The excitement of a planned “away hunt” is like a drug to me. I get a ton of excitement from the planning and waiting and that’s why I try to set up a hunt as far in advance as possible. I started thinking about another African bowhunt years before it came along. It would be a retirement gift for myself from the fire department after 31 years and a hunt to share time with my 15 year old son Luke. Two things needed to happen- first, I needed to retire and second I needed my son to get a little older so that he would both be able to bowhunt with his recurve on the trip and fully appreciate the importance of the event. The four years flew by.
We decided that Namibia was where we wanted to go. It is a very safe location for travel and we had hunted there before. The location had proved to be extremely bowhunter friendly in the past and offered something that was important to me, options for hunting away from water holes. This would be my third trip there.
I have nothing against hunting at a waterhole. As a matter of fact, I had done it many times in my previous trips and found it to be a very exciting way to see staggering numbers of game. It is also great for the hunter that is inexperienced in learning to judge the large variety of game to learn so much more. Even determining the sex of many species is a difficult task for many antelope species for a first timer. It also makes getting close to many of the species even possible. I had learned in previous adventures that stalking plains game species in the dry season is more difficult than you can imagine. I would compare it to stalking a turkey, with zero cover, on dry oak leaves. Yep, that is about how difficult it is.
For this trip, I wanted more. I HATE sitting in a blind. I know it is very productive but I always feel like I am looking at the world through a pipe. I had some past experiences hunting from tree stands in Africa and loved it. No doubt that it created some problems but I was ok with less success for the chance at taking all of my animals with a tradbow from the treetops.
The scent issue was a big one. Pit blinds help a great deal in containing scent and being in the open is a sure way to be detected by any animal anywhere near down wind. Next was the issue of the uncanny ability of African game to spot predators. This issue would turn out to be huge when you combine it with the fact that I would be self-filming the hunt. Adding camera gear to any hunt compounds the difficulty. I would rate African game as much more alert than North American game and this is greatly compounded by the fact that there are often 20-30 sets of eyes looking for danger. I knew it would be difficult but it would be stalking and tree stand hunting or nothing at all.
Our hunt would be taking place in the Tsumeb region of Northern Namibia. June and July are mid-winter there and there would be little cover and extreme dry conditions. My son and I vowed to stalk early on and after eating enough humble pie we would move to the trees and some blind hunting for him. The best way to tell this story is from excerpts from my journal.
Journal Entry- Namibia 25 June, 2013:
The flight over is a grueling one and as we approached the African coast I had to wonder if this place would impact me the same way it has in the past. The answer came quickly when the great dunes of Namibia’s Skeleton Coast appeared below us. I actually felt my pulse quicken and the excitement began to build to a fever pitch. I felt like was coming home after being gone for six years. This is going to be awesome.
Hunting Day One- Wildebeest Hide:
We were accompanied on this hunt by my friend John Abbott. He had never hunted Africa and I thought I would spend the first half of the day in a blind watching him shoot and giving him the rapid course on judging the various species. We got up in the early morning and took a few minutes to shoot the bows and headed out. Thirty minutes after arriving it was as if someone had opened the gate at a zoo. Waves of animals approached the water and when one animal finally drank it triggered a mass pandemonium. I was doing my best to help john pick out the right animal from the 6-7 species. The look on his face as he tried to take this incredible sight in for the first time was priceless. It only took one look at a great impala ram to know he wanted it. He made a great longbow shot and we watched it go down. Later, we spent the afternoon stalking gemsbok and I had a great bull at 12 yards but the shot was blocked by brush.
That night my son Luke recounted a full day of stalking. He told me “Dad, this is really hard”. He had gotten close on several animals but had not been able to seal the deal. He had also had a chance (and passed) on several Dharma dik-dik. These are a very small 15 pound antelope and a rare treat to see at close range.
That night we all sat around a warm fire and watched several species including kudu, duiker, springbok and warthog come to a waterhole illuminated by a solar light just 60 yards from camp. We cook wild game every night over an open fire for dinner and it is better than any beef I have ever eaten. This place is just simply awesome.
Day Two- Tamboti Forest:
Early morning found me high in a Tamboti tree in a small forest. The area we were hunting is primarily bushveld. This is an arid mix of thorny brush and grass lands. We had hung tree stands in the small woodland patches because they provided shade during the mid-day heat and trees large enough to conceal a hunter. About one hour in I was attempting to video a sand grouse and was caught flat footed by a group of Gemsbok and kudu cows. It took some time to reposition the camera and get the bow off the hook. I waited for a perfect quartering shot and watched as the arrow landed right where I was looking. Gemsbok are really tough animals but this one was quickly down in sight. After the recovery, I spent some time with Luke hunting a mid-day water hole and then back to the tree where I passed on another great Gemsbok.
Topic: Tradbow in the Tree Tops (Read 1005 times)
