OK, Here is the report I just finished, it will have to be in several parts to fit in the pics, please bear with me as I get it up today.
Location - Namibia, Caprivi Strip, Salambala and Kabulabula conservancies.
Date of hunt - 01 Sept 2013 thru 18 Sept 2013
PH - Kobus Honiball and Byron Hart, assisted by Radimar Karsten, Andre Bennett, and Peter Brenbman
Rifles used - Heym 88B double, chambered in 416 Rigby, no scope, iron sights, Heym Martini Express bolt gun, chambered in 375H&H, Swarovski 1.4x10, CDI reticle.
Ammo - Federal Capeshock 416, with Barnes banded solids, and Barnes Vortex with 400 grain TSX. Barnes Vortex 300 grain TSX for the 375. Handful of Norma 375 Barnes banded solids for the 375 also.
Animals hunted - Elephant, buffalo, hippo, lion, croc, waterbuck, zebra, impala, blue wildebeest, red lechwe, kudu, warthog, geese.
Well just got back, from an amazing trip, after last years hunt, wasn't sure how to improve it, but think I did so, with help and guidance from the crew at Africa Thirstland Safaris. Last year, I had brought the wife and her sister along, they were great fun to have, but being ladies, there were a few privations we subjected them to that, although I enjoyed, they did not. This year, determined as ever to have a "classic safari", we stayed in tents every night, spent more than half the nights in a lion blind hunting a problem lion, I was glad I had not taken them along, as it was very rugged hunting most of the time. Although the food was great, (Eva, Kobus's chef, was at the camp, and her talents are amazing), I still lost a few pounds, which I was needing to do anyway. I can report that Kobus can still out walk and out run me most any day, particularly when in pursuit of a trophy he has judged in need of our attention!
Travel arrangements were by Steve at Travels with Guns, he and his staff did a superb job as usual. One thing stands out in memory, I had a small rifle snafu at JBerg, on Labor Day weekend. Steve answered the phone himself, rescheduled my flight from Jberg to Windhoek, problem solved. I had a short post about the rifle problem in the travel section, the essential details are as follows:
Flew Houston-Frankfurt-Jberg, overnight at African Sky, SAA to Windhoek, kobus's Cessna to Katima Mullilo in the Caprivi. Got to Jberg, rifles did not, was worried about Jberg/Frankfurt issues, but turns out the problem was the sorry assed TSA in Houston. Rifles in Terminal D get checked by TSA at far east end, then transferred to plane. My bag made it, but rifle case sat on end of TSA belt, rather than make the 100 yard journey to the plane. It made it on the next Lufthansa flight, arriving next day(one day late) in Jberg, I had to move my flight to Windhoek back a few hours to make it work out. Only actually cost me half day hunting time, but I aged considerably in that time the rifles were unaccounted for.
Kobus met me planeside in Windhoek, as is his custom ( as a pilot, he has free access over that airport), collected the bags/rifles and spent the evening with Radimar and his family at their home outside Windhoek. Had time to shoot rifles, talk hunting and catch up since our hunt last year. Radimar was an essential element in our hunt last year and I am glad to report that he is now fulltime with Kobus, and is writing for his big game PH permit this month. The other two assistant PH's on this trip, Andre and Peter are also doing the same, so this trip was another opportunity for them to add to their resume of DG/BG hunts, necessary for the opportunity to write for the BG PH license. Having so many skilled PH's made a lot of things possible on this hunt, but also made it impossible to include everyone in every stalk/hunt. It was very exciting to have so many people wound up to do whatever we needed but also required a little more planning. This group, was VERY good about brainstorming ideas and using the best ones, regardless of whose idea it was. I have seen other situations, where egos became involved, with much less successfull conclusions. There was none of that here thankfully.
Day one - 01 Sept, flew Jberg-Windhoek spent night at Karsten household, shot rifles and got ready for early departure Windhoek Eros airport.
Day two - broke ground at daybreak in the the ATS Cessna 210, flew over the Okavango delta enroute to Katima. We overflew this route last year also, and for anyone that doubts the impact of the impact of the drought here, I offer the pictures below. Last year, the Okavango was full of water, this year, mud flats.
The range conditions on the Botswana side are awful, it is a desert, nothing for food, most of the animals are slipping over to Namibia side at night to eat and water. We over flew the Lake Liambezi area, making up the western edge of the Salambala concession, seeing only a few animals on the Botswana side.
Landed at Katima, still has the sand bagged revetments and bunkers left over from the war. We commandeered an old hanger to shelter the plane for the next couple weeks, and made for Salambala camp.
First order was to get settled in camp, quick lunch, then off for an elephant stalk.
We did not shoot any of the elephants on this stalk, one was a huge bull, but had little in the way of tusks. Salambala in the most simple terms is divided into two areas, the flood plains bordered on the south by the Chobe river, and Botswana, and the core area, mostly thick woods with a few pans of water scattered throughout the thick stuff. This stalk was one of a few in the core area, we spent more of our time on the floodplain.
Following that initial stalk, Byron indicated that we ought to "go down to the river, and shoot a zebra, it won't take long, we will need some bait for the lion". Well, this was a joke of epic proportions, zebra don't normally just stand around and let themselves be turned into lion bait now do they? Turns out, these Chobe zebra do precisely that. We drove down to the river, spotted a herd, Radimar and Mike bail out, stalk up to reasonable shooting range, and pot said zebra. We repeated this over and over the next few days, as I had two trophy zebra on license, plus a large number of permits from the concession for their use, and our bait. It got so easy using the double 416 for bait shooting, to conserve 375 ammunition.
The last picture is of the new Heym bolt rifle my wife encouraged me to get for myself last Christmas. It is going to seem as if this report was an unpaid commercial for that rifle, but I assure you, it is not so. I paid dearly for it! Seriously, the rifle performed great, and was a pleasure to shoot, as well as to look at. I remain convinced, that if limited to one rifle, a 375 H&H bolt gun would be it.
While our crack team of skinners and trackers dealt with the zebra, Bryan mentioned he had a nice waterbuck located, and that if I felt up to a long shot, we could have a go at it today, before it got dark. So all piled into the two Landcruisers, and went off to the east side of Salambala to have a look.
On arriving at the spot, Kobus got that " we must go now " look, and we took off across the wet bottom for the waterbuck herd.
"Mike, this is a very nice waterbuck, let's get as close as we can, then try for him". Famous last words, this guy didn't get big by being dumb. Finally got inside 300 yards with him, after a lengthy trek thru the mud, got a solid shot off, hit a bit high, but still made it count. Another pair of half mile muddy dashes, and he was down.
Location - Namibia, Caprivi Strip, Salambala and Kabulabula conservancies.
Date of hunt - 01 Sept 2013 thru 18 Sept 2013
PH - Kobus Honiball and Byron Hart, assisted by Radimar Karsten, Andre Bennett, and Peter Brenbman
Rifles used - Heym 88B double, chambered in 416 Rigby, no scope, iron sights, Heym Martini Express bolt gun, chambered in 375H&H, Swarovski 1.4x10, CDI reticle.
Ammo - Federal Capeshock 416, with Barnes banded solids, and Barnes Vortex with 400 grain TSX. Barnes Vortex 300 grain TSX for the 375. Handful of Norma 375 Barnes banded solids for the 375 also.
Animals hunted - Elephant, buffalo, hippo, lion, croc, waterbuck, zebra, impala, blue wildebeest, red lechwe, kudu, warthog, geese.
Well just got back, from an amazing trip, after last years hunt, wasn't sure how to improve it, but think I did so, with help and guidance from the crew at Africa Thirstland Safaris. Last year, I had brought the wife and her sister along, they were great fun to have, but being ladies, there were a few privations we subjected them to that, although I enjoyed, they did not. This year, determined as ever to have a "classic safari", we stayed in tents every night, spent more than half the nights in a lion blind hunting a problem lion, I was glad I had not taken them along, as it was very rugged hunting most of the time. Although the food was great, (Eva, Kobus's chef, was at the camp, and her talents are amazing), I still lost a few pounds, which I was needing to do anyway. I can report that Kobus can still out walk and out run me most any day, particularly when in pursuit of a trophy he has judged in need of our attention!
Travel arrangements were by Steve at Travels with Guns, he and his staff did a superb job as usual. One thing stands out in memory, I had a small rifle snafu at JBerg, on Labor Day weekend. Steve answered the phone himself, rescheduled my flight from Jberg to Windhoek, problem solved. I had a short post about the rifle problem in the travel section, the essential details are as follows:
Flew Houston-Frankfurt-Jberg, overnight at African Sky, SAA to Windhoek, kobus's Cessna to Katima Mullilo in the Caprivi. Got to Jberg, rifles did not, was worried about Jberg/Frankfurt issues, but turns out the problem was the sorry assed TSA in Houston. Rifles in Terminal D get checked by TSA at far east end, then transferred to plane. My bag made it, but rifle case sat on end of TSA belt, rather than make the 100 yard journey to the plane. It made it on the next Lufthansa flight, arriving next day(one day late) in Jberg, I had to move my flight to Windhoek back a few hours to make it work out. Only actually cost me half day hunting time, but I aged considerably in that time the rifles were unaccounted for.
Kobus met me planeside in Windhoek, as is his custom ( as a pilot, he has free access over that airport), collected the bags/rifles and spent the evening with Radimar and his family at their home outside Windhoek. Had time to shoot rifles, talk hunting and catch up since our hunt last year. Radimar was an essential element in our hunt last year and I am glad to report that he is now fulltime with Kobus, and is writing for his big game PH permit this month. The other two assistant PH's on this trip, Andre and Peter are also doing the same, so this trip was another opportunity for them to add to their resume of DG/BG hunts, necessary for the opportunity to write for the BG PH license. Having so many skilled PH's made a lot of things possible on this hunt, but also made it impossible to include everyone in every stalk/hunt. It was very exciting to have so many people wound up to do whatever we needed but also required a little more planning. This group, was VERY good about brainstorming ideas and using the best ones, regardless of whose idea it was. I have seen other situations, where egos became involved, with much less successfull conclusions. There was none of that here thankfully.
Day one - 01 Sept, flew Jberg-Windhoek spent night at Karsten household, shot rifles and got ready for early departure Windhoek Eros airport.
Day two - broke ground at daybreak in the the ATS Cessna 210, flew over the Okavango delta enroute to Katima. We overflew this route last year also, and for anyone that doubts the impact of the impact of the drought here, I offer the pictures below. Last year, the Okavango was full of water, this year, mud flats.
The range conditions on the Botswana side are awful, it is a desert, nothing for food, most of the animals are slipping over to Namibia side at night to eat and water. We over flew the Lake Liambezi area, making up the western edge of the Salambala concession, seeing only a few animals on the Botswana side.
Landed at Katima, still has the sand bagged revetments and bunkers left over from the war. We commandeered an old hanger to shelter the plane for the next couple weeks, and made for Salambala camp.
First order was to get settled in camp, quick lunch, then off for an elephant stalk.
We did not shoot any of the elephants on this stalk, one was a huge bull, but had little in the way of tusks. Salambala in the most simple terms is divided into two areas, the flood plains bordered on the south by the Chobe river, and Botswana, and the core area, mostly thick woods with a few pans of water scattered throughout the thick stuff. This stalk was one of a few in the core area, we spent more of our time on the floodplain.
Following that initial stalk, Byron indicated that we ought to "go down to the river, and shoot a zebra, it won't take long, we will need some bait for the lion". Well, this was a joke of epic proportions, zebra don't normally just stand around and let themselves be turned into lion bait now do they? Turns out, these Chobe zebra do precisely that. We drove down to the river, spotted a herd, Radimar and Mike bail out, stalk up to reasonable shooting range, and pot said zebra. We repeated this over and over the next few days, as I had two trophy zebra on license, plus a large number of permits from the concession for their use, and our bait. It got so easy using the double 416 for bait shooting, to conserve 375 ammunition.
The last picture is of the new Heym bolt rifle my wife encouraged me to get for myself last Christmas. It is going to seem as if this report was an unpaid commercial for that rifle, but I assure you, it is not so. I paid dearly for it! Seriously, the rifle performed great, and was a pleasure to shoot, as well as to look at. I remain convinced, that if limited to one rifle, a 375 H&H bolt gun would be it.
While our crack team of skinners and trackers dealt with the zebra, Bryan mentioned he had a nice waterbuck located, and that if I felt up to a long shot, we could have a go at it today, before it got dark. So all piled into the two Landcruisers, and went off to the east side of Salambala to have a look.
On arriving at the spot, Kobus got that " we must go now " look, and we took off across the wet bottom for the waterbuck herd.
"Mike, this is a very nice waterbuck, let's get as close as we can, then try for him". Famous last words, this guy didn't get big by being dumb. Finally got inside 300 yards with him, after a lengthy trek thru the mud, got a solid shot off, hit a bit high, but still made it count. Another pair of half mile muddy dashes, and he was down.
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