Well done- GREAT hunt and amazing Buffalo!!!!

OK said I would get back on and write an addendum, but being gone that long has impacted my available time since I returned!

I am having withdrawal this week. After a couple solid weeks of hunting and shooting something daily, something feels missing now........

Have had several questions about the bolt rifle - it is a Heym Express, in 375 H&H, the double is a Heym 88B, in 416 Rigby. I know it's not a "double caliber", but it does all it does at 15ksi less chamber pressure than the Ruger or Remington, develops as much muzzle energy as a 470 or 577 Nitro, less recoil, and the penetration of the 416 400 grain solids is UNMATCHED! I have not recovered a single Barnes Banded Solid, from any animal, including a couple of side brain monster shots. Flat gets thru the critter! We did shoot some zebra with it on this trip, just because we could, and we were "training" trackers to shoot with a double if the emergency ever developed requiring that. Most of those guys shoot OK with scopes, not so much with irons. All shot a foot over the top at 100 yards or less with the double.

The scope is a Swarovski 1.4x10, with illuminated circle dot reticle, listed as CDI. I had Jay at SportOptics, put a ballistic turret on the elevation knob. That turret is adjustable, for your load, at ranges you can select and change, with a zero stop, probably the best hunting scope I have, and believe me I have plenty! It is SFP, but that has not been a single problem. Combined with laser ranging binos ( Zeiss 10x42), things under 400 yards are in deep trouble if they are visible. You don't give up anything with the 375, and it hits with enough oomph, to do the job. If I can only have one rifle/scope combo, this one is it.

Chris, the Heym rep, ( newguy on AR )tries to keep these bolt guns in stock, sometimes less successfully. He is in Dallas, call him and he can tell you what's in the pipeline. Ralf Martini was a consultant to Heym for these, and his hand is obvious, but the German touch is also there. Not a surface, that isn't perfect. Find yourself in Texas, and come shoot this one. I was shooting geese over 200 yards with it, much to the delight of the back of the bakkie. Isn't it much fun, when the trackers figure out you can shoot?

OK - this section is stuff that worked well for me.

Steve at Travels with Guns - can't say enough good about this bunch. Use them, if problems arise, they work hard to fix them.

Lufthansa - flew business class, great flights, and having the showers in Frankfurt on the return is refreshing.

Barnes TSX - love these, and they work for me. With all the new bullets out there, I'm finding it hard to justify a change from something that works.

Smartwool socks - lots of walking, lots of wet feet, no blisters. One screaming case of swamp foot by the time I returned home, but better now. Keep in mind, I was wet before lunch every day, got dry stuff at night, but wore socks and shoes all night while in the lion blind. A little foot spray, would have been a welcome addition, brought it last year, didn't need it, needed it this year.

Pants with zip off legs - great all day and night. I used an LL Bean offering, there are others. For Sept hunts, it's cold with no sun, and damn hot by late morning.

Swarovski ballistic elevation turret, Zeiss RF binos, and Ballistic AE Iphone app - allowed me to be on target at any range inside 400 yards, with elevation comeups adjusted to local ambient conditions. I was 2 MOA high on arrival, at 400 yards, that is 8 inches - way outside the tolerance. Rezero at local conditions, input local temps and elevation, get new data, adjust turret references at 100, 200, 300 and 400 yards. Training at SAAM school provided basis for the knowledge to know what to do.

EmerGNC vitamin C powder - made a compact nice little treat to add to bottled water. Very popular in the back of the truck!

Sunscreen, insect and antiseptic wipies - wife sent these - started to dump them, glad I did not. Most handy, and takes no room in day pack. Take extra to hand out if needed.

Streamlight hand held rechargeable spotlight - its an LED, lasts five hours, has hi/lo/blink. Very bright, needs a red filter added.

African Sky Lodge - first class place, very helpful with rifles and permits. Will use again, worth every penny.

Things I wish I had brought

I wish I had brought my night vision stuff, even one PVS 14, would have been great at night, not just to see the quarry, but to check out the night action. A set of thermal vision would have been nice too. Not sure of legality of hunting with this stuff, I know it is near impossible to legally bring it, but after using it a bunch, would have been fun and useful.

Game caller - had Foxpro set out, decided to go light and left it at home. Could have made use of it with problem lion.

22 LR rifle - we had lots of things we could have used this for, and next time I'll either bring one or have the PH bring one.

Things to do differently

Buy duty free in Frankfurt, since Jberg won't let you buy and take to Namibia. Bryon rescued the day with some JW Black, good man, that! Buying duty free in JBerg arrival hall would also work.

I'll check bag check numbers at gate on departure next time, don't want to leave rifle behind due to TSA oops next time. Only cost me a day of hunting, but still, got old that one day.

Brought small, very small laptop. Worked well for playing with pictures at camp, exchanging pics with the other cameras there too. A PITA but, worked well. I will look for better solutions in the future. If the Ipad, just accepted SD cards and memory sticks......

I brought my small pair of Canon pocket cameras, worked great. Next year, cutting back to one, and bringing the wife's Nikon D90. There were two D5100's in camp, all took awesome pics, but the DSLR cameras are better. Extra batteries and SD cards too. Brought empty memory stick - was well used for sharing stuff.

Next hunt - considering a PG hunt with the family, my brother, his two boys, my son, BIL and his son. Thinking 2x1 for most of that, except for me, I will want to mess around with everyone's hunt!

If I forgot to answer anyone's question, please ask away. This site is great and sharing info, good and bad, is how we all have better hunts and more fun.

Each to their own but that, in my book, is a proper Safari. If you had managed to slot the problem lions....

Just as well you didn't because, if you had done so, you'd have to suspect no future Safari would ever compare to this one.

Excellent report, Mike, and congratulations on a great safari! I hunted in the Salambala, Kasika and Impalila concessions with Vaughan Fulton, back when he had them, and it's great to see that the game continues to do so well.

you mentioned the iPad not accepting SD cards, which is true. as an FYI, you can buy a card reader on ebay for about $15 delivered from China or the same thing from an Apple store for $50 that works fine. it plugs in the charger input on the bottom of the iPad. when a card is inserted, i automatically open iPhoto and previews the images on the card, then you download what you want and wipe the card to use again.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
Excellent report, Mike, and congratulations on a great safari! I hunted in the Salambala, Kasika and Impalila concessions with Vaughan Fulton, back when he had them, and it's great to see that the game continues to do so well.

Michael, the spot where Vaughn's camp was located is idyllic, I told the guys there to perform whatever deeds, immoral or not, to be be allowed to relocate the main camp there. Just as I was leaving, I was told Karl S, wsa charged by a cow ele just behind the old camp, after shooting another cow for "other use". We saw what I think was the same group there a couple days, and they were very pissy, while we were there.

The game scouts have a camp there now. Out lion blind was east of there, almost to the end of the concession. Our animals were split pretty even between Salambala and Kabulabula.

I told Kobus, I wished to buy a Landcruiser, and be the truck driver for a couple months, during the dry season here. The wet times are miserable!!!! I liked this place a lot.

And if an ele or two (or Buff !!! )got shot during my apprenticeship...... blame me, I did it.

Great write up and great trophies, really makes me want to hunt the Caprivi.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeE:

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
Excellent report, Mike, and congratulations on a great safari! I hunted in the Salambala, Kasika and Impalila concessions with Vaughan Fulton, back when he had them, and it's great to see that the game continues to do so well.

Michael, the spot where Vaughn's camp was located is idyllic, I told the guys there to perform whatever deeds, immoral or not, to be be allowed to relocate the main camp there...

He had a great view from his camp. This was taken from camp when my wife and I were passing through in September of 2009. The haze made for terrible photos but you could see game like this for miles down river.



Three months later when I hunted there the game concentrations were not as heavy along the river but we saw elephant regularly from camp and lion made their presence known a few nights.

That is one of the most incredible Waterbuck I have ever seen!!

Wonderful report - Thanks for posting

Hi Mike,

thanks for that honest and fine report.

What me amazes most is that honesty. How too say: Thats Africa! And that is what we all like.

More of that.

Regards
Christian

Cheers to an awesome Safari

Spectacular my friend! Wish we could have made it work out together. Hopefully next time??

Great report and awesome hunt

Wow - what a hunt! Congrats on a fine safari and some fine trophies - that buff is a dude!

MikeE -

Yes, Karl S was charged. He emailed me last week. He is fine, but I wouldn't expect anything else given Karl. Hunted trophy elephant with him in June in Sobbe and Sikunga. What a great place to be.

yep, and exactly 2 weeks from now i will be back there with him...

That was just sensational. Congratulations on a great trip.

Hunting with Karl is always an adventure, and fun as well. Great report.

As to taking night vision devices, it is illegal to take them outside the U.S.. Nobody wants them to fall into the hands of a terrorist.

quote:

Originally posted by LionHunter:
As to taking night vision devices, it is illegal to take them outside the U.S.. Nobody wants them to fall into the hands of a terrorist.

All too aware of the legalities involved here, it is not even permitted to allow a non US citizen to look thru Gen 3 stuff. With the many conflicts we are in, I certainly have no desire to assist anyone on the wrong side. Having used and owning a pile of the stuff though, I am well aware of the capabilities and was missing them very much!

It is possible however, to export these, it is just too much trouble, too much liability.

Not many liion hunts are conducted at night either. Usually, you find a recent kill, put up a bait, and either build a blind, or run the tracks down. Running the tracks down wasn't feasible as this group was exiting Namibia every morning, and entering late at night to grab a zebra or cattle.

Being declared a problem animal, we were permitted to hunt at night, which normally would not be the case. Sitting in the dark, in a pop up blind, is kinda humbling, waiting for the lions to show up. If the village just behind us would have kept quiet, I'm sure we would have gotten the lions to the baits. The spot lights and shotguns every time the lions made a sound within a mile, did not help.

That, and the regular dog traffic from the village, I think kept us from getting a shot at the lions. Sitting in the blind, did get us a very nice buffalo though, as we could figure out exactly where to be when they returned to Botswana in the morning.

I'm late to the party but what a hunt, and rifle. Hope it has a special nook in the safe, always been a Heym fan. A local smith (Ralf Martini) designed one of their stock patterns.

Damn nice report, nice rifle. Oldie but goodie. I don't remember this report from earlier, I had often thought about a Caprivi hunt.

I think it is probably everything that Zambia or Tanzania is without the BS.