Tembo, Jumbo, Elephant, he’s known by other names …. but for me he means the pinnacle of animals. The biggest, the baddest, the true king of the jungle.

Since my first trip to Africa in 2017, I’ve been hooked on the idea that Elephant was the one hunt I must do before I die. I’ve been researching every in and out of the hunt, from the people to the places and the costs.

Elephant hunts range in price from less than $10k for a tuskless cow to $250k for a chance at a 100# bull in Botswana.
I narrowed down what type of hunt was available to me and my budget and identified that my two options were Zimbabwe and Namibia. I would be looking at a non-trophy or in the case of Namibia an “Own Use” bull. This means that no portion of it can be brought back to the US as a trophy, no tusks, tail, hide. All parts of the animal must stay with the communities. I was OK with this, because it’s more about the experience and the time spent. It didn’t seem logical to do much else when the chances of me killing a 100-pound bull we’re just north of 0.01%.

I reached out to and began researching about eight different outfitters in Zimbabwe and Namibia. I created a list of costs, locations, options for my wife to come along, and a number of other things. I vetted and did research on each one’s capabilities, camps, and references. All eight seemed equal in their abilities, and then it really kind of came down to what it was going to cost and when would I be able to do it?

A few weeks after I had gotten my spreadsheet together and ranked my outfitters, the exact hunt I had gotten quoted popped up for auction at an SCI banquet in Texas it was with Zana Botes Safaris, one of my Namibian Outfitter that I had already vetted. I placed a bid on the auction and to my surprise it went for significantly less than any of my options up to that point.

Well, I guess we’re off on an elephant hunt.


Luckily, I just went to Australia last year, so all of my gear and guns are ready to go with the exception of working up a few loads for solids for the elephant. After tinkering with some options and scopes on the 375 and 416 I got them both where they needed to be and were ready.

After talking to Zana,

Due to Zana’s already busy hunting schedule and a few things in my life, September was the only time we can make work. This isn’t perfect for me because both of my boys play football and that meant mom and I were going miss a few games. I hate that but, in this instance, the boys understood we had to go. I was able to add to our hunt the opportunity for an own use crocodile and a trophy or own use hippo. This meant that our 10-day safari was going to be pretty busy.

We booked flights with the same routes we already knew. We flew from Charleston into Joburg and spent a much-needed night at the City lodge at the airport. The flights absolutely are brutal. I tried something new and booked the middle seat in coach as an extra seat. It actually came out cheaper than comfort plus that only gives you 5-6” of recline. My wife was able to lay down the whole flight. I was able to stretch out some as well and it seemed better than the economy plus we’ve used before.

The next day we flew into Windhoek and grabbed a hotel there with an absolutely fantastic restaurant next door. After a nice meal and some crème brûlée, we got one more good night’s sleep before we flew into Katima Mulilo in the Caprivi Strip.

The Caprivi has the reputation of old school deep rural dark Capstick/Ruark Africa. I don’t know if its quite that far in the sticks, but it’s out there