I have dreamed of hunting buffalo since I was 10 or 11 years old reading about African hunting in Petersens Hunting magazine my mom bought me a subscription for in 1985. Growing up on a farm in Pennsylvania and hunting rabbits and squirrels, Alaskan and African game seemed a lofty goal, but one I was determined to accomplish. I moved to Alaska in 2006 and have successfully hunted all Alaskan big game species except bison (still applying for tag) and mountain goat (hasn't been a priority, but probably will one of these years). I turned 50 this past summer, and figured the big five-oh was as good as excuse as any to finally hunt Africa. Cape buffalo has always fascinated me the most of the African game, so that was my priority when I booked a hunt. I began planning this trip in 2021, and was advised to contact Byron Hart. Byron was extremely helpful and laid out various buffalo hunting options. Byron has concessions in Namibia mainly for elephant which he specializes in but doesn’t have buff on his concessions. I ended up booking a hunt through him with Dawid Muller of Daggaboy Safaris who has a concession in Wuparo conservancy in the Caprivi region. Dawid Muller was unknown to me at the time, but I have since learned he is a well-known PH, especially for buffalo. I ended up booking for early October of 2024. I convinced a friend and hunting partner to accompany me as an observer and cameraman (didn’t take much convincing actually.)
I spent considerable time developing loads for my .375 H&H, a Remington 798 Zastava mauser that I reworked by restocking in English walnut, installing NECG sights and a Gentry barrel band. I ended up with a load that pushed a 300 grain A-Frame at 2530 FPS using RL15 and showed no excess pressure signs when hot soaked in 120 degree water. I loaded CEB Safari Solids for solids as Byron prefers the traditional soft followed by solids on buffalo.
Living in Alaska, I am used to long flight times to get about anywhere, and this trip was no exception. 3.5 hours from Fairbanks to Seattle, 10 hours and change from Seattle to Frankfurt, 10.5 hours from Frankfurt to Windhoek, and about 2 hours from Windhoek to Katima Mullilo. With layovers we were traveling for nearly 3 days. Upon arrival at Katima Mullilo the excitement overcame the travel weariness and I took it all in. The Caprivi, I believe it is now referred to as Zambezi, is quite a change in a lot of ways from Alaska, but in some ways shares similarities to remote villages in bush Alaska. The roadsides were full of children, dogs, goats, and cattle. Upon arrival at the Wuparo hunting Camp, I was introduced to Dawid Muller, as well as the camp staff. The camp exceeded my expectations, with clean and comfortable accommodations, excellent food, wifi (which I strived not to use), and abundant wildlife of various sorts visible from camp.
Dawid Muller's Wuparo hunting camp
The first evening in camp we drove to a remote area to check zero on our rifles. On the way we saw a cow elephant and calf which was almost surreal for me. My rifle zero was unchanged by travel, and we returned to camp picking up a Wuparo game scout from the nearest village on the way and prepared for the first day’s hunt.
As we were hunting the dry season, and during a historic drought, the small bachelor groups of bulls that may have normally be found seemed to have joined larger herds of buff that would travel daily through the conservancy to the river. The first morning we found a herd of roughly 200 head, set up ahead of them and let them feed through and around us while we looked for mature hard-bossed bulls. After the herd passed, we would back out and repeat the process, finding a vantage point ahead of them and let them pass. We did this three times with the herd, but didn’t find the bull we were looking for. We also found a LOT of elephants. They seemed to be everywhere. They were still a treat to see, but at times were a nuisance. They moved among us and the buffalo, and we had to divert our attention to them.
We repeated this method over the next few days. We would hunt morning and evening, returning to camp in the heat of middays for naps (which I took advantage of because of extreme jet-lag) and refreshments. We saw lots of big herds of buff, and had numerous close encounters with them. At one point we had a cow 4 yards from us, and probably a dozen buffalo within 15 yards of us in the same herd. I was enjoying hunting them so much I was in no hurry to shoot one and it did not upset me in the least that we didn’t find the “right” bull. We saw several very impressive bulls, but with soft bosses.
On the third morning we had hunted a few groups of buffalo and were headed back to camp when we observed another herd of buffalo. It contained probably 75 or 100 head, and appeared to contain a couple mature bulls. We drove past them, parking the landcruiser about ¼ mile from the herd and began a stalk. Skirting the edge of the herd, we observed two mature hard bossed bulls. One was quite wide without a whole lot of “drop”, and one was not as wide but had nice classic shaped horns with drop and curl with flared back tips. He was the one I decided to take. I am not worried about scores and measurements, but wanted a mature bull with nice shaped horns. He was bedded on the edge of the herd, with numerous cows within close proximity. He was about 80 yards away, and it was quite windy. The wind was blowing me around on the sticks, making the shot difficult. Given the uncertainty of his actions if we attempted to get him to stand, I decided to take the shot while he was bedded, even though this made shot placement more challenging visualizing where the heart would be. In the meantime, a group of elephant consisting of cows and calves approached within 30 yards of us, and we had to split our attention and watch them, as well as make sure they moved off before I shot. After they moved off, I focused back on the bull I intended to shoot.
I held much lower on the bull than I would had he been standing, as he seemed to be rolled towards me slightly. I squeezed the shot off when the wind wasn’t buffeting me quite as bad and the cow that was behind him moved off-line, holding probably about 8 inches above the dirt. At the shot all the buffalo were running. I was reloaded quickly, and saw the bull was on his feet but hit hard. His off-side shoulder appeared to be broken, and he was running amongst many other buffalo. I couldn’t shoot again as I had solids and there were buffalo around and behind him. He quickly lagged behind, and then stopped after only traveling about 30 yards and still within sight. He stood on three legs fighting gravity with all his will before collapsing and we shortly heard his death bellow. We approached and I put a solid in his spine for good measure, though all indicators showed he was finished.
I am extremely happy with the bull. Nice bosses with lots of character, and classically shaped horns. It was a bit of an emotional and surreal experience walking up on him after dreaming of that moment for 40 years. I doubt he will be my last, buffalo hunting is definitely addicting!
Upon skinning and butchering the bull we found the bullet broke a near side rib, passed through the top of the heart, broke off side rib, broke humerus, and was lodged in muscle of off side shoulder. It was mangled more than most pictures I have seen of recovered A-Frames, quite flattened out. It still retained the bonded front core however, and upon weighing it later discovered it weighed 255 grains, or 85% weight retention.
We spent that evening baboon hunting, and I got a nice sized male. The following day we took it easy and planned the rest of our trip. There were not a whole lot of other hunting options in Wuparo as far as hunting because of two factors; being late in the season most of the quota for plains game had been filled, and because of the extreme drought some plains game with remaining quotas were not to be found. We dined that evening on buffalo filet mignon, excellent fare.
Byron made some calls to other concessions, and we decided to leave Wuparo and hunt other conservancies where there were zebra, wildebeest, and Impala left on quota. We stayed at Caprivi Mutoya Lodge and Campsite, another place I would highly recommend. Although not specifically geared towards hunters, the owners, Zane and Xina are hunter friendly and run a very nice operation, with a bar and deck overlooking lakes and the Zambezi river. From that base, we hunted Salambala, Sikunga, and Lusese conservancies. We took two zebra and two wildebeest hunting these. I took a non-trophy community-use zebra using Byron’s Krieghoff 500NE double, a real treat in itself! Now I think I caught the double rifle bug.
Zebra I shot using Byron's 500NE Krieghoff
Blue Gnu
In addition to hunting, we took a van to see Victoria Falls, and did a river cruise in an aluminum skiff where we saw hippo and crocodile.
In all it was an awesome trip which exceeded my expectations, and highly recommend Byron Hart (Byron Hart African Safaris) as well as Dawid Muller (Daggaboy Hunting Safaris) if anything is looking to do anything similar. Byron did a stellar job of coordinating hunting between multiple concessions and has many connections in Namibia and elsewhere. Just prior to our hunt he finished up a hunt in Tanzania.
I definitely hope to return and hunt Africa again !
I spent considerable time developing loads for my .375 H&H, a Remington 798 Zastava mauser that I reworked by restocking in English walnut, installing NECG sights and a Gentry barrel band. I ended up with a load that pushed a 300 grain A-Frame at 2530 FPS using RL15 and showed no excess pressure signs when hot soaked in 120 degree water. I loaded CEB Safari Solids for solids as Byron prefers the traditional soft followed by solids on buffalo.
Living in Alaska, I am used to long flight times to get about anywhere, and this trip was no exception. 3.5 hours from Fairbanks to Seattle, 10 hours and change from Seattle to Frankfurt, 10.5 hours from Frankfurt to Windhoek, and about 2 hours from Windhoek to Katima Mullilo. With layovers we were traveling for nearly 3 days. Upon arrival at Katima Mullilo the excitement overcame the travel weariness and I took it all in. The Caprivi, I believe it is now referred to as Zambezi, is quite a change in a lot of ways from Alaska, but in some ways shares similarities to remote villages in bush Alaska. The roadsides were full of children, dogs, goats, and cattle. Upon arrival at the Wuparo hunting Camp, I was introduced to Dawid Muller, as well as the camp staff. The camp exceeded my expectations, with clean and comfortable accommodations, excellent food, wifi (which I strived not to use), and abundant wildlife of various sorts visible from camp.
Dawid Muller's Wuparo hunting camp
The first evening in camp we drove to a remote area to check zero on our rifles. On the way we saw a cow elephant and calf which was almost surreal for me. My rifle zero was unchanged by travel, and we returned to camp picking up a Wuparo game scout from the nearest village on the way and prepared for the first day’s hunt.
As we were hunting the dry season, and during a historic drought, the small bachelor groups of bulls that may have normally be found seemed to have joined larger herds of buff that would travel daily through the conservancy to the river. The first morning we found a herd of roughly 200 head, set up ahead of them and let them feed through and around us while we looked for mature hard-bossed bulls. After the herd passed, we would back out and repeat the process, finding a vantage point ahead of them and let them pass. We did this three times with the herd, but didn’t find the bull we were looking for. We also found a LOT of elephants. They seemed to be everywhere. They were still a treat to see, but at times were a nuisance. They moved among us and the buffalo, and we had to divert our attention to them.
We repeated this method over the next few days. We would hunt morning and evening, returning to camp in the heat of middays for naps (which I took advantage of because of extreme jet-lag) and refreshments. We saw lots of big herds of buff, and had numerous close encounters with them. At one point we had a cow 4 yards from us, and probably a dozen buffalo within 15 yards of us in the same herd. I was enjoying hunting them so much I was in no hurry to shoot one and it did not upset me in the least that we didn’t find the “right” bull. We saw several very impressive bulls, but with soft bosses.
On the third morning we had hunted a few groups of buffalo and were headed back to camp when we observed another herd of buffalo. It contained probably 75 or 100 head, and appeared to contain a couple mature bulls. We drove past them, parking the landcruiser about ¼ mile from the herd and began a stalk. Skirting the edge of the herd, we observed two mature hard bossed bulls. One was quite wide without a whole lot of “drop”, and one was not as wide but had nice classic shaped horns with drop and curl with flared back tips. He was the one I decided to take. I am not worried about scores and measurements, but wanted a mature bull with nice shaped horns. He was bedded on the edge of the herd, with numerous cows within close proximity. He was about 80 yards away, and it was quite windy. The wind was blowing me around on the sticks, making the shot difficult. Given the uncertainty of his actions if we attempted to get him to stand, I decided to take the shot while he was bedded, even though this made shot placement more challenging visualizing where the heart would be. In the meantime, a group of elephant consisting of cows and calves approached within 30 yards of us, and we had to split our attention and watch them, as well as make sure they moved off before I shot. After they moved off, I focused back on the bull I intended to shoot.
I held much lower on the bull than I would had he been standing, as he seemed to be rolled towards me slightly. I squeezed the shot off when the wind wasn’t buffeting me quite as bad and the cow that was behind him moved off-line, holding probably about 8 inches above the dirt. At the shot all the buffalo were running. I was reloaded quickly, and saw the bull was on his feet but hit hard. His off-side shoulder appeared to be broken, and he was running amongst many other buffalo. I couldn’t shoot again as I had solids and there were buffalo around and behind him. He quickly lagged behind, and then stopped after only traveling about 30 yards and still within sight. He stood on three legs fighting gravity with all his will before collapsing and we shortly heard his death bellow. We approached and I put a solid in his spine for good measure, though all indicators showed he was finished.
I am extremely happy with the bull. Nice bosses with lots of character, and classically shaped horns. It was a bit of an emotional and surreal experience walking up on him after dreaming of that moment for 40 years. I doubt he will be my last, buffalo hunting is definitely addicting!
Upon skinning and butchering the bull we found the bullet broke a near side rib, passed through the top of the heart, broke off side rib, broke humerus, and was lodged in muscle of off side shoulder. It was mangled more than most pictures I have seen of recovered A-Frames, quite flattened out. It still retained the bonded front core however, and upon weighing it later discovered it weighed 255 grains, or 85% weight retention.
We spent that evening baboon hunting, and I got a nice sized male. The following day we took it easy and planned the rest of our trip. There were not a whole lot of other hunting options in Wuparo as far as hunting because of two factors; being late in the season most of the quota for plains game had been filled, and because of the extreme drought some plains game with remaining quotas were not to be found. We dined that evening on buffalo filet mignon, excellent fare.
Byron made some calls to other concessions, and we decided to leave Wuparo and hunt other conservancies where there were zebra, wildebeest, and Impala left on quota. We stayed at Caprivi Mutoya Lodge and Campsite, another place I would highly recommend. Although not specifically geared towards hunters, the owners, Zane and Xina are hunter friendly and run a very nice operation, with a bar and deck overlooking lakes and the Zambezi river. From that base, we hunted Salambala, Sikunga, and Lusese conservancies. We took two zebra and two wildebeest hunting these. I took a non-trophy community-use zebra using Byron’s Krieghoff 500NE double, a real treat in itself! Now I think I caught the double rifle bug.
Zebra I shot using Byron's 500NE Krieghoff
Blue Gnu
In addition to hunting, we took a van to see Victoria Falls, and did a river cruise in an aluminum skiff where we saw hippo and crocodile.
In all it was an awesome trip which exceeded my expectations, and highly recommend Byron Hart (Byron Hart African Safaris) as well as Dawid Muller (Daggaboy Hunting Safaris) if anything is looking to do anything similar. Byron did a stellar job of coordinating hunting between multiple concessions and has many connections in Namibia and elsewhere. Just prior to our hunt he finished up a hunt in Tanzania.
I definitely hope to return and hunt Africa again !
