Dates: April 30th - May 11th
Outfitter / Guide: Karl Stumpfe / Ndumo Safaris
Species Hunted: non-trophy Elephant & Croc
Rifle: Merkel 140 416 Rigby Double, Blaser R8 300 Win Mag / Swarovski Z5 3.5 - 18 BT
Travel: Turkish Airlines Business class through Istanbul and Johannesburg
Animal Taken: Bull elephant, Hippo and Zebra

Travel:

I booked this hunt with Karl at SCI in Nashville this past February through my friend and RSA outfitter Rudolf Graupner / Molopo Kalahari Safaris. I had been trying to line up a non-trophy elephant hunt since before covid. I had hunted tuskless in Zim back in 2015 and due to shifting gears and hunting a Leopard successfully on that trip, I was unsuccessful on elephant so this was my first…

I booked my travel thru Shawn at Gracy Travel. I chose Turkish Airlines as their business class was several thousand less that Emirates or Qatar and I will be flying them to Tajikistan next year and Mongolia in 2026 so I figured the additional airmiles cant hurt and they are Star Alliance which works with all my United miles. As I always do, I departed out of Dulles on April 26th to Joberg via Istanbul. Turkish has an amazing lounge in the new Istanbul airport and layovers between 4 and 9 hours qualify for a private suite to rest up in. My layover was 9hrs and 23 min so I did not qualify - seriously?? I popped over to the YotelAir airside and got a room to shower ands rest up. My return layover was only 8 hours so I was able to get a suite - and my flight was delayed 3 hours so I had it for 11 hours LOL!

I had no issues with any of my travel. Turkish check-in was very smooth and the TSA agent as Dulles was pro-hunting and we stood and chatted about African conservation thru hunting and how important it is for almost an hour! I opted to spend a full day (two nights) air Africa Sky resting up on my way to Karl’s camp. Africa Sky did my RSA gun permit and it took maybe 15 min to get thru SAPs - absolutely no issues.. One of Rudolf’s young PHs joined me there to go along as he needs to do an ele hunt to qualify for his DG certificate in RSA. April 30th we checked in and flew to Kasane on Airlink.

I did have to do lots of gun permits but it really was no big deal..

- South Africa
- Botswana
- Namibia

Karl’s staff met us at Kasane and we had about a 2 1/2 hour drive to the Sobbe camp.


Camp:

I hunted out of both of Karl’s camps - Sobbe and Balyerwa. At Sobbe we hunted elephant and zebra and Baylerwa we hunted Croc. Karl’s camps are outstanding - top notch in every aspect.

We even had Escargot as a starter once evening - excellent!!!











Hunting:

The Caprivi is simply a magical area.. There were plenty of elephant, buffalo and plains game around.. Karl knew there was a broken tusked bull around that was perfect for a non-trophy so we set off looking for him. We got close to him on day 2 but were busted my a herd of cows that came in on our left during the stalk. On day 3 Karl go a call about a problem hippo that was chasing the locals so we set off the resolve the problem :-)







On day 4 we found the group of bulls again - there were 5 bulls in the group and one was a very nice 55lb trophy bull! Thankfully (but regrettably) Karl did not throw numbers at me to upgrade to a trophy as I doubt I could have resisted :-)

We followed the group for a hour or so until we got into a place where we could get close enough to the broken tusk bull for a shot. Naturally that trophy bull presented multiple opportunities for an easy 25 yd shot!! The mopane was very thick and the sun was right in our eyes. We got about 30 yards from broken tusk - there was a young bull on our left and the big guy and two other young bulls were on our right. I missed the side brain on my first shot by about 2” low but it stunned the bull. Karl and I both put one behind the shoulder (and Karl with that .577) which definitely slowed him down and my 3rd shot brained him. So meanwhile, pandemonium was ensuing all around us.. On my first shot, the other bulls all took off to our right and started to turn back onto us but turned away when they saw us. We knew there was a herd (15-20) of cows way off to our left - several hundred yards away when were approaching the bulls. What we did not know is there was a cow on our the left much closer. Sadly she charged and Karl had to drop her 15 feet from us. I won’t go into any more detail on that until the govt investigation on self-defense has been completed but suffice it to say if Karl had not dropped her, Karl, myself, the cameraman and Wilhelm would probably not be here today. We do have it all on video, but once again - no more to be said until the investigation is completed…

Needless to say it was a bit intense :-).









I learned several valuable lessons which I am already fixing:

- I will never again hunt DG with an extractor double!
- I never again hunt DG with a rimless cased double!

Took WAY to long to reload and bigger IS better…

I have already remediated this issue as I just bought a Verney Carron 450 NE today!



We also hunted Zebra at Sobbe




We moved to Balyerwa to hunt croc for the last 4 days. Unfortunately we could not get a big croc to come into our baits. Karl and I both probably sweated off 10 pounds in the blinds though!!



It was an awesome trip and I am already getting a quote to return in 2025 for another elephant!!!








Scott

Thanks for the report and congratulations on your management elephant. A friend and I are doing the same safari with Karl next July so it was a good primer for me...

Scott: very cool hunt, great report and pics.

Very cool ele bull & I love that broken tusk.

Did you wind up shooting the hippo in the water or on land?

quote:

Originally posted by Baker458:
Scott: very cool hunt, great report and pics.

Very cool ele bull & I love that broken tusk.

Did you wind up shooting the hippo in the water or on land?

In the water - we tried to get him to come out after us but I think he knew the jig was up LOL!

We waited for him to pop up and I snapshot him in the brain with my double at about 20 yds...

Congratulations on a great hunt.

Congratulations and thanks for posting!

well done.

Great hunt,

looking like a nice Time was had by all.

The Caprivi is a special place.

Really appreciated the great report and especially the great photos.

Thanks for sharing - and congratulations!

Told you that you would enjoy hunting with Karl. He’s a killer with his .577 VC. He much prefers it to his .600. Looks like he has lost a bit of weight! The video should clear things up.

Congratulations on a memorable hunt! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Thanks for sharing brings back good memories.
Sobbe is a very nice place.

Excellent and look forward to seeing the video

Nice report - thanks for sharing. Waiting for the viedeo yes ...

Morten

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
Told you that you would enjoy hunting with Karl. He’s a killer with his .577 VC. He much prefers it to his .600. Looks like he has lost a bit of weight! The video should clear things up.

It was a great trip Jerry! I already have Colleen sending me a quote for 2025! Oh - and I bought a VC 450NE with EJECTORS yesterday :-)

Karl recommended either a 450/400 or a 450 as a client gun and I always listen to my PH LOL!

No doubt about that .577 - its like Thor's hammer!

So cool
Thanks

Very cool!! Congrats and thanks for sharing!!

Congratulations on a great hunt. Thank you for sharing.

Are the details which led you to replace the rimless, ejector double related to the cow charge? Or your bull?

Scott,

Well done on a great safari! Karl is a great & fearless PH, good to

have him in your corner when something unexpected happens!

Congrats again & I agree with having ejectors on a DG double!

Jim

Glad you had a great hunt. I did a "trophy elephant hunt" with Karl's outfit in September. Still no resolution on the ivory weight. Getting a bit more than frustrating. One would think that a response would be forthcoming 8 months later. Poor form?

quote:

Originally posted by DoubleDon:
Glad you had a great hunt. I did a "trophy elephant hunt" with Karl's outfit in September. Still no resolution on the ivory weight. Getting a bit more than frustrating. One would think that a response would be forthcoming 8 months later. Poor form?

Don, I hate to hear that, would make me uncomfortable too , to say the least.

quote:

Originally posted by Brandon.Gleason:
Congratulations on a great hunt. Thank you for sharing.

Are the details which led you to replace the rimless, ejector double related to the cow charge? Or your bull?

The cow charge for sure...

My old 577 Verney Carron still doing the job :-)

Update - here is the video of the charge..

https://youtu.be/RA2jjZDlq-4?si=ZIvahmaiOZVLAGEl

Karl did well and don't fuck around in those situations

Scott, thanks for sharing that.

Really shows how quickly things can go sideways out there...

Thanks for sharing the film. After watching the video, I'm guessing that Karl was cleared of any wrong doing.

quote:

Originally posted by Nevada Wapati:
Thanks for sharing the film. After watching the video, I'm guessing that Karl was cleared of any wrong doing.

The video made it rather obvious that we did not have any choice… We still did a bunch of paperwork though!

Congrats. Very nice work and video.

FYI, I am still awaiting my elephant from my hunt with Karl in Caprivi in September 2022. Crazy! Frustrating to say the least. Kind of like a root canal

Best of luck with yours.

Scott that charging cow must have been terrifying. If that were me, an underwear reload would be required.

quote:

Originally posted by Bud Meadows:
Scott that charging cow must have been terrifying. If that were me, an underwear reload would be required.

Interesting enough, I was so "in the zone" that it was just all mechanical reaction.. I turned and raised my rifle and just as I started to squeeze the trigger Karl shot and she dropped..

I think that last time I was that razor focused was during a firefight in Iraq... Maybe those experiences dulled (or hardened) my nerves.

Karl did mention later than many clients would drop their rifle and run for the hills - the thought never entered my mind..

The part that bothers me is this was really my fault.. If I had not missed the brain on the first shot, forcing multiple follow-up shots, the cow may not have become spooked enough to charge...

But then again.. maybe she would have... My next Ele hunt will be for my redemption - a successful single brain shot...

Great report and some nice animals (Memories).