- Report by:
- PH Alistair James
- Client:
- Jerry Scolari
- Area:
- Lake Natron South, Rungwa Ikili
- Date:
- 01 October 2007 - 23 October 2007
02 September 2007
This was the first morning of the hunt. Jerry and myself decided that we would go and stay at a fly camp around the opposite side of the mountain from the main camp. I had gone into the area earlier and started baiting for leopard. We had one cat on bait and we decided to sit on this particular bait this afternoon. )
The leopard didn’t feed. I decided to leave the cat for a day before trying again.
03 September 2007
This morning we headed down towards the engaruka plains to see if we could find a fringe eared oryx. On the way there we found a herd of zebra and shot a big bodied stallion. This would help as leopard bait. We continued on towards Lake Natron to the north. )
At about midday we spotted a large group of oryx. We approached the animals wearing masai blankets. I could see some old bulls in the group but it took some time before we were able to single one out from amongst the other animals. Finally the bull we wanted stood at the back of the group and Jerry was able to make a clean shot and kill the animal.
We met up with Don and Nigel this afternoon for some lunch, skinned our game out and then headed back to the fly camp on the mountain.
04 September 2007
Today we started out early and climbed up the mountain behind camp in order to check baits. We didn’t find anything feeding on bait but saw numerous buffalo and eland up in the valley on top of the mountain. We headed down and had lunch in the fly camp. After lunch we checked baits and found that the leopard from the other night had fed well. We decided to sit on this bait this afternoon. )
We hadn’t sat for long when I heard the cat yawn, and knew that he was lying close by. Shortly thereafter some crows found the bait meat and flew down to eat it. This brought the leopard into the tree immediately. It would have been an easy shot, but I could see immediately that this wasn’t the cat that we were looking for. It was a male, but obviously young and substandard for the area.
05 September 2007
This morning we left our fly camp on Kitumbeine mountain and headed down to the plains. )
Once we were in the low mbuga country we started seeing animals almost immediately. We glassed numerous grants gazelle until we saw a good trophy and stalked up and shot it.
We continued on glassing numerous gerenuk. Finally at about midday we spotted a very good bull. Jerry made a perfect shot.
This afternoon we spent time hunting lesser kudu. We spotted a nice bull with some females and tracked the group for some time but never could get into position for a good shot on the bull. We saw some other bulls this afternoon but didn’t see anything worth shooting.
06 September 2007
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Today we hunted towards Lake Natron. As we started to get closer to the lake, we began to see large herds of zebra and wildebeest. We glassed a few groups and single wildebeest bulls before we spotted a bachelor group with 7 animals including one good bull. We used masai blankets and were able to approach to within 250 yards on the open plain. )
From a sitting position Jerry made a perfect one shot kill. We skinned the animal out for a full mount and headed down to the lake shore to a small stand of trees for lunch.
After lunch we looked for Thompson’s Gazelle. After a short time we found a shootable ram and shot him. We worked our way back south and made it back to camp just before sundown.
07 September 2007
Today we were moving to the east of the concession to Kiserian camp where we have planned to spend the remainder of our days in the area. At about nine in the morning we were hunting an area known as the sand river about a half an hour’s drive from camp. )
From the vehicle we spotted a lesser kudu bull behind a thorn bush to the side of the sand river. We stopped the car and got out to try to stalk up to the animal. The bull had jumped away and we assumed that it was hiding in a lone clump of trees about 40 yards away from us. I set Jerry up on the shooting sticks and we got ready incase the bull decided to step into the open. After about 30 seconds the bull stepped out and stood clearly broadside to us. I could see immediately that the animal was big and told Jerry to shoot. When we approached the downed bull I could finally see just how big it was. It was the biggest lesser kudu I had ever shot.
For the rest of the day we hung leopard baits in the area.
08 September 2007
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This morning we hung some new baits to the east of camp. We also checked the baits from the previous day. On the way we spotted a group of impala. The ram looked good and we stalked the group. After some time the ram stood apart from the other animals and presented a good shot. Jerry shot a nice trophy.
This afternoon we continued baiting and redragging baits from the morning and the previous day.
09 September 2007
Today we checked the baits that we had set the previous two days. One of the baits was hit by what appeared to be a female leopard. We saw a lot of game including some warthog and baboon. After lunch we hunted the mouth of the sand river and shot a Thompson Gazelle. In the evening we set one more additional bait to the east of camp.
10 September 2007
This morning we started out by checking our line of baits. The first few baits were untouched. We saw a lot of game this morning and saw some fresh cheetah tracks. At about 9:00 this morning we found tracks of a decent leopard and decided to follow them for a while to see if we could find the hill where he was laying up for the day in the hope of baiting there later this evening. We followed the cat for a couple of kilometers to no avail before giving up and continuing on to check the rest of our baits. One bait had been hit seemingly hard by a leopard, but I couldn’t find a track in the hard ground around the tree. After checking the remaining baits, I decided to build a blind and sit on this bait incase the cat would prove to be shootable. We had a quick bite to eat and had settled in the blind by quarter past four. The cat showed up at very last light, and I couldn’t make out much more than a blur on the tree with my binoculars. We decided to come back in the morning and try again.
11 September 2007
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We were out of camp at quarter past four in the morning on our way to the leopard blind. We were well settled in before dark and waited until seven o’clock before having the vehicle come and pick us up again. The cat showed up just before dark and Jerry made a great shot. This cat is truly a monster!
12 September 2007
Today wasn’t a hunting day, we transferred by air charter to rungwa camp.
13 September 2007
This morning we made our way towards the Ikili Hills. We started checking various springs to see whether or not we could find some fresh buffalo tracks. )
We got out of the vehicle and walked down to a spring known as the crater when I saw a pair of reedbuck including a good ram. The trackers ran back and fetched Jerry’s .300. I set up the shooting sticks and Jerry made a perfect shot on the animal at a distance of around 70 yards.
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We continued on checking for tracks and finally made our way around to the south of the Hills to a spring known as the waterhole. We ate lunch here and saw some kudu cows come into drink water. After lunch we hadn’t gone more than a kilometer when we found very fresh tracks from a herd of buffalo. We didn’t follow the tracks for more than three hundred yards before seeing the animals bedded down. We stalked the group but the early afternoon breeze was shifting and the buffalo spooked. In the confusion a good bull stood alone long enough for Jerry to make a good shot and bring it down. I was a great first day in Rungwa.
14 September 2007
Today we hunted the central part of the concession. It was a slow day for some reason, and apart from seeing the odd zebra, we didn’t see much game. We spent the day basically trying to cover ground and look for tracks showing concentrations of game. After lunch we made a stalk on a herd of zebra only to have three lioness beat us to it. It was nevertheless a great day and we were very fortunate to have seen the lioness hunting.
15 September 2007
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We hunted from camp heading towards the northwest corner of the hunting block. We hadn’t been gone for an hour when we came upon the carcass of a buffalo bull that had died during the previous night. Upon closer inspection we could see that it was the same buffalo that Don had shot and lost the previous day. It was a very big trophy and we called Don and Nigel in order to let them know. We continued hunting seeing numerous groups of zebra and a few cow eland. Just before lunchtime we spotted a pair of oribi with a good ram. A short stalk later and Jerry made a good shot on the ram.
After lunch we continued hunting towards the east of the area. We spotted a large herd of roan antelope at about five thirty. We followed until dark, but were unable to position ourselves for a good shot at the herd bull.
16 September 2007
We hunted today back to the same area that we saw the herd of roan yesterday evening. On our way we found tracks of four bull buffalo. We came up on the group very quickly. After glassing the bulls we decided that there was nothing better than what we had already shot so we passed up the opportunity.
A short while later we spotted a lone bull roan on the side of the road. The bull took off running immediately upon seeing the vehicle. We got out and packed a bag with water and started tracking. The track was a little slow following initially but soon the animal entered sandy miombo and progress sped up. We spooked the animal twice without seeing it before coming up close to the bull on our third attempt. )
Jerry shot as the bull was moving off. We checked the spoor and found some blood. We continued tracking for the next three hours but unfortunately were unable to catch sight of the roan a second time.
After lunch we hunted going south and east towards camp. We saw a lone hartebeest and almost made a shot before a group of zebra ended up spooking him and costing us the chance. A short while later we spotted a group of zebra and after a careful stalk, Jerry made a good shot on the stallion in the herd.
17 September 2007
Today we hunted towards the east of the block. We saw a large herd of buffalo and some roan and sable this morning. Unfortunately we didn’t see any mature sable bulls. We continued hunting towards the eastern boundary in the hope of catching some kudu moving to water on that side midday to drink. We saw a group of kudu cows before stopping for lunch. After lunch we decided to drive north. We spotted a pair of kudu bulls, including one very good one. We made a stalk and were almost ready for the shot when the pair winded us and took off. We were unable to follow the track again properly due to the prevalence of dry grass in the area.
This afternoon we spotted some more kudu cows and young bulls, and the same group of four bull buffalo bulls from the previous day. We also saw a herd of eland, but couldn’t see any shootable bulls in the group.
18 September 2007
Today we hunted the center of the concession in the morning. We saw an amazing amount of zebra this morning. We also cut the fresh tracks of a large herd of buffalo. We followed and had soon maneuvered ourselves into a position in front of the group of grazing animals. We were able to glass the herd well and saw that there were no shootable trophies.
Towards lunchtime we headed towards the east of the concession. We started seeing small groups of greater kudu coming down to the river to drink. We spotted a group of four bulls including one very good one. We tried to make a stalk but were unable to get a clear shot before the animals ran away. During lunch as the trackers were setting up the picnic table I spotted a mature kudu bull in the sand river less than a hundred meters from us. In a panic we grabbed everything, but the bull was spooked from the commotion and ran off. We tracked the bull for about a half an hour before coming up on him in some thick brush. He was difficult to see, but after a couple minutes I gave Jerry the thumbs up for the shot. Unfortunately the bullet struck a limb and the bull escaped unscathed.
After lunch we headed back West in the direction of camp. We found the tracks of three buffalo bulls crossing our vehicle tracks from the morning. We started tracking and were glassing the animals within forty minutes time. We did not find a better trophy in the group than what Jerry had already taken so decided to leave the bulls alone.
19 September 2007
Today we again hunted the central part of the concession. One of the trackers spotted two buffalo from the back of the truck that subsequently ran off. We picked up the tracks and started following. We came up on the two bulls a short while later and found that they had already bedded down. After a very careful approach we were within twenty yards of the animals. I could see both sets of horns clearly and knew that these weren’t the trophies that Jerry was looking for. We left these bulls alone.
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We continued on and spotted a couple of groups of roan antelope. Later I saw a group of bull hartebeest. A short approach later, and we had a good bull standing broadside at about seventy yards. Jerry made a perfect heart shot and took a great trophy.
We headed east again during the heat of the day hoping to catch a kudu by the river. Unfortunately it was a quiet day and we only saw a group of females. After lunch we headed north and saw some more hartebeest and zebra.
20 September 2007
Today we hunted for sable in the central part of the concession again. We didn’t see much sign, and overall the day appeared to be slow with much of the game apparently bedded down. We saw some hartebeest and zebra as well as a cheetah, which is unusual for the area. During the heat of the day we headed east along the Makwasa River. We saw a group of cow kudu as well as two young bulls. We ate lunch and then hunted our way back west towards camp.
21 September 2007
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This morning we hunted the west edge of Ikili to an area where Nigel and Don had seen a herd of sable yesterday. We saw a group of roan on the way including a very nice bull. A little bit later we had spotted a herd of sable with one very nice black bull inside. A short stalk later and Jerry made a good shot and took a very good trophy. We skinned the animal out and ate lunch.
After lunch we hunted around the top of the Ikili Hills into the valley between the hills known as buffalo basin. Towards dusk we spotted a large herd of buffalo. We glassed them for a while and saw some exceptional trophies inside, but nothing with the age that we were looking for.
22 September 2007
Today we started out looking for either eland or another buffalo. We saw an eland bull with two zebra. They ran off and we picked up the tracks and started to follow. After a while we caught back up to the group, but unfortunately the zebra saw us and spooked taking along with them the eland bull.
During the middle of the day we drove down towards the eastern side of the block and saw a couple groups of greater kudu but no shootable bulls. After lunch we drove up to an area known as the water hole to look for tracks of game. Two bull buffalo had drank there midday. We didn’t have too much time left so we started following immediately. We finally came upon the two bulls in some long grass. It was difficult to see the animals so I climbed a tree to get a better look. One of the bulls was a very good trophy. I decided to walk into the grass with the buffalo so that Jerry could get a good shot at close range. We were within ten yards of the buffalo, but didn’t quite get enough time for Jerry to pull off the shot before the bull spooked and ran off.
23 September 2007
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We returned to the spot where we had narrowly missed shooting a buffalo the previous evening. On the way we saw some warthog and a pride of lioness and cubs. When we got to where we left off yesterday we picked up the tracks but were unable to continue following due to an abundance of dry grass and hard mbuga type soil in the area. We continued on.
After lunch we returned to the water hole to see if the same bulls would drink in the heat of the day. We didn’t find any fresh tracks so hunted around the Ikili Hills. This afternoon we walked up to the top of the hills. We saw lots of buffalo sign and some klipspringer. We made it down the hill and met the vehicle just before dark. It was a good end to Jerry’s hunt.