I just return last week after a 10 day plains game hunt with @Jamy Traut Hunting Safaris. This was my first safari to Africa and words cannot describe what an awesome hunt my son and I had! At every turn it just kept getting better and better. We started our hunt in his Kaokoland concession. This is remote wild country, over 4 million acres. the only fence was the red line fence and small fence that marked the border to Etosha park. Jamy's son Nicky was our PH and this kid walks on water in my book! He is young but he's one hell of a hunter and knows the game extremely well and is an excellent judge of quality. We just had a blast with him! We were hunting Kudu, Springbok, Gemsbok, Impala, Red Hartebeest, and Warthogs. It's a long drive from Windhoek to the Kaokoland camp and so we spent the first night in a motel about half way at Otjiwaromongo and then arrived in camp around noon the following day. We saw lots of wildlife on the drive and I told Nicky that I hoped to hunt and didn't really want to kill my Kudu the first day. However, we went out after lunch and saw a small Kudu bull, some Mountain Zebra, Springbok, and a few other animals. As we were driving along next to the park border we spotted a Kudu bull just inside the park and a cow outside in our hunting area. We hoped he'd jump the fence to join her but he didn't. We watched him quite awhile and we just started to drive on when Nicky looked into a saddle below and saw a big Kudu and said "Holy Shit!". All I saw was his body but it was big. We jumped out of the Land Cruiser and started a stalk. We got up on this little knob and were able to look down into the draw he'd gone into and across it. We thought he might have headed towards the cow. Nicky moved forward very slowly and then suddenly he saw him coming through the brush towards us! He set up the sticks and told me to let him clear the brush. I shot him quartered to us at about 80 yards! He ran down the hill about 60 yards and keeled over dead! And he had huge curls and I knew he was good because Nicky was so excited! So suddenly I had become that guy! The one who goes out opening day and shoots a huge animal and drives his truck up to it and is home by noon! So much for not shooting one first day!
The next two days we did a lot of driving and hunted Springbok. My son shot a super nice one and we drove some more and I shot a nice one as well. The next day we hauled the meat to the office where they distribute it to the native villages. There was this huge forest not far from the village and Nicky said it usually held Kudu and asked if we wanted to go for a walk. We said sure and so we drove over and spent about 2 hours wandering through this forest, filled with Kudu tracks, elephant sign every where and lots of giraffe. We saw some giraffe but no Kudu. We came out to the edge for lunch and found a shade tree and while we were eating lunch 4 bull elephant came out and were dusting themselves and eating. Super cool! There was a game guard with us and he'd called the village and here came two pickups filled with villagers to look at the elephants! They drove real close to them and when they came back they told our tracker they had seen a Kudu. So after lunch we moved down several hundred yards past the elephants and started back into the forest. Almost immediately we jumped a Kudu cow. I'm thinking, man this is going to be tough getting a shot at a bull in this stuff. We kept on and then there was a giraffe in front of us, looking right at us. We froze because they are a sentinel animal and once they spook everything goes with them. Suddenly Nicky spotted a couple cow Kudu moving to our right. He quickly set up the sticks, got my son set up and told him the bull was coming. He only had a small shooting lane and when he stepped into it Nicky let out a grunt and he stopped and my son dropped him! Unbelievable! I was one excited Dad! And he was a beautiful bull.
The next two days we did a lot of driving and hunted Springbok. My son shot a super nice one and we drove some more and I shot a nice one as well. The next day we hauled the meat to the office where they distribute it to the native villages. There was this huge forest not far from the village and Nicky said it usually held Kudu and asked if we wanted to go for a walk. We said sure and so we drove over and spent about 2 hours wandering through this forest, filled with Kudu tracks, elephant sign every where and lots of giraffe. We saw some giraffe but no Kudu. We came out to the edge for lunch and found a shade tree and while we were eating lunch 4 bull elephant came out and were dusting themselves and eating. Super cool! There was a game guard with us and he'd called the village and here came two pickups filled with villagers to look at the elephants! They drove real close to them and when they came back they told our tracker they had seen a Kudu. So after lunch we moved down several hundred yards past the elephants and started back into the forest. Almost immediately we jumped a Kudu cow. I'm thinking, man this is going to be tough getting a shot at a bull in this stuff. We kept on and then there was a giraffe in front of us, looking right at us. We froze because they are a sentinel animal and once they spook everything goes with them. Suddenly Nicky spotted a couple cow Kudu moving to our right. He quickly set up the sticks, got my son set up and told him the bull was coming. He only had a small shooting lane and when he stepped into it Nicky let out a grunt and he stopped and my son dropped him! Unbelievable! I was one excited Dad! And he was a beautiful bull.
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