Dr. Dave Steger likes to hunt in Africa for several reasons. First is that it is cheap to hunt in Africa, “For the price of a guided elk hunt in Wyoming, you can go to South Africa and hunt 7 to 10 species on a 10-day hunt. Their costs are far lower than ours are— labor, food and almost everything except fuel.”

Second, he said the species diversity is mind-boggling. “In South Africa, you can harvest the big five—elephant, lion, leopard, cape buffalo and rhinos. There are 40 huntable species in South Africa alone.” 

Dave’s dream hunt is to take a male lion. He pointed out that like the wolf and grizzly bear, the lion has no fear. In 1997, he spent 14 days tracking them on foot. “I wanted to do it the old fashioned way. We got close to big male lions twice—in thick stuff so we could not get a shot. One in the open, but he was running at about 30 yards. I would not take the shot,” Dave said.

He traveled to the northern border of South Africa in 2005 for a second chance to harvest a big male. This is where the Kalahari Desert starts. It is brush, sandy soil, tall thorn bushes, absolutely marginal land for cattle or sheep so the private landowners reintroduced game animals on their huge farms Dave found a very isolated outfit, the Fletcher family of Sandhurst Safaris. The farm was about 270, 000 acres and excellent country to hunt. 

The guides sent out trackers who found a pair of adults, a female and a male. They called Dave, his wife and a friend the radio. The safari provides four or six trackers who run after the lion while the two professional hunters follow in their Land Rovers. Pierre Bonnet was the lead hunter. The trackers jobs are to find the lion track to let the lion know that they are being followed.

Dave said that cats are lazy; they will run a little way and then stop, but they will walk forever. The tracker pushes the lion to tire him. When they see that the lion has broken into a run, the trackers keep running after him. They ran at a slow jog for 90 minutes. It was unbelievable to watch. The cat went in a straight line. They tire easily and take the path of least resistance to escape, just like domestic house cats. When the lion slowed down, the guides cut the dogs loose. It is a unique technique and very exciting, Dave said.

“We turned out the dogs and they took off howling just like they do with mountain lions.,” Dave said. “The female veered off and my wife saw her flash through the bush. We stayed on the male track. All of a sudden, we could see his butt sticking out from under a thorn bush.”

The guides used several dogs, including a three-legged dog, and a little scruffy-looking mutt dog named Scruffy. We called back the dogs trying to get the lion to move. He was going to set and fight. Finally, they brought a vehicle up and really pushed into him. He got up and started to walk away. We saw that he was a mature lion about six or seven years old, but maybe there is better Pierre said. Catch and Release. We pulled the dogs off and let him go. Exciting! He was a nice mature lion with a good-looking mane. I am wondering if we are going to get another chance—hunter’s remorse.”

“The ninth day, we got a call at camp that the trackers found a fresh track. It was early in the morning—a half hour after daylight, but it was hot. Two black trackers said ‘it’s a big one, let’s go after it.’ I could not see anything in the sand, but sand is easy for these guys to track in. It is probably the best, no rocks and relatively flat terrain.

The guys run after the lion. This goes on for miles and miles. The lion runs and the guys keep running—pushing, pushing, pushing—harder, harder, harder. We want that lion to know he is being pursued to tire him out. We go for about an hour. The cat is slowing down, so it is time to let out the dogs. This time it is three dogs, a rookie, Scruffy and the three-legged dog which was injured in a prior hunting incident. The guides use Walkers, just like our mountain lion hunters. Pierre’s main dog Scruffy was a hybrid mix.

Pierre lets the dogs out and they go crazy, barking and baying and howling after this cat. The lion is hiding in a bush and all we see is the butt again. The dogs surrounded the lion and were barking and snapping. The dog is in his face,” Dave said.


Scruffy and lion

Crouching down, Dave throws his arms out and forward like he is going to claw. He  starts growling and snarling. Dave said the cat was in the bush and you could make his head out. “He is not coming out. We are about 20 yards away, three armed hunters. The black guys get back a lot further because they were unarmed. They did not even carry sticks.”

“We could not see the lion’s mane. Pierre, the professional hunter was very picky about killing mature lions. One of the black trackers brings up a vehicle and Pierre said ‘I’m going to push this cat out of here.’ He drives into the thorn bush and the cat busts out of there. The dogs were on his butt! We see that the cat is a BIG one—big huge mane, a little bit of black in it but a nice mane. The cat runs across the scrub and jumps into a camel thorn tree about 15 feet high. Trees do not get too high in semi-desert. The cat is up there and his tail is a few feet off the ground. Scruffy the dog bites the lion in the tail and hangs on. Unbelievable! This is about a 35-pound dog. My wife is snapping photos as fast as she can,” Dave said.

“The lion is trying to climb higher in this tree and there is a dog hanging on its tail. It is a huge lion and they usually do not climb trees, but they will if they have to. He comes tumbling out of the tree and we get a good look at him. He hits the ground ready to do something. He is down low and growling. He takes some swipes at Scruffy. The lion is facing us in the semi-open. The rookie dog is hanging back and barking. The the three-legged dog and Scruffy are in his face. Scruffy really wants to eat lion.”

“This is where I have to make a shot, Dave said. “It is a frontal shot and we have dogs jumping around in the way. Pierre is counseling me to ‘be patient, he is not going to get up right now. He is tired from running and he knows he can handle these dogs.’ Finally, the dogs got out of the way Pierre said ‘Dave, take a frontal shot when you get a chance. Be careful of the dogs.’ I was using open sights over a .470 nitro rifle built over 100 years ago. So it was a special hunt because I was using an 1895 English double rifle,” Dave said.

“The lion is crouched so I have about six inches of shooting distance between his head and the ground. I fired and the lion flinched. I fired the second barrel. He got up and as he got up, he took a swing at one of the dogs. Dust and dirt flying. Scruffy is no more than six inches from that lion’s mouth. The lion is up on his feet, shot mortally—twice in the chest, but plenty live enough. As he gets up, he grabs Scruffy and pulls him in. He spins around and faces away with the dog in his mouth. I shoot him in the back. The lion rolls over a couple of times. He roars, but he is done. A finishing shot in the chest and its over. He has Scruffy in his mouth by the hindquarters and broke his femur. I feel awful for the dog. That was a thrill. The lion weighed 490 pounds. We figured it was a 12-year-old. “

“The professional hunters back up the trophy hunter, because some people come apart when they are faced with a 500-pound lion.” Dave said he was shaking because of the adrenalin. After we got him in the truck, that’s when the adrenalin kicked in. It was the culmination of a five-hour hunt. That night was fabulous. For the next couple of days, we basically kicked back.”

Sandhurst Safari web page at http://www.sandhurstsafaris.com/

NEXT STORY>

Dave’s dream hunt is to take a male lion. He pointed out that like the wolf and grizzly bear, the lion has no fear.

African Cat

Dave Steger and Buffalo
Photo Credit: Dave Steger