Just returned from 15 days in Namibia at Erindi Ranch, about 2 1/2 hours north of Windhoek. Owned by some wonderful people and managed for excellent trophy quality. Five star accomadations and food, good hunters/trackers/equipment and excellent service. The ranch is 161,000+ acres with several mountain ranges and canyon areas; yes, it is game fenced because they have 14 elephants and 25 black rhinos roaming around which are too valuable to lose, and lots of other game. I think I saw just about every animal you can in Africa except an elephant or leopard. Had the Minister of Environment and several biologists there a couple days talking about future plans for more Big 5 stuff. Really interesting to me.

Hunted 1x1 with Johan Kotze as my PH, who did a wonderful job all around, and was extremely knowledgable and accurate in his trophy judgement and provided exceptional camera work on the trophies. They use professional grade 5.0 megapixel Canons for your photos. Also had the opportunity to have my entire hunt video'd by a professional cameraman with a Canon XL-1S digital camera. Recorded evrything about the hunt: all the stalks, kill shots, scenery, and yes, even the blown opportunities too! He was with us from daylight 'til dark every day.

The timing for the trip was good; in between the last quarter and new moon, and animals were very active all times during the day. Wind howled and it was cold the first week, but last week was beautiful. An Idaho boy is used to 40 degree mornings and 70 degree afternoons.

Only down side was a quick trip back to the city of Windhoek a couple days into the hunt for medical care, when I sliced my face and eyelid open on thorns. Lots of blood and whimpering, but no impact on vision and things healed up OK. I think it hurt my pride worse than my face; as an experienced hunter, I know better than to move fast in the dark. Could still shoot, so nothing was going to keep me from hunting. Cowboy up-if you're gonna be stupid, you have to be TUFF!

Took only my 375 H&H along, since I was really after large game, which I had been practicing with for several months. Worked out a great system with the PH to set the sticks, step to the right side, and use sticks and brace my right elbow in the crook of his left arm. Benchrest steady, and accounted for the best warthog that way. They believe in the Tony Diebold (Nevada) sticks, and are very stiff and stable. Rifle has a Leupold 1.75 x 6 VX-III on it, and most shooting was on 4x or 6x. Put the Butler Creek foam sling into the stick to cushion recoil and prevent jump, and never had a bit of problem. Shooting the Federal factory load with 260 grain Nosler AccuBond. Good trajectory and great effect on the larger stuff. Didn't shoot an eland with it, but only 'cause I didn't see a monster, and didn't want to cull an old bull for meat. Left them some extra loads for their 375's and they will report performance on eland later.

Depending on the animal, I either looked at dozens, hundreds, or a thousand (gemsbok) head of game before pulling the trigger. Shot my 37" gemsbok bull on the 13th day. The 13 1/4" warthog was an "Oh my goodness, shoot that pig!!!" opportunity in the middle of a hartebeest stalk, but everything else was pretty deliberate. Sometimes we even went back to the ranch to evaluate an animal on TV replay, then spent the next day or two trying to find it again. Mountain zebra kicked my butt for 8 days, and I hunted 5 more before taking a huge old Burchell's stallion. Will still have to go back for that Hartmann's, and a big eland also. Depending on your druthers, you can ride-walk-stalk-sit water-anything for your game. Whatever works best for you.

Stalking in the middle of black rhino country really adds some extra excitement to things, and I got used to watching for trees. Had several encounters with Mama and a calf, young bulls, cows, and the king stud himself-but all was peaceful and uneventful. Thank Goodness. Followed elephant spoor, but was never able to see them.

The springbok is my absolute best trophy ever, and at 16 1/2" inches with 7" bases should put it right up there about SCI Top 10 or so. INCREDIBLE! Almost all my animals are NAPHSA Gold Medal, for anyone who cares. The kudu are the most gorgeous and regal animal I have taken, and have great mass and big curls. The blue wildebeest looked like a Cape Buffalo out on the plain by himself, and soaked up 3 rounds before succumbing. The finisher was a shot to the base of the tail from 200 yards, which wrecked 24" of spine and ended up by the neck.

Northern Namibia has to be the kudu capitol of the country. The day I left, there were 5 bulls from 55-60" in the middle of a dirt road outside in free-ranging grassland! I can honestly say I saw as many as a dozen mature bulls of 48+" a day. The gemsbok have great mass, but as an Angolan strain, they are usually about 8-10" shorter than their monstrous Kalahari cousins of the South. Real trophies of 37-39" are very possible, tho. If a person wants steenbok, duiker, or dik-dik, it has trophy those also.

The arrangements for trophy care are excellent, and promise quick turn around. I'm having the back skins and Zebra rug tanned over there, and the capes done here upon arrival. Pam Foerster with International Air Cargo will coordinate out of Windhoek, and Maria Europa with Hunter International will take care of things on this end. We've had wonderful dealing with them in the past.

Can't seem to get my pictures to the server on Hunt101.com, but will keep working at it. These computer gizmos are tough to ride, and harder to break, but I promise I'll get it done and let you see the rewards of the most fabulous trip of my life. Already mentioned another trip with my oldest son to my wife upon my return, but got serious frowny faces. May had to kiss up a lot, and take her on something special first.

Thanks again to everyone for all their info, advice, and support. It really made the trip easier and more enjoyable.

Looking forward to seeing your photos. Your account was well written and left me longing for a similar trip to Namibia!

UH OH! Seems all my pictures are too large and high definitiion (750KB to 2.00MB) to load on to Hunt101 server. Need some help from the computer knowledgeable people. How to get them smaller? I really want everyone to see them.

You are going to have to get some sort of photo editing software in order to reduce the size of the photographs. Once you get the software, it really isn't too difficult.

If you get something like Adobe Photoshop elements, there are lots of after market books that will be helpful. I use Photoshop CS, but this is likely to be more than you want to spend.

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My first trip to Africa was to Namibia. Loved it. Shot some nice stuff there, including a really nice kudu. This morning I went out coyote hunting and I remember thinking that Arizona often reminds me of Namibia.

I met the guys at Erinda at SCI 2004 in Reno and I was impressed with their operations as well as references from others (at the booth) who extolled the virtues of the place - accomodations and such.

I'm curious to know - were you promised or did you see any big Leopard there? Also, what were your criticisms - were you "hurried" or "sold" any animals out in the bush that you felt weren't impressive?

I'm always interested to know what people were disappointed in - especially when it comes to the quality, variety and grades of animals on these ranch-hunt operations.

Best,
Paulus

I did see several sets of leopard tracks in various places on stalks or returning to vehicle. We did not look for them specifically. They feel they can shoot 6 a year, but don't like to take more than 4. They bait/blind hunt and also bay them with hounds. They had already taken that many this year, so I wasn't going to hunt one, even if interested. Did see and run one Cheetah on the evening I got my Blesbok.
They are simply gorgeous in action.

I was never pressured to shoot any animal at any time of my hunt. I was offered some discounted ones, and culled others for free also. Even passed on several high record book ones, because I felt satisfied in mine already, and wanted to leave for others who followed in my footsteps. After passing on a 2nd monster springbok the day I got mine, 5 days later a hunter from Michigan got him and he was tremendous. I was just as excited for him, as if I'd shot him myself. My first kudu was 51 1/2" and I hunted 12 more days and shot another at 54". There was an opportunity to video my entire hunt which I took advantage of, and hopefully some of my footage will make it to next years DVD.

If you were at the Erindi booth this past year, you met Paul Joubert (one of the owners), and the 3 PH's. Corne' Kruger-Basie Marais-Johan Kotze are solid gold experts in their field, and really fun to be with. Several others were there who spent a lot of time at the ranch in 2003. I will certainly recommend this outfit in glowing terms to anyone who wants information. There were no hidden fees when closing out, or any services lacking, and everything is top-notch.

I am going to Namibia next Spring and would like contact information on International Air Cargo and Hunter International. Thanks!

Glad you had a fun trip and thanks for sharing. I'm going a little farther north, to the Etosha Pan area in 30 days. Thanks for the tip about gemsbok species. I hope I get to see as many potential trophys as you did.

Hunter International
Maria Europa-Felix
meuropa@sbcglobal.net

International Air Cargo Services
davidson@namibnet.com

Reiser Taxidermy
Wilko Pascheka
reiser@iway.na