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This was to be our first hunt of the 2015 season and we headed to Namibia.


Outfitter / PH – Khomas Highland Hunting Safaris, Philip Hennings – 6.800 h non-fenced game / cattle farm being part of a 168.000 h hunting concession. Terrain varied from flat open plains and dried out riverbeds to rugged mountains and deep valleys. The only fences were stock fences and even the boundries to the neighbor and public roads were unfenced. At one point in the hunt we were 13 kms from the farm in the mountains and not a single high fence!






















Rifles / Shotguns – Krieghoff .375 H&H shooting Norma 300 grain Oryx loads / CZ .30-06 shooting Barnes Vor-TX168 grain loads / Browning 12 bore and Browning 20 bore shooting Remmington 6s and a borrowed .22 LR and Remmington rim fire loads.







Game hunted / taken – kudu bull, red hartebeest bull, jackal, Egyptian goose, red bill teal, dove and pigeon and a cull Braman bull

Game seen – kudu, oryx, blue / black wildebeest, mountain zebra, warthog (lots), springbok, red hartebeest, duiker, steenbok, baboon, jackal and dassies (more on them later!)



We have hunted in Namibia every year since 2006, sometimes even twice a year, for plainsgame and for the wingshooting. This year we booked with a new outfitter / PH and hunted a – for us – new area, the Khomas Highlands with Philip Hennings, specifically targeting kudu and red hartebeest plus wingshooting. It was a 5 day break in Namibia with a couple of days in Johannesburg.






Thursday 23rd April we flew SAA Lagos – Johannesburg and spent a couple of days in Joburg. Because it was Joburg we


a) got mugged, stabbed, raped, shot and had the car stolen or


b) took in some sights and culture including the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, saw Swan Lake at the Joburg Theatre and dined in great restaurants and enjoyed great wines


Here are a couple of clues …










Oh and we also took the Gautrain from OR Tambo into Sandton – quick, efficient, reasonably priced and secure.


Sunday we flew up to Windhoek and were met at the airport by Philip Hennings, our PH. At 25, what Philip lacks in years he makes up for in energy and enthusiasm, planning, thinking ahead, asking questions and leaving nothing to chance. He knows the farm like the back of his hand and has a good team of driver, tracker and skinners working with him. He has just written his Dangerous Game exams and is awaiting the results.

We transferred to the farm – an hour and a bit drive time - settled in and were hunting in the afternoon – after checking the rifles at the house range.

After a few hours driving, walking and glassing, we spotted a shootable kudu from the bakkie and began a slow stalk but we lost the bull in a valley. However, we soon spotted a group of hartebeest bulls and some black wildis and switched our attention to the hartebeest.

The bulls, some dozen plus, walked and grazed slowly up the valley side towards us and when one of the bulls saw us we were forced to sit down / squat low and still in a stand-off with the one bull for what seemed like an age. When a second bull walked up the slope at 200 m, I took the shot, sitting, half twisted and resting the rifle on the PH’s left shoulder (not a shot often practiced at the range!). The red hartebeest dropped to the shot.

Another bull ran up the slope and stopped between the downed bull and ourselves, I was sorely tempted to shot a second but resisted and we stood up, giving our position away, and the bulls took off.










Our first afternoon out and we had a solid hartebeest in the salt. I was well pleased.


Next up was kudu! The following day we put in the hours and the miles – both on the bakkie and on foot, into the mountains and valleys. We saw some 22 kudu that morning including a herd of 8 kudu led by an old bull with only one horn.

As Anja wanted to try for a trophy bull with 2 horns, I went after the ‘unicorn’ bull but somehow the herd disappeared into thin air – as kudu so often do!

Towards last light, Philip spotted a sole bull across the valley and began a stalk with Anja, whilst myself and the tracker drove away down the hill. At about 120 m the kudu, seeing Anja and Philip, bolted but stopped at 180 m to look back, quartering away. Anja put in a text book shot with her .30-06 and after a shot dash the bull went down and was hers. A good old bull with a big thick rutting neck and mane.











We loaded the kudu and then enjoyed a fantastic Namibian sunset with G&T’s, toasting the kudu, the huntress and the PH.





The next couple of days were taken up looking for the ‘unicorn’ kudu bull and wingshooting. The farm has a number of large dams with geese and duck and we spent some fun hours shooting geese and red billed teal and white back ducks. We also enjoyed a couple of late afternoons shooting pigeon and dove in a woody glade below one of the dams. There were a few sandgrouse out and about in the mornings but not in numbers to warrant a dedicated sandgrouse shoot. It was more like casual, fun wingshooting as opposed to concentrated wingshooting. But great fun nevertheless.


























And then we turned our attention to dassies! I have for years wanted to shoot a Rock Hyrax and thought that a full mount dassie would be a fun addition to the trophy room. There are a number of dassie colonies on the farm not far from the farmhouse and we set about hunting them.

Easy, out early when the hyrax would be out warming themselves in the early morning sun; slowly stalk in to 40 m with Philip’s .22, a solid rest off of a sandbag on a rock and a dassie in the bag!

Anything but ! We were out early the next day and in position, 45m, well concealed behind some rocks with a solid sandbag rest. The dassies were out sunning themselves in the early morning rays. A 43m shot uphill at 45degrees and a x4 scope, but we just could not hit one! We started shooting over them – sighting straight at them - then we adjusted but still could not get one! One of us would shoot – and miss – the dassies would disappear and then after 15 minutes heads would start to show between the cracks and shadows amongst the rocks and we would shoot again.








Over lunch the discussion revolved around shooting uphill and downhill, .22LR ballistics, lines of sight, curved trajectories, slant ranges, formulas Rh=Rs cos etc! It had become a ‘dassie disaster’!








We checked the rifle at 50m and it was shooting fine and on our final morning we were out and in position, behind a large covering rock at 7.30 a.m. with the plan being to take alternate shots until we succeeded.

The long and short was that dassies have more lives than cats and we did not get our dassie! It is now one of our ‘bucket list’ things! A large male dassie full mount!






Odds and sods – here some pictures of other things we saw and did …
















Walking and stalking for a good warthog, we came across and old Braman bull. Philip mentioned that they had thought that this particular bull had died a couple of years ago. Blind in one eye, worn teeth and beyond breeding at 15 years old or thereabouts, Philip asked me whether I would shoot the bull with my .375. It being a long 4 day holiday weekend a lot of people would come out from the city to the countryside and Philip would be able to slaughter the bull and sell the meat. A headshot at 15m dropped the big, old bull and we then proceeded to load 1 ton of Braman bull onto the Toyota and drive back to the farm. The 300 grain Norma bullet did not exit and was recovered.












I would take the hide for my sister as a present as she has often said that she would love a red cow hide for her house.

We also saw a number of good steenbok and duiker on the property and could have taken a great steenbok ram had we wanted to hunt him.

The farmhouse / lodge was clean and comfortable with a great main room and bar area. We braaied a couple of nights and enjoyed venison and good red wines. I would say it was good 3 star accommodation with a guest house where we stayed with its own sitting area and bar plus a private ‘bush TV’ for the evenings.















The farm – with no high fences at all – offers excellent fair chase mountain hunting for kudu and Hartmann’s zebra and other game. We had a great hunt in great surroundings with a very competent, young PH and his team.


Thursday morning we settled bills and called by the taxidermy on route to the airport to collect a couple of bird mounts that were ready, to drop off our trophies including a couple of new bird mounts and also look at some finished taxidermy.











And then it was SAA from Windhoek to Joburg and then back to Lagos until the next trip!




Thanks to Philip Hennings and all at Khomas Highland Hunting Safaris for a great safari and thanks to all AR readers for coming along!


Oh yes, the ‘50’ and ‘20’ in the title – well the kudu features on the Nam$ 50,- note and the hartebeest on the Nam$ 20,- note plus Anja’s kudu went over 50 inches and my hartebeest over 20!










And finally a painting that Philip had in his trophy room which I thought was simply great




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Beautiful photos and report. Congrats.

Nice trophies, pictures and hunt report.
Congratulations on a nice trip.

That was great! I really appreciate the pictures and write up.

Great hunt! Thanks for sharing.

Looks like you two really relaxed and had a wonderful time. Nice trophies too! Thanks for sharing.

Best regards, D. Nelson

You have good eye for photography. I enjoyed the photos. Congrats on the fine animals.

That was a really nice report, thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing. Nicely done.

Super and agreed great painting.

Terrific photography and a great report!

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Thanks for the comments and compliments on the pictures. Appreciated.

Was a fun short hunt with a couple of good trophies and always good to meet new PHs and other hunting friends!

Cheers

Great pictures and looks a lot like the area I took my Hartmann's Zebra in. Good hard hunting.

Cheers
Jim

I love Namibia ! Well done !!!

A great trip and a nicely done hunting write up with very good photos. I too like he bird hunting break. Thank you for sharing your trip.