I went on my first safari this year to Keerweder Safaris in Namibia. Everyone and everything at Keerweder was great. Without further adieu, let's get into some pictures.

Here is my first springbok. My PH spotted him from about 600 yards away the first morning. We stalked him through the bush (not too thick, but quite sharp) and got within 75 yards. For this springbok I used my Winchester 1895 in .405WIN. I hit him about 2 inches further back and an inch lower than I would have liked, but it was still a clean lung shot. He was dead on his feet for a few seconds then dropped.

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Not too long into our first evening hunt I spotted a young kudu bull that was too small to shoot. We stopped and watched for a minute since we also could see a kudu cow behind some bushes. The PH whispered to me to just wait and watch that cow, when she gets up there will be a bigger bull that follows her. No more than 10 seconds later she got up and the bull below presented himself. I used the other rifle I brought, Browning X-bolt in .375H&H with a Leupold VX-1 3-9x40mm, and hit him just behind his shoulder. He jumped a solid 4-5 feet in the air as half a dozen kudu cows we did not even see popped up and ran all over. Because of all of these cows I could not get off an ethical followup shot.

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Here I am trying to get the tracks with one of the dogs, Rocky, while the PH and the tracker were working a slightly different area. While this is happening, an awesome storm is moving in over the ridge to West of us. We are getting occasional rain on our heads as the lightening and thunder are moving in close. Lightening plus waist high dry grass is a great recipe for fire so we are moving as quickly as possible.

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Rocky went off ahead of us with Blacky, the younger dog, when they caught the kudu's scent. Soon enough we heard barking and they had found him. The PH and I took off in the direction of the barking and when we rounded a tree, there he was perfect broadside staring us down at 40 yards. The dogs were barking at him from a few yards off and the PH called them off so I could take a clean shot. Once the dogs were clear I took a spinal shot to drop him there and then. You could see the bullet impact and the kudu just dropped straight to the ground. My kudu may not be the greatest trophy but it was a great hunt. At this point the storm was nearly on top of us and the picture below is one of the few clear ones since we were moving so fast to get him loaded on the truck before the storm hit us hard. Just after we got him loaded, pea sized hail and golf ball sized rain was pounding down. The lightening and thunder was on us and we were booking it through the bush as quick as we could to get back to the house.

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Below is my gemsbok. I had a few unsuccessful stalks on other gemsbok in the days prior to this. They were great fun, but they were always one step ahead of us. I spotted this one alone and he was hiding behind a bush. I waited for a few seconds before he popped out and took him with the X-bolt. The shot placement was a perfect high heart/lung shot at about 125-150 yards. He ran for less than 20 yards before he fell dead.

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Here is my second springbok. I took him with the X-bolt at a measured 315 yards. He was quartering towards me and the bullet entered above the right shoulder, traveled through the body, and exited vigorously out the left hip. He was still standing and hopping around a little so I chambered another round. When he settled down for a moment I took the follow up shot and dropped him.

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It was a great safari and everyone had fun. I went with my father, father-in-law, and one of his buddies. My dad was the only one of us that had been on safari before and he started planning this trip on his way back from his first. We all took some great animals. The amount of game we saw was absolutely incredible.

Keerweder is family owned and operated. They truly made us feel like we were visiting family who we don't get to see often, rather than clients. Most of what we ate was grown by them or hunted on their land. We were able to try all of the different game that they had on the property.  It was a truly amazing experience.

Now for a few random pictures.

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Looks like you had a ton of fun! That kudu is beautiful!

Awesome!
What is that in the last pic? Cape buff with odd horns or something else?

That is a black wildebeest. Their horns are pretty gnarly. The boss isn't quite as solid as a cape's but their horns point forward so they can hook you easier.

That one was particularly aggressive. My dad and I were trying to do a little bird hunting one morning and were sitting about 200 yards away from the water in the second to last picture. The birds were flying closer to the water so we started to walk towards the pond. That SOB trotted to his group and split them up, 6-8 went to the left so no water was between us and 3-4 went with him to the right so no water was between us. Don't forget about the rest of the heard 20-30 that were on a ridge on our extreme left flank. Then this guy start dipping his head and moving towards us. So I tell my dad that he is getting awfully territorial and means business. We turn back and walk to where we were originally and they go back to their original position on the opposite side of the water.

At this point, I start convincing my dad he needs to shoot this one. He kind of goes back and forth. The PH tells us a story how two guys were killed by one in South Africa on a photo safari. So my dad finally decides its go time and the rest is history.

lol. Nope! We went straight to the farm from the airport and didn't leave until it was time to get back on the plane. We had planned on going into town one day, but I decided I would rather hunt. So the only women folk we saw were the wives of the PHs and a few of the workers. They sang for us once, does that count?

Spectacular!  Thank you.

And congratulations on a great hunt.

Nice.

My wife wants to go back to Africa in 2016 and watch migration.

I wanted to add some hunting if possible. We will only have a few days extra to spare. Is it possible to incorporate a hunt into an Africa trip if you have only a few days?  I have only done some preliminary checking, but from what I have seen, safaris seem to eat up a week or so of time.

You can spend as much or as little time hunting as you want. There was a German couple that was doing some world traveling and they were stopping by Keerweder for two or three days so the husband could do a few hunts. A lot of places have rifles for rent so you don't have to bring one, which is good since traveling with firearms isn't always the easiest. I am sure some places are more accommodating than others for short hunts, but I doubt you would find any trouble finding somewhere that meets your needs. For example, Keerweder has their daily fee which covers basically everything other than the animals and then you pay for what you shoot. It isn't like you are paying for a 7 day hunt and animals x, y, and z whether or not you are successful.

thanks for sharing.

cool that you took game with the .405.



clown

Yeah it was really cool being able to use it. It is great for up close and personal work. It is also a lot of fun to shoot.

Again thats awesome!

If you are hunting plains game, you can hunt for as little as a day in SA, if you were so inclined.  But just a day hunting is much like trying to eat one Lay's potato chip.