Anybody interested in culling operations for overbred herds of springbock or eland in Namibia ? I was lately invited to join such operations, high volume shooting and harvesting antelopes for the meat trade in Namibia. Must be shot through the head or through the neck, otherwise chiller boxes refuse to accept the meat. This is not a manicured hunting safari, this is pure and simple harvesting operations in a company of pro biltong shooters. One may join them for US 95.00 a day, camping in the bush, whatever comes handy re accommodation etc and giving them a hand and they will take care of you. You may retain any trophy heads for yourself if you like, those blokes are interested in the meat only, not in the trophies ! If you botch the shot you will be penalised with a charge of US 2.00 per kg/carcass which is fair enough ! If anyone is interested in such scheme, I can give him a direct contact to those fellows !
Les Kosek
lesterra@ozemail.com.au

What do you mean by botch a shot?
Is there a charge if the animal is not recovered or if it has to be shot multiple time?

I'm not really interested but curious?

when is the cull going to be held? Email me with more details and contacts.

rslus
rslus@hotmail.com

Hi, Les !!

I'll be in Namibia for 6 weeks starting July 9th .. my e mail address is scruffy7@telus.net.

I'd be interested and I got a partner who would also be ...

Richard

Well, I certainly tried. I was in Namibia for 6 weeks and phoned this outfit about two or three times a week asking to join in. Both my partner and I. We were in our little bush camp only 90 miles away and I said that we were available and right there !! Over the six weeks we were told that the PH was hunting something else at the time .. then the poor land owner was very ill .. and finally the PH was in the hospital with a bad back. Both he and his wife sounded very nice on the phone ... I tried the best that I could, Les. But there was no joy. Not sure if I could recommend them.

This sounds like fun and I even concidered hosting something similar not to long ago myself.
Just make sure to first ask the PH about the legality before anything else.
Scruffy you know me, I am a sport for everything, but please make sure !

If it is a professional harvesting operation, wouldn't the shooting be done from cars and at night? I always assumed this was the most efficient way of culling large herds. Just curious

Yo, Omuhona ! I think that I'll stick to seals and immature kudu bulls !!! I did think it would have been a great experience but am unsure how one would get more than one or two occasionally judging from my very very limited eland hunting experience. Maybe if they are in a small land holding with a single water source ???

quote:

wouldn't the shooting be done from cars and at night? I always assumed this was the most efficient way of culling large herds. Just curious

Night culling is ollwed to be done only by registered culling teams, which is tested and inspected by Nature Concervation.
These culls take place at night to keep the temperature of the meat as low as possible and meat shot in the day will not be excepted for export.
Only head and neck shots are excepted and if the ranger, which accompany these culls feel that the team can't shoot well enough, the registration will be pulled back.
If you can shoot a springbuck through the head at 300 yards, you may be concidered to join such a team.

I reckon that my beloved ancient 8 Mag wildcat with the 4x Leupold scope might not be the perfect weapon for night time shooting of springbok ... After I demonstrated my 300 yard head shot shooting ability on those little varmints I suspect that I would be told to go back to the Great White North and confine my shooting to 1 1/2 year old bull moose at about 60 yards ..

Scruffy, hunters like you and me are not build for night culling anyway.
To shoot 300 springbuck in one night is hard work and there are definitily no compassion involved.
You have more to write about in your next book if you write about me killing a Go-away-bird with your brand new shotgun, than hanging 300 springbuck in a cooler truck !