Baiting

Welcome Erich,

Here in Southern Africa when the term baiting is used it only refers to predators - and only two, namely lion and leopard. In the un-fenced wildernesses of Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe that is the only way you will ever see a lion or leopard in the flesh and it has been the way lion and leopard hunting has been set up for visiting hunters for more than 120 years.

In South Africa where the law is that when you have dangerous animals on private land the final boundaries of the land has to be fenced as protection for other users of whatever adjoining infrastructure there may exist. While lion on these properties are free-ranging (meaning they catch their own food that co-exist on the minimum 4,000 acre land, and often as large as 100,000 acres) outfitters like myself and the properties I have concessions on only do tracking, finding fresh sign of a large male and following the tracks until we find him or the family group.

The shooting will always be a one on one affair - meaning that in the final instance the lion knows that he is being followed and also knows that no matter the size of the property there is a boundary somewhere beyond which he can not go. The stress of that knowledge makes him to at one time become dissatisfied with his options and then sooner or later he WILL turn on you. It is much more satisfying to pull the trigger at 15 yards after having looked one another in the face than assassinating a lion at a bait from a blind . The charge is quite brisk as they cover 100 yards in about three seconds.

I dislike the old style of shooting a zebra and then checking on the carcass three times a day or sitting in a blind and wait for a shootable lion to arrive. Invariably, 90% of the time it will be a male who is in the prime of his breeding, meaning between 5-7 years old.

Leopard you will never shoot without a bait - they will live within 200 yards of your camp and you will never see it.

There is sufficient numbers of edible game in South Africa to never even consider any form of unnatural food as a bait. As it is corn is not a natural food for any herbivore and is bad for grazers and browsers alike. Alfalfa is so high in protein and cause so much intestinal issues that it is almost criminal to lure game with it as is done in Colorado and Wyoming.

I suppose that if every landowner within an area where wild game exist plants alfalfa the chance of game coming onto your property will again be the same as if there was none at all planted by anybody.

Interesting, I knew that baiting has been used for lion for many years and I understand the need for it. That's why I really can't criticize the practice. For whitetail, as much as I dislike the practice, it's legal where I hunt and if everybody is baiting and planting food, I have to give them some reason to come to my area.

The type of lion hunting you describe is exactly what I would like to do if I ever get a chance.

That rifle with which you shoot a Cape buffalo or a lion after you and that animal had looked one another in the eye and you had been sized up and weighed as much as he was, is the one rifle you will never sell. It will have a story embedded in the very core of its wood, the bore, the feel of the trigger, the way the sights lineup when you shoulder it. A story of an intimate moment in life between you and it that is not for anyone else. Ever.