Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Botswana DG Hunts w/ SV Safaris & Gerhard Koch

My friend, Gerhard Koch (Koch Safaris) is working this year with SV Safaris in Botswana. Scroll down to the bottom of their webpage to see two videos of the area and the lodge/facilities.


SV Safaris has the CH 1 Concession on the northern boarder of Botswana. The SW side boarders the Chobe NP and the NW side is the Chobe River and just across it is Namibia's Caprivi Strip. The concession is a bit over 500,000 hectares.

The season just opened April 4th. The first two clients in, took six buffalo between them in 5-days. This is Gerhard. You'll also see him in the promo videos on the SV link above.







My favorites are the old broken horn ones. I don't have a big desire personally to hunt cape buffalo as I grew up in a farm and been put over a few fences by some pretty mean bulls and a few cows with calves. That and having done a water buffalo cull hunt in Australia's Aboriginal lands in the Northern Territory. However, IF I had a chance at a grand old "scrum cap" bull, I'd seriously consider it. Those are much rarer and more uniquely to me than a 40"+ one. Anyway......

Second client of the season, a elephant hunter, just finished up. His goal was a 50+ pounder. Just a few days in, he took this one. They won't know for sure until they dig up the skull and the nerves have dried/rotted out but, according to the tape measurements, it should be 60-65lbs. While he did have a few days left, because this one was well above his goal, he decided to take it.


Gerhard asked me to post this up as they still have a couple of buffalo, a couple of elephant and a leopard (with dogs) quota left for this season. They are offering them as follows:

All hunts are "all inclusive" from the time they pick you up at the airport in Kasane until they take you back to Kasane for your flight home. This includes the road transfer (about a 2.5 hr. drive each way), rifle permit etc. Only extra will be a 14% tax on the ammo you bring in.

1. Three elephant left on quota. 14-day hunt, $50,000.00 up to 50 pounds, then a $1000.00 per pound up to 70 pounds and anything over 70 pounds is on the house. And YES, they have seen some that are well above the 70 pound level. To be clear here, the $1000.00 per pound is based on the heaviest of the two tusks.

Here are a couple they've seen while scouting around the last few days.

Estimate 65 pounds

Estimate 55 pounds




2. Two buffalo left on quota. 7-day hunt, $22,500.00. Again, all inclusive as already mentioned. Far, far, too many buffalo running around (see the SV videos above).

3. One leopard on quota. 14-day hunt, $35,000.00 (dogs/handler included).

Season ends September 19th.

Transportation to Kasane is pretty easy. SA Airlink offers daily direct flights (less than 2 hrs each way) between Johannesburg and Kasane. Current economy class is about $600 US round trip.

I'll be happy to answer any questions about getting there and back but, if you want/need more details on the hunt, lodge etc. I'd strongly recommend you contact Gerhard directly.

Email: gmkochbotyahoo.com
Cell/WhatsApp: +267 75 414 214

Are they doing the leopard hunt with hounds up in the north also? Or will that be in the Kalahari?

The leopard permit is for the confines of the concession only.

Depending on the map, even the northern part of Botswana can fall into the definition of the "Kalahari Desert" and the particular area that CH 1 is part of, is an extension known as the Mababe Depression. The Okavango Delta and it's lush greenery it creates is a bit of an anomaly in a traditional sense of the area being a "desert". CH 1 and that entire northern boarder area as well as the entire eastern side of Botswana does however, received good and reliable amounts of the seasonal rains and as it being part of a huge lowland "pan" does see a good bit of rainy seasonal flooding. But, once the rainy season ends, usually end of March-early April, that is pretty much the full extend of any rain the area will receive the rest of the year.

The elephant and buffalo are free ranging and freely move all over that northern area and cross back and forth into/out of the Caprivi Strip in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania.

While I have not personally stayed at the SV Safari Lodge or set foot in the concession, I have passed just on the S side of it while driving between Maun and Kasane in 2021. We spent 8 or 9 days in the area between Maun and Kasane and stayed in several guest lodges in and around the Okavango and Chobe NP that is on the southern boarder of the CH 1 concession. I will say that from the game numbers in regards to elephant and buffalo we saw from the ground and a aerial tour of the park and the Okavango Delta, what SV shows in their promo video is pretty accurate. The elephants are so over populated in that part of Botswana, they are severely destroying the habitat for nearly all other PG species. They are literally eating themselves out of house and home.

I can't speak to the leopard numbers in the area or the success rate for them in that area. However, when dogs are used it is VERY rare to not get your cat. Is it 100% guaranteed? No, but there are few methods that offer higher success rates.

Thanks for clarifying where the leopard hunt will take place. I was curious as I’ve hunted that general area where CH1 is located for a couple weeks, though we were just a bit west of there around the Selinda and Kwando Rivers, Selinda Spillway and to the south. I’m curious because there was so much water where I was, but I was hunting in June. I imagine the water could present some interesting challenges while chasing a leopard, depending where the track leads. Tons of game everywhere we went in the north.

Also took a leopard in the Kalahari on a tracking hunt but it was way to the southwest, just north of Kalahari Gemsbok National Park and east of Namibia border. The desert was a fantastic place to hunt both lion and leopard due to lots of cats and easy tracking conditions.

Have also toured all across Chobe Park and concur with your observations about way too many elephants. Once we got away from the river, Chobe was a dead wasteland across most of region due to elephants killing everything from over grazing. But, I saw the biggest leopard I’ve ever laid eyes on out in that dead scrub country.