NAMIBIA: Khomas Highland Hunting Safaris Hunting October 2016

[Dudders]

great start! Can't believe that was a sow. Really heavy for a sow. Did you see a lot of good warthog while you were there?

yes we saw lots of warthog plenty of big ones but you need to be quick dry season means they see you and are off

 

[Dudders]

A bit of background

This was to be a 10 day hunt with a travel day at each end. I was all alone no family and there were no other hunters in camp at the time. The majority of the hunting was from Heusis farm 8500 hectares and the next door properties all were low cattle fenced properties all the game was free range. The exception would be the eland where we would travel to the Kalahari to a property there which was high fenced and 15000 hectares. The ground varied from flat near to the farm with lots of dry river beds up to the hills at the other end of the farm at around 1600 meters above sea level . they have not had rain for several months and the area was very dry, daily temps hitting 32 C

 

[Dudders]

The first morning up at 6am breakfast toast and tea 6.30 we are off after kudu we picked up the trackers and head to the only reservoir that still has some water in the corner where a nice kudu had been spotted a couple of days earlier. we park up and move to the dam wall which is just a earth bank. atar the tracker looked over the top there was a heard of blue wildebeest drinking which spooked and moved off. we proceeded to set up on top of the earth embankment where we lay in wait and began to watch the various animals come to drink. springbok, blue wildebeest, steenbok, kudu females with young and huge groups of Guinea fowl followed by a jackal who proceeded to follow them round at about 20 yard distant just waiting for his hunting opportunity. After an hour and a half Philip suggested we move off and go and look and see if we can find him we get into the bakkie and drive round the corner of the dam and spook a large group of red hartebeest we back up and decamp and see if we can stalk in to them but they new something was up and just began to move away quickly just stopping and looking back through the bush in our direction. we back out and return to the bakkie Philip had seen a group of springbok moving through the hartebeest heading to the water and maybe the hartebeest would settle and follow them back to the water, so we returned to the dam wall to wait. 45 minutes later the red hartebeest emerge from the scrub the far side and cautiously move towards the water they all look to be females some of which looked to have enormous horns so much even Philip commented on them, they get about halfway then spook and take off back to the bush. After 5 minutes they are back in a bigger group and right at the back was a male when you looked you could see the extra mass in the horn compared to the females in the group they take there time to approach get to the same spot as before and the lead animals stop again . I track the male through the scope as he mingles with the rear of the heard then the lead females snort turn and run again back towards the bush, they run 50 meters then stop and look back the male hartebeest stopped broadside between to groups in the open I double check with Philip I am still on the right animal and fire the shot at which the group turn and head into the bush minus the male who dropped before he made cover.

After the photos we load up and head back to the farm on the way back I missed an opportunistic shot on a Oryx which we spotted while we were pulling up to open a gate and passed on a kudu bull that we nicknamed last day kudu as on the last day you would have been happy to shoot him but on the first morning I was happy to leave go.

 

[billc]

Great start and some good always down already. Looking forward to the rest of the report this place is on my short list for a hunt in Namibia

 

[Dudders]

At 3.30 pm we meet for tea/ coffee plan the afternoon events and depart just after 4pm and drive to the mountains we see lots of game again on our way during the afternoon we put in several busted stalks on Oryx to many eyes and not enough cover. we spot another nice single bull Oryx who is moving away from us around the side of a hill and we decide to go after him. As we begin to gain height to get in from above him a heard of mountain zebra appear over the hill between us and the oryx . We all ducked down behind some rocks but they caught our sent on the wind which was blowing straight towards them. They spooked and shot in all directions at which point the oryx also took off around the hill, the zebra then regrouped and the stallion came to investigate us where he stood at about 100 meters away head on now zebra was not on the list but Philip asked would I shoot one for meat for the farm and I thought I would be rude to decline so I lined up on the centre of the chest and squeezed the trigger there was a load whack as the bullet impacted and the zebra took off ran 60 meters stumbled and then collapsed and rolled down the hill just far enough to make extraction just a little more interesting the next hour was spent cutting a track and moving rocks and boulders to get the bakkie close enough to winch on the zebra. Although we still had to remove the stomach to enable us to carry the zebra 10 meters to the winch cable as we could not quite get close enough. after loading on the zebra the guys collected up the stomach and on our way back we stopped off at the oryx that the leopard had killed and deposited the stomach there along with a trail cam and then back for tea

the patterns on the backs of these mountain zebra are very pretty

 

[Neale]

Nice hartebeest and a Zebra by chance!!! I am enjoying the story.
Hope to get to Namibia one day.

 

[BRICKBURN]

A curious Mtn Zebra. That has to be a first for me.
I thought you would have never seen them again after being spooked.

Congratulations.

 

[Sand Rat]

Nice report Richard! Two safaris in less than 6 months, looks like I need to make a career change. Look forward to the rest of the story, how did you manage to make this happen without Louis?

 

[JGRaider]

Gorgeous zebra.

 

[kathy]

Beautiful trophies. Forrest

 

[50by50]

Great trophies Richard! That red hartebeest was a giant!

 

[Dudders]

Nice report Richard! Two safaris in less than 6 months, looks like I need to make a career change. Look forward to the rest of the story, how did you manage to make this happen without Louis?

Hi Robert its louis exam year no time off school has to get his head down and work hard its not all bad though he left for berlin today on a five day school trip.

 

[Dudders]

Day two
5.45am early start today after a quick breakfast we pick up the trackers and head into the mountains for Oryx we drive to the farms boundary were we begin to glass the valleys and hills. A distant hill side has a few Oryx scattered about on it so we drive into the valley bottom then proceed on foot we walk up to the crest of the hill and look across onto the opposite slope we had seen the Oryx on the Oryx had now moved closer to the ridge and one by one they slowly disappeared over the ridge as we worked our way along the hillside. We started to work our way towards the opposite slope hoping to catch these animals on the on the far side of the ridge they had disappeared over just as we reached the bottom of a small gully Hendrik the young tracker picked up fresh tracks of a small group of Oryx and Philip said these would be a better option to go after. so we begin winding through the bush in hot pursuit, we worked up and down the valley side at a steady pace although the altitude the heat even at 6am and not having done much preparation for the trip made me puff a bit luckily Philip had handed me bottled water as we had set off and was coming in handy now. We stop at a cattle fence where the Oryx had stopped and milled around for a bit before crossing Hendrik slips through the fence and picks up the tracks again and we are off after about two minutes the guys slow right up start talking in whispers and hunch down. suddenly I feel a lot fresher we slowly move forward to a line of sandstone rocks which look like scales off of the back a dragon the way they stick out of the ground and run in a line up the hillside the guys peer over and around these and on the opposite hillside are the Oryx we get set up and Philip ask would I shoot from that location I take a look through the scope but it does not feel good Philip says no problem and we move closer semi crawling and using the rocks as cover we gain about 50 meters, the Oryx are still stood and seem more alert Philip takes off his fleece and shirt and we put these over the rocks to rest the rifle on I got myself comfortable line up the middle Oryx on the centre of his shoulder and squeezed the trigger it seemed to take an age before we heard the impact of the bullet, Philip said great shot if he stops shoot again just to make sure. I track the Oryx with the scope he runs 30 meters stops and I shoot again then whack and he takes off about 10 meters and piles up in a heap. I stand up and hand Philip back his clothes Philip then tells me that they were 290 meters away I replied good job you did not tell me that before I fired the shot Hendrik and altar go to fetch the bakkie while we go over to find the Oryx the first shot hit through the lungs and the second a bit high in the neck .

looking back to where we shot from the tree line with rocks at the rear of the flat area in the middle

We loaded up and headed back to the farm checking on the farms water supplies along the way we also saw a large heard of red hartebeest of fifty plus and plenty of kudu cows and youngsters

 

[Dudders]

After lunch and afternoon siesta we convened for afternoon tea where we discuss the afternoons plans and decide perhaps we should focus on to the kudu again we load up and set off for the afternoon session we were seeing lots of females and young bulls but nothing mature as we drove we passed a group of baboons we pulled up Philip said to victor ( a young german lad who was staying with them for the hunting season) to shoot one quick which he did as we were close to a leopard bait that could do with freshening up so after a quick break in proceedings we resumed the kudu hunt we began to head towards the mountain area we had just passed through a gate and we heading down a gentle slope to cross a dry river bed when there came a tap on the roof Atar had spotted a kudu by some camel thorn on the edge of the dry river we stop and look with the binoculars the kudu was slightly obscured behind some scrub but he looked good to me I pointed him to Philip who was struggling to see him I lent back into the seat to give Philip a better view when Philip saw him he was out the door and grabbing the sticks I take the rifle and approach we crept in using the available scrub as cover the bull just stood and watched at 150 meters Philip set up the sticks but the only shot I had was a frontal neck shot as his chest was below the river bank slightly obscured by light scrub I told Philip I was happy with the shot. so we worked our way up hill to gain some height on him which also meant passing through one of the cattle fences trying not to twang the wires as we passed through we closed the distance to about 100 meters using the scrub to conceal our approach Philip turned to me and said " keep tight when I place the sticks be ready to shot straight away " Philip steps out from behind the bush places the sticks as he steps aside the rifle is on the sticks cross hair straight on the chest and crack the bull lurches runs 20 meters and is down .

atar the older of the trackers

Hendrik the younger tracker both seemed to be enjoying themselves

 

[Sand Rat]

Nice Kudu and warthog. Really like the hartebeest, he's a real bruiser!

 

[Scott Slough]

Great report so far ... hope there is a trophy room expansion budget!

 

[AB2506]

Congrats!

The kudu is intriguing to me. He appears very long, but that may be deceptive as the curls don't look wide?

Already a very successful trip.

 

[Dudders]

Congrats!

The kudu is intriguing to me. He appears very long, but that may be deceptive as the curls don't look wide?

Already a very successful trip.

he measured 52 inch each side and 11.5 around the base

 

[50by50]

great pictures and great report Dudders! Looking forward to more!

 

[Markvm]

G'day Richard, love the Hartebeest, Oryx and Kudu, well done mate, looking forward to seeing how you go with the Eland. Agree with Robert, I need a career change, 2 trips in six months, very envious!
Cheers, Markvm