Colorado cowman
AH member
My report starts in January when my wife and I traveled to Dallas, TX for the DSC convention and trade show. While I was expecting a big show, the shear numbers of outdoorsmen and women and the vendors gathered to support them was almost overwhelming. We went to DSC to find and book a hunting safari in Africa for plains game and boy did we find the right place to do it.
I had an idea that I wanted, but was not fully committed to, a Namibian hunt due to the hunter friendly atmosphere combined with huge properties, which even when high-fenced didn't feel like you were chasing cows around a pasture. After arriving on Thursday, we spent all day Friday wandering the aisles talking to outfitters from Namibia, several from South Africa and a few others. I think we talked to every Namibian outfit there and came away with a bag full of literature.
Susan, my wife, is not a hunter, or even a camper, and was hesitant about going on safari to Africa, as she was picturing two weeks of living in a tent without showers, running water or hot food. However she does love photography and after visits with a number of obviously reputable outfits she started to warm up to the idea a bit.
We went back to our room after exhausting ourselves and pored over the material we had collected during the day. We narrowed the contenders down to a dozen or so, then grabbed a Lyft to Gilley's to meet a few of the characters on this forum. I honestly don't remember who all we talked to but had many interesting and informative conversations. Also the bourbon may have clouded my memory.
Saturday, we revisited our shorter list of candidates and also talked to a number of taxidermists, freight receiving agents, travel agents, etc, as well as attending a number of the educational presentations, focusing on learning as much as possible about a first trip to Africa. We further reduced our list to a top three, then visited those three again. That night we made a soft decision on Makadi Safaris, owned by Diethelm and Katja Metzger and located about and hour and a half drive Northwest of Windhoek, Namibia. I managed to get hold of a couple of references for the Metzger's and heard nothing but good things.
One of the deciding factors for us was that the Metzgers also run a large cattle ranch, called Kamad Simbra on much of their hunting ground and raise Simbra cattle, a synthetic breed of cattle that combines Simmental and Brahman. The Metzgers raise and sell bulls and are the largest Simbra breeder in Southern Africa. Since Susan and I raise Simmental seedstock in the U.S. we already had a number of things in common and they seemed like a natural fit for us.
On Sunday we went back to the show, booked a 10 day plains game hunt with Makadi, and visited our other two finalists, letting them know our decision so they could open up the dates we had been considering and keeping the lines of communication open in case of a second trip across the Atlantic in the future. We also talked to the folks at Global Rescue and to Jennifer at Travel Express so she could start putting our flights together.
Then we headed back to Colorado to start planning and turning a lifelong dream to reality.
Part of that prep was a new rifle. As I have gotten older, I'm tired of toting around a nine pound rifle. As a result, and after talking to a number of vendors at DSC, when I got home I ordered a Savage 110 Ultralight in .308 Winchester. This is the rifle with a Proof Research carbon fiber barrel, synthetic Accu-Stock and the Accu-trigger. While in Dallas I had already ordered a Leupold VX-5 2-10X scope, with the firedot reticle. My choice of .308 was driven by several factors. First, recoil. With an empty weight of less than 6 pounds, I knew I didn't want a big magnum. Second, availability of ammunition. While I do some reloading, I knew I would not have time between January and August to work up a confidence inspiring handload, and while many calibers of ammunition were in short supply, most vendors seemed to still have a good supply of numerous types of .308 fodder.
After finally receiving the rifle in February and the scope in March, I got my hands on five different premium loads for the .308 with bullets ranging from 168 to 175 grains. After a few trips to the range, the Federal Terminal Ascent with 175 grain bullets rose to the top for accuracy and all the reports I had read about the bullet were confidence inspring. I knew I needed a top-notch bullet from a .308 to make clean kills on some of the bigger animals I was interested in, like oryx, kudu and eland.
I'll stop for now and be back later with our initial travel and first day at Makadi.
The attached pic is of Susan and I on the ouside, flanking the Metzgers.
I had an idea that I wanted, but was not fully committed to, a Namibian hunt due to the hunter friendly atmosphere combined with huge properties, which even when high-fenced didn't feel like you were chasing cows around a pasture. After arriving on Thursday, we spent all day Friday wandering the aisles talking to outfitters from Namibia, several from South Africa and a few others. I think we talked to every Namibian outfit there and came away with a bag full of literature.
Susan, my wife, is not a hunter, or even a camper, and was hesitant about going on safari to Africa, as she was picturing two weeks of living in a tent without showers, running water or hot food. However she does love photography and after visits with a number of obviously reputable outfits she started to warm up to the idea a bit.
We went back to our room after exhausting ourselves and pored over the material we had collected during the day. We narrowed the contenders down to a dozen or so, then grabbed a Lyft to Gilley's to meet a few of the characters on this forum. I honestly don't remember who all we talked to but had many interesting and informative conversations. Also the bourbon may have clouded my memory.
Saturday, we revisited our shorter list of candidates and also talked to a number of taxidermists, freight receiving agents, travel agents, etc, as well as attending a number of the educational presentations, focusing on learning as much as possible about a first trip to Africa. We further reduced our list to a top three, then visited those three again. That night we made a soft decision on Makadi Safaris, owned by Diethelm and Katja Metzger and located about and hour and a half drive Northwest of Windhoek, Namibia. I managed to get hold of a couple of references for the Metzger's and heard nothing but good things.
One of the deciding factors for us was that the Metzgers also run a large cattle ranch, called Kamad Simbra on much of their hunting ground and raise Simbra cattle, a synthetic breed of cattle that combines Simmental and Brahman. The Metzgers raise and sell bulls and are the largest Simbra breeder in Southern Africa. Since Susan and I raise Simmental seedstock in the U.S. we already had a number of things in common and they seemed like a natural fit for us.
On Sunday we went back to the show, booked a 10 day plains game hunt with Makadi, and visited our other two finalists, letting them know our decision so they could open up the dates we had been considering and keeping the lines of communication open in case of a second trip across the Atlantic in the future. We also talked to the folks at Global Rescue and to Jennifer at Travel Express so she could start putting our flights together.
Then we headed back to Colorado to start planning and turning a lifelong dream to reality.
Part of that prep was a new rifle. As I have gotten older, I'm tired of toting around a nine pound rifle. As a result, and after talking to a number of vendors at DSC, when I got home I ordered a Savage 110 Ultralight in .308 Winchester. This is the rifle with a Proof Research carbon fiber barrel, synthetic Accu-Stock and the Accu-trigger. While in Dallas I had already ordered a Leupold VX-5 2-10X scope, with the firedot reticle. My choice of .308 was driven by several factors. First, recoil. With an empty weight of less than 6 pounds, I knew I didn't want a big magnum. Second, availability of ammunition. While I do some reloading, I knew I would not have time between January and August to work up a confidence inspiring handload, and while many calibers of ammunition were in short supply, most vendors seemed to still have a good supply of numerous types of .308 fodder.
After finally receiving the rifle in February and the scope in March, I got my hands on five different premium loads for the .308 with bullets ranging from 168 to 175 grains. After a few trips to the range, the Federal Terminal Ascent with 175 grain bullets rose to the top for accuracy and all the reports I had read about the bullet were confidence inspring. I knew I needed a top-notch bullet from a .308 to make clean kills on some of the bigger animals I was interested in, like oryx, kudu and eland.
I'll stop for now and be back later with our initial travel and first day at Makadi.
The attached pic is of Susan and I on the ouside, flanking the Metzgers.
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