NAMIBIA: Khomas Highlands Hunting Safaris May 2018

Congrats on the wide kudu!!!
 
You guys are having to make some long shots! Excellent work! Some fine trophies! Congratulations!
 
Beautiful kudu!!!
 
Day 7
After a long evening of drinks by the fire the night before, we were told by Philip that a local elementary school that he regularly donates meat to had made a request for another donation. The school is grades 1-8 and primarily attended by the children of the local ranch workers due to the Khomas Highlands remote location. Since we had enjoyed such a successful hunt and completed our "must have" list, he extended the offer for us to head out with Adab and Erik in hopes of harvesting a Oryx cull animal for the school donation, as well as work with Cole the volunteer from Canada on a Oryx bull or RHB harvest, and we jumped on the opportunity.

The Khomas area we have been hunting is absolutely loaded with Oryx, every time we stop to scout we would find a lone bull or large heard at some point in our glassing. We headed out for the hills in the direction of our Oryx/Zebra/Fathers Kudu hunting grounds and quickly found a large herd of Oryx on the hillside about a half mile away. We stalked in and got into position to properly select a meat animal for harvest, and Adab put me on a very large female that he said was to old and would be a good cull. I setup on the sticks, and due to the special purpose of this animal I lined up for a head shot at 200ish yards downhill. With what i thought was a steady shooting position, I let a round off and the Oryx didn't even move! Feeling good about the shot and writing the miss off as "some dirt must have been in my my barrel" or some other easy to justify excuse, I immediately reloaded and fired again within 5-6 seconds and MISS AGAIN! By this shot the herd was obviously onto us and took off, leaving me cussing, Adab looking confused and amused, and my dad giving me a sly smirk because he now was not the only one who had missed an animal we headed back to the truck.

I was disappointed and trying to break down the shot and why I had missed, but could not figure it out so it had to write it off as shooter error. As I mentioned a moment ago, the area is loaded with Oryx and we were on another herd within 30 minutes and started a long stalk towards a big group on a far mountain probably 3/4 miles away as the crow flies. We came in from below them on the hill and had plenty of coverage for the stalk, allowing us to get in a comfortable position for a 170yd shot. We got on the binoculars to locate a good meat animal, and Adab marked a young Oryx female at the back of the herd with a deformed horn. The perfect cull animal.
She was standing broadside grazing, and even though I had missed my earlier shot, I refused to let the miss cause me to second guess my shot. Adab requested a vitals shot (im sure due to my previous miss) but I was very comfortable behind my rifle where we were and I put the crosshairs on the cervical spine right behind her skull. BOOM! She fell like a sack of potatoes and everyone let out a sigh of relief! As we approached the animal, Adab saw the hit in the base of the skull and was surprised I had gone for another head shot after my past miss. I told him I had to because it may be the last animal I take on the safari and I couldn't leave on a missed headshot! Philip now has a meat animal with zero wasted meat to donate to the school and I have regained my confidence.
We took a few pictures and loaded up the animal to head back to camp for a early lunch and siesta.

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The afternoon took us out for a hunt and Erik was replaced with Issak as our driver. Cole had spent a majority of his time on the property working with Issak so he chose to join us to help Cole take his animal. Focusing on locating a old RHB bull for Cole, my father loaned him his Spartan Precision 300wm for the hunt and I still brought my rifle along as a backup. We headed back into the valley for the evening where we located a nice herd of RHB with several old bulls. After a nice easy stalk, we marked a bull hovering around the outside edge of the herd. Cole setup on the sticks (he is a lefty shooting a right handed rifle) and shot the old bull at a little over 100yd with a solid smack and a RHB on the ground. When we approached the bull he was still breathing so we dispatched him with another round and Cole had fulfilled a dream of shooting a animal in Africa!

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Coffee and cake before every evening hunt

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face omitted because i didnt clear posting this photo with Cole


We headed back to the camp for a celebratory drink (as usual) and delicious dinner (as usual) as well as to discuss what we could do for the last few days of hunting


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The staple drink of Khomas Highlands Hunting Safaris!!

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Our evening retreat
 
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170 yard headshot is fine skill!
I shoot enough that a 200yd shot should have been a easy task. I'm still not sure how I missed. The c-spine shot made up for it though.
 
cool looking Oryx
 
Outstanding...all the way around!
 
Day 8
The morning of day 8 consisted of a slightly later breakfast as we had decided to join the crew that was dropping off the oryx we had harvested the day before to the local school. This was a very eye opening experience and the staff and kids were sincerely greatful for the donation. We arrived back at camp for lunch, and decided we would go for couple RHB cull animals, and potentially a trophy springbok if we came across something that I could not pass up on. As our hunt up until now had been so successful, we enjoyed the views a bit more while scouting and really took the time to soak it all in. As usual, we located a large group of RHB in the same area we had been successful taking out Blue and Black Wildebeest, and we spent considerable time glassing the animals to pick the perfect cull animals and one in the herd immediately stood out to us. There was a cow that had a large protrusion coming out of her abdomen, from what I could not tell you. Se was moving freely and in no apparent distress, but he was a definite candidate for removal from the herd. We made our stalk in and got setup in a comfortable seated position, set up the sticks and waited for her to present a clean shot. At 270 yards, the 300WinMag sent a round through both of her lungs, but with the sun nearing the horizon behind her, she took off away from us. I sent one more round down range and it entered high on her back as she was heading away, sliding into the chest cavity as well and she was down. We were able to relocate on the same herd because our distance had luckily only slightly spooked the herd and they settled down again a few hundred yards away. Adab selected an additional cow for cull, and my dad put her down with one well placed shot at just over 100 yards. We ended the day with a amazing meal and a open mind of what we would like to do tomorrow, our final hunting day.

The school we delivered the oryx meat to

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Adab talking with the school administrator and the students

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My fathers cull Blue Wildebeest

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Setting up for the shot at 270yds

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Our cull RHB and the abdominal injury we saw when picking the animals to harvest
 
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Day 9
The final day of our hunt consisted of a hot breakfast and table discussion about what we wanted to go after for the day. I told Philip that we still wanted to hunt, but for what we were not sure so the decision was made to head up into the hills where we have encountered the large herds of Oryx, Mountain Zebra and RHB and see how the morning plays out. If we find something that we want to take home with us, then we will hunt it, and if not then we are in the best location for extended glassing and a low key morning. We headed out and spent time glassing and located a large herd of Oryx that we decided we would try to make a stalk on to get a better glassing point to see if there was anything to be taken, as Adab stated they could use another animal for camp meat. During our stalk that was line of sight probably half a mile to the vantage point we wanted to reach, we were walking a ridge line following Adab when a small movement off to our right caught my eye. Kudu! I tapped on Adabs back and we stopped immediately. Luckily the animals were working away from us, grazing up a hill but I could see plane as day there was a quality bull in the group. We moved to cover behind some brush and started checking out the bull. Adab quickly said "Nice bull, do you want to shoot??" and my father and I looked at each other, both waiting to hear what the other wanted to do. My dad said he was at his max quota for trophies on the hunt, so it was up to me if I wanted to spend the additional money on a second Kudu trophy. We sat and watched him while I mentally argued back and forth with myself about harvesting another bull. The animals were calm and oblivious to us so I was able to think clearly and weigh out my options. I asked Adab to call Philip to make sure that it was even a option to shoot another bull. The yes came quickly fom Philip, and now it was up to me to make the decision. Do I shoot a second kudu since I never know when or if I will be back hunting Africa, or do I let him pass and accept that I had already harvested 1 of my ultimate trophies earlier in the trip and just be satisfied with my first bull alone.
The devil on my shoulder ended up being a bit more convincing and the decision was made to take him. Two bull Kudu shoulder mounts are always better than one right???
With the bull slowly grazing uphill and away from us, it was just a matter of time for him to present a quality broadside shot so we setup where we were, ranged the group at 185 yards and prepared for the shot. When he turned to the right, my dad whispered "191 yards" and I squeezed the trigger and sent the 178gr ELDX through his heart and lungs. He bucked, ran about 25 yards and stopped hunched up and fell over dead. My second Kudu bull was DOWN!!
We made our way over to him, and as we had talked about when initially glassing him he had very similar horn characteristics to my first bull, but with slightly darker horns and a much lighter coat. He would make a great mount with some contrast on the wall next to his compadre! He measured at 51"/52" and was beautiful. We loaded him up in the truck and headed back to camp for lunch and some time to psychologically absorb what an amazing hunt we had and what beautiful country we had been fortunate enough to hunt.

We spent the afternoon on a drive with Philip, checking out a nearby property that was a high fenced privately owned property with lots of non native and specialty species that we glassed and laughed about how docile they were. Talk about a easy shot!! The evening was back at camp, and we finished the last night with more than our fair share of Gin and Tonics late into the wee hours of the morning, and I enjoyed one of the worst hangovers ive had in recent years on our trip back to the US.

Over all I cannot say how happy I was with Philips hospitality, we saw more wild game than I have ever seen before, and if life ever presents me with another opportunity to return on Safari to Namibia, I wouldn't even blink before calling Philip to see how things were going and what his schedule looked like for a return trip.
Thank you again for the wonderful memories with my father that we will cherish for a lifetime.

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Adab, me and Erik

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The final trophy pic!
 
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Misc Pictures from our trip
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Wow, great post and congrats on your trip. You honestly just put these guys on the list of Camps I need to check out for my first safari.
 
Wow, great post and congrats on your trip. You honestly just put these guys on the list of Camps I need to check out for my first safari.

I was in camp with these guy during the hunt, we had a great time and you should absolutely call Philip and take to him about a hunt. If you have any questions, feel free to pm me.
 
Wow, great post and congrats on your trip. You honestly just put these guys on the list of Camps I need to check out for my first safari.
I promise you wont be disappointed. Philip is a genuine guy and it is obvious he cares about you not only as a client but a guest.
 
I was in camp with these guy during the hunt, we had a great time and you should absolutely call Philip and take to him about a hunt. If you have any questions, feel free to pm me.
@YancyW we never saw the broken horned kudu you had photos of... believe me i was looking hard for him! Pleasure sharing our time there with you.
 
Hoguer,

Great report, thanks for posting it.
I enjoyed it thoroughly.
You are not just a good rifle shot (you’re definitely all that plus a bag of chips) but likewise, you are an entertaining writer as well.

Cheers,
Paul.
(Velo Dog)
Anchorage
 
Very well done and congrats on some really nice trophies. I ll be back in Namibia in May on my second attempt for leopard. Very special place Namibia, maybe its because that was were my first safari started. Really looking forward to getting back. Phillip, well done sir!
 

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