, some hartebeest, and a lot of recent buffalo sign in the area just south of the camp.
14 September 2007
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We started out again hunting and checking baits. We didn’t have anything feeding. We spotted a herd of zebra around midday. A short stalk and we were within about 80 yards of the group. A stallion stood off to the side of the herd and Alan was able to make a killing shot. It was a beautiful skin.
We loaded the zebra whole and drove back to camp so that it could be skinned while we ate lunch. We hunted the area where yesterday afternoon we had seen so much buffalo sign. We hadn’t gone far when we spotted two old bulls about two hundred yards away.
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The wind was perfect, so we took our time preparing everything and started a very slow stalk towards the animals. I could see that there was an old bull with a younger bull. We positioned ourselves to within sixty yards of the old buffalo when he spotted us and lifted his head. Alan took a rest on the shooting sticks and dropped the old bull with a frontal shot into the spine.We circled around and put two more shots into the buffalo as he lay on the ground. Alan had a very good day.
15 September 2007
Today we checked baits that we had set out starting a couple kilometers from camp going towards the east of the concession. We had a large female leopard on one bait. The male leopard that had fed lightly the previous day on a piece of hartebeest had altogether left the bait and didn’t come back to feed again. We continued to hunt and check baits. We saw many hartebeest and zebra today along with some young sable bulls. We hung two more new baits this afternoon and made our way back to camp.
16 September 2007
We checked baits again today. This morning we found a wild dog that had apparently single handedly killed an impala. We also saw bushpig, impala, hartebeest and reedbuck. On the baits we didn’t find anything feeding. We ate lunch at camp today. This afternoon I went out and made fresh drags at some of the baits.
17 September 2007
We checked baits again this morning. We found a leopard had fed on one of our baits along a dry section of the Madaba River. Unfortunately the location was quite open, but we built a blind and decided to sit in the afternoon. We waited for the cat but he didn’t climb up the tree before the vehicle came and picked us up at dark. We heard him though and new that he had come to the bait but was still on the ground underneath the tree. Very frustratingly we knew that time had run out on this hunt as this was the final day of the hunting license and tomorrow we wouldn’t have the chance to shoot him on the bait in the morning.