Rider717
AH veteran
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2014
- Messages
- 148
- Reaction score
- 264
- Media
- 61
- Member of
- NRA, SCI, RMEF, DSC, IGFA
- Hunted
- South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Wyoming, South Africa, Argentina
Outfitter: Game trackers Africa
PH: JP VanWyngard
Area: LR2 concession, Selous game reserve. Mweiba camp and Lake Utunge camp
Rifle: Blaser R8 375 H&H Mag
Scope: Zeiss Victory V8 1.5-8 illuminated
Suppressor: Banish 46
Ammo: Custom Safari Arms 300 grain Barnes TSX; Factory Federal 300 grain Woodleigh hydro solids
14 Day leopard and buffalo safari.
Target species: Leopard, buffalo, Lichtensteins hartebeest, Nyassa wildebeest, hippo, crocodile
Departed Atlanta on July 20th
Returned Atlanta August 7th
Ethiopian Airlines Atlanta-Addis Ababa-Dar Es Salaam-bush plane charter to the Selous
Bush plane charter Selous-DAR-Ethiopian -ADD-FCO-ATL
Paid the business upgrade fee. Well worth it in my opinion.
This was a bucket list safari that was supposed to happen in 2023 but was delayed a year while I built a house. The house didn't get started until June of this year but I didn't want to wait another year due to my target species.
A big thank you to all those who responded to my queries on travelling Ethiopian Airlines through Addis. I was almost prepared for flying with them. Almost.
Before I get to the hunting I'll share my gun travelling fun. Checking in ATL: fairly smooth. I had 8 copies of everything. They wanted copies of my passport, form 4457 and my gun license. I explained that I didn't have a license and they accepted the 4457 for that. The process took 30 minutes and required 3 supervisors and the making of multiple copies of my documents. They gave me 4 copies of the signed Ethiopian firearm declaration form, which was nice. Flight from ATL-ADD uneventful. Turn time in ADD was 1+45, plenty of time. I was met on the jet bridge and escorted to the far end of the terminal down to the ramp level, then bussed back to the other end of the terminal to do the firearms check. My gun case (which was supposed to be loaded last so that it would be first off) was not there. I had placed my ammo in two separate locked containers in my checked duffel bag. We waited over an hour for the bags to show up. The inspector arrived and I opened my gun case so he could check serial numbers, then had to pull out and open the ammo cases so ammo could be counted. This took about 25 minutes. Luckily, I had enough copies to give him so after his inspection we were off to the terminal, almost. We had to wait 5 minutes for transportation back to the opposite end of the terminal. It is now 10 minutes to departure. Back in the terminal running to the security checkpoint, the escort pushed everyone aside to get me to the front. Then up the escalator and halfway back through the airport to the gate only to have to go through security again. The escort got me to the boarding line and pushed me to the front. 5 minutes to spare, whew. In DAR it was the same. Firearm inspection plus ammo count then transport from International terminal to domestic to do it all again! There I found out I had to pay $82 tax for the ammo import. Was not expecting that. The rifle import was paid as part of my safari package. The flight to the bush airstrip was uneventful. We picked up our Tanzanian game scout, Lewis, who would be with us every day.
I met up with JP VanWyngard, my PH, in the domestic terminal. We got acquainted and he filled me in on the hunting and asked what I was after as far as trophy size expectations. He explained that we would be hunting at a lodge several hours south of the lake I thought we would be hunting near. This is the LR3 concession in the Selous. Eastern Africa had some extreme rain in April and May and much of the concession was flooded, 10'-20' in some areas. The area we would be hunting was normally very dry and full of animals near water sources. Not this year. It was green and grass was very high. Water was everywhere. Our safari would overlap by three days with another who was finishing up his 14 day leopard chase.
We arrived at camp, showered and had dinner and then off to bed for me.
Day 1: Up a little late so I could catch up on sleep. Met up with the trackers and driver. On the road around 9am.
JP decided to drive to an area they call Serengeti, because it is relatively open and flat. I expected to see animals everywhere but we were over an hour driving before I saw my first animal, a lone zebra, who promptly disappeared into a forest. We broke out of the forest and drove along Serengeti and the trackers spotted wildebeest. We got out to stalk but they were long gone. As we continued our drive we saw a nice bush duiker in a small forested area but he ran and never stopped. Further down we bumped a hartebeest herd and started a stalk on them. As we got close they ran and kept running. We tried to intercept them and found them running with a herd of zebra. Again, they kept running. We kept driving and saw a couple of nice sized impala rams but every time we stalked they took off running and never stopped. Drove around the rest of the day but the animals were not to be found. Everything was green. Normally, by this time they would have burned down most of the old grass and new shoots would be sprouting, bringing animals in. The grass for the most part wouldn't burn. They dropped matches everytime we stopped and as we drove. Sometimes it would catch and burn an acre or two, but most times it would burn a few yards of grass.
Back to camp for dinner and bed. Lions and hyenas and maybe a leopard visiting or coming close to camp that night. Not an easy sleep!
Day 2: Up early. JP expalined that we really needed to kill something for leopard bait. I was agreeable to that. Back to Serengeti to look for wildebeest and hartebeest. We bumped a couple female and one small boar warthog. Then we found fresh lion tracks. We walked the length of the plain without seeing anything other than the warthogs. Found a leopard track that looked promising and found a tree to hang bait, when we got some. Spotted some zebra who were very anxious and watched them run away, fast. Back to driving. The area was devoid of animals. It seemed the lions had scared everything off. After a couple of hours I got my first look at a buffalo. One OK bull and a soft bossed juvenile. They weren't what I was looking for in the Selous so we kept driving. The roads were a mess and ditches that were normally yards across were now hundreds of yards wide and deep rutted from the floods. And there was still water everywhere, puddles to acres large water holes. After lunch the trackers spotted some buffalo tracks and we stalked what turned out to be a large herd for an hour only to have the wind turn on us as we got to within 200 yards. By the sound of them running it was a hundred or more animals. Decided to start back to camp in the later afternoon and as we drove I spotted a large warthog under a tree. We stopped and he froze and watched us. A definite shooter. One shot and a 50 yard run and we had our first animal, and more importantly bait!
This boar was twice the body size of every other warthog we saw.
Here he is in the truck bed.
He was cut in half and placed into 2 separate trees for leopard bait. I'm keeping the skull.
Back to camp with one in the salt on day 2.
More to follow...
PH: JP VanWyngard
Area: LR2 concession, Selous game reserve. Mweiba camp and Lake Utunge camp
Rifle: Blaser R8 375 H&H Mag
Scope: Zeiss Victory V8 1.5-8 illuminated
Suppressor: Banish 46
Ammo: Custom Safari Arms 300 grain Barnes TSX; Factory Federal 300 grain Woodleigh hydro solids
14 Day leopard and buffalo safari.
Target species: Leopard, buffalo, Lichtensteins hartebeest, Nyassa wildebeest, hippo, crocodile
Departed Atlanta on July 20th
Returned Atlanta August 7th
Ethiopian Airlines Atlanta-Addis Ababa-Dar Es Salaam-bush plane charter to the Selous
Bush plane charter Selous-DAR-Ethiopian -ADD-FCO-ATL
Paid the business upgrade fee. Well worth it in my opinion.
This was a bucket list safari that was supposed to happen in 2023 but was delayed a year while I built a house. The house didn't get started until June of this year but I didn't want to wait another year due to my target species.
A big thank you to all those who responded to my queries on travelling Ethiopian Airlines through Addis. I was almost prepared for flying with them. Almost.
Before I get to the hunting I'll share my gun travelling fun. Checking in ATL: fairly smooth. I had 8 copies of everything. They wanted copies of my passport, form 4457 and my gun license. I explained that I didn't have a license and they accepted the 4457 for that. The process took 30 minutes and required 3 supervisors and the making of multiple copies of my documents. They gave me 4 copies of the signed Ethiopian firearm declaration form, which was nice. Flight from ATL-ADD uneventful. Turn time in ADD was 1+45, plenty of time. I was met on the jet bridge and escorted to the far end of the terminal down to the ramp level, then bussed back to the other end of the terminal to do the firearms check. My gun case (which was supposed to be loaded last so that it would be first off) was not there. I had placed my ammo in two separate locked containers in my checked duffel bag. We waited over an hour for the bags to show up. The inspector arrived and I opened my gun case so he could check serial numbers, then had to pull out and open the ammo cases so ammo could be counted. This took about 25 minutes. Luckily, I had enough copies to give him so after his inspection we were off to the terminal, almost. We had to wait 5 minutes for transportation back to the opposite end of the terminal. It is now 10 minutes to departure. Back in the terminal running to the security checkpoint, the escort pushed everyone aside to get me to the front. Then up the escalator and halfway back through the airport to the gate only to have to go through security again. The escort got me to the boarding line and pushed me to the front. 5 minutes to spare, whew. In DAR it was the same. Firearm inspection plus ammo count then transport from International terminal to domestic to do it all again! There I found out I had to pay $82 tax for the ammo import. Was not expecting that. The rifle import was paid as part of my safari package. The flight to the bush airstrip was uneventful. We picked up our Tanzanian game scout, Lewis, who would be with us every day.
I met up with JP VanWyngard, my PH, in the domestic terminal. We got acquainted and he filled me in on the hunting and asked what I was after as far as trophy size expectations. He explained that we would be hunting at a lodge several hours south of the lake I thought we would be hunting near. This is the LR3 concession in the Selous. Eastern Africa had some extreme rain in April and May and much of the concession was flooded, 10'-20' in some areas. The area we would be hunting was normally very dry and full of animals near water sources. Not this year. It was green and grass was very high. Water was everywhere. Our safari would overlap by three days with another who was finishing up his 14 day leopard chase.
We arrived at camp, showered and had dinner and then off to bed for me.
Day 1: Up a little late so I could catch up on sleep. Met up with the trackers and driver. On the road around 9am.
JP decided to drive to an area they call Serengeti, because it is relatively open and flat. I expected to see animals everywhere but we were over an hour driving before I saw my first animal, a lone zebra, who promptly disappeared into a forest. We broke out of the forest and drove along Serengeti and the trackers spotted wildebeest. We got out to stalk but they were long gone. As we continued our drive we saw a nice bush duiker in a small forested area but he ran and never stopped. Further down we bumped a hartebeest herd and started a stalk on them. As we got close they ran and kept running. We tried to intercept them and found them running with a herd of zebra. Again, they kept running. We kept driving and saw a couple of nice sized impala rams but every time we stalked they took off running and never stopped. Drove around the rest of the day but the animals were not to be found. Everything was green. Normally, by this time they would have burned down most of the old grass and new shoots would be sprouting, bringing animals in. The grass for the most part wouldn't burn. They dropped matches everytime we stopped and as we drove. Sometimes it would catch and burn an acre or two, but most times it would burn a few yards of grass.
Back to camp for dinner and bed. Lions and hyenas and maybe a leopard visiting or coming close to camp that night. Not an easy sleep!
Day 2: Up early. JP expalined that we really needed to kill something for leopard bait. I was agreeable to that. Back to Serengeti to look for wildebeest and hartebeest. We bumped a couple female and one small boar warthog. Then we found fresh lion tracks. We walked the length of the plain without seeing anything other than the warthogs. Found a leopard track that looked promising and found a tree to hang bait, when we got some. Spotted some zebra who were very anxious and watched them run away, fast. Back to driving. The area was devoid of animals. It seemed the lions had scared everything off. After a couple of hours I got my first look at a buffalo. One OK bull and a soft bossed juvenile. They weren't what I was looking for in the Selous so we kept driving. The roads were a mess and ditches that were normally yards across were now hundreds of yards wide and deep rutted from the floods. And there was still water everywhere, puddles to acres large water holes. After lunch the trackers spotted some buffalo tracks and we stalked what turned out to be a large herd for an hour only to have the wind turn on us as we got to within 200 yards. By the sound of them running it was a hundred or more animals. Decided to start back to camp in the later afternoon and as we drove I spotted a large warthog under a tree. We stopped and he froze and watched us. A definite shooter. One shot and a 50 yard run and we had our first animal, and more importantly bait!
This boar was twice the body size of every other warthog we saw.
Here he is in the truck bed.
He was cut in half and placed into 2 separate trees for leopard bait. I'm keeping the skull.
Back to camp with one in the salt on day 2.
More to follow...
