Just returned from my 5th trip over to Namibia to hunt with Jamy Traut. Jamy saved a buffalo in his quota for me and as luck would have it my school rotation schedule gave me a long enough break to make it work. I have never hunted cape buffalo before, in fact in my previous trips for elephant hippo and lion, I had only encountered one lone dugga boy. I flew into Katima and after an interesting two track drive and several water and muddy crossings we arrived to the Kasika Conservancy, without getting stuck. We checked into Zovu Elephant Lodge, a camp that mostly caters to tourists that come from Kasane, Botswana and take boat tours along the Chobe River to view game and birdlife. It truly was a very nice lodge. Jamy put plans in action to build his own permanent safari camp in Kasika, a good distance inland. Construction of this camp should be done before the end of this season. We shot my 458 model 70 to check its zero and decided to investigate reports of a bull that has not been allowing the local fishermen to "move freely." To my surprise we ended up walking on the banks of the Chobe almost directly across from Kasane, we did try to stay out of view of the tourists as best as we could. I couldn't help but binocular the large herds of buffalo on the Botswana side and try to field judge them as best I could. Thankfully there was also a large herd on the Namibian side of the Chobe that we glassed before sunset. Probably about 80 head in the herd and we identified about 3 nice bulls in need of a closer look and one very very nice bull that needed a very close look. Jamy thought he might be a little soft yet but at 700 yards it tough to tell. On our way to get a closer look we walked up to 12 yards of two sleeping hippos, unfortunately Jamy had sold all his hippos for the year. We snuck out of there without them ever knowing and headed for supper.







DAY 2:
After last nights encounter with the large herd of buffalo on the Kasika side of the Chobe River, all we could do was pray that their nightly movements would not take them back to Botswana. As first light dawned directly across the river from Zovu Lodge was a herd of about the same size as our herd. My heart sank a little thinking there goes our best chance at a big bull in a timely fashion and we were going to have to work and search a little harder for a bull further from the river. We had a quick cup of coffee, some rusk and some cereal with warm milk and we were off to pick up Victor and Fabian with the truck. As we were headed towards a spot where we could glass the location of last nights herd, Victor noticed a trail through the swamp that was made by the buffalo. Great news! Maybe these buffs were still on our side of the river. We didn’t have to drive very far before we could see the herd in the middle of the tall grass plain grazing. With the wind blowing hard out of the southeast we planned our stalk to try to get ahead of them so they would graze past us. As we started our stalk they were about 400 yards away. We walked directly at them. Going from upright, to crouching, to crawling and then slithering through the tall grass towards the herd of buffalo. We were within 75 yards when we stopped for a good while to glass the herd and look for a good, mature bull. Jamy spotted a great bull and I saw him too. Several times cows almost busted us and the bull would bed down and then get up and move a little bit and lay down again. Finally we slithered to within 40 yards of the bull and the cows must’ve heard us crawling through the grass and immediately stood at attention watching us. Jamy made sure I saw the bull and told me we were going to shoot him if he stood still. I readied the .458 win mag but the cows started to spook and the bull went with them. Incredibly he was at the back and, just like a mule deer buck, stopped whirled around broadside at 65 yards and Jamy said shoot. Standing and offhand I quickly found him in my scope and squeezed the trigger. At the shot there was a loud thwack and the bull buckled but took off running after the herd. Reloaded with a solid now I fired again and to my great relief saw the bull drop to the shot, obviously due to spinal trauma. I ran up to him and put two more finishers into his chest and he was mine. There was no ground shrinkage of this bull, he was HUGE! Bigger than any bull I could’ve dreamt of hunting. This is exactly what African hunting dreams are made of right here. Jamy was very very pleased and said this is by far the biggest buffalo taken off Kasika in the last two years for sure. He measures 43″ wide with 14″ bosses. He carries his mass well all the way to his points which have a nice hook. My first buffalo hunt only lasted a total of about 6 hunting hours




Future Site of the Kasika Safari Camp

Elephants that came to investigate our stuck in the mud cruiser



After the tremendous success with the buffalo, Jamy and I headed back to Windhoek via road. His son Junior had a rugby game on Friday, he plays for the best team out of Windhoek and they won their game 48-0. Also Friday was Jamy's birthday so after the game we all went to Joe's Beerhouse. Jamy's father's 75th birthday was Aug 4th and the Traut family had planned a Fiesta to celebrate their birthdays in Swakopmund and I'm very glad we were able to attend. It was a blast, the margaritas were heavy on the tequila, and I made several new friends in the Traut family.





Jamy's brother-in-law runs a sky-diving business in Swakop and we went to watch him make several jumps



The Traut Family (Jamy, Rentia, Nicky, Junior)



After the fiesta, we headed back to Windhoek to pick up his next hunters, a family of hunters from my home area in South Dakota, and we were off to Panorama. I was after Mountain Zebra since that is one of the few plains game species in Namibia that I have not gotten yet. I was able to take a great old stallion (if their incisors wear down anything similar to our horses).

Beautiful bull! Congrats on the bull and your mountain zebra.

Erik did an externship at my Hospital. A fine young veterinarian. Good report, great buff, and I look forward to seeing the zebra!

Fine shooting and wonderful photos.

Mike

Nice report. Great Buffalo. Congrats on a good hunt.

Really nice buffalo Eric. I'm booked with Jamy for another own use elephant and another buffalo next July. We may be able to use the new Kasika camp for the buffalo. We hope to see you and your dad in Dallas.

Mike and Kathy

outstanding Eric. I was actually hunting with Jamy right before you. I left Panorama on 7-31-13. Had a wonderful 2 weeks hunting there and several other ranches. Did a full mixed bag of plains game and getting to know Jamy and his family which was a treat. Jamey runs a 1st class operation all the way. I hope to return to hunt buff with him in the next year or 2. 163bc

Congrats on your safari. Really enjoyed the post and pics...

Congratulations on a great hunt - monster bull!

Great report and pics, and a wonderful bull. I just love Namibia!

Wow!!!
Thanks for sharing your fantastic safari...I enjoyed your report...great hosts, great hunting, great scenery/region, great photo ops, just awesome and happy for you!

This looks like a most memorable time!

Good for you

Roland

Great buffalo. Great photos. Very well done.

Thank you for the nice comments!

Congrats on the hunt and the whole trip. Sounds like it was a heck of a lot of fun, didn't see you with a sombrero and mustache though! That was the bull Jamy told me about, outstanding. Did Jamy sing for the party. He was in a band a few years back, when we drove from the Caprivi to his ranch we stopped at a friend's house to break up the drive and he and his friend sang a couple of tunes. He actually has a good voice. Congrats on the mountain zebra, that's on my wish list. Were you able to fish off the pier? Thanks for the PM.

Great report and pics!! Congrats on your buffalo!!

Great bull. Sometimes it all comes together in 6 hours. Looks like a terrific trip. Congrats.

Congratulations on a fantastic buff! Well done. Loved the pics and report too.

Best regards, D. Nelson

Awesome! Love the photography.

Very nice Safari !

Nice report - well done.

Awesome Buffalo....Congratulations

Gorgeous bull! And some great pictures in the report.

Helluva buffalo! Well done on the other trophies as well. Thanks for your report!

Fantastic trophies!

Awesome Erik! Saw that bull on Facebook and wondered how big he was. Congratulations, looks like a fantastic safari!

Greg

Wonderful Buff!

Ha, sounds like a great trip with great buff like a cream on top of ice cream.
Great report edholum.
Thanks for sharing