AHC#5 On Cloud Nine | african-hunter

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On Cloud Nine

By Aaron Neilson

Luck, I've always been a big believer in luck, I also believe that often times you make your own luck. So after ten days of exhaustive hunting the only luck we had made to that point was simple, none!

Well that's not completely true, I was lucky enough to avoid the near death experience of an out of control cow elephant charging the Land Cruiser at 5am. Thankfully the PH has cat-like reflexes, and was able to safely manoeuver through and around the frightened herd. At least that's how he told it afterwards! Oh yes, then there was the puffadder that was killed by the camp staff a mere three feet from the entrance to my chalet one morning, and fi nally the hunt itself. Our fi rst ten days of “luck”, on this my 17th safari, and my fourth trip to Zimbabwe came to a head when we convinced ourselves that every single female, cub, and young male lion within 100 miles of the Save Valley Conservancy had decided to devour our baits all at the same time. We knew for certain that big male lions were about, but at the rate we were feeding all the others, I was sure to be out of bait money long before shumba ever made an appearance! With all the time and effort we had put in up to this point, one had to fi gure that our “luck” was simply due to change. Maybe so, but would my patience and pocket book last that long?

Upon arrival in Harare, Zimbabwe at the end of May 2008 we were met by our PH and outfi tter, Glenn Stockil from Shangaan Hunters. Our hunt was to take place on Senuko, a 70 000 acre paradise located in the south of the Save Valley Conservancy, in southern Zimbabwe. As is customary in Africa, the moment we set off on the five-hour-drive to the ranch I was treated like a king! In all honesty, the camp and accommodation facilities are simply the nicest I have ever seen. The lodges were fabulous with two queen-sized beds in each, lots of extra room, and a warm, cozy, enclosed bathroom with shower, hot and cold running water - fi rst rate. The bar and lounge sat atop the rocky outcrop above camp with a beautiful fi replace and, of course, a well-stocked liquor cabinet. Best of all though, was the dining area, which is perched a hundred feet above a waterhole below the camp. With a spot-light fastened to a tree, and ample viewing light at night, it makes for a wonderful atmosphere to enjoy one's big game safari. Wildlife frequented the waterhole throughout the evening, and on several occasions herds of buffalo would arrive just after dark. Watching and listening to hundreds of buffalo at a time trying to cram into the small waterhole was a wonderful addition to the dinner-time experience. To top it off we actually had a leopard make a dinner-time appearance as well. It's honestly the best camp I've ever been to in all of Africa, period.

African big game hunting is my passion, lion in particular. I've literally spent the past 13 years of my life, since taking my first lion in 1995, trying everyday to figure out how and where to do it again. My early adult life lead me from hunting guide, to outfitter, to international hunting consultant, and more recently specializing in helping my clients from around the globe find the very best lion hunts available throughout the continent. As co-owner of Global Hunting Resources, my occupation has certainly allowed me additional opportunity to try and follow my dreams - the next 16 days would be no exception. By the end of this hunt I would have clocked up some 300 days in pursuit of the ‘king-of-beasts’ - I can only hope life has in store for me 300 more. If life is about following your dreams, then without question, my dreams have already come true!

I was trying for my ninth lion, and at the same time, doing some product testing for my good friend Jon Lacorte of Nikon. He was kind enough to give me a shot at trying one of the new big-game hunting scopes they were promoting, the “Monarch”, a beautiful looking matte finish, 2.5 x 10 rifle scope with incredible light-gathering capability.

Along with that, I was of course using my favourite dangerous game rifle, the .375 Remington Ultra mag., loaded with 270 grain Barnes Triple Shock bullets. My theory is that, if you can't shoot so well, shoot a big gun! I cannot begin to tell you how many critters I have taken with this particular combo, but I assure you it's plenty. Along with lion, we were after the ever-dangerous and exciting

“dagga boy” and maybe a klipspringer if everything went right. Although the conservancy is blessed with excellent populations of game, this 16-day hunt was primarily a dangerous game safari. I couldn't wait.

An example of Bayaka face painting

One of the Nine

As I mentioned earlier, the first ten days of the hunt just hadn’t gone in our favour. From the start we decided to concentrate on the lion. It was obviously my priority animal, and the one that generally takes up most time and effort.

Prior to my hunt Clive, Glenn’s father, Executive Director and founder of the conservancy invited a lion researcher from Hwange National Park to come out to Senuko and give them an estimated count of the lion population. Clive started the conservancy in the late 1980s, at which time the lions had been completely wiped out by the previous cattle ranchers for obvious reasons. However, in 2000 they started to see the lions returning to the area. More recently, they have started to see quite a few. The researcher spent a week or so, only looked for tracks, and determined by some ‘lion-counting-formula’ that they had roughly 15 lions on the sprawling 70 000 acre property. I can’t speculate as to how accurate this formula is, but what I can tell you, is that, by our own calculations - with several different trail cameras, multiple bait locations, we knew of at least 26 different lions in the area. I have a trail cam photo with 11 individual lions in one picture, it was simply unbelievable! I have never seen a place with so many lions, ever! Our problem wasn’t the lions, it was bait. By day ten we were on our third giraffe and second zebra, and they were quickly disappearing. We needed things to change quickly in our favour, or I was going be skinning the trophies, and doing the dishes, in order to cover the cost for my bait animals.

The area, some 70 000 acres in extent, encompasses stunning hunting terrain.

Senuko is perched a hundred feet above a waterhole. It makes for a wonderful atmosphere to enjoy one's big game safari. Wildlife frequented the waterhole throughout the evening, and on several occasions herds of buffalo would arrive just after dark.

Thankfully when it came invoice time, Glenn went easy on me, thus problem solved. I think he felt sorry for me knowing how difficult it was trying to deal with the “stress” of acquiring all that bait. I know, I know, thanks a lot, I appreciate the sympathetic feeling that is undoubtedly coming over you while reading this. Taking down additional African animals at a reduced rate, in order to provide opportunity to get the trophy of a lifetime is difficult work!

From day one Glenn told me about a particular lion he had seen previously, and he wanted to concentrate on him.

Glenn was familiar with his territory, and felt as though it would not be terribly difficult to get him on bait, wrong! Often times he travelled alone, but seemed to have a larger than normal territory, according to the pro’. We felt as though this old boy was a perfect candidate, usually a loner, and obviously not a pride male. Man we were in for a surprise, but not something I haven’t seen before when hunting lion. Glenn was able to get the magnificent maned beast on bait, but getting him to come back became a whole different ball game. After seeing the mane hairs he left behind, I knew we had found my prize. The question was, how do we collect it? Obviously Mr. Leo had seen this program before, and he was certainly no fool. He fed plenty on the fourth night, so we spent lunchtime the following day building our blind, and sat it out that evening... for hours. It’s legal to shoot after dark on private land in Zimbabwe, so we stayed until 10pm, but he never showed. For the next couple of days nothing, he never returned to the first bait he hit. In the meantime we were having several of the other bait sites hit, but not the big males we were looking for. Finally on day 10 he was back, but at another bait location roughly four miles from the first. Looking at the tracks and the mane hair left on the bait, we knew it was the same lion. This time, however, he was kind enough to feed at a place where Glenn had an old tower blind overlooking a dried up waterhole. The pan was actually under repair and they hadn't been pumping water for several months, but the blind was still good nonetheless. Half-an-hour of sprucing it up a bit, adding a little more camo, and trying to conceal the back drop, it looked good as new. We went back to camp, had some lunch, and took a short nap. The plan was to arrive back at the blind late afternoon and prepare ourselves for a lengthy sit.

Clive Stockil started the conservancy in the late 1980s. Very little of the original wildlife still remained. Lions had been completely wiped out by the previous cattle ranchers.

Hours later a final glance at my watch indicated it was 10pm when we finally abandoned our post. Riding back to camp we tallied the score. Pretty simple: shumba 2, hunters 0!

As dawn broke we were already on our way back to the bait. Upon arrival, we simply couldn’t believe our eyes. Sometime in the night after we had left he had fed; either he's a really late feeder or, more likely, he knows what's up - we knew we were in for a long hunt. I had a big lion do the very same thing to me in Zambia in 2003. For two weeks we hunted him, sitting on six separate occasions, each time he never showed. When we didn't sit, he would feed. We tried everything, moved the bait, moved the blind, moved both, it didn't matter. Finally we gave up, he was simply too smart for us.

Nightmares of that hunt were flashing through my head as we stared in disbelief at the devoured bait overhead. The look on

Glenn's face was classic, totally stumped. Glenn turned to me, “we need more bait.”

No kidding! Fortunately we still had a quarter of a giraffe hanging in the meat cooler, so we quickly brought it back, hung it in the tree, and got ready to sit again that night. As we rode back to camp for lunch it was decided we would stay in the blind all night, and find out for sure what the heck was going on.

That afternoon on our way back to the blind, I looked at Glenn and could see the stress written all over his face. With only five days left, things were getting tight, at least for the guide. I learned long ago that putting too much emphasis on the “kill” can absolutely ruin the entire experience for everyone. There is nothing worse than a whiny, complaining client that has put success of the hunt above all else. Besides, I guarantee your guide will work much, much harder if he enjoys your company.

“Relax man.” I said to Glenn, “It's just a lion, it's not a $100 million winning lottery ticket. Let's give it our best. What happens, happens, end of story.”

Just then the night's silence was quickly broken by a loud growl, un-mistakably that of a lion! If you've never heard one in person, describing it in writing will never do it justice.

For the third time I climbed into the blind, but frankly my hopes were not that high! Glenn, the cameraman Ryan Neal and I were all a bit squashed, but getting the hunt on film is very important, so having all three of us there was uncomfortable, but necessary. In only a few short hours I was going to see just how valuable the top-notch equipment I was using would play a pivotal role in my success. As darkness approached the bush fell silent and the breeze died down. Quickly the sting of the cold night's air started to bite, but one simply had to put it out of one's mind and concentrate on listening as light was no longer available. Lying on a mattress all night in a blind is not so bad, but try sitting in a chair, holy cow is that uncomfortable! As the hours slowly crawled by, our concentration level was definitely dwindling. Both the guide and the cameraman started to snore a time or two, but a quick jab fixed that little problem, then I got one of my own.

Glancing at my watch it was nearly half- past-ten and hope of the lion's arrival was about gone. Just then the night's silence was quickly broken by a loud growl, un-mistakably that of a lion! If you've never heard one in person, describing it in writing will never do it justice. The most guttural, deep, and spine-piercing noise you will ever hear up close, that I assure you. Quickly I pulled up my binoculars and could just make out the outline of a lion roughly ten yards to the right of the bait. With less than a half-moon it was extremely difficult to tell exactly how good the lion was, or if in fact he was the one we were looking for at all. Then I leaned forward, looked through my scope, and was amazed at how well I could see the cat. I could very distinctively see the outline of his mane, and quite clearly my crosshairs settling perfectly on his chest. I knew it was him, and knew this was our chance. The bait was exactly 80 yards from the blind so making a good shot was imperative, especially at night. Glenn readied the spotlight and Ryan manned the camera. The lion was now on the bait and began tugging at it ferociously. It took all six of us to manoeuver the giraffe quarter into place, so watching as he swung it around wildly, and with such ease, was totally amazing. Powerful is nothing but an understatement! Meanwhile, I was directing Glenn with the light, and told him to wait a minute as the lion had moved to the back side of the bait, and his vitals were covered by the hanging meat. Finally he shuffled back to his left and gave a quartering broadside shot, so I whispered to Glenn to hit the light. As soon as he did, just as quickly the lion bolted into the darkness. Obviously that plan wasn't going to work, and we were afraid of that. Two nights earlier we got one picture of him on the trail camera, but he quickly swatted it right off the tree. Light was not something he felt comfortable with, and changing that was not going to happen. We gave it a shot, but I was not sure how many times he was going to hang around for that. Five minutes later he returned and I leaned over to Glenn, and whispered, “I can take him without the light.”

“What, no, no way, we need to use the light” he hissed, but I insisted I could do it!

He reluctantly agreed to let me give it a go. I honestly am over-confident in the ability of the cartridge I shoot, the .375 RUM with a custom loaded 270 grain Triple Shock bullet, is purely amazing. John LaSala owner of Safari Arms Ltd from Seaford, NY., loads all of my ammo, including this particular cartridge, pushing the Barnes bullet an amazing 2,950 fps out the muzzle. It has proved to me to be the most devastating bullet and gun combo I have ever used on big, dangerous game. Amazing though, was the incredible ability of the new Nikon Monarch scope I was using that sat atop the gun. This was my first experience with the new scope, and honestly without it, I never would have been able to take the shot. I have never seen a scope with such incredible light gathering ability, proof that quality equipment sometimes can make the difference.

Again Shumba approached the bait, and again he gave me the same quartering on shot, that was all I needed. “Boom”, the loud crack, and brilliant muzzle flash, erupted the quite night's silence. The lion's roar was incredible, and quickly the PH shone the light. The lion was engulfed in a death spin, biting his left foreleg, and angrily trying to determine what was causing his pain. I reloaded, fired twice more, but never touched him again.

Thankfully the first one did the trick, and my 9th lion lay silent on the ground.

Unfortunately for us, our little experience here was far from over. Of course the high fives, the back slapping and all the whooping and hollering were just about complete when the Land Cruiser showed up with all the trackers to partake in the fun. As we start loading up to drive over and have a look at our prize, that spine tingling sound I told you about earlier, broke through the gang's commotion, and quickly got our full attention. Obviously our lion had a companion, who was less -than-impressed with the evening's extra-curricular activities. Hurriedly the trackers started wildly shining the light. Sure enough, only 20 yards from my lion, stood his brother. Now the fiasco was about to begin. As we all approached in the truck, the lion stood in defiance, not willing to relinquish his brother to the lighted, rumbling beast. We had no choice though, we needed to get my prize, try to get in, get the lion and get out of there, without shooting his buddy or getting anyone hurt. Unfortunately, the wonderful conclusion to my video-taped lion hunt was going to have to wait. Getting out, slapping backs and shaking hands just wasn't going to happen, not there anyway! So it was decided, one of the trackers would get on top of the truck and work the light. As long as you shined the light directly on the lion, he would keep his distance. Take it off him, however, and instantly he was less-than 15 yards from the truck. No question this was getting dangerous. I stood at the front of the truck, rifle at the ready, and the other guys, including Ryan the cameraman, loaded up the lion. Not an easy task. When we weighed this bruiser at the skinning shed, he tipped the scales at 229kg, or 503lbs, that's huge! Finally though, he was loaded and we got the heck out of Dodge. Seemed as though nothing on this hunt was going to come easy, but who would want it any other way? Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but when it comes to lion hunting, just playing the game is enough for me. Take your chances, roll the dice, and maybe you too will be “On Cloud Nine”.