Hunt Area: Okanduka Seibe Hunting Farm, Namibia
Hosts: Dirk & Rita
Rifles Used: Mod 70 .375 H&H & Mod 70 .300 Win Mag
Bullets Used: 270Gr Barnes Triple Shocks & 180 Gr T Shocks
Web Site: http://www.huntingnamibia.de

I hunted for 16 days with Dirk & Rita at Okanduka Seibe. As my brother Aziz wrote in his report, the hunting & accommodations were excellent. I shot 2 Kudu bulls 55†& 53â€
Two Mountain Zebra Stallions, one Springbok 16.5â€, an exceptional Eland 37.5†the shot was not a stomoch shot as it appears in the pic, the Eland was shot through the soulders & did not go down & was dropped with the quartering shot that you see, a 38†Gemsbok, a 4†Steenbok & a Black Wildebeest (At a near by farm) all the animals were Gold medal. The only low point was loosing a wounded Leopard.

We had a Leopard on bait; Dirk & I went in the blind at 3PM, the leopard showed up at last light. The leopard sat with its back to us in a sitting position as a dog would sit. Instead of waiting & letting him turn broadside, I hurried the shot & shot him between the shoulder blades, high, the bullet, a 270 gr Barnes T shock was also a bad choice since it went clean through the shoulder blade & out the side of the neck, at least that’s what we think happened. The leopard took off. Due to the darkness we could not do anything that night & came back the next morning. We found a tuft of white fur with a strip of skin & small amount of blood in two areas near the site, then their was nothing. With shotguns at the ready, Dirk, Aziz & I spent the entire day with the trackers trying to find the leopard. I felt sick for putting everyone at risk because of my stupid mistake. If we had some hounds, we might have found him or he would have found us. I feel terrible for the leopard & the suffering that I caused him.

For anyone hunting leopard, the lesson is to never hurry your shot. If the animal goes away, let it go, do not risk a bad hit that you will regret for the rest of your life.

I cant seem to post some other animal pics. if anyone can assit, I would appreciate it.

Regards,
Ahmed

Ahmed,

Thanks for the report. Great animals! I can only see about half of the pics though. Anyway, I'm very sorry to hear about the Leopard. My family and I are booked for 14 days with Dirk in 2007. Dirk told me about your Leopard a few days ago. He was telling me that he didn't like the Barnes TSX bullets at all. Where yours factory or hand loads? The reason I am wondering is that my dad and I were planning on using 180 gr. TSX bullets in our .300 WSM's on our trip. Do you have any suggestions? I would really appreciate any info you might have. Congratulations on a great hunt!

Eland Slayer, my experience with the barns Triple Shock was not good. I was using handloads for both the 375 H&H & the .300 Win mag. The biggest problem was that the bullet were making entry & exit holes in the animals but we would get almost no blood.
The bullets behaved more like solids then soft points. I shot a Kudu at 300 yards; we heard & saw the hit. When we reached the spot, their was no blood, we followed the tracks for 25 yards or more & still not a drop of blood. We then found the Kudu lying dead on a tree that it demolished as it fell; the bulled entered the shoulder, took the heart out, tumbled & was sticking out backwards at the other shoulder (See Pics below). The Kudu was stone dead but their was not a drop of blood on the animal. I shot a mountain Zebra that had a complete broadside pass through & no blood. I am not saying that the bullet did not kill the animals, what I am saying is that if your shot was a bit off, their was no blood trail to follow. In a previous trip to SA I used the old Barnes X with very good results but this time I am very disappointed with the new versions performance

Excellent trophies Mr. Niazi! Looks like a beautiful area you hunted.

I greatly appreciate the detailed account of the 270 TSX performance.

Great trophies Ahmed. I hate that your leopard was not found. Hopefully it will work out on your next trip.

Ahmed, thanks for the info. Dirk e-mailed me a picture of that bullet sticking out of the Kudu backwards. That is extremely odd. I will most certainly test our loads thoroughly before going to Africa.

Ahmed,

Thanks for the report and photos. Sorry about the leopard.

Regards,

Terry

P.S.
I fixed your photos for you (the ones that had complete URLs). FYI do not use the Align Image box leave it as "None", do not use Left, Right or Top. If you copy the info from the "Img" box on Photobucket, you don't need to use the "Image Url" box on AR. Just copy and paste the info from the "Img" box on Photobucket directly to your post on AR.

Regarding that bullet on the kudu. I shot a hyena with a Texas heart shot (.375H&H, Remington factory ammo with .300gr Swift-A Frame). The bullet was found in the shoulder of the hyena, sticking out backwards, just like the one shown on your kudu. It didn't even kill the hyena, I had to put in a finishing shot. The bullet was a perfect mushroom shape.




Regards,

Terry

That is a great eland Ahmed!

Also, the kudu looks like an old warrior!

Were most of the shots at longer ranges?

We often hear reports that leopards in Namibia are difficult to bring into a bait, how many days did it take to get yours feeding? I am sorry to hear about the dissapointment, a few dogs might have been helpful.

John in SC; My feelings on the Barnes TSX is that it should not be loaded very hot as it will zip through the animal like a solid. I had the 375 H&H 270gr going at 2800 FPS & the .300 180gr at 3100. I feel a slower heavier bullet would be a better choice. I had loaded 5 A-Frame bullets & used one on one of the Mountain Zebras & the diffrence was dramatic, their was a ton of blood from both the entry & exit wounds.

Terry; Thanks for fixing the photos. I will add a few more to the above. Thanks again.

Boghossian, the leopards in Namibia are difficult to bring to bait. We were lucky with this one as it hit the bait within one day.
Shot distance in Namibia will be based on the area that you hunt, be prepared to shoot upto 300 yrds. I would not try to shoot anything further then that because of the risk of wounding the animal. The Kudu was indeed very old with the tips worn off, he was still 53" with deep curls. The second Kudu I just posted above was 55 Inches & was also old. As you can see from the huge necks on the animals the Kudu Rut was in full swing.

Regards,
Ahmed

Ahmed,
Congratulations on your trophies and sorry to hear about your Leopard. My wife and I are looking forward to returning to Okanduka to hunt with Dirk and Rita again. They are great people who run a top notch outfit!

Ahmed,

Excellent report and very fine trophies...
Thanks about the tip of not pushing the leopard shot...be patient...

Mike

the Selous 55 days...

Ahmed, fantastic animals. You are correct in that you will never forget about that leopard. However, the pain associated with that experience will fade. It is a rotton feeling for sure. People often say not to get worked up about it, that "this kind of thing happens sometimes." They are right but it does little to get that knot out of your stomach.

Looks like you and your brother collected some excellent trophies. Congratulations.

Atticus; Rita & Dirk are indeed great folks. I am sure you will enjoy your return trip.

Grafton; Thanks for the kind words. Since the leopard incident happend early in the hunt, It was tough keeping it out of my mind & concentrating on the other animals.

Reagrds,
Ahmed

Ahmed

You had a great safari with some beautiful trophies. I completely understand what you went through with the leopard. I personally have lost 3 animals in my hunting career and each one was a gut wrenching experience. On the other hand the first guide I ever used who was quite an accomplished international hunter himself told me that if a hunter told him he had never wounded or missed an animal that you could bet that guy had never hunted very much. Loosing an animal is a sickening feeling but it can and does happen to most of us eventually. It would seem on the rest of the safari you shot very well. I acknowledge you for not letting the leopard incident rattle you for the rest of the hunt.

Mark

Great photos and report. Every
one is right if you never miss you haven't hunted much
I am hunting Namibia in Aug for leopard
This is my 3rd trip for leopard and I have
not yet fired a shot. Don't let it get you down,
sounds like you had a great trip

Hi Ahmad
Thanks for the excellent huntning report and congratulation for the nice trophies.
i am planing for an african trip and maybe inshallah go to namiba hunting. i find your report very helping indeed i wanted to use fail-safe (which is rather similar in construction with BX bullets) for kudu and gemsbuck. i am glad i didn't . I may turn to nosler PT and 180 grain for my 3006 . what is your opinion about Nosler PT?
regards
Yazid

Thanks Yazid. The Nosler PT is a great bullet & should work well for you.

Regards,
Ahmed

Very very nice I love the eland, that is on my list to hunt next year in Namibia.

Im preplexed about the TSX as that is my go to bullet.
What did the wound chanel look like on your animals?

I have seen the bullet sticking out bacwards on a safari show it was a swift a frame also.

It just go's to show that every shot on animals is difernt.

Sorry about your lepoard.

I used the TSX in October in Namibia, 300 grain in my .375 H&H at 2,500 fps, and 160 grain in my 7mm at 2,940 fps. Both performed excellently. My hunting partner used the 7mm with the same loads, and between us shot 37 animals, with no problems.

In 2004 I used the trophy bonded bear claw in my 7mm, which worked well also. We recovered many more of the bear claw bullets, as the the TSX was more prone to pass through.

But for me, the TSX groups better in both of my rifles, and I had more one shot kills with the TSX than I did with the bear claw, so I will be taking the 300 Grain TSX with me to Tanzania in October.

Ahmed,

Congrats on a great safari, and well done for your candid evaluation of the leapord incident. many hunters would not have mentioned it or tried to make excuses.

On the TSX, I would say that you are entirely correct that they should not be pushed too fast. I used some "warm" loads in 168gr and they performed perfectly on everything I shot. I even use then here inthe UK when out fox shooting and they expand even on such a small and light animal, generally leaving a very noticable exit.

For anyone thinking of using them, then I'd say the 168's in .30 calibres are well worth the look to reduce the likelyhood of pencilling, and the only time I would want to go up to the 180's would be for the Eland, but then there is always the 375 available for him!!

Congrats again,
FB

Ahmed:
Thanks so much for the report and photo's. My heartrate has doubled thinking forward to the 2nd week of September when I'll be at Okanduka Seibe

almostacowboy, Good luck on the hunt. I know you will be very happy with everything at Okanduka Seibe.

Regards,
Ahmed

Ahmed-
Did you get a chance to look at Dirk's rifles? With all the trials and tribulations of moving rifles through Joburg I've just about decided to take up Dirk's offer to borrow one of his guns. Plus, my wife and I are going to spend the week prior to going to Dirk & Rita's camping and sight-seeing on our own.
Dave

Dave,

Dirk has some excellent rifles. All are topped with
30" tube top quality Euro scopes Zeiss etc. You won't miss your rifles at all. Good Luck!

Ahmed

Ahmed: Sorry to hear about you leopard, but the rest of your hunt went great! Regarding the TSXs, there's another post here where the gent had great success with the same bullet. Was the bullet you recovered from the Kudu expanded? Anyhow, here's a photo of the recovered TSXs I "pinched" from his thread. Thoughts? jorge

quote:

Originally posted by Ahmed Niazi:
Dave,

Dirk has some excellent rifles. All are topped with
30" tube top quality Euro scopes Zeiss etc. You won't miss your rifles at all. Good Luck!

Ahmed

Thank you, sir.

Jorge,

I was able to only recover one bullet & that was from the kudu you see above. That one had expanded but nothing like the ones pictured. I think that mine were just going a bit too fast & were zipping through the animals. The biggest problem I saw was a lack of blood from the entrance or exit wound on well hit animals.


Ahmed

Ahmed,

Congratulations on an excellent safari and some great animals. I am sorry you lost the leopard. Your advice on that subject is good and I appreciate that you shared what was so clearly a painful experience.

Your X-bullets seem to have behaved very strangely. I would have thought that they would be "velocity-proof," i.e., tough and capable of expansion at any speed, given their hollow, internally scored tips and monolithic construction.

I've had excellent luck with X-bullets, but an experience like yours really makes me wonder.

Ahmed,

Thanks for an excellent report. I'm sorry about the leopard, that has to be tough.

The bullet pictures in Jorge's post from my safari. I was a little bit concerned about using Barnes on my trip due to some posts I have read about their failure to expand, but I had great expansion on all my game, except where a bullet hit some brush and entered sideways.

I am judging expansion by the size of the exit wound in most cases as I only recovered bullets from a few animals. In fact the Barnes made a much bigger exit wound in my klipspringer than I would have liked. I'll have to have him facing left when he is mounted.

Mrlexma, I used the old X bullet with great success in SA some years ago & that is why I used the new TSX this time in Namibia. I would definitly not recommend the X for cats.

Lhook7, I am glad the bullets worked well for you. Were you using handloads? if yes, do you know what velocity you were getting? Your recovered bullets seemed to have mushroomed a lot more then the one's that I recovered.

Regards,
Ahmed

Ahmed,

I was using 270 gr. TSX in the .375 and 225 gr. in the .338. I don't use a chronometer, but according to the Barnes manual I should be around 2,700 fps on the .375 and 2,800 on the .338.

Interesting reading this! Next year Im off to the same place, same calibre, same bullet choice too! Also looking at hunting the same animals (minus the Leapord). As a back up for bullet choice I have got Nosler Accubonds.I was going to push the TSX's at about the same FPS as Ahmed did. What Im looking for I guess is a group concencus on may be FPS should it have been a little slower? or what.
I suppose Im a little bit dis-heartened because I heard rave reviews on the TSX's and have gone to the trouble of importing some to NZ but what now leave them at home!
Im open to what ever you guys have got to say.
Sorry too Ahmed for poaching the thread.I hope I do as well as what you did, the place looks awesome. PM me if you want with ideas etc.

RUNAS,

Check out jjhack's thread linked below. He has done some testing on sifferent types of bullets.

Bullet Testing

I remain a staunch supporter of the new TSX bullets. They shoot very accurately,, and have performed exceptionally for me.
I load 300 grain TSX in the .375 H+H, and 180's in the 300 Win Mag. I have shot everything from Duiker to Buffalo and Hippo with these bullets. Throw in a number of deer and elk as well.

I notice the biggest concern in the post was lack of blood trails, but also learn the bullet didn't exit from the kudu. It is well accepted that two holes make for better blood trailing. It is rare that a TSX is recovered, as they normally all exit. I like the fact I usually get an exit hole. Examination of the wound channel has always shown evidence of the classic "X" shaped projectile path. Every bullet I have recovered has been fully expanded, with only the occassional loss of one petal after hitting the spine or ball joint of a shoulder. Even on very light game the bullets expand wonderfully, and I agree with an earlier post that I have a few hides that show evidence of significant expansion on very light critters.

I believe this is another example of blaming the bullet when things didn't go just as expected. Shot placement is still key with any bullet. Failure to find much blood can easily be explained when there is only an entrance hole, as on occassion that hole gets plugged or may even be two high on the animal to leak very quickly. Kudu are large, deep chested beasts, and it can take a while to fill the body cavity so the blood leaks out. It appears the animal died quickly from a well placed shot. It appears the bullets worked very well, and the shooter did his job. Itg is always easiest to speculate on the animals not recovered, as very little evidence is left to examine.
I appreciate reading reports of bullet performance from all who post. I have been slow to form my opinions. My experience indicates the TSX is an exceptional choice for most hunting situations. I do not find many facts in the original post which would change my opinion of this bullet.
Bill

Ahmed,

Interesting to read your thoughts on the TSX. My friend and I were using them in various calibres on our hunt with Mike Kibble.

He is a firm believer in the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw for it's superior "knock down" power, due to a bigger mushroom, the petals of which are supported by the bonded core.

Experience on culling Hartebeast, with a 300RUM and 180TSX's against his 300 Win with 200 TBBC certainly gave credence to his view.

Ahmed,

Congratulation on your hunt and nice trophies.


Hamdeni

Ahmed
I think they shot your springbok's father. Dirk said it the largest springbok he's ever killed!

Robert,

Dirk has some top quality Springbok in the area. How big was the one they shot?

When are you planning to go back?

Regards,
Ahmed