MOZAMBIQUE: Leopard Hunting With Traditional Mozambique Safaris

[MT Griz]

This is going to be a good one! Keep it coming..........

 

[ROCKET]

Seems We gonna have alot of fun in this post, oh yeeeesss.......

 

[buffybr]

Continued with our first day in camp…


At camp, Simon, Martin, and Vera each had their own “Chalets” that were about 20’x20’ reed/bamboo buildings that sat on concrete floor. Each Chalet had a queen bed and its own bathroom. Wayne and I were each assigned one of the tents.

After we got our gear to our tents, we all went to the dining chalet and had a great meal of part of one of the Duikers that Martin had shot for pre baiting my leopard.

Mornings in camp begin about 45 minutes before shooting light, as both Simon and Martin like to be in the field looking for game at shooting light. I didn’t have a watch or clock, but every morning I heard the camp staff moving about and I would get dressed then go to the dining chalet for our usual morning cup of coffee and a biscuit or two.

For our first hunting day, Simon wanted to show us the hunting area so we all piled into one of the bakkies. Martin drove, and Wayne, Simon, myself, and two trackers climbed into the back. Simon’s hunting concession is 690,000 acres. Simon told me that it was about 70 (118 km) wide. It has two major rivers running through it along with countless creeks that may or not have water running in them.

Simon actually only hunts less than ¼ of his concession. He employs a dozen or so people from one of the nearby villages to hand clear and keep open a small network of two track “roads” through the area that he hunts. TMS is allocated 3 elephant permits each year, however since the US Fish and Wildlife Service does not allow the importation of any elephant part into the Us from Mozambique, most of Simon’s clients have been from Europe. There are healthy populations of Roosevelt Sable and Leopards in the TMS concession.

So driving around the concession the first morning, we spotted 4 different groups of Sables, and we put stalks on at least two of them. In total, we saw over 25 groups of Sable antelope during the first week, with very few repeat sightings. I think the largest herd that we saw was around 40 animals.

Late that first morning, Martin spotted two Warthogs. Simon yelled “shoot,” and the male Warthog became the first animal to be shot by an American hunter in Simon’s TMS concession. When we got back to camp the Warthog was divided up into one hind quarter for fresh Leopard bait, the tenderloins, backstraps, and the other hind quarter for fresh camp meat (of which we had several excellent meals), and the remainder went to the camp staff.

A couple of weeks before I arrived in Mozambique, Martin had searched for fresh Leopard spoor, and set out three different baits not far from camp. All of the baits had been hit, and Martin picked one that he thought would be the best for my hunt. So that first afternoon Martin, myself, and two of the trackers went to that bait site. When we got to the old bait, Martin and one of the trackers said they herd the leopard growl in the thick brush, not far from the bait.

The Baboon that Martin had hung there was almost gone, so we hung the Warthog hind quarter there, and we built a brush blind on top of the bank about 50 yards from the bait.

I was surprised that Martin hung the baits close to the ground. Martin then explained to me that in that area there aren’t any other predators: no lions or jackals, so the leopards don’t take their kills up into trees.

We also cleared the shooting lane from the blind to the bait, and then Martin moved the trail camera that he had there to the other side of the bait, and he hung a second camera across the draw from the bait.

The next day Martin thought that it would be best not to go to the leopard bait site to give the leopard an undisturbed day to get use to the fresh bait, so we also spent that day looking for Sable and enjoying the strange new countryside.

I grew up in the mountains of Colorado, and have lived and worked in the mountains of Montana for the past 40 years, so I am not new to mountains. But those Iselberg mountains of northern Mozambique are completely different from our mountains at home. These mountains are huge round topped masses of granite that rise several thousand feet above the relatively flat miombo forests. Their mostly vertical sides are sparsely covered with tuffs of grass.

We saw4 or 5 herds of sable that day, and we put unsuccessful stalks on a couple of them.

That evening as we were sitting around the fire enjoying cold Mozambique beers and recalling the day’s activities, we heard a loud cracking and the crash of a falling tree. We turned around and saw than a large, 6-8” diameter x 30’ branch had fallen from the large tree next to my tent and had landed on the top of my tent. Luckily, I had not been my tent, and also luckily, the only damage to the tent was a small tear in the canvas and some bent steel frames.

We were able to lift the branch off the tent without any further damage, and the next day the staff replaced the bent frame. I did, however, have a low ceiling that night between my bed and the bathroom.

The next day we were again up before the sun and spent most of the day looking for Sable.

Then after dinner, Martin and I left for our first night in the leopard blind. It was still light when we got there, and everything looked good. The leopard had eaten some of the warthog hindquarter that we had hung two days earlier, but there was still enough meat there to bring him back.

We had put a blanket down so we wouldn’t have to sit on the bare ground. The ground at the hide also had too much of a side slope for us to use chairs, plus Martin was afraid that chairs might squeak and scare the leopard.

Sitting on the ground at night, in the dark, and staring for hours at the brush wall in front of you is one of the most boring things that I have ever done. A couple of times I laid back onto the ground, and it seemed like each time I did that almost immediately Martin would poke me and whisper that I was snoring.

A little before 8:00 we heard some baboons screeching somewhere in the brush on the other side of the bait. The screeching sounds gradually got fainter as the baboons moved farther away until the night was again silent except for the occasional chirp of some bird.

So about 8:00 we decided to take a break and go back to camp for a couple hours, then come back to the blind about 10:00.

When we got back to camp, Simon, Wayne, and Vera were still sitting around the fire. They got up to greet us and eager to see the leopard. When we told them that we had just came back for a break, the look on Simon’s face immediately told me that we had screwed up big time.

Simon and Martin then went off by themselves to make a new plan, and when they came back they had decided that we shouldn’t go back to the blind again that night as we might spook the leopard if he would be at the bait when we got there.

The next day, it was decided that we would all hunt for Sable in the morning, then in the afternoon, Martin and I would stay at camp and try to sleep so that we could be more alert that night in the blind. We also thought that we might need more bait, so I shot a baboon. About noon as we headed back to camp, we stopped at the bait site to check the bait and the trail cameras.

The trail camera pictures showed that the tom leopard had fed on the warthog bait at 11o the previous night, and there was this picture of him at the bait that morning.

Another note to myself: If I ever again have to sit in a blind at night, take some No Doze.

That night Martin and I went to the blind at 9:00 and vowed to stay there all night. Shortly after we started sitting at the blind, we heard at least one elephant moving through the thick bamboo not far from our blind. They were close enough that we could hear the bamboo leaves scraping against the sides of the elephant.

I had my .300 Weatherby positioned with the forend sitting on a Trigger Stick tripod and another bamboo tripod under the stock just behind the pistol grip. My rifle was dead steady in the tripods and positioned with the crosshairs just to the right and slightly above the bait, exactly where the leopard stood in all of the trail cam pictures when he fed on the bait.

At just about exactly 11:00 we heard a loud growl and the screeching of nearby baboons. Both Martin and I immediately sat up. I snuggled into my rifle, and Martin put his hand around the high intensity green light flashlight that he had previously locked into place pointing at the bait.

Then we waited, straining our ears for sounds from the bait.

To be continued…

 

[BRICKBURN]

Sitting in a blind day light or dark is the most boring thing on the planet. I agree.

 

[Wheels]

Kind of like being on top of an inselberg. You have left us with a cliffhanger.

 

[siml]

That branch did give us a helleva fright.....it was pitch black, I at first thought it was a herd of elephant next to the camp.....but when I saw the outline of the tent shaking knew the branch had landed on the tent. Kurt, I still got a bone to pick with Vera....she came out shouting "martin martin martin are you okay..." wasn't too worried about us....

@Wheels , I was enjoying my morning coffee.....dam right about iselberg hanging...

 

[Wheels]

@Wheels , I was enjoying my morning coffee.....dam right about iselberg hanging...

You need to set up a second company,"Traditional Mozambique Rock Climbing", to use the concession in the off season.

 

[siml]

People will melt before they reach the top in the Summer season.

 

[Redruff]

Ah come on....keep typing....talk about leaving us hanging. Great stuff so far keep it up. Thanks.

R.

 

[Waterguy631]

Get to work all ready and finish it up. I'll be wasting all day checking back. Great report so far.

 

[siml]

Time for my morning coffee.....

 

[buffybr]

MOZAMBIQUE: Leopard Hunting with TMS
Continues...


The previous night in camp we had a discussion about where to shoot a leopard. Behind the shoulder, on the shoulder, and the high shoulder shots were all discussed. Simon insisted that the best leopard shot was on the shoulder.

It seemed like several minutes went by before Martin switched on his high intensity green flashlight, and when he did, there was the leopard feeding on the bait, but he was on the left side of the bait, and I had positioned my rifle aimed on the right side of the bait where he had fed in the trail cam pictures.

I quietly and quickly moved the Trigger Stick tripod under the forearm of my rifle to the left.

The leopard would stretch forward to bite the warthog hindquarter, then rock back and chew it. I watched him do this twice, and as he was rocking back the second time, Martin whispered “That’s him, shoot!”

My rifle was dead steady in the double tripods, and the instant the leopard was still, I saw a bright red flash through my scope, the stillness of the night was shattered with the muzzle blast of my .300 Weatherby, and for the first time that I can remember in 50 years of big game hunting, I actually saw the animal drop through my scope.

The forest was then dead quiet. Martin and I strained to hear a growl or the sounds of the leopard running through the thick brush, but nothing. We sat there motionless for 15 minutes, and only after about 10 minutes did the normal night sounds of the crickets or frogs and birds start again.

We slowly and quietly stood up and Martin directed the beam of his light over the entire bait area. We couldn’t see the leopard. Martin decided that we should go back to camp to get the others with their guns and lights.

On the way back to camp, I don’t know who was more excited, Martin or me. This was the first leopard for both of us. As we approached the sleeping camp Martin tried to honk the horn, but it didn’t work, so he just repeatedly flashed the truck’s headlights and he whistled as loud as he could out the window.

Lights came on and the camp came alive. Simon asked me how I felt about the shot. I told him that it felt good, but that I wouldn’t celebrate until I had my hands on the leopard.

A whole tribe of us then piled back on the bakkies and returned to the leopard site. We all had a flashlight or headlamp, and one of the staff carried the Luke Skywalker laser sword. Simon was armed with either his .458 or a shotgun, Martin had his .416, I had my .300, and Wayne was armed with his Canon. Several of the staff had their pangas.

This bait site that Martin had chosen was at a horseshoe bend of a mostly dry creek. We had put the blind on the top of about a 20’ high bank at the bend of the creek. The bait hung 50 yards away just past the other end of the horseshoe bend.

From the blind we could only see about 20’ of the creek bottom by the bait. To the right of the blind and around the top of the horseshoe bend, the brush was very thick with about 10’ high bamboo. We stayed on top of the bank, and the guys with the pangas cut a path so our tribe could slowly make our way through the brush.

Just before 1:00 am, almost two hours after I had shot at the leopard, Simon was about to call off the search until daylight the next day when we broke through the brush and could see a white object in the bottom of the draw a short distance from the bait tree. I put up my rifle and through the scope I could see that the white object had black spots and that it wasn’t moving.

We carefully climbed down off the bank and approached the downed leopard. Rifle ready, I kicked his hind quarter and Martin touched his eye with the muzzle of his .416. My leopard had died just 19 paces from where I shot him at the bait.


Here is one VERY HAPPY hunter with his leopard. Notice the two prominent black spots above the leopard’s eyes in this picture and in the trail cam picture of him the previous morning. My 168 grain TTSX bullet hit him in the center of his right shoulder (just where Simon told me to put it) and exited low in his chest just behind his left shoulder.

Wayne and I with my leopard…

Martin and I…

The south end of a northbound Canadian taking a picture of me and my leopard…

The traditional “hunter holding his leopard” photo

And Simon and Martin holding the first leopard that he guided a client to totally by himself.

THANK YOU Simon and Martin you did a terrific job getting me this leopard!!

We eventually took all of our pictures and we returned to camp to celebrate. We each started with a cold beer, then Simon broke out some raspberry sodas and a bottle of rum. They were very good!

After I finished my third raspberry and rum I felt that it was time to call it a night and went off to bed. Simon later told me that it was getting light in the east when we quit the celebration.

The next day we all slept late, then just before noon, a motorcycle came into camp carrying a uniformed man from the Agriculture Department and another man with an AK-47 slung over his back. They talked with Simon and Martin for a while, then they left happy with a shoulder of the leopard that would be their dinner.

That day Simon’s skinners got my leopard skinned out and “into the salt”. After they took the dried skin out of the salt, I measured it as 93” from his nose to the end of his tail.

They then buried the skull for several days to clean it instead of boiling it. Simon said that boiling it can damage the teeth.

So this concludes my Mozambique leopard hunt. I apologize for the rambling length and details of this report, but I am reliving a “dream came true” as I write it.

I will continue with more sable hunting…

 

[stug]

Great read, I love the look of your leopard, especially the spots over his eyes. Congratulations.

 

[petrusg]

Awesome stuff, looked like a great hunt and awesome experience!!

 

[Outdoorlad]

Wicked, well done.

 

[Redruff]

Awesome adventure! Congrats on a nice leopard.

R.

 

[BWH]

Excellent report, cat, experience, etc.!!!!! Outstanding sir!

 

[Wheels]

Fantastic story.

Congratulations to all involved on the leopard. Look forward to the rest of the hunt.

I see Simon is prepared and has his leopard follow up coat on.

 

[Royal27]

First, CONGRATS to all!!! how exciting!!

Secondly though, am I the only one that thinks that eating leopard bait for dinner is actually pretty dang cool???

When we got back to camp the Warthog was divided up into one hind quarter for fresh Leopard bait, the tenderloins, backstraps, and the other hind quarter for fresh camp meat (of which we had several excellent meals), and the remainder went to the camp staff.

 

[enysse]

Congrats, great shooting!