hoguer
AH senior member
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2017
- Messages
- 92
- Reaction score
- 310
- Media
- 94
- Hunted
- Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Tajikistan, Argentina, Spain, New Zealand
Lots Of Pics!
Long post warning! Cliff notes for those who just like the guts- Khomas Highlands Hunting Safaris in Namibia is a AMAZING place for someone looking for true spot and stalk free range hunting, great food, drinks and lodging, and most importantly a staff that truly cares about their guests, the quality of the experience and quality animal management and conservation. Our travel dates were 5/24/18-6/04/18 with beautiful weather in the mid 70s during the day and clear skies. If you are in the market for a awesome trip, Philip and the crews down there deserve your consideration.
www.khomas-highland-hunting.com
Preface
Hello to all who are taking the time to read this review. My name is Thomas, I am a 29 year old California native that was looking at planning a solo trip to SA for a paling game trophy hunt and I found AfricaHunting.com while searching reviews on a outfitter in SA that I had recommended. Google popped up with AH and opened my eyes to all of the options that were available for my dream trip.
I hunt all over the US for birds and big game, and have never been on a guided hunt in my life (until this trip) so as you can imagine, traveling to a foreign country on a different continent with thousands of dollars on the line I wanted to make sure to take the time to do some research on the geographical area that would provide me with the trophy quality I dreamed of; an outfitter that understood I wanted to hunt fair chase, free range animals; and I don't mind working hard for my trophies.
The Search
Along the way I posted a few questions here on AH and got a awesome response from all of the members here with tons of helpful advice and guidance. It became very clear to me early on that although SA offers some great trophies, it did not necessarily offer a lot of options for free range hunting and I may be better suited looking at the surrounding countries for the hunt I desired. During the initial research portion of my trip, my father and hunting partner here in the states came out of the woodwork and told me he wished to join me for my adventure as a early retirement present as he will be out of the work force hopefully in the next year or two, and after some long talks he convinced me this trip is what he wanted to do so I was now looking for a trip for two!
I was approached by many sponsors of the site after posting a "dream hunt" description here on AH and after they answered some preliminary questions I narrowed it down to a few outfitters, and after a few talks with Philip at Khomas Highland Hunting Safaris the decision was made to book a 10 day hunt for two with 13 animals on the list and all inclusive amenities at a very competitive price.
My list:
1-Kudu
1-Gemsbok
1-Blue Wildebeest
1-Black Wildebeest
1-Heartmans Zebra
1-Red Heartbeest
1- Warthog
My fathers:
1-Kudu
1-Gemsbok
1-Blue Wildebeest
1-Heartmasn Zebra
1-Red Heartbeest
1-Warthog
The Flight
One thing I noticed in this market is there is a concierge service offered for just about every aspect of the trip. We were on a tight budget but at the suggestion of AH members we chose to use a Travel Agent to ensure a smooth trip due to the fact that we would be traveling with 3 firearms. We booked with Jennifer at Travel Express, another sponsor here at AH as they specialize in safaris and travel with firearms. We had about 9 months from the time of commitment to Khomas Highlands to our Safari so we also made a point to get our Global Entry clearance done to speed up our domestic terminal security clearance and signed up for Global Rescue for the time we would be in Namibia as a little extra insurance. We also made a trip to our local US Customs office for 4457 forms on our firearms to prove ownership (not required but ended up making everything run more smoothly at the airports)
We departed from San Francisco and the check in of the firearms took us an additional 30 minutes over the "normal" time to expect. You have to love all of the dirty looks you get from passerbys in the Bay Area when you have 3 pelican cases and camo backpacks
Our rifles were checked through to our final destination so that helped us. We flew SFO - JFK with Delta Airlines, had a 4 hour layover and departed JFK - OR Tambo, South Africa with South African Airlines and a flight time of 14hr 50min. I will say, we spent a extra $75/per person on this leg of the journey for exit row seats, and it was worth every penny! I'm a little taller than most at 6'02" and the extra legroom was priceless.
After arriving at OR Tambo we were sadly stuck with a 5 hour layover that seemed to go on forever, but we finally boarded the South African Airways flight to Windhoek and an arrival time of 3:10pm and after clearing our rifles through Namibian Police we walked outside to find Philip awaiting us with a big smile on his face and a handshake. We loaded up into the Land Cruiser and started the trip to the Farm Heusis property where we would be based for the next 10 days. We arrived, unloaded into our very spacious house and had a great dinner of grilled Gemsbok backstop with homemade dinner rolls, salad, dessert and plenty of cold beer. The night was called early as we were both exhausted from 44 hours of airports and airplanes so we went to bed in preparation for the next morning.
The drive from the airport, Sunny and 75!
The Hunt
As you read above, we based our hunt out of the Farm Heusis property as we had a Plains Game bucket list to fill. It was subject to slight change as you can see in the top photo! Ill save you the pictures of our rooms, as there are plenty of photos on the website but to summarize it they were a very clean blend of traditional decor with nice modern bathrooms, a full kitchen with a fridge stocked with beverages and comfortable beds.
We started the morning at 0630 for a hot and fresh breakfast of coffee, fried eggs, bacon and homemade white bread toast with jam. Our PH Adab and driver Erik met us with the land cruiser at 0700 and we were off to check zero on the rifles. We set up a target at 150 yards and shot off of the shooting sticks we brought and grew to be fond of, a set of Jim Shockey edition Trigger Sticks. All of the rifles had held their zeros over that long journey and we were excited to see what the morning brought us.
We had made a point to tell Philip that we didn't want to shoot our trophies from the back of the truck and and our crew were more than up to the task for the 10 days ahead of us, as we covered many miles on foot, exactly what we had hoped for. Philips family cattle ranch itself is approximately 8500 ha of low fence land that has several man made lakes on the property for the cattle and game, and can range from rolling hills and valleys with Leopard, Springbok, Steenbok, Blue Wildebeest, Black Wildebeest, Red Hartebeest, Kudu, Gemsbok and Warthogs up to the mountains where we found more Gemsbok, Kudu and the hearty Mountain Zebra. The property is part of the Khomas Hochland Conservancy, a giant land area of over 150,000ha and sitting at about 5,500 ft in elevation at the Farm Heusis that has all come together in an effort to help in the conservation and management of the native game animals.
The morning started with a several mile walk that put us on a heard of approximately 20 Gemsbok that were all healthy females or immature bulls, a few red heartbeest bulls that were moving away from us, a Ostrich and finally a heard of Blue Wildebeest that decided to stay around for a bit to long, and I was able to fill my first tag!
I shot a ancient Blue Wildebeest bull at 225 yards off of sticks with my trusty 300 WinMag and he was down within 20 yards of impact with a bullet that the trackers later showed me had pierced his heart as well as lungs.
(me left, father right)
With this old guy down, we headed back to the houses to have him processed as well as eat a delicious lunch of Gemsbok cheeseburgers and had a siesta until 1530 when we met for coffee and cake.
The evening hunt had us glassing more Gemsbok, and well as seeing a healthy heard of Springbok and bumping a few Steenbok while we were stalking. The group of Oryx was well over 800 yards away when we first glassed them, so we carefully made our way on the final stalk of the day and got into position to gauge quality and sex of the animals. Suddenly I noticed a large warthog coming out of the brush below us and Adab took one look at him and whispered excitedly "Shoot! Good Warthog. Shoot!" So my dad setup on the shooting sticks and dropped him in his tracks at 120 yards.
That ended the first day on the hunt with what we felt was a very successful day, and we headed back to the houses for a amazing dinner, more beers than we probably should have and another night of deep sleep dreaming of what day 2 would bring us.
**More to come**
Long post warning! Cliff notes for those who just like the guts- Khomas Highlands Hunting Safaris in Namibia is a AMAZING place for someone looking for true spot and stalk free range hunting, great food, drinks and lodging, and most importantly a staff that truly cares about their guests, the quality of the experience and quality animal management and conservation. Our travel dates were 5/24/18-6/04/18 with beautiful weather in the mid 70s during the day and clear skies. If you are in the market for a awesome trip, Philip and the crews down there deserve your consideration.
www.khomas-highland-hunting.com
Preface
Hello to all who are taking the time to read this review. My name is Thomas, I am a 29 year old California native that was looking at planning a solo trip to SA for a paling game trophy hunt and I found AfricaHunting.com while searching reviews on a outfitter in SA that I had recommended. Google popped up with AH and opened my eyes to all of the options that were available for my dream trip.
I hunt all over the US for birds and big game, and have never been on a guided hunt in my life (until this trip) so as you can imagine, traveling to a foreign country on a different continent with thousands of dollars on the line I wanted to make sure to take the time to do some research on the geographical area that would provide me with the trophy quality I dreamed of; an outfitter that understood I wanted to hunt fair chase, free range animals; and I don't mind working hard for my trophies.
The Search
Along the way I posted a few questions here on AH and got a awesome response from all of the members here with tons of helpful advice and guidance. It became very clear to me early on that although SA offers some great trophies, it did not necessarily offer a lot of options for free range hunting and I may be better suited looking at the surrounding countries for the hunt I desired. During the initial research portion of my trip, my father and hunting partner here in the states came out of the woodwork and told me he wished to join me for my adventure as a early retirement present as he will be out of the work force hopefully in the next year or two, and after some long talks he convinced me this trip is what he wanted to do so I was now looking for a trip for two!
I was approached by many sponsors of the site after posting a "dream hunt" description here on AH and after they answered some preliminary questions I narrowed it down to a few outfitters, and after a few talks with Philip at Khomas Highland Hunting Safaris the decision was made to book a 10 day hunt for two with 13 animals on the list and all inclusive amenities at a very competitive price.
My list:
1-Kudu
1-Gemsbok
1-Blue Wildebeest
1-Black Wildebeest
1-Heartmans Zebra
1-Red Heartbeest
1- Warthog
My fathers:
1-Kudu
1-Gemsbok
1-Blue Wildebeest
1-Heartmasn Zebra
1-Red Heartbeest
1-Warthog
The Flight
One thing I noticed in this market is there is a concierge service offered for just about every aspect of the trip. We were on a tight budget but at the suggestion of AH members we chose to use a Travel Agent to ensure a smooth trip due to the fact that we would be traveling with 3 firearms. We booked with Jennifer at Travel Express, another sponsor here at AH as they specialize in safaris and travel with firearms. We had about 9 months from the time of commitment to Khomas Highlands to our Safari so we also made a point to get our Global Entry clearance done to speed up our domestic terminal security clearance and signed up for Global Rescue for the time we would be in Namibia as a little extra insurance. We also made a trip to our local US Customs office for 4457 forms on our firearms to prove ownership (not required but ended up making everything run more smoothly at the airports)
We departed from San Francisco and the check in of the firearms took us an additional 30 minutes over the "normal" time to expect. You have to love all of the dirty looks you get from passerbys in the Bay Area when you have 3 pelican cases and camo backpacks
Our rifles were checked through to our final destination so that helped us. We flew SFO - JFK with Delta Airlines, had a 4 hour layover and departed JFK - OR Tambo, South Africa with South African Airlines and a flight time of 14hr 50min. I will say, we spent a extra $75/per person on this leg of the journey for exit row seats, and it was worth every penny! I'm a little taller than most at 6'02" and the extra legroom was priceless.
After arriving at OR Tambo we were sadly stuck with a 5 hour layover that seemed to go on forever, but we finally boarded the South African Airways flight to Windhoek and an arrival time of 3:10pm and after clearing our rifles through Namibian Police we walked outside to find Philip awaiting us with a big smile on his face and a handshake. We loaded up into the Land Cruiser and started the trip to the Farm Heusis property where we would be based for the next 10 days. We arrived, unloaded into our very spacious house and had a great dinner of grilled Gemsbok backstop with homemade dinner rolls, salad, dessert and plenty of cold beer. The night was called early as we were both exhausted from 44 hours of airports and airplanes so we went to bed in preparation for the next morning.
The drive from the airport, Sunny and 75!
The Hunt
As you read above, we based our hunt out of the Farm Heusis property as we had a Plains Game bucket list to fill. It was subject to slight change as you can see in the top photo! Ill save you the pictures of our rooms, as there are plenty of photos on the website but to summarize it they were a very clean blend of traditional decor with nice modern bathrooms, a full kitchen with a fridge stocked with beverages and comfortable beds.
We started the morning at 0630 for a hot and fresh breakfast of coffee, fried eggs, bacon and homemade white bread toast with jam. Our PH Adab and driver Erik met us with the land cruiser at 0700 and we were off to check zero on the rifles. We set up a target at 150 yards and shot off of the shooting sticks we brought and grew to be fond of, a set of Jim Shockey edition Trigger Sticks. All of the rifles had held their zeros over that long journey and we were excited to see what the morning brought us.
We had made a point to tell Philip that we didn't want to shoot our trophies from the back of the truck and and our crew were more than up to the task for the 10 days ahead of us, as we covered many miles on foot, exactly what we had hoped for. Philips family cattle ranch itself is approximately 8500 ha of low fence land that has several man made lakes on the property for the cattle and game, and can range from rolling hills and valleys with Leopard, Springbok, Steenbok, Blue Wildebeest, Black Wildebeest, Red Hartebeest, Kudu, Gemsbok and Warthogs up to the mountains where we found more Gemsbok, Kudu and the hearty Mountain Zebra. The property is part of the Khomas Hochland Conservancy, a giant land area of over 150,000ha and sitting at about 5,500 ft in elevation at the Farm Heusis that has all come together in an effort to help in the conservation and management of the native game animals.
The morning started with a several mile walk that put us on a heard of approximately 20 Gemsbok that were all healthy females or immature bulls, a few red heartbeest bulls that were moving away from us, a Ostrich and finally a heard of Blue Wildebeest that decided to stay around for a bit to long, and I was able to fill my first tag!
I shot a ancient Blue Wildebeest bull at 225 yards off of sticks with my trusty 300 WinMag and he was down within 20 yards of impact with a bullet that the trackers later showed me had pierced his heart as well as lungs.
(me left, father right)
With this old guy down, we headed back to the houses to have him processed as well as eat a delicious lunch of Gemsbok cheeseburgers and had a siesta until 1530 when we met for coffee and cake.
The evening hunt had us glassing more Gemsbok, and well as seeing a healthy heard of Springbok and bumping a few Steenbok while we were stalking. The group of Oryx was well over 800 yards away when we first glassed them, so we carefully made our way on the final stalk of the day and got into position to gauge quality and sex of the animals. Suddenly I noticed a large warthog coming out of the brush below us and Adab took one look at him and whispered excitedly "Shoot! Good Warthog. Shoot!" So my dad setup on the shooting sticks and dropped him in his tracks at 120 yards.
That ended the first day on the hunt with what we felt was a very successful day, and we headed back to the houses for a amazing dinner, more beers than we probably should have and another night of deep sleep dreaming of what day 2 would bring us.
**More to come**
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