www.la-rochelle-hunting-lodge.de/

Just returned from La Rochelle Hunting Lodge near Tsumeb. I won their internet raffle for a 7 day hunt with trophy fee for one animal. 2 of my friends went along. We all hunted 1:1 and had a blast. My PH was 20 year old Marius Burger. We spent most of the time in stitches laughing at each others foolishness. The lodge is 5 star and the food was incredible. We ate game every meal. Please consider this outfit if you are planning a trip to Namibia.



This old bull was thin and sickly. He went 49" but he's a real trophy to me. All his teeth were loose and he probably would have died off soon.



This little bugger took a hit from the 9.3x62 in the shoulder and ran 40 yards. He had a 5" horn on one side and was 4" on the other with thick bases. He went Namibian Gold.



A gold medal steinbok who fell after a tough midday stalk.



We looked for this guy for a couple of days before we caught him early one morning. (that's the exit wound you see)



This old cow fell to a shoulder shot with a 285 gr S&B sp from my CZ 550 LUX 9.3x62. I love that rifle !



This old bull gave us a scare. 2 shots in the shoulder and off he went. We thought we lost him, but we retraced our steps and found the blood. He ran 50 yards into the thick stuff and we found him there.



A gold medal guinea fowl with 3" base and a 2" horn ! (actually he's just jackal bait )



Took these guys by the light of the full moon with a borrowed Krico .22 Hornet with a Weaver K6. One of the most fun parts of the hunt. They sure do stink !

We took a side trip to Etosha and saw the fort at Namutoni and lots of oryx and springbok with huge horns. Etosha was great.

Thanks to Marius, Flippy (Phillip), Jan, and Danie for going out of their way to treat us as old friends, not clients.

Thanks to my hunting partners Chobee and Jerry for all the laughs and stories at the table.

Fantastic hunt Eric! I'm happy for you, guy!
Congratulations.

Eric,

Great hunt. Thanks for filing a report (I promise I won't delete this one).

Regards,

Terry

Eric,
The "Sands of the Kalahari" and "Namibian Gold" are cookin' in my kettle, and you have stoked the fire. The asymetry of the "little bugger" qualifies for "Outer Circle" status also, Saeed's club. Good going!

eric;

Nice animals, and excellent photos!

Are those all digital photos? What camera did you (or the photographer) use?

Congratulations on a fine hunt. Well done!

Thanks you all. I use an Olympus 4.0 megapixel digital camera.

Very good Eric!!!
Nice to see that your 9,3 make his job well done
The shooting distances were very long?

Congrats
LG

Eric, this looks so terrific! You seemed to have the best of times!

Is it very dry? On some pictures it almost look desert-like.

Eric, did you see the Pan in Etosha? The herds of Zebra and Blue Wildebeest were so great. We were stopped in the road for almost a half an hour waiting for a heard of Elephant to clear. The area is so dry you wonder how the animials exist. We watched the water point at Okaukuejo for about an hour. The Impala, Zebra, Kudu, Wildebeest and Gemsbok came in by the hundreds. I have pictures of the Impala standing in the pool up to their shoulders.

The springbok was the longest shot at 200 yards.
The gemsboks were at 150 and 100. The duiker and steinbok were around 60 yards and the kudu was about 125 yards.

I was using S&B 285gr factory loads with a Leupold 2-7x Vari X I.

They are having drought conditions there now as well as it being unseasonably warm for winter. The ground was like grey talcum powder but hard and stony beneath the dust.

We were not close to the Pan but we did see herds of everything. The blackface impala were beautiful and gemsbok so long there was snow on the tips of their horns !



This was one of many wounded zebra that the lions got after. Despite the wound it was trotting along quite well and acting cheeky.

I am a booking agent for La Rochelle if anyone is interrested...

Eric,

It was good talking to you and thanks for your help. Well done and very nice photos! I just wish I han't looked at them because now time is going to crawl by 53 days and counting and counting.........

BTW where'd you get that hat?

Superb pictures and... yes 9,3 x 62 is a real winner in Africa. Please leave some game for me because ...this really makes me wanting poing back to Africa!
Congratulations
DIRK from Flanders!

[ 08-23-2003, 23:10: Message edited by: dirk_scout ]

I am thinking about buying a 9,3x62. This story confirms my choice.

Congtatulations Eric, thanks for sharing your hunt and pictures with us. Can't wait till I can make it back !

I enjoyed the pics....thanks a bunch.....congratulations on a very good hunt!!!

test

Vaughn is out hunting now and will be back on the 26th I think his wife said. I am booking with him for this fall as soon as we can work out the details after my knee surgery. I talked with his wife Patrica and the area they hunt NW of Outjo is near where I hunted in 2002 with another outfit. The area is very remote and wild.

A good friend of mine, Vaughan Fulton has an operation in Namibia. Several of the members of AR inclucing myself have hunted with him. He has a wild 440,000 acre conservancy that borders Etosha National Park. I spent 14 days with him last year and so a tremendous amount of game. His area is completely unfenced and wild. Just search for his name in the African hunting section and you will see many posts.

Mike