Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Namibia - May 2015

Two weeks ago I returned from a ten-day hunt.

Some luggage tags can properly enhance one's gun case, don't you think? (Inside the case, the Browning M1885 inside enjoyed the trip to its fourth continent.)

--Bob
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--Bob

At the 24hrcampfire Texas hog hunt in March, Ingwe and I conversed about my upcoming trip. He strongly recommended that I spend a day at a water hole just for the experience of watching the birds and animals come in. Trusting his advice, I spent about a day and a half watching one, where I made the photo below. I think everyone's Namibian water hole ought to have a neaby castle reflected in it.

--Bob
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--Bob

Uhhhhhhhh.......

to quote a friend of mine 'ques que [bleep]':)


please provide some clarity


thanks GRF

As requested, the longer and possibly clearer story:

Two friends and I spent 8 days hunting in Namibia on a 45,000-acre ranch with Ritter Safaris (rittersafaris.com). I wanted only to take a decent red hartebeest and warthog. The prospects seemed fine, because while exiting the Windhoek airport area, I saw a hartebeest standing next to the fence about thirty yards away. Unfortunately, it was the first of only three I saw during the whole expedition. The other two were not shootable.

While hunting I did see a couple of very nice oryx, a medium kudu bull, and a gold-medal steenbok, but they weren't on my dance card and they walked away. One of my friends took some very nice trophy animals. The other, who had hunted the ranch successfully several times in previous years, was looking only for a nice blue wildebeest, but did not find one.

Towards the end of out stay, our host was becoming a bit frustrated at being unable to show me a hartebeest on his ranch, so we drove 70 km to a neighboring ranch that was known to have some nice ones. We didn't find a hartebeest there either, even while watching the water hole near the castle for more than a day and a half. At dusk the first day I was encouraged to take a shot at a baboon there, but I missed. The next day the troop entertained us from trees 800 yards away.

The water hole was formed by a dam made by the builder of the castle. My inquiries produced some conflicting information about the castle. It appears to have been constructed about 1990 for nebulous reasons by a shadowy German person of unclear background. He and his French wife lived in it for about ten years. Then for uncertain motives they moved out and went to France. The castle is miles from other buildings, and is surrounded by a 20-foot wide "moat" made of a bed of prickly pear cactus. (The wisdom of introducing another thorny plant into a system already replete with spiny, stickery, stabbing vegetation escapes me.)

I shot my warthog while on this ranch. We encountered the animal while we were walking a two-track road next to a fence, looking for hartebeest tracks. The warthog was walking at a moderate pace, and I shot him in the shoulder from sticks at about 60 yards. He reversed direction and started walking slowly the other way, "looking for a place to lie down and die", my guide said. With a second shot into the opposite shoulder he rolled over onto his back and died with his feet sticking straight up. Because of the Germanic background of our hosts, we performed the Waidmanns heil ritual. Unfortunately, a thorny acacia ripped the blood-dipped branch from my hat later that day. I was unable to do the post-mortem on bullet performance because the meat of the animal belonged to the ranch on which we were hunting and we gave all but the head to the workers on that ranch.

We were treated wonderfully by our hosts and their staff. Our rooms were clean and comfortable, and we dined exceedingly well at table with our hosts. Wild game from the ranch was served each night; I thought the braised eland shank was particularly outstanding. Deserts were especially nice, for a young lady who had just completed her training in Germany as a pastry chef had moved in as an au pair a couple of days before we showed up.

I returned from Namibia with a store of narratives so that I can for hours amuse/bore my friends and any strangers within earshot. One of these tales involves both a black mamba and a puff adder entering my ground blind within a ten minute period, and yes, I was in the blind at the time.

--Bob
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Nice pig!

thanks for the clarity, and nice pig

Damn! Sorry you didn't get a Hartebeest.....thats virtually unheard of in Namibia.

ingwe-
Your description of the usual situation seems correct. Our host speaks at least five languages, and I think under his breath he was cussing the hartebeest population in all five of them.

The problem was likely not caused by dumb hunting behavior on my part, because neither of the other hunters saw hartebeest. One of the trackers and I followed the trail of a single good-sized animal for two-three hours before the wind shifted to coming from behind us, which promptly ended that venture.

Absence of a hartebeest skull mount on the wall might be a good excuse to return, yes?
--Bob

Absolutely! Nothing else says " Africa" like a Hartebeest euro mount!

I'm with Ingwe, kind of hard to imagine not seeing loads or hartebeest. I saw hundreds every day, and killed 2 in about 45 seconds. Nice euro there Poobah, very nice.

Bullshooter, which part of Namibia were you hunting?

Not the type of watering hole Ingwe was talking about!

Great pics and story!

You thought I wasn't lurking!

Dang! Busted!

Here Ingwe, this should pacify you (not to hijack the thread).

Bastid!

Im heading to Tejas in two days, pigs aren't on the menu....unless we get done with the other stuff or wanna stay up at night


( I already packed the kill light and McFlame....)

Oh no, the McFlame!

That one was popped Memorial Day with my BIL's .270 (sorry). I'm still putting them in the freezer with the old 7x57. When it's 87 degrees with humidity dripping off you, it's just like being in Africa or India!! Tejas will be the same this time of year.

It is hard to believe you had trouble finding a hartebeest but that's hunting.

One of my biggest regrets was not shooting one on my first trip to Africa.

Ingwe told me to shoot one and I stupidly did not follow his instructions to a T.

For some reason they didn't appeal to me when I was over there but now I want one badly.

So, yes, I am a dumbazz....

It'll be a little more arid where we are in the hill country...but Im prepping myself for the warmth ( I hate warmth...)
Just packed my lite fishing garb....

I just finished Denys Finch Hatton's biography. I discovered that he and I have something in common: we both hate the cold!