I got back last night from my hunt in Namibia with Vaughan Fulton's Classic Safaris. My friend and I had a wonderful hunt.

Vaughan has set up his camp this year in a new location in his conservancy. Each hunter has a huge tent - 14' X 20' X 9' high. When you go out the rear door of your tent, on a poured, concrete slab, there is a flush toilet, sink, and shower. Hot water is provided via a donkey boiler which is fed by a 500 gallon water tank which is fed by a solar powered pump.Three excellent hot meals were provided each day.

I took a huge Bull Giraffe, a 13" Warthog, Mountain Zebra Stallion, and a 41" X 41 5/8" Bull Gemsbok. I didn't take a Springbok or Kudu, only because I was looking for a Springbok better than the one I have now, which is 16 1/4", and a Kudu of 60". So, as you see, I was being very selective.

All animals were taken with my Model 70 in 375 Ackley Improved, restocked by Serengeti Stockworks, topped with a Leupold 1.75 X 6 scope in Talley Q.D.rings and bases. I was shooting 270 grain Barnes XLC coated bullets, and they resulted in 1 shot kills on everything. The only bullet recovered was from my Mt. Zebra, and it looked just perfect. I weighed it this morning, and it weighed in at 269.2 grains. I used a set of shooting sticks I purchased from our friends at Long Grass, and they worked very well.

I took a friend with me. This was his first trip to Africa. He took a 36 1/2" Bull Gemsbok, 14 3/4" Springbok, 52" Kudu, Gold Medal Blue Wildebeest, 2 Mountain Zebra Stallions, missed a Black Wildebeest, and wounded and lost a monster Eland Bull.

The area had three times the normal rainfall this past rainy season, so the grass was very high - reaching the top of the hood of Vaughan's Toyota Hi-lux 4X4.

Game was plentiful, and trophy quality is excellent! There are a lot of Leopards in this area, and he has hired a P.H. who has an excellent reputation on Leopard in Namibia. Vaughan had 4 baits set for a Leopard hunter coming next week, and 3 of the baits were active. We actually saw one of the Leopards on one of the baits during daylight. One night we had a Leopard come through camp. These are large cats, not the smaller ones one usually associated with Namibia.

Vaughan is an excellent P.H.. He is committed to fair chase, and doesn't allow shooting from the hunting vehicle, nor will he set up on a water hole. I should also mention that he has huge numbers of Mt. Zebra, and you don't have to be a mountain goat to hunt them. They can be found in large numbers in the many valleys on his huge concession, which has no fences.

I highly recomment hunting with Vaughan, and I'll be booking with him to hunt Buffalo in his Caprive Concession. http://www.fultonclassicsafaris.com If you go to his website, the photos of his camp are outdated. I'll be sending his webmaster new photos of the new camp so she can get them up.

If anyone can post pics for me, please let me know so I can email them to you for posting here.


Local Himba woman, quite pleased with the $10.00 Namibian I gave her for letting me take photos.

Mountain Zebra are all over the place on Vaughans concession.This one took 1 shot, quartering away downhill from 220 yards.

Gemsbok tracks in the dry river bottom.

Luxurious tent camp overlooking a dry river. Leopard tracks were everywhere.

Excellent Gemsbok Bull-110 yard shot,again quartering away from me. The tracker, Ilia, pictured with me, has a very badly scarred face, the result of a puff adder bite when he was only 4 years old. Never was taken to a hospital for treatment.

This bull was taken from 165 yards, only an hour after I took the Gemsbok

The ending of a fabulous day.

A good Warthog for this area. Taken from 120 yards faceing me straight on. It didn't move an inch after the shot.

Ready to go back home. My friend and I both believe in using the Tuff-Pak.

mike
I'll post them
Jeff

JeffP, can you send me either an email or a PM with your email so I can send them to you. Thanks

I'm glad everything went well on your hunt. Depending on what happens in the next couple of months, I am going to book a hunt with Classic Safaris for either '06 or '07.

pm sent mike

Congratulations, Mike. You must be very happy.

A 40+" bull gemsbok is very tough to find anywhere--the holy grail of gemsbok--and to think that yours was 41"! That is once in a lifetime quality.

I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures.

That sounds like a great, "classical" hunt Mike, congratulations. Can't wait to see the pict's, including that oryx!

Do you know the name of the PH who will be doing the leopard hunting?

Any lion sightings or sign while you were there?

Sounds like you had a great hunt. But I'm not surprised!

PM sent on the photos.

Joe

Bill,

Gert is Vaughans new ph. Apparently he is hell on cats. We will see as one of our own left this morning to see if he could shoot one of these kittys.

Anyone who has been there knows the area is just stuffed with Leopard.

Mike,

Thanks for the call.
E-mail me the pictures if you need help posting them.

Congratulations Mike, man that is a fantastic gemsbok! Can't wait for the pictures

Mike

Congrats - also looking forward to the pics!
APB

Sounds like a great hunt...welcome home! Rest up and post some pix soon. That gemsbok must be a monster! Can't wait to see him.

quote:

Originally posted by Wendell Reich:
Bill,

Gert is Vaughans new ph. Apparently he is hell on cats. We will see as one of our own left this morning to see if he could shoot one of these kittys.

Anyone who has been there knows the area is just stuffed with Leopard.

Mike,

Thanks for the call.
E-mail me the pictures if you need help posting them.

Wendell, I emailed you pictures. Let me know if you got them please.

Mike,

I added your pics to your original post.

Regards,

Terry

T.Carr-thank you.

Mike

What critters! What a tent! and I loved the last photo in particular. I bet it is in the booth in Reno.
Thanks guys!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Harry:
What critters! What a tent! and I loved the last photo in particular. I bet it is in the booth in Reno.
Thanks guys!!!

Mims, I promised you a picture before I left for the hunt, and I always deliver what I promise. Did you get the photo I emailed you?

Nice work Mike!!!

JW

Mike,
Great animals and pictures. I hunted with Vaughan just ahead of you from May 1-10. I have been a little lazy with the pictures and details. I hunted Mechlingburg, Falseneck and the concession. This was my first safari and while it was fairly tough hunting, Vaughan made it great! Took a hartebeest, springbuck, zebra, gemsbok and kudu. All but the kudu were clean kills - found the kudu a couple of days later so he may end up as a European mount. Sorry to say I also wounded and lost a seocnd kudu and springbuck. It is hard to beleive hoa much punishment African animals can take. Vaughan's camp and staff are first rate. Ilia was one of my trackers and put in 110% all of the time. Sara's cooking was beyond description. Hard to believe what came out of the kitchen tent. One of the best non-hunting memories was a trip to one of the villages to drop off meat. It turned a less than spectacular day (missed kudu and springbuck) into one of the best experiences of my life! I'm also looking at a cape buffalo hunt in the Caprivi probably in 2007. Of course, I will be going with Vaughan!!
John

Has anybody hunted his caprivi buffalo???

Mike did you know Ilia supports and extend family of 20 people on what he makes working for Vaughan.

I don't want to p*ss on any ones parade but Vaughan has never taken a Leopard on the 770,000 acre conservancy.

Mike,

Nope, never got the pics ???

Oh, and by the way, you better not run for public office anytime soon.

Paying a lady to take naked pictures of her? This could come back to haunt a politician! She is even holding the money in the photo!

Excellent photos. Glad your trip went well and lots of memories.

In a word--fantastic! especially the gemsbok and warthog.

Glad the Barnes X worked well for you.

How far from Etosha was this concession?

onefunzr2, the consession borders the park on part of the eastern boundry.

Thanks.

Quite a long drive from the Windhoek airport then.

Mike,

Great hunt and some really fantastic trophies! That Gemsbok & Warthog are out of this world...!!!

The concession & camps sound first rate as well.

How is the Buff hunting in Vaughan's Caprivi strip area(s)?

Regards,
Dave

One, it is a good days drive. My guess is about 10 hrs. with gas and food stops.

We were to leave Windhoek in the morning but did not get underway until mid afternoon and as I recall we had to overnight in Otjiwarongo. We had breakfast in Outjo and arrived in camp in the mid afternoon.

There is a hoof and mouth gate you must go thru to get to camp and it closes at 10 PM.

Mike H,

Can you tell me a little more about your 375 Improved? The caliber has always interested me but it would take a lot to sway me from the good ole' standard H&H. How long have you had it, what velocities are you shooting with 270 and 300 grainers, any problems, what twist rate, and do you think the improved version gives you that much more over the standard. Thanks.

Africa is a neat place, eh? Can get more hunting done there in a week than a year in the States. Congratulations on a great hunt.

This is Vaughans first year in the Caprivi concession. It has been hunted by another hunter in previous years with good results. They have increased the quota for this year also. In a normal year, by all reports, the buffalo come into the concession starting in September, by crossing the Chobe from Bots.

In an email this weekend, Vaughan said that buff have already started moving in, since it has been so dry.

We are scheduled to go there in October, so I guess we will see!

BTW, the trip up to his other conservancies is about seven hours, mostly over good paved roads with about the last third on gravel. It didn't seem even that long to me. Beautiful scenery!

Joe.

quote:

Originally posted by Die Ou Jagter:
One, it is a good days drive. My guess is about 10 hrs. with gas and food stops.

We were to leave Windhoek in the morning but did not get underway until mid afternoon and as I recall we had to overnight in Otjiwarongo. We had breakfast in Outjo and arrived in camp in the mid afternoon.

There is a hoof and mouth gate you must go thru to get to camp and it closes at 10 PM.

It took us 7 hours and 23 minutes to get to camp from Windhoek, and that was towing a trailer with all the new mattresses and boxsprings.

quote:

Originally posted by Die Ou Jagter:
Mike did you know Ilia supports and extend family of 20 people on what he makes working for Vaughan.

I don't want to p*ss on any ones parade but Vaughan has never taken a Leopard on the 770,000 acre conservancy.

That's why he brought in Gert, because as Wendell mentioned, he's supposed to be one of the top Leopard hunters in Namibia.

Mike, we were towing the trailer with all camp porvisions for two weeks and the solar panels etc for the new bore hole. Our return trip took about 9 to 10hrs. Like I said he had not taken a Leopard in the conservency and I hope this new guy can do better. We hunted hard for 14 days and had no hits on bait we placed other than a partial hog (Leopard kill) we found near one of the sites and we placed the remaining hog and it was hit but when we replenished it with a Springbok no more action for the four remaining days.

On the trip back to Windhoek the dust clogged the air filter so bad we were making only about 40KH for a few hrs until we could stop at a petrol station and blow it out. Oh yea we had Sarah both trips and some other staff on part of the return trip as I was the last hunter for the year.

Thanks for sharing Mike, great pics! Glad you had a good trip and have returned safely.

Die Ou Jagter,
Vaughan and Gert started putting out baits while I was there the first part of May. We checked one on the second day and had a hit already. There was plenty of tracks around the area and on one night a big leopard came very close to the camp. Vaughan really wants to beef up his leopard business with the new guide. I understand from Vaughan that Ilia buys a goat each month for his family. He was a real great guy while tracking with us!!
John
John

quote:

Originally posted by Prewar70:
Mike H,

Can you tell me a little more about your 375 Improved? The caliber has always interested me but it would take a lot to sway me from the good ole' standard H&H. How long have you had it, what velocities are you shooting with 270 and 300 grainers, any problems, what twist rate, and do you think the improved version gives you that much more over the standard. Thanks.

My 375 Ackley started as a Model 70 Stainless Classic that I simply had rechambered, then I replaced the front and rear sights with a single leaf express sight, and a barrel band front bead with a pop up night sight-both sights are from NECG. The plastic factory stock was replaced with a custom laminate from Serengeti Stockworks, glass bedded, cross bolts installed, 4 panel Westley Richards checkering, modified tung oil finish applied, Decelerator recoil pad installed, and had Serengeti apply their own metal finish to the factory barreled action.

I shoot 270 grain Barnes XLC bullets out of it and my most accurate loads are moving along at almost 2900 fps. The 300 grain X bullets are at 2600 fps. Most 375 Ackley Improved owners that I talked to, get on average 60 - 100 fps higher velocity than the factory loadings. I like the round, if for no other reason that it's different. In reality, I don't feel that it offers a significant advantage, if any, over its H&H parent.

HMMMMmmmmmm? Mike are you sure thats what the $10.00 was for?
Looks like ya'll had a great trip. Did you eat any of the giraffe meat? I have an old early African Adventures book and he says that giraffe meat was his favorite.

We didn't have any of the Giraffe - Vaughan said that he never had a client care for it. He doesn't care for it either. One pleasant surprise was the Mt. Zebra filet! It was wonderful. I've tried Burchell's Zebra before, and didn't like it at all. The Mt.Zebra was excellent though - tasted like a good beef filet.

Thanks for the report and pictures. I am hunting with Vaughan is August and every time I see pictures like that it makes the wait almost unbearable. I usually don't wish our short Alaska summers to end, but I wish this one would hurry so I can start my Safari.

JD