markferrigno
AH enthusiast
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2015
- Messages
- 394
- Reaction score
- 424
- Location
- Colorado Springs, CO
- Media
- 65
- Hunted
- Namibia, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Slovania
Hello All. I am new to this site, can't believe I have not stumbled on it earlier. Great site.
I hunted in Namibia in 2013 and 2014 on safaris booked through Wes Hixon. Wes is not the PH, he lives in Georgia (I think) and runs Wes Hixon's Outdoor Adventures. Let me preface my story by noting I am an American living in Germany. I got my German Hunting License (Jagdschein) through the military base I work on as a civilian. While hunting here a friend told me of his hunt in Namibia and what a great time he had. I started doing some research on outfitters here in Germany. Namibia is a very popular destination for German hunters, it's relatively easy to get a direct flight and since Namibia was a German colony most of the White residents speak German.
I thought it would be expensive and some of the prices I was seeing were much higher than I expected with a lot of x animals in x amount of days type hunts. I saw a lot were "first chance, first shot" which I took as shoot the first one the guide sees. I wanted "ala carte" I wanted to pick my animals as many or few as I wanted and book as many days as I wanted.
I came home from work and opened up the issue of American Hunter. There was an interesting article on hunting Cape Buffalo in Namibia. I was interested in DG they listed the outfitter, Wes Hixon and I thought maybe I would have better luck with an American outfitter. I looked them up online and called the number listed. He happened to be at the SCI show in Las Vegas and standing with George Deloch, the PH who hunted ranch Wes books his Plains Game hunts through. I told him what I was interested in, he put George on the phone, George assured me the animals I wanted could be hunted in a week and that night I mailed in my deposit check.
I checked Air Namibia flights from Frankfurt (about 2.5hur drive from Stuttgart, where I am) and several direct flights a week. Found a good flight, confirmed my dates and I was set to go on my first Plains Game Safari. I asked about caliber and ammo. Wes and George both replied, bring you favorite deer rifle. George was adamant about not showing up with anything but Barnes VorTX. I had a new CZ550 in .300 Winmag and a Zeiss 3-12X50 Duralyt. After many boxes of (expensive) ammo at the range I felt I was ready.
As a side note, I sold theCZ shortly after the trip. It was a nice rifle but the .300 was a bit too much recoil for me and the bolt on the CZ felt "rough" it was a fine rifle and performed flawlessly but just not something I "loved"
I drove to Frankfurt international,parked in long term parking and headed to the Air Namibia check in gate full of anticipation. Since owning weapons in Germany I had come to understand that the Polizei don't get freaked out when it comes to guns. Since the course to get a hunting license (and hence own weapons) is so rigorous and intense the Polizei figure you know what you are doing. I checked the weapons, the Polizei checked my license and weapons card and I was all set.
We landed at Windhoek around 6AM. Getting rifles and ammo in Namibia is pretty simple. You fill out your permit form beforehand, go to the Police counter after immigration, they check the rifle(s) and passport, stamp your form and you are set.
George met me outside, we shook hands and were on our way to his ranch. About 2 hours or so of driving we were on his property.George looked at me and asked if my ammo was easy to reach. I said yeah, he told get my rifle and ammo out we were going to stalk some Hartmans Zebra we could see about 1.5KM away on top of a high hill. We had not even got to the house and we were hunting! The Zebra busted us so headed to the house so I could clean up and change. 20 mins later we checked zero and headed out.
The terrain there is much like Southern Arizona. Desert and scrub. Everything and I mean everything has thorns! We headed out and George and the tracker Josef soon spotted some Gemsbock. I figured game would be easy to spot. I was wrong. These guys were picking out animals left and right and was like "where?" it is amazing how these huge animals could blend in so well. We stalked a nice Bull and I thought we lost it in the brush. Apparently we didn't, George setup the sticks and told me to shot. I could not see the animal. George put his hand on my head and turned.There it was! Looking right at me, 75M away. George said aim for the shoulder to "disable the 4 wheel drive" Gemsbock are tough and can go a long distance when wounded. I fired, hit him a little behind the shoulder but a good lung shot. 5 hours after landing I had my first African plains game!
Or so I thought. He took off lie he had a rocket on his back. We found the blood and started tracking him. After 20 mins or so the blood ran out but we had good prints. As we were tracking him about 10 Gemsbock ran in front of us all over his tracks. Shit, I thought, we can never find him now. We broke for lunch and George said we would find him after lunch.
After lunch we headed out to where we had tracked him last. We drove in the direction of the last prints we had. We followed a dry rover bed very slowly and sure enough 10 mins later Josef spotted him 50M off the riverbed in some brush. We jumped out and saw that he was still (barely) alive. George instructed me to put another shot right in his chest. He was down and I had my first African game. It was a great feeling.
Talk about tough, that bullet went through both lungs and he was still alive. Now it was obvious why George wanted to hit them in the shoulder.
We loaded him up and started to look for the some Zebra. Not seeing any we headed back to the house. That week I had a standing order from George, shoot any Gemsbock or Zebra we see driving in or out from the hunts. He had way to many of each and the Gemsbock was their primary meat source. Delicious BTW.
I won't drag the story on with a day by day account but the rest of my week there I harvested Warthog, Blue Wildebeest (Gold Medal) Red Hartebeest (geat stalk, very tough) Hartmans Zebra, Impala and Kudu. In addition I shot 1 wounded Zebra (he had a compound fracture in his front right leg) two Gemsbocks for meat and a cull Red Hartebeest Cow. It was an amazing hunt.
George is a very professional hunter, it is all business out in the field. He has been a PH since he was 16. He has a very large low fenced ranch with abundant game. George is interested in only getting you good trophies, not getting you to take the first available shot. You stay in the guest house next to the main and unless you hunt with friends you are the only hunter in camp. His wife Rike cooks all the meals and you eat with his family. It is really like visiting an old friend. He has two wonderful kids who happened to be on school holiday for part of both of my visits. His teenage son, Hans Jurgen is quite an accomplished hunter already and just waiting to reach age to get his PH certification.
As soon as I left I started planning for 2014. I went back and had another amazing trip. Unfortunately time and money prohibited me for making it 3 in a row. But hunting there gets in your blood and I will be back in the next 2 years.
I hunted in Namibia in 2013 and 2014 on safaris booked through Wes Hixon. Wes is not the PH, he lives in Georgia (I think) and runs Wes Hixon's Outdoor Adventures. Let me preface my story by noting I am an American living in Germany. I got my German Hunting License (Jagdschein) through the military base I work on as a civilian. While hunting here a friend told me of his hunt in Namibia and what a great time he had. I started doing some research on outfitters here in Germany. Namibia is a very popular destination for German hunters, it's relatively easy to get a direct flight and since Namibia was a German colony most of the White residents speak German.
I thought it would be expensive and some of the prices I was seeing were much higher than I expected with a lot of x animals in x amount of days type hunts. I saw a lot were "first chance, first shot" which I took as shoot the first one the guide sees. I wanted "ala carte" I wanted to pick my animals as many or few as I wanted and book as many days as I wanted.
I came home from work and opened up the issue of American Hunter. There was an interesting article on hunting Cape Buffalo in Namibia. I was interested in DG they listed the outfitter, Wes Hixon and I thought maybe I would have better luck with an American outfitter. I looked them up online and called the number listed. He happened to be at the SCI show in Las Vegas and standing with George Deloch, the PH who hunted ranch Wes books his Plains Game hunts through. I told him what I was interested in, he put George on the phone, George assured me the animals I wanted could be hunted in a week and that night I mailed in my deposit check.
I checked Air Namibia flights from Frankfurt (about 2.5hur drive from Stuttgart, where I am) and several direct flights a week. Found a good flight, confirmed my dates and I was set to go on my first Plains Game Safari. I asked about caliber and ammo. Wes and George both replied, bring you favorite deer rifle. George was adamant about not showing up with anything but Barnes VorTX. I had a new CZ550 in .300 Winmag and a Zeiss 3-12X50 Duralyt. After many boxes of (expensive) ammo at the range I felt I was ready.
As a side note, I sold theCZ shortly after the trip. It was a nice rifle but the .300 was a bit too much recoil for me and the bolt on the CZ felt "rough" it was a fine rifle and performed flawlessly but just not something I "loved"
I drove to Frankfurt international,parked in long term parking and headed to the Air Namibia check in gate full of anticipation. Since owning weapons in Germany I had come to understand that the Polizei don't get freaked out when it comes to guns. Since the course to get a hunting license (and hence own weapons) is so rigorous and intense the Polizei figure you know what you are doing. I checked the weapons, the Polizei checked my license and weapons card and I was all set.
We landed at Windhoek around 6AM. Getting rifles and ammo in Namibia is pretty simple. You fill out your permit form beforehand, go to the Police counter after immigration, they check the rifle(s) and passport, stamp your form and you are set.
George met me outside, we shook hands and were on our way to his ranch. About 2 hours or so of driving we were on his property.George looked at me and asked if my ammo was easy to reach. I said yeah, he told get my rifle and ammo out we were going to stalk some Hartmans Zebra we could see about 1.5KM away on top of a high hill. We had not even got to the house and we were hunting! The Zebra busted us so headed to the house so I could clean up and change. 20 mins later we checked zero and headed out.
The terrain there is much like Southern Arizona. Desert and scrub. Everything and I mean everything has thorns! We headed out and George and the tracker Josef soon spotted some Gemsbock. I figured game would be easy to spot. I was wrong. These guys were picking out animals left and right and was like "where?" it is amazing how these huge animals could blend in so well. We stalked a nice Bull and I thought we lost it in the brush. Apparently we didn't, George setup the sticks and told me to shot. I could not see the animal. George put his hand on my head and turned.There it was! Looking right at me, 75M away. George said aim for the shoulder to "disable the 4 wheel drive" Gemsbock are tough and can go a long distance when wounded. I fired, hit him a little behind the shoulder but a good lung shot. 5 hours after landing I had my first African plains game!
Or so I thought. He took off lie he had a rocket on his back. We found the blood and started tracking him. After 20 mins or so the blood ran out but we had good prints. As we were tracking him about 10 Gemsbock ran in front of us all over his tracks. Shit, I thought, we can never find him now. We broke for lunch and George said we would find him after lunch.
After lunch we headed out to where we had tracked him last. We drove in the direction of the last prints we had. We followed a dry rover bed very slowly and sure enough 10 mins later Josef spotted him 50M off the riverbed in some brush. We jumped out and saw that he was still (barely) alive. George instructed me to put another shot right in his chest. He was down and I had my first African game. It was a great feeling.
Talk about tough, that bullet went through both lungs and he was still alive. Now it was obvious why George wanted to hit them in the shoulder.
We loaded him up and started to look for the some Zebra. Not seeing any we headed back to the house. That week I had a standing order from George, shoot any Gemsbock or Zebra we see driving in or out from the hunts. He had way to many of each and the Gemsbock was their primary meat source. Delicious BTW.
I won't drag the story on with a day by day account but the rest of my week there I harvested Warthog, Blue Wildebeest (Gold Medal) Red Hartebeest (geat stalk, very tough) Hartmans Zebra, Impala and Kudu. In addition I shot 1 wounded Zebra (he had a compound fracture in his front right leg) two Gemsbocks for meat and a cull Red Hartebeest Cow. It was an amazing hunt.
George is a very professional hunter, it is all business out in the field. He has been a PH since he was 16. He has a very large low fenced ranch with abundant game. George is interested in only getting you good trophies, not getting you to take the first available shot. You stay in the guest house next to the main and unless you hunt with friends you are the only hunter in camp. His wife Rike cooks all the meals and you eat with his family. It is really like visiting an old friend. He has two wonderful kids who happened to be on school holiday for part of both of my visits. His teenage son, Hans Jurgen is quite an accomplished hunter already and just waiting to reach age to get his PH certification.
As soon as I left I started planning for 2014. I went back and had another amazing trip. Unfortunately time and money prohibited me for making it 3 in a row. But hunting there gets in your blood and I will be back in the next 2 years.
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