BOTSWANA: NG 13 Elephant Hunt

[cls]

Congratulations on a successful outcome, will be watching for "the rest of the story".

 

[Jerycmeach]

Thanks everyone here on AH for your understanding in my delayed report. Tonight let me start with the drive into hunting camp. We left Maun, Botswana around 5 a.m. and we headed out onto the highway. The land cruiser was loaded to the gills with supplies. On the way out of town we stopped and picked up a gal that would be working at camp and we began the long trip. I was surprised just how quiet things were in Maun. My previous two safaris had involved the cities of Garbrone, Botswana and Dar es Salam, Tanzania, along with Johannesburg. I know you savvy safari guys are laughing at me right now for my ignorance but I was beginning to think that all of the cities in Africa were huge and intimidating. Maun was just a small city and not scary and overwhelming at all. It felt very comfortable and safe to me. The drive out of town was uneventful. I was surprised that no vehicles were on the road and the pavement was wonderfully smooth! We were humming right along with the big lightbar illuminating the roadway helping us avoid the cattle, donkeys and the occasional wild animal in the road. Everything was going great! The good road got worse and worse later in the drive until there was no pavement at all in places but that was to be expected. Overall the portion of the journey between Maun and Shakawe was easy sailing. I will attach a couple pictures to my post tonight that will give you a visual of my trip into camp. Basically you can think of it in this way... Maun is located at the Southeast corner of the Okavangoo Delta. NG 13 which is where I was hunting is North of Maun and on the opposite side of the Delta. If you were to charter a helicopter into camp; which I know is sometimes done, You would get a fantastic flyover experience of the Okavangoo and you would be into camp quickly and painlessly. I think the fee is approximately 2,500 U.S. dollars one way for the charter flight.
The other option, which is what I did, is that you drive entirely around the Okavangoo. There is a village located in the Northwest corner of Botswana at the beginning of the Okavangoo; it's name is Shakawe. This town is close to Namibia and Angola. This town of Shakawe has a newly completed, modern bridge, and now instead of the cursed ferry that caused horribly lengthy delays in the past; you can buzz right across the beautiful Okavangoo river and be on your way. Once you cross the bridge over the Okavangoo you are now literally headed back East returning somewhat toward where you started but you are obviously now on the North side of the Okavangoo. The road is good at first and then it gets worse and worse until you are on a two track trail in the sugar sand. Your speed must decrease of course and you must use four wheel drive and low gear to plow thru the loose sand. At times you could walk as fast as the vehicle is moving. All of this is great adventure of course and without a doubt this is the most remote area I have visited in Africa. There are no people living within this concession. We got into camp after dark having left Maun couple of hours before daylight. The staff met me and showed me around the camp. Everything I saw exceeded my expectations!

The tents were brand new and supplied by a South African tent maker and they were the best design I have ever seen. In my next post I will cover the tents and the accommodations at hunt camp as well as the meals and staff. Below is a photo of the view of the Okavangoo at the bridge in Shakawe.

 

[DieJager]

Great start to your report. Cannot wait for the next installment.

 

[Houston Bill]

Jerry, I am so so glad to see, that despite all the challenges, you were able to persevere and harvest a trophy of a lifetime! Great looking ele! I will call you in the next day or so to hear all the details.

 

[PARA45]

Man, I hope one day I'm able to do a safari like yours. That must have been a long a$$ drive, but I can only imagine how beautiful the scenery must have been. Like a kid waiting on grandpa (not calling you old ) to continue telling the story.

 

[gillettehunter]

Great start. Looks like a elephant worthy of your efforts. Looking forward to the rest of the story.
Bruce

 

[Jerycmeach]

Thanks everyone for pulling for me on this hunt! The motivation for my first Africa safari was purely selfish adventure! Covid stole my Alaska fishing charter business when the cruise ships quit coming to Ketchikan Alaska. I knew I would love to chase a leopard with dogs so I headed to Botswana two years ago in August and had the time of my life! The motivation for my last two safaris was to understand how hunting funds conservation in Africa. I chose this concession and this PH for my elephant hunt because of how he was attacked by the national and international media over the taking of the hundred pounder last April. I wanted to go on this hunt to learn about the challenges and investment that goes with developing a hunting concession. I learned so much! I cannot begin to tell you all the costs in sweat and money that it takes to develop and maintain a concession like this! You have to truly love what your doing because it is so very hard and everyday there seems to be something else knocking you down as you struggle to keep everything going in the right direction! I think you can understand what I'm talking about without my going into detail here.

Let me add a better map here that shows exactly how the roads are between Maun Botswana and the hunting concession. NG 13. If you look closely at this photo you can see the road going from Maun completely around the Okavango. Then you can see the concession to the North extending all the way to the Namibia border.

The tents were absolutely fantastic. All of them were brand new! There were two giant sleeping tents for the guests as well as this big "dining room and sitting area" tent that is pictured here.

The food was excellent and the table was set with different colorful tablecloths and settings each night. They really exceeded all my expectations in regards to the accommodations and meals.



The staff met me upon arrival and everyone had brand new crisp uniforms on! It was a really professional looking bunch. I believe I was told there were around 30 employees full time. They are all from the villages associated with this concession I believe. That is one of the goals of course is to make things better for the community; and jobs is one way that can be done. Mind you there is no one living in this vast wilderness concession but the way I understand it there are three villages that are assigned this concession and benefit from revenue derived from the hunting done there.

Below a photo of the dining room tent.

Here is a photo of my sleeping tent. It had a full bathroom and shower within the tent. Two full size beds. This outfitter really went all out on preparing an amazing set up in this remote wilderness area!

I believe I have shared enough for you to get the idea of how nice the tent camp was. It is hard to even think of it as a tent camp! They maintained the motif of a "traditional safari tent camp". With that said it was far nicer with things like real beds and flush toilets and showers within! Warm water to boot! Really a great setup! I was speechless! I had envisioned a sears and roebuck canvas tent and a cot! No kidding! I would have been fine with that actually. But having been given this experience I really appreciate what they did!

Ill end my post tonight with the view from my luxurious tent! I saw this view as I unzipped my tent each morning to head over to the dining room for a full breakfast! Adventure awaits all of us as we dream and plan our next safari! I think this sunrise says it all... What does the coming day of hunting have in store! Twenty one months ago I had never been to Africa. Now I have gone three times and wonder if there will be another safari in my future!

 

[Jerycmeach]

Tonight I wanted to cover the terrain of the area I hunted in Ng 13. The soil the plants the trees.... everything I encountered reminded me of my birthplace in South Central Florida. I am Florida's Native Son. In fact I named my first off shore charter boat that very thing... The native son. My people were in Florida making a living off the land by fishing and hunting when it was panthers, bears, and Seminole Indians! I say that to let you know... "I know of what I speak!" If you have seen the marshes and wetlands of Florida and the sandy scrub oak ridges then you have seen NG 13 where I hunted elephant. Picture the area from Orlando to West Palm before the hand of man RUINED Florida with development and you are seeing Northwestern Botswana in my opinion. The variation in elevation over the 1280 miles that we drove in the bush while hunting was a maximum of 70 feet according to my gps. I wont belabor the point further but I was astounded in how everything from the soil type, waterways, wetlands, the valleys, the trees.... all were reminiscent of where I grew up in the sunshine state!
In my next post I will cover the number and type of game I saw on this safari. You wont believe it!

 

[Jerycmeach]

Tonight I wanted to cover the animals I saw on my safari. I do not have many safaris under my belt but I was in the Rungwa region of Tanzania last August for a full bag safari including wild lion, buffalo, leopard and plains game. In contrasting what I saw in Tanzania with with I saw in Botswana there is no comparison. There is so much plains game in Botswana and it is TAME compared to what I saw in Tanzania. Now don't get me wrong! Tanzania was amazing and I got all my animals and was extremely satisfied. With that said the animals were wild! In my experience you needed to be ready to shoot and shoot fast! I shot most of my critters on the run including the lion! Ha! No I did not plan it that way.... It is simply the way things unfolded. I suppose the reason the animals are so calm in Botswana is that they are not on quota! If I understand correctly..... and forgive me if I am wrong... but in Botswana other than in fenced hunting areas these animals are not under license. That is my understanding anyway. So on this concession for sure they hope to in the future have buffalo and plains game to offer but at this time there is no quota for them. I saw hundreds and hundreds of buffalo! I saw buffalo on my way from the dining tent to my sleeping tent at 10 yards! This is the gospel truth! On MORE than one night I had a male lion calling on one side of my tent while a leopard called on the other side of my tent while at the very same time elephants frolicked in the water hole 50 steps from my tent! At the same time three cape buffalo bulls were eating ten steps to the North of my tent. Honest! I saw roan, eland, sable, wart hog, herds of buffalo, wildebeast, leopard, lion, tsessebe, zebra, ostrich, giraffe, hyena, kudu, hippo, crocodile, over two hundred elephant's, so many unusual other animals like bat eared foxes and on and on... I have never been to one of the Africa game parks but I can only imagine that what I saw as far as number and diversity of animal life was the equivalent of what I would have seen in the best of them! The "pans" would fill up with scores of animals coming to water. In sight at one time would be half dozen different species coming to water. Maybe more! I think this last statement will really bring home just how rich this area was in numbers of wildlife and diversity of species as well as how "calm" the animals were for the most part. While we were tracking elephant on foot we walked up on "two" different leopard kills. A roughly 200 pound live weight female kudu and a wart hog of approximately 100 pounds. The leopard was literally on top of the freshly killed wart hog beginning to eat it when we surprised it and it ran away. It was so big and graceful the way it carried its tail held high as it ran. One day while we were not in camp a pair a male lions took down a giraffe and some of the kitchen staff told us they saw the lions feeding on the giraffe. This giraffe being killed and eaten by the lions was no distance at all from our camp! I'm talking less than a quarter mile! So you see this concession would be a great destination even for photo tourism or if they obtain quota at some point for some of the plains game or buffalo this would be the place to go! I could imagine a group going to hunt buffalo with double rifles only! These buffalo and the plains game in NG 13 are very approachable and much more relaxed than the animals I hunted in Tanzania.

 

[Jerycmeach]

Here are a few more wildlife pictures that I took on my safari.

 

[Houston Bill]

Wow Jerry what great photos and descriptions about the game near your camp. If they get quota for buffalo in NG 13 lets you and I go hunt buffalo with our doubles!

 

[Jerycmeach]

Wow Jerry what great photos and descriptions about the game near your camp. If they get quota for buffalo in NG 13 lets you and I go hunt buffalo with our doubles!

That is what I was thinking! Double rifle buff hunt! The area and the animals demeanor would make it perfect for getting close up and personal to harvest the buffalo with the double rifles!

 

[Jerycmeach]

The buffalo wont be bothered to wake up and get out of the waterholes! It is amazing!

 

[Scott CWO]

Tonight I wanted to cover the animals I saw on my safari. I do not have many safaris under my belt but I was in the Rungwa region of Tanzania last August for a full bag safari including wild lion, buffalo, leopard and plains game. In contrasting what I saw in Tanzania with with I saw in Botswana there is no comparison. There is so much plains game in Botswana and it is TAME compared to what I saw in Tanzania. Now don't get me wrong! Tanzania was amazing and I got all my animals and was extremely satisfied. With that said the animals were wild! In my experience you needed to be ready to shoot and shoot fast! I shot most of my critters on the run including the lion! Ha! No I did not plan it that way.... It is simply the way things unfolded. I suppose the reason the animals are so calm in Botswana is that they are not on quota! If I understand correctly..... and forgive me if I am wrong... but in Botswana other than in fenced hunting areas these animals are not under license. That is my understanding anyway. So on this concession for sure they hope to in the future have buffalo and plains game to offer but at this time there is no quota for them. I saw hundreds and hundreds of buffalo! I saw buffalo on my way from the dining tent to my sleeping tent at 10 yards! This is the gospel truth! On MORE than one night I had a male lion calling on one side of my tent while a leopard called on the other side of my tent while at the very same time elephants frolicked in the water hole 50 steps from my tent! At the same time three cape buffalo bulls were eating ten steps to the North of my tent. Honest! I saw roan, eland, sable, wart hog, herds of buffalo, wildebeast, leopard, lion, tsessebe, zebra, ostrich, giraffe, hyena, kudu, hippo, crocodile, over two hundred elephant's, so many unusual other animals like bat eared foxes and on and on... I have never been to one of the Africa game parks but I can only imagine that what I saw as far as number and diversity of animal life was the equivalent of what I would have seen in the best of them! The "pans" would fill up with scores of animals coming to water. In sight at one time would be half dozen different species coming to water. Maybe more! I think this last statement will really bring home just how rich this area was in numbers of wildlife and diversity of species as well as how "calm" the animals were for the most part. While we were tracking elephant on foot we walked up on "two" different leopard kills. A roughly 200 pound live weight female kudu and a wart hog of approximately 100 pounds. The leopard was literally on top of the freshly killed wart hog beginning to eat it when we surprised it and it ran away. It was so big and graceful the way it carried its tail held high as it ran. One day while we were not in camp a pair a male lions took down a giraffe and some of the kitchen staff told us they saw the lions feeding on the giraffe. This giraffe being killed and eaten by the lions was no distance at all from our camp! I'm talking less than a quarter mile! So you see this concession would be a great destination even for photo tourism or if they obtain quota at some point for some of the plains game or buffalo this would be the place to go! I could imagine a group going to hunt buffalo with double rifles only! These buffalo and the plains game in NG 13 are very approachable and much more relaxed than the animals I hunted in Tanzania.View attachment 532794 View attachment 532795View attachment 532796View attachment 532797View attachment 532798

I know that Leon is working on getting buffalo and plains game quotas established. He thought the quota would have been ready for 2023 but it didn’t happen. Hopefully it happens for 2024. Right now, there are elephant and leopard on quota. My friend got an incredible leopard last year, in addition to his elephant. See the pictures below that were taken after they returned to camp.

As for NG41, where I hunted in 2021, the animals on quota were elephant, leopard, buffalo, kudu, etc… so it should be theoretically possible to get similar species available on quota in NG13. I only hunted elephant but saw some incredible buffalo in NG41. The whole region has excellent buffalo genetics. If Leon can get the quotas approved, it should be excellent hunting!

 

[buck wild]

Kinda throws that whole hunting "pets" behind a SA fence theory out the door uh ? I've always made this argument- fence/no fence, it's the HUNTING PRESSURE applied that will dedicate how skittish the animals are to human presence. I bet it won't take long if hunting is allowed for that buffalo to figure it out

Fantastic report thus far.

 

[MLindsay]

Man can't wait for the rest of the story

 

[Jerycmeach]

Fellow AH members I apologize for having not completed my hunt report. I had guiding obligations in Kansas and then this last week I have been driving back and forth to Utah picking up a couple of old suburbans for use on the ranch in Kansas. While in Utah I chased some bears in the high country with hounds.

My discovery of double rifles and the subsequent research into the history of their use in Africa hunting was an amazingly enjoyable part of my recent elephant hunt. I am so glad that I purchased a double and used it on this adventure.

I hunted a bear last week in the Wasatch mountains of northern Utah. Conditions were really tough for hunting because of flooding caused by the snow melt from this past winter. Believe it or not, nine hundred inches of snow was recorded having fallen in one of the nearby ski areas. The bears were just beginning to come out of hibernation and you could not get around in the mountains with all the floodwaters and erosion. What does this have to do with my elephant hunt? Nothing, except that I took the double rifle and exactly one month after taking the elephant I took a little cinnamon boar. In my mind I was in africa hunting again as I fired the ole 450 400!

Please stand by for the completion of my hunt report. I am awaiting notification about my ivory from the elephant I shot and then I will post the final chapter of my report. I got the elephant at the very last minute of an extended hunt and as such I did not get to accompany my ivory to Debbie Peak’s office in Maun. I am awaiting notification that the ivory has been delivered to Debbie’s and then I will finish my hunt report and include the weight and measurements of the ivory. I assure you the size of the ivory is not important to me but many of you have messaged me and asked about it. I wanted to do this hunt to gain an understanding on all the difficulties that go into developing and operating a hunting concession. I wanted to see the benefits that hunting creates for the community as well as the anti poaching efforts. This hunt was a big adventure for sure and the double rifle made it all the more rewarding to me!

 

[Frederik]

Very cool, double on a bear!

 

[Rich s]

I am excitedly looking forward to my upcoming elephant hunt in Botswana’s NG 13 with Leon Kachelhoffer. If you want to become infuriated at the way the fake media portrays hunters and hunting in Africa just google NG 13 elephant or Leon Kachelhoffer and read one of the many “hit pieces” written in the national and international media in April and May of 2022. We all can remember the way Corey Knowlton was treated. The Texan that hunted the Rhino in Namibia to benefit conservation. Corey was attacked with death threats and phone messages saying things like I am going to rape your wife to death and make you watch and burn your house down with your kids inside! Lovely people, aren’t they? These kind hearted, caring, anti-hunters. Leon was treated the very same way for his crime of investing years of effort and a huge amount of money to develop this hunting concession which will benefit all the wildlife and the area tribes. I am so passionate about the conservation aspect of “funding conservation through hunting in Africa” that I had to book with Leon and do this same hunt on the “one year anniversary” of him being crucified for harvesting the hundred pounder. I will be able to interview Leon and the local tribes and council and get the story first hand on how they were falsely accused. I will see the benefits first hand and hopefully someday be able to spread the truth about how beneficial “tourist hunting” is to conservation in Africa.

Leon came to my hunting Lodge in Kansas this winter and we planned our hunt. I cannot believe the hunt is only about a month away. I feel so unprepared.

I want to thank everyone on AH for being so helpful! Through the wonderful friends I have made on AH I was able find guidance to wonderful outfitters and discern which companies I would like to hunt with. If this hunt goes as I hope I will have been blessed to go on three hunts to Africa in just 22 months. I have harvested several leopards and three cape buffalo and fantastic wild lion and 26 plains game animals. I have been in Tanzania for 28 days and in Botswana for over 30. All this is beyond my wildest dreams. I definitely feel like Cinderella! What I mean is that my paygrade and education I was never meant to go on all these fantastic adventures! God has blessed me and I am thankful! Covid stole my Alaska fishing business because it was largely based on cruise ship clientele. This nightmare of my losing my business caused me to have the time off to go to Africa.

This October I floated the Snake River for twenty days and hunted with a recurve bow made for me 40 years ago by Jim Brackenbury. I took no supplies and lived entirely off the land. I slept on the gravel under the stars and called in 18 bull moose. I used a kayak I made myself about 30 years ago. In the end I shot a bull at 8 feet away with an arrow that was 60 years old. A browning micro flight and a vintage fred bear broadhead. I have an article about this adventure that will come out this next month I believe in a western hunting magazine.

The reason I mention this Idaho moose hunt is that by using Old and Vintage equipment I was able to make this hunt one of the most amazing adventures of my life! I knew the unit had produced an average size shiras bull of only 28 inches. I did not care about the size of the antlers I cared about the “size of the adventure”! Think about those words for a minute!

Today I spent the day with George of Champlin Firearms in Enid Oklahoma. What a gentleman! He opened his shop on a Saturday just for me and he spent hours and hours teaching me about double rifles! I have hunted all of my life and had never touched or seen let alone fired a double rifle! So now you see why I told the story about the moose hunt this oct with vintage archery gear! I am only 30 days or so away from my Elephant hunt and I am just now discovering the romance and history of the double rifle! It is all I think about! I am so afraid that I do not have the time to do justice to acquiring a double, learn to shoot it well, and be ready for this elephant hunt. On the other hand I am afraid that if I take the elephant with a borrowed camp gun I will forever regret that I did not hunt the elephant with a mor classic and historic firearm. Oh well! Ha!

Thanks again everyone on AH for your help in my journey to support conservation in Africa through hunting!
Below a picture of George and I at his Champlin firearms shop in Enid Oklahoma taken today.

View attachment 519809
View attachment 519811
above a recent scouting picture of an elephant on NG 13 taken by Leon and sent to me.
View attachment 519824
above a picture of me four decades ago with the same bow that I used on the moose hunt this past October.
View attachment 519813
above a picture of Leon Kachelhoffer and I at my lodge in Kansas this winter.

above floating the snake river in Idaho for 20 days this past october with the 40 year old bow and 30 year old kayak I built myself

My wild lion from Tanzania this past August.

Me with the same bow I carried above the artic circle In Alaska 40 years ago as seen in the previous picture I used this past Oct on the snake river in Idaho. Makes me want to use a double rifle on the elephant hunt to make it more historic and romantic.View attachment 519823
My Botswana Leopard was mounted by Robert Vitro and was displayed at SCI in Nashville. I have not seen it in person yet. Alan Porter of Colorado is providing trucking of the mount from the show back to my lodge in Kansas. It was just loaded on the truck this evening after the close of SCI Convention and I should see the mount soon.

Where is your lodge in kansas. I’m from Kansas as well. Look forward to hearing about your adventure.

 

[Hunting Hitman]

Running Bears with hounds is cool. Reminds me of my youth when we had our own pack and hunted lions and bears in California, Nevada and Utah.

HH