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I give up, I've tried four times to get all the photos to show and it won't work. If you want to see them, click on the links.

Namibia plains game hunt
Kalahari Hunting Safaris Namibia
PH: Hendrik Kotze
April 22nd – 29th
Guns:
Mine -Winchester Model 70 - .375 H&H Magnum using the 300 grain Barnes TSX
My buddy - Ruger Model 77 - .300 Win mag using the 175 Barnes LRX

After United changed our flights 11 times since I bought our tickets last August, we finally left LAX at 4:00 PM Friday, April 19th and arrived in Windhoek, Namibia at 9:30 PM on Sunday, April 21st almost 8 hours later than we had planned. After clearing our guns with the Police at the airport, we were the last people to leave the airport and were met there by our Professional Hunter, Hendrik Kotze. Both of us are in our 60s but to our dismay, Hendrik is 29 years old, 6’4”, 220 Lbs and horribly fit.
Hendrik and Martinus

[img]https://i.imgur.com/KbuduFb.jpg?1[/img]

We left the airport and Hendrik took us to a small motel and checked us in about 11:00 PM. I grabbed a shower and slept until 6:00 AM when we loaded up for the drive to the hunting grounds. About 10:AM we grabbed a bite to eat at a Wimpy’s hamburger stand outside of Mariental, we did a little shopping at a grocery store for supplies for the week and then headed out for another 4 hours on gravel roads to the farm site near Aroab. Around the edges of the towns on the way, we saw troops of baboons.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/wQqcfgE.jpg?1[/img]

We arrived about 2:30 PM, at the Kweekwal farm so we lost most of the first day’s hunting. We unpacked and then loaded the truck to check the sights on the rifles. I shot my first shot over the target frame at 100 yards to clear the oil from the bore and my next shot hit 2.5” directly above the electrical tape cross.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/gMLAx71.jpg?1[/img]

The farm headquarters is 40 miles from the nearest town, 6 miles from the nearest gravel road and 8 miles from the nearest power line. They have solar cells, a wind turbine and batteries for lighting and electricity in the evenings, along with satellite TV and internet.

The main farm is two linked 15,000 acre parcels with two more 15,000 acre farms are about an hour away and they can hunt on their neighbor’s adjoining farms. They also have the rights to hunt in the Karas Mountains about 3 hour’s drive from headquarters, along with some concessions in the Komas Highlands area close to Windhoek. They are in the process of game fencing the farms as they have some game breeding projects going. The current fences are about 6 feet tall with chicken wire one meter high to try to keep the jackals out of the sheep herds. All along the bottom of the fence the Aardvarks have dug foot wide trenches under the wire and all the animals use these to go under the fences. The larger animals like Kudu and eland just jump over the fences as a two meter fence doesn’t even slow them down.
They have some pastures with Sable and Roan that they raise to sell to game ranches in Namibia and South Africa. Along with other fenced areas with breeding stock trying to breed a herd of 40” Gemsbok bulls. The big parcels are full of Springbok and Gemsbok with some Eland and golden gemsbok and black springboks mixed in. One 5,000 acre parcel has blue and black wildebeest and eland in it along with the springbok and gemsbok.
The immediate area around the farm is in the middle of a drought so the farmer’s immediate priority was to reduce the game numbers by culling old and poor animals to save some grass for his livestock and the breeding game animals.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/U9ZpjGh.jpg?1[/img]

After sighting in our rifles, we cruised the area within a couple of miles of the farmhouse where we culled two springbok and a gemsbok. Most of the shots were from 150 yards to 250 yards and the 375 H&H was the wrong rifle to bring for this open country.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/E2vTw6J.jpg?1[/img]
We would spot game from the truck and Hendrik would figure out which way they were drifting and then drive us ahead of them or cross wind where we would then get out and walk anywhere from ¼ mile to a mile in the ankle deep sand, up and down the dunes to cut them off.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/rEeAVnW.jpg?1[/img]



[img]https://i.imgur.com/NuJiHsm.jpg?1[/img]


The second day we got up at 6:00 AM for breakfast and drove to another farm about an hour away.

.

We saw Gemsbok and Springbok in the hundreds
I made a stalk on a couple of Springbok bucks in the bottom of a little valley and lined up on the bigger one on the right. Hendrick then says "shoot both of them" So I shot the bigger one at about 200 yards and then swung on the second one who jumped at the first shot ran about 50 yards and made the mistake of stopping to look at his partner, who was down. I shot him and he went down. I then looked up and the first buck I shot was getting up and struggling to get away so I would up taking a Texas heart shot at 200+ yards to put him down. My first shot hit him high on the shoulder and passed between his lungs and his spine, just stunning him.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/XiZpGqm.jpg?1[/img]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/WkGY2Ey.jpg?1[/img]


We got these cleaned and started off again and spotted a lone Springbok ram standing in the middle of the low grass between dunes. The closest that we could get was about 260 yards so I held my 300 yard pin on his front leg just below his body line and just as I squeezed he lunged forward and I wound up breaking his rear leg. Luckily, he ran in a semicircle that we were able to cut off and I finished him with another Texas heart shot.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/P9BA00Q.jpg?1[/img]

My buddy made a great stalk on a heavy horned Bull Gemsbok and came away with a great trophy with a 200+ yard shot.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/huarxgz.jpg?1[/img]


We spotted a lone old cow with long horns that I stalked within about 150 yards and put down with another shoulder shot. They just don't have the mass of the bull's horns.



My buddy made a a great shot at 300+ to take this cull buck as it was sneaking over a ridge.



The third day we chased Gemsbok and Springbok while looking for Kudu. Because of the drought the Kudu had moved on to other areas where they had received more rain. Fences don't mean anything to kudu but we did spot one good bull on a neighbor's property and a radio call got us permission to hunt there but he eluded us and all we saw were kudu cows and some younger bulls.
Back on the original property, I made a stalk on an old Gemsbok cow and my shot drifted right, hitting her in the neck at 260 yards. This resulted in a mile long chase where I missed a running shot and eventually dropped her with another long shot that broke her off side shoulder.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/X2sGI4h.jpg?1[/img]

While we were cleaning her we saw another old cow about a quarter mile away and I stalked around the dunes to get another 250 yard shot where I again shot right, hitting her too far back but managed to get another shot off quickly putting her down.



My buddy then put another nice springbok in the truck, the shot's not as bad as it looks because it was facing away and he broke the off side shoulder, putting it down.



Here's what an afternoon's shooting looks like:

[img]https://i.imgur.com/ElQmaDq.jpg[/img]

Well since we missed almost a whole day due to travel issues we had to make a decision on a 7 hour round trip drive to the Karas Mountains for a shot at kudu or hunt for something else. Neither one of us wanted any more driving so Hendrik offered us a choice of a blue and black wildebeest instead. Since I hadn't taken a black wildebeest and my hunting partner wanted a blue we decided to take him up on it.

We went to the other farm and cruised around looking for wildebeest, along the way we jumped a great steenbok probably 4.5" tall horns both Hendrik and I tried to talk my partner into shooting it but he didn't want to. After about an hour, we spotted a herd of blue wildebeest and worked our way downwind. We crested a dune and were busted by a herd of Black wildebeest who took off and swept the blues up with them as they ran down the valley. Over the next dune we spotted a couple of Black wildebeest with an older bull.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/wi5EUkI.jpg[/img]

We snuck down wind and crawled over the last dune and saw that he had drifted down to the valley floor. I had an awkward shot of about 150 yards with about a 30 degree down angle. I found his shoulder in the cross hairs and the bullet went down through his shoulder and both lungs. Of course, the rifle recoiled straight back into my sunglasses and gave me another magnum eyebrow.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/7qCGFuF.jpg?1[/img]

We spotted another mixed herd of blue and black wildebeest so Hendrik and my hunting partner started a stalk.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/RUy862O.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/FpHDvjM.jpg[/img]

He had a 150 yard shot on a blue wildebeest bull

[img]https://i.imgur.com/iXEhBif.jpg?1[/img]

And wound up with this:

[img]https://i.imgur.com/HnfDISk.jpg[/img]

After dropping off the wildebeest to get skinned Hendrik and I were still talking about the monster steenbok that we had seen earlier and gradually my partner realized what he had passed up. He wanted to, so we went back to the area that it was in earlier to see if he was still around. We cruised around about an 80 acre area and spotted numerous steenbok but almost all does and a couple of small bucks. Until we saw the flash of a buck running over a hill with horns sticking up above his ears (>4"). We chased the buck over the hill into a little valley where Hendrik and I saw him go behind a bush. We set up my hunting partner where he could overlook the valley and Martinus moved up wind to see if we could get the buck to move. We spotted the buck sneaking out between the bushes and my partner hit the little buck at about 170 yards.
When we got to him, we could see that he was much better than 4.5". Back at the farmhouse Hendrik measured him at 5 2/8" on the long horn and 5" on the other.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/2rQyGV1.jpg[/img]

The next day we started out looking for a gemsbok bull and after passing on a number of younger bulls, I found an older guy that I stalked to about 250 yards. Because I was shooting right at long distance I held on his brisket and promptly missed by shooting right under his neck (to the left). He took off over the hill and we chased after him. He took a weird route and doubled back to the crest of the next dune where I had a broadside shot at 150 yards. I put one on his right shoulder and he went down immediately.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/pxii7ev.jpg?1[/img]


If you notice, there's no exit wound. The 300 grain TSX was found under the skin of the left shoulder (facing the camera), it had shed two+ petals and weighed 254 grains.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/IFFf9u6.jpg[/img]


For the rest of that day and the next we shot 4 more cull gemsbok, all old cows that were in their last season and a couple of cull springbok rams.. You can see the hipbones and ribs on most of these and they all had very worn teeth.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/5tFHlCS.jpg?1[/img]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/TUcxBLI.jpg[/img]


This cow shows how horn growth shows her age. The secondary growth at the base of her horns is 3-4" long. Her teeth were worn below her gum line and she is a very old cow. She probably would have died of starvation in the next couple of months.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/SQAyyUF.jpg[/img]


This was a younger cow but she was severely underweight and the left horn was broken in the socket but still attached. When we first saw her, she was spinning in circles and shaking her head, apparently it bothered her a lot and Hendrik asked me to put her down.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/dfZgk93.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/uETaaCM.jpg?1[/img]

This is the cold room during our hunt.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/lPcw6kL.jpg[/img]


Lots of fun, walking and shooting. The Kotze family are great hosts and the food was great.

Thanks for the write up and the photos

Fjord,

THANK YOU for taking us along on a fabulous plains game hunt. It brought back a lot of memories.

Blessings,

Steve

Nice work......

This site only allows six (6) pictures per post, and it'll show the first 6 that are properly formatted.

Basically, get rid of the "?1" at the end of each web address, making sure the address ends in "jpg", and the rest will show, if you space them out so only 6 pictures are in each post.

Beautiful scenery and game. Makes me want to go back. My dream hunt (one of them) is to track Eland with Kalahari Bushmen trackers.

Did you bring the Cigars or buy them in Africa ??

Thanks alot------You got the juices flowing-----I need to go back.

Looks like you had a great trip---Once you got there.

Brought some Dominicans with me and bought some Cubans from duty free on the plane.

What did the Cubans run you ? Never been on a plane that had a cigar shop.

Austrian Airways had the 5 packs of Romeo & Julietta for 28 Euros

Great report and pics, Fjold.
Congrats on a fine looking hunt.
I leave for Namibia Wed. morning.
Excited even more, now.

Slav,
You need me to watch your domicile while you’re away? Home security is important.

What’s your address and where is the key to your liquor cabinet hidden?

I’ll leave the empty bottles on the counter, so you’ll know what to restock when you get home.

Good Luck on your hunt!

Beav 😎

NICE! man I'm getting the itch.

Fjold,
I enjoyed "riding along" on your plains hunt. Sounded like it was a wonderful adventure. I'm saving Africa for when I can't manage AK and high mountains.
Its too bad posting photos is nearly impossible - after fotoboocket went belly up.

Use Imgur.

DF

The links are working for me, I just have to click on each one to see them.

I looked at that a number of times. Directions written by a techy are beyond me. I no longer have the patience to interpret such jibberish.