CAelknuts
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For much of this year, October 15th seemed a long way off; but now that I’m inside 30 days it’s coming very fast. Flights have been booked for 6 months, ammo is loaded, my .416 Hoffman is shooting .80” groups, and grouping 3 different Bullets (400 Grain Trophy Bonded Bearclaws, 400 grain Cutting Edge Solids & 370 grain Cutting Edge Raptors) all into 1.25”. My .338 Winchester will be my other rifle and it’s zeroed with 225 grain Barnes’s TTSX that shoot under .75”. Biggest change is I replaced the scope with a new Leupold VX5HD in 2-10 with the Fire Dot reticle. I think this scope will be excellent for leopard. It’ll be great for everything else as well.
I’m starting to lay out all my gear, which I don’t normally do until a couple days before I leave. I've been walking 3.5-4 miles every day, and starting to work up to 5-6 miles a day. I’m breaking in a new pair of boots to go with my old standby boots, should have about 25 miles on them before I leave. I'm flying Business Class on Qatar Airways, which I’m told is excellent, maybe the best of any airline. I’m interested in seeing how good it really is. San Francisco to Doha to Dar Es Salaam, about 30 hours total, including a 9 hour layover in Doha.
I’ll be hunting 16 days with Alan Vincent in his Mlele concession in western Tanzania. It sits between Katavi National Park & the Rukwa Game Reserve. 3 Cape Buffalo, Leopard, Sable, Eland and a few other Plains Game will round out what we will be hunting. First & foremost, this will be a buffalo hunt. I shot my first 4 buffalo with Alan’s father, Roy, back in the 1980’s. It’ll be wonderful to be hunting with Alan, who was a 10 year old kid in camp when I first met him While hunting with Roy.
It’s been a very long time since I’ve looked forward to any hunt as much as this one.
I’m starting to lay out all my gear, which I don’t normally do until a couple days before I leave. I've been walking 3.5-4 miles every day, and starting to work up to 5-6 miles a day. I’m breaking in a new pair of boots to go with my old standby boots, should have about 25 miles on them before I leave. I'm flying Business Class on Qatar Airways, which I’m told is excellent, maybe the best of any airline. I’m interested in seeing how good it really is. San Francisco to Doha to Dar Es Salaam, about 30 hours total, including a 9 hour layover in Doha.
I’ll be hunting 16 days with Alan Vincent in his Mlele concession in western Tanzania. It sits between Katavi National Park & the Rukwa Game Reserve. 3 Cape Buffalo, Leopard, Sable, Eland and a few other Plains Game will round out what we will be hunting. First & foremost, this will be a buffalo hunt. I shot my first 4 buffalo with Alan’s father, Roy, back in the 1980’s. It’ll be wonderful to be hunting with Alan, who was a 10 year old kid in camp when I first met him While hunting with Roy.
It’s been a very long time since I’ve looked forward to any hunt as much as this one.
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