NAMIBIA: Cape Buffalo Hunt In The Caprivi With ndumo HUNTING SAFARIS July 16-25, 2025

[DieJager]

Great buff Waidmannsheil!

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats and thanks for sharing!

 

[Tucketed]

Great buffalo and I love the first picture with you, buffalo and a beautiful sunset. Congratulations

 

[revturbo9967]

Great Buffalo, congratulations

 

[PARA45]

Heck yeah!!!! Congratulations on such a beautiful bull. Probably the shortest hunt report I've read on this forum.

 

[AZDAVE]

Nice buffalo, congratulations.

 

[Spearhead]

A short report on an even shorter hunt. I booked this hunt to follow my leopard hunt with Nick Nolte. @ndumo HUNTING SAFARIS is one of the quieter AH sponsors, but I have been talking with Karl Stumpfe for several years at DSC and thinking about doing this hunt. For me, it made a lot of sense to do the two hunts in Namibia, back to back.

The hunt is a 7 day, cape buffalo hunt. The flights from Windhoek to Katima Mulilo are only on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. My hunt is Wednesday to Wednesday, so they gave me a couple free days in camp to leave on Friday, the 25th.

After 14 days and no leopard with Nick Nolte, Nick said if I got done early with the buffalo, I could come back and hunt leopard a few more days. Upon arriving in the Caprivi camp, I met my PH, Wayne Cilliers. I told Wayne, if I can get a respectable buffalo quick, I would be very happy and leave early. Wayne's prior client took a nice buff on Day 4 of his hunt. Wayne said there were lots of buffs in the area, but finding a good one could take some time. Wayne also mentioned he had been working for two solid months and wouldn't mind some days off to go visit the wife and kids. So both of us were motivated!

Day 1 started out good. About 20-30 minutes after leaving camp, we were driving on a dirt road in the very dry flood plain of the Caprivi. The area to the left of the road was national park and to the right was the hunting concession. There was a huge dagga boy with another smaller bull, walking about 50 yards on the Park side of the road. We stopped and watched them for a while, hoping they would cross the road and be fair game. No such luck. Throughout the morning, we saw lots of buffalo. One method to locate them is look for the dust cloud in the air. It has been so dry for so long, the dirt easily turns to dust. We did about a 3 hour stock in the late morning and looked over several hundred buffalo. Just couldn't make a play on one.

We went back to camp, ate lunch and took a nap. We'd go back out around 3:30pm. Once back out, we immediately picked up pursuit on some the buff we saw in the morning. Many had found some shady area to bed down for a midday siesta. Throughout the flood plain, there are numerous "islands." These are high spots, with lots of trees and bush to provide cover. We tried to make a play on some smaller groups from these islands. On our third or fourth attempt of the afternoon, everything fell into place. The wind was right and we had a small group of 6-8 buffalo, about 100 yards away from us. we were well concealed on the high ground of an island. Wayne found a good bull and got me on the sticks. It was about 5pm, so getting late in the day. The bull was looking straight at me. We waited and waited for him to turn. After waiting 10-15 minute and concerned about running out of daylight, I told Wayne I was comfortable with the straight on shot if he was. He gave me the okay. My 404 Jeffery was loaded with 400 gr Swift A Frames. I was pretty steady on the sticks and let the first round go and could instantly hear the WAP! of the bullet hitting the animal. I was slightly left of center, but apparently did severe damage to the front right shoulder. The buff reacted, but only took a few steps and stopped broadside to us. However, a cow took up a position between the wounded bull and us. Several on buffalo surrounded the wounded one. After a couple minutes, the cow moved and I quickly fired round 2. The WAP! again was clearly heard. The second shot was a double lung hit and the bull dropped and was done. Wayne, like all good PHs, said "Reload!". I added a couple of rounds to the magazine and picked up two pieces of fired brass (It's what reloaders do) No finishing shot was required.

We walked up carefully to the bull. Wayne had his Blaser R8 in 458 Lott ready, if needed. The bull was dead, dead. While we prepped the area for photos, a herd of several hundred buffalo slowly moved towards us. They were about 100 yards away, an awesome and somewhat concerning sight to behold. We quickly took some photos and loaded the massive beast into the back of the Land Cruiser. Once back in camp, Wayne measured the spread and it was 42 inches. A great "Day One Bull!"


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Fantastic photos Dave!! Congratulations.

 

[Kevin375]

Great report and you have hunted with a great guy.
I met Wayne in 2016 and I had an excellent time with him. It's a bit thanks to him that I have bought my Blaser R8 in .458 Lott because he was already using this rifle.
Congratulations on your buffalo.

 

[Troubleshooter]

Waidmannsheil and congratulations on a great buffalo. Those photos -- that's the stuff memories are made of!

Heck yeah!!!! Congratulations on such a beautiful bull. Probably the shortest hunt report I've read on this forum.

He came, he saw, he conquered. No wait, that's not it.

He came, he shot, he ..... returned to the field to get his leopard!

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

What conservancy were you hunting?

Balyerwa Conservancy. Very nice camp and everywhere was bone dry.

Balyerwa Conservancy | Ndumo

Balyerwa Conservancy This hunting area may be the best all-round buffalo and elephant conservancy in Namibia, being bordered by Mudumu National Park, Nkasa Rupara National Park and Botswana. As it borders the Linyanti swamps, a fair amount of fitness is required to hunt around half of the area...

huntingsafaris.net

 

[7mmFan]

Great buff! Congrats and thanks for sharing.

 

[gillettehunter]

Very nice buff. Was thrilled to hear you had gotten him. Congratulations and good shooting!!
Bruce

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Some videos from the Caprivi, right after the shot. Walking up to the downed buffalo.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Have you ever wondered why Cape Buffalo are so mean, ornery and hard to kill? They've obviously watched this scene play out to their buddies and don't want the same thing to happen to them. Can't say I blame them. The reason for wrapping the cable around the testicles is because the short bed on the Land Cruiser and the long hind legs on the buffalo. Connecting the cable to the legs doesn't get the beast even halfway into the truck.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Get in the truck

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

The Camp staff celebrates the return of a successful buffalo hunter! They are happy because the local villages will get all the meat.

 

[Doubleplay]

A short report on an even shorter hunt. I booked this hunt to follow my leopard hunt with Nick Nolte. @ndumo HUNTING SAFARIS is one of the quieter AH sponsors, but I have been talking with Karl Stumpfe for several years at DSC and thinking about doing this hunt. For me, it made a lot of sense to do the two hunts in Namibia, back to back.

The hunt is a 7 day, cape buffalo hunt. The flights from Windhoek to Katima Mulilo are only on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. My hunt is Wednesday to Wednesday, so they gave me a couple free days in camp to leave on Friday, the 25th.

After 14 days and no leopard with Nick Nolte, Nick said if I got done early with the buffalo, I could come back and hunt leopard a few more days. Upon arriving in the Caprivi camp, I met my PH, Wayne Cilliers. I told Wayne, if I can get a respectable buffalo quick, I would be very happy and leave early. Wayne's prior client took a nice buff on Day 4 of his hunt. Wayne said there were lots of buffs in the area, but finding a good one could take some time. Wayne also mentioned he had been working for two solid months and wouldn't mind some days off to go visit the wife and kids. So both of us were motivated!

Day 1 started out good. About 20-30 minutes after leaving camp, we were driving on a dirt road in the very dry flood plain of the Caprivi. The area to the left of the road was national park and to the right was the hunting concession. There was a huge dagga boy with another smaller bull, walking about 50 yards on the Park side of the road. We stopped and watched them for a while, hoping they would cross the road and be fair game. No such luck. Throughout the morning, we saw lots of buffalo. One method to locate them is look for the dust cloud in the air. It has been so dry for so long, the dirt easily turns to dust. We did about a 3 hour stock in the late morning and looked over several hundred buffalo. Just couldn't make a play on one.

We went back to camp, ate lunch and took a nap. We'd go back out around 3:30pm. Once back out, we immediately picked up pursuit on some the buff we saw in the morning. Many had found some shady area to bed down for a midday siesta. Throughout the flood plain, there are numerous "islands." These are high spots, with lots of trees and bush to provide cover. We tried to make a play on some smaller groups from these islands. On our third or fourth attempt of the afternoon, everything fell into place. The wind was right and we had a small group of 6-8 buffalo, about 100 yards away from us. we were well concealed on the high ground of an island. Wayne found a good bull and got me on the sticks. It was about 5pm, so getting late in the day. The bull was looking straight at me. We waited and waited for him to turn. After waiting 10-15 minute and concerned about running out of daylight, I told Wayne I was comfortable with the straight on shot if he was. He gave me the okay. My 404 Jeffery was loaded with 400 gr Swift A Frames. I was pretty steady on the sticks and let the first round go and could instantly hear the WAP! of the bullet hitting the animal. I was slightly left of center, but apparently did severe damage to the front right shoulder. The buff reacted, but only took a few steps and stopped broadside to us. However, a cow took up a position between the wounded bull and us. Several on buffalo surrounded the wounded one. After a couple minutes, the cow moved and I quickly fired round 2. The WAP! again was clearly heard. The second shot was a double lung hit and the bull dropped and was done. Wayne, like all good PHs, said "Reload!". I added a couple of rounds to the magazine and picked up two pieces of fired brass (It's what reloaders do) No finishing shot was required.

We walked up carefully to the bull. Wayne had his Blaser R8 in 458 Lott ready, if needed. The bull was dead, dead. While we prepped the area for photos, a herd of several hundred buffalo slowly moved towards us. They were about 100 yards away, an awesome and somewhat concerning sight to behold. We quickly took some photos and loaded the massive beast into the back of the Land Cruiser. Once back in camp, Wayne measured the spread and it was 42 inches. A great "Day One Bull!"


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Congratulations. Nicely done.

 

[Randy F]

Great Buff!! Congratulations!! I love the top pic of you standing behind your buffalo. Classic!!

 

[Piet Brood]

That loading technique sure doesn’t look pleasant even in death.

 

[PARA45]

That bull had a strong set of balls.