Namibia plains game hunt
Kalahari Hunting Safaris Namibia
PH: Hendrik Kotze
April 22nd – 29th
Guns:
Mine -Winchester Model 70 - .375 H&H Magnum using the 300 grain Barnes TSX
My buddy - Ruger Model 77 - .300 Win mag using the 175 Barnes LRX

After United changed our flights 11 times since I bought our tickets last August, we finally left LAX at 4:00 PM Friday, April 19th and arrived in Windhoek, Namibia at 9:30 PM on Sunday, April 21st almost 8 hours later than we had planned. After clearing our guns with the Police at the airport, we were the last people to leave the airport and were met there by our Professional Hunter, Hendrik Kotze. Both of us are in our 60s but to our dismay, Hendrik is 29 years old, 6’4”, 220 Lbs and horribly fit.
Hendrik and Martinus



The main farm is two linked 15,000 acre parcels with two more 15,000 acre farms are about an hour away and they can hunt on their neighbor’s adjoining farms. They also have the rights to hunt in the Karas Mountains about 3 hour’s drive from headquarters, along with some concessions in the Komas Highlands area close to Windhoek. They are in the process of game fencing the farms as they have some game breeding projects going. The current fences are about 6 feet tall with chicken wire one meter high to try to keep the jackals out of the sheep herds.
The immediate area around the farm is in the middle of a drought so the farmer’s immediate priority was to reduce the game numbers by culling old and poor animals to save some grass for his livestock and the breeding game animals.

After sighting in our rifles, we cruised the area within a couple of miles of the farmhouse where we culled two springbok and a gemsbok. Most of the shots were from 150 yards to 250 yards and the 375 H&H was the wrong rifle to bring for this open country.

We would spot game from the truck and Hendrik would figure out which way they were drifting and then drive us ahead of them or cross wind where we would then get out and walk anywhere from ¼ mile to a mile in the ankle deep sand, up and down the dunes to cut them off.




The second day we got up at 6:00 AM for breakfast and drove to another farm about an hour away.
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We saw Gemsbok and Springbok in the hundreds
I made a stalk on a couple of Springbok bucks in the bottom of a little valley and lined up on the bigger one on the right. Hendrick then says "shoot both of them" So I shot the bigger one at about 200 yards and then swung on the second one who jumped at the first shot ran about 50 yards and made the mistake of stopping to look at his partner, who was down. I shot him and he went down. I then looked up and the first buck I shot was getting up and struggling to get away so I wound up taking a Texas heart shot at 200+ yards to put him down. My first shot hit him high on the shoulder and passed between his lungs and his spine, just stunning him.


My buddy made a great stalk on a heavy horned Bull Gemsbok and came away with a great trophy with a 200+ yard shot.

We spotted a lone old cow with long horns that I stalked within about 150 yards and put down with another shoulder shot. They just don't have the mass of the bull's horns.

The third day we chased Gemsbok and Springbok while looking for Kudu. Because of the drought the Kudu had moved on to other areas where they had received more rain. Fences don't mean anything to kudu but we did spot one good bull on a neighbor's property and a radio call got us permission to hunt there but he eluded us and all we saw were kudu cows and some younger bulls.
Back on the original property, I made a stalk on an old Gemsbok cow and my shot drifted right, hitting her in the neck at 260 yards. This resulted in a mile long chase where I missed a running shot and eventually dropped her with another long shot that broke her off side shoulder.


Here's what an afternoon's shooting looks like:



Well since we missed almost a whole day due to travel issues we had to make a decision on a 7 hour round trip drive to the Karas Mountains for a shot at kudu or hunt for something else. Neither one of us wanted any more driving so Hendrik offered us a choice of a blue and black wildebeest instead. Since I hadn't taken a black wildebeest and my hunting partner wanted a blue we decided to take him up on it.
We went to the other farm and cruised around looking for wildebeest, along the way we jumped a great steenbok probably 4.5" tall horns both Hendrik and I tried to talk my partner into shooting it but he didn't want to. After about an hour, we spotted a herd of blue wildebeest and worked our way downwind. We crested a dune and were busted by a herd of Black wildebeest who took off and swept the blues up with them as they ran down the valley. Over the next dune we spotted a couple of Black wildebeest with an older bull.


We snuck down wind and crawled over the last dune and saw that he had drifted down to the valley floor. I had an awkward shot of about 150 yards with about a 30 degree down angle. I found his shoulder in the cross hairs and the bullet went down through his shoulder and both lungs. Of course, the rifle recoiled straight back into my sunglasses and gave me another magnum eyebrow.


We spotted another mixed herd of blue and black wildebeest so Hendrik and my hunting partner started a stalk.


He had a 150 yard shot on a blue wildebeest bull




After dropping off the wildebeest to get skinned Hendrik and I were still talking about the monster steenbok that we had seen earlier and gradually my partner realized what he had passed up. He wanted to, so we went back to the area that it was in earlier to see if he was still around. We cruised around about an 80 acre area and spotted numerous steenbok but almost all does and a couple of small bucks. Until we saw the flash of a buck running over a hill with horns sticking up above his ears (>4"). We chased the buck over the hill into a little valley where Hendrik and I saw him go behind a bush. We set up my hunting partner where he could overlook the valley and Martinus moved up wind to see if we could get the buck to move. We spotted the buck sneaking out between the bushes and my partner hit the little buck at about 170 yards.

When we got to him, we could see that he was much better than 4.5". Back at the farmhouse Hendrik measured him at 5 2/8" on the long horn and 5" on the other.


The next day we started out looking for a gemsbok bull and after passing on a number of younger bulls, I found an older guy that I stalked to about 250 yards. Because I was shooting right at long distance I held on his brisket and promptly missed by shooting right under his neck (to the left). He took off over the hill and we chased after him. He took a weird route and doubled back to the crest of the next dune where I had a broadside shot at 150 yards. I put one on his right shoulder and he went down immediately.



If you notice, there's no exit wound. The 300 grain TSX was found under the skin of the left shoulder (facing the camera), it had shed two+ petals and weighed 254 grains.



For the rest of that day and the next we shot 4 more cull gemsbok, all old cows that were in their last season and a couple of cull springbok rams.. You can see the hipbones and ribs on most of these and they all had very worn teeth.




This was a younger cow but she was severely underweight and the left horn was broken in the socket but still attached. When we first saw her, she was spinning in circles and shaking her head and Hendrik asked me to put her down.



This is the cold room during our hunt.


Lots of fun, walking and shooting. The Kotze family was a lot of fun, fine hosts and the food was great.

Thanks for sharing your hunt report.

What was the total animal count between the two of you?
Were there any baboons at the hunting areas?

My next booking should be like this - lots of trigger time and easy on the wallet.

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Frank, Happy for you guys having a great trip. Lots of action! I always love the red sands of Namibia.

Thanks for posting and sharing!

Charlie

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Frank
Thanks for posting the report. Looks like you guys managed to fling a fair amount of lead around!

JCHB

Brings back memories. I have hunted with these folks 3 times. I took my 14 year old grandson there on his first hunt. They took him on the Hunt of a lifetime. Too bad you missed the Khomas hunt, as you would have had a great time there as well. For a first time hunt in Africa I doubt you could make a better choice.

Good show. Well done.

That Steenbok is worth the entire trip!!!

congratulations!

Frank,

Outstanding report and photos.

I made a similar faux pas years ago and took a 375H&H to Namibia as well - it's Africa right?

Nah, Namibia is usually 300 Weatherby country for my taste.

We are headed to Namibia in 6 weeks, the anticipation is excrutiating it will also primarily be a culling excursion - my son with a 300 Win Mag and Yours Truly with my trusty 300 Witherbee.

Thanks for sharing.

Waidmannsheil!

Looks like you guys had a great time...Congrats !

Congrats as well!

Some nice animals- that steenbok is spectacular!

Nice.

Frank;

Well done!!! Looks like you kept quite busy!

Best regards, D. Nelson

Hunted with the Kotze folks in 2009. We were culling too, and had 14 springbok, 2 steenbok and 6 Gemsbok on our license. Great folks and great food, and great lodgings. I took my 338/06, thought I'd need it for the Gemsbok, and my 280R, with 140gr BTs and Ttsx bullets. wanted to see which would work better. Ttsx by a mile. The Bts blew up bad. shot 3 Oryx with the 338/06 and not happy with the results, used the 280 on the next 4, and everything else. The 280 with the 140s great, and everything hit right (couple moved or range miscalled), went right down. Nothing ran away. Found if we put the bullet right behind the shoulder, and about where the leg joins the body, it was drt. Like Fjords friend, got a chance at a great Steenbok, which is in the book. While the Ttsx did well, the BTs tended to blow a baseball size hole on exit, or in the case of the Oryx, not exit and blew up inside. Had a great time. Another guy who was there for the "trophy" hunting, did well also. Heindrick was only 20 at the time, so he's been doing the guiding for a while.

Shoot, in case the numbers look off, I was asked to shoot an additional Gemsbok, which had a twisted horn, but cost me 4 springbok to do so. Ended up with 2 Steenbok, 7 Gemsbok, and 10 Springbok. BIG farm and had to travel pretty substantial distances at times, to get to the hunting area.

Fjold, I enjoyed your report and photos, Thanks for posting.

Good stuff, Frank. Thanks for the report.