Well, after waiting nearly too long, I have finally booked a trophy bull elephant and cape buffalo hunt with Vaughan Fulton in his new Caprivi concession for later this year. My wife and I loved our safari in Namibia last year and can't wait to get back, and this time to a new part of the country for us.

I will be taking my new AHR 550 DGR in .500 A-Square, which Ed Plummer will be shipping to me this week, assuming I can shoot it worth a damn , and its twin in .458 Lott as a back up.

Vaughan says that the elephants in his new concession have been averaging 50-60 pounds over the past year or so. If I get lucky, I will fill out my ticket for the Big Four plus a big land-stalked hippo.

Vaughan also has a resident buffalo herd down along the Chobe on his new concession and I am looking forward to seeing how fast a 600 grain .500 caliber Woodleigh PP soft nose at 2,400 fps will put one down--again, assuming it doesn't put me down first.

It's amazing how excited my wife and I have become about this since I finalized the arrangements with Vaughan. We're really looking forward to this trip.

One thing I DO NOT want to do is ride the SAA cattle car again. I have asked Kathi to look into booking us through Germany this time. I'd love to hear from anyone who's booked that route lately. How does it compare in cost with the SAA flight?

Vaughan tells me that Air Namibia is offering commercial flights from Windhoek to Katima Mulilo, which is up near the border with Zambia about 50 km or so north of his concession. That will save the cost of a charter.

For all of you who have been holding out (or procrastinating) out there like me, I'm pretty sure that Vaughan still has some elephants left on his quota for '05.

I am also going to Vaughan's new concession in the Caprivi just not sure exactly the dates. I will just be hunting buffalo.

Mike

Glad to hear it! We're going to be there in Oct. looking for a buffalo.

Forget Kathi...call Barb at International Journeys. She got us straightened out and booked through Frankfurt. She has been the most prompt travel agent I have dealt with. She also got us seats out of Windhoek on Air Namibia when Gracey Travel told us the flight was full!???

1-800-203-0951

A little more expensive than SAA, but some things are worth it.

I booked the European route with another agency for my May trip to hunt with Vaughan. It was a little over $1500 compared to the $2000 through RSA. A couple of layovers in Chicago and Frankfurt but that will break up the long flight.
Lucky1

mrlexma,

Interesting! I've been corresponding with Vaughan re: elephant, buff and lion. I'll be very interested in your assessment of the concession. I'm particularly interested in the size of elephant you find and if lions are present in numbers.

Good Hunting,

Mark

MR, I see you're taking just your plainsgame rifles.

Sounds like a great trip. Good luck to you (as if you need it).

Vaughan- If you are listening, any word on what the latest might be in granting the "other" goverment concessions in the Caprivi? Bob Butler.

Mark and McCray: Guys, I'm going late so save me a good buff, will you?

McCray: Can't forget Kathi, not after she twice extended my flights home last year by satphone while we were hot on the trail of my lion! That's good service!

Lucky1: Now that's something I didn't expect: less cost to go through Germany? Not bad. I hope I do as well as you did.

Mark: There is some risk going to a new area, but this conservancy has been hunted over the past few years by other operators and my understanding is it has a pretty good track record. But we shall see.

ForrestB: Nope. No plains game this time, unless I get lucky early on elephant and buff and see a huge and unlucky impala/zebra/kudu/warthog, etc. Anyway, Norbert of Superpenetrator fame argues on his website that the .458 Lott is the perfect all-around rifle for Africa. Maybe I'll end up agreeing with him!

mrlexma,

I scouted out the US West Coast to Namibia route last year with an Air Namibia rep. You would be looking at a flight on Lufthansa to Frankfurt to connect to Air Namibia -- who features 35" seat pitch in economy even if they are flying an Airbus.

jim

Can't wait to hear the details. I have been looking for a Namibian buffalo hunt & have been looking @ Vaughn's site. Good luck & good hunting!

MR, no deal on the buff but your ele is safe from me!

SAA and Air Namibia have different high/low/shoulder seasons and rates but the prices seem to be close. The bigger problem for us was the Frankfurt/Windhoek flights not being run every day and the Windhoek/Katima milkrun is run weekdays only. Just made it a little harder to maximize hunting days vs. travel days.

For anyone who's interested, Vaughans site is www.fultonclassicsafaris.com

Good luck on this one, it sounds like an absolute dream safari. The caprivi is one of those areas of Africa with a sweet sounding name, and a certain mystique all its own. It's also supposed to have some great animals, and I suspect you'll do extremely well and bring home a ton of great memories, plus fine trophy specimens.

AD

If you can afford to hunt elephants you should consider just flying SAA business class. It isn't bad at all.

MikeIravy,

I appreciate your willingness to spend my money, but it's just that before now I've never felt that economy seating was that bad.

I don't even like the idea of spending money on first class or business class seating. After all, there are better things to spend your money on, as long as economy class seats are reasonably comfortabe.

Since the Airbus from hell arrived on scene, my views haven't changed. I still don't want to spend my money on seating upgrades--provided there's another airline to use that still has comfortable economy class seats.

And as HunterJim points out, that 35" pitch on Air Namibia economy seats looks pretty good to me and it seems that the price is still right.

Allen--You're absolutely right about the sound of certain places having a mystique. The Selous, the Okavango Delta, the Luangwa Valley, the Zambezi Valley and the Caprivi Strip all conjure up excitement in a hunter's heart.

And having hunted with Vaughan before and knowing what a quality person and top notch hunter he is, I am especially looking forward to this trip.