Post by zeeriverrat on Apr 4, 2019 19:13:58 GMT -5
In March, my wife and I, along with our friends from Alaska made a trip to Namibia to hunt and to do some sightseeing as well. The PH we used has concessions in two different areas. When we landed in Windhoek, Nambia, Bennie the PH met us at the airport and we loaded up and drove west for a bit over two hours into the mountains on the edge of the Namib desert. There we hunted on the 50,000acre ranch that was owned by Niko du Toit. This area is the last place you can hunt mountain zebra in their original range, and they are thriving there...
The first morning my friend Ken took the first stalk, I followed along behind Bennie and the bushman tracker Dom. They were spotted about 1/2 mile away and Bennie used the terrain to try to get close enough for a shot..They managed to get within 200yds and Ken shot a big stallion...
Our hunt was off to a good start.. Originally I was on the fence about hunting zebra, but after seeing the zebra rug in our cabin I was convinced that we needed at least one of those. Ken was also looking for a gemsbok and there were a lot of those around.. Later that afternoon, Ken got a shot at a big gemsbok bull...it wasnt hit very well and we had to do some chasing to finish it off..in the end Ken made a fine running neck shot at about 150 yards to finish it.
On the way back to camp with the gemsbok in the back of the truck, a big boar warthog ran across the road...the truck stopped and Bennie jumped out and motioned for my wife Raye to get the rifle...The wart hog ran a little ways and then hid behind a boulder at the base of a tree and some brush...they set up the stix for Raye to shoot, but the boar would move out of sight so they would move again...finally Bennie told her to shoot it at the base of the ear...she did..the blood flew, the warthog flopped over on its back then got up and took off... Bennie, Raye, and the tracker in pursuit...it went around the side of the mountain and Bennie took a running shot and hit a leg, the boar slowed down and when it stopped Raye dropped it... Warthog as on her list...she had a good day..so did Ken..
That evening we had gemsbok for supper, and it was very tasty... We were treated as part of the family and it was all very comfortable...I was looking forward to day 2...
The next morning we saw a lot of game in big herds both zebra and gemsbok, the big herds are hard to stalk and we had a few stalks that didnt go well...
The country was rugged and pretty open so the hunting was not exactly what I had imagined....
At one point, Bennie spotted a huge kudu bull about a mile away...and he said, Bob are you up for a hike...? I got behind Bennie and Dom and we began making a huge circle to get the wind right and be able to access a high ridge that would give us cover...It took a while to get close, and when we did the bulls were on the move so we followed, my tongue was hanging out, Bennie has long legs and is 30 years younger than me, and Dom the bushman, well, he's a bushman.... The kudu went over another hill...Bennie asked me if I wanted to follow...I told him I thought I had one more hill in me...so we went on... We finally were close, within 160yds, I was on the sticks waiting for the bull to come out from behind some brush..about that time a brahma bull that belonged on the neighboring ranch spooked, and then kudu left...we followed but never caught them again....I was glad it was time to head in for lunch.. We did see this little steenbuck on the way back to camp...
That afternoon we headed back out again...we got into an area that was full of zebra and gemsbok running together....probably 500 animals total...they were spooked and were running around trying to decide which way to go to escape... Bennie got me out of the truck and we ran up the road a ways and into the canyon trying to cut the mass of animals off...they verred away from us, but some had already split off and had moved on up the mountain. There was a group of about 7 zebras that were feeding up the mountain side away from us...and we made a stalk...we were crawling in the rocks to stay hidden and finally we got to a place where I could lay down an shoot.. Bennie picked the animal out and I shot...I was laying in a depression with my feet and head higher than my stomach...it was not comfortable...but I made a decent shot. The big mare only went about 100yds and tipped over...
The mountain zebras are different from the common zebra as they have no shadow stripes, their nose is reddish, and they have a fishbone pattern on their back and they are excellent eating, the common zebra is not too tasty..anyway this one will be a rug in the living room...
That evening we had zebra and gemsbok for supper...with homemade peach ice cream for dessert... In the morning we broke camp and had a 7 hour drive to Bennies ranch on the edge of the Kalihari desert... Stay tuned.....
Z