Dande Safari Area - Leopard & Buffalo

.375 W & .416 Rem
Swift A Frame/Woodleigh

Day 1 – hung 5 baits. Shot 2 impala to get a head start with meat that Buzz got for us.

Day 2 – shot 1 impala and hung the 2 impala from the previous day as well. Total baits 8. One female leopard on bait, sent trackers after dagga boy but he was young.

Day 3 – got a male and female on bait, built a blind and checked other baits and hung one more from meat from Dale’s Buffalo. Sat in the blind but no luck.

Day 4 – sat in the blind and saw the male and female. They walked up to 5 yards from the blind at 6:05 but got a good gust of our scent and took off, he was a nice male. Checked other baits, got hits from another 3 males, two good sized and one small, so total of 4 males and 4 females on bait. Built another blind on the bait where the  largest leopard was feeding. Sat in the blind that evening but nothing.

Day 5-11: sat morning and evening in various blinds with 5 males on bait. Saw 5 females and 1 male but the male was too smart. Hung up another bait with another hit from a male leopard.

Day 12 – sat in the blind in the evening at 17:45 the male leopard was shot. Perfect shot from Jerome.

Day 13 – looked for buffalo but no luck and lioness no luck. We put up a bait for lioness to sit on the final morning.

Day 14 – got into the blind early. No lions but there were hyena. Jerome shot one. The rest of the day was spent chasing buffalo around. Late evening we got into a small herd did a 45 minute stalk and Jerome got a good buffalo bull.

18 hour days waking up at 3am for 12 days, 6 male leopards on bait, 6 blinds and 17 sittings all paid off. Well done to Jerome, a good safari down to the wire.