Around one year ago I asked on this forum recommendations for first Namibian hunt, and luckily got good replies and suggestions, thanks for everyone who messaged me. After contacting few, I decided on Khomas Highland Hunting Safaries. I was in contact with Philip, and we made the booking. At that time dates were still not finally confirmed, but that was not a problem. I booked the basic "Namibia Classic" -package with Oryx, Warthog and Springbok.
My trip planning was quite slow, and not much happened until beginning of 2024. Finally we confirmed dates to beginning of June, and I made the decision to bring my own rifle. I was travelling with my wife and two kids, and our plan was to continue sightseeing Namibia on our own after the five days of hunting.
At the departure everything went smoothly in Finland, rifle was checked all the way to Windhoek with no issues. We were flying with Lufthansa via Frankfurt. At Frankfurt it went south as we heard connecting flight (operated by Eurowings) would be delayed approx. 10 hours. Well, off to airport hotel for quick sleep and back to airport in the morning. Night time flight was changed to day time flight and I'm sure co-travelers loved our 2 year old boy the whole flight
At Windhoek we picked up our luggage, luckily everything made it, and were picked up by Juan who would be my PH also. About 1.5 h drive to Khomas Highlands new lodge. Place was pretty empty at that time (we arrived 11.6.2024) with no other hunters, although two more were to arrive next morning. We got the family lodge which was awesome, good space and fantastic bar / lounge area just for us.
Original plan was to take first day easy and just check the gun maybe, but as flight was delayed we basically lost one day, so on first morning we were off early, and at first light sighting the gun, which was good to go. I had few options for a rifle, but decided on Sako 85 in 30-06. It is Black Bear model with shortish 20" barrel. For scope I had Meopta Meostar 1.7 - 10 x 42, and for ammunition factory Norma Oryx 180gr from their Silencer-series which should be optimized for short barrel, although I was getting a bit disappointing 2650 fps from this Sako.
First day we stayed pretty close to the farm, spotted one Oryx which we went after but he was a young male. At that point I was just amazed by terrain and found it very difficult to focus on hunting. Later some Springboks were spotted, and followed them around one hour. Finally Juan showed me the one that was shootable and he was dropped at around 150m, didn't run one meter.
I was happy, this was also my first animal taken in Africa!
Later same day we still went out and saw some Oryx, I kind a had a shot on one but didn't take it, light was already going away and I had bit hard time seeing him well enough.
Next day we were out again early in the morning. We saw some Oryx but no shots, until suddenly herd was spotted across the hill, and our tracked Shorty said one was very good and suggested to shoot. I took the shot and that's where things started to go not so great...
Shot felt good but Oryx showed no reaction other than took off. He stopped again and I shot again, again shot felt good but no visible reaction. He disappeared into bushed, but in a moment Shorty spotted him again on next hilltop. I had hard time seeing him but finally could get my rifle on him and took shot. This time Juan said he saw reaction to hit, I could not see it in my scope though. He run away and we started following him. At this point I realized the distance we were shooting...I had paid no real thought on distance, just thought it was "shootable" so withing 200m or so. In reality it was more and I had not compensated for drop at all.
After running few minutes after him, we spotted him again in the bush. At this time we were pretty sure he was hit, so I though I need to take every possible shot and I did, few very sketchy through the bushed. We lost him again for a moment, then he appeared below us moving away and I shot few more times, starting to think someone changed by rounds to blanks. Finally he did stop, but still did not go down. I shot one more time, and down he went. Finally I counted six hits in the body, one in the horn, and one that damaged both rear legs. At this point I was just happy we didn't lose him.
Later me measured the distances, and first shot was around 300m, and one that most likely hit his rear legs around 400m. Absolutely not what I was looking for, and big mistake from me not realizing the distance on first shot. In my defense, estimating distances in hilly open terrain is not easy if all you have hunted is in deep flat forest of Finland...
After this we took afternoon off.
Next day plan was to go bit later, and go to watering hole and wait for warthog. We went around 10, I learned that no point going earlier as warthogs don't really move until it's warm. We waited around 4.5 hours, saw lot's of female warthogs and one small male. Then one mature male showed up really close to me, maybe 20m. I tried to get my rifle up, but he was way too alert and was off immediately. I decided not to shoot as he was running away, and there were some cows in the back. Last thing I wanted to do was accidentally shoot a cow...
Luckily, he came back on the other side of the waterhole in around 20 mins, and I had plenty of time to aim and wait for good shot, and down he went immediately. Distance was maybe 50m.
So, now problem was that we were on a third day of five days booked, and had got all the animals! After some discussion with Philip, I decided to add Zebra, I specifically wanted Hartsmann's.
So, day 4 morning we went after Zebras. I was slightly worried as I heard stories how tough they can be, and also most likely quite far shot would be needed. Two fellow hunters in the lodge having shot and even after excessive search, lost a Zebra day earlier did not help.
Terrain was again amazing, rolling bushy hills. We walked a bit, saw some Zebras and I had one possible shot possibility, but decided to not take it as distance was quite far, around 250m estimated, and after Oryx episode I was quite careful with shooting too far. Btw today I was with Hendrix as Joan has stomach problems. He was absolutely amazing at finding Zebras! Finally we saw one more herd, and Hendrix pointed one that would be good. Distance was ok, around 150m and I took the shot. I honestly did not feel super confident after the shot, but when we got to spot we saw lots of blood, tracked maybe 100m and there he was dead. Shot was ok, not quite where I wanted but still took both lungs apparently and completely penetrated the animal.
I was actually bit sad we got Zebra quite early in the day, I was really enjoying the landscape and mountainous terrain we were in. But also did not want to skip the shot, never know if I would get another one.
Now I had the same problem again, one more day to hunt but all game taken. Philip offered 2nd Oryx for good discount and that was a quick decision. 5th day morning we were in the same general area where we got got 1st Oryx, and after few stalks we got to around 70m from one that was judged shootable. I took shot, it felt good and we tracked him for around 50m and found him dead. Only at that time mistake was found out...he was actually a female, although a really big one. Juan immediately took the responsibility and said we will keep hunting and will shoot a bull and use a female just for farm meat. In the end we did not find one, I was fine with this, it was a good hunt and I was the one that took the shot anyway.
Afternoon we didn't go look for bull Oryx anymore as I wanted to take older child (9 year girl) to shoot .22 and try to get some birds. We shot around one box of .22 and got one dove, so great success
All in all amazing experience, and would recommend Khomas Highland to anyone. Juan was great PH, tracker Shorty was epic at spotting game and everyone at the farm friendly and everything worked perfectly. Dealing with Philip was smooth and communication was good at all times.
Now just waiting for trophies to be prepared and what kind of costs it will be to get them to Finland...
My trip planning was quite slow, and not much happened until beginning of 2024. Finally we confirmed dates to beginning of June, and I made the decision to bring my own rifle. I was travelling with my wife and two kids, and our plan was to continue sightseeing Namibia on our own after the five days of hunting.
At the departure everything went smoothly in Finland, rifle was checked all the way to Windhoek with no issues. We were flying with Lufthansa via Frankfurt. At Frankfurt it went south as we heard connecting flight (operated by Eurowings) would be delayed approx. 10 hours. Well, off to airport hotel for quick sleep and back to airport in the morning. Night time flight was changed to day time flight and I'm sure co-travelers loved our 2 year old boy the whole flight
At Windhoek we picked up our luggage, luckily everything made it, and were picked up by Juan who would be my PH also. About 1.5 h drive to Khomas Highlands new lodge. Place was pretty empty at that time (we arrived 11.6.2024) with no other hunters, although two more were to arrive next morning. We got the family lodge which was awesome, good space and fantastic bar / lounge area just for us.
Original plan was to take first day easy and just check the gun maybe, but as flight was delayed we basically lost one day, so on first morning we were off early, and at first light sighting the gun, which was good to go. I had few options for a rifle, but decided on Sako 85 in 30-06. It is Black Bear model with shortish 20" barrel. For scope I had Meopta Meostar 1.7 - 10 x 42, and for ammunition factory Norma Oryx 180gr from their Silencer-series which should be optimized for short barrel, although I was getting a bit disappointing 2650 fps from this Sako.
First day we stayed pretty close to the farm, spotted one Oryx which we went after but he was a young male. At that point I was just amazed by terrain and found it very difficult to focus on hunting. Later some Springboks were spotted, and followed them around one hour. Finally Juan showed me the one that was shootable and he was dropped at around 150m, didn't run one meter.
I was happy, this was also my first animal taken in Africa!
Later same day we still went out and saw some Oryx, I kind a had a shot on one but didn't take it, light was already going away and I had bit hard time seeing him well enough.
Next day we were out again early in the morning. We saw some Oryx but no shots, until suddenly herd was spotted across the hill, and our tracked Shorty said one was very good and suggested to shoot. I took the shot and that's where things started to go not so great...
Shot felt good but Oryx showed no reaction other than took off. He stopped again and I shot again, again shot felt good but no visible reaction. He disappeared into bushed, but in a moment Shorty spotted him again on next hilltop. I had hard time seeing him but finally could get my rifle on him and took shot. This time Juan said he saw reaction to hit, I could not see it in my scope though. He run away and we started following him. At this point I realized the distance we were shooting...I had paid no real thought on distance, just thought it was "shootable" so withing 200m or so. In reality it was more and I had not compensated for drop at all.
After running few minutes after him, we spotted him again in the bush. At this time we were pretty sure he was hit, so I though I need to take every possible shot and I did, few very sketchy through the bushed. We lost him again for a moment, then he appeared below us moving away and I shot few more times, starting to think someone changed by rounds to blanks. Finally he did stop, but still did not go down. I shot one more time, and down he went. Finally I counted six hits in the body, one in the horn, and one that damaged both rear legs. At this point I was just happy we didn't lose him.
Later me measured the distances, and first shot was around 300m, and one that most likely hit his rear legs around 400m. Absolutely not what I was looking for, and big mistake from me not realizing the distance on first shot. In my defense, estimating distances in hilly open terrain is not easy if all you have hunted is in deep flat forest of Finland...
After this we took afternoon off.
Next day plan was to go bit later, and go to watering hole and wait for warthog. We went around 10, I learned that no point going earlier as warthogs don't really move until it's warm. We waited around 4.5 hours, saw lot's of female warthogs and one small male. Then one mature male showed up really close to me, maybe 20m. I tried to get my rifle up, but he was way too alert and was off immediately. I decided not to shoot as he was running away, and there were some cows in the back. Last thing I wanted to do was accidentally shoot a cow...
Luckily, he came back on the other side of the waterhole in around 20 mins, and I had plenty of time to aim and wait for good shot, and down he went immediately. Distance was maybe 50m.
So, now problem was that we were on a third day of five days booked, and had got all the animals! After some discussion with Philip, I decided to add Zebra, I specifically wanted Hartsmann's.
So, day 4 morning we went after Zebras. I was slightly worried as I heard stories how tough they can be, and also most likely quite far shot would be needed. Two fellow hunters in the lodge having shot and even after excessive search, lost a Zebra day earlier did not help.
Terrain was again amazing, rolling bushy hills. We walked a bit, saw some Zebras and I had one possible shot possibility, but decided to not take it as distance was quite far, around 250m estimated, and after Oryx episode I was quite careful with shooting too far. Btw today I was with Hendrix as Joan has stomach problems. He was absolutely amazing at finding Zebras! Finally we saw one more herd, and Hendrix pointed one that would be good. Distance was ok, around 150m and I took the shot. I honestly did not feel super confident after the shot, but when we got to spot we saw lots of blood, tracked maybe 100m and there he was dead. Shot was ok, not quite where I wanted but still took both lungs apparently and completely penetrated the animal.
I was actually bit sad we got Zebra quite early in the day, I was really enjoying the landscape and mountainous terrain we were in. But also did not want to skip the shot, never know if I would get another one.
Now I had the same problem again, one more day to hunt but all game taken. Philip offered 2nd Oryx for good discount and that was a quick decision. 5th day morning we were in the same general area where we got got 1st Oryx, and after few stalks we got to around 70m from one that was judged shootable. I took shot, it felt good and we tracked him for around 50m and found him dead. Only at that time mistake was found out...he was actually a female, although a really big one. Juan immediately took the responsibility and said we will keep hunting and will shoot a bull and use a female just for farm meat. In the end we did not find one, I was fine with this, it was a good hunt and I was the one that took the shot anyway.
Afternoon we didn't go look for bull Oryx anymore as I wanted to take older child (9 year girl) to shoot .22 and try to get some birds. We shot around one box of .22 and got one dove, so great success
All in all amazing experience, and would recommend Khomas Highland to anyone. Juan was great PH, tracker Shorty was epic at spotting game and everyone at the farm friendly and everything worked perfectly. Dealing with Philip was smooth and communication was good at all times.
Now just waiting for trophies to be prepared and what kind of costs it will be to get them to Finland...
