I just got back from a good buffalo hunt w/ Vaughan in the Caprivi. Vaughan's tent camp is right on the edges of the Chobe river. This allowed us to see game animals every morning & evening from the camp dining tent. The ususal supsects were always there, zebra, warthogs, impala, waterbuck, baboons. A good sable bull was seen one am & roan bulls & kudu bulls on another. The food was good & the staff attentive & always polite. Vaughan runs a good, comfortable camp. We drove to the Kasika Conservancy to look for buffalo. It's about a 2hr rough road drive but worth the trip. We saw elephant & buffalo there on day two.
The Kasika is a wetland conservancy & we were hunting the papirus covered flood plain. Two weeks before, it was under water, but we had decent driving & were able to glass the tree sparse plain for buffalo. At noon we pulled under some of the few shade trees available to wait out the mid day heat. One of the trackers crawled up an ant hill & spotted a bachelor herd of 4 bulls about 1/2 mile away. Vaughan verified w/ the binos & we waited another hour or so for the wind to settle down & took off to intercept the small group. One of the tracers spotted horns in the papirus reeds just 30m from the track & we slowed, backed up to get the wind & then stopped & started our stalk.
We had them as close as 25m but I could only make out the partial horn of one bull. Vaughan swears he sees all 4 but I can't pick them out in the thick reeds. We sit & wait, we have the wind & they know we are there. After 40min. in the hot sun the wind shifts a bit & they are off w/ us low walking to keep up. The bulls hold up in a reed patch & we wait again, another 35-40min. in the hot sun. We keep the wind in our favor this time but now they are up & feeding.
Vaughan & I leave the trackers & game scout & set out after them. The reeds are thinning out & I can see all 4 bulls but they are moving faster now & we have less cover. We low walk, crawl, but they keep making distance. We've now covered almost 3 miles, wading through mucky drainages, low walking & crawling through the reeds, almost 4 hours since we left & it's getting late. We are still over 140yds off & I want to get closer. Vaughan wants that older bull & I want to get closer but they are at the far edge of a small pan & we have little to no cover. So it's almost belly crawiling, Vaughan in front, me right behind, stop, go, stop, go. Another 100yds & they have only moved 40 so it's now or never, 75-80yds. Sticks up next to a small bunch of reeds & now I have to sort out the old bull from the young one. They keep changes places every 30-40secs & moving among the reeds on the far side. Last bull, 2nd to the last, last bull, for an agonizing 10min or so. The old bull is broadside, head down, but the young bull is almost directly behind. Three steps & I can have shot. The old bull takes the three steps & is clear. I squeeze the trigger & he takes a forth step.
At the shot, all the bulls turn right & start to run. My bull is hit, I know it, but we didn't hear the bullet hit. Vaughan didn't see the hit, they were a few reeds right in front of his shoulder. I told him the shot was good but maybe off the shoulder as he stepped just as the trigger broke. The old bull stopped behind some reeds, he's down & the other bulls come back to look for him. We wait. After 8-10min we hear the first death below. We give him another 10min. & he sounds off 3 more times. The other bulls stay close & w/ 15min of light left we move forward, 8-10yards apart waiting for anything to happen. We have to yell the other bulls to move off & there is my buffalo, down & out. Another one shot kill from the 404jeffery.




Unfortunately, these big boys were on the wrong side of the river, but what a sight from camp. This big waterbuck bull was on the right side, but no quota for them, damn.

If you want a great buffalo or elephant hunt, the Caprivi is a good place & Vaughan's camp offers the sights & sounds of Africa. Just go before Oct. it gets into the 120s after Sept. Aug. can see the Chobe run right upto the camp steps & much of the hunting will get you wet.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Very nice buffalo. Enjoyed your report and photos.

Whoops, I will be there the second half of October when it is a little on the toasty side. Great report.

Nice old buff, not wide, but with character. Congratulations. Is Kasika the next conservancy to the west of Salambala?

Very nice buf and welcome back...

Mike

Kasika and Salambala don't border each other...there are two (I think) "conservancies to be" between them. These other areas are in the process of becoming legal conservancies.

There is also Impallili (sic) Conservancy even further east than Kasika.

And it is a great looking buff too!

quote:

Originally posted by McCray:
Kasika and Salambala don't border each other...there are two (I think) "conservancies to be" between them. These other areas are in the process of becoming legal conservancies.

There is also Impallili (sic) Conservancy even further east than Kasika.

And it is a great looking buff too!

There is an area between the two conservancies, but I am not sure where the borders were or what the other are is called. Vaughan's camp is between the two & he exclusively hunts both areas.

Nice report. Thank you.

Nice buff... congrats!

Good shooting Fred!

Congratulations on a great hunt and an awesome trophy.

Fred - nicely done. Congrats on your successful hunt. Thanks for the report

Congratulations on the buff.

congrads
Vaughn is fun to hunt with.

Great buffalo.

I forgot to ask you, you mentioned the kudu were on the wrong side of the river. Does Vaughan have kudu available in his Caprivi concessions?

He has 2 on quota. They saw a good one a few weeks ago, but couldn't get a shot.

He doesn't shoot good Kudu there. Not much for PG in the area.

quote:

Originally posted by Jorge400:
I forgot to ask you, you mentioned the kudu were on the wrong side of the river. Does Vaughan have kudu available in his Caprivi concessions?

Yes, I actually blew a shot at a nice bull late one evening, could have used more light, still pissed about that one. There are kudu, those two were just on the Botswana side. We also saw waterbuck, roan & sable, but not on quota. Wendell is right, not much PG in the Caprivi, but you can shoot kudu, impala, zebra, blue wildebeast, maybe warthog.

Congrats on the bachelor buff, Fred! Shoot anything else?

Just the above mentioned kudu. We tracked him for my final 2 days so I did not get any add'l shots on game. My bad, pushing a bad shot. First animal I have ever lost. There were zebra, wildebeast, & impala but I have no desire for another zebra & didn;t see a really good Impala & ran out of time for wildebeast.