The place that all boys at some stage in their lives dream about . Ever since the explorers Livingston and Stanley wrote of their experiences, Africa has been the Mecca for explorers and hunters alike. Years after those two great explorers, came the hunters such as Selous and Karamajo Joe Bell. Some time later came the great bow hunter Howard Hill. Followed by a vast host of bow hunters such as Swinehart, Fred Bear, and in more recent years, Gary Bogner, plus many others that have regaled us with their wonderful bow hunting stories.
As a boy I was not immune to the romance of hunting Africa, and although I have been hunting with a bow for over 40 some thing years, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would ever go there.
Three years ago I became aware that time was passing me by, and after a major health scare some years back I convinced myself that there was no reason why I could not at least do some serious dreaming, and maybe kick a few tyre's (tires) by looking into the possibilities of going there for a hunt. If I found that it was going to be completely impractical,--- well I could say at least I gave it a try.
In so doing I never realizing what a can of worms I was about to open.
I suppose you could say that it all started getting serious when a few years ago I had Dr Donall Thomas Jr of American traditional Archery magazine fame, and his wife Lori stay with my wife Jan and I in our home in Helensville, New Zealand. Don is co editor of that wonderful mag.
One evening he was enthralling us with his wonderful hunting adventures in South Africa. I asked him about costs and where, in his opinion was the best place to hunt. His reply was South Africa is a great destination, but dollar for dollar Namibia was about as good as you can get. Maybe not the range of animals as in South Africa, but what is there, is often better trophy quality. He proceeded to fill my head with dreams of hunting in Africa to the point where I became like a dog with a bone. I couldn’t let it rest.
A few months later my son Bruce and I were in a very fortunate position to be Chital Deer, and buffalo hunting in Australia with our very good friend, the late great Australian bow hunter Bill Baker, of South Pacific Safaris. One evening we got talking about bow hunting in Africa, as he himself had been there with good success a few years earlier. He started filling my head with things like, how easy it was to organize a hunt in Africa, and that the cost, though steep was well worth it. I mentioned what Don Thomas had told me about Namibia, and Bill agreed saying, that he and a few mates had organized their next hunt, and it was to be in Namibia. But unfortunately before they could go they had to cancel out, as a cyclone had all but wiped Bill out on the Queensland coast. (Sadly for Bill, another African hunt was never to be). He gave me a contact in Namibia and it was then I realized that I was hooked, I would never be happy unless I hunted in Africa..
I spent many hours on the computer learning as much as I could, going into many, and varied web sights asking numerous questions, and making a regular nuisance of my self. After about 6 months of fact finding, I sat down and wrote up a list of what I wanted to hunt in the way of game, what my budget would allow, where I would like to go, and what sort of gear I would need to take.
I had no ambition to hunt any of the big six – Elephant, Lion, Cape buffalo, Leopard, Rhino and Hippo. I had long ago excluded these from my wish list. They were far too expensive, and I would have had to hunt in different countries, but far more importantly, they can either bite me or trample me, so they were out of my reckoning. Although I have to admit I have always had a sneaky private dream about some day going after a Cape buffalo. But that is where it stays, as Jan said “only in your dreams buddy”. I decided that plain’s game would be my main target. Plains game are mostly browsers and grazers eg Kudu, Zebra, Impala, Gemsbok, Springbuck, Wildebeest just to name a few, and after getting a rough quote on what each of these species would cost. I soon realized that hunting in Africa was not going to be cheap, but far more affordable than I had ever imagined. I have been told that if you hunt any where else in the world, you may be able hunt one or two species for about the same cost as hunting an incredible range of game in Africa. The next thing for me to do was to work out where I wanted to hunt.
Africa is a huge diverse continent, and there are many destinations for the keen hunter. I realized that the countries like Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania and others, were all far too expensive for me to even consider. Usually twice, and some times treble the cost of South Africa and Namibia. I would dearly have loved to hunt Zimbabwe, as it is a very natural beautiful country. But the political climate put a stop to any thoughts of going there. I have already mentioned that Namibia was highly recommended, so I definitely decided to go there. One day I happened to be talking to my mate Kevin Watson of Advanced Archery about my planned hunt in Namibia, he made a suggestion that, as I was paying to fly all the way over there at a cost of $3600 return, and that it was most likely to be my one and only chance. Had I considered incorporating a second hunt in South Africa at the same time? I initially laughed the idea off. What about the expense? But it stuck to me like a burr, and after a lot of thought I decided that it was a great idea. I would be over there for 20 days instead of 10. I would be able to experience life in different camps, meet a wonderful diversity of people, travel the different countries and more importantly, see a greater variety of game. I decided to go for it.
Now that I had decided where and what I wanted to hunt, I set about booking my self into the best outfitter I could afford. I soon found out that you can’t just contact them, and say I want to be there in a few months. Oh no, bookings were out to two years, and what had been left over, was usually in the wrong moon phase. When booking a hunt in Africa it is very important to book and plan several years in advance, and to take into consideration the phase of the moon, this has an enormous influence on the activities of the animals. Something I will talk about at a later stage. The out fitter I decided on in Namibia after studying their web sight, and getting in touch and talking to supplied references was the same one that Bill Baker had recommended. Vieranas Safaris, which is up in the north western corner of Namibia, bordering the northern semi Namib Desert.. A six hr drive from the capital Windhoek, (pronounced vindhook). Vieranas is a bow hunting only place. Owned and operated by Roger and Amelia Coomber. It consists of 22’000 acres, 5’000 of which is high fenced. As the client I got to choose where I wanted to hunt. I hunted in both areas with great success. They also have use of a range of large concession blocks owned by other farmers in the area.
Roger is originally from the UK. A very enthusiastic bow hunter, and is the Chairman of Namibia Professional Hunting Association’s Bow hunting Committee. . His enthusiasm for all things bow hunting is second to none. I found him to be great company with a wealth of information, which he gladly shared with me during the course of my stay. Amelia originates from Dorsland (Thirst land) Trekkers (1870’s), who settled in those parts around 1928, coming to Namibia from Angola 1928, , and both her and Roger took over the family farm from her grandparents. They could see the future potential in game farming, and have never regretted their decision .After making contact I booked Vieranas with out any hesitation.
Now I needed an out-fitter in South Africa. So it was back to my friend Don Thomas via internet this time, as he was back home in Montana USA. One of the outfitters he mentioned was Buchholz Safari and Lodge. Which he told me is based in the Limpopo valley 3 hrs north of Johannesburg. Now, as soon as I heard the name Limpopo my ears immediately pricked up. Limpopo is steeped in history, the stuff of many stories and legends. After talking to the people of Buchholz and doing some back ground research, I was hooked. Buchholz is owned by Chris Van Schalkwyk and is also, bow hunting only. Chris turned out to be a very friendly knowledgeable South African whose family history dates back to the early Dutch settlers of 1651, and can lay claim to being the 15th generation South African, Chris was eager to help me fit in his part of the bookings with my hunt in Namibia. Not an easy thing to do. But Chris was extremely helpful, and details were finally ironed out. I was to arrive at Buchholz on the 26th August, hunt for 9 days then onto Vieranas for another 10 days.
Before I discuss equipment, I would like to digress a moment .I can not emphasis enough the importance of doing your home work. The diversity of game ranches in South Africa is incredible. Some are small only a few hundred acres, to the majority that consist of many thousands of acres. Some have great accommodation, some not so, some have inflated ideas of charges, some will have bow hunting only. (Very important as African game are incredibly alert, and any excessive hunting pressure can make a difficult hunt into an impossible one). Avoid at all costs a rifle hunting outfitter. Some will say they are a bow hunting only, but can and often do slip in rifle hunters. So be aware and do the home work.
Another thing one has to be aware of is, bow hunting in South Africa will almost always be done behind wire, and you have no choice. It’s the law. While this may be abhorrent to many, some of these game farms are huge. Also keep in mind that if it wasn’t for the wonderful game management of the South Africans, there would be no indigenous animals there at all. It would all be cattle ranches .These animals are 100% wild, and believe me are not easy to hunt. (The law for hunting behind wire in South Africa does not apply in Namibia).
When it came to the requirements of equipment, I talked to both Roger and Chris. Then knowing roughly what I would need went straight around to Kevin and Carol from Advanced Archery. Between us we came up with a comprehensive list.
We set my Hoyt Vectrix up to 65lb for the species that I would be targeting, 55lb – 70lb was recommended.
The recommended arrow weight was between 480grn – 600grn, it was suggested the heavier the better.
As I like hunting with the slim carbons and I only draw 27inches, I could not get an arrow with enough weight. We settled on the Beman max-4 400 (the heaviest I could buy), put in a plastic weight tube, and used a 125gr. broad head. I managed to get an arrow weighing in at 535gr. This also had the added advantage of making the bow quieter. We then spent a lot of time getting the bow shooting as quietly as possible. In Africa the game are particularly wary and fast, noisy bows do not cut it over there. By the time the arrow arrives, the animal has often reacted to the noise resulting in wounded animals. With my set up, not one animal reacted before the arrow arrived.
Also be sure to take plenty of arrows. I settled on two and a half doz. It is amazing the diversity of animals and bird life that always seemed to invite a probing arrow. Also take plenty of broad heads and replacement blades. I can assure you there are not to many corner archery shops around out there. I found a complete back up bow gave me a feeling of security. I never needed it, but it was great to know it was there if any thing went wrong with my no1 bow.
Broad heads were the next thing that was discussed. Both outfitters recommended a multi-fixed blade that preferably cuts on impact. Neither of them was very enthusiastic about mechanical heads, as they had seen too many disasters with them. Rodger was also a little cautious about the use of the traditional single blade, after a strange experience he had with a European traditional bow hunter last year. This particular hunter wanted a female Kudu for the skin. Roger later told me how the story unfolded. The hunter in question put a nice shot into the rear of the lungs, the Kudu cow let out a grunt from the force of the hit. She ran off for about 100 meters then slowed down, they both expected her to fall over but she stayed on her legs and wandered off. Later while tracking her they were puzzled by the lack of blood. They only found a couple of spots, eventually having to give up on her. Something that all hunters hate to do, particularly the African’s as the predators almost always get into them during the night. The next day the hunter left for home with the promise that if Roger found her during the next day, he would try to save the skin and send it on.
76 hrs later Roger had hunting with him, a well known bow hunter from the states, when out stepped the same Kudu cow looking fit and healthy. Roger could not believe his eyes. He immediately turned to the American hunter, and said shoot that cow. The cow was dispatched with a shot through the heart. When they did an autopsy on her they found that the original arrow had indeed double lunged her. The conclusion they came to was that the single blade broad head, had gone straight through slicing with the grain, and before the lungs could collapse, had sealed up again, and because of the good clean pass through, no further tissue damage occurred. The cow seemed to be completely untroubled by the wound, and would almost certainly have lived a normal life. Neither the very experienced American, nor Rodger had ever witnessed any thing like it. Roger later sent the skin to the original hunter explaining why there was two broad head holes in the hide!!. Roger has no doubt, that had that been a multi-blade broad head, it would have been a nice quick kill.
How ever it must be said that there is no doubt in both Roger and Chris’s mind, that when hunting large dangerous thick skinned animals, a heavy robust single blade is the only way to go for maximum penetration.
I settled on two broad heads to take with me. The G5 125gr. striker for thin skinned game. This little broad head performed outstandingly well, it is a cut on impact plus has replaceable blades, and is scary sharp straight out of the packet. I would recommend this little beauty to anyone hunting small to medium game. The second broad head I chose was a German Kinetic. This is a single blade broad head and is made by a firm in Germany. It had been highly recommended to me by a bow hunting friend in Spain, as he had used this broad head on three separate occasions while in Namibia, and was absolutely thrilled with its performance. The quality and the precision machining is out standing, It maintained a high degree of accuracy’ no matter what I put it through during practice. The only down side to this broad head is the high cost. I had decided that if I had a chance at a Zebra I would use the German kinetic. The Zebra is a very tough stocky animal, and is renowned for its ability to absorb a lot of punishment.
It was late on the fourth day in South Africa when a group of Burchell’s Zebra came in, three females one foal and a majestic stallion. As soon as my guide Carlos saw him he started getting very excited. Get that stallion if you can he told me, he is an outstanding trophy. After many draw backs and false alarms, I managed to get a shot in. Well that stallion seemed to go into instant overdrive, I can tell you, I have never seen any animal move as fast as him. Judging by his reaction, I felt quietly confident that it was a heart shot. By the time we got onto his trail it was dark. Darkness closes fast in Africa, one minute you can see, the next minute it’s dark. The initial blood trail was very patchy, it was getting late, and we all started to get worried. A couple of trackers were bought in. I had been told earlier by Chris that these African trackers could follow a fart in a thunderstorm. A slight exaggeration, but in short order my wonderful Zebra was found 180 meters away. The German kinetic had cut through both lungs, and had sliced every artery from the top of the heart. The fact that the stallion had traveled so far after that damage, is testament to the incredible toughness of that powerful stocky animal. In fact all the African game that I was lucky enough to shoot, were incredibly tough, their ability to tenaciously hang onto life is legendary. I think it may be the harsh environment they live in where every bush they encounter could conceal an enemy that is out to devour them.
It’s for this reason that, I went to great lengths to find out the best kill zone on the various animals that I was likely to encounter. Both Chris and Roger were very clear in their advice. Forget all about what I had previously learned about shot placement. The African plains game has their lungs well forward and their heart very low and even further forward. Forget the “behind the front leg crease shot for these animals”, in fact put a shot any where behind the front leg and it’s most likely going to be a gut shot. Very early on in my inquires, Chris sent me a shot placement chart (which is now established on his web sight). I found it to be an enormous help and set up all my practice shots with that advice in mind. If I had to quote which was the best piece of advice I got during my build up for Africa that would have been it with out a doubt.
I felt confident that I had the best of advice and the correct equipment to handle anything that I may face. I had put in a lot of research into where I wanted to go, and believe me it paid off. Both of the out fitters I chose were outstanding, and I have made some wonderful lasting friends.
During the twelve months before departure I put in a lot of leg work to try and build up my fitness, plus a lot of practice on the range and out in the field. I recommend that all the field practice be done with the bh you intend to use. I was very fortunate as Advanced Archery had my bow so well tuned, that any broad head I tested grouped in the same place. Putting in the time testing all your gear well in advance of the hunt, is time and money well spent, it pays off in the long run.
To be continued------
Ray Scott (dream rider)
New Zealand
Archery Addix Forum Member
Great Story as always.......
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