quote:

Originally posted by maki:
Here is a belated report on a plains game hunt I did in Namibia this June.

Dates: June 15 departure, July 1 return
Airline: BA & Air Canada. Because of the World Cup, flying directly to Frankfurt and then on to Windhoek was very expensive. For 1/2 the price I could fly Calgary/Vancouver/London/J'burg/Windhoek. The savings more than covered my trophy fees. While it is easy to travel on AC with guns, AC (at least in Calgary) is simply not to be trusted to do their part when traveling with guns through Heathrow. As I understand it, when connecting to a flight in Heathrow, the airline you fly in on is supposed to contact the baggage department at Heathrow. Simple, and the Calgary staff of AC know this, but they can't or won't do it. Fortunately I started flying BA out of Vancouver and they took care of everything. All of the BA people I came in contact with before, during and after this trip were remarkable for being both intellegent and genuinely helpful. I was surprised and impressed.

Outfitter: I contracted the hunt through Christie da Sousa almost 1 1/2 years before the actual hunt. A few months before the hunt, Christie asked me if I minded if he contracted out my hunt to Claude Thorburn (claude@iway.na). This would allow Christie to book a bigger (more profitable) group in my time slot. Christie made it clear that the choice was entirely mine and after checking up on Claude here on AR, I agreed. This was an excellent choice. Claude is a fine hunter and companion and we share similar views when it comes to hunting. Claude is a Believer in the Hunt. WARNING: The White Assed Baboon is on the warpath. He is plotting elaborate revenge on the one responsible for telling me the secret of the "This water smells funny" gag. Unfortunately, Claude is unlikely to be able to summon enough computer know-how to search AR to find the real source of the leak. Since I didn't give up any names, all of those who replied to my inquiries about Claude are now targets.

If/when I return to Namibia, I will contact Claude first, but Christie deserves some credit for his role in this. As the hunt progressed, it was clear that Christie and his wife Madelaine still considered me their cleint and took a personal interest in how things were going. I left with the impression that they were not only concerned with meeting the letter of our agreement, but also providing the type of experience we'd discussed before and after booking.

Animals Hunted: Originally planned for the ussual first time Namibia fair: kudu, oryx, hartebeest, warthog and springbok with enough time booked to do some bird hunting as well. I preffer to avoid game fences, so all the hunting was done on working cattle farms. Before I left Christie mentioned he had access to free ranging eland and we added eland to the plan.

Guns: A .338-06 on a Parker Hale mauser clone shooting 225 gr NPs did most of the work. I carried a CZ 550 in .375 H&H shooting 270 gr Barnes TSX when after eland. Finally, I borrowed Claude's SxS 12 ga. for birds. Made in 1913 by an unkown British maker, it's a fun gun to shoot, and a bit of an education for me. I'd never shot a SxS before, or anything with double triggers. It felt good shooting a gun like that in Africa.

The Hunt:

The first week or so was spent near Gobabis. We hunted 3 different farms in the area, all of them working cattle farms and all of them waging war on the spotted cats. The farm we were staying on was actively live trapping cats. The ones in the photos below were caught the week before I arrived.

Cheetah

Very angry leopard.

While I was there, another cheetah was trapped. The cheetahs will go to a breeding program, the leopard to a Pet'n'Shoot.

After a long and interesting stalk, I got this guy.




We had seen this bull from a mile or so away across a small valley and originally couldn't see him when we got to his side of the valley. We carried on up the ridge, got out foxed by the biggest oryx we saw on the whole trip and then bumped into 3 kudu bulls. The 3 kudus dove over the side of the ridge and into the valley while we scrambled to the edge hoping for a shot. When we to the crest of the ridge, the my kudu came limping out of some bush and overed a shot. We were pretty sure one of the 3 bulls was bigger than this guy, but with the way he kudu was limping, I decided he was the right bull to shoot. At the shot, the other bulls broke cover, and one did indeed look bigger. I didn't care, but Claude was worried. He was determined to get me a good bull and when he saw this guy on the ground, wasn't sure he was up to the standards he had in mind. This was the only animal Claude measured and he was relieved to see it just made his personal hurdle length for this area. I couldn't care less and was hooked on kudu hunting. We went back to the farm and got some help to carry the bull out in pieces. I was glad we didn't get that oryx on the ridge, the recovery would have been a bit of an epic. Being the client, I got the cleanest piece to carry, the head. Here is Claude with his load.



The next day we did some bird hunting and a couple of days later we went to another farm for hartebeest and oryx. This area was over run with hartebeest, and we got this guy in the morning.


That afternoon, we started stalking a warthog when we ran into a herd of oryx. After a couple of hours of being pinned down in the open and a few hundred yards of intermitent crawling, we got this bull late in the afternoon.


I used up a lot of my luck for the trip on this shot. I'd underestimated the amount he was quartering away from us. Fortunately he swung his head at some flies as I shot. What would have been a shot too far forward on the shoulder got him at the base of the neck and exited at the base of the skull and clipped the left horn on the way by.

While we were in a great area for kudu and hartebeest, springbok were hard to come by. I shot clear over this guy's back in the morning and then just plain missed as he looked at us 2 mins later. I'd let my concentration wander that morning and felt pretty bad. Fortunately we caught up with the same old buck at dusk. This time I was concentrating and got him as he quarterd towards us. This is the best digital picture I have unfortunately.



After missing the springbok in the morning, we'd gone in vain pursuit of warthog in the long grass. While doing that, we ran across a kudu bull with a bad limp. I decided to have a go at him, but he was too sneaky for us that afternoon. A couple of days later, we were back for him after a morning of sandgrouse shooting. We found him quickly and after a short stalk had him staring at us over a bush 75m away. The only shot was under the chin, where the head meets the neck. I wouldn't take this shot at unwounded game, but the only reason we were after this guy was because he was already a cripple. He fell to the shot, but I was worried that I missed the spine a bit to the left. He was up and hobbling before we found him (we'd walked by him in the heavy brush). I then missed an easy broadside shot and a Hail Mary through the bush also missed. We started running after him, trying to get to the fence line and a clear shooting lane before he did. It is an indication of just how crippled he was that we beat him to the fence 1/2 mile away. He got over the fence before I could get a shot off. I felt sick, but Claude earned his keep here. We followed and Claude figured he knew which clump of bush the bull would hole up in. I stayed in shooting position while Claude circled up wind. The bull hopped out, I missed again, then settled down and and killed him with the next shot. An unnecessary shot through a bush missed.


Not a trophy for this area. The owner of the farm saw the poor body condition of this bull and didn't charge us anything for it.

The reason he was limping.

I'm embarassed to say I wondered if my scope had taken a bump or something until we got up to the bull. The 2 hits were where I thought they should be. The 2 bad misses (I don't mind missing when firing at a wounded animal through thick brush) where simply a case of me shooting at the whole kudu and not a specific point. Aim small, miss small.

After a little more sandgrouse shooting, we were off to another farm for eland and hopefully warthog.


Now we ran into a bit of a problem and I made a poor choice. The plan Christie and Claude had come up with for eland had fallen through and they were scrambling to come up with another one. In the end they came up with 2 plans and let me decide. One option was to hunt a farm Claude knew. There were plenty of eland, the bush was thick and we'd stay in a nearby game lodge. The other option was to hunt a farm on the Waterburg plateau. This place was far enough back in the sticks that it and the surrounding farms didn't have electricity. There were supposed to be lots of eland in the thick bush, but Claude had never been there. I'd been having so much fun at the first farm that the thought of a lodge was a bit of a let down. I then broke the rule of never paying full price to go on an exploratory hunt. I can't say I really regret making this desicion, but wouldn't do it again. We saw on the drive in that we'd need to be lucky to get a bull.

Thick, thick MMBA with not a hill or termite mound in sight. To make a long story short, we didn't get an eland. There were lots of eland there, and we did see some, but no bulls offered a shot. We did however get a warthog. We were driving along a farm raod when this boar, a sow and 2 little ones ran across the road. We jumped out and after a short stalk, I shot this boar between the shoulder blades at ~10m. I was sure that they would detect us at that range, and was considering a Texas Heart Shot, when the boar decided to bed down for a nap. The boar just put his head down at the shot. When he twitched a bit I shot him again. Claude was incredulous and asked why. I was very patient with the obviously dim witted PH as I explained that the warthog had moved. Actually, I don't trust spine shots at the best of times and my poor first shot on the cripple kudu revived memories of a hartebeest I lost in Tanzania last November. I over reacted and Claude is now sure I am crazy.



He started to think I was a bit nuts a day or two earlier when I passeded on a record book boar. We where in a high seat over looking an improved water hole. I had decided that I didn't want to pay to shoot something in a stock yard, so decided to restrict myself to shots at animals still in the bush. If they got to the clear ground around the water, they where safe. Well, a really big warthog showed up with a sow and piglets, and I still didn't want to shoot it with its head in a trough. I climbed out of the stand and tried to ambush it on its way out. I was seen and the jig was up. I enjoyed mtself and poor Claude was a bit stunned at what he had just watched. He understood why I did it, but was still surprised I had actually done it.

The hunt ended a day later with no eland, but with a lot of laughter and even more really fun hunting. This was my 2nd trip to Africa and I'm already on to planning my 3rd. My wife, who has never dreamed of hunting in Africa, must have seen something she liked in this trip. She had never shown any interest in any of the places I talked about going but has now decided she wants to go to Namibia and would like to hunt a sable. Not sure we can do that on just one trip, which is probably a good thing.

Dean

quote:

Originally posted by army aviator:

GREAT PICTURES AND AN INTERESTING STORY. DO YOU HAVE ANY PICTURES OF THE CAMP?