ZAMBIA: Ntengu Safaris Hunt Report

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Loving this report so far, love the sable. But I actually appreciate the sitatunga even more I think.

 

[sestoppelman]

Sitatunga are special, welcome to the club! Great hunt!!

 

[WAB]

Great hunt and report Scott!

 

[Safari1]

Scott..thank you for the report!

 

[Stetsonham]

The red lechwe are on of the most beautiful animals to be taken in Africa in my opinion. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Scott CWO]

August 4 continued - After lunch, we worked our way out from camp towards the big Luama dambo. Saw the same big herd of sable bulls. No roan sighted at all. Saw several waterbuck, hartebeest and puku. Puku are found throughout the area with the biggest herds up near the area where I got the lechwe but you see smaller groups in the other dambos.

August 5 - In the morning, mom, dad and Ben joined us and we went north to the Monti dambo to look for buffalo and roan. We spotted six buffalo cows and a big-bodied bull at long range. The group was crossing the dambo and we tried to cut them off on foot to get a better look. We got closer but noticed the bull was not real wide so we left them and hiked back to the truck.

We continued on to the Mufbwe dambo and saw two small roan bulls together. Then we headed towards the big plains by the Busanga Swamp to check on the big herds of puku and to show the herds of puku and lechwe to my mother since she had not seen them yet. While there, Fico spotted one of the bigger bull puku that we had been waiting on. He was well outside the park so we put a stalk on him. The wind was blowing hard and gusting. I was able to get a broadside shot at 330 yards. The shot took him a little too far forward, in the front of the shoulder. He turned and stiffly trotted about 30 yards and stopped, quartered away. I readjusted and shot again and he went straight down. The second shot quartered through the body perfectly. Fico had played this puku game perfectly, being very patient to wait for the different herds to rotate around the plains in and out of the park.

 

[flatwater bill]

Great report and a great adventure. Was pleased to hear of someone taking rifles with no real problem, considering the horror stories here and elsewhere regarding same. Awesome Lechwe..........well done............FWB

 

[cpr0312]

Awesome sitatunga and puku! Congrats!

 

[Scott CWO]

August 5 continued - After puku pictures, we went back to camp for lunch. After lunch, Ben drove two poachers we had caught to the local government Game Scout camp. We caught them with an old FN .375 H&H bolt action with one round and two empty cases. He brought back five government scouts and transported them up to the swamp to deal with the illegal fishermen we had seen while hunting sitatunga earlier. The fishermen have a permit/license for five of them to fish. There were well more than five in their camp and also some women and children, also illegal. Fico said if he doesn’t keep track, soon they would have a small village all living there! Fico gets a bit frustrated with the local community. The outfit pays the government and the local community a lot of money and supplies the community with maize, soya and game meat, not to mention lots of jobs as trackers, cooks, waiters, skinners, etc… Agreements have been made for a specific number of fishermen so that they don’t overfish the resource but they are always pushing the limit.

After lunch, we headed south and drove some roads looking for roan. No luck.

 

[buck wild]

Fabulous report

 

[meigsbucks]

Great report! Keep it coming. After seeing your puku, I want one.

 

[WAB]

You are making me want to return to Zambia very badly!!!

 

[Scott CWO]

August 6 - In the morning, we went north and then west. Saw several sable and the usual common species but no roan yet. It was a cold and foggy morning. Later, we found two young roan bulls. We then saw a big herd of sable with a big bull. They spooked so we tried to flank them to get a better look at the bull but they disappeared. We had worked our way to the far south end of the area to some new country we had not seen yet. On the way back towards camp for lunch, we came upon a small herd of kudu with a very heavy 52”-53” bull with them. Earlier on the safari, we had seen a few kudu here and there and a small bull. There are not a lot of kudu in the area but they do have enough to have a few on quota. We did not pursue the kudu since they weren’t on my list.

We got back to camp for a late lunch. I had to catch up on some work emails so we didn’t hunt that evening. Meanwhile, Fico made arrangements with his office back in Lusaka to get me a roan license for Lunda since we hadn’t seen a mature bull in Kasonso yet. As I mentioned earlier, Kasonso and Lunda are technically two different areas with different quotas so my roan license for Kasonso wasn’t valid in Lunda.

August 7 - We left camp just before daylight. Saw a couple groups of elephants with a small newborn and another youngster. Later, we spotted a group of sable. My dad thought he saw a roan with them so we followed them on foot and sure enough, there was a lonely young roan bull with the sable. We left them and continued on. Then back to camp for lunch.

After lunch, Dad, Fico and I sat in a blind to see if we could get a nice bushbuck we had seen on an earlier day coming to the water. The bushbuck never showed but we enjoyed watching blue duiker and waterbuck come to drink.

August 8 - Left at 4:30am to drive over to Lunda to look for a roan bull that Fico had seen on an earlier safari there. At daylight, we saw a giant herd of 500-600 buffalo in Lunda headed south towards the park. Since I didn’t have a buffalo license for Lunda, all we could do was watch and enjoy them. A few minutes later, we saw a mature lone roan bull in the park. He was nice and heavy!

We briefly stopped at the Masozhi fly camp in Lunda and dropped off some supplies to the two guys living there.

When we arrived at the big open area where Fico had seen the mature roan bull with cows on a previous safari, he immediately spotted some roan. We exited the cruiser and made a wide loop through some trees to get the wind and to cut the distance to have a look. When we got to a good spot to glass them up, we saw three cows, a calf and a wildebeest bull. Where is the rest of the herd and the bull? We backed out and returned to the cruiser to keep looking.

We carried on and later came across a lone roan bull. We tried to put a flanking stalk on him to get a better look but we ended up spooking him. I think we were moving too fast in the noisy conditions. He disappeared and we couldn’t relocate him. We drove back to the fly camp for lunch.

After lunch, we looked for more roan but we’re unsuccessful. It was a long drive back to Kasonso that night!

August 9 - We all drove north along the boundary road to look for roan and buffalo. Found buffalo spoor from the big herd we had seen on our first morning on July 28 but it was a day old. Saw the usual sable, hartebeest, etc…. We then made a loop to the west and then north again looking for roan in the Monti dambo. Spotted a group of 20 roan! Made a long stalk and crawled for about 200 yards in high grass to reach a big termite mound. If not for big termite mounds, the roan would be impossible to approach in these big openings. We closed to 317 yards but the bull in the herd was young and 23”-24” so we passed. Hiked back to the cruiser and continued on and back to camp for lunch.

After lunch, we did the usual driving looking for roan but didn’t find any.

 

[Scott CWO]

August 10 - Left camp just before daylight. Looked at several areas for roan. Found a lone bull but with the heat waves, we couldn’t tell how big. We stalked up to 358 yards and got the same answer - too young and small. Back to camp for lunch.

After lunch, we headed southwest looking for roan. About 40 minutes before dark, we spotted a herd of 22 roan with a good bull. Finally! We flanked them to their left as they were constantly moving. These roan are sure tough to hunt! We kept them in sight for a couple miles and had to work past some elephants as well. Just as we had enough terrain to approach, we ran into a lone big sable that spooked the roan. The sable kept getting in our way! We finally got past the sable and back on the roan. We closed the distance to 300 yards and I had them in my scope waiting for Fico to tell me which one was the bull. By now it was getting dark and he couldn’t pick out the bull because we had lost too much light. Damn the luck! If not for bad luck with roan, we wouldn’t have any luck at all! We backed out and headed to camp for dinner.

 

[Scott CWO]

August 11 - Our last day in Kasonso before chartering to the Bangweulu Swamp for black lechwe. We left at 5am to circle around the area where we had last seen the roan the day before. We drove every road in the general area but didn’t see them anywhere. I suggested we try to track them from where we last saw them but Fico said they move too far in the night for that to work.

Later that morning we came across two big herds of sable in the same dambo. Between them was a huge lone bull. He looked really good. The horns came up off his head really high and then arched all the way back over and down. We thought he was upper 40s for sure! At 293 yards in high grass, I could have shot him off the cruiser but that’s no fun! The wind wasn’t the best and there were the two herds within 200 yards on either side of him. We decided to try a stalk, even if futile. There was nothing else to do and no way to get around the other herds. We took off flanking him to our left a bit in high grass for cover. To our right it was too open. We were basically headed straight between him and the herd to the left. Our wind would end up at the herd but we had to try. It was the last morning so we didn’t have much to lose. There was a termite mound we were trying to reach that would get us above the high grass enough to shoot. It would be about a 125 yard shot if we could get there before everything spooked. We only needed about 10 more yards to get to the mound and it looked like we might pull it off. The herd to our left had gotten our wind and were nervous and looking but the big bull had his head down still feeding. Just then, we felt the wind switch with it blowing straight towards the big bull. Oh damn! He jerked his head up and took off like a thoroughbred race horse. We could do nothing but watch his huge horns and head above the high grass as he ran out of sight! Back to camp for lunch.

After lunch, we drove around looking for roan. We still could not find the big herd from the day before. Just before sundown, I tapped on the cab of the cruiser to get Fico to stop. I jumped down off the cruiser to talk to him. I asked him how far we were from the area near camp where we had seen a nice bushbuck with a female several days before. He said we could probably get there just before dark if we hurried. I said let’s go! I got back up on the back seat of the cruiser with the trackers and my dad and we took off!

I have a shoulder mounted bushbuck in my office that I got in Mozambique in 2014 but I’ve always wanted a full body mount bushbuck and the colors on the bushbuck in Kasonso are beautiful.

We got to the area where we had seen the bushbucks just before dark. After looking around for five minutes or so, we were really lucky and spotted the pair of them on top of a big termite mound. This mound was covered in trees except for an opening at the very top. The female was in the opening but the male was in the tree cover. We needed to confirm his size but figured it was him. In another stroke of luck, he walked up to the female and we could clearly see the horns. It was him! I was already on the sticks when Fico said it was him. I immediately shot and he dropped and never moved DRT! He will make a beautiful mount and what a better way to end our time at Kasonso and just 10 minutes from camp!

 

[WAB]

That’s a heck of a bushbuck!

 

[Safari1]

Scott, what about lions? I hear that it is a great area for them?

 

[Scott CWO]

August 12 - We were packed up and had breakfast at 6am. The charter plane arrived at 6:30am. We loaded up all my bags on the plane. My parents took just their carry-on bags on the plane. Ben would haul their other bags and my trophies to Lusaka and meet us there after our day in Bangweulu. The four of us - Fico, Mom, Dad and I got on the plane for the two and a half hour flight to the Bangweulu Swamp. I took a picture from the plane of the swamp. See below.

Upon landing, we were greeted by a woman (I forget her name) who supervises the African Parks hunting program at the swamp headquarters. Her, a local skinner, the Game Scout and the pilot all got on the cruiser as well and we headed out. It was quite an entourage.

There are herds of black lechwe visible from the headquarters. We were determined to make this situation into a hunt so we drove on past those herds to find others. About a mile further on, we came upon three other herds. These black lechwe bunch up when a vehicle approaches, making it next to impossible to take a shot at anything but the animals at the outside edge. Fico said by approaching them on foot, you can split the herds into smaller herds and get a shot much easier. So that’s what we did. Everyone else stayed in the cruiser while Fico, the Game Scout and I started breaking up the herds and glassing. The herds walk a lot and they try to keep about 250-300 yards away at all times.

According to Fico, the darkest bulls usually have smaller horns than the lighter bulls. It’s possible but it can be challenging to find a bull that’s dark and big but that’s how to make it a hunt! The black lechwe are the smallest of the three species in Zambia in both horn and body size. They aren’t really black at all but do have some dark hair on them, especially the upper legs and parts of the neck and front half of the body.

After a couple hours of walking alongside the herds and breaking them up into smaller herds, we found a big and dark bull. I got the crosshairs on him three times but there were always other bulls in front or behind him or he would run. It’s a game of patience and persistence. The herds would mix together and then back apart again. In this confusion, we lost track of him. We stalked each herd again and again looking for him but he seemed to have disappeared! Back to the drawing board!

About an hour later, we gave up on the dark bull. We found a good bull but he wasn’t as dark as the one we lost track of in the confusion. We flanked this bull again and again and I finally got a shot at him just as he took off. He was gut shot and stopped to lay down. All the other bulls trotted away. I shot him again and we were done. It turned out to be more challenging than I thought it would be so that was nice.

Here’s another photo of me holding his head up so you can see more of the colors. He was 24”

I took this picture from the top of the cruiser to show how open the country looks with only an occasional tree.

 

[Red Leg]

August 4 continued - After lunch, we worked our way out from camp towards the big Luama dambo. Saw the same big herd of sable bulls. No roan sighted at all. Saw several waterbuck, hartebeest and puku. Puku are found throughout the area with the biggest herds up near the area where I got the lechwe but you see smaller groups in the other dambos.

August 5 - In the morning, mom, dad and Ben joined us and we went north to the Monti dambo to look for buffalo and roan. We spotted six buffalo cows and a big-bodied bull at long range. The group was crossing the dambo and we tried to cut them off on foot to get a better look. We got closer but noticed the bull was not real wide so we left them and hiked back to the truck.

We continued on to the Mufbwe dambo and saw two small roan bulls together. Then we headed towards the big plains by the Busanga Swamp to check on the big herds of puku and to show the herds of puku and lechwe to my mother since she had not seen them yet. While there, Fico spotted one of the bigger bull puku that we had been waiting on. He was well outside the park so we put a stalk on him. The wind was blowing hard and gusting. I was able to get a broadside shot at 330 yards. The shot took him a little too far forward, in the front of the shoulder. He turned and stiffly trotted about 30 yards and stopped, quartered away. I readjusted and shot again and he went straight down. The second shot quartered through the body perfectly. Fico had played this puku game perfectly, being very patient to wait for the different herds to rotate around the plains in and out of the park.
View attachment 483311

View attachment 483312

Have you measured this guy? He looks like a real monster.

 

[Scott CWO]

Y

Scott, what about lions? I hear that it is a great area for them?

Yes, some absolutely great lions taken in both areas. Only one per year. The best time is early July before too much burning has occurred. The lions like to hunt the puku and lechwe in the taller grass near the plains but of course can be anywhere. We heard lions and saw tracks but never saw them. Fico showed me where they get most of them with hippo baits. PM me if you are interested and want to see some pictures. The lions they get rank right up there with Tanzania - big-bodied and dark, full manes.