TexianHussar
AH veteran
This is my first hunt report for AfricaHunting.com, so if there’s anything I’m missing, let me know and I’ll do my best to fill in the blanks. Here's hoping you don't mind a (very) long read!
Personal Context (skip if you just want to get to photos and description of the hunting days):
I joined AfricaHunting.com (AH) in the late spring of 2023 and pretty quickly made friends with @rookhawk and thanks to his introduction have gotten to know @Red Leg very well. I consider myself extremely lucky to have them both as mentors in all things firearms and hunting. I bother them A LOT with many questions, a fair number of them dumb, but they have always been kind and generous with me. They have truly inspired me with their own adventures and knowledge. I’m especially grateful for their mentorship and the mentorship of other esteemed forum members because I didn’t grow up hunting. Despite being from Ohio, a great whitetail state, it just wasn’t something my family did. I did, however, get hooked on Jack London, Gary Paulsen, and Jean Craighead George books when I was a kid and eventually graduated to Peter Capstick, Robert Ruark, Hemingway, Wilbur Smith, etc. At some point I also began getting myself copies of Sports Afield, Double Gun Journal, etc. Suffice to say hunting has always been a prime interest of mine, but I didn’t have the opportunity growing up. Then between earning various degrees and my time as an Army officer, I could never quite find the time or money. I finally took my first big game animal, a 200lb 8-point whitetail, in the Alabama Black Belt in January 2020. That was just before the Covid craziness, turning 30, and getting out of the Army that summer. After business school I moved to Austin, Texas then joined AfricaHunting and got inspired to hunt some whitetail in Texas. I even made a trip to Saskatchewan for whitetail over Thanksgiving 2023. That Saskatchewan hunt was a test of my will / discipline as a hunter: I spent 6 full days sitting in the blind in the Saskatchewan snow seeing very, very little. I finally took a nice buck on my last morning from the blind at ~70 yards, but after that experience I wanted to try some proper spot and stalk hunting that would challenge me and help me grow my skills as as a hunter, outdoorsman, marksman, etc.
Prior to this Namibia trip in May/June of 2026, my hunting record was 5 whitetail bucks taken with my Tikka 30-06 from a ground blind or a tree stand over the course of as many years. Add in a few bird hunts in Georgia and Texas, four days of dove shooting in Argentina, and you have the whole of my lifetime hunting experience prior to my 36th birthday. Thankfully, this safari changed that in a big way.
Lead Up and Expectations of the Hunt (skip if you just want to get to photos and description of the hunting days):
While I was living in Austin, I met fellow AH members @dchum and @JINKLE . They are a decade younger than me, but certainly more experienced hunters. In addition, they are truly upstanding, outstanding gentleman and I’m grateful to have spent a little time getting to know them. We also share a hunting ethic focused on taking free range, fair chase, mature animals in their native range (or as close to it as possible) with an emphasis on the experience while using hunting techniques and marksmanship standards that respect the game.
That said, I have my own standards for the trophy quality of the animals I take, but in my mind bigger is always better (unless they’re immature). I’m willing to pass on less mature or less impressive animals for something that really gets my blood pumping. For an example of my feelings toward trophy quality: I’d love to take one (and hopefully more) old, scarred up, huge bodied, hard bossed, scrum cap dagga boy cape buffalo one day, but I hope my first few buffalo will be be old, scarred up, huge bodied, hard bossed dagga boys with amazing boss, deep drops, great length and all the things that make their horns so magnificent. If I can hunt animals that have it all, I want to take animals that have it all. Call me greedy.
A 55” kudu isn’t magically more worthy than a 53” kudu, but I’d sure love to take a 60” kudu or a 50” sable one day. That said, I certainly wouldn’t consider a hunt to be a failure if it wasn’t the biggest animal of mine to date or some specific measurement wasn’t reached. Experience trumps trophy quality, but the big ones are special. If I go to my grave having never taken a 60” free range, fair chase, kudu, I don’t think I’ll cry over it in my last moments. However, I sure think it would be cool to take some monsters in my time.
Sometime in 2024 @dchum told us about his great first experience hunting free range plans game with Philip Hennings’ @KHOMAS HIGHLAND HUNTING SAFARIS (KHHS) in Namibia in 2023 or earlier 2024. @dchum had such a great experience that he wanted to go back and he was kind enough to invite @JINKLE, myself, and a few other friends for a week of hunting in May of 2025. I knew @dchum 's quality and trusted that if he recommended KHHS, I’d be pleased with the experience and the hunting. We put down our deposits with Philip in the spring of 2024 (I think).
All of my big game hunting experiences prior to this Namibia trip had been solo affairs, so I was really looking forward to the fellowship and fun of a group trip. I've never married, no kids, and my family doesn’t hunt, so sharing the experience with friends sounded great. I had done a few bird shoots with @Red Leg and always had a great time with him.
Unfortunately, by the time spring of 2025 had rolled around, I had left Texas for an extremely demanding job in Northern Virginia. By March 2025 it looked like I would be closing my first big deal in May/June, so I reached out to Philip at KHHS somewhere ~90 days out from our hunt and asked if he would keep my deposit so I could hunt with him at a future date. He was kind enough to accommodate me. I kept in close touch with @dchum, @JINKLE, and the rest of the group as they had a fantastic hunt with Philip and his team in May of 2025. They sent me awesome photos and videos and I was really excited for them as they had success. Thankfully, I was able to get the big work deal done in early June 2025, so I didn’t miss the trip for nothing.
After finally getting a little time off around Christmas of 2025, I decided that I was going to make the time and spend the money to go on my first African hunting safari with Philip in the spring of 2026. I relied heavily on @dchum , @JINKLE , and the group as I decided on what to hunt and when. I eventually landed on hunting 10 days from the 25th of May (Memorial Day 2026) to the 5th of June 2026, hoping to catch the kudu rut. @dchum and the group told me about the great oryx, kudu, and other free range plains game they had taken, particularly emphasizing the opportunities and success they had on big mature oryx and the more unique-to-Namibia animals such as the Hartmann’s mountain zebra. In addition, there would be the chance at Tiny 10 species like klipspringer, steenbok, and damara dik dik. I hadn’t dreamed about taking the Tiny 10 for decades like I had dreamed of hunting kudu and oryx and zebra, but as I learned more about them from AH, I got excited about the opportunity to hunt them. I eventually landed on the following list (in order of my personal priority) with Philip over WhatsApp:
Once I was able to confirm the dates with Philip, I decided that I’d take a few extra days to experience Cape Town on my way to Namibia. I am a romantic, a big history buff, and a gourmand with a healthy appreciation for natural beauty and good weather. I learned that traveling through Johannesburg is more common for hunters, but Cape Town had been high on my travel to-do list for a long time, so I decided to make it happen in conjunction with this first hunt in Namibia.
I had previously flown from Texas to Saskatchewan and back with my rifle and didn’t find it particularly traumatic, but decided for this more complex trip I’d use one of the hunting travel agents. I contacted Gracy Travel on the recommendation of @Red Leg and while I used my Chase points and travel portal to book the historic Mount Nelson hotel in Cape Town, Shawn at Gracy booked all of my flights using my points / credit card and took care of rifle permits, visas, airport transfers, and rifle storage.
I spent all winter and spring watching YouTube videos of kudu, oryx, zebra, and other African game hunts. I also re-read some of my Ruark, Hemingway, Wilbur Smith, Bartle Bull, etc and studied up on my copy of The Perfect Shot. I also rewatched Out of Africa, The Ghost and The Darkness, and a number of Boer War and South African Border War documentaries.
I travel like crazy for work, so unfortunately didn’t get to the rifle range until late April, too late to realize that I wasn’t getting good cheek weld on the beautiful Dakota 76 in 300 H&H I had planned to bring on the hunt.
I ended up getting my good practice in with and then eventually taking Old Reliable, my distinctly unsexy Tikka T3 Stainless with factory stock, topped with a Leupold VX5HD 3-18x50. I was shooting factory Barnes cartridges loaded with the 180gr TTSX that were moving ~2800-2900 fps at the muzzle, higher than the 2750 fps stated on the box. @dchum and @JINKLE advised me that given the mountainous terrain, they had done a lot of their shooting in May 2025 between 200-400 yards, so Google Gemini and I came up with a good dope chart for the 180gr TTSX out of the 30-06 and I got confident shooting an 8 or 6 inch steel target at 300 yards. Prior to this hunt I had never even attempted a shot at an animal beyond ~150 yards, so I was a little anxious about the longer ranges, but got ready the best I could.
@dchum got me a good packing list and thanks to all the great rifle, optics, and gear advice I had gotten over the years from @rookhawk and @Red Leg, I found that with a few exceptions I had pretty much everything I needed for the hunt. On @dchum’s advice, I grabbed some cigarettes and cough drops for the PHs and staff at KHHS (they definitely appreciated it). I also bought an IPhone 17 Pro a few days before the trip, primarily for what my research told me was in impressive camera. I had been rocking an iPhone 11 for years and years, as I much prefer to spend my money on classic rifles and travel than technology, so this was a major upgrade. The money spent on that new phone/camera is some of the best I ever spent because of the incredible video and photos it captured on this hunt.
The Travel + Cape Town (skip if you just want to get to photos and description of the hunting days):
I took the day before my flight off from work to finalize packing. Gracy Travel provided me a complete packet with all of my paperwork a week or so before, so I also familiarized myself with all that. I haven’t been so careful with my packing since I was going on field exercises in the Army, and I’m so glad I was. I had everything I needed and was prepared + comfortable every day.
I flew from Washington, DC (Dulles) to Cape Town via Atlanta. Checking in with Delta, getting my rifle inspected / checked in, and getting through security took me a total of about 30 min. I’m thankful that all the travel was smooth and when I arrived in Cape Town on Friday evening I was met at the airport by a friendly face, handed my rifle off for storage over the weekend, then was driven straight to the Mount Nelson.
Service at the Mount Nelson was excellent (as one would hope) and they upgraded me to a very large room with a truly spectacular view of Table Mountain (as I had requested back in Dec/Jan). I ate an excellent dinner that evening at the Red Room (modern, “Westernized,” Chinese restaurant inside the Mount Nelson). Breakfast at the Mount Nelson was fantastic and I ate an enormous meal each morning I was there. I spent Saturday exploring the history and food and books available in Cape Town on foot before heading back to the Mount Nelson for its famous Afternoon Tea service. On a colleague’s recommendation, I got a private, guided, driven tour on Sunday which included Groot Constantia (oldest vineyard in the southern hemisphere, not to mention South Africa) and a trip to the Rhodes memorial. I had underestimated the sheer natural beauty of Cape Town and the surrounding area, so I am definitely planning to go back to in the future to explore further. If you haven’t been to Cape Town, I would highly recommend it as a stop on your way to or from your next hunt in Africa.
View attachment Table Mountain.jpeg
The Hunt:
Arrival Day
The transportation service arranged by Gracy picked me up right on time at the Mount Nelson on Monday (Memorial Day) morning, then got me to the airport and accompanied me through check-in, rifle inspection, and all the way to security gate. Everything was very smooth.
I arrived in Windhoek and met my PH, Juan van Zyl, at the airport arrivals area. I was in contact with Philip on WhatsApp the whole time and felt well taken care of. Juan and I immediately hit it off. We got my rifle and ammo with a fairly minimal delay, threw my rifle case and baggage in the Land Cruiser he uses for the city and headed to the taxidermist, on the way to camp. Stopping at the taxidermist was great because it 1. made me even more excited for the hunt and 2. helped me ask Juan questions about judging horns, age, sex, etc. We arrived in camp ~3:00pm and Juan showed me to my lodging, a perfectly comfortable free standing, hard walled “hut” with two twin beds, nicely hot and well pressured water, and a functioning heater/air conditioner that I almost never used. The hut also had John Seery Lester prints inside, which I loved.
Once I dropped off my bags, Juan and I headed to the rifle range. I brought 60 rounds of factory ammo and was on paper quickly enough, but needed some shots to foul the barrel and had some trouble getting a good rest and, so ended up burning through 20 rounds getting a group I was happy with ~3 inches high at 100 yards. Then I spent another 20 rounds shooting steel on the bench and off the shooting sticks out to 300 yards. Right around sundown, a group of guinea fowl wandered onto the range ~225 yards and once I got the green light from Juan, I aimed center mass on one, squeezed the trigger, and didn’t see an explosion of feathers, so I thought I missed. Then we practiced on the sticks and on my last shot I got set on the sticks smoothly (slow is smooth, smooth is fast), aimed, and rang the steel at 300. It was a good note to end on. As we drove out to pick up the paper target at 100 yards, we saw my first kill of the safari, a guinea fowl with a 180gr TTSX through his chest. First blood and hitting a small, moving-ish target at 225 yards was exactly the confidence boost I needed and we left for dinner back at the main lodge in camp. I told Juan that I heard from @dchum the ranges could be long, but he assured me that he and his hunting partner / tracker Isaak (who started the hunting business with Philip’s father a few decades ago) preferred to stalk close whenever possible. I told him that was perfect.
The main lodge at Philip's place was extremely comfortable with a well stocked bar (though I’m not much of a drinker), a good selection of books, comfy couches, a nice fireplace, great trophies and art, some very sweet hunting dogs (Philip’s half-boerboel and half-Rhodesian Ridgeback “puppy” Zulu, at only 1.5 years old, is one of the most handsome dogs I’ve ever seen), and great company. It was a pleasure to finally meet Philip, and all of the staff made me feel very welcome. Although I missed enjoying the group and @dchum and @JINKLE's company, this was the least lonely I have ever felt on a hunting trip. I really enjoyed the company of all of Philip’s PHs and staff, but feel particularly grateful for getting paired with Juan. He and I shared a hunting philosophy and we just clicked.
I also met two couples from Singapore in camp (their first time hunting anything, let alone hunting Africa) and they ended up being great fun. Phillip’s lodge is inside of his high fenced reserve, but his free range hunting takes place outside on four large cattle farms / ranches that he owns and/or leases, not to mention other hunting areas he has access to (like the one for Damara dik dik). I think I heard 50,000 acres of free range hunting area, but I’m not sure if that number is correct.
The first pleasant surprise of this hunt was the fact that breakfast was typically served at 6:30am and we were usually were in the truck by 7:00 or 7:30am. I love hunting, but I’m not a huge fan of rising at 3:30am or 4:00am. For good hunting and the best chance at the best trophies, I’ll certainly do it, but I’m just not a morning person, even after my years in the Army. Waking up at 5:30am or 6:00am is a far, far more pleasant start to a long day in my eyes. After the morning’s hunt came a midday break from ~12:30pm to ~3:30pm featuring a delicious lunch, a couple hours in comfy house clothes, and a delightful nap, then another 3 - 3.5 hours of hunting before a shower and dinner at 8pm, then dealer’s choice of party or relax or sleep. The pace made the entire experience exceedingly pleasant, but I still felt like we hunted hard and did our best to be successful. I’m looking forward to more spartan experiences deeper in the bush in the future, but I certainly enjoyed the comforts of this particular safari. Hunting for me is not a test. Perhaps it’s most accurate to say that for me hunting is a celebration of the following: returning to nature and being truly present in it, being close to animals (domestic and wild), using and refining one’s skills, learning new things, connecting with the legendary hunters of history, and engaging in mankind’s oldest, greatest, most primal passion aside from love and war.
The second pleasant surprise was the weather. I had done my research and I knew that temperatures would be in the 70s F, but we were blessed with some truly perfect weather. Every day but one was completely, absolutely cloudless with brilliant but not brutal sun, light breezes, and highs in the mid-70s F plus lows in the 40s F. Day 9 had a few clouds, lows in the 30s F, and a noticeable wind that in my mind reduced the game movement a bit. But by any standard, even the worst day of weather was excellent. In addition, given the temperatures and environment, I was bothered by insect life exactly zero times. I believe I saw one mosquito my entire trip, but didn’t even have to slap it away. Again, exceedingly pleasant.
The third pleasant surprise was the PHs and my related but somewhat less pleasant, unexpected welcome to middle age. I was deeply impressed by how young the PHs were, yet how seriously and how well they executed their responsibilities. Juan is the old man of the group at 25 and has been with Phillip for 6 years. Retief is just 22 and runs the kitchen/camp, while Juan manages operations overall. It seemed that going far above and beyond to make the clients have a great experience was just the standard expectation among them. I was also deeply impressed with their skills in everything from tracking game to welding truck parts to managing our meals and everything in between. I was also struck by the fact that these young guys eat zero vegetables while drinking almost no water (yet plenty of booze with clients), and still perform well in the field the next day. I greatly enjoyed their company, but they made me feel old!
Day 1:
Not long after we headed out the gate on the first morning and got into the hunting area (not a long drive at all), we stopped because Isaak and Juan spotted an oryx that was worth a closer look. He was maybe 500 yards out, so we started the first stalk of my life. This was also my first introduction to how wary oryx can be. We stalked closer, but lost sight of him in some rock and brush. We got back on his trail, stopped suddenly, then saw his rear end crash though some brush maybe 50 yards away. I had never been so close to such a large wild animal before. We then climbed out of the bush and onto the road where we walked to meet the truck, spotting some leopard tracks along the way. That morning I began to appreciate how incredibly blind modern, urban man is. One of my favorite things about hunting is that it actually forces to hunter to engage his senses in a way that essentially never happens in modern, urban life. This hunt made me use my vision like never before, despite my having spent more days in the field than maybe ~95% of Americans, trying to spot things in the distance while on reconnaissance.
Not long after I was thinking “how in the hell are we going to spot a steenbok or a dik dik in country like this?”, the truck stopped so we could take a closer look at a young steenbok frozen in the bush maybe 15 yards away from the truck.
That morning I also learned the art of dodging thorns in the back of the truck and I saw my first wild oryx, baboons, steenbok, and waterbuck. The day before, while Juan and I were at the range, the group from Singapore took what seemed like a particularly impressive waterbuck bull on Philip’s high fenced reserve. Now, my first hunting day, we stopped to look at a bull and a few cows, the first waterbuck I had ever seen, and Juan mentioned that this free range bull was about as good as the one taken on the reserve yesterday, I was briefly tempted to make a stalk, but instead just appreciated the animals in the binoculars before we headed in for lunch. It was a great first morning. I was also happy that when we are were driving, like me, Juan would do everything he could to avoid hitting a rabbit on the road. It was obvious that we all love and respect animals, and not just the glorious game species.
That afternoon we crested a ridge and stopped to look at a half dozen oryx who looked at us intently and gave us just enough time to study them and admire what cool animals they are. They moved off with a purpose and we continued along the trail.
Just before 5pm, with the day just beginning to wind down, Isaak called for a halt and helped me spot a lone kudu bull almost exactly at our six o’clock, standing still looking directly at us through a bush maybe 75 yards off. The first kudu I had ever seen in my life. I had done my research and tried to judge his depth of curl. He was a mature kudu, but I couldn’t get a sense of how big he was. He moved away from us at a leisurely pace, quartering away toward his and our right. He seemed generally unconcerned with our presence. I had told Juan and Isaak about my trophy standards and that I was in no rush to do any shooting, but they looked at the bull and decided he was a shooter, so we rapidly scrambled off the truck along with Joey, an 18-year old intern / apprentice PH from Australia whose family had recently purchased a farm in the Etosha area. I gave Juan my phone and I followed Isaak onto the ridge to our right as we shadowed the bull.
In fairly short order, Isaak set up the sticks and I got the crosshairs onto the bull as he moved out of a bush, now walking parallel to us along the next ridge, roughly broadside, perhaps 125-150 yards off. I asked if he was worth taking and didn’t really get a response, so I did my best to study him. He was a very pretty kudu. He continued walking leisurely to our right, roughly broadside and moved into a group of trees.
Isaak picked up the sticks and we moved off to our right up the ridge again, around our own group of trees. On the far side, Isaak set up the sticks and I again got onto the bull. He still seemed unconcerned, moving steadily broadside to us. This close range, fast paced, rapid-decision hunting was not what I expected when I imagined and prepared for hunting in the Khomas Highlands. I had imagined taking our time to evaluate a bull that was 800 yards off before stalking to 300 and making a shot. Things happened so quickly, I didn’t even have my scope’s red dot on.
Here in the moment, however, I decided I would be happy with this pretty kudu as my first African game animal. However, he continued to gracefully move broadside to us, in and out of brush, and I was not going to attempt a shot on a moving bull. The bull paused ever so briefly to look at us in the signature kudu pose, looking back at us over his right shoulder, quartering away in a small opening between two clumps of trees. He moved on and we moved on, shadowing him. We set up again, Isaak gave a whistle and the bull stopped momentarily in the open to check out the source of the sound, but before I finished my shooting sequence his was moving into another shield of brush and small trees.
We moved again maybe five yards to our right and I set up on the sticks. This time as the bull came out of the brush, I was ready. He continued to move and Isaak gave a few more whistles which didn’t have any effect. Isaak then made a grunt and the bull stopped under a tree and looked for the source of the sound, broadside with his head and horns turned toward us. I wasn’t sure of the range, so I aimed “center mass” roughly 1/2 of the way up his flank, in line with his front leg. I stilled my breathing, squeezed the trigger, and through the recoil saw the bull drop instantly to a shot through his scapula and spine. I instantly knew that I hit bit higher than my aiming point at that range, given how I’d sighted in. I had never dropped an animal with a spine shot before and was immediately anxious that the shot wouldn’t prove fatal, but was rapidly relieved as we saw his leg above the bush relax as he expired ~25 seconds after shot.
All of the above happened in roughly 3 minutes. On the first afternoon of my first hunt in Africa, my first day of ever spotting and stalking any big game animal anywhere, my first time ever seeing a kudu in the wild, I had taken my first kudu bull. He was very pretty, wide and symmetrical with a nice long beard and beautiful hide. I also enjoyed the sheer size of him, a big animal. He wasn’t the massive old warrior of my dreams, but I was happy with him.
Congratulations all around and Isaak presented me with a small piece of branch and leaf dipped in the kudu’s blood. Everyone was very happy to have the first animal of the safari down. We took our photos and I was impressed with how we fit the bull into the back of the Land Cruiser.
About 5 minutes into the drive back to camp, Joey spotted a big, mature oryx bull at the top of a ridge off to our right. He looked at us long enough for us to take decent look at him, and then he moved off. We briefly thought about going for him, but the sun was setting pretty rapidly and we decided to come back for him tomorrow.
We celebrated the kudu bull with a beer. I decided on a euro mount and to keep his perfect hide and long beard for a couch throw, then I called it a night. That same evening the group from Singapore took a massive bodied oryx bull with very, very thick horns and awesome secondary growth, so I was excited to chase my own oryx bull tomorrow.
Day 2:
We started off the next day with a good breakfast and more perfect weather, then got into some cool country. We spotted a few different groups of oryx 1,000+ yards out and I continued improving my vision in the field. Even with the wind in our favor, the oryx seemed to have an eye on us and consistently moved away before we could close the distance. Of all the animals we saw and stalked on my 10 day hunt, I found the oryx to be the wariest.
It was another great morning in the field seeing plenty of game, but nothing mature enough and big enough to take. I enjoyed it greatly.
Almost exactly 24 hours after we started the stalk on my kudu, I spotted a lone oryx bull at about one o’clock from the truck, maybe 100-150 yards off. He crossed the road in front of us and had a look at us while we looked at him, though Isaak almost immediately said he was worth taking. Isaak quickly said I could shoot from the truck (legal in Namibia), but I declined. The oryx wasn’t moving off too quickly and we piled off the truck in a hurry. I was in such a rush that I left my camelback behind, a rookie mistake. Once we got off the truck, the bull got himself up and over a ridge in fairly thick brush off at about our eleven o’clock. We took after him at a fast jog up the ridge and I was breathing hard pretty quickly.
We continued the jog and eventually came up on the bull about 100 yards off. He had stopped in some brush and quickly turned to face us head on. I quickly got on the sticks and tried to control my breath.
This was my first time planning to shoot an animal head on, and with brush covering his chest. In my rush, like a rookie, I didn’t aim at his chest through the brush, but at the center of what I could see, his neck. I also failed to consider the range and the fact that I was a) sighted several inches high at 100 yards and b) that he was slightly below us. Breathing hard, but doing my best to control it, I fired. The shot hit him high in the throat and he immediately fell. I instantly knew I was high, so I told Isaak and Juan that I needed to shoot him again, but he was largely obscured by brush. Juan and Isaak wanted us to get closer, so I did my best to be ready and we moved towards him as he struggled. Once we got to within maybe 40 yards, he rose quickly turning away from us into the brush and I couldn’t get onto him. I had never shot an animal that didn’t expire within 20-30 seconds, so I was immediately anxious and sick with the idea of wounding a noble animal, causing him pain, then losing him.
The bull was bleeding heavily and Juan reassured me that he’d bleed out fairly rapidly, but oryx are incredibly tough animals. We continued our fast jog and spotted him again moving rapidly away from us in the brush, quartering away. I took an offhand shot ~100 yards as he ran, but missed. This increased my anxiety, though I was reassured myself with the massive blood trail we were following. Then it was up and down ridges at speed for the next 40 minutes or so, out of breath, parched, full of adrenaline.
We spotted the bull a few more times moving off quickly over the next ridge maybe 200 yards off until we finally caught up with him in some thick brush that we were crouching through. Isaak set up the sticks and I got onto the bull. With the thick brush, my rifle’s muzzle was only a few feet from Isaak’s head. I knew firing would be unsafe, so I got off the sticks and the bull moved off. About 3 minutes later, Juan in the lead with the sticks, we got through the brush and crested the ridge we were on to find the bull standing at at the bottom of the next ridge maybe 150 yards off, roughly broadside to us. I quickly got onto the sticks.
Still on his feet 45 minutes after being shot in the throat, the bull shakily turned quartering toward us. With my breath well controlled, I visualized the position of his vitals. Still failing to consider that I was sighted in high, I fired. Thankfully I aimed at the center of his vital triangle as practiced and so when my bullet hit high, it hit his scapula and spine. He dropped instantly and the relief washed over me as he expired.
I was ashamed of my poor first shot and wounding this noble beast in the first place, and apologized to Juan and Isaak. They said “That’s hunting.”
As we came up to him that poor feeling began to fade, especially as I could see Juan and Isaak’s excitement. He was an excellent oryx bull, and I was immediately drawn to his great mass and secondary growth. I hadn’t seen many oryx , but despite his mass, he had what seemed like really good length as well. He was a proper bull, exactly the sort of oryx I had hoped to take. A truly beautiful, noble animal. Juan excitedly got out his tape measure. He said the average of the bulls they take was ~85cm and thought this bull might go 89cm. The tape came in at 87cm. We took our photos and Isaak moved off to grab the truck while Juan and I admired the bull. When we first spotted him that afternoon we were in roughly the area where we had seen the oryx bull on the road home with the kudu the night before. Isaak thought this was the same bull. I was (and still am) grateful for him. A proper oryx bull.
Day 3:
The third morning we were on the track for springbok, shooing away the ranch’s cows, when all at the same moment we spotted, on the track maybe 400 yards ahead a black animal that was no cow. Juan and Isaak quickly realized we were looking at a black springbok that must have escaped from the high-fenced reserve. Juan quickly called Philip to report and then asked if I’d like to take a black springbok instead of a normal one. I had actually earlier thought that taking a black springbok would be cool, but I had no desire to hunt on the reserve. And here we were with an opportunity at a “free range” black springbok ram.
We moved closer, and the ram and a normal/common springbok moved along a cattle fence line. We made a tough stalk through the thick brush and branches along the fence line, but the springbok moved off.
We returned to the truck and made our way down the track before cresting a small ridge and spotting the black ram in the distance. We made a stalk to within 125 yards or so and got on the sticks with the black ram roughly broadside. I had read about how good the springbok meat tastes, so I aimed behind the shoulder to avoid as much meat damage as I could. Once again failing to consider that I saw sighted in higher than I’m used to, my first shot went just over his back. Lucky for me, the ram was disoriented by the shot and instead of running off like his companion, stayed in place and turned quartering toward. Adjusting my aim down, I fired again and dropped him with a shot to the spine.
Juan and Isaak were excited because this was their first black springbok and I was excited because he was an old ram with good mass, secondary growth, and beautiful soft skin. He also had a large swollen abscess on his right front leg and according to Juan he was fairly skinny, so I was especially happy to have taken this nice old ram before he succumbed to something else. I’m grateful that we were able to capitalize on a unique opportunity at a unique ram. He’ll make a beautiful shoulder mount. Three nice animals in my first three days was a fantastic start to my hunt and we were all extremely pleased. I was also delighted that there were still another 7.5 hunting days and four more animals to pursue. Hunting in Africa is just wonderful.
I saw my first female kudu that day and my first klipspringer in the rocks above the trail. That night we had a delicious springbok roast for dinner.
Day 4:
The next day we rose extra early for a bit of a longer drive to the steeper mountain area that the KHHS team calls “Rocky Mountains.” We were pursuing mountain zebra as they moved out of the low ground to catch the warmth of the sun at the start of the day.
I enjoyed the beautiful sunrise and the scale of the mountains. Not long after getting into the mountains proper, with the sun first bathing the mountains in light, we spotted a lone zebra stallion about 800 yards away basking in his first rays of the day. The day’s going was very rough for the Land Cruiser with the rocks and gouges in the trail, but I had fun and began to understand why some people enjoy the “off-roading” hobby.
This hunt was a combination of spotting wild game, marksmanship, hiking, and off-roading all in beautiful country with perfect weather. I had an absolute blast.
We didn’t see any more zebra that day, but I enjoyed taking photos, including one of a big steenbok maybe 30 yards off the track. We were so close and he was so intent on us, I knew it would be very tough for us to get off the truck and get on the sticks. Sure enough, once we dismounted he scampered off. I would have been very happy to have taken him, his horns extending nicely past the tops of his ears, but I’m glad I got the photos.
Late that afternoon we began the drive back to camp a bit early with the intent of doing some bird shooting. Juan outclassed me, making an excellent shot on a flying guinea fowl and on a nice big rabbit that I spotted. I took a few guineas myself, but I was a bit rusty with the shotgun. It was great fun and a n excellent way to end the day.
Day 5:
On the fifth day we got out early again for zebra. We saw a group ahead of us on the track, so we dismounted and made a stalk but they gave us the slip.
A bit later that morning we spotted another group on the side of a mountain and began our stalk, maybe 600 or 700 yards off. We began the stalk and about halfway through, spotted a nice mature hartebeest on a ridge off to our left, the first of his species I ever saw, but we determined to stay on the zebra. It was a great stalk, we moved with great care and eventually got to within ~200 yards of the zebra herd. We were hidden behind some rocks and they were across a valley from us on the mountainside. Isaak and Juan identified an old stallion and talked me onto him. Breathing hard, I set up my rifle on the rock, got the zebra in my scope, and focused on the inverted-V on the zebra’s shoulder. I fired to no visible effect and the zebra moved up the mountain a little but I was able to get back on him. The zebra walked from our right to left roughly broadside, then stopped quartering slightly away. I aimed for the top of the inverted-V, fired, and the zebra dropped. It kicked and rolled down the mountain a bit, then lay still. We knew my rifle was shooting high, so we waited until we were sure the zebra was done before we came down off of our ridge and started up the zebra’s mountain.
The going was so steep that we lost sight of where the zebra was as we went down and then up. As we came up to where the zebra had fallen, to our surprise it was nowhere to be seen. There was a good blood trail and so we followed it over the mountain, but after a while the blood came down to just a few drops and I began to feel sick at wounding and possibly losing this fine animal. Thankfully Isaak is an incredible tracker and we stayed on the trail. After an hour, or so, Juan went back for the truck. He said he got 48k steps that day. While we were tracking Isaak and I spooked a warthog with enormous tusks that ran right by us maybe 25 yards off, but I wanted to recover the zebra first.
I fought against the despair while Isaak and I continued on until an hour and a half after first dropping the zebra and covering roughly 7km of rough ground, we came up on the zebra laying in the grass of a small valley. It looked back at us and moved off at a lope maybe 75 yards off, and I put two more shots into its flank offhand. After a bit more pursuit, it turned and I was able to put a good shot into its chest and it finally fell.
Once we came up on the zebra, we found that it wasn’t a stallion but a very old mare. Her head was very blocky and she even had a pronounced dewlap like a stallion. Isaak and Juan noted that she was likely very old. She had nice dark stripes and a beautiful head. I love that zebras are always in butterfat condition and I admired the sheer size of her.
After analyzing the video, I realized that I was too focused on the inverted-V and failed to consider that the zebra was quartering away when I shot, so instead of properly aiming a bit further back, I shot through the shoulder and shocked the spine, but missed the vitals. Thankfully the shoulder wound was enough to slow down the zebra enough for us to catch up and finish her. I felt ashamed that I had wounded her in the first place, but satisfied that we were able to persist and finish the job. Isaak did an incredible job tracking and I was thankful to be in the hands of such a skilled professional.
About an hour after collecting the zebra, Isaak spotted a big steenbok off the track. We were able to get off the truck, make a short stalk, and get set up on the sticks maybe 30 yards away from the steenbok. I had the steenbok in my crosshairs, but he was behind some somewhat thick branches/brush and I was not about to wound another animal, so I declined to take the shot and he quickly ran off. He would have been a great trophy and the 30-06 at close range would probably have been fine even with the brush. That said, I wasn’t sure of the shot so I didn’t take it. I never had another opportunity on a big steenbok like that one, so I’m looking forward future hunt with Juan focused on the Tiny 10 species. The steenbok are very cool little animals and the genetics in Philip’s area seem excellent.
Day 6:
The next morning we started after red hartebeest and warthog. We spotted a big warthog on a ridgeline and as we turned onto another ridge closer to him, I spotted three hartebeest bulls in front of us. They looked at us for a bit then moved off at a fast run. We also saw that group later in the day and they ran off moving very fast. Juan had told me about the wariness of the hartebeest and he was right.
As the day began to wind down, we drove onto a ridge and spotted a group of kudu cows. I was admiring the cows when Isaak and Juan spotted a bull hiding behind a bush. I had trouble finding him but Isaak was able to walk me onto him and I could see his horns. They looked like awful nice horns.
While he was still in the bush Juan gave an “Oh that’s a big boy.” Even Isaak said “Big, big bull.” I was pretty rapidly regretting shooting my kudu bull on the first day of the hunt. I had been willing to be more patient and wait for a bigger, older bull, but I had made my decision.
Juan kept exclaiming about how big this bull was. We stopped on the ridge to admire him. He eventually moved out of the bush and began to browse about 650 yards out. I admired what a magnificent animal he was and told myself that one day I would come back to Africa and take a big bull like him. He and the group of cows hadn’t noticed us and we were able to look at our leisure. I looked through my binoculars, admired him, felt the twinge of regret, put my binoculars away. I repeated this process several times. I eventually got my rifle off the truck and unloaded to examine the bull through the scope at 18x. Juan came over to do the same. He once again emphasized what a big, mature bull this was. He then said “this is a once in a lifetime bull for this area,” so I told him that if Philip was ok with it, I’d gladly take this bull. I wasn’t aware that I had two kudu on license, but Juan quickly informed me of this l, so I said “Let’s go kill him.” I could immediately see the joy on Juan’s face. Juan smokes, but not an awful lot, and now he began chain smoking. We quickly got into the truck and with the wind in our favor, we were able to drive to within ~450 yards of this bull on the back of a ridge.
We got out of the truck and stalked ~150 yards on the back side of the ridge. I was fairly cool and calm to start, but Juan was so excited and then it seemed like no time had passed between deciding to go for him and Isaak setting up the sticks, just out from behind some brush that obscured the bull’s view of us once we got onto the top of the ridge. Suddenly, my mouth was dry and I was breathing hard. I ranged the bull with my binos and he was at 268 yards. I knew I had sighted in high for a reason, and I reminded myself that the vitals on a kudu at 300 yards are larger than the vitals on springbok at 100 yards.
It then seemed like the exact moment that I got onto the sticks, the bull got the idea that something was up. Thankfully we had the wind so he couldn’t be sure exactly what he was looking at 268 yards away with the sun in his eyes. He fairly rapidly but smoothly got into that famous kudu pose, back to us and looking over his right shoulder. With that big kudu looking at us in the golden light, my nerves spiked and it took me the better part of a minute to calm myself down enough to get the crosshairs steady. I told Juan I was hoping the bull would turn broadside for me, then Juan assured me that I wasn’t going to be that lucky.
The bull continued to look over his shoulder and as I prepared to shoot, he began walking straight away from us, but he stopped to look at us over his left shoulder. I breathed and aimed and squeezed and the bull dropped to the shot. I was immediately filled with anxiety, afraid that I had hit too high or too far to the right and hit/shocked his spine. Wounding and losing this brilliant bull would have been the stuff of nightmares. I reloaded quickly and we watched the bull for a long time. He continued to kick some and try to lift his head, so we eventually crossed the 270 yards and came up behind him. He was still breathing and moving a bit when I put the insurance shot in from maybe 8 yards, with the sun beginning to set in earnest. We later discovered that the first round had taken him right through the heart. The 180gr TTSX lodged in his offside ribcage after losing all of its petals. I still don’t understand how he could stay alive that long after being shot in the heart. As I write this I am still proud of that shot: the highest pressure, longest range shot I’ve ever taken in my life.
I wouldn’t say I was in shock, but I was certainly in awe of this old bull and what had just happened. In my mind it all happened so fast, and now the kudu I had dreamed about was on the ground at my feet. His neck was enormous and scarred, and his left flank had scars all over it. Even the white chevron on his face was marred by a scar. I have always dreamed about taking scarred up old warriors of whatever species, and this big kudu bull certainly fit the bill. I was also happy that it looked like I had placed my shot perfectly. Thank yous and congratulations all around and with the light fading fast, we got set up for photos as the sun began to drop below the horizon. I was truly grateful and just overjoyed. Juan was still shaking and chain smoking and his excitement added enormously to my own enjoyment of this wonderful animal.
We eventually got the bull into the truck and back to camp, then enjoyed leftovers right around midnight. I gave us all the next morning off and tried to get to sleep.
Day 7:
The morning after taking the big kudu bull, we opened him up and looked for the bullet and found that it passed through his heart, as previously mentioned. I was delighted. Juan mentioned that he had actually seen this bull once before, 2 years ago with an American client. The bull had hidden himself in a bush though, so Juan and the client couldn’t be sure of him. They got to within 100 yards but the bull stayed in the bush before sprinting directly off, still covered by the bush. Now we had finally brought him in.
I sent photos of the kudu to @dchum and friends so we could all rejoice in him. I also rescued a small bird that had gotten himself trapped in Philip’s lodge, so I hoped that would please the hunting gods. I saw my first impala that day and we saw a big blue wildebeest bull in a herd that I decided not to pursue. It was a very good day.
Day 8:
We set out and not long after we had gotten into the hunting area, about 8:30am, we spotted a warthog family with a good boar. We jumped out of the truck and things happened fast, so I forgot to give Juan my camera. The warthogs would stop, look, and then run essentially parallel to us ~80 yards out on our right. The boar stopped once or twice but was shielded by another pig. I had to keep moving on the sticks and moving the sticks themselves, but I was able to stay on him. Thankfully he eventually stopped on his own and faced straight toward us. I aimed low and the bullet just grazed the underside of his jaw before passing into his chest. Dead on his feet. He immediately ran toward our left then flipped over in a dry streambed, got back up and ran a few more yards before falling dead. Everything happened quickly and we were energized so we walked rapidly to him and he got his revenge when I stuck my foot in a deep warthog hole. I fell over but managed not to flag Isaak with my rifle and thankfully didn’t hurt myself. We grabbed the warthog and took him to a good spot for photos. He had nice tusks and a heavy body. I was pleased with my shot and pleased that I had a good warthog. I wanted one, even though one wasn’t originally on my list. A proper Poomba.
After the warthog we set out for red hartebeest. About two hours after taking the warthog, we spotted a herd of hartebeest under a large tree about a thousand yards out. This turned into the best stalk of the trip. Working the wind and terrain perfectly, we got to within 115 yards of the herd undetected. Isaak and Juan spotted a good bull, but we had been so quiet and successful in our stalk, he was still laying down where he had settled for his afternoon siesta, so I had trouble spotting him. They eventually got me onto his horns above the grass and I could see how his body was laying despite being covered by the grass. I got onto the sticks and figured where the shoulder should be, aimed low, then fired. The bull never got up, the bullet taking him smack in the shoulder. He was a proper hartebeest bull with great mass and we were all pleased.
On our way back to camp we spotted a small herd of kudu with females and 4 immature bulls. It was very cool to see them at fairly close range. Those bulls will make great trophies someday. We got back to camp in the mid-afternoon and thankfully there were still the delicious oryx meatballs with garlic I had requested left over from lunch. Two great animals in one morning, kudu at close range, followed by my favorite of the camp chefs’ meals.
Day 9:
The next day I got enjoy a herd of blue of wildebeest running past us very close to the truck, maybe 75 yards off. I was never that interested in them as a game animal, but now that I’ve seen them in person I am looking forward to taking one someday.
Juan also showed me some very cool bushman rock paintings on the property: men hunting eland. It was a real treat to see these with my own eyes.
On our way back to camp that afternoon Isaak spotted a big steenbok off the road so we very quickly got off the truck, a camp 22 in my hands. The steenbok was big, but very clever and he remained laying down behind a thick bush so I couldn’t see anything below the top of his head. I was on him and Isaak gave a whistle. The tiny antelope instantly sprinted off. I never stood a chance of hitting him on the move and I wasn’t foolish enough to try. We had a delicious roast from my red hartebeest that night. It was another great day.
Day 10:
The last day we saw two wounded / hurt oryx that it would have been great to take, but the first bull totally gave us the slip, despite only having 3 complete legs according to Isaak. I got set up on the sticks for the second, a cow with a bad limp, but at 300 yards she was completely surrounded by bush except for a Texas heart shot which I was unwilling to take. I certainly didn’t want to add to her suffering. She moved off into the bush. I hope her leg has improved. We also saw a small bachelor herd of oryx with a very nice bull.
We saw immature steenbok, so I ended up shooting a few guinea fowl for the pot with my borrowed 22. I’ll certainly be back for one of those big steenbok when I start my Tiny 10 quest in the future, not to mention the big oryx bulls in the area.
Departure Day and Final Thoughts:
I got packed up and said my goodbyes, then Juan took me into Windhoek for the best Kentucky Fried Chicken meal I have ever had in my life. I also had a big bag of some fantastic kudu biltong to take back. It was a fun way to end the trip. I told Juan I would be back to hunt big springbok and big oryx in the Namib with him someday. Flying back to the US was smooth and my warthog’s tusks now reside proudly on my desk. I can’t wait to get the other trophies into town.
This was the best trip of any kind I have ever taken. I was genuinely refreshed, primarily because for once in my adult life, I spent a week with no weight of responsibility except for keeping my eyes open and my mouth shut, then shooting straight when the time came. I wasn’t responsible for everything going to plan or thinking fast when it didn’t. I trusted Philip, Juan, and Isaak. I’m so glad I did. I had a blast and a trip that was truly relaxing, not to mention the incredible hunting experiences and trophies. Huge thanks to @KHOMAS HIGHLAND HUNTING SAFARIS .
I have been inspired to try to hunt at least twice a year now, and I got lucky enough to book a cancellation brown bear hunt this coming October 2026 in the Carpathians with Marius at @HUNTROMANIA! If you’re still reading this, I’ll certainly let you know how it goes with another detailed report. Until then, Happy Hunting!
-TH
Personal Context (skip if you just want to get to photos and description of the hunting days):
I joined AfricaHunting.com (AH) in the late spring of 2023 and pretty quickly made friends with @rookhawk and thanks to his introduction have gotten to know @Red Leg very well. I consider myself extremely lucky to have them both as mentors in all things firearms and hunting. I bother them A LOT with many questions, a fair number of them dumb, but they have always been kind and generous with me. They have truly inspired me with their own adventures and knowledge. I’m especially grateful for their mentorship and the mentorship of other esteemed forum members because I didn’t grow up hunting. Despite being from Ohio, a great whitetail state, it just wasn’t something my family did. I did, however, get hooked on Jack London, Gary Paulsen, and Jean Craighead George books when I was a kid and eventually graduated to Peter Capstick, Robert Ruark, Hemingway, Wilbur Smith, etc. At some point I also began getting myself copies of Sports Afield, Double Gun Journal, etc. Suffice to say hunting has always been a prime interest of mine, but I didn’t have the opportunity growing up. Then between earning various degrees and my time as an Army officer, I could never quite find the time or money. I finally took my first big game animal, a 200lb 8-point whitetail, in the Alabama Black Belt in January 2020. That was just before the Covid craziness, turning 30, and getting out of the Army that summer. After business school I moved to Austin, Texas then joined AfricaHunting and got inspired to hunt some whitetail in Texas. I even made a trip to Saskatchewan for whitetail over Thanksgiving 2023. That Saskatchewan hunt was a test of my will / discipline as a hunter: I spent 6 full days sitting in the blind in the Saskatchewan snow seeing very, very little. I finally took a nice buck on my last morning from the blind at ~70 yards, but after that experience I wanted to try some proper spot and stalk hunting that would challenge me and help me grow my skills as as a hunter, outdoorsman, marksman, etc.
Prior to this Namibia trip in May/June of 2026, my hunting record was 5 whitetail bucks taken with my Tikka 30-06 from a ground blind or a tree stand over the course of as many years. Add in a few bird hunts in Georgia and Texas, four days of dove shooting in Argentina, and you have the whole of my lifetime hunting experience prior to my 36th birthday. Thankfully, this safari changed that in a big way.
Lead Up and Expectations of the Hunt (skip if you just want to get to photos and description of the hunting days):
While I was living in Austin, I met fellow AH members @dchum and @JINKLE . They are a decade younger than me, but certainly more experienced hunters. In addition, they are truly upstanding, outstanding gentleman and I’m grateful to have spent a little time getting to know them. We also share a hunting ethic focused on taking free range, fair chase, mature animals in their native range (or as close to it as possible) with an emphasis on the experience while using hunting techniques and marksmanship standards that respect the game.
That said, I have my own standards for the trophy quality of the animals I take, but in my mind bigger is always better (unless they’re immature). I’m willing to pass on less mature or less impressive animals for something that really gets my blood pumping. For an example of my feelings toward trophy quality: I’d love to take one (and hopefully more) old, scarred up, huge bodied, hard bossed, scrum cap dagga boy cape buffalo one day, but I hope my first few buffalo will be be old, scarred up, huge bodied, hard bossed dagga boys with amazing boss, deep drops, great length and all the things that make their horns so magnificent. If I can hunt animals that have it all, I want to take animals that have it all. Call me greedy.
A 55” kudu isn’t magically more worthy than a 53” kudu, but I’d sure love to take a 60” kudu or a 50” sable one day. That said, I certainly wouldn’t consider a hunt to be a failure if it wasn’t the biggest animal of mine to date or some specific measurement wasn’t reached. Experience trumps trophy quality, but the big ones are special. If I go to my grave having never taken a 60” free range, fair chase, kudu, I don’t think I’ll cry over it in my last moments. However, I sure think it would be cool to take some monsters in my time.
Sometime in 2024 @dchum told us about his great first experience hunting free range plans game with Philip Hennings’ @KHOMAS HIGHLAND HUNTING SAFARIS (KHHS) in Namibia in 2023 or earlier 2024. @dchum had such a great experience that he wanted to go back and he was kind enough to invite @JINKLE, myself, and a few other friends for a week of hunting in May of 2025. I knew @dchum 's quality and trusted that if he recommended KHHS, I’d be pleased with the experience and the hunting. We put down our deposits with Philip in the spring of 2024 (I think).
All of my big game hunting experiences prior to this Namibia trip had been solo affairs, so I was really looking forward to the fellowship and fun of a group trip. I've never married, no kids, and my family doesn’t hunt, so sharing the experience with friends sounded great. I had done a few bird shoots with @Red Leg and always had a great time with him.
Unfortunately, by the time spring of 2025 had rolled around, I had left Texas for an extremely demanding job in Northern Virginia. By March 2025 it looked like I would be closing my first big deal in May/June, so I reached out to Philip at KHHS somewhere ~90 days out from our hunt and asked if he would keep my deposit so I could hunt with him at a future date. He was kind enough to accommodate me. I kept in close touch with @dchum, @JINKLE, and the rest of the group as they had a fantastic hunt with Philip and his team in May of 2025. They sent me awesome photos and videos and I was really excited for them as they had success. Thankfully, I was able to get the big work deal done in early June 2025, so I didn’t miss the trip for nothing.
After finally getting a little time off around Christmas of 2025, I decided that I was going to make the time and spend the money to go on my first African hunting safari with Philip in the spring of 2026. I relied heavily on @dchum , @JINKLE , and the group as I decided on what to hunt and when. I eventually landed on hunting 10 days from the 25th of May (Memorial Day 2026) to the 5th of June 2026, hoping to catch the kudu rut. @dchum and the group told me about the great oryx, kudu, and other free range plains game they had taken, particularly emphasizing the opportunities and success they had on big mature oryx and the more unique-to-Namibia animals such as the Hartmann’s mountain zebra. In addition, there would be the chance at Tiny 10 species like klipspringer, steenbok, and damara dik dik. I hadn’t dreamed about taking the Tiny 10 for decades like I had dreamed of hunting kudu and oryx and zebra, but as I learned more about them from AH, I got excited about the opportunity to hunt them. I eventually landed on the following list (in order of my personal priority) with Philip over WhatsApp:
- Kudu
- Oryx
- Hartmann’s Zebra
- Springbok
- Steenbok
- Damara Dik Dik
- Red Hartebeest
Once I was able to confirm the dates with Philip, I decided that I’d take a few extra days to experience Cape Town on my way to Namibia. I am a romantic, a big history buff, and a gourmand with a healthy appreciation for natural beauty and good weather. I learned that traveling through Johannesburg is more common for hunters, but Cape Town had been high on my travel to-do list for a long time, so I decided to make it happen in conjunction with this first hunt in Namibia.
I had previously flown from Texas to Saskatchewan and back with my rifle and didn’t find it particularly traumatic, but decided for this more complex trip I’d use one of the hunting travel agents. I contacted Gracy Travel on the recommendation of @Red Leg and while I used my Chase points and travel portal to book the historic Mount Nelson hotel in Cape Town, Shawn at Gracy booked all of my flights using my points / credit card and took care of rifle permits, visas, airport transfers, and rifle storage.
I spent all winter and spring watching YouTube videos of kudu, oryx, zebra, and other African game hunts. I also re-read some of my Ruark, Hemingway, Wilbur Smith, Bartle Bull, etc and studied up on my copy of The Perfect Shot. I also rewatched Out of Africa, The Ghost and The Darkness, and a number of Boer War and South African Border War documentaries.
I travel like crazy for work, so unfortunately didn’t get to the rifle range until late April, too late to realize that I wasn’t getting good cheek weld on the beautiful Dakota 76 in 300 H&H I had planned to bring on the hunt.
I ended up getting my good practice in with and then eventually taking Old Reliable, my distinctly unsexy Tikka T3 Stainless with factory stock, topped with a Leupold VX5HD 3-18x50. I was shooting factory Barnes cartridges loaded with the 180gr TTSX that were moving ~2800-2900 fps at the muzzle, higher than the 2750 fps stated on the box. @dchum and @JINKLE advised me that given the mountainous terrain, they had done a lot of their shooting in May 2025 between 200-400 yards, so Google Gemini and I came up with a good dope chart for the 180gr TTSX out of the 30-06 and I got confident shooting an 8 or 6 inch steel target at 300 yards. Prior to this hunt I had never even attempted a shot at an animal beyond ~150 yards, so I was a little anxious about the longer ranges, but got ready the best I could.
@dchum got me a good packing list and thanks to all the great rifle, optics, and gear advice I had gotten over the years from @rookhawk and @Red Leg, I found that with a few exceptions I had pretty much everything I needed for the hunt. On @dchum’s advice, I grabbed some cigarettes and cough drops for the PHs and staff at KHHS (they definitely appreciated it). I also bought an IPhone 17 Pro a few days before the trip, primarily for what my research told me was in impressive camera. I had been rocking an iPhone 11 for years and years, as I much prefer to spend my money on classic rifles and travel than technology, so this was a major upgrade. The money spent on that new phone/camera is some of the best I ever spent because of the incredible video and photos it captured on this hunt.
The Travel + Cape Town (skip if you just want to get to photos and description of the hunting days):
I took the day before my flight off from work to finalize packing. Gracy Travel provided me a complete packet with all of my paperwork a week or so before, so I also familiarized myself with all that. I haven’t been so careful with my packing since I was going on field exercises in the Army, and I’m so glad I was. I had everything I needed and was prepared + comfortable every day.
I flew from Washington, DC (Dulles) to Cape Town via Atlanta. Checking in with Delta, getting my rifle inspected / checked in, and getting through security took me a total of about 30 min. I’m thankful that all the travel was smooth and when I arrived in Cape Town on Friday evening I was met at the airport by a friendly face, handed my rifle off for storage over the weekend, then was driven straight to the Mount Nelson.
Service at the Mount Nelson was excellent (as one would hope) and they upgraded me to a very large room with a truly spectacular view of Table Mountain (as I had requested back in Dec/Jan). I ate an excellent dinner that evening at the Red Room (modern, “Westernized,” Chinese restaurant inside the Mount Nelson). Breakfast at the Mount Nelson was fantastic and I ate an enormous meal each morning I was there. I spent Saturday exploring the history and food and books available in Cape Town on foot before heading back to the Mount Nelson for its famous Afternoon Tea service. On a colleague’s recommendation, I got a private, guided, driven tour on Sunday which included Groot Constantia (oldest vineyard in the southern hemisphere, not to mention South Africa) and a trip to the Rhodes memorial. I had underestimated the sheer natural beauty of Cape Town and the surrounding area, so I am definitely planning to go back to in the future to explore further. If you haven’t been to Cape Town, I would highly recommend it as a stop on your way to or from your next hunt in Africa.
View attachment Table Mountain.jpeg
The Hunt:
Arrival Day
The transportation service arranged by Gracy picked me up right on time at the Mount Nelson on Monday (Memorial Day) morning, then got me to the airport and accompanied me through check-in, rifle inspection, and all the way to security gate. Everything was very smooth.
I arrived in Windhoek and met my PH, Juan van Zyl, at the airport arrivals area. I was in contact with Philip on WhatsApp the whole time and felt well taken care of. Juan and I immediately hit it off. We got my rifle and ammo with a fairly minimal delay, threw my rifle case and baggage in the Land Cruiser he uses for the city and headed to the taxidermist, on the way to camp. Stopping at the taxidermist was great because it 1. made me even more excited for the hunt and 2. helped me ask Juan questions about judging horns, age, sex, etc. We arrived in camp ~3:00pm and Juan showed me to my lodging, a perfectly comfortable free standing, hard walled “hut” with two twin beds, nicely hot and well pressured water, and a functioning heater/air conditioner that I almost never used. The hut also had John Seery Lester prints inside, which I loved.
Once I dropped off my bags, Juan and I headed to the rifle range. I brought 60 rounds of factory ammo and was on paper quickly enough, but needed some shots to foul the barrel and had some trouble getting a good rest and, so ended up burning through 20 rounds getting a group I was happy with ~3 inches high at 100 yards. Then I spent another 20 rounds shooting steel on the bench and off the shooting sticks out to 300 yards. Right around sundown, a group of guinea fowl wandered onto the range ~225 yards and once I got the green light from Juan, I aimed center mass on one, squeezed the trigger, and didn’t see an explosion of feathers, so I thought I missed. Then we practiced on the sticks and on my last shot I got set on the sticks smoothly (slow is smooth, smooth is fast), aimed, and rang the steel at 300. It was a good note to end on. As we drove out to pick up the paper target at 100 yards, we saw my first kill of the safari, a guinea fowl with a 180gr TTSX through his chest. First blood and hitting a small, moving-ish target at 225 yards was exactly the confidence boost I needed and we left for dinner back at the main lodge in camp. I told Juan that I heard from @dchum the ranges could be long, but he assured me that he and his hunting partner / tracker Isaak (who started the hunting business with Philip’s father a few decades ago) preferred to stalk close whenever possible. I told him that was perfect.
The main lodge at Philip's place was extremely comfortable with a well stocked bar (though I’m not much of a drinker), a good selection of books, comfy couches, a nice fireplace, great trophies and art, some very sweet hunting dogs (Philip’s half-boerboel and half-Rhodesian Ridgeback “puppy” Zulu, at only 1.5 years old, is one of the most handsome dogs I’ve ever seen), and great company. It was a pleasure to finally meet Philip, and all of the staff made me feel very welcome. Although I missed enjoying the group and @dchum and @JINKLE's company, this was the least lonely I have ever felt on a hunting trip. I really enjoyed the company of all of Philip’s PHs and staff, but feel particularly grateful for getting paired with Juan. He and I shared a hunting philosophy and we just clicked.
I also met two couples from Singapore in camp (their first time hunting anything, let alone hunting Africa) and they ended up being great fun. Phillip’s lodge is inside of his high fenced reserve, but his free range hunting takes place outside on four large cattle farms / ranches that he owns and/or leases, not to mention other hunting areas he has access to (like the one for Damara dik dik). I think I heard 50,000 acres of free range hunting area, but I’m not sure if that number is correct.
The first pleasant surprise of this hunt was the fact that breakfast was typically served at 6:30am and we were usually were in the truck by 7:00 or 7:30am. I love hunting, but I’m not a huge fan of rising at 3:30am or 4:00am. For good hunting and the best chance at the best trophies, I’ll certainly do it, but I’m just not a morning person, even after my years in the Army. Waking up at 5:30am or 6:00am is a far, far more pleasant start to a long day in my eyes. After the morning’s hunt came a midday break from ~12:30pm to ~3:30pm featuring a delicious lunch, a couple hours in comfy house clothes, and a delightful nap, then another 3 - 3.5 hours of hunting before a shower and dinner at 8pm, then dealer’s choice of party or relax or sleep. The pace made the entire experience exceedingly pleasant, but I still felt like we hunted hard and did our best to be successful. I’m looking forward to more spartan experiences deeper in the bush in the future, but I certainly enjoyed the comforts of this particular safari. Hunting for me is not a test. Perhaps it’s most accurate to say that for me hunting is a celebration of the following: returning to nature and being truly present in it, being close to animals (domestic and wild), using and refining one’s skills, learning new things, connecting with the legendary hunters of history, and engaging in mankind’s oldest, greatest, most primal passion aside from love and war.
The second pleasant surprise was the weather. I had done my research and I knew that temperatures would be in the 70s F, but we were blessed with some truly perfect weather. Every day but one was completely, absolutely cloudless with brilliant but not brutal sun, light breezes, and highs in the mid-70s F plus lows in the 40s F. Day 9 had a few clouds, lows in the 30s F, and a noticeable wind that in my mind reduced the game movement a bit. But by any standard, even the worst day of weather was excellent. In addition, given the temperatures and environment, I was bothered by insect life exactly zero times. I believe I saw one mosquito my entire trip, but didn’t even have to slap it away. Again, exceedingly pleasant.
The third pleasant surprise was the PHs and my related but somewhat less pleasant, unexpected welcome to middle age. I was deeply impressed by how young the PHs were, yet how seriously and how well they executed their responsibilities. Juan is the old man of the group at 25 and has been with Phillip for 6 years. Retief is just 22 and runs the kitchen/camp, while Juan manages operations overall. It seemed that going far above and beyond to make the clients have a great experience was just the standard expectation among them. I was also deeply impressed with their skills in everything from tracking game to welding truck parts to managing our meals and everything in between. I was also struck by the fact that these young guys eat zero vegetables while drinking almost no water (yet plenty of booze with clients), and still perform well in the field the next day. I greatly enjoyed their company, but they made me feel old!
Day 1:
Not long after we headed out the gate on the first morning and got into the hunting area (not a long drive at all), we stopped because Isaak and Juan spotted an oryx that was worth a closer look. He was maybe 500 yards out, so we started the first stalk of my life. This was also my first introduction to how wary oryx can be. We stalked closer, but lost sight of him in some rock and brush. We got back on his trail, stopped suddenly, then saw his rear end crash though some brush maybe 50 yards away. I had never been so close to such a large wild animal before. We then climbed out of the bush and onto the road where we walked to meet the truck, spotting some leopard tracks along the way. That morning I began to appreciate how incredibly blind modern, urban man is. One of my favorite things about hunting is that it actually forces to hunter to engage his senses in a way that essentially never happens in modern, urban life. This hunt made me use my vision like never before, despite my having spent more days in the field than maybe ~95% of Americans, trying to spot things in the distance while on reconnaissance.
Not long after I was thinking “how in the hell are we going to spot a steenbok or a dik dik in country like this?”, the truck stopped so we could take a closer look at a young steenbok frozen in the bush maybe 15 yards away from the truck.
That morning I also learned the art of dodging thorns in the back of the truck and I saw my first wild oryx, baboons, steenbok, and waterbuck. The day before, while Juan and I were at the range, the group from Singapore took what seemed like a particularly impressive waterbuck bull on Philip’s high fenced reserve. Now, my first hunting day, we stopped to look at a bull and a few cows, the first waterbuck I had ever seen, and Juan mentioned that this free range bull was about as good as the one taken on the reserve yesterday, I was briefly tempted to make a stalk, but instead just appreciated the animals in the binoculars before we headed in for lunch. It was a great first morning. I was also happy that when we are were driving, like me, Juan would do everything he could to avoid hitting a rabbit on the road. It was obvious that we all love and respect animals, and not just the glorious game species.
That afternoon we crested a ridge and stopped to look at a half dozen oryx who looked at us intently and gave us just enough time to study them and admire what cool animals they are. They moved off with a purpose and we continued along the trail.
Just before 5pm, with the day just beginning to wind down, Isaak called for a halt and helped me spot a lone kudu bull almost exactly at our six o’clock, standing still looking directly at us through a bush maybe 75 yards off. The first kudu I had ever seen in my life. I had done my research and tried to judge his depth of curl. He was a mature kudu, but I couldn’t get a sense of how big he was. He moved away from us at a leisurely pace, quartering away toward his and our right. He seemed generally unconcerned with our presence. I had told Juan and Isaak about my trophy standards and that I was in no rush to do any shooting, but they looked at the bull and decided he was a shooter, so we rapidly scrambled off the truck along with Joey, an 18-year old intern / apprentice PH from Australia whose family had recently purchased a farm in the Etosha area. I gave Juan my phone and I followed Isaak onto the ridge to our right as we shadowed the bull.
In fairly short order, Isaak set up the sticks and I got the crosshairs onto the bull as he moved out of a bush, now walking parallel to us along the next ridge, roughly broadside, perhaps 125-150 yards off. I asked if he was worth taking and didn’t really get a response, so I did my best to study him. He was a very pretty kudu. He continued walking leisurely to our right, roughly broadside and moved into a group of trees.
Isaak picked up the sticks and we moved off to our right up the ridge again, around our own group of trees. On the far side, Isaak set up the sticks and I again got onto the bull. He still seemed unconcerned, moving steadily broadside to us. This close range, fast paced, rapid-decision hunting was not what I expected when I imagined and prepared for hunting in the Khomas Highlands. I had imagined taking our time to evaluate a bull that was 800 yards off before stalking to 300 and making a shot. Things happened so quickly, I didn’t even have my scope’s red dot on.
Here in the moment, however, I decided I would be happy with this pretty kudu as my first African game animal. However, he continued to gracefully move broadside to us, in and out of brush, and I was not going to attempt a shot on a moving bull. The bull paused ever so briefly to look at us in the signature kudu pose, looking back at us over his right shoulder, quartering away in a small opening between two clumps of trees. He moved on and we moved on, shadowing him. We set up again, Isaak gave a whistle and the bull stopped momentarily in the open to check out the source of the sound, but before I finished my shooting sequence his was moving into another shield of brush and small trees.
We moved again maybe five yards to our right and I set up on the sticks. This time as the bull came out of the brush, I was ready. He continued to move and Isaak gave a few more whistles which didn’t have any effect. Isaak then made a grunt and the bull stopped under a tree and looked for the source of the sound, broadside with his head and horns turned toward us. I wasn’t sure of the range, so I aimed “center mass” roughly 1/2 of the way up his flank, in line with his front leg. I stilled my breathing, squeezed the trigger, and through the recoil saw the bull drop instantly to a shot through his scapula and spine. I instantly knew that I hit bit higher than my aiming point at that range, given how I’d sighted in. I had never dropped an animal with a spine shot before and was immediately anxious that the shot wouldn’t prove fatal, but was rapidly relieved as we saw his leg above the bush relax as he expired ~25 seconds after shot.
All of the above happened in roughly 3 minutes. On the first afternoon of my first hunt in Africa, my first day of ever spotting and stalking any big game animal anywhere, my first time ever seeing a kudu in the wild, I had taken my first kudu bull. He was very pretty, wide and symmetrical with a nice long beard and beautiful hide. I also enjoyed the sheer size of him, a big animal. He wasn’t the massive old warrior of my dreams, but I was happy with him.
Congratulations all around and Isaak presented me with a small piece of branch and leaf dipped in the kudu’s blood. Everyone was very happy to have the first animal of the safari down. We took our photos and I was impressed with how we fit the bull into the back of the Land Cruiser.
About 5 minutes into the drive back to camp, Joey spotted a big, mature oryx bull at the top of a ridge off to our right. He looked at us long enough for us to take decent look at him, and then he moved off. We briefly thought about going for him, but the sun was setting pretty rapidly and we decided to come back for him tomorrow.
We celebrated the kudu bull with a beer. I decided on a euro mount and to keep his perfect hide and long beard for a couch throw, then I called it a night. That same evening the group from Singapore took a massive bodied oryx bull with very, very thick horns and awesome secondary growth, so I was excited to chase my own oryx bull tomorrow.
Day 2:
We started off the next day with a good breakfast and more perfect weather, then got into some cool country. We spotted a few different groups of oryx 1,000+ yards out and I continued improving my vision in the field. Even with the wind in our favor, the oryx seemed to have an eye on us and consistently moved away before we could close the distance. Of all the animals we saw and stalked on my 10 day hunt, I found the oryx to be the wariest.
It was another great morning in the field seeing plenty of game, but nothing mature enough and big enough to take. I enjoyed it greatly.
Almost exactly 24 hours after we started the stalk on my kudu, I spotted a lone oryx bull at about one o’clock from the truck, maybe 100-150 yards off. He crossed the road in front of us and had a look at us while we looked at him, though Isaak almost immediately said he was worth taking. Isaak quickly said I could shoot from the truck (legal in Namibia), but I declined. The oryx wasn’t moving off too quickly and we piled off the truck in a hurry. I was in such a rush that I left my camelback behind, a rookie mistake. Once we got off the truck, the bull got himself up and over a ridge in fairly thick brush off at about our eleven o’clock. We took after him at a fast jog up the ridge and I was breathing hard pretty quickly.
We continued the jog and eventually came up on the bull about 100 yards off. He had stopped in some brush and quickly turned to face us head on. I quickly got on the sticks and tried to control my breath.
This was my first time planning to shoot an animal head on, and with brush covering his chest. In my rush, like a rookie, I didn’t aim at his chest through the brush, but at the center of what I could see, his neck. I also failed to consider the range and the fact that I was a) sighted several inches high at 100 yards and b) that he was slightly below us. Breathing hard, but doing my best to control it, I fired. The shot hit him high in the throat and he immediately fell. I instantly knew I was high, so I told Isaak and Juan that I needed to shoot him again, but he was largely obscured by brush. Juan and Isaak wanted us to get closer, so I did my best to be ready and we moved towards him as he struggled. Once we got to within maybe 40 yards, he rose quickly turning away from us into the brush and I couldn’t get onto him. I had never shot an animal that didn’t expire within 20-30 seconds, so I was immediately anxious and sick with the idea of wounding a noble animal, causing him pain, then losing him.
The bull was bleeding heavily and Juan reassured me that he’d bleed out fairly rapidly, but oryx are incredibly tough animals. We continued our fast jog and spotted him again moving rapidly away from us in the brush, quartering away. I took an offhand shot ~100 yards as he ran, but missed. This increased my anxiety, though I was reassured myself with the massive blood trail we were following. Then it was up and down ridges at speed for the next 40 minutes or so, out of breath, parched, full of adrenaline.
We spotted the bull a few more times moving off quickly over the next ridge maybe 200 yards off until we finally caught up with him in some thick brush that we were crouching through. Isaak set up the sticks and I got onto the bull. With the thick brush, my rifle’s muzzle was only a few feet from Isaak’s head. I knew firing would be unsafe, so I got off the sticks and the bull moved off. About 3 minutes later, Juan in the lead with the sticks, we got through the brush and crested the ridge we were on to find the bull standing at at the bottom of the next ridge maybe 150 yards off, roughly broadside to us. I quickly got onto the sticks.
Still on his feet 45 minutes after being shot in the throat, the bull shakily turned quartering toward us. With my breath well controlled, I visualized the position of his vitals. Still failing to consider that I was sighted in high, I fired. Thankfully I aimed at the center of his vital triangle as practiced and so when my bullet hit high, it hit his scapula and spine. He dropped instantly and the relief washed over me as he expired.
I was ashamed of my poor first shot and wounding this noble beast in the first place, and apologized to Juan and Isaak. They said “That’s hunting.”
As we came up to him that poor feeling began to fade, especially as I could see Juan and Isaak’s excitement. He was an excellent oryx bull, and I was immediately drawn to his great mass and secondary growth. I hadn’t seen many oryx , but despite his mass, he had what seemed like really good length as well. He was a proper bull, exactly the sort of oryx I had hoped to take. A truly beautiful, noble animal. Juan excitedly got out his tape measure. He said the average of the bulls they take was ~85cm and thought this bull might go 89cm. The tape came in at 87cm. We took our photos and Isaak moved off to grab the truck while Juan and I admired the bull. When we first spotted him that afternoon we were in roughly the area where we had seen the oryx bull on the road home with the kudu the night before. Isaak thought this was the same bull. I was (and still am) grateful for him. A proper oryx bull.
Day 3:
The third morning we were on the track for springbok, shooing away the ranch’s cows, when all at the same moment we spotted, on the track maybe 400 yards ahead a black animal that was no cow. Juan and Isaak quickly realized we were looking at a black springbok that must have escaped from the high-fenced reserve. Juan quickly called Philip to report and then asked if I’d like to take a black springbok instead of a normal one. I had actually earlier thought that taking a black springbok would be cool, but I had no desire to hunt on the reserve. And here we were with an opportunity at a “free range” black springbok ram.
We moved closer, and the ram and a normal/common springbok moved along a cattle fence line. We made a tough stalk through the thick brush and branches along the fence line, but the springbok moved off.
We returned to the truck and made our way down the track before cresting a small ridge and spotting the black ram in the distance. We made a stalk to within 125 yards or so and got on the sticks with the black ram roughly broadside. I had read about how good the springbok meat tastes, so I aimed behind the shoulder to avoid as much meat damage as I could. Once again failing to consider that I saw sighted in higher than I’m used to, my first shot went just over his back. Lucky for me, the ram was disoriented by the shot and instead of running off like his companion, stayed in place and turned quartering toward. Adjusting my aim down, I fired again and dropped him with a shot to the spine.
Juan and Isaak were excited because this was their first black springbok and I was excited because he was an old ram with good mass, secondary growth, and beautiful soft skin. He also had a large swollen abscess on his right front leg and according to Juan he was fairly skinny, so I was especially happy to have taken this nice old ram before he succumbed to something else. I’m grateful that we were able to capitalize on a unique opportunity at a unique ram. He’ll make a beautiful shoulder mount. Three nice animals in my first three days was a fantastic start to my hunt and we were all extremely pleased. I was also delighted that there were still another 7.5 hunting days and four more animals to pursue. Hunting in Africa is just wonderful.
I saw my first female kudu that day and my first klipspringer in the rocks above the trail. That night we had a delicious springbok roast for dinner.
Day 4:
The next day we rose extra early for a bit of a longer drive to the steeper mountain area that the KHHS team calls “Rocky Mountains.” We were pursuing mountain zebra as they moved out of the low ground to catch the warmth of the sun at the start of the day.
I enjoyed the beautiful sunrise and the scale of the mountains. Not long after getting into the mountains proper, with the sun first bathing the mountains in light, we spotted a lone zebra stallion about 800 yards away basking in his first rays of the day. The day’s going was very rough for the Land Cruiser with the rocks and gouges in the trail, but I had fun and began to understand why some people enjoy the “off-roading” hobby.
This hunt was a combination of spotting wild game, marksmanship, hiking, and off-roading all in beautiful country with perfect weather. I had an absolute blast.
We didn’t see any more zebra that day, but I enjoyed taking photos, including one of a big steenbok maybe 30 yards off the track. We were so close and he was so intent on us, I knew it would be very tough for us to get off the truck and get on the sticks. Sure enough, once we dismounted he scampered off. I would have been very happy to have taken him, his horns extending nicely past the tops of his ears, but I’m glad I got the photos.
Late that afternoon we began the drive back to camp a bit early with the intent of doing some bird shooting. Juan outclassed me, making an excellent shot on a flying guinea fowl and on a nice big rabbit that I spotted. I took a few guineas myself, but I was a bit rusty with the shotgun. It was great fun and a n excellent way to end the day.
Day 5:
On the fifth day we got out early again for zebra. We saw a group ahead of us on the track, so we dismounted and made a stalk but they gave us the slip.
A bit later that morning we spotted another group on the side of a mountain and began our stalk, maybe 600 or 700 yards off. We began the stalk and about halfway through, spotted a nice mature hartebeest on a ridge off to our left, the first of his species I ever saw, but we determined to stay on the zebra. It was a great stalk, we moved with great care and eventually got to within ~200 yards of the zebra herd. We were hidden behind some rocks and they were across a valley from us on the mountainside. Isaak and Juan identified an old stallion and talked me onto him. Breathing hard, I set up my rifle on the rock, got the zebra in my scope, and focused on the inverted-V on the zebra’s shoulder. I fired to no visible effect and the zebra moved up the mountain a little but I was able to get back on him. The zebra walked from our right to left roughly broadside, then stopped quartering slightly away. I aimed for the top of the inverted-V, fired, and the zebra dropped. It kicked and rolled down the mountain a bit, then lay still. We knew my rifle was shooting high, so we waited until we were sure the zebra was done before we came down off of our ridge and started up the zebra’s mountain.
The going was so steep that we lost sight of where the zebra was as we went down and then up. As we came up to where the zebra had fallen, to our surprise it was nowhere to be seen. There was a good blood trail and so we followed it over the mountain, but after a while the blood came down to just a few drops and I began to feel sick at wounding and possibly losing this fine animal. Thankfully Isaak is an incredible tracker and we stayed on the trail. After an hour, or so, Juan went back for the truck. He said he got 48k steps that day. While we were tracking Isaak and I spooked a warthog with enormous tusks that ran right by us maybe 25 yards off, but I wanted to recover the zebra first.
I fought against the despair while Isaak and I continued on until an hour and a half after first dropping the zebra and covering roughly 7km of rough ground, we came up on the zebra laying in the grass of a small valley. It looked back at us and moved off at a lope maybe 75 yards off, and I put two more shots into its flank offhand. After a bit more pursuit, it turned and I was able to put a good shot into its chest and it finally fell.
Once we came up on the zebra, we found that it wasn’t a stallion but a very old mare. Her head was very blocky and she even had a pronounced dewlap like a stallion. Isaak and Juan noted that she was likely very old. She had nice dark stripes and a beautiful head. I love that zebras are always in butterfat condition and I admired the sheer size of her.
After analyzing the video, I realized that I was too focused on the inverted-V and failed to consider that the zebra was quartering away when I shot, so instead of properly aiming a bit further back, I shot through the shoulder and shocked the spine, but missed the vitals. Thankfully the shoulder wound was enough to slow down the zebra enough for us to catch up and finish her. I felt ashamed that I had wounded her in the first place, but satisfied that we were able to persist and finish the job. Isaak did an incredible job tracking and I was thankful to be in the hands of such a skilled professional.
About an hour after collecting the zebra, Isaak spotted a big steenbok off the track. We were able to get off the truck, make a short stalk, and get set up on the sticks maybe 30 yards away from the steenbok. I had the steenbok in my crosshairs, but he was behind some somewhat thick branches/brush and I was not about to wound another animal, so I declined to take the shot and he quickly ran off. He would have been a great trophy and the 30-06 at close range would probably have been fine even with the brush. That said, I wasn’t sure of the shot so I didn’t take it. I never had another opportunity on a big steenbok like that one, so I’m looking forward future hunt with Juan focused on the Tiny 10 species. The steenbok are very cool little animals and the genetics in Philip’s area seem excellent.
Day 6:
The next morning we started after red hartebeest and warthog. We spotted a big warthog on a ridgeline and as we turned onto another ridge closer to him, I spotted three hartebeest bulls in front of us. They looked at us for a bit then moved off at a fast run. We also saw that group later in the day and they ran off moving very fast. Juan had told me about the wariness of the hartebeest and he was right.
As the day began to wind down, we drove onto a ridge and spotted a group of kudu cows. I was admiring the cows when Isaak and Juan spotted a bull hiding behind a bush. I had trouble finding him but Isaak was able to walk me onto him and I could see his horns. They looked like awful nice horns.
While he was still in the bush Juan gave an “Oh that’s a big boy.” Even Isaak said “Big, big bull.” I was pretty rapidly regretting shooting my kudu bull on the first day of the hunt. I had been willing to be more patient and wait for a bigger, older bull, but I had made my decision.
Juan kept exclaiming about how big this bull was. We stopped on the ridge to admire him. He eventually moved out of the bush and began to browse about 650 yards out. I admired what a magnificent animal he was and told myself that one day I would come back to Africa and take a big bull like him. He and the group of cows hadn’t noticed us and we were able to look at our leisure. I looked through my binoculars, admired him, felt the twinge of regret, put my binoculars away. I repeated this process several times. I eventually got my rifle off the truck and unloaded to examine the bull through the scope at 18x. Juan came over to do the same. He once again emphasized what a big, mature bull this was. He then said “this is a once in a lifetime bull for this area,” so I told him that if Philip was ok with it, I’d gladly take this bull. I wasn’t aware that I had two kudu on license, but Juan quickly informed me of this l, so I said “Let’s go kill him.” I could immediately see the joy on Juan’s face. Juan smokes, but not an awful lot, and now he began chain smoking. We quickly got into the truck and with the wind in our favor, we were able to drive to within ~450 yards of this bull on the back of a ridge.
We got out of the truck and stalked ~150 yards on the back side of the ridge. I was fairly cool and calm to start, but Juan was so excited and then it seemed like no time had passed between deciding to go for him and Isaak setting up the sticks, just out from behind some brush that obscured the bull’s view of us once we got onto the top of the ridge. Suddenly, my mouth was dry and I was breathing hard. I ranged the bull with my binos and he was at 268 yards. I knew I had sighted in high for a reason, and I reminded myself that the vitals on a kudu at 300 yards are larger than the vitals on springbok at 100 yards.
It then seemed like the exact moment that I got onto the sticks, the bull got the idea that something was up. Thankfully we had the wind so he couldn’t be sure exactly what he was looking at 268 yards away with the sun in his eyes. He fairly rapidly but smoothly got into that famous kudu pose, back to us and looking over his right shoulder. With that big kudu looking at us in the golden light, my nerves spiked and it took me the better part of a minute to calm myself down enough to get the crosshairs steady. I told Juan I was hoping the bull would turn broadside for me, then Juan assured me that I wasn’t going to be that lucky.
The bull continued to look over his shoulder and as I prepared to shoot, he began walking straight away from us, but he stopped to look at us over his left shoulder. I breathed and aimed and squeezed and the bull dropped to the shot. I was immediately filled with anxiety, afraid that I had hit too high or too far to the right and hit/shocked his spine. Wounding and losing this brilliant bull would have been the stuff of nightmares. I reloaded quickly and we watched the bull for a long time. He continued to kick some and try to lift his head, so we eventually crossed the 270 yards and came up behind him. He was still breathing and moving a bit when I put the insurance shot in from maybe 8 yards, with the sun beginning to set in earnest. We later discovered that the first round had taken him right through the heart. The 180gr TTSX lodged in his offside ribcage after losing all of its petals. I still don’t understand how he could stay alive that long after being shot in the heart. As I write this I am still proud of that shot: the highest pressure, longest range shot I’ve ever taken in my life.
I wouldn’t say I was in shock, but I was certainly in awe of this old bull and what had just happened. In my mind it all happened so fast, and now the kudu I had dreamed about was on the ground at my feet. His neck was enormous and scarred, and his left flank had scars all over it. Even the white chevron on his face was marred by a scar. I have always dreamed about taking scarred up old warriors of whatever species, and this big kudu bull certainly fit the bill. I was also happy that it looked like I had placed my shot perfectly. Thank yous and congratulations all around and with the light fading fast, we got set up for photos as the sun began to drop below the horizon. I was truly grateful and just overjoyed. Juan was still shaking and chain smoking and his excitement added enormously to my own enjoyment of this wonderful animal.
We eventually got the bull into the truck and back to camp, then enjoyed leftovers right around midnight. I gave us all the next morning off and tried to get to sleep.
Day 7:
The morning after taking the big kudu bull, we opened him up and looked for the bullet and found that it passed through his heart, as previously mentioned. I was delighted. Juan mentioned that he had actually seen this bull once before, 2 years ago with an American client. The bull had hidden himself in a bush though, so Juan and the client couldn’t be sure of him. They got to within 100 yards but the bull stayed in the bush before sprinting directly off, still covered by the bush. Now we had finally brought him in.
I sent photos of the kudu to @dchum and friends so we could all rejoice in him. I also rescued a small bird that had gotten himself trapped in Philip’s lodge, so I hoped that would please the hunting gods. I saw my first impala that day and we saw a big blue wildebeest bull in a herd that I decided not to pursue. It was a very good day.
Day 8:
We set out and not long after we had gotten into the hunting area, about 8:30am, we spotted a warthog family with a good boar. We jumped out of the truck and things happened fast, so I forgot to give Juan my camera. The warthogs would stop, look, and then run essentially parallel to us ~80 yards out on our right. The boar stopped once or twice but was shielded by another pig. I had to keep moving on the sticks and moving the sticks themselves, but I was able to stay on him. Thankfully he eventually stopped on his own and faced straight toward us. I aimed low and the bullet just grazed the underside of his jaw before passing into his chest. Dead on his feet. He immediately ran toward our left then flipped over in a dry streambed, got back up and ran a few more yards before falling dead. Everything happened quickly and we were energized so we walked rapidly to him and he got his revenge when I stuck my foot in a deep warthog hole. I fell over but managed not to flag Isaak with my rifle and thankfully didn’t hurt myself. We grabbed the warthog and took him to a good spot for photos. He had nice tusks and a heavy body. I was pleased with my shot and pleased that I had a good warthog. I wanted one, even though one wasn’t originally on my list. A proper Poomba.
After the warthog we set out for red hartebeest. About two hours after taking the warthog, we spotted a herd of hartebeest under a large tree about a thousand yards out. This turned into the best stalk of the trip. Working the wind and terrain perfectly, we got to within 115 yards of the herd undetected. Isaak and Juan spotted a good bull, but we had been so quiet and successful in our stalk, he was still laying down where he had settled for his afternoon siesta, so I had trouble spotting him. They eventually got me onto his horns above the grass and I could see how his body was laying despite being covered by the grass. I got onto the sticks and figured where the shoulder should be, aimed low, then fired. The bull never got up, the bullet taking him smack in the shoulder. He was a proper hartebeest bull with great mass and we were all pleased.
On our way back to camp we spotted a small herd of kudu with females and 4 immature bulls. It was very cool to see them at fairly close range. Those bulls will make great trophies someday. We got back to camp in the mid-afternoon and thankfully there were still the delicious oryx meatballs with garlic I had requested left over from lunch. Two great animals in one morning, kudu at close range, followed by my favorite of the camp chefs’ meals.
Day 9:
The next day I got enjoy a herd of blue of wildebeest running past us very close to the truck, maybe 75 yards off. I was never that interested in them as a game animal, but now that I’ve seen them in person I am looking forward to taking one someday.
Juan also showed me some very cool bushman rock paintings on the property: men hunting eland. It was a real treat to see these with my own eyes.
On our way back to camp that afternoon Isaak spotted a big steenbok off the road so we very quickly got off the truck, a camp 22 in my hands. The steenbok was big, but very clever and he remained laying down behind a thick bush so I couldn’t see anything below the top of his head. I was on him and Isaak gave a whistle. The tiny antelope instantly sprinted off. I never stood a chance of hitting him on the move and I wasn’t foolish enough to try. We had a delicious roast from my red hartebeest that night. It was another great day.
Day 10:
The last day we saw two wounded / hurt oryx that it would have been great to take, but the first bull totally gave us the slip, despite only having 3 complete legs according to Isaak. I got set up on the sticks for the second, a cow with a bad limp, but at 300 yards she was completely surrounded by bush except for a Texas heart shot which I was unwilling to take. I certainly didn’t want to add to her suffering. She moved off into the bush. I hope her leg has improved. We also saw a small bachelor herd of oryx with a very nice bull.
We saw immature steenbok, so I ended up shooting a few guinea fowl for the pot with my borrowed 22. I’ll certainly be back for one of those big steenbok when I start my Tiny 10 quest in the future, not to mention the big oryx bulls in the area.
Departure Day and Final Thoughts:
I got packed up and said my goodbyes, then Juan took me into Windhoek for the best Kentucky Fried Chicken meal I have ever had in my life. I also had a big bag of some fantastic kudu biltong to take back. It was a fun way to end the trip. I told Juan I would be back to hunt big springbok and big oryx in the Namib with him someday. Flying back to the US was smooth and my warthog’s tusks now reside proudly on my desk. I can’t wait to get the other trophies into town.
This was the best trip of any kind I have ever taken. I was genuinely refreshed, primarily because for once in my adult life, I spent a week with no weight of responsibility except for keeping my eyes open and my mouth shut, then shooting straight when the time came. I wasn’t responsible for everything going to plan or thinking fast when it didn’t. I trusted Philip, Juan, and Isaak. I’m so glad I did. I had a blast and a trip that was truly relaxing, not to mention the incredible hunting experiences and trophies. Huge thanks to @KHOMAS HIGHLAND HUNTING SAFARIS .
I have been inspired to try to hunt at least twice a year now, and I got lucky enough to book a cancellation brown bear hunt this coming October 2026 in the Carpathians with Marius at @HUNTROMANIA! If you’re still reading this, I’ll certainly let you know how it goes with another detailed report. Until then, Happy Hunting!
-TH
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