Well, after two years of dreaming and planning, our first African plains game hunt is now complete. We hunted with Boet Nel Hunting Safaris in Namibia and everything was first rate. This was a totally free-range hunt for indigenous species only and heavy rains made hunting extremely challenging as the grass was very tall and water was everywhere, allowing the animals to be extremely scattered. We hunted three different camps with each one getting progressively more remote. Seeing giraffe in the wild was a real thrill for both of us. We'll defintey be going back!

congrats very nice trophies

Wow, you can certainly tell you both had a great time, look at the smiles!

Fourteen months until my first trip, I cannot wait!

Now, we need more hunt details.

Wow...great pics. THansk for posting !!!

Congrats, love those kudu.
Jeff

Congratulations on a great hunt. Africa now has her hook in you and will not let go.

Great hunt. I see smiles all around. Where will you be going next?

Smiles and Great Trophys !
What else need a hunter more....


Seloushunter

Thanks for sharing!
I hunted with Boet Nel 5 years ago, and had a good hunt with him. This brings great memories back!

Nice pictures of your tropies,thanks for posting

quote:

Originally posted by Brett Adam Barringer:
Great hunt. I see smiles all around. Where will you be going next?

Boet just got a new buffalo/elephant area in the Caprivi while I was there so I'm seriously considering going for buff this fall. Hunting over there is addicting!

Looks like you had a fantastic time. Congratulations!

David

I wanted to add this picture too. Through SCI's blue bag program, we took 150 pounds of school supplies over with us and gave them to a school in the conservancy where we hunted. The teacher said it was more supplies than they'd seen in 50 years. We'd encourage everyone to get involved in this program as it's so easy to do and it makes such a big difference in the lives of the kids over there. We also donated a considerable amount of meat to the school...the only protein many of these kids see.

Congratulations. Great pictures, great hunt. How about the story? Give us the blow by blow, or shot by shot, so we can live vicariously.

Thanks for the photos. good to see you've taken jackal, too.

Regards

quote:

Originally posted by Tim Carney:
Thanks for the photos. good to see you've taken jackal, too.

Regards

We actually shot 5 jackal while we were there. Populations seemed abnormally high and many had mange but we got a couple with really nice coats.

i love going to namibia. thanks for the great pictures.

Looks like you had a grand hunt! Congrats!

Thanks for all the nice comments. A few more details about the hunt are:

The hunt was booked directly through Boet (We met him and Karen at SCI in Reno) and everything was as promised without a hitch.

We flew via Lufthansa from Calgary, Alberta to Frankfurt and then Air Namibia from Frankfurt to Windhoek where Boet met us. Other than an engine catching on fire on the flight from Frankfurt to Windhoek, delaying us a day, the flights were pretty painless. Air Namibia took very good care of us during the unexpected stay in Frankfurt.

Getting the guns there and back was totally without problem. We packed both gun in a Tuffpak and both where still zeroed on arrival.
We had room to pack a large wooden giraffe in the same case with the guns for the trip back.

I shot a Kimber 8400 Montana in .338WM shooting 225-grain TSX bullets. Vanessa used her Tikka T3 Lite .30-06 with 180 grain TSX bullets. Both performed very well.

We took 12 plains game animals and 5 jackals. We both had eland and springbok on our wish list but where unable to find any. Undoubtedly, the heavy rains this year played a large factor.

Accommodations were tents on permanent concrete foundations with toilet and shower in two of the camps and then we spike camped in a small tent at another.

Hunting was spot and stalk except for my warthog which was shot at a waterhole.

We also had opportunties to take giraffe, cheetah, klipspringer, duiker, baboon and steinbok but elected not to.

Overall, the hunt was an awesome experience!

Congratulations on a great hunt. Where exactly were you hunting? My guess would be in the North East, definitely Herero country, but not too far north given the hills. What was the nearest town? Again, great hunt, just curious.

We actually started out east of Windhoek near Gobabis and then headed to the northwest part of the country. We were about 80 kms northwest of Kamanjab.

Great pictures and congratulations on your success.

quote:

...We took 12 plains game animals and 5 jackals. We both had eland and springbok on our wish list but where unable to find any. Undoubtedly, the heavy rains this year played a large factor...

I assume the area you hunted northwest of Kamanjab was Ehi Rovipuka. I'm shocked to hear that you could not locate any springbok there. That area was crawling with springbok four years ago when I hunted there. BIG springbok at that. I wonder what happened to them?

Ehi Rovipuka is a wonderful area. I guess you got your zebras there and maybe your kudu? I would love to get back to that area and hunt again some day.

Yes, that is the area we were hunting. I got my kudu there, both of our zebra and Vanessa took one of her gemsbok there.

As for the springbok, the grass was just so long that they moved out. It was quite literally a one in a hundred year rain this year and it really changed animal movements greatly. Next year I'm certain the area will be loaded again.

That's a great looking kudu you shot, sheephunterab. I shot one very much like him, also in Ehi-rovipuka, several years ago.

Many other great trophies as well.

Congratulations to you and your wife on your excellent safari.

There is nothing like haveing a great first safari!

Ya, no doubt hey......everyone said we got spoiled going the route we did the first time. All our research sure paid off. We knew exactly what we where looking for and really spent our time looking for an outfiitter that could provide it! It was everything we hoped and more.

Congrats on your hunt! I have hunted with Boet 2 times. In 2005 and 2007. I can't wait for the day to make it up where you hunted. Sounds like a wild place! Namibia looks very different with grass! We hunted in June and July and it was very dry and brown! Again, congrats and thanks for posting your experiences!