I had the pleasure to hunt at Roger & Amelia Coomber's outfit Vieranas Safaris in Namibia.
It's a bowhunt outfit, but there is also the possibility to hunt with a rifle as I did.
Dates: 7 Oct - 16 Oct
PH: Micky something (Roger, please, fill in....)
Rifles: Winchester model 1895 in 8,2x53R + DocterSight II red dot sight; Mauser m/98 "Original" in .30-06 + Pecar Berlin 4-10x40 scope
Ammo: Handloaded Nosler AccuBond 200grs; Norma Alaska 180grs

Roger and Amelia's place was precisely as advertised: a cosy family run outfit, a true oasis in the midst of a (semi-)desert.
I had the pleasure of meeting ROger last year in Zim when he took buffalo with a bw. At that time we discussed the possibility of hunting at Roger's and as luck has it, my friend booked a bowhunt and I was able to join him.
Roger being a keen bowhunter hosted Juha with the other bow in the blind, while I hunted with a pleasant chap called Micky (no, he is not Irish. That's a pity as I have a whole bunch if Irish jokes in my repertoire.)

I took the flight via Munich and Joberg combining Finnair and SAA. Surprisingly, Finnair was unable to break my rifle case, but I suppose there is a first time for everything.
Also the airlines were able to check my bags all the way through which meant that I did not need to pass through SAPS in Joberg - thanks to Roger & Amelia for digging out this little piece of useful info for me.

Well, to cut a long story short, Namibia is certainly the prime destination for hunting PG. Especially zebra, oryx and giraffe are abundant!
On my list the prime game was oryx.



The shooting distance was rather short: we were sitting on top of a koppje glassing a couple of herds and a big bunch slowly approached us. The big bull came last, and by that time a mature cow was already sniffing the air in the most suspicious manner so I was lucky to get a good shot.
OK, not perfect as the shot was too low breaking the nearside leg of the oryx, so I jacked up a new round in the chamber and kept shooting. I got in another shot a bit too far back but this made the oryx lay down enabling us to approach and me to put in a finisher.
Good result for the start of the safari!

Next up was red hartebeest.
We had to drive an hour in the morning to get to a neighbor's ranch where there were plenty of hartebeest and other game, especially warthog.
Soon enough we spotted on and made a very careful approach - proved there were two standing in the shrub.
After a most careful approach we were but some 40 yards from the animals when suddenly the bull stepped out catching us off guard. I was lying down on my stomach and was unable to get the rifle in line, so the bull jumped. Fortunately he stopped and I got in a shot @ about 100yds.
Proved the shot was not good as this time the bullet went through both back legs of the hartebeest. What ensued was a pretty long tracking job, of course, which ended in Micky putting in a shot from his 9,3x62.
I daresay I was pretty pissed at the time, but the truth is that the PH was doing his job. It's his call whether a shot is needed, and if the client does not cock up his shots then the PH's main task is to find the animals and ask if the client is thirsty....



We also spotted this rare femaly nyala!



Frankly, another reason for Micky to make the back-up shot was my poor performance on zebra which he tracked the entire evening and the following morning ending up losing the animal.

Only after the fourth day were we able to determine that my rifle cannot stand the heat!
The gun has been customized to take-down, and apparently the receiver and the barrel expand differently in heat. This leads to the barrel becoming loose from the frame. When cold, the gun is solid. So the visits to the shooting range in the morning revealed nothing also suggesting that my shooting was OK. Also we really paid attention to me shooting as calmly as possible; Micky had already made the notion that "You are very fast with the action" - which I am (one of the lever gun's fortes for sure).
The last nail in the coffin was not, however, the second poor shot on zebra @ about 90yds (which we also ended up losing) but the gut shot on kudu. As luck has it, the shot was quartering and the bullet hit the lungs so we found the kudu dead in the morning.



I also suspected that my illness may have been a contributing factor. I got a flu and had to lay in bed one day with a fever, but the performace on the range and my calm performance with the kudu convinced me of the gun trouble.
So I took to Roger's beautiful .30-06 Mauser whose scope kept hitting me in the forehead.
However, this resulted in the resurrection of my reputation of one-shot kills well earned in Zim the year before!

First off was this springbok @ 100yds.



And the another oryx, shot @ about 80yds in rather thick cover.
This shot also proved the viability of the scope as shooting aid: the oryx was standing under a tree mostly covered with branches, so Micky told me to aim low. Only with the help of the scope was I able to find a clear path for the bullet hitting the top of the heart.
I daresay that also the shot on springbok would have been nigh on impossible but for the scope: the red dot is 3.5MOA but fact is, the max. shooting distance is about 100yds unless the animal hunted is big like European Moose, as the dot simply covers too much of the animal making precise shot placement difficult, indeed. Fast it is, and good at short distances but not for African plains game, I'm afraid.



Meanwhile, ROger and Juha had been mega-bored in the blind ending up mostly shooting baboons....
They managed, however, to harvest a couple of odd oryx: one had but one one horn and the other had two hooves on one back foot.



All in all, despite the gun problems and me falling ill (and of course the not one but two wounded and lost zebra) the trip was a success, indeed!
Roger, Amelia and Micky bent over backwards to make Juha and I feel welcome and comfortable, and also to ensure a successfull hunt.
A big thanks to Roger for his understanding and sporty attitude with my atrocious shooting; and for borrowing me his rifle thus ensuring a bang-up job (pun intended) on the rest of the trip!

Hope to see you soon again.

- Lars/Finland

Congrats- Roger and Amelia are great folks. I especially like that shirt Roger has on!

Great hunt!
I've got to make it to Namibia one of these days soon..

Great report, thanks for the read.

Thanks for sharing!
Great hooks on that springbok!

Great report and pics! Congratulations!

Very nice, great photos and sounds like it was a great time.

Mike

A good scope sighted rifle is always a good idea and not just for Africa. Glad it work out in the end, thanks for posting your report.