30 June 2025, 19:54
llamapackerBotswana Elephant 2025
Area: Botswana CH8 June 10-21, 2025Outfitter: Cabassa Safaris in association with Tholo Safaris
PH: Dean Taylor Cook, J.F. de Koker
Rifle: Ruger Safari Magnum in .416 Rigby shooting 400 grain Barnes solids at 2550 fps with a Leupold VX3 1.75x6. I bought this rifle from forum member “Zimbabwe” back in the early 2000’s and have used it on my previous elephant and buffalo safaris.
Weather: cold mornings (35-40F) with warm days (75-85F). We actually had rain – very rare for June - one evening (2mm) that slowed game movement for a day, but no major issue.
Game taken: Trophy Elephant
Other animals seen but not taken: Full pride of lions (9) with heavy maned male, numerous elephants, eland, sable, roan, kudu, zebra, giraffe, buffalo, warthogs, duiker, steenbok, spitting cobra, puff adder
Travel: Coordinated with PWP Travel. I used Delta to fly SLC to Atlanta/JNB/ and finally Kasane, Botswana with Airlink. Overnight stay at the City Lodge in JNB was comfortable and all we needed. Return itinerary was Kasane to JNB / Amsterdam and then direct Amsterdam to SLC on KLM. Customs and firearms clearance in SLC is a breeze. Flights were very full and long as usual, but no issues. While I had the Dutch consent ready for the flight home, I checked all luggage straight through from Kasane and never claimed bags or filled out any additional paperwork in the airport for the firearm. Seamless.
Arrived in camp late afternoon of June 10, 2025. Unpacked, quick check of the rifle, then the sun was going down on our first night in Botswana. Camp is very nice, new tents on tiled concrete platforms with functional wood doors and continuous solar power. Beautiful teak 4 poster bed with mozzy netting and teak armoire and night stands. Nice thatched roof open eating area with a view of a waterhole 50 yards from the tent and eating area. A nice fire in the sand on the edge of the waterhole each evening was a great place to relax after hunting with great appetizers and free flowing adult beverages.
Day 1: My wife is enjoying sitting up front in the warm Land Cruiser with Dean while JF and I are bundled up on the high seat with the trackers and scout. We begin seeing elephants within an hour from the road, and the day warms quickly. Some eles we approach on foot for better evaluation, and some are clearly smaller. We do see a couple great looking bulls across the boundary in CH12 this morning. This is my wife’s first time accompanying me on an elephant hunt, and she is nervous. Late in the afternoon we stalk within a group of 5 bulls in very thick cover. We are 20-50 yards from each bull, and she is starting to freak out a bit when she realizes a bull elephant she hadn’t seen is within 20 yards.
The elephants are all quite calm, and we back out looking for bigger ivory. A great conversation that evening about elephant behavior around the fire calms my wife and she is fine the rest of the trip. She joins me on every long stalk and is right behind my shoulder when I eventually take my elephant.
Day 2: We follow tracks several times and evaluate a number of bulls, usually from around 30-40 yards. My wife is now just enjoying the show with complete trust in Dean Cook, even when one young bull postures aggressively at under 10 yards, flinging dirt on us and ripping up grass. Dean calmly raises his hand and the bull wheels and trots off. A great close-range encounter. I told Dean I was willing to get really close and he did not disappoint. We ended the evening at full dark as we walked away from a group of 18 bulls. A couple were pushing 40#, but nothing very heavy or long. We did see a truly ancient no tusk bull who had the largest body size of the entire trip, along with several one tusk bulls. A couple of these were 50#+ one tuskers, but the other socket was entirely empty, not broken. Botswana does not distinguish among two tusk, one tusk or no tusk bulls, requiring the full trophy fee for any male elephant. As a result, there were quite a few one tusk bulls that would have been shooters had the other side matched. The one tuskers were still helpful to learn more about evaluating ivory, and I would have considered a truly large one tusk bull, but none even really approached 60#.
Day 3: We had rain overnight last night, about 2mm around midnight. It is cold and damp the next morning, but no puddles from the rain as the soil is very sandy and easily absorbed the moisture. Movement is very limited this day, and it is quite overcast and occasionally spit a few more drops several times during the day. We make a few stalks, but nothing very productive today. We even return to camp for lunch, as it is a bit cool for a bush lunch and nap with temps mostly in the high 60’s, but it occasionally reaching the low 70’s when the sun comes out. Our normal practice is to keep a lunch box on the truck, and we have great meals near a waterhole at midday and then take a short nap during the heat of the day. I seem to have perfected sleeping while laying on the high seat, but others choose yoga type mats on the ground in the shade. Back to camp for another great dinner and conversation around the campfire. A hot shower is also very much appreciated on this cool day, and the fire is kept going under the water tank whenever we are in camp. Well after dark, we see several elephants come to the waterhole across from camp. Still mostly cloudy with only broken moon light so we can’t see much more than silhouettes, but a couple have visible ivory. A great sight as we wrap up the day and turn in for the night.
Day 4: We cut elephant tracks within a half mile from camp, obviously the same elephants that visited the camp water hole last night. A couple tracks look good, so we are off the truck and tracking the small group of bulls by 7:15 am. After tracking over two hours and 4 miles, I spot a bull up ahead. It quickly turns into 2 elephants who are feeding and unaware of our presence. We close to evaluate ivory, but they are both young bulls and we quickly dismiss them. The trackers insist these are not the bulls we have been following and we just intercepted two other bulls who happened to cross the tracks we are following. Within a few minutes we are back on the original tracks and follow for another 45 minutes before we spot the elephants feeding up ahead. We pick out the largest body size and maneuver within 30 yards. This bull has one very nice, heavy tusk while the other is also heavy, but it is broomed a bit. Not chipped or broken, just worn and noticeably shorter. Dean tells me it is my call, but the bull is in the 50# range. I elect to back out and suggest we check out the remainder of the group. In total there are 8 bulls, although 2 are quite young and the rest have unimpressive ivory. We back off 50 yards and hold a quick discussion about the first bull. There is no pressure to shoot, but Dean casually mentions this elephant is bigger than anything currently in the skinning shed, and I begin to pay a bit more attention. Dean’s calm and understated demeanor has undersold this bull. Dean estimates the bull at 45# and 50#, and JF estimates a bit higher. We have time left in the 10-day hunt but trophy expectations in this area are typically about 50#, so this is a good bull for the area. My wife tells me I was crazy to back out the first time. It has been a great morning and we have now tracked the bull close to 5 miles all the way from camp. I decide this will be my bull if possible, so we re-engage and begin stalking back into range.
We move back in to about 12 yards as the bull is feeding in the mopane. I set up on the sticks and wait for him to take two more steps forward clearing the mopane tree, which will provide a perfect side brain shot. Instead, the bull turns and feeds toward us, pushing through the mopane. I have a perfect frontal shot at about 10 yards as he feeds, but we had discussed holding off for a side brain if possible, so I hold my fire. The bull is temporarily partly obstructed by the last mopane tree between us, and when he pushes through towards us he finally recognizes we are there about 4 yards away. Dean calmly says I will need to take the frontal shot as he knows we are here and he is CLOSE! I aim about 6 inches below the eyes and shoot. The back legs begin to crumple as the bull staggers, but he recovers and I realize I have missed the brain.
The bull wheels to run away and I take a quick shot into the hip area, and then fire a shot into the spine when he is about 30 yards away, dropping the elephant. After a hurried reload, we run up and put a couple more shots into the head and finally the chest to ensure he is finished. A bit more of a circus than desired, but I was pleased to be able to stay on task and make a good shot as the bull tried to run off. My second shot was less carefully aimed as the bull was still literally at spitting distance away, but I vividly remember picking up his spine in the cross hairs as he bolted away, and felt very good about this shot that anchored the bull.
After a quick celebration we begin to relax and relive the events that just unfolded. We walk back to where I first shot to pick up my brass, and measure the distance from my boot prints to the elephant’s front foot tracks at 5 yards. We figure the head is about a yard in front of the front legs, so the shot distance was about 4 yards. While I knew we were VERY CLOSE, I think I lost a bit of perspective looking through the scope. In hind sight I should have taken the frontal shot at 10 yards, as I had the crosshairs going through the zygomatic arches and the bull was relaxed and momentarily looking directly at me unobstructed by brush. Dean indicated he was surprised I didn’t shoot then, but I told him I was following instructions waiting for the side brain! We had a good laugh at that.
Dean didn’t actually say shoot until he was right in front of us, and even then very calmly said, “You will need to take him now, he knows we are here”. Very calm and reassuring, so I stayed calm even when I shot just above the brain. While the bull hadn’t really raised his head when he pushed through in front of us, I didn’t compensate for the close range and aim low enough to get a direct hit on the brain. He did stagger hard, allowing time for my follow-up and eventual spine shot to drop him.
Recovery was a bit different than my other hunts in Zimbabwe, as there are no villages nearby. A crude road was cut through the mopane and a large flat bed truck like a car hauling tow truck arrived and they winched the bull onto the flatbed whole, after we had removed the parts we wanted. The truck then drove the carcass to one of the nearest villages, where dissection and distribution of the meat to the various households was overseen by the village leadership. Quite a change from the somewhat chaotic scenes I have witnessed in Zimbabwe when local villages seem to materialize out of nowhere the second a shot is fired.
Along with the recovery truck a bottle of champagne is delivered to the bush, and we toast the bull and a successful hunt before leaving the site. What a great overall experience, and Dean mentioned it was the closest shot taken by any of his clients. We joke that I should ask the PH on my next hunt to cut the distance in half , but we all realize we actually pushed the envelope pretty far on this hunt. I find myself a bit more nervous thinking about alternate outcomes after the hunt was over, more so than I did during the actual hunt. A calm, professional, reassuring PH is worth every penny, and Dean was the epitome of the consummate professional on this hunt. I would happily hunt with him again anytime, and for such a young PH he has tremendous experience hunting these great elephants.
Day 5: We take the day off after perhaps over-imbibing a bit the evening before. It is Sunday, so while we discuss options for the rest of the trip, we cannot get another permit for any species until Monday morning. We have a great bush braai on a nearby waterhole at lunch, with great steaks and G&T’s to celebrate the hunt once again.
Day 6-10: There is one buffalo left on quota, and although we haven’t seen a buffalo the entire trip, I decide the rest of the hunt will be well spent chasing dugga boys. Most of the buffalo activity was near the boundary with CH 12, so while we track bulls many times, we either bump them out of the area or they just naturally feed across the boundary unaware we were even pursuing them. While everyone is a bit surprised at the lack of buffalo activity, it is still a pleasant way to finish the trip even though we are unsuccessful. We did see three buffalo on one of these stalks, but no shot was presented. One morning we also spot a pride of nine lions on a waterhole, with a heavy maned male that would be the envy of almost any hunter. A great experience, even if lions are not currently hunted in Botswana.
Departure occurred all too quickly, as often happens and we had an uneventful but crowded trip home.
I’d like to give a quick shout out to J.F. de Koker, a SA PH who also accompanied us on this trip. While I followed Dean closely on any stalk, I knew JF was just a few steps back with my wife directing her and making sure she had a great hunt as well. My wife is an experienced hunter, but she has demurred on hunting dangerous game until she accompanied me last year on a buffalo hunt in Zimbabwe. JF was great company on the back of the truck and in camp and we were pleasantly surprised and please to have a second PH along on this hunt. We didn’t know this was the plan until we arrived, but Hardus Van Zyl had set this in motion when we booked the hunt with him at the Western Hunting and Conservation Expo in SLC this past February. My wife had expressed some apprehension about being so close to elephants, and Hardus had told her elephants in Botswana are nothing like the eles she had seen previously in Zim, and he would make sure she was taken care of.
Overall, we had a great team of PH’s and trackers, along with camp staff. A very pleasant and productive safari, and I am eagerly waiting for the tusks and other small bits to be shipped once the CITES permit clears. I very highly recommend both Cabassa and Tholo Safaris, as well as their entire team.
I am a bit concerned my wife may now be hooked on hunting elephants, and although she doesn’t want to shoot one herself, she is already encouraging me to think about another elephant hunt next year. I am a lucky man…
Bill
