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At least that is the way I will remember this hunt - the Brexit fiasco but an awesome hunt with some great trophies taken over 72 hours in a last minute dot com arranged hunt. Let me explain ....

I was in Joburg on business for a week and had plans to meet up with a hunting friend and go out after some 'biltong' game animals in the Free State at the weekend. No trophies, just keep an eye out for the old, injured, sick and predators etc and maybe a meat animal or two. Simple enough, a couple of days in the veld, share some stories around the fire in the evenings, braai some venison and a beer or two. Easy. But then 'he' had to go and break his leg! No hunting for him, but I was welcome to take his bakkie and tracker and go on my own. A generous gesture but not what I really wanted to do. I would make other plans.

Namibia! An hour and a half flight time from Joburg, good plains game and wing shooting at reasonable prices and uncomplicated getting guns in and out. I started to phone around some of the PHs that I know but all were booked other than one who was about to get on a plane and fly to the USA to rent a Mustang and drive coast to coast ! Something different from hunting I suppose!

And then on Tuesday, a good friend and owner of Tau Taxidermy in Windhoek, Van Rooyen, put me in touch with Michael Happel of Onjoma Lodge, a 5.000 h bushveld game farm about an hour and twenty minutes from Hosea Kutako International Airport.






I called the owner and PH, Michael, and explained my situation - could I fly up Thursday afternoon, hunt a couple of animals, shoot some birds and fly back on Sunday, nothing great, just a couple of chilled days? Michael was free and happy to take me on.

Flights were very quickly booked online - Air Namibia up and SAA back. Guns notified on the flight schedule and credit card debited. Wednesday night I threw a bag together and cased up my Krieghoff .375 H&H double, along with my CZ .416 and a 12 bore Browning. The .416 stayed in the gun case the whole trip but the .375 and 12 bore both saw action.








Check-in on Thursday was easy, scope and binos in my hand luggage, and the flight was trouble free and super on time. I cleared immigration and received my gun permit within 15 minutes of landing and was standing outside the terminal building at 13h45 - 15 minutes before the agreed pick up time of 14h00. On the dot of 14h00 Michael arrived in a Landrover 110 and at 15h30 I was sighting in my .375 at 100m at his shooting range. A few shots later and an adjustment up 15 cms (how that happened I dont know) and we were seated in his hunting Landy out in the bush! I told Michael that I was interested in an old oryx, a red hartebeest and some wing shooting. He was happy with that and we were out hunting within a couple of hours of landing in country! Just the two of us, no trackers or extras - Michael's comment was that he knows his farm and where his animals should be, his eyes are great, he can track and his staff are back at the house working and will be there for skinning and cleaning the Landy when we get back. OK, no arguing with that.





Michael is Austrian, with the family originating from just outside Vienna. His father purchased the farm in the early 1990s and its a full on game farm, no cattle, no low fences. The farm is basically two fenced sections of 2.500 h each divided by a public dirt road. We would see leopard, giraffe, wildebeest (blue and black), waterbuck, kudu, gemsbok, red hartebeest, ostrich, warthog, duiker, steenbok, jackal and porcupine over the next 72 hours. Oh and swathes and swathes of guinea fowl, francolin and dove.

The farmhouse is spacious and the room I stayed in comfortable with a big en suite bathroom. In the main house there was an indoor fire, a big old bar and plenty of wall space with trophies on show. I kind of missed an outdoor fire but then again it was seriously cold in the evenings.








The bushveld was a mixture of very, very thick thorn bush, some sparse areas of thorn and a number of opened up grass blocks, with water pans and troughs throughout. It was pretty tough to spot game in most of the farm but I suppose that made it all the more rewarding. Michael did say that he has plans to open up more blocks and even plant some crops and grasses for his game as an alternative food source. Top points for agric and game management!














( a bustard pair above and the kudu below !)





Thursday afternoon there was no lead in the air and we finished the day with a couple of drinks and a kudu roast for dinner. Calling it a night my thoughts were "Lets see what Friday brings".

Up early at first light and I caught the Brexit results thanks to WiFi. I know this is an African Hunting Forum and not the Political Forum, but being British and living abroad, I dread to think how this will pan out! Enough of that, after a coffee, we loaded up and were off, both wearing fleeces against the cold. Within 10 minutes we were glassing a solitary, old red hartebeest bull, grazing the fringes of an open grass block bordered by thorn bush. From about a kilometer out we started a stalk and slowly and with good wind we got to about 150m when the bull saw us and ran some 20m before stopping and looking back. I overshot him with the right barrel - in fairness to me he started to run as I squeezed off - but the left barrel found the spot and after a short 25m dash the bull went to the ground. The shot had been a good heart shot and we had a solid hartebeest bull down before the morning chill was even out of the air. Waidmannheil!









After unloading at the skinning shed, we had a simple breakfast and then set off again. Lunch would be around noon and then a rest until about 15h00.

We drove a lot and walked and stalked a bit and then at 11h30 we parked up at a water pan in the hope of a good warty putting in a show. Fifteen minutes later an old boar with two broken off and warn down upper tusks trotted in from the left. In my book an ideal trophy - very old, warn down, ribs starting to show through and walking alone. At 42m the H&H 300 grain Norma Oryx Bonded dropped the boar on the spot and both Michael and I were smiling.





We dragged the pig into the shade of a thorn bush and settled down to wait again - we would sit until 12h00, that was the deal, Michael does not get excited by sitting and waiting.

Ten minutes passed and a second and larger tusked boar entered the pan, again from the left. He winded the first dead pig and froze. He too dropped to the shot and never moved again! Two old, tusked boars in twenty five minutes! The smiles were wide!





We took pictures and then loaded them up and returned to the farmhouse for lunch and a short rest. And btw being a Landrover person myself, it was a bonus that Michael has a couple of Landrovers for hunting and also as his main vehicle. It made a nice change from khaki colour Toyotas.





At 15h00 we were out again, this time looking for an oryx. We saw lots of wildis and some good waterbuck but no suitable oryx. The ones we did see were either young bulls or highly pregnant cows. At 17h30 the sun started to fall from the skies as it only can in Africa, and we started a slow drive towards the farmhouses.

Stopping to glass a group of kudu cows and calves in the fading light, we spotted a pair of jackal almost walking amongst the kudus. We slowly walked closer and at about 175m the cows spotted us and started to run but the two jackal lingered. I shot the first one cleanly off the sticks and Michael's shoulder but missed the running shot.




The day ended with a red hartebeest, two warthog and a jackal in the bag. Nothing wrong with that for day one of a short weekend hunt.

Saturday it was again up, coffee and out, but this time with the 12 bore and pockets loaded with heavy guinea cartridges and 'Paprika', Michael's 4 year old Hungarian Vizsla bitch, wagging her tail excitedly and hopping between the back of the Landy 110 and the seat next to me!

I get great enjoyment from wing shooting especially over good dogs and it was great fun working with Paprika! She spotted, scented and retrieved everything that I shot and you could clearly see her enjoyment. I was fortunate to be able to shoot over such a good dog! In fact, a couple of days of African bushveld wing shooting with her mornings and late afternoons would be a great hunt in its own right! Food for thought.

Over a few hours, we hunted guinea with success and also took Swainsons and Orange River francolin, which Tau Taxidermy will be mounting for my collection.













Saturday afternoon we were out again and decided to spend 30 minutes sat at a water pan on the off chance of pig no. 3 coming in or something else. After a while we spotted a duiker and a steenbok grazing and browsing around the edges of the pan and we decided and agreed to have a better look at them.

We slowly stalked in and spooked the steenbok in the process but the duiker carried on browsing undisturbed, to the west of us. Glassing the ram, we both agreed he was one to try and take and Michael put up the sticks. Bringing my eye to the Zeiss scope, I was blinded by white light! The falling sun was directly behind the ram and the tube was a tunnel of light. Michael reached over my scope with his leather hunting hat in his hand and shielded the light from the front the Zeiss glass and I was able to find the duiker. I deliberately shot him far back of his lungs to protect the front cape for a small pedestal mount. He never got up. A solid, very big bodied ram and a pretty good trophy. I was happy.





On the way back to the farmhouse. we stopped at the pan where I shot the two pigs on Friday, and we glassed for half an hour. Three or four steenbok and duiker, eland, lots of guineas and then an old warthog boar came in at the other end of the pan. He watered head on to us showing us his ivory 180m out and I over shot him with the first barrel and then overshot again with the second as he fled the pan leaving a dust trail behind him. Three warthog in two plus days was perhaps being a tad greedy!

Shortly after the shots, the birds picked up their evening call again and the guineas started to go to their roosts. Suddenly both a steenbok and a duiker bolted from the edges of the pan for deeper cover and Michael got a fleeting glance of a large tom leopard.




As the curtain closed on the day we drove back to the farm to an oryx fillet braai and a bottle of Chocolate Block shiraz!

Day two and a duiker was added to the salt bringing the list to 5 head of game and ten plus birds.

Sunday dawned and we went for a drive at 07h30 aiming to be back for 09h00 at the farmhouse. Who knows, maybe we would spot that old oryx bull that I had hoped for or maybe we would just enjoy a final game drive. It was very cold in spite of fleeces and buffs and we struggled to spot game, other than one warthog sow that was near a fence line. The animals were in the thick bush, not out and about yet due to the cold and the wind.

Cutting a track between some very thick thorn bush we suddenly spotted two kudu - a cow and a bull. Michael stopped and we searched again for the two kudu and there they were. Disturbed by us, the bull was walking slowly away following the cow. Without saying anything to Michael, I picked up the double rifle and opened the Landy door and got out, leaving the door open so as not to make any additional noise. We both walked back along the path before we could see the bull again. A great looking bull. We stalked a bit closer and knowing that the bull was about to be swallowed by the bush, Michael put up the sticks and whistled. Quartering heavily away from us, the kudu stopped and looked back. Not a favorable angle.

Now, this was the last morning of the hunt, pack up and departure time in 3 hours or so and a kudu bull in my sights?! Yes or no? I had been an observer in this situation once or twice before over the years where it ended in a wounded animal, a rushed follow up / chase and ultimately a lost animal and a unpleasant end to an otherwise great safari. Yes or no?

The Zeiss's red dot settled on the bulls flank and I squeezed the trigger. The kudu buckled, kicking out hard with his back legs and the white of his undertail was the last thing that I saw of him as he raced into the thick thorn bush and out of our sight.

"180m", was Michaels comment, "but the shot looked good and a typical heart / liver reaction", he added. Walking those 180m my mind was in warp mode and not about the Brexit! The picture had been good, the shot felt good and its 08h00 and I am due to leave for the airport in 3 hours! We walked to the area where the bull was standing at the shot and looked at the ground - nothing, no blood, no fragments of bone, no deep tracks, nothing. We walked in the direction the bull had bolted and there 20m out he lay, neck stretched and horns clear for the world to see. Oh what a joy! Sunday morning, just after 08h00, in the last hours of my 'simple couple of days weekend last minute dot com hunt' and I had the fortune and luck to have cleanly taken a big, solid kudu bull ! Thank you Diana, thank you!

Michael went back to bring the Landy in and left me alone with the kudu. An amazing animal. Not the first I have hunted and hopefully not my last and equally as magnificent as the first. A truly spectacular African antelope! I was overjoyed! The .375 H&H 300 grain Norma bullet had entered the bull's flank, mushroomed perfectly and gone through the heart to end up lodged on the off side front shoulder.















After the European tradition of giving the animal the 'letzte Bissen' and myself a 'Bruch' over Michael's hat, Michael and I took lots of pictures of the bull before loading him onto the hunting car (with a winch and rollers) and returning, slowly, back to the farmhouse, talking all the way.

A short 72 hour weekend break with one or two 'biltong' animals had turned out to be a 72 hour weekend hunt with a magnificent kudu, a red hartebeest bull, two old warthog boars, a solid duiker ram, a jackal and various feathered game taken over a great Hungarian vizsla pointer! What a weekend's hunt! So much for the best made plans and all ! And all of this with a PH that I had not spoken to for more than 10 minutes in total and exchanged half a dozen 'WhatsApp' messages with. And on a farm that I knew nothing about a week before! Sometime the stars align and things just go so right!

We sat down to an early Sunday roast lunch with Michael's parents and his girlfriend and then made the short drive to the airport for my 15h00 SAA flight to Johannesburg. Van Rooyen, from Tau Taxidermy, who had put me in touch with Michael, came out to the airport with his wife to say hello and hear about the hunt and talk Landrovers for half an hour. And then I saw and said hello to Ian, from the Box H, who also posts on AR, who was seeing off a US client - but thats his story to tell.

A very generous thank you to Michael Happel of Onjona Safaris, for giving me a last minute weekend hunt opportunity and putting me on to some great animals and also a big thanks to Van Rooyen for the introduction. Plus a thank you to all AR readers for coming along too ! It was indeed an unforgettable 72 hour Brexit hunt!





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Post script notes - I often jot down the odd note which may or may not be directly related to the hunt report. Here are a few from this trip -

1/ Whilst I have previously bitched about Air Namibia for charging high weapon handling fees, I was positively surprised to see a full page Blaser / hunting advertisement in the Flamingo Air Namibia on board magazine. Not because its Blaser, but the bigger picture of an airline positively promoting hunting images and themes! Kudos - not kudus - to Air Namibia! Wouldn't it be great to see other airlines follow suit instead of bowing to anti sentiments.






2/ On the highway from OR Tambo International into Sandton, PHASA now has a giant billboard advertisement stating 'We care" and depicting an oryx or two and the PHASA logo! Kudos here too - hunting organisations spending cash on positive advertising in the public space. IMO there should be much more of this getting the message out to the public!

3/ I collected my red bill teal mount whilst in Namibia and brought him back to my trophy room in Joburg! The tail feathers are a bit squashed but otherwise I think he's a beauty! Oh, did I mention that he want as hand luggage on SAA, sorry about that SAA or are you transporting hunting trophies again?





(Sorry a bit blurred but you get the picture)


4/ On Thursday evening whilst driving past a water pan at last light, Michael spotted three porcupines. I was thrilled, I thought that I had a real chance to take a pair of porcupines and have my 'porcupine love mount' made up. Michael poured water on my fireworks telling me that the Namibian Ministry has taken porcupines off of the huntable species list - along with genet, civet, honey badger and all the other great small animals that are active at night! Shame but thats the way it is.

5/ On returning to RSA, Saps at ORT initially messed me around on my papers resulting in them holding my guns overnight. I went back out to the airport the following morning and collected my guns without any issues. Shame as I have never had many mentionable negatives with Saps over the past decade that we have been living / hunting in RSA and Africa. Someone having a bad day perhaps!


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Great report! Thanks! A weekend kudu is a new paradigm for those of us who have to fly 19 hours just to get to Joburg!

Beautiful photos and nicely written report.
Thank you for sharing.

JCHB

Looks like you had a great time, congrats!

Sounds like a fun weekend. Thanks for the report

Wow, you packed in a couple full days of hunting.

Congrats and many thanks for an excellent report.

A very enjoyable read.

Great trophies, great times, great report and great photos.

Pity about the Landrover but presume you had a Sat Phone?

Congratulations on a great trip. Thanks for sharing!

Ski+3

Congratulations Charlie.

Great read, great trophies, great every thing - you do get to hunt a lot, you lucky bugger! Regards to Anja.

Jytte

Well done Charlie! As Jytte says above, where is Anja? I understand why you left her behind last hunt, but ???????

Great trophies, pics, and report.

Best regards, D. Nelson

Great report. Very well done. Congratulations and thanks for posting.

That's one hell of a way to spend a long weekend!

quote:

Pity about the Landrover but presume you had a Sat Phone?

Andrew, Firstly it had doors ( unlike some hunting vehicles I have been in ). Second the farm was only 5.000 - I can walk that in a day if pressed. But there was never a thought about bakkie problems so no need for Sat Phones !



Jytte / Darin - Ladies ladies can a man not go hunting alone anymore !!! This was a simple weekend nothing special planned hunt ( that's how it was supposed to be at least ). Was not planned as a big hunt. Anja is in Germany fixing up a house and in fact she is shooting in a clay pigeon competition this weekend. I promise that Anja is going to feature big ( and scaly ) in our next hunt in November! I will pass on your concerns and thoughts to her


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Great report Charlie, Thanks

Great report! Looks like a great way to spend the weekend!

Fantastic hunt! Love the kudu. And really liked seeing the photo of the turkey, a firm favourite in Australia's Top End!

Very neat...

I'm jealous that is a "weekend hunt" for you guys!

Good job on the Kudu!

Very nice. Wish I could do weekend trips to Namibia!!

Great report ,beautifull photos .We use to have family in Namibia ,Zurbriggens from my mother side .

Nice work! It really sounds like you made the most out of that hunt!