Outfit: Sebra Hunting Adventures - Jan Du Plessis
Location: Kamanjab, Namibia
Dates: July 25 - August 4, 2008
Animals Hunted: Kudu, gemsbok, zebra, red hartebeste, warthog
Animals seen but not hunted: giraffe, springbok, klipspringer, steinbok, duiker, leopard, baboon, jackal and probably others I can't recall at the moment.
Firearms: Remington 700 CDL (30-06)(me), Rem. 700 BDL (30-06)(my son), Rem 700 CDL (300 Win mag)(Jeff), Rem Mountain Rifle (.270)(Jeff's son). No, we aren't Remington employees.
Ammo: Barnes Triple Shock 180 gr. for the 30-06 and, I believe, for the 300 Win Mag.
Travel Agent: Kathi Klimes
Booking Agent: Rick Wilks

In early 2007, a friend and I began planning an African hunting trip, something I had dreamed of since reading Outdoor Life stories about kudu as a teen in the 1970's. In any event, for reasons of personal preference, we both wanted a free range, unfenced hunt for naturally occurring plains game populations (i.e. no put and take animals) with someone who was willing to hunt hard and, if needed, hike far. (I'll save the road hunting for after I break my hip or the discectomy goes awry.)
Given our modest budgets and desire to take our teenage sons, we settled on Namibia. After further research, facilitated largely through the NAPHA website and numerous emails, we narrowed the list and began contacting references and doing other research. Eventually, we settled on Sebra Safaris run by Jan Du Plessis though we found other outfits that I suspect are also very good. Namibia seems to have no shortage of good operations.
Without wading too far into the high fence debate, the subjective aesthetic of a hunting experience is critical to me. For me, that aesthetic rests largely on being in nature, a connection to the natural world and the sense of fair chase born of my upbringing hunting on the mountainous, unfenced public lands of the western U.S. for wild game. A high fence and regularly stocked populations of game animals are, to me, the antithesis of this. To others, the presence of the fence makes no difference to the values they find important. To each his own. I know or have heard that some high fence operations don't stock but how I am to know, from half a world away, who does and doesn't? And, in any event, the fence is still there.
Our primary quarry was kudu so (when we booked the trip in early 2007) we picked northern Namibia to hopefully avoid the effects of rabies further south. Instead, we got the effects of drought that had impacted kudu populations in the year after we booked the trip. While a concern to us, that goes with hunting. It made the kudu hunting more challenging and, frankly, that much more satisfying. And, truth be told, it was still not nearly as hard as finding a big bull elk. For being drought stricken, the wildlife populations seemed very abundant and healthy to my inexperienced eye. The region has since had record rainfall.
We chose the Frankfurt route to Windhoek as we had a hard time finding anyone who hadn't lost luggage or patience in Joberg. There seem to be two options for dealing with the 11 hour layover in Frankfurt, sightseeing or a day room. We chose the sightseeing option and took a local train (30 minutes) to the neighboring town of Mainz, looked around its historic district and enjoyed a great meal at a traditional German restaurant across from the local hunting store (also in the historic district). This kept us awake but hammered, though I slept well on the flight to Windhoek.
Jan picked us up in Windhoek and drove us five hours to his ranch south of Kamanjab in the Kunene region of northwest Namibia. The accommodations were terrific, the food (prepared by Jan's wife Marisje) was always fantastic and the hilly countryside beautiful. The du Plessis were wonderful hosts.
Jan retained the services of a freelance hunting guide, Francois, who was fairly young, to guide one father/son group while Jan guided the other. Francois did a fantastic job, worked hard, showed a great knowledge of the game and was a fun guy to get along with. Both Jan and Francois did a good job of interacting with our teenage sons as well.
After zeroing the rifles, we headed out for the first afternoon of hunting. I suppose like everyone, the first experience with seeing abundant African wild game is particularly memorable. We saw springbok, gemsbok, kudu and warthog within a couple hours’ time. That evening, we encountered a herd of zebra that I elected not to pursue as I was debating whether to hunt zebra or red hartebest.
That night, I repented of my decision not to pursue the zebra and redemption came the following morning as we again encountered several zebra groups. We chose to stalk one group, which paid off with a good opportunity from 140 yards. The 180 grain Triple Shock passed completely through the forward rib cage and the stallion collapsed after a few steps. So far, this seemed pretty easy, particularly since Jan showed that his Mercedes Unimog was capable of reaching the downed animal on a steep slope that saved us from packing it out.

We had been told that mountain zebra were difficult and some of the other species we were interested in were comparatively easy so I mistakenly believed this would be a pushover. Events quickly proved me wrong, an all too common occurrence in my life.
After taking the zebra to the skinning shed, we learned that Jeff had also bagged a zebra.
That afternoon, we hunted gemsbok. They seemed to always be going somewhere fast or about to go somewhere fast. We saw a number of groups but could never get close to a bull. My son almost got a shot at a nice cow by a water hole but it never presented a clean shot.
We hunted gemsbok again the following day and again saw quite a few but never were able to get a shot at a good bull. I suspect that their having been hunted for a few months also made them that much warier. They had apparently got the memo and took it to heart.
I was beginning to wonder if there were any decent bulls left that would stand still long enough for someone with my limited stalking skills to get a shot; however, given the number of animals I shouldn’t have been worried. I also found, and perhaps this is a weakness of a first time Africa hunter, that the goal of getting a certain number of animals in a certain time can create artificial time pressures that distract from the experience. You begin to calculate how many days left to get certain species and worry if you are not “on scheduleâ€. Schedules, I concluded, should be saved for the office.
The next morning was more of the same; however, after lunch we went on a long hike and jumped a nice bull out of a large draw. We quickly worked down the ridge to cut it off and, surprisingly, it stopped at 200 yards. Apparently, it wasn’t as far up the learning curve as the other gemsbok we had seen – and never would be. One shot put it down. The bullet stopped under the far hide. A gemsbok was one of my two priority animals so I felt the pressure was off.

The next priority was for my son to get a gemsbok. Had we been able to get a good shot at a gemsbok cow before my bull, he would have shot. In fact, he had his rifle up on the shooting sticks several times but each time the animal would move just before the trigger was pulled. Later that afternoon, things would change. We saw two nice cows on a hillside. Jan set up the shooting sticks and the first one left according to the script all the others had followed. I assumed the next would quickly follow suit but it stayed just long enough for my son to shoot. It fell in its tracks at about 100 yards. A great day for us both.

We next concentrated on kudu. Kudu was the animal I had always dreamed of since I was a teen. We were told this would be tough due to the effects of the drought. Indeed, it was. We tried hiking, glassing, sitting at waterholes – all with little fruit but a lot of great memories including a pack of baboons at 100 yards, groups of young kudu bulls, jackals, klipspringers, hyraxes, more zebra and gemsbok.
On the third kudu day, after a morning at a waterhole, Francois, my son and I hiked several miles and glassed. We then went back to the base of a canyon where Jan and I had seen several mature kudu bulls the day before but could not get a shot. We encountered a group of bedded gemsbok and then a group of kudu cows. After counting about 10 cows and not seeing any bulls, we were about to give up on the group when a mature bull stepped out. They were about 300 yards out and slowly moving away so we needed to skirt a hillside to get within range. Finally, Francois set up the bipod and I shot at about 225 yards, and missed. I shot again and hit the bull but it ran off. After several immediate kills this was disheartening and I worried I might have just wounded the animal and could lose it. Francois did a great job of spotting the shot and we jumped the bull within 100 yards or so of where I first shot. A shot through the neck finished what poorly executed prior shots hadn’t.

The next order of business was red hartebeste. The next day, we traveled to another ranch close to Kamanjab and spent the morning and early afternoon crawling on hands and knees through thorns to sneak up on the groups of hartebeste we could see wandering through the mopane. Although Karl was on the shooting sticks several times, the bull would always seem to exit in a different direction and each group would move off. I decided that wisdom was the better part of valor and began to let Jan and Karl do most of the thorn crawls while I monitored their progress. In the afternoon, we encountered a herd of hartebeste by a waterhole. Jan and Karl snuck over an embankment. After some time waiting for the bull to step out from behind a bush, Karl shot. Again, the animal went down immediately but began to get up. Karl stood up and shot a second time, offhand. The second shot was within three inches of the first and both could have been used as an exhibit in The Perfect Shot. The hartebeste hadn’t taken a step from the first shot and I began to realize that Karl should be backing me up instead of the reverse.

The relative difficulty of the first kudu made hunting them that much more appealing so I decided to now focus again on kudu, hoping for a bigger bull but perfectly happy if we hunted hard and didn’t get one. We again hunted for several days, covering a lot of ground on foot and glassing and stalking a number of kudu but never seeing a significantly bigger one or, when we did, not getting a shot opportunity. On one morning, we encountered a group of warthogs including a nice boar. Karl took it with another dropped-in-its-tracks shot.

On the afternoon of the second to the last day, Francois decided to wait at a waterhole where he had spotted several large kudu tracks. At 4 pm, two bulls wandered in but neither was big enough. As dusk was advancing and we were ready to give up, another bull suddenly appeared. Francois gave me the go ahead and I took what I felt to be a steady shot but the kudu bolted at the shot. We followed it about 75 yards finding blood but no bull and the approaching darkness making tracking more difficult without a heavy blood trail. Francois decided it was better to come back in the morning rather than take a chance of pushing it farther. I, again, felt sick at the thought of wounding the animal and wondered what was up with my shooting. The next morning we returned with Francois, Jan and the tracker, Alfonse. Alfonse was amazing and followed impressions in sandy ground dimpled by the passing of all kinds of animals. He found blood again and we soon closed on the kudu. He had died about 400 to 600 yards from the waterhole. During the night, jackals ate one eye and started to eat the skin on his belly. The meat, fortunately, was still good. The kudu was magnificent.

After taking the kudu to the skinning shed, we spent the rest of the last of our eleven hunting days dove hunting at a waterhole that wasn’t used for big game hunting and taking a last drive around the countryside hoping to spot a jackal. Just after the sun had set, a leopard jumped out of the tall grass and ran in front of the Unimog. My son jumped for his rifle and I jumped to save the leopard and what was left of my depleted bank account. The leopard quickly disappeared, a wonderful end to the hunting. It didn’t hurt either that Delta upgraded us to Business Class on the return flight across the Atlantic.
We had a great time. Between the two fathers and two sons, we took two zebra, three kudu, four gemsbok (two bulls and two cows), two bull hartebeste, two warthogs and one springbok. It was everything we had hoped for and dreamed of.

Very Nice!

Great story and super pics. I'm also shopping for a true 'free range' hunt in Africa for PG and Namibia looks like the best choice. Thanks aganin for a great hunt report!!!!

Congrads nice trophies

Jan is a great guy and a fantastic PH. Glad you had a great experience with him.

Thanks for the report.

What were the camp facilities like?

Could you post several pictures of the camp.

I am trying to talk my wife into going to Africa, I need all the help I can get.

H Kittle

quote:

Originally posted by h kittle:
Thanks for the report.

What were the camp facilities like?

Could you post several pictures of the camp.

I am trying to talk my wife into going to Africa, I need all the help I can get.

H Kittle

Go to www.sebrahunt.com. Then go to Namibia !

H Kittle,
The camp facilities were very nice, better than I expected but not lavish if you're expecting a resort type setting. The website (sebrahunt.com) has better photos than I have. The food was very good. We had daily laundry service. The weather at the time we went was cool to warm in the day, chilly at night but never what I consider cold. I believe Jan can arrange side trips to Etosha National Park, a local Himba village and probably other places as well. Jan's place is about a four or five hour drive from Windhoek and he picked us up in Windhoek. I found him very responsive to my email requests for information. His contact information is on his website.

Very nice report. Beautiful Kudu there.

High Desert,

One could not have had a better hunt in Africa then to have one's son and hunting buddy with him... Great memories and bonding forever...
Tell your son good shooting...


Mike

Congratulations on a successful and enjoyable hunt.

great report. gotta love namibia

Thanks for the post. Sounds like a great hunt. Myself and three others are booked with Jan through Rick for June of next year. Always encouraging to hear good reports as this is a first for all and probably a once in a lifetime trip. Hope you didn't shoot them all!

Recently, some have requested information on dipping/packing/shipping from Namibia to the U.S. so I thought it might be helpful to provide this addition to my report. I just met with my taxidermist (Merlin Anderson in Salt Lake City) to look at the trophies he recently received from the above hunt. A substantial percentage of his business is Africa related. He noted that the preparation of the skulls, etc. and the packing was very good, some of the best he has seen. It all seemed to arrive in good condition. The dipping and packing was done by Retoma Taxidermy in northern Namibia. The Namibian shipping agent was Pam Foerster and the U.S. expediter was Hunter International. All of the foregoing were resposive to my inquiries. The fees were a bit higher than I anticipated though that may be due to a combination of my taking additional trophies and not really focusing on what those charges would be ahead of time.

I just want to echo the above report and say that the hunting with Jan is still wonderful.. My wife and I hunted with him and his wife Marisje from 4-14 June. We took a Kudu, Springbok, Zebra, Gemsbok and two Warthogs. The lodging is very comfortable and the food fantastic. I also wanted a free range hunt with lots of stalking and this trip fit the bill perfectly. If you want to walk then Jan will take you as far as you are capable of going and throw in plenty of climbing in between. The country is really nice and there are plenty of rock outcrops to facilitate spot and stalk hunts. We booked through Rick Wilks too and found both Jan and Rick to be very responsive. One thing I will say is that the shots were longer out in the open semi-desert of Namibia than what I expected. My longest shot was at 244 yards but could have easily made some of 300 if I had been able to get a clear opening. If you go my advice is the same everyone always gives here; get in shape and practice, practice, and then practice some more. I've got a couple of other hunts I want to do in Zimbabwe and then I'm heading back to hunt with Jan and Marisje again. For the money it is a great bargain and fun hunt.

Regards,

Don