Well I have done it I booked a 10 day Plains Game hunt for my wife and I with Vaughan Fultan. This is exciting stuff -now the long wait until May 19,2004!!

Congratulations! You will have a great time hunting with Vaughan! Are you hunting his northern concession?

Yes the northern concession next to Etosha- For Kudu,Gemsbok,Springbok,Zebra,Impala and warthog.

As you know, my wife and I hunted there last July.....we saw a great black faced impala ram that I really wanted.....unfortunately, they are not importable into the US.....

We didn't see any warthogs on the concession.....are you planning to hunt one of the ranches for warties and common impala?

[ 03-24-2003, 23:48: Message edited by: GonHuntin ]

Yes the other 4 on the concession and warthog and impala on a ranch adjacent to Etosha.

frodo

Here is a taste of what you will see on your hunt!

A bit more at:

Hunting with Vaughan!

Thanks gonhuntin- this is a great service-my wife enjoyed the pictures.

GH,

I went and looked at your photo's again....big mistake! It got me drooling all over again! Did you get your elk mount back from Ed yet?

Bob

Bob

Yes, the elk has been home for several months.... guess I forgot to tell you? The mount turned out great....the only problem was trying to find a place that it would fit! There is about 1/4" clearance between the highest antler point and the ceiling and the bottom of the brisket is 31" off the floor!!!

Quit droolng and lets start making plans to go! Africa won't wait forever!!!

Frodo,

You dirty dog! We are giving very strong consideration to a safari with Vaughan and wanted to go during the dark of the moon in May of 2004. Looks like you have that sewed up. Maybe we'll try and go the week before you. Sounds like a great trip!

SBT- yes My wife and I have booked for May 19 arrival then hunt may 20-may30 and fly out of windhoek on May 31- we are hoping to catch the peak of the kudu rut and hunt for springbok,gemsbok,mtn zebra,impala and warthog- the reference checking I did on Vaughan came back glowing and the fact that it is under canvas -more like Old Africa helped make the decision- I understand the next 2 weeks are very good as well-any help I can be give me a shout!!

I'll be hunting with Vaughan in 31 days and can't wait. I am so ready for a vacation right now!

This will be my second hunt with Vaughan and he is a great guy. You'll have a super hunt.

Soon as I can get the cash saved up I will be booking with Vaughn. Maybe 2005? I am envious as hell of you guys going sooner!!! Have a great time!!

Hello DavidP

I am so Jealous!!!

Have a good time.

Mike

Small world! I'm going to be somewhere in that vicinity August '04. Barry Burchell Frontier safaris, Trudia camp 30 miles south of Etosha. Thanks for the snapshots GonHuntin, it gives me a better idea of the terrain. I've been told to expect shots from 50 to 350 yards. Would you gents consider that to be correct? Nice photos, nice animals. Is that a mountain zebra?

Thanks Mike,
Hope everything is well with you. If all goes well with our Pronhorn hunt that Wendell set us up with, I should be paying a visit to B&B this fall. The pressure is on Wendell!

I'll be sure to let you know how we do in Namibia. I have faith that Vaughan will take care of us very well and hopefully I'll have great stories and even better photos!

Onefunzr2, I hunted out of that camp last fall, with Barry's brother-in-law. Be sure to have enough ice when you go to camp... I took a 56" Kudu and a 40 3/8" Gemsbok. I also got my Dik-Dik there. This property is open range so to speak, only partially fenced. It is about 30,000 acres. hilly, thick not much open ground. Electricity by generator. The farm house is nice and clean, not quite like a nice lodge in RSA. If you can work it in to your schedule it would be worth your time to take a day or two and see Etosha. I did not see any Mt Zebra on this property, but that may have been because I wasn't hunting them there as I had already taken two in the south. I am sure you will enjoy yourself.

[ 04-11-2003, 17:02: Message edited by: Die Ou Jagter ]

Dave

Yes, it is a Hartman's mountain zebra.......best eating of all the animals we killed!

Have fun on your trip, wish I was going back that soon!!!

I tried Hartmann's zebra for the first time about a week ago on a hunt with Hunters Namibia Safaris. I was actually shocked, it was extremely good.
My neighbors horses better be careful.

Kyler

Hi,
I leave for Namibia in 11 days. I booked through Wendell at the Gras Hunting Ranch for a 10 day hunt. I can't sleep at nights thinking about this trip.

Die Ou Jagter,

Thanks for that mini-report. Can you steer me to the link to your expanded safari adventure report. I wasn't on this forum most of last fall.

GonHuntin,

It doesn't surprise me that zebra meat is tasty. Have you ever dined on horsemeat? I think I have, and it was delicious. I went into a restaurant in Naples, Italy and not speaking the language sort of signed and grunted that I'd like meat and potatoes. What I got was a 2 inch thick grilled fillet that was so tender that I could cut it with my fork, and seasoned potato spears. A jug of the house red wine and I was sated. The consensus of my shipmates onboard the aircraft carrier was that it probably was "Ol' Nellybelle."

George,
You lucky dog, you! I wish I didn't have to wait for 16 more months until my Namibia trip.
The very best of luck to you. Shoot straight.

One, I did not do a report, but if you want to call me fine. Where is Center Valley? I will email you my # if you are interested.

I think everyone would be interested in your hunt success. It's not too late to post one. And don't forget the pics.

Center Valley is in southern Lehigh County; part of the Lehigh Valley which is part of the Delaware Valley.

NO EVERYBODY ,stay away from Namibia. I dont want it all hunted out before I get there.I have some other hunts to do here in OZ before I get back to Africa. I,m planning to get there mid 2004, Namibia as well . I hope you all dont hunt it out of all the realy good trophies before I get a chance. Keep all the hunt reports coming,I might have to cut back on dresses for the wife and baby food so that I can get there a bit quicker before all you out there steal my big ones before I get a chance to drop them.

Can anybody else post what kind of quality/quantity of different species they've taken in northern Namibia?

Also, is one day enough to see the better part of Etosha? Is there anything else in that area that is a must-see?

I'll be headed there next summer (God willing), and would like to get a good idea of the trophy quality to expect. Also, plan my side-trips...

Thanks

Texan, I have posted my June 2003 hunt with pictures in the African Hunting forum under "Fox Hunting in Namibia", Parts 1, 2 & 3. (Part 3 is the leopard story.)

We spent one day at Etosha, and took a lot of photos there. I would say that one day is sufficient, unless you want to see the whole park. We traveled to several different water holes and viewing areas, and ate lunch at the great "buffet" restaurant beside the lookout tower.

Are you going alone? If you are taking a non-hunter, you definitely want to see Swakopmund.

Forget that - you want to see it even if you are alone!

Swakopmund is a beautiful seaside town with more charm than you can find in the rest of the country put together. My son and I and our PH spent two days there, and wish it could have been more. We shopped, took pictures of the massive dunes of the Namib desert, rode camels, rode 4-wheelers over the dunes, ate fresh seafood, stayed in a B&B, etc.

The town actually reminded me a little of Carmel, California, with its clean streets and small shops.

We even stopped in a tiny gun shop while we were there.

If I went back to Namibia, a side-trip to Swakop would be a priority.

If you have any more questions, feel free to email me.

Rick.

Rick I tried to send you an E-mail- could you please send me one as Swakopmund sounds exactly like where we sould spend the week after our safari- any more info on B&B,transportation , shopping,places to eat,safety or tours would be very much appreciated. We have june 1 to june7 at leisure in Namibia.

Harry has suggested Swakopmund to me, as well. I don't think I'll have the time, though. But maybe...

I loved your 'Fox Hunting in Namibia' posts, Rick. However, I still couldn't decipher what kind of trophies to expect. Were all of yours exceptional, or average? I'm not interested in SCI scores, really. I don't care about record books, but I do like to know what "representative" trophies for an area are. For instance, in the area that I hunt whitetails in Texas, a 120-130 class deer is a true trophy. If I paid a bunch of money to hunt in South Texas and killed the same deer, I'd be quite disappointed.

So, what I'd like to know is: what is a good Kudu for northern Namibia? 50"? 55"? 45"? Basically, I'd like to have some knowledge of these things to protect myself from whacking the first 'Gray Ghost' that I see.

I know that most people will say, "just trust your PH and whatever you shoot in Africa is a true trophy, because of the experience." However, if my expectations are not properly set, and everything I see seems to be an inferior animal, I just don't think the experience will be all that great.

I hope someone can help with this. If you don't want to post measurements for fear of offending someone, please PM or email me. Thanks...

Swakopmund is wonderful and we stayed at the beautiful Swakopmund Hotel (the foremer train station) and were treated like royalty. Beautiful place to stay and breakfast was in the price of the room.
You might want to ride the Desert Express train from Swakopmund back to Windhoek. That too is super. You leave in the afternoon and sloooooowly make your way across the desert. The train stops for you to get out and do some walk abouts and it stops at night for you to walk about and sleep undisturbed in your cabin. There is a wonderful bar car too! Not to mention the fancy sit down dinner at night.
If there are eight of you or more in a party I have a guy there that will do a formal sit down dinner for you in the Namib desert in the moonlight. We did that and it was a super experience. Great food, good booze and a beautiful night 22 K out in the desert under the moonlight. The guys had as much fun as the ladies.
Life was GOOD!

Frodo:

I'm at rick.fox@quintiles.com

I don't remember the name of the B&B - they were distant relatives of the family I was with. But there are a lot of B&B's there. I think you will be surprised. Swakopmund is not a typical African town. Imagine cutting a chunk off of Europe and moving it to Africa. A lot of German/Dutch architecture.

Shopping places won't be hard to find. It's a shopping town! Safety - I felt as safe there as I do in Apex. There are not street beggars like Capetown.

Remember that the hunting season is the OFF-season for tourism in Swakopmund. They said that in December-January, you can hardly walk down the street for the crowds.

We ate lunch at "The Tug" (on the beach). Great food and a great view. We ate dinner at the Lighthouse Restaurant. I DARE you to order a Lighthouse Burger! Take a camera if you order one, because nobody back home will believe you when you describe it.

(You can order it with Monkey Gland sauce if you like...)

Allow time to explore the dunes also. We spent a while climbing the dunes, and trying to slide down on a piece of masonite we found.

If you go south to Walvis Bay ("VAHLVIS BYE"), there is an outfit that offers quad-bike tours of the dunes. This one is special because the owner is a naturalist who leads the group on a 4-hour tour with frequent stops to learn all about the flora, fauna, and history of the area. We missed out because there was a sandstorm the morning we were to go.

We later took a 1-hour ride with a company in Swakopmund instead. The only stopping we did was to let the engines cool down.
It was one of the best parts of the trip for my son!

I'll post some pictures.

.
.
.

TrademarkTexan:

My hunt was on a cattle ranch, with no game fences, so the wildlife was... well, wild.

In my opinion, it seems that the game ranches usually have trophies that score higher.

My kudu was 48" and the gemsbok was 34". I think that we saw one kudu and several gemsbok that would have been bigger, but that's hunting.

If I had told my PH that I had to have a 52" kudu, maybe we would have worked harder to find one. That evening the host asked me if I was satisfied, because we thought that it was a 50-inch bull before we shot.

I wanted a 50-inch bull, but I had to shake myself and realize that 2 inches off a trophy kudu doesn't turn it into garbage.

(I never measured a horn while I was there. The PH did, because he has to keep a log book for licensing purposes.)

Your PH should be able to give you an idea of what to expect before you go. It's not to his advantage to get your expectation high, and then disappoint you. They definitely don't want hunters going home dissatisfied, and telling everybody about it!

Rick.