Considering a trip to Namibia.

Anyone had any experience with hunting there?

Guide recommendations?

Do's and Dont's?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

You probably should have gone to the DSC in Dallas 3 weeks ago. You still can go to the SCI show in Nashville in February. That's where you can target specific outfitters and find out anything and everything you need to know about booking a trip in 2024 or beyond.

A couple of members on here have been to Namibia and should be along to help. Personally, I wouldn't hassle with the shows. In this day and age, plenty of PHs do business without the shows, and more than one outfit just does the Dallas show and blows off the BS that is SCI. Any way you slice it, it's still just a tradeshow with the crowds, and about a billion South African outfitters.

'Always wanted to hunt Namibia. Good luck!

I have hunted at Getaway Kalahari Safari with Janneman Brand and can't recommend it highly enough. Small operation with personalized service, great experience, great hunting, great food, exceeded my expectations, for sure.

http://www.kalahari-safari.com/index.php

I've hunted Namibia 5 times and highly recommend the Straus' family @ Kowas Safaris. They are hunting machines, have great properties which are mostly low fenced. Their home property is high fenced but is about 20k acres so you rarely even seen the fence anyway. You will walk your butt off, so be prepared. Can't say enough good things about them.

I hate JoBurg and will do everything I can to bypass it completely if I go back. I highly recommend letting a travel agent like Travel With Guns or Travel Express handle your reservations, meet and greet, overnight in JoBurg if you have to, etc. If and when the SHTF overseas, they can fix it quickly.

We have hunted it a bunch, and I really don't think you can go wrong with any of the established operators. JGR's comments above are spot on, and an experienced travel specialist is a lifesaver. The private property farms will run between 20K to 50K acres, and then they all usually have exclusive concessions which may be another 300,000 to one million acres. The country is a lot like west or south Texas. I can personally recommend the following as top notch outfits

Omujeve Hunting Safari's
Leopard Legend Safaris
Kowas Hunting Safaris

Here's a guide that may help you without having to ask tons of questions.

https://omujevehuntingsafaris.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Guide-to-Hunting-2020-Download.pdf

Janneman and his family are wonderful people and a phenomenal operation. Hopefully can go back soon

I’ve hunted Namibia twice. In 2016 I hunted plains game outside Gobabis, and fished the Zambezi River from a camp a few miles outside of Katima Mulilo. Just this last year, I hunted hippo, croc, and buffalo, from a camp on the Chobe after flying into Katima again.

Pluses for Namibia are:

• Comparatively easy firearm import
• A well run country by African standards
• The ability to avoid Johannesburg
• Large concessions that are free range for all practical purposes

Anyway, if you have specific questions, ask away. Via pm is fine too.

It's been a while but my brother and I did a plains game hunt with Johann and Vera Veldsmann of Shona Adventures. Wonderful people, wonderful food and plenty of cold beers for sitting around the fire inside the boma, smelling your fresh gemsbok backstraps sizzling on the braai.
We hunted in the scrub/kopje lands around Otjirawongo, then moved up to the River Huab country. I wish I had set aside time to nose around the Skeleton Coast and Swakopmund.

While I agree Namibia is a wonderful place, I'd take into consideration the nation is coming out of a very bad drought. I have repeatedly heard from people more knowledgeable than I that the number of animals and trophy quality is down.

Yes, periodic drought and outbreaks of rabies among kudu can have a big effect on hunting. Be sure to do some homework on this before booking!

I met a fella at work this week that said he had hunted Namibia and he spoke highly of the people and culture there. I’ve never had any interest in the affair of hunting Africa, but he said he really enjoys it. Didn’t talk a lot about it, but from what I gathered, if I was ever interested in a hunt there, this would be the place I would likely look to.

If you want a big kudu, red hartebeest, gemsbok, Damara Dik-Dik and a Hartman Mountain Zebra then Namibia is a great place to go. But, other places do have more species to choose from.

QMC SW/EXW is REALLY on to something with his advice. Africa is REALLY big place with animals distributed unequally across the continent with very different regulations. The savvy hunter has to chose outfitters carefully because very few outfits have quality animals of every species that are naturally occurring to the area. Decisions are very different if you KNOW that you will only make one hunt to the continent (KNOW is in caps because I don't know anyone who has been once that wouldn't love to go back a second time).

Spend some time looking at different species and their availability and if you are one of the lucky ones who get to go more than once you can pick different species at different outfitters across the continent. The Safari Club meeting later this month in Nashville would still be an excellent place to meet and

I would also add a common eland to QMC SW/EXW's list of premium plains game...and there is some incredible dangerous game opportunities in the Caprivi Strip in the North.

Man guys thanks for all the replies. All of the information you guys provided has been super helpful and I can't thank you enough for sharing it with me.

Before I started this thread, I had already gone to DSC and met Dirk Smit who runs RJS Orpa Hunting Safaris out of the Grootfontein District. I really hit if off with him and his wife Thea at the convention. I subsequently met and dined with them and a very experienced worldwide hunter out of Waco, who highly recommended Dirk. Dirk represents to have 100k+ free range land to hunt plus other game area concessions. Dirk offered me a deal I couldn't pass up, so I paid a deposit.

This will be my first trip to Africa so I am super pumped, especially since I am taking my son and grandson, who will be 12 when we go.

Hopefully the drought situation is better in a year, since I booked June 2024. My son could not take off two weeks + this summer anyway.

Yes I am going to avoid Jo'burg which is what Dirk recommended as well.

My father made two trips in the 90s, Zambia and Tanzania. I unfortunately passed on the opportunity to accompany him to Tanzania for 32 days because my kids were very young and I really regret it. Those countries however seemed a bit out of my price range with the PHs I spoke to at DSC.

Namibia seems more in my budget. I am not after dangerous game this time but I do have interest in a Cape Buffalo. Plains game should be more than adequate for my first and possibly only African experience. Plus I inherited some remnants of the prior hunts, lion rug, leopard mount, buffalo mount, etc. If I get hooked, like I understand many people do, I will explore some other locales in the future.

Again thank you for the information. I will try to give you guys a success report next year.

I've met and talked to Dirk several times myself. I wouldn't hesitate to hunt with him either. I'm betting you'll have the time of your life. Namibians are fantastic people.

Agree re avoiding JoBerg. Prior to leaving here, I talked to a guy from there. He said to not even leave the airport. It is one of the worlds most dangerous cities. Purse and cell phone snatchings is common and fairly normal for tourists. And, tourists stand out and are say to spot.

LISTEN to this guy!

Wife and I went to Namibia some years back - flew into Cape Town to spend a few days - what an awesome place!

Drove to a one million acre concession with our PH - a camp was set up with nice tents etc. Had an awesome hunt - hell of Kudu along with some awesome other animals like Zebra, etc.

One of the coolest things we did was take the Zebra to a small village in the middle of nowhere - we went to a set up where they took the Zebra out, hung him up, and field dressed him. Children started coming from every direction - we handed the kids lots of hard candy so they were happy - turns out the meat was divided up between different villages - each village had a "meat council member" that was elected - their sole responsibility was to decide how much meat each village would receive.

So once that was all taken care of it was totally dark - our PH drove us over to a place where there was a small building - he parked and we got out - he said "would you like a beer?" We said of course - so we walk into this tiny building with dim lights on - it was all run by a generator and it was a bar! LOL - so we ordered some beers and drank them and headed back to camp - talk about having priorities in place! Nothing but camp fires except for the bar - what a great memory and trip - you will love Namibia