My hunt of a lifetime started two years ago. I was at the Detroit chapter Safari Club annual dinner meeting. I bid on and won a week's hunting to Gauss Hunting Namibia much to my suprise. We were to leave that fall, but 9-11 happened and there were no flights of any kind. A quick call to Gracy International,1-800-299-8558, which are great people to deal with, got a full refund and an opening to have the flight rescheduled anytime I wanted. Next year rolls around, I get a secone week of hunting, and I finally get the chance of my lifetime to go hunt in Africa. I still don't fully believe all that happened. We, my hunting companions and I left Detroit to Atlanta, and then on to Cape Town S.A. From there on to Windhoke Namibia, where we were met at the airport with the outfitter PH Hagen Eggert, and Hartmut Freyer. Both of which I was to find to be some of the most enjoyable and knowledgeable men I have ever had the good opportunity to meet.
We went into Windhoek and to a grocery store to get supplies for me as I am a diabetic and have restrictions on what I can eat. They had assured me that there would not be any problems at all, and they were right. I was led in the store by Hagen's wife as all labels are in German. I was allowed to get anything that I wanted, no questions asked. Then after a short lunch we drove out to the first of four farms that we hunted. The first farm is Hartmut's uncle's place. We arrived at the ranch in the early morning and were showed our private bedrooms. We stowed our gear and were asked if we would like to hunt the afternoon. Are you kidding? Would we ever.Joe, my hunting buddy, and I went out in the bush on the back of a Toyota Land Cruise, with a very coumfortable seat on the back of it. You sit up high and have no obstructions blocking your view. We went several kilometers just to get to the first fence gate, not the end of his property. We eventually came across a good herd of Springbok, which Joe took a very good one. As time was running out for that afternoon we started back to the farm house. When we arrived back at the farm house where workers took on the job of processing the Springbok. They have a walk in cooler and all the necessary equipment to take care of all the processing work, including excellent caping of the animals. We went to our rooms to get cleaned up, and then to the main house to sit at the main dning room table with the owners of the place. To say it was a great meal would be an understatement. My mouth still waters thinking about all of the meals that we were served during our stay. A four star restaurant could not of done better.
The next morning we again had a great feast of a breakfast and then off to hunting again, darn. We drove out into the prairie and fields to see what was available. We drove past what seemed to me good quality animals, but were told too small, "joung ones". We split up and went on foot. After an hour we started a stalk on a good Zebra. After a game with some Baboons we finally got into shooting distance to the Zebra on the side of another hill. The P.H. told me to wait and catch my breath before taking the shot. I used the shooting sticks and made a good shot on the Zebra which made one barrel roll downhill and never got up.The rifle and amunition that I was using was a 7 MM Magnum with 165 gr. Trophy Bonded bullets, and a Leupold 4X12 scope set on 9 power. After a 20 minute walk over to the Zebra we started the picture taking session. I can still see the stripes on that beautiful Mountain Zebra, fantastic. I can still see the clear blue skies and hills where he was taken, the brush, the Acacia trees, the smells and the light breeze. Hartmut allowed me to stay with the Zebra while he went to bring the truck to where I was. Was I ever suprised to see the truck with everyone else on it including another Zebra that Joe had taken. The P.H. and the trackers do all of the work, but if you want to lend a hand they will gladly accept it in getting the animals into the truck. We left that wonderful and peaceful setting for the trip back to the farm house. All of this was in the first few hours of the first morning of hunting in Africa. On our way back to the house we came across a very fine Oryx, which later measured out at 209.5 cm, or 41.14 inches. I took that Oryx with the 7MM Magnum. I can not believe how tough those animals are. My first shot was point on in the right shoulder, and it acted like I never hit him. A follow up shot in the same place put him down. Now we have what seemed to me to be a big problem. Where to put the Oryx in a Toyota Land Cruiser with two Zebras, two hunters, two P.H's and two trackers already in it. Well, on top of the Zebras of course. Now we finally started back to the farm house, where all of the animals were processed by the workers. We retired to our rooms to get cleaned up for lunch. I still can't believe all of the game and abundance of it over there. Lunch over there is the big meal of the day. What a lunch it was. After a nap, after all it is hard work to pull the trigger that many times in one day, we went out for the afternoon hunt, where Joe took his Oryx with his .300 Magnum. We called it a day after that, we still had three more ranches to hunt and another 8 days of hunting to go.The P.H.'s are Gauss Hunting Namibia, S.A. Their web sight is WWW.Gausshunting.com. I have not met a better bunch of hunters in my life. They are very knowledgeable and courtious to the guests. All of my dietary as well as any other needs were quickly met without any questions. All meals were home made from scratch. We sat at the main dining table with the owners at all meals. They have an abundance of game,in one herd alone we counted 107 Black Wildebeest in it. More to follow.

Good for you Mike338! I look forward to reading about the rest of your hunt. Oh, and the most asked question... do you have pics?

Mike,

Congratulations, sounds like a great hunt. We will be awaiting the next installment of the story.

You have a typo on the website:

www.gausshunt.com

Regards,

Terry

[ 10-23-2002, 02:08: Message edited by: T.Carr ]

Mike338,

Your post got me to thinking. I sat next to a gentleman named Mike from Detroit on the flight from Atlanta to Cape Town. He was on his way to Gauss Ranch in Namibia, August 22nd, would that be you.??

cjw3
Aka Carl

cjw3, if you sat next to an older grey haired heavy man who sat in the window seat, then it was me. I can't say enough good about these hunters. If I started getting short winded, Hartmut just stoped and waited for me to catch my breath. Not like Wyoming, Montana, or Canada trips. I took 9 game animals on this trip, and 7 measured in the Namibian Gold catagory. You could not of even dreamed of a trip like that.

Terry, thanks for the correction on the web address. It would of been a shame if it was not corrected, thanks again, Mike. Yes I have lots of pictures, if I can figure out how to post them, Mike.

Mike338,

It was you, setting on the window on the exit row upstairs. Good to hear your hunt went well.

My hunt with John Kolver Safaris was fantastic. John has a wonderful place to hunt and we stayed in his brand new lodge. We saw animals every morning and evening from the deck.

I shot 7 animals and my hunting buddy shot 8 animals. My Gemsbok, Impala, and Springbok will score very well and Troy�s blue wildebeest, Hartebeest and Gemsbok will make it as well.

We were hunting on day 3 and spotted a black backed jackal. John said if we could kill it he would give both of us a free Mt. Reedbuck. Well my hunting buddy hit him with the first shot. John could not believe it, neither could I, it was way out there. Later we returned to the same location and put a laser range finder on it. 424 yards, damn fine shot!

After the hunt we traveled to Pilanesberg National Park for two day with the camera. What a great time to have a PH as a personal guide in the park. Wow, could he spot the animals. The last morning in the park we found the lions still bedded down. They were about 35 feet off of the road. Very impressive!

Kind regards
cjw3

I�ll try to post a picture, hope it works!

cjw3,

May I make a sugestion? Why not open a new thread in this forum about your hunt (with pictures)?

Mike,

Here is how I post pictures:

I'm no computer geek, but here are the basics.

1. Open an account with www.imagestation.com
[it's free].

2. Download pictures from your computer to imagestation.

3. Open a picture on imagestation

4. Put your cursor on the picture and RIGHT CLICK

5. A box will open up, LEFT CLICK on "Properties"

6. Another box will open up and you will see "Address: [URL]" to the right of that is the info you need. It will be very long, starting with "http://" and ending with ".jpg"

7. Put you cursor at the beginning of that address and LEFT CLICK AND HOLD and DRAG until the entire address is highlighted.

8. Put your cursor on the highlighted info and RIGHT CLICK. A window opens up, LEFT CLICK on "Copy".

9. Now type your message on AR and where you want the picture, LEFT CLICK on the "IMAGE" box, its at the bottom, to the right of the Instant Graemlins.

10. A window will open up, you need to put your cursor in the space in the window and LEFT CLICK, then delete the "http://" that is in the space. Now RIGHT CLICK (while your cursor is in the space). A window will open, then LEFT CLICK on "Paste".

[If you don't delete the "http://" that is in the space, when you Paste the URL from imagestation, it already has an "http://" at the beginning of the address and the picture won't post with two "http://" at the beginning of the address.]

11. Then LEFT CLICK on "OK".

In the alternative, you can email some pictures to me and I will post them.

Regards,

Terry

cjw3 glad you to had a great hunting experience over there. It sure is different seeing animals all day rather than to look all day for a animal. The abundance of quality game over there is unreal to say the least. You have my E-mail keep in touch.
#4421 T. Carr. I will try to post the pictures for everyone to see. As I shot 9 animals and 7 went gold I am not sure I could ever get a better hunt ever. I will try to tell the story and not leave anything out, even the 8 foot Cobra!!! Scared the tarr out of all of us. Thanks for the information, as I am new to the computer, I might have to get the daughter to help. Mike.

Congratulations mike338 and also to you cjw3.
Look foward to the pictures!
cjw3 I spent 4 days in Piliansburg but we never did see the cats. I can't wait to see your pictures as well!

amsogreg,

The lions 2 males and 5 females were nothing short of impressive. After shooting about half a roll of film I realized how close they were. The only thing between us was the truck door an my camera, so I turned to John and asked him how hungry the lions looked. His reply was not very, but I will leave my foot off of the brake just in case!

Tcarr thanks for the instructions on posting photos.

I'll post as soon as I can

Regards
cjw3

cjw3,
I can't wait.
As for the PH with his foot off the brake...
My wife was manning the camera when this little fellow decided he didn't like the cut of someones hair!



And this was a couple seconds later