Zambia leopard and buffalo hunt

Well, let us start off with the big one, this is all free range hunting, absolutely no guarantee of taking any animal. The area we hunted was roughly 800 square miles, we drove on average 125 miles a day. We took a couple of animals on the first couple of days, and then we didn't see anything for 4 days. The weather changed, it rained, the wind blew, and everything vanished into the trees and brush,or went back into the park. There are absolutely no fences and everything just comes and goes as it wants. Where in SA, 95 percent of the hunting areas are high fenced and you have a very high success rate on what you are after.

The Government sets the number of hunting days by species, My buffalo hunt was sold as a 7 day hunt, and Nick's leopard hunt was a 14 day hunt so I had to pay 7 days as on observer.
If I had not had the 14 days to hunt, the only animals I would of taken would of been the bushbuck, grysbok and hartebeest. We were required to buy licenses before we arrived. So, we had to go through and guess what we wanted to try to shoot and purchase licenses, we guessed right on some, and way way wrong on others. Since we had to bait Nick's leopard, we were lucky to get a few animals in the beginning, which you pay full trophy fee on, then there were no animals around for bait, and the cats had quit coming in so I figured no leopard. The daily rates are roughly 4.5 - 5x what you pay in SA, but the trophy fees are somewhat less.

Firearm choices, no handguns allowed, I took my .404 Jeffery and my 9.3x62, My .404 has a red dot on it, figured that would work fine, it worked well in SA in March, it didn't in this area, way to much brush, trees, and nothing in the open, everything constantly moving, we never got within 800 yards of a herd of zebra in 2 weeks, just a cloud of dust off in the distance. Shots in the trees and brush were pushing 100 yards at shadows basically, I ended up using my 9.3 for everything as it was scoped, and I could see some of tree branches in the way. I honestly think if I had been hunting with a handgun on this concession, I may have been able to take one or two animals. I should have studied this a little more, and put a scope on my .404J, or taken my scoped .416 Taylor. The 9.3x62 is not legal in Zambia for buffalo because of bore size, (.375 minimum vs .366) but it definitely works, and the PH did not have a problem with me using it.

The other thing that takes a little getting used to, is having a Game Scout with an AK47 following along with you everywhere you go, making sure that you are obeying most of the rules, they are actually quite handy and helpful, almost like having another tracker with you, but then when you take off chasing something in the brush, its another person making noise, everything was so dry there it was like walking on corn flakes.

I would have to say this hunt had lots of frustration at times, just because of not seeing any game, then we'd get a little taste and it would be ok for a while. Once Nick got his leopard, the pressure was off, and the hunt became a little more relaxed and laid back.

I am definitely glad that we did this hunt, but would I do it again, no, maybe a different country that is a little more affordable. But if you want to hunt Africa the way it used to be, this is a place to go.