Here are some photos ( I hope !) from the Buffalo hunt with Vaughn Fulton of Classic Safari's. I will have to say he is a class act and has a great camp, staff and put on a great hunt.

My Buffalo.


I had the opportunity to shoot some Zebras.


We also had a problem animal permit for a croc. Here is Brent from VA along with Vaughn and the entire staff


Brent also took a great Elephant and a buff. Here is his buff.


I would be happy to share details of the hunt with any who would like them.

Rhyde

Great trophies! Thanks.

Please do give us the details on your hunt. Also, if a pic of your buddy's ele is available, go ahead and post that too. Nice critters.

Excellent buffalo! Congrats on what looked like a great adventure! Details, please...

I started looking for a buffalo hunt in 2006 at SCI in Reno. I met and talked with outfitters and they all had good choices and were around the same price. I met with Brent and his wife Dana and they said that my wife and I should go hunting with them in 2006. So the plans were made and money sent. Around the middle of 2006 I ended up moving back to Ohio from Iowa and had buy a new house. That usually ends up changing the hunting funds and we were no exception. 2006 was one of them big “0†birthdays for me and I was bound a determined to hunt Buffalo. Had a heart to heart with the wife and she said to me “Go huntingâ€. We made the changes to the airfare and I made plans to meet Dana in DC. Did I say that Brent was there the entire month of November? When I met Dana at the airport she reported that Brent had just taken his elephant. It turned out to be 45 pounds on each side. The trip was nothing special to report. Flight to Joberg, connect to Windhoek. Arrived on the last flight, my gun was there and no luggage for Dana. We stayed that night at a friends place and the next day her bags arrived with Fred and Ghert.

We then proceeded to drive the rest of the day and most of the next up to camp in the strip. (Note: if you are making this trip, FLY !) See photos, 275 pound man in the back seat of a bucky for 14 hours = no fun and soar knees. Arrived at camp in the afternoon, unpacked and shot to make sure the rifle was still on. Had a good meal and off to bed. Woke the next morning and packed for first day of my hunt. We drove up into the strip to the kaseka area. Picked up the local tracker and we were off for the hunt. As we left camp we spotted a large herd of buffalo. I was excited until I was told no hunting in herds. My jaw must have hung open as Fred told me that unlike the TV shows, they did not hunt the herds as they didn’t want to drive the buffalo out of the area. So, off again up into the channels. As we drove up into the channels someone on the back spotted a small herd of bulls. We got out and started off on foot.

We had a good pace going until I found out that walking on grass covered elephant prints can be tricky footing. We had to slow down the pace to keep me from going head first in the ground. We were able to go through low spots and get to within 100 yards of the buffalo. There were 7 bulls just coming out of a mud pit. As they topped the grassy knoll, Fred said to me take the one at the back. Sticks went up and he stood perfect for a broadside shot. Boom! Shoot again, I heard as the buffalo was running away. Ready, aim, where did he go? They all came out from behind the small hill and he was at the back, Boom! In the side, slightly high, blood everywhere. As he spun, Boom! Again in the side. He dropped, and I thought finally. I then heard Fred say, reload. 3 more shells in the gun. I look up to where the buffalo dropped and I hear Grert say, he’s getting up. He stands up and starts to come towards us. He stops about 60 yards away. He looks right at me and sticks he nose straight out. That’s when Fred said, shot again, now. I look through the scope and all I see is horn. I’m thinking, not the horns, not the horns. He turned his head to the left slightly and Boom! In the neck, down he goes again. We wait about a minute and I hear a slight bellow. When you watch the TV shows, I always thought, yea right. At that point Fred and Grert both tell me job well done and let’s go look at the buffalo. When we walked up and I saw the buffalo up close you couldn’t have knocked the smile off of me with a baseball bat. I had done what I set out to do, get a mature buffalo. I was blessed with both a mature buffalo and a 40†too. How’s that for the first day of a hunt?

Vaughan said they had taken some good buff this year and I am glad to finally see some pictures.

Great bosses on yours!

Thanks for the report.

Great trophies, Rhydet, and great report!

As I read it you couldn't have knocked the smile off ME with a baseball bat!

Congrats!

Rhydet, great write up. I'll be there with Vaughan in August of next year. I can't wait.

Great pictures and a great hunting story!

129 days until I head over to try for the same thing. If I have near the luck you did I'll be one happy hunter.

Thanks for the report and the pictures. That is a very nice buff. I can't wait to go. Just 507 days until I leave, but who is counting?

I'm booked for a week in the Caprivi with Vaughan in June, as well as a week in his plains game concession. What plains game did you see in the Caprivi?

Not a lot. Zebra, Hippo, Croc, Buffalo and Elephant. But I will saw that I was not looking for a lot of other animals either. We had Hyena in camp every night, we just could not hook up to take one.

Rhyde

Congrats on a great Buffalo. Looks and sounds like you had a fantastic hunt.

My son and I hunted plains game with Vaughan/Ghert last July and had a great time. I don't think you could hunt with a better group of people. Plan on going back to hunt Buff with them in 2009, maybe some plains game with Ghert as well.

Rhydet very nice buffalo, what caliber and rifle were you using.

I used a .375 H&H. It's a CZ Safari that I won at the Badgerland SCI banquet. I used Federal 300 grain Barnes Triple X bullets. When I talked to the PH and told him what I had brought with me, he said just load the Triple X, you won't need the solids.

Here is what happened the rest of the day....

Now that I had the buffalo, the work started. We were actually able to drive the truck to where the buffalo laid. This made getting him into the truck much easier. I decided on a shoulder mount and the guys skinned the head and left the hide on the rest of the meet. They cut up the entire buffalo in less than 2 hours. We loaded up and headed for the local police station to drop off the meet for the village. Once we had dropped off the meat, we headed for Lion’s Den resort to have a beer and celebrate. After having a nice cold beer, we drove around to the other side of the lodge. Some of the guys were finishing the skinning of an elephant hide another hunter had taken the day before. It had been raining the entire day and the hides were wet and needed to get salt on them soon. We proceeded to load the entire elephants skin onto the Land Cruiser. Yep, the hunter wanted all of the hide, ears, trunk and feet. We added this to the buffalo skull and hide that were already on the truck plus tracker and additional PH ment we had a lot of weight in the truck. The soil near the Chobe in that area is made up of silt and sand. When it rains it creates a soap like clay that will suck in a vehicle. And that’s exactly what happened about 2 miles from the resort. We all got out of the truck and the crew started to try and dig us out. We had nothing to tie the winch onto that we could use to pull ourselves out. After digging and using branches we decided to use the winch in the back of the truck and an old rope to tie onto a bush. We unloaded all of the skins to lighten the vehicle and it worked! We loaded everything back up and headed for higher ground. As we made the loop around we ran into more and more water as it was running down towards the river. By this time it was dark out and hard to see anything. The road now looked like small ditches on either side of some ground. You guessed it, we got stuck in a small lake. This time with darkness we could not see anything and were in the middle of a grass field. Ghert decided to walk back to the lodge and see if he could get some help. As Fred and I waited, the sound of frogs and mosquitoes became very loud. As we sat there for what seemed like hours, we looked up to see some lights coming at us. Out came Ghert and Nikky. It seems that the other hunter in camp and Nikky decided to stay at Lion’s Den that night and were there when Ghert arrived looking for help. We decided to leave the truck for the night and come back in the morning to get it out. Back at Lion’s den we had a wonderful meal and Fred arranged rooms for us to stay the night. Note to anyone wearing contacts, always take your glasses and solution with you when going out for the day hunting. You never know how the day will end up. It’s a good thing I had extended wear contacts as I had to sleep in them. The lodge was great as my room overlooked the Chobe and faced Kasani. I woke early the next morning to the sounds of Hippos below my room. I packed up and walked up to the main building only to see the guys pulling in with the trucks. It seems they hatched a plan the night before to get about 15 guys from the village to go out and use people force to push out the truck. We ate breakfast and headed back to the camp with the hides. This time we took the highest ground road we could find and made it back with no trouble. The good thing about the silt sand ground is that it also drains very fast. Once back in camp the staff concentrated on the hides and getting them salted. It was a great first day to a hunt that lasted almost 48 hours.

Two very nice buffs!

Dave

Congrats on a good hunt Rhydet, enjoyed your stories too. LDK

Rhydet, what time of year did your hunt take place?

I left for the hunt on November 19th and returned the first part of December. The hunting season went until November 30th.

Thank you for the response.

How long is your croc? Mine slipped off the log before we could get to him and it was not recovered until after I left; so, I have no photos. The ph said it was 12'-6" more or less, but, I have no visual frame of reference other than laying out my tape measure.

The croc is 13-1/2' long.

I shot a similar sized croc last August and it was one of the highlights of the hunt. Congratulations on your successful hunt and great photos.