Place Okanduka Siebe farm Central Namibia
PH: Dirk rohrmann, wife Rita everything else manager

Animals taken: Oryz, Mt. Zebra, Springbok, Blesbok & Steenbok
Rifles: mine .284 win, Dirks .375 H&H and .22 Hornet

animals seen but not taken: Kudu, Warthog, Giraffe, Hartebest, Eland, Impala, Hyrax, Baboon, Bat eared Fox, Jackel, Honey Badger, Klipspringer, Duiker.

Linda & I began this trip at 0500 lcl Sept 14 from Juneau, Alaska. Juneau to Seattle, to Dulles in VA, Joberg and Windhoel. We arrived at the farm about 7:00 pm Saturday night the 16th. Up the next day and sited in my rifle. Dirk says that the scope is too small for the late evening leopard hunt so I will use one of his. Scope on my rifle is 2.5X 8 lup vxiii. He had a client recently with the same scope and could not pick up the cat in it. So I will use one of his. m It turns out to be a custom mauser switch barrel in .375 and .458 lott with a 3X12X50 mm swaroski 30mm tube. Just a mile away form the traget Dirk spots a young springbok and says to shoot him for bait. One neck shot later we have our bait. While we are admiring him a fully mature Springbok (SB) walk out brom behind some bushes. Dirk glasses him and the stalk is on. few munites D sets up the sticks and I take him with a shoulder shot. First trophy b down bu 9 am. Back to the ranch nd the trackers Jeffery & Manuel skin the trophy and we all have brunch. PM everybody, Linda, Rita, Dirk, myself and the two trackers go out to hang the bait and for a game drive. We place the bait on the ground wired to a tree in a dry river bed and continue the game drive. We see lots of game and Linda turns out to very good at spotting game. Back to the ranch and great dinner.
Day 2 Check the bait the leopard walked all around the bait but did not touch it. We went bak to the ranch for tools and built a ground blind about 25 yards form the bait. PM we sat in the blind but a fickle wind changed its normas direction and we were busted. We left the blind and Dirk found very fresh leopard track in the vehicle tracks form when the boys dropped us off to sit.
Day 3 check bait not hit but we find the tracks went right around the blind. D & boys decide to try a different approach. We scout a different location and I shoot a Kudu cow for bait. We take the SB away and wire the back half of the Kudu in a tree. The blind will be built up higher if the cat hits the bit. Do the gut drag from the other location about 3 miles away on the same dry river bed. Move to a different part of the ranch and try several stalks on Oryx & Donkies (zebra). al are blown eitherby swirling winds of other eyes. Almost into the Oryx when a herd of SB take off and take the Oryx with them. The Oryx and the Zebras both have very yourn animals in their herds and are super skiddish.
day4 Dirk, Rita & Linda off to Windhoek to pick up new truck. i go out with trackers. They climb a kopie and 20 minuets later come back to get me and we go after Oryx. Manuel leads me on a perfect stalk but a hard shooting position. I have to crawl backwards uphill and drop my feet and legs into a hole without showing the top of my head over the rocks. Manual hd shown me the bull he wanted me to shoot and I figured that I had him peggen between tow trees. Well after I get the rifle back from Manuel I get set and there right between the two trees is a bull Oryx standing lookingright at me. I have taken my hat off and placed it on the rock for support and fire. The Oryx dropps but Manuel says no, no not that one the other one is and he hold his hand 6" apart this myuch bigger. Oh Well I sure can't pull that bullet >375 H&H .300 gr, sp back. We go down and he not a hugh Oryx. We get him loaded and back to camp. Dirk returns late pm and we discuss the days events. he looks at the Oryx and says he is not bad but not the best that the ranch has to offer. We do not hunt this pm we wo and drive to look and the smoke and fores that are buring on the other side of the hill form Dirks consession.
day 5 Cat has hit gut drag but not the bait We hunt zebra, finally after several stalks we get on a small herd, they set up the sticks and I am on them, I spot the animal that they are talking about, Dirk says shoot and then Manuel says no its a marie. While they discuss it the Stallion takes off. Oh well we laugh because manuel isalmost always right on the donkeys, junst not this time. We try a couple of other rock climbs looking but cannot connect. PM shoot doves and sand grouse, what a blast.
Day 6 The cat has hit the bait so we build a blind uphill form the bait. PM sit in the blind a mongoose has a taste of the bait but no cat.
Day 7 AM hunt Donkey one particular mare has us pegged all morning. Every time we start to get close she takes off running and the rest follow. PM in blind, dirk sees the cat for just a second but he takes off. D says this particular cat had been around this farm for 2-3 years and is very smart. Temps now in the middle of the aday top 100 F. too much for this Alaskan.
Day 8 I see a bat eared fox and Klipspringer today. Some Donkeys up high but too hard to get down without tearing up skin.
PM in the blind we have some Zebra come almost into the blind they make a lot of noise. the cat makes a quick visit but I missed seeing him again. This is the second night in a row.I did hear him cough after the donkeys left. We believe that he was just sitting in the rocks and hit the bait after we left.
Day 9 Check bait and it was hit but as I said after we left the blind. Today we do connect on Zebra. We are staling a different river bed and a small herd is seen up the hill. The stallion waits just a few seconds too long and I hit him with the .375. Dirk and Manuel both say good hit but the damn thing runs 300 yards at a full gallop./ We race back to the truck and follow. We find him piled up an the bottom (thnak goodness) of the hil. A double lung shot and he still went that far, they are tough animals.PM in the blindDirks seeh the cat again and touches me. I must have mover too fast because my chair scraped on the rock and he was gone.
Day 10 we check the bait but not hit. Oryx not top of list. We climb a kopie and spot 4-6 animals that we should be able to get on. We move out and this time the wind holds. Manuel squats and signals down and there is the Oryx about 90 yards looking right at us. I crawl up next to Dirk and he ask if I can shoot him form here. I get up on one knee and sight at the animals but Manuel is directly below my muzzel. I tell D that I won't shoot with Manuel that close. He tells M to lay down which eh does bery solwly and I touch it off. The Oryx jumps straight up into the air and when he comes down he is out of sight. We stand up and manuel signals that he went down, Dirk is not sure but when we walk over where he was there he lay.Perfect hert shot head on and that 300 gr soft point did its job. We go back to the bait tree this pm with half Oryx and rebait the tree. PM dove shoot again what fun and relaxing.
Day 11 check bait it was hit and moved around. High winds this AM kept most of the game down. PM in the blind no cat while we were there.
Day 12 We target Steenbok today and after a couple of close calls We see a good one and follow, he runs we follow then he wits just a second too long. I shoot him in the neck (all I could see above the grass). Note when Linda & Rita went into Okahanda this morning they saw a leopard cross the road right in front of the truck and stop in the grass right nex to the road. Rita stopped and rolled the window and the leo growled at the truck once and then turned and jumped the fence and took off.
PM back at bait determined to hold out and I start to cough. this is the end of leopard hunting.When we got back to the boys in the truck they showed u a zebra snake that they had killed as he was trying to get into the truck. the zebra snake is a type of cobra.
Day 13 out early and climp kopie looking for
Blesbok or Hartebest. We spot one lone Blesbok feeding with some springbok. I take a solid (rock & hat again) and pull a spine shot that dropped him on the spot. PM shot some doves around a windmill. This is an absoulte blast. Dirk evoies bird shooting more that game hunting. More action in a short time I guess. Day 14 Dirk & I on a game cound for the Conservetory. I take the .22 hornet hoping to see a Jackle. We have seen them almost every day but always when we had other game in mind.
We drive the bait tree and the entire back hlf of the Oryx has been ripped out of the tree. It was wired in tow places, what power that leopard. After the hunt Linda, Dirk & I toured Etosha for two and a half days and then drove to Swakopmund on the coast. We took a desert toru one day and a harbout boat tour in Walves Bay the nex day. Then back to the ranch for our last dinner and off to the airport in Windhoel the next morning. We traveled just 15 munites short of 50 hours straight travel time before setting foot back on Alaskan soil. I could not have asked for a better, finer people, excellent staff and equipment, so much so that we have booked for 2008. I will get that leopard next time.

Sounds like a great hunt! Any pictures?

Just curious - no kudu bulls taken/mentioned?

Not that that changes anything - sounds like you had the usual wonderful time.

If you make it up to Anchorage any time soon, please PM me.

JV I saw many Kudu Bulls but since I have already taken two on previous hunts I did not see one that really excited me on this trip. We did not spend any time directly in persuit of a Kudu bull. Dirk said that a lot of them were still up in the mountains and were slowly moving down. Thanks for asking. I will be going thru Anchorage Tuesday but ending up in Fairbanks for the week.

I forgot to mention that Bill C. will post some pictures for me tomorrow, thanks again Bill.

Here are some of Art's pictures.

Springbok


Leopard track, baits, blind & bait that was hit










Oryx #1


Oryx #2


Mtn Zebra




Scenes from Namibia

Thanks for the photo fix. Only 21 more months to go.

Thanks for the pictures, I will be hunting and fishing with Dirk the same time next year. I know how you feel about the heat in September! Art what month are you going back hunting in 08? Anybody thinking about hunting with Dirk in 08 had better put a deposit down very soon. Over half of his prime 08 dates are all ready booked. Dirk will be full booked before SCI.

So how did you like the trigger on that .22 Hornet? I just thought about shooting and the #$%^&* gun went off! Good steenbok medicine though. Unfortunately, Dirk wanted it back at the end of the hunt...

Congratulations on a great hunt!

Wonderful report. We will be hunting with Dirk and Rita in 7 months. Time cannot pass quickly enough.Jerry Hoover

Jerry your going to have a great time. Make sure to shoot a few birds and jackals while your there.

quote:

Originally posted by Robert johnson:
Thanks for the pictures, I will be hunting and fishing with Dirk the same time next year. I know how you feel about the heat in September! Art what month are you going back hunting in 08? Anybody thinking about hunting with Dirk in 08 had better put a deposit down very soon. Over half of his prime 08 dates are all ready booked. Dirk will be full booked before SCI.

We are going back in mid August 08. By the end of Sept the temps were well over 100 F during mid day. Too hot for a Juneauite.

Enjoyed your report and pictures.

quote:

Originally posted by Acer:
So how did you like the trigger on that .22 Hornet? I just thought about shooting and the #$%^&* gun went off! Good steenbok medicine though. Unfortunately, Dirk wanted it back at the end of the hunt...

Congratulations on a great hunt!

I understand and I used it without the set feature. I just thought real hard and it went off by its self. Well almost. I pulled it so hard the first shot that I missed the little fellow by 2 feet.