Winkabeast
AH member
My brother and I are just back from a great two weeks in Namibia hunting first with Helmut and Cindy Boshoff at Onduri Safaris, and then moving up the road a piece to hunt with Scot and Katie Burchell at Burchell-Wolf Safaris.
A completely different hunting experience at either outfit, but great people at both.
We both decided to hunt with classic rifles, my brother bringing his Shaw Custom in .35 Whelan, and I my Winchester Model 70 chambered for the good ol' .30-06 Guv'ment.
We won the hunt at Onduri in an auction at a DSC dinner.
It included a Hartman Zebra, a Gemsbok, and several cull animals of the outfitter's choice, to be split by the two hunters. Accommodations were nicely done stone bungalows, with a nice outdoor fire area and both indoor and outdoor dining areas. A good deal of culling had been going on here at this time of year, so the animals were a bit shy of the truck(s). This made the hunting a bit difficult if you didn't want to shoot from the truck, but we were still able to take some great animals. I took a nice Hartman's Mountain Zebra after a really fun foot stalk through the thick stuff and a great Impala at last light after sitting a water hole. My brother took a cull eland with a long-ish shot out in the open, and an ancient female Gemsbok, also at last light by a water hole. We also spent a day touring the Etosha National Park, which is where we were able to get the close-up photos of the bull elephant below.
When we moved over to Burchell-Wolf the flavor of the camp and the style of hunting changed dramatically !
The camp was old school... tented... with nicely fitted out wall tents inside thatch structures and a main building set up boma style with a covered perimeter area housing the dining tables and a small bar, but a central fire area open to the African sky. It was traditional and cool and comfortable and relaxing.
The countryside was more mountainous, and though we moved via Land Cruisers, we hunted by climbing to high points to glass, and then we hiked and climbed and busted brush, sometimes eight and ten miles a day, through some harsh, rocky, thorny country !
Our focus was on Blue Wildebeest and Burchell's Zebra. After all, this was Scot Burchell's outfit !
More than 200 years ago, on a five year African expedition from 1810 to 1815, British explorer and naturalist William John Burchell catalogued and named thousands of species of flora and fauna, including the Blue Wildebeest and the Burchell Zebra.
Seven generations later the Burchell family remains in southern Africa, and my brother and I hunted these incredible animals with William's great, great, great, great, great grandnephew Scot.
A really great connection. Circular, and historically interesting, it added immensely to our enjoyment of the hunt. Scot is a young man, but he knows his family history, and seemed to enjoy the fact that we enjoyed that part of the experience as well. Hunting being hunting, my brother was not able to fill his tag on the Wildebeest, but he did take a great Burchell's stallion, and a stud of a Gemsbok bull. I took my Wildebeest, (after a poor first shot, a death-march of a track, and a gunfight-like finisher as the tracking dog held him at bay), a great Burchell's Zebra, and a smoker of a Springbok.
We finished our trip with a drive out across the Namib desert, to the famous Skeleton Coast, and then down the coast road to the old German colonial town of Swakopmund, where we overnighted before the drive back to Windhoek and our long flights home.
All in all a great trip.
I would recommend either outfitter, though the experience differs dramatically.
If you're looking for a hunt that is less demanding physically, with more truck than shoe leather, a family type atmosphere, some fixed blinds and elevated shooting stands over water, and the opportunity to do more shooting for cull animals, Onduri would be the better choice.
If you're looking for a more "boutique" experience, with a traditional tented camp, an old school flavor, a bit tougher, more foot stalk oriented hunting style, and a bit of historical flair... Burchell-Wolf will satisfy.
Enjoy the pics !
A completely different hunting experience at either outfit, but great people at both.
We both decided to hunt with classic rifles, my brother bringing his Shaw Custom in .35 Whelan, and I my Winchester Model 70 chambered for the good ol' .30-06 Guv'ment.
We won the hunt at Onduri in an auction at a DSC dinner.
It included a Hartman Zebra, a Gemsbok, and several cull animals of the outfitter's choice, to be split by the two hunters. Accommodations were nicely done stone bungalows, with a nice outdoor fire area and both indoor and outdoor dining areas. A good deal of culling had been going on here at this time of year, so the animals were a bit shy of the truck(s). This made the hunting a bit difficult if you didn't want to shoot from the truck, but we were still able to take some great animals. I took a nice Hartman's Mountain Zebra after a really fun foot stalk through the thick stuff and a great Impala at last light after sitting a water hole. My brother took a cull eland with a long-ish shot out in the open, and an ancient female Gemsbok, also at last light by a water hole. We also spent a day touring the Etosha National Park, which is where we were able to get the close-up photos of the bull elephant below.
When we moved over to Burchell-Wolf the flavor of the camp and the style of hunting changed dramatically !
The camp was old school... tented... with nicely fitted out wall tents inside thatch structures and a main building set up boma style with a covered perimeter area housing the dining tables and a small bar, but a central fire area open to the African sky. It was traditional and cool and comfortable and relaxing.
The countryside was more mountainous, and though we moved via Land Cruisers, we hunted by climbing to high points to glass, and then we hiked and climbed and busted brush, sometimes eight and ten miles a day, through some harsh, rocky, thorny country !
Our focus was on Blue Wildebeest and Burchell's Zebra. After all, this was Scot Burchell's outfit !
More than 200 years ago, on a five year African expedition from 1810 to 1815, British explorer and naturalist William John Burchell catalogued and named thousands of species of flora and fauna, including the Blue Wildebeest and the Burchell Zebra.
Seven generations later the Burchell family remains in southern Africa, and my brother and I hunted these incredible animals with William's great, great, great, great, great grandnephew Scot.
A really great connection. Circular, and historically interesting, it added immensely to our enjoyment of the hunt. Scot is a young man, but he knows his family history, and seemed to enjoy the fact that we enjoyed that part of the experience as well. Hunting being hunting, my brother was not able to fill his tag on the Wildebeest, but he did take a great Burchell's stallion, and a stud of a Gemsbok bull. I took my Wildebeest, (after a poor first shot, a death-march of a track, and a gunfight-like finisher as the tracking dog held him at bay), a great Burchell's Zebra, and a smoker of a Springbok.
We finished our trip with a drive out across the Namib desert, to the famous Skeleton Coast, and then down the coast road to the old German colonial town of Swakopmund, where we overnighted before the drive back to Windhoek and our long flights home.
All in all a great trip.
I would recommend either outfitter, though the experience differs dramatically.
If you're looking for a hunt that is less demanding physically, with more truck than shoe leather, a family type atmosphere, some fixed blinds and elevated shooting stands over water, and the opportunity to do more shooting for cull animals, Onduri would be the better choice.
If you're looking for a more "boutique" experience, with a traditional tented camp, an old school flavor, a bit tougher, more foot stalk oriented hunting style, and a bit of historical flair... Burchell-Wolf will satisfy.
Enjoy the pics !
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