NAMIBIA: Buffalo With Daggaboy Hunting Safaris Wuparo

roklok

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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.

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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.
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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!

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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.

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Zebra I shot using Byron's 500NE Krieghoff

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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 !
 
Congratulation, like you my dad's outdoor life, field and stream, and other outdoor magazines fueled my desire for buffalo. It is very addictive and I warn you that a start down the double rifle path is an interesting one. Thank you for taking the time to write up your adventure.
 
Great buff, congratulations. Thanks for posting.
 
Congratulations
 
I got to meet Bryon when he was with a client and I was hunting in Omujeve. Great guy and glad you had a great hunt.
 
Great hunt report and Nice buffalo! Beautiful work on that Mauser.
 
Bravo!! I too was enthralled by the Field&Stream and Outdoor Life magazines in my Grandpa’s basement. That was the start of my desire to hunt Africa, Alaska, Canada, etc…. Glad your first buffalo hunt was such a success. The Caprivi is where I shot my first in 2022. I’ll be back there next August looking for another one and an own use, non-trophy bull elephant. Thanks for taking the time to share your adventure.
 
Excellent report on a fine hunt! Your dagga boy is a beautiful. Well done.
 
Fun pictures and report. Thanks for sharing
 
Great report and very nice buffalo.
How is Dawid ? I heard last march, when I was in Namibia, he had a stroke earlier but he felt better.
I hunted with him several times and I really like this man. His farm in the Khomas is also a great place to visit for Hartmann zebra hunting.
 
I met Dawid at SCI in Vegas,hung out at his booth and we had few sundowners at the bars , good fun. My friend hunted with him twice . Dawid came to Wyoming with my friend and stopped at my house. We visited for a while then they went onto Cody Wy. Great guy .
 
What a superb buffalo! I hunted with Dawid soon after hitting the "five-oh" myself. It was out of that same camp in 2022 on the tail-end of the COVID restrictions. In fact, I just communicated with him today. :)

I also was blessed with a nice buffalo and had an amazing trip. Quite unexpectedly, I was able to "add on" a exportable elephant toward the end of the hunt. The whole experience is forever engraved in my soul. What a very cool place the Caprivi is.

Long trip from Alaska!!!
 
I have been to Salambala on buffalo hunt this year! Your report brings back great memories!
Great buff! Congrats!
 
What a superb buffalo! I hunted with Dawid soon after hitting the "five-oh" myself. It was out of that same camp in 2022 on the tail-end of the COVID restrictions. In fact, I just communicated with him today. :)

I also was blessed with a nice buffalo and had an amazing trip. Quite unexpectedly, I was able to "add on" a exportable elephant toward the end of the hunt. The whole experience is forever engraved in my soul. What a very cool place the Caprivi is.

Long trip from Alaska!!!
I’m sure you’ve posted a report and pictures but please resend link. I would love to hear your story again and see pictures!!!! A nice buff and an unexpected elephant just awesome!!!!
 
Thanks everyone, it was a spectacular experience and I definitely hope to return. I was unaware of any health issues with Dawid as has been asked. He was out each day leading the group in search of buffalo, just an awesome guy to hunt with as well as visit around a campfire or at dining table. His wife Lorenza was also very nice to meet and was quite helpful assisting us making the transition in Windhoek to the regional flight to Katima Mullilo. He talked some of his farm as well, and his camp had quite a few zebra rugs from his farm.
 
I do not believe Dawid had a stroke. I think he had some surgery to remove a non-cancerous tumor, but when I was there he was doing great.

@Rare Breed, I actually never did a report here on that. The buffalo hunt was a fantastic experience, but I never got a photo that I liked of the trophy. Every single one of them is chin-down, which shows the bosses well, but not the drop. I have a cell-phone video of the shot, which I will try to post here. It's quite grainy, but it shows the character of the horns quite well.


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The elephant was really a strange deal. Due to COVID and the onset of the Ukraine situation he had a hunt cancellation, and I was given the opportunity to hunt the elephant at a superb price. We only had 5 or 6 days left in the hunt, and the elephant were not there in great numbers like at other times of the year. We hunted every day and stalked in close to elephant several times.

At one point we had a herd of 6 or 7 cows and young bulls pass only 10 feet from us. We were elevated a bit on a termite mound in a wooded area, and they streamed right past. Due to our elevation, we were basically eye-to-eye, but no shooters. I almost could have reached out and touched them with the shooting sticks. That was INTENSE!!!!! Another time we had a cheeky young bull work around us and get a bit upset when he caught our scent. Being in close with them is like nothing I've ever experienced. Half exhilarating, half terrifying, and half hopeful. We spent as much time scooting away quickly as we did working toward them. It is simply UNBELIEVABLE how they disappear behind little scrubby trees and bushes.

We didn't have time for a proper hunt, but we gave it a college try. Get an elephant = happy. Dont' get an elephant = happy to have had the experience and not spend all the money. By the end of the hunt I had basically written of the chance of getting one. On the last day before I flew home, I was back at the camp taking a siesta when Lando came to get me. He said the game scout heard rumors of two or three bulls that were moving through a farm north of the paved road. Off we went, and eventually we located the farm and a few locals that made a bunch of hand gestures and pointed off to the forest.

Well, off we went. After 30 minutes or so of tracking we caught up to what turned out to be 3 bulls. One that was OK, and two young bulls with him. They were taking a few steps here and there, which meant we had a hard time keeping them in sight. Then, in June, for no reason at all, it started to rain. Eventually, they sort of disappeared for a bit, and suddenly, off to our right, the two younger bulls started tussling - play fighting, but it was darn exciting. Smashing trunks. Smashing tusks together. Spinning around taking out trees like toothpicks. We beat it out of there before they trampled us without even knowing it. Then, suddenly, for no reason, the larger bull appeared out of nowhere. He was walking away not 20 yards from us. He turned, and Dawid looked him over quick and said "I think you better shoot him."

Well, I did as I was told, and put one in the chest. Since it was the last day and only an hour before dark, Dawid added a .470 solid right next to mine. Off he went, at a walk, perfectly quiet. We found blood at the spot, and he only went maybe 100 yards. Stone cold dead when we got there. We took a few photos, cut off the tail, and got back to the truck at dark. A few hours later I was on a plane, which was a disappointment. Helping with the disassembly would have been interesting.

Not a huge bull, (but not bad as an add-on!!!) but a great end to a fantastic hunt. The details of that experience are etched deeply in my memory. So incredible.

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