merlin,
The hunting season in Namibia opens in February and runs through November, being 10 months long it incorporates each of the four seasons. There are no particular months when plains game hunting is necessarily better, but time constraints or personal considerations such as weather, touring, wing shooting, bow hunting or specific seasonal activities might make a certain period of time more desirable to you.
The months of March and April are still considered our rainy season however in April the rain is really tapering of with only one day of rain on average in the central part of the country. A great time to be hunting though keep in mind that the occasional rain, usually late afternoon showers that last only a couple of hours, may interrupt briefly your hunt. Also during this time of the year, food and water being plentiful, the game is less active and not forced to constantly be on the move to survive. The grass is higher and the bush is more dense making the wildlife harder to see, however none of this means that you won't have a very successful hunt even though you might see less game. Hunting early in the season has it's benefits also, the game might be less stressed if there has been no hunting for several months, also the bush being more dense give them more of a sense of security whereas the animal might stand still to let its camouflage work... Another benefit is that during this time of the year the animals seem to congregate in certain areas for longer periods of time, therefore if you see a great bull, and if the opportunity does not present itself at first the possibility to search for that bull in that same area is still possible as it may linger around longer.
The months of September and October is our spring, the temperature is getting warmer and it's the peak of the dry season before the rains come. We usually have a kick off rain mid to late October, very brief as our rainy season truly starts in the later part of December. These months are completely opposite from March and April, the bush has thinned out, the grass is short or completely gone, the water is only available in deep dams or man made waterholes. Basically the food and water supply is at a minimum making the game travel longer distances on a daily basis and really work for it.
For us in the Northern hemisphere, June, July and August being our summer holidays, certainly make these months the most popular to do a hunting safaris in Namibia. That time of the hunting season tends to book up earlier, something to take into consideration as well.
Namibia boasts an arid climate for most parts of the country, the driest months for trophy hunting in Namibia are mid May through mid October and therefore are the most conducive for a bow hunting safari, if that is what you are interested in, as the animals visit the water points on a more frequent basis.
For more information on
Hunting Namibia, click
here.
Let us know what you decide on.