Back from Africa

I got back from Namibia yesterday and could not have asked for a better hunt. For those of you who are interested, I will post some photographs and hunt stories below. I hunted with Vaughan Fulton's Classic Safaris on a 700,000+ acre concession on tribal communal lands in northern Namibia adjoining the western end of Etosha National Park. The camp was a tent camp with only generator and battery power but very comfortable. This area is very remote and we saw numerous elephant and leopard tracks and saw both lions and elephant near a water hole on the adjoining concession. The nearest town from the camp was about 2 to 2.5 hours away via donkey cart roads, dry riverbeds and a gravel road. This is a remote and wild area with native species only, no introduced animals or fenced-in enclosures. All the hunting was by spot and stalk. While maybe not as plentiful as on some of the ranches, there was no shortage of animals once you found them. Executing a successful stalk was a different matter however.

I was after kudu, gemsbuck, Mountain Zebra and springbuck and was successful on all the animals although I got lucky on the Zebra as they can be very difficult to stalk up on, and I was sweating bullets by the time I got my Kudu on day 5. I was fortunate that I shot very well and took each animal cleanly with one shot each from my Winchester Model 70 chambered in 300WM shooting Federal 180 gr. Trophy Bonded Bearclaws.


This was a nice stallion. On the left is my PH, Thorsten, my tracker, Elia and me on the right. As I mentioned, I got lucky and got him on the first day. We had started a few stalks before this one and they ended almost as soon as they began with extremely wary animals picking us off soon from distances of up to a mile away. We stalked up to within about 30 yards of the herd this stallion was in but had to move around the mares to get a shot at him. We got about 1/3 of the way around the mares without being detected when luck went my way. The stallion started to walk around the top of the herd and then moved straight towards us. I took him at about 70 yards.

Springbuck

The next day I took this old springbuck. His horns measured 16.25 inches, which is very large. He had a large herd of females with him and you can see by the scars on his face that he has done a lot of fighting. I shot him after a long stalk that took us across the top of a mountain (a hill by my PH’s standards) while the herd stayed down on the plain.

Gemsbuck

Two days later, I took this huge gemsbuck. He had 38” and 40” horns but what impressed me most was the size of the bases. This was the shortest stalk of only several hundred yards over about 30 to 45 minutes at the most. However, the last couple hundred yards was duck walking through deep, loose sand in a dry creek bed.

Kudu

I got this kudu on day five. I was sweating it because we had already had a couple of blown stalks on previous days and passed up several that were slightly longer but younger with shallow curls. He only went 50” but was a nice old bull and is a great trophy. This stalk was the most difficult of all of them because we had to head up the mountain after him late in the day. Thank god we caught up to him about mid way up the mountain. We took just the cape and horns down that evening and came back with some nearby villagers to pack the rest of the meat off the mountain, which they kept.

Femal Springbuck

I decided that I wanted to mount my springbuck male on a pedestal with a female and took this mature female on the last day of my hunt.

That is awesome. Those are some great animals for sure. The pictures are great also. I'm sure that is a hunt you will never forget.

Looks like you had a great hunt and time. I am hopeing to go to South Africa in Nov.

Beautiful animals and what sounds like a great hunt. Congrats.

Jim

Congrats on your great trophies. That's beautiful country over there, isn't it??

Great Hunt!

George,
You have shaken me up! The Kudu and Gemsbok have always been a dream for me to shoot. No head mounts on the wall but those will definitely be made and the heck with the wife's opinion. For folks who may think this is a trophy hunt only, all meat (and other parts) is used by locals.

The springbok look awesome too! Glad to see that you had a great hunt and returned safely. I've got two hunts in planning stages at this moment but I may change that attitude soon. My initial plans are Newfoundland (born there) for Moose and Boo, or Labrador for a cast and blast (Boo & Brookies). Now I may have to put those on the back burner for this hunt.

Please PM about the hunt and the PH.

Russ

what do you do with the meat?

huntfish said:

...For folks who may think this is a trophy hunt only, all meat (and other parts) is used by locals...

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Russ,

You are right about that. We kept some of the meat in camp. A tenderloin from the zebra, back straps from the springbuck, a tenderloin and the liver from the gemsbuck and a tenderloin and liver from the kudu. Everything else went to local villagers in the area including the heart, liver, stomach and large intestines. They let nothing go to waste. My favorite was when one of the villagers took the remainder of the kudu hide to cover the seat on his donkey cart. He is going to be riding in style.

The way they divided up the animal was very interesting. After the animal is caped or skinned, they remove a couple of the ribs and remove the ogans through the side first. They do not slit the belly like we do. Once removed, they will then open the animal up. Rather than just cut off the back straps, they split them lenthwise and then use an axe to cut the ribs from the backbone where the split is. That way anyone who gets a section of ribs gets some of the backstrap as well.

I will send you a PM Russ.

George

Jorge sorry for not reading that. I am glad that the meat was not left out. Glad to hear it just aint killing.

Nice animals you took.

HOw was the zebra?

Schulze said:

Jorge sorry for not reading that. I am glad that the meat was not left out. Glad to hear it just aint killing.

Nice animals you took.

HOw was the zebra?

Click to expand...

No problem. The zebra is surprisingly good. I shied away from in on the menu at the restaurant I ate at the first night I was in Windhoek, but after having roast while I was at camp (it taste almost just like beef) I ordered it the night before I departed for home. You would not be able to tell the difference from zebra steak and a beef steak at the restaurant.

The best however was gemsbuck fillet. One of the most tender and flavorful meats I have ever had. Gemsbuck liver is not bad either if you like liver.

Congrats on what I'm sure was an exciting and very memorable hunt.I'm no expert on gemsbuck but that looks like a whopper to me!
Again congrats on your success in Africa and I'm sure that it's a big plus to see so many people enjoy the bounty of your hunt.

Concerning the meat, this is also a routine method for hunting in Alaska and Canada on remote hunts. Use the select choices for camp and the locals get the rest. Kudu tenderloins, now I'm drooling.......

George, that looks and sounds like a dream hunt of a life time.

Yhose are some fine looking animals you got and some great pic's as well....

Congrats!

I'm glad to see you had a good time. The springbok and the gemsbok especially are wonderful trophies. The kudu and zebra are nice as well. This just whets my appetite for next summer.
I'm leaving for New Brunswick on Sunday for a black bear hunt. I'll post some pictures when I get back.

On the meat question, I don't think it is legal to import African game meat into the U.S. Also, on some hunts you have to pay extra to get any meat that is not served in camp. Remember that most of the game farms in southern Africa are converted cattle ranches. Farmers have found that hunting is more profitable than cattle was. The farmer charges a price for the animal to be slaughtered (by the hunter) and then turns around and sells the meat at market. Not to say that African hunting is not fair chase (because it is) but they have a different mindset towards hunting than we do. In Africa, as well as in some European countries, the hunter gets the head and hide and that's it. In Germany deer hunters get the head, hide and internal organs. The landowner gets the meat, which sells for a lot in Germany.
Don't worry about meat going to waste in Africa. It is a precious and valuable commodity. They even eat monkeys in some countries (they call it "bushmeat").

great hunt Jorge..........congrats!!!!

glad you're back safe..............one HECK of a nice Gemsbok!!........did ya bless all the little pygmies over there??? ................and was that Zebra black with white stripes, or white with black stripes??