This past September my wife and I took a two week driving tour of Namibia as well as Chobe National Park in Botswana and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. I did no hunting and figured that I would not set foot in Africa, hunting or otherwise, for at least another two years. That was until Vaughan Fulton of Classic Safaris offered up his remaining plains game on quota in his Caprivi concessions at a price too good to pass up. I’ve known Vaughan for a few years now having hunted with him before and my wife Tracy and I stayed at his camp in the Caprivi for two nights in September while we did some fishing on the Zambezi. I was a little familiar with the area and I knew a chance to hunt just plains game here would not come up often. Surprisingly, my wife was very supportive of the idea and gave me the thumbs up for me going over the week of Thanksgiving. Funds were a little thin after just returning from Africa but I scraped up what I could, took advantage of some great airfares and booked my trip with three weeks notice.

In order for me to make this work, I had to take off work the week of Thanksgiving and be back in the office Monday morning. Unfortunately, Air Namibia does not fly into Katima Mulilo daily and I was forced to fly into Victoria Falls in order to maximize my hunting days. Vic Falls is not too far from Vaughan’s camp but it is a bit of a hassle with all the border crossings as you must also transit Botswana and I elected to leave my rifles at home and use Vaughan’s. One bonus of the drive is the route through Chobe National Park and we started seeing elephant almost immediately.





Additionally, we saw a nice sable bull and a herd of about 50 sable while traveling through Chobe.





I arrived in Vaughan’s camp on the afternoon of Saturday, November 21, 2009 and after a late lunch we headed out to the range to sight in the .308 Vaughan had for me to use. We had a nice dinner that night with a few other hunters who were heading out the next day. One interesting occurrence that night was a bright light that lit up the entire southern sky at sometime after 10 pm. For a few seconds the light was so bright you could see the river and trees on the other side like it was daytime. It turns out that it was a meteor, but none like any of us had ever seen before.

The next day we headed out looking for game. Not much was seen or located that morning but a good part of out time was spent freeing the Toyota from mud as the rains had started again creating a mess at every turn. That afternoon, however, we located a small herd of zebra and after a short stalk and bit of waiting the stallion showed himself and I was able to put round through both shoulders. The shot put him down immediately, but he was able to get up and anchored him with a second shot.



I had not slept well the night before and was looking forward to a good night’s sleep but shortly before we hit the tents, lions made their presence known across the river and roared throughout the night. This was one reason why I really wanted to hunt this area.

The next day we delivered the zebra meat to a village in the conservancy.



Shortly after delivering the zebra Vaughan spotted an impala ram off in the bush and we stopped the car a short ways down the track and cut off into the bush in hopes of locating him again. However, not too far into our stalk Vaughan spotted a nice blue wildebeest about 200 yards ahead of us facing us straight on. I was able to center punch him in the chest and the .308 did a number on him as he did not go far. He was an old bull and will make a nice trophy.



That afternoon an impala was spotted just off the track and when I got on the sticks there was a mopane limb obscuring the lower half of his vitals. No problem, just hold a bit above the limb and squeeze. Well, I must have held a little too high and combined with the fact that we had the rifle sighted in a bit high at 100 yards, I sent the bullet sailing over his back. It was bound to happen sooner or later but this was the first African animal I had missed in 3 trips and it rattled me a little.

We had no luck the next day although we did see some more wildebeest and located a few waterbuck that we would keep our eye on.

Fairly early the next morning we located a herd of impala and after a nice stalk I had an easy 60-70 yard shot at a ram from a sitting position on the sticks. After the shot the ram did not react nearly the way I thought he would have. We found some dark blood and I immediately thought I had hit the liver but assumed we would find him after a short track. Vaughan, his 3 trackers (2 of which are Bushman) and the game scout took up the track and while we found blood, it thinned and a short track turned into a 2+ hour track. We jumped the impala a few times and it became obvious that he was very sick but doubt still persisted in my mind. I had yet to take and impala and it was the one African animal I really wanted. I have never had the impression that they were particularly difficult to come by nor take but here I was making it as tough as I could.

We finally came upon him bedded down and I finished him off. Upon inspection I discovered that my shot was in the gut a good 12” to 18” left of where I thought I was aiming. I was pretty embarrassed but the bushmen and game scout told me that they had no worries about finding that impala. They were ready to track it all day long if necessary and would have been glad to do so. I obviously prefer to make a quick killing shot but these guys love to track and it was a pleasure to hunt with them.



The next day was Thanksgiving as well as my birthday. Unfortunately, my poor shooting continued and I missed a waterbuck late in the afternoon. Nonetheless, I enjoyed spending my birthday in the bush and having impala and lamb chops for Thanksgiving was unique to say the least. I did however miss the family. It was very much like missing the party.

We got up early, early the next morning and headed out for the waterbuck again. However, as it got lighter we realized that the water buck we were stalking was a smaller different one than I missed the night before even though it was in the same area and we had been watching that area for a few days. I was afraid that the one I missed had headed back across the river to Botswana. The game scout and James the tracker had headed off in different direction and located the bull from the night before. After a bit of chasing Vaughan got me onto the sticks and I was able to finally get my waterbuck.



We headed back to camp and had a leisurely breakfast before headed out again to see what else we could find, but I was happy to call it a hunt as I was leaving early the next morning. That afternoon we headed to Katima Mulilo so I could do a bit of shopping and ended up having some drinks and dinner with some friends of Vaughan’s. I have to say I had a lot of fun that afternoon and evening and wished my wife and I had spent more time in Katima back in September. There is not doubt I will be back to this area in the future whether it be hunting or fishing.

Some say that this area is not a good plains game destination, however, it was perfect for me and what I was looking for. I got the chance to hunt Burchell zebra, blue wildebeest and impala in their native habitat in Namibia as well as be only the second hunter to take a waterbuck in this conservancy for many, many years. Additionally, the presence and of elephant or lion nightly was an added bonus you don’t usually encounter on your typical plains game hunt.

I have to thank Vaughan Fulton for not only making this opportunity available to me but for providing me with another memorable hunt.

Congratulations on a most excellent hunt! Nice work on the report and pictures as well.

Jorge: Great report on a great hunt. Really enjoyed the photos, too. Those last two look so little like my concept of Africa that I almost expected to see trout feeding near the grassy banks.

As usual, great report and pics Jorge. On hindsight, I probably should have tried harder to go with you. It looks like the plains game variety in the Caprivi is greater than I imagined.

Thanks for great pics and report. Nice animals too.

STIG

Congratualtions on the great hunt. That is an amazing area, I am hoping to go back sometime in the near future. Vaughan is a great guy and fun to hunt with, but don't tell him that it will go to his head.

Shaun

Congratulations, George.

That's remarkable success for a one week safari!

Great photos, too.

Very nice! Congratulations!

Looks like a great hunt! Odd to see everything so green.

Was it warm enough?

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Jorge: Great report on a great hunt. Really enjoyed the photos, too. Those last two look so little like my concept of Africa that I almost expected to see trout feeding near the grassy banks.

Quite possibly bream in such an African stream, not trout in the warm waters of northern Namibia!

Gorge, nice report on nice hunt!

Andrew McLaren

Fantastic looking hunt!

That country looks so much different when it's greening up like that. Must ahve been great to be there and see it like that.

My jealousy has no bounds!

Jeeze, you got great animals and a cool shirt to go with it! When did Vaughan start giving those out? I know.....probably 8 years ago!

congratultions for the great hunt and for the beautiful pictures as well

quote:

Originally posted by Mark T:
...Jeeze, you got great animals and a cool shirt to go with it! When did Vaughan start giving those out? I know.....probably 8 years ago!

I had to beg for it. Hell, I've been trying to get a cap for a few years now. He even has shorts with his name and logo on them. Thinks he's Tommy Hilfiger or Ralph Lauren now.

Great report and trip. I've got to get bac over there!

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by Mark T:
...Jeeze, you got great animals and a cool shirt to go with it! When did Vaughan start giving those out? I know.....probably 8 years ago!


I had to beg for it. Hell, I've been trying to get a cap for a few years now. He even has shorts with his name and logo on them. Thinks he's Tommy Hilfiger or Ralph Lauren now.

And I thought it was just me, I am still waiting for a hat. The only hat he had in camp last year was the one he was wearing, and I think he had been wearing that for at least 5 years. I am having a hard time picturing Vaughan as a fashion model.

Thanks for sharing. Good for you just making it work time wise. I think more of us myself included need to have that approach.

I hunted w/ Vaughan 10/08, the wife & I had a great time in his Caprivi camp. You ahve some great trophies there. I would hunt again w/ Vaughan in a heartbeat.

I am jealous, the very hunt I dreamed of. Great pictures, waterbuck and impala are of special interest to me.

Thanks for sharing.
SFC E7 (retired)