Here's the scoop on the final animal from my recent hunt at Kamanjab in Namibia. Although a good gemsbok was my primary goal on this hunt (see recent post), I sure did want to hunt a kudu. Did I get my wish!



The kudu was the beginning and end of my hunting experience in Namibia. It sort of started on our drive in to the ranch. After about 5 hours drive we turned off of the highway onto Farm Beulah. About a mile in, my 16 y/o son Zack calls out that he sees an animal stuck in a fence. We pull over, and see a young kudu cow with a hind leg stuck in the fence wire. We get out and Helmke crosses the fence to look at the damage. As he crosses the fence and takes out the leatherman to cut the strand, he asks me to catch the kudu by the ears to steady her. He cuts the wire and I let go, the weakened kudu wanders off. Fortunately, it's noon so she has a chance to regain some strength before night fall and the predators come out. Now, if anybody squeamish about hunting asks me if I 'caught anything,' I can say, 'Sure, I caught a kudu by the ears!'



After a great lunch we go the shooting range and find that the Whitworth 375 hasn't wandered a bit on the trip over. We take some practice shots and talk about judging kudu and gemsbok in the field, and Helmke suggests we go off to see what we can see. At this point, the jet lag is going pretty strong (up at 3 am that morning) and I suggest that I just want to look around and get a sense of the ranch. Helmke suggests we take the gun anyway.



So needless to say on our first stalk we see a group of kudu in the distance. Helmke suggests we make a sneak on them to have a better look. We creep in close and see 3 kudu bulls, one of which looks pretty decent. As we get closer, kudu # 1 looks very good. He's about 130 yards away, unaware. Helmke asks if I want to take him and I do the soul searching and decide not to. I'm exhausted, 15 minutes into our first walk in the bush, and I haven't earned him.



I quietly explain to Helmke, who has a much harder time explaining to Penti, our tracker, that he has a crazy hunter who doesn't want to shoot anything.



The kudu compounds the situation by gradually walking towards us, posing broadside in the clear every 10 steps or so! I soul search again, and again, I'm not ready to take this kudu. Finally, he wanders off, and it's dusk.



Helmke is very understanding and accomodating, but also explains that the rut is over and I may well have passed up the best kudu I'll see on a stalk, although he's quite sure we'll find one from a blind. He puts our chances at taking a kudu on a stalk at 5%



Have I had any second thoughts? You bet, but I still made the right decision for myself. I'm not hunting for the book, I'm hunting for the experience, the memories, and a representative animal. If I'd shot, I'd have only #3.



The kudu you see above I took on day 6 of our 10 day hunt and the last animal we planned to take. After the 'gimme' opportunity on our first day, nothing about kudu was easy. We saw only one bull from a blind, and this was an ancient bull with a very narrow rack and one broken tip. I passed and was glad I did. We had probably a half dozen sightings or stalks of shootable bulls, mostly to have them ghost away without a sound. We had an exteremly exciting cat and mouse game with 3 big bulls in very thick thornbrush. One of my highlights was spotting the biggest in the brush after the tracker and PH had walked by. Helmke had told me to look for big round yellow ears and sure enough I spotted them. I called Helmke and Penti back, we stalked, but he slipped away before we could set up.



On day 6 we hunted hard and saw no kudu bulls until late afternoon. We spotted two as we cruised the ranch and got out to see if we could trail them as they moved into the brush. We made a long, semi circular stalk to intercept the pair, when we see a kudu in the brush staring at us. He's facing head on, I set up on the shooting sticks and take a bead on his chest. At the shot, he's obviously hit hard. He runs across in front of us and I hit again, but too far back. Another shot in the shoulder anchors him. In retrospect, he would have fallen soon after the first shot, but I didn't want to take the chance. I shot to anchor him as long as he was running.



Now he's a trophy kudu, with trophy memories to go with him, even though he's two inches or so shorter than day 1's bull, and with a bit of one horn broomed off. I worked hard for him, earned him, and am proud of him. Couldn't ask for more. Bob

It's YOUR trophy so if you wanted/didn't want to shoot, that is only your decision to make. You have to look yourself in the mirror and your kudu on the wall. If this one makes you smile more, so be it. Besides, if it's the only one and most folks have never seen a kudu, they aren't going to know a "Great" kudu from a "Good" one.

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I'm not hunting for the book, I'm hunting for the experience, the memories, and a representative animal. If I'd shot, I'd have only #3.

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I do think you would have had all three of your items should you have shot the first one. I think your intent was you would not have had as great an experience or as many memories, since it was only 15 minutes worth.

Glad you enjoyed your hunt and may you have many more in the future.

I agree. Trophies are in the eye of the beholder. I have two gemsbok that are not huge, but I sure earned them. I have a huge kudu that I shot on the run with the luckiest shot of my life (had about 1/2 second to shoot and hit his neck) and while he is a spectacular animal, I really didn't deserve it.

But sometimes the best opportunities are presented on the first day. My biggest elk is a 7x6 I shot on the first morning I ever hunted elk and I didn't even have a guide. The next year I shot a 6x6 on the afternoon of the first day and thought elk hunting was a snap. My next few elk were all raghorn 5-bys.

Earning animals is what makes them special. The worst are the guys who are so out of shape they ask the PH or guide to shoot the animal. Why waste the time and money?

Bob,
I think it's a great trophy to be proud of!

I have mine in the living roon up high and you'd be suprised how many people walk under it without seeing it! It's always great to see the look on their faces when they do realize it there!

My kudu was the same way. We'd put in a lot of miles on foot before I had a shot opportunity. When it finally came, it was relatively easy and required only a short stalk and the shot. Had I shot him on the first day, I don't think I would have appreciated him nearly as much under those same circumstances. He wasn't the biggest bull around, but after the efforts we'd expended prior to that to get on a bull, I was tickled pink. Kudu hunting in the rugged mountains of Namibia is an experience that will be with me for many years. I don't think I'd want to give that up for a quickie, even if he was bigger than mine.

Thanks for the responses. Almost all of the animals we took had 'character.' Both warthogs were ancient, with long, well used tusks. Zack's gemsbok had huge bases but was broomed back quite a bit. My mountain zebra had 2 big scars from old bite marks. Only my gemsbok, a cow, was in 'showroom' condition. Bob

Hi bobc, I agree with you completely. It feels much better to get your trophy after a hunt than after a shoot. I passed the only chance at kudu on the first 10 min of my last hunt because we bumped it from the car and it would have been like shooting a sheep! The next kudu I saw was the biltong they sell in Joburg airport
By the way, how would you rate hunting from a blind? From what I gather it is a popular method in Namibia and seems to be very effective, although less exciting than other forms of hunting. I find it interesting that the PH would be sure of seeing kudu from a blind despite the low chances of securing one though stalking.
BTW, that is a nice kudu, hope he's getting mounted!

Now, if anybody squeamish about hunting asks me if I 'caught anything,' I can say, 'Sure, I caught a kudu by the ears!'

Bob, that is funny. Some of my friends will ask me after I have gone hunting if I caught anything. I always have to explain to them that there is no catching involved, it is shooting that I do. Rufous.

The way we hunted at Kamanjab was to leave the house at 7 am and return at 6 pm. Lunch each day (gemsbok meatballs, potato salad, home made brownies, etc) was in a blind. The vast majority of our hunting was walk and stalk. Actually, the kudu was the only animal we took that we had originally seen from the truck. According to Helmke, and as was our experience, few warthogs are seen much less shot while stalking. Our 2 warthogs were the only animals taken from the blinds. It gave us a nice break during the day, we took some photos from the blinds. Actually we saw the only shootable kudu bulls from stalks, and these were very tricky. The winds were high during most of our hunt, which kept the animals laying low. Fortunately the winds slackened our last few days. Fortunately the blinds are available as an option. The party before ours, another Houston father/son hunt, needed the blinds, as the son had broken his toe just before the hunt, so the long walks weren't an option for him.

I was glad for the mid day break, as we were probably averaging 10 miles walking per day. A good lunch and a rest helped me keep going. I'm also very glad that the vast majority of our shooting was walk/stalk. Bob