Back From Namibia (pic heavy)

martinbns said:
GReat pics, I have to ask...Eland?
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We actualy never saw any. The heavy rains allowed the animals to scatter widely throughout the rugged mountains and our path never crossed with any. We did see a few tracks in the river beds but never did catch up with them. The area we were hunting was over one million acres so it's not hard to believe that we couldn't find them. The game guard that accompanied us said they'd seen a couple herds the week before but I'm not sure how reliable his information was. I really hoped to get a crack at one but I guess it gives me an excuse to go back. Springbok managed to elude us as well.
 
DVXDUDE said:
I'd love to a jackel hunt over there. Not too interested in hunting anything else. A night hunt for jackel would be awesome. Id have to be 30 feet off the ground just so I wouldnt be as scaried of the lions,hyenas,leopards,cheetahs and anything else that could rip your face off instantly.
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Yes, we shot five jackals while we were there and saw countless other ones. It's funny when you get over there and get used to the surroundings, it's not so scary. The first couple nights, however, certainly every noise makes you sit up in bed.
 
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sheephunter said:
We actualy never saw any. The heavy rains allowed the animals to scatter widely throughout the rugged mountains and our path never crossed with any. We did see a few tracks in the river beds but never did catch up with them. The area we were hunting was over one million acres so it's not hard to believe that we couldn't find them. The game guard that accompanied us said they'd seen a couple herds the week before but I'm not sure how reliable his information was. I really hoped to get a crack at one but I guess it gives me an excuse to go back. Springbok managed to elude us as well.
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You said in your first post you were amazed how challenging it was to hunt these animals. What was it that amazed you?

How long were the horns on the Gemsbok, yours look very thick at the bases and the Kudu?
 
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martinbns said:
You said in your first post you were amazed how challenging it was to hunt these animals. What was it that amazed you?

How long were the horns on the Gemsbok, yours look very thick at the bases and the Kudu?
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What amazed me was there was absolutely no room for error on a stalk. In North America, you can usually get away with being seen for a brief moment or if you are spotted in a vehicle a kilometre away, animals don't usually pay much attention here. Not where we hunted in Africa. These animals were as flighty and wary as any I've seen. There is a fair bit of local hunting pressure on them and poaching is an issue. I was just shocked at how in tune with their environment they were. If a warthog started running 500 yards away, they didn't look to see what made it run, they just took off too. From the time the sticks went up, you had about 7 seconds to get the job done or it was game over. And, if you did spook them, you never saw them again.

My gemsbok was a 39" bull that was over 8 3/4" on the bases. Vanessa's kudu was 50" and mine was 48 1/2"
 
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sheephunter said:
What amazed me was there was absolutely no room for error on a stalk. In North America, you can usually get away with being seen for a brief moment or if you are spotted in a vehicle a kilometre away, animals don't usually pay much attention here. Not where we hunted in Africa. These animals were as flighty and wary as any I've seen. There is a fair bit of local hunting pressure on them and poaching is an issue. I was just shocked at how in tune with their environment they were. If a warthog started running 500 yards away, they didn't look to see what made it run, they just took off too. From the time the sticks went up, you had about 7 seconds to get the job done or it was game over. And, if you did spook them, you never saw them again.

My gemsbok was a 39" bull that was over 8 3/4" on the bases. Vanessa's kudu was 50" and mine was 48 1/2"
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I found the same thing, the practise I put in shooting quickly really paid off. It really proves it's hunting when you go to Africa, Namibia of all places and niether of you shoot a Springbok. It's like going on a hunt in Alberta for 10 days and not shooting a whitetail doe. There have to be millions of them, the one ranch we hunted in the Kalahari area of South Africa which was 120,000 acres had an extimated population of springbok of 4-5,000 animals according to the farm/estate manager. Your kudu were just about the same size as the ones my Son and I shot in 2007, so much for 56-60" kudu behind every bush. Lots I've seen on the internet that looked alot like yours and Vanessa's and mine and my son's miraculously measure out at 56"+.

My favourite animal was gemsbok, both the hunt and eat.
 
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martinbns said:
I found the same thing, the practise I put in shooting quickly really paid off.
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Ya for us too......most challenging shooting I've ever done. I know I need more practice but glad I did all that I did. Ended up taking a couple shots at ranges further than I'd hoped but managed to make them count but I'll be doing a lot more shooting off sticks before I go back..........

It's like going on a hunt in Alberta for 10 days and not shooting a whitetail doe. There have to be millions of them, the one ranch we hunted in the Kalahari area of South Africa which was 120,000 acres had an extimated population of springbok of 4-5,000 animals according to the farm/estate manager.
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The joys of free-range hunting. The grass was so long where we were hunting that the springbok simply moved out. With no fences to hold them, they simply weren't there. The heavy rains this year really hurt our success and we knew that not hunting on a ranch would lessen our opportunity but just didn't realize that Namibia would get a one in a hundred year rain this year. The area is usually loaded with springbok but environmental conditions dictate when there is nothing to control their movement.

As for kudu.....Namibia is facing another rabies outbreak and the days of 55-60" kudu may be gone for years. The region we hunted traditionally has very big kudu but we hunted damn hard for these two. We saw two others that would have gone 52 and 55" but neither presented an opportunity. As it was, I took mine on the last afternoon of the last day and much further than I wanted to shoot.

Ya, I love the gemsbok too but zebra won for culinary delight for us!
 
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sheephunter said:
Yes, other than a couple meals of lamb, we ate wild game exclusively. Surprisingly, the zebra was both of our favourite.

Still not sure about the raw kudu liver though.

We also took quite a bit of meat to a local school in addition to 150 pounds of school supplies that we took over for the kids. Meeting all the kids was pretty cool.

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Good on you guys for doing that :)
 
My guess is you'll be walking about a foot off the ground for several months while trying to figure out how to get back there again for a follow-up hunt. That euphoria will be re-lived every time you look at your pic's and videos for a looooong time. :)

An honest and conscientious outfitter makes all the difference in the world and, by the looks of it, yours was excellent.

Flighty animals with unusually high stamina in a free range environment. How to you beat that kind of hunting experience? :cool:

Africa certainly has a way of getting into your system. As was mentioned before, most of the costs get spread over a two or three years to make the experience more affordable than a lot of people may think.

BTW, very nice touch with the school supplies and help for the local kids.:cool:
 
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Animals do get spooky when they are hunted 8-9 months out of the year.:D I found that my best move was to get into position, find a shooting lane and be looking through the scope while the PH evaluated horns. If he so much as moved his lips I shot. Otherwise I was often a couple seconds too slow. I shot more animals from field positions than from the sticks, but everything has its place.
 
Dogleg said:
Animals do get spooky when they are hunted 8-9 months out of the year.:D I found that my best move was to get into position, find a shooting lane and be looking through the scope while the PH evaluated horns. If he so much as moved his lips I shot. Otherwise I was often a couple seconds too slow. I shot more animals from field positions than from the sticks, but everything has its place.
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With the grass being so long where we were, the only field position was standing and at that point, you may as well use sticks. There were no shooting lanes and as you were standing up, the PH was telling you which animal it was in the group and you had 7 seconds to find it, lock on it and squeeze the trigger.
 
A-zone said:
How was your experience travelling with firearms and ammo into Namibia?

Did you fly in thought RSA? Through Europe or the States?
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We had zero issues. Lufthansa has a baggage agreement with Air Namibia so we checked our bags in Calgary and picked them up in Windhoek. We flew through Frankfurt on a direct flight from Calgary then direct to Windhoek. No extra charges for the guns and no issues about ammo. Once in Namibia, we had pre filled out the forms, so we handed them to the nice police lady, she checked the serial numbers and we were on our way. On the way home, we checked them in Windhoek and picked them up in Calgary. Canada customs didn't even ask us to open the gun case.
 
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Tall grass would be one of it's places.They are also useful for holding your rifle up while waiting for animals to change position relative to each other or the cover. Sometimes they are just in the road.
I'm glad you had a good trip, its pretty addicting. The trip I took with my wife extra special.
 
sheephunter said:
We had zero issues. Lufthansa has a baggage agreement with Air Namibia so we checked our bags in Calgary and picked them up in Windhoek. We flew through Frankfurt on a direct flight from Calgary then direct to Windhoek. No extra charges for the guns and no issues about ammo. Once in Namibia, we had pre filled out the forms, so we handed them to the nice police lady, she checked the serial numbers and we were on our way. On the way home, we checked them in Winhoek and picked them up in Calgary. Canada customs didn't even ask us to open the gun case.
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Excellent. :cool:

We flew through Frankfurt to J-burg without any issues (except for losing a day due to Air Canada forgetting our rifles in Toronto). Once there, however, we heard some horror stories about hunters losing firearms and gear flying through France.

Lufthansa is the way to go.
 
It was really nice not having to collect our luggage in Frankfurt as we had a 12 hour layover. It allowed us to take the train into the city and see the sights and eat some real food! Lufthansa was a bit more expensive but totally worth it.
 
sheephunter said:
With the grass being so long where we were, the only field position was standing and at that point, you may as well use sticks. There were no shooting lanes and as you were standing up, the PH was telling you which animal it was in the group and you had 7 seconds to find it, lock on it and squeeze the trigger.
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We spent a lot of time glassing from high points looking for good animals and then stalked. Often our stalks were a mile or more, some of the animals we took were very flighty (Kudu, Impala, Springbok, warthog, Eland) some not so much Blesbok, both wildebeests, some not predictable Gemsbok and zebra.

I found the really different thing just how open it was, compared to mostly forest or forest fringe hunting that I do.
 
Good show

the "poor dog" is a blackbacked jackal not unlike the canadian coyote, just smaller but just as tenacious and the scurge of all sheep farmers
 
I've never got to watch a bloodtrailing dog in action, do you think that the dog found animals that the human blood hounds wouldn't have, or is it the speed, or that the terriers work for less? I'd like to watch the dogs someday, the human trackers are uncanny.
 
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