Wheels
AH ambassador
Hartzview Hunt 2015
My son Brandon, took his Oklahoma hunter safety course when he was eight or nine. I remember setting across the room as he took the test, watching him raise his hand periodically for the instructor to explain what some of the big words meant. Out of about 30 people in the class he was by far the youngest. Pride swelled up in both of us as he passed the test. My little hunting buddy was ready to hunt with me that fall.
My hunting style then, was probably not too different from many of us that have a short deer season. Get up early drive to the hunting area. Set in a stand/blind from two hours before sunup till an hour after sunset and freeze to death. This type of hunting is probably not ideal for a young guy with limited patience and no body fat.
Over the years Brandon shot deer and turkey but around 15 years of age he decided he didn’t want to hunt anymore. Every year I would ask if he wanted to go and he would turn me down. As time went on I stopped asking as he moved on with things that interested him more than hunting.
Thanksgiving is the holiday we spend with my side of the family. A number of family members hunt and hunting is often a topic of conversation. On Thanksgiving 2013, I was telling a family member if he wanted to hunt Africa that I would be happy to point him in the right direction or go with him if he wanted. Brandon was present and asked if he went could he shoot a kudu. My jaw dropped. I had given up on the idea of hunting with him ever again. I told him I thought we could probably figure out a way to get that done. I already had my Africa hunts booked for 2014 on that Thanksgiving day but filed the comment in the back of my mind.
As summer 2014 was closing, I knew I needed to take a business trip to Africa within the next six months or so. I asked Brandon if he wanted to go with me and if he wanted to try and work in a hunt on the trip. I was excited to hear he still liked the idea.
This hunt would take place in late January or early February which are months I have never hunted Africa in before. My concern wasn’t the temperature, it gets hot in Oklahoma. My concern was the thickness of the vegetation and if it would be possible for Brandon to get the animals he wanted, especially kudu.
Brandon knew about high fenced hunting and was concerned about hunting on a property he considered too small. (Not sure if he knew what was too small to him, but he knew at some level a certain size could be too small) Wanting him to have the experience he dreamed of I started looking at the very large properties in Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe for a plains game hunt.
In a casual phone conversation with Phil Clayton (PHOENIX PHIL) about something entirely different, I threw out my plans and asked him to tell me more about Hartzview. He told me of his experience and said he would get Jacques to get some pricing put together for me. I had met Jacques, Ockert, Ruan and Phil at DSC and like all of them.
Jacques got back to me with some attractive pricing. About the same time Brandon told me he would be limited to two weeks for the trip. Between the hunt, business trip and the travel days, there just wasn’t enough time to get everything in we wanted to do and we started seeing where we could save time. One way to save two days of travel was by hunting closer to Tambo. It is normal to fly into Kimberly when hunting at Hartzview. I figured we could rent a car and drive to Hartzview arriving around midnight and start hunting the next morning. Jacques would have none of that and said he would have Ockert pick us up at Tambo. The hunt would be shortened to five days and we would target kudu, gemsbok, wildebeest, warthog and impala. Hartzview is about 20,000 acres and when I described to Brandon how many square miles it would be using the Oklahoma City area as an example, he felt good about the hunt. Jacques felt that we could get the targeted animals even though we were only hunting five days. A deposit was sent in. Phil was fantastic to work with through this process.
I met the Hartzview gang (Ockert didn’t make the trip) at DSC and paid the balance of funds we thought we might spend and reviewed with Jacques more of what we should expect. We packed and left the Wednesday after DSC.
Lori Spears with Travel Express (AH member) handled all travel arrangements. Eight flights for each of us. Sixteen in total. There were a couple of major flight delays but everything from Lori’s end went smooth. No firearms were taken on this trip since we would be traveling through Tanzania but not hunting there.
We arrived at Tambo and met Ockert. We loaded up and took off for Hartzview arriving around 1:00am. As we drove through the gates we were welcomed by a nyala. We checked into our lodges and hit the bed.
There is nothing like a father son hunt!
In the terminal at Hartsfield. My demented mind can't settle for a caption. There are just to many. I will leave it up to you guys to come up with one.
My room at Hartzview.
Morning the first day.
My son Brandon, took his Oklahoma hunter safety course when he was eight or nine. I remember setting across the room as he took the test, watching him raise his hand periodically for the instructor to explain what some of the big words meant. Out of about 30 people in the class he was by far the youngest. Pride swelled up in both of us as he passed the test. My little hunting buddy was ready to hunt with me that fall.
My hunting style then, was probably not too different from many of us that have a short deer season. Get up early drive to the hunting area. Set in a stand/blind from two hours before sunup till an hour after sunset and freeze to death. This type of hunting is probably not ideal for a young guy with limited patience and no body fat.
Over the years Brandon shot deer and turkey but around 15 years of age he decided he didn’t want to hunt anymore. Every year I would ask if he wanted to go and he would turn me down. As time went on I stopped asking as he moved on with things that interested him more than hunting.
Thanksgiving is the holiday we spend with my side of the family. A number of family members hunt and hunting is often a topic of conversation. On Thanksgiving 2013, I was telling a family member if he wanted to hunt Africa that I would be happy to point him in the right direction or go with him if he wanted. Brandon was present and asked if he went could he shoot a kudu. My jaw dropped. I had given up on the idea of hunting with him ever again. I told him I thought we could probably figure out a way to get that done. I already had my Africa hunts booked for 2014 on that Thanksgiving day but filed the comment in the back of my mind.
As summer 2014 was closing, I knew I needed to take a business trip to Africa within the next six months or so. I asked Brandon if he wanted to go with me and if he wanted to try and work in a hunt on the trip. I was excited to hear he still liked the idea.
This hunt would take place in late January or early February which are months I have never hunted Africa in before. My concern wasn’t the temperature, it gets hot in Oklahoma. My concern was the thickness of the vegetation and if it would be possible for Brandon to get the animals he wanted, especially kudu.
Brandon knew about high fenced hunting and was concerned about hunting on a property he considered too small. (Not sure if he knew what was too small to him, but he knew at some level a certain size could be too small) Wanting him to have the experience he dreamed of I started looking at the very large properties in Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe for a plains game hunt.
In a casual phone conversation with Phil Clayton (PHOENIX PHIL) about something entirely different, I threw out my plans and asked him to tell me more about Hartzview. He told me of his experience and said he would get Jacques to get some pricing put together for me. I had met Jacques, Ockert, Ruan and Phil at DSC and like all of them.
Jacques got back to me with some attractive pricing. About the same time Brandon told me he would be limited to two weeks for the trip. Between the hunt, business trip and the travel days, there just wasn’t enough time to get everything in we wanted to do and we started seeing where we could save time. One way to save two days of travel was by hunting closer to Tambo. It is normal to fly into Kimberly when hunting at Hartzview. I figured we could rent a car and drive to Hartzview arriving around midnight and start hunting the next morning. Jacques would have none of that and said he would have Ockert pick us up at Tambo. The hunt would be shortened to five days and we would target kudu, gemsbok, wildebeest, warthog and impala. Hartzview is about 20,000 acres and when I described to Brandon how many square miles it would be using the Oklahoma City area as an example, he felt good about the hunt. Jacques felt that we could get the targeted animals even though we were only hunting five days. A deposit was sent in. Phil was fantastic to work with through this process.
I met the Hartzview gang (Ockert didn’t make the trip) at DSC and paid the balance of funds we thought we might spend and reviewed with Jacques more of what we should expect. We packed and left the Wednesday after DSC.
Lori Spears with Travel Express (AH member) handled all travel arrangements. Eight flights for each of us. Sixteen in total. There were a couple of major flight delays but everything from Lori’s end went smooth. No firearms were taken on this trip since we would be traveling through Tanzania but not hunting there.
We arrived at Tambo and met Ockert. We loaded up and took off for Hartzview arriving around 1:00am. As we drove through the gates we were welcomed by a nyala. We checked into our lodges and hit the bed.
There is nothing like a father son hunt!
In the terminal at Hartsfield. My demented mind can't settle for a caption. There are just to many. I will leave it up to you guys to come up with one.
My room at Hartzview.
Morning the first day.
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hows tanzania ?
