I am looking into a plains game hunt with Conrad Vermaak on the Khamab Reserve. Anyone have experience with this hunt.
Thanks in advance for your input.

I last spoke to him in 2005. I had thought he was retired.

He used to be the ombudsman for the Namibian Professional Hunters Association.

If he was the PH it would kind of be like hunting with Harry Selby in Botswana. He's the grand old man of Namibian PH's, though not as well known.

Would be interesting at least!

Thank you for your response, I've heard nothing but good thinks about his operation. His son Hans it seems, is now heading up the operation. He has been good to deal with.
Best regards

Though the majority of my 2005 Namibian hunt had problems, one high point was meeting a 90+ year old man that had lived in the Kalahari and had been a farmer and a hunter and a soldier. He had been mauled by a lion, fought in the Great War and had a hell of an interesting life.

A few gin and tonics around the campfire with him was the high point of that safari. I would imagine that some time speaking with Mr Vermaak would be damned interesting.

Coenraad was a panelist for several years on the "First African Safari" seminars that I moderated at SCI's conventions until I passed that chore on to Craig Boddington in 2013.

I know Coenraad and his entire family to be honest, highly experienced and hard-working people.

Although I only met Hans briefly at Coenraad's home in South Africa, I've heard many good things about the way he has been operating the family business.

Bill Quimby

Have hunted with Coenraad and Hans 4 times. They do a wonderful job. AAA+++.

Thanks guys, looks like I'm on the right track.

Hunted with them in Rooiport last year. Second time with CVS. You will not go wrong hunting with them. PH told me that the Khamab concession is loaded with plains game. Camp is said to be nice enough to make my wife happy and that is saying something.

quote:

Originally posted by Lawdog:
Thank you for your response, I've heard nothing but good thinks about his operation. His son Hans it seems, is now heading up the operation. He has been good to deal with.
Best regards

If he has been good to deal with and with a family history like his, I'd do the deal and book the hunt with him.

Known about CV Safaris for a long time, and never heard anything but good about them, and in fact heard a lot of good! But no personal experience, only hearsay.

I do have a little bit of personal experience with Khamab Kalahari Reserve. I had the pleasure of driving through the reserve in late 2014. I was restricted to stay on, what is officially a public road, so it was literally only a "drive through". The reserve is a high fenced private reserve, and you have to sign a logbook on entry, and there are no fences along the road on which we drove through at all. The place is so big that really there can be no arguments at all that, even though high fenced, the hunting experience will be equivalent to free range hunting. I do not remember the size in acres or hectares, but it is a vast area, probably better to quantify in terms of square kilometers! On our drive through we saw enough game to satisfy any real hunter, but no signs of "overstocking" at all.

Enjoy the hunt and please have the, well here on AR Forum I'll just call it the 'whatever it takes', to write a hunt report, just so we can be jealous!

Coenrraad no longer hunts due to age and health.

The reserve is managed by a Russian character of note. The PHs are generally Coenraad's son Scruffy (Hans) and/or Clive Curtis and I believe another PH from time to time. Hunting is good and the game quality is also good.

Coenrraad lost the Rooiport concession last year.

In regards to good guys or bad guys, there are always lots of opinions on both sides of the coin as with any outfitter that has been in business as long as Coenrraad.

Highly recommend both Clive Curtis and Rayno Egner who did most of CVS hunting last year. They are both great guys and hard working.
You cant go wrong there.

quote:

Originally posted by Andrew McLaren:

I do have a little bit of personal experience with Khamab Kalahari Reserve. I had the pleasure of driving through the reserve in late 2014. I was restricted to stay on, what is officially a public road, so it was literally only a "drive through".

..It won´t become the last time you are up there

quote:

He's the grand old man of Namibian PH's, though not as well known.

Conrad is a very famous name in Africa.

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:

quote:

He's the grand old man of Namibian PH's, though not as well known.

Conrad is a very famous name in Africa.

Indeed. I've heard some trash thrown out about CVS, but I'm sure it was simply trash. I've never hunted CVS, but know people who have been quite pleased. It would be nice to converse with him.

Coenraad is very much South African, may have done a few hunts in Namibia but he is a born and bred South African.

CVS is a very good operation, good concessions vehicles, camps and only top notch PH's. They are a safe bet for a great hunt

I hunted with them a few years back and had a great time. I resent the reference to Coenraad being an old man. My recollection was we were about the same age which puts him at 72 or 73 today. I had a very successful hunt with good food and good company.
At their headquarters in Hilton I had an enjoyable breakfast with Coenraad and he explained why he likes a 9.3x62 for backup.
I booked my hunt through Tommy Morrison at Sporting International. Tom is a good guy and if I was hunting with CVS I would work through him. He has booked for CVS for a long time.