Forums.NitroExpress.com

here's an attempt:

The year was 1979, and this was going to be my second lion hunt as my first ended the year before without a chance for a quality trophy male Simba. A lion was the last animal on the list for me to fill out my big five, and I wanted to do it right.

Although I had started dangerous game hunting for buffalo and leopard with a bolt action rifle, the nostalgia and elegance found in a double were too appealing to resist. Following my buffalo hunt, I picked up a vintage Army & Navy double in 470 nitro express. It was a bit worse for wear, having been used in Africa for many years, but I felt lucky have it as may vintage doubles are now permanently out of circulation.

For my second lion hunt I selected the Selous area of Tanzania. The Selous presents the visiting client with wonderful east African scenery, abundant plains game, and challenging fair chase dangerous game hunting. It is wild country that I hope will never be tamed.

The first few days of this 21 day hunt, we hunted plains game, taking zebra and wildebeest for bait. On the third evening a bait was hit, so the fourth day we planned to lie in wait for the lions the zebra had attracted.

Before first light, we moved into a blind downwind of the zebra bait. I could not hear any sound of lions feeding and was worried that perhaps the pride had finished off the zebra and moved on to hunt on their own. Just past 7:30 in the morning, I was beginning to feel despondent when my professional hunter pointed to movement in the grass 30 yards to our right. We waited, and a lioness appeared and slowly walked to the bait. A second and a third lioness then arrived. Almost immediately after the third lioness presented hereself, a large male with a thick mane appeared on the opposite side of the bait. My view of him was partially blocked by the bait tree and we had to wait. A gruelling 5 minutes passed while we waited for the male lion to present a shot, but he finally did. As he stepped from behind the bait tree I was offered a 40 yard shot quartering toward me. Without hesitation I shot and the lion slumped. The 3 lionesses were startled, looked around for a few seconds, and moved off.

My professional hunter slapped me on the back and congratuled me on a fine shot. We both exited the blind and I did not even think about reloading as I walked quickly forward toward the obviously dead male lion. The professional hunter was on my left as we passed the tall grass where the lionesses had emerged. As we moved past the grass, I heard some movement and looked to my right. There was another lioness we had not seen, crouched and startled to see us. I swung my double toward her as I tried to back direclty away. My back was toward the professional hunter, preventing him from raising his rifle toward the lion. I only made it two steps back when she lept forward from a distance of not more than 10 yards. Shooting a lioness was not legal at the time and I did not want to do so unless absolutely necessary, so I hesitated as the lioness moved forward. At a distance of about 15 feet I realized that she was not bluffing and I instinctively pulled the trigger for my second barrel, sending a .470 soft point into her chest. She rolled to the side and ran off into the grass.

Visibly shaken, the professional hunter and I rested after I had reloaded, then we went forward to confirm that the male lion was indeed dead. We later found the lioness also dead about 50 yards from where I had shot her.

It was foolish for me to not reload immediately after shooting the male lion, but if I had not had that second barrel available, the lioness would have been on top of me before the professional hunter could have intervened. My skin was saved that day by a double rifle.

Post Extras