Botswana 2025

[Wendell Reich]

I'd love to see an African section for stuff like this, we have quite a few members who hunt Africa. Since these are Antelope, I'll post this here.

This is my second time to Botswana for hunting, my 4th time to Botswana overall. Love the country, from the stunningly beautiful Okavango Delta to Chobe Park to the Kalahari. Just a beautiful and varied place.

We are hunting a 250,000 acre ranch. Half of it has a perimeter high fence (110,000 acres) where all the animals are available. The other half is low fence where you find a lot of Kudu, some Waterbuck and Warthogs.

We would walk quite a bit on this hunt and shoot most everything on the ground, not out of the truck. Nothing wrong with safari style hunting, I have and will take every opportunity to take what I'm after. Sometimes it happens quickly out of the truck. Sometimes, you get to stalk or track. Luckily, we got to stalk or track almost everything.

My PH was Arthur Lewis. A perfect match for us, me my wife and her sister. He was very professional and a very capable and talented PH. He turned 24 the last day of our hunt.

Trackers were Besa and Makiri. Bushmen trackers absolutely on are another level. I don't know how these guys do what they do so well.

First day, Arthur asked me "What are you after?" I named the 5 animals I wanted, that's it.

Well …

I don't typically do "whack 'em and stack 'em" African hunts. Just not my style. But, I have a new hunting lodge under construction that I'll need to decorate … so, I used that as my excuse.

16 animals later, we were done! I did shoot 5 culls, so that's not really fair … Or is it? I dunno.

5 Wildebeest (3 culls) all for Wildebeest rugs that are way underrated!
3 Gemsbuck (2 culls)
2 Zebra (I have always wanted a pedestal zebra head mount) for a mount and a rug.
2 Warthog
1 Kudu
1 Eland
1 Impala
1 Waterbuck

This place is just sick with great Kudu. And lots of them. I didn't tape this guy cuz I don't care how long he is. He's obviously a very good kudu! He was free range, and it was a great hunting experience. I did shoot a 58" last time I was here, so, it's hard to top that!

Eland is my favorite plainsgame animal to hunt. Period. Nothing comes close. You track them with Bushman trackers. The Bushman trackers are, without any doubt, considered to be the most talented hunters on the continent. We managed to track this guy on day 2 after blowing a couple stalks the previous day.

Honestly? I feel a bit robbed! I love the tracking, watching these guys work, the final stalk, crawling or sneaking. It's just the most rewarding pg animal to hunt.

He's an old bull. Big dark mop of hair on his forehead and good horns.

We did spend some time later tracking more Eland. I needed the multiple failures to feel like I earned my bull.

And we failed. Every time! But I just love tracking Eland.

I managed to take three Gemsbuck. A nice old, 40.5" cow, and two culls. Here is the big cow.

This girl had wonky horns. One of them broke and healed, but then wound up growing curled into her eye. Every time she moved her eyes, the horn was rubbing on her eyeball. A good one to take. It was only going to get worse.

Nature is so cruel.

All week I was looking for a broken horn gemsbuck (culls are cheap.) at sunset the 10th day, we stalked this one.

I love Wildebeest. They are big stocky looking critters and they were inexpensive, even the trophy ones. So I shot 5. They some make beautiful rugs. I skinned all of them for rugs. Well … the skinners did it.

Number 1. Big heavy bosses on this guy. Not excessively wide, but I rarely put a tape on anything anymore.

Number 2. Just a fun stalk on him.

Number 3 (cull) A cull? Hard to convince me of that. He's a pretty good bull, just not super wide.

Number 4 was an old cow who looked like a bull with smaller horns. These guys are tough. The tracking of this old girl took us through some nasty "wait-a-bit" thorn bushes.

Number 5. Broken horn bull.

Continued …

 

[Wendell Reich]

Impala. No hunt is complete until you shoot an Impala!

I love Warthogs! Maybe it's the pig hunter in me, but I'll hunt Warthogs the entire safari.

We stalked this guy in a big pan that had just dried up, but had a lot of green grass in it. There were Eland, Gemsbuck and Wildebeest with him.

After the shot, the smaller male saw weakness in the big one and absolutely gave him the biggest butt whooping I have ever seen an animal give! He literally tossed him in the air flipping him head over hooves and then went to work on him on the ground. We ran up and scared him off but not before he cut him up pretty badly.

He had huge puncture wounds and large gashes all over him from a fight that lasted maybe 5 seconds? It was brutal!

The second Warthog was a surprise one that popped out about 25 yards from the truck. A short offhand walking shot got a round in him. We had to follow him up in some thick stuff. This was the only time the lead tracker (Besa) let the other tracker, Makiri, take the lead. Besa had a bad experience with a wounded Warthog and wanted nothing to do with this one!

A couple very close running shots in the bush and he was down. It was very cold this day. 33 degrees and windy. Wife didn't go with us this day.

A super pig with very long bottoms.

Continued …

 

[Wendell Reich]

I have always thought Zebra pedestal mounts were stunning. Zebra aren't the easiest animal to stalk either. Last safari I struck out on Zebra, so I had to make up ground (or so, I told myself).

We heard these guys fighting and snuck in close enough to get a shot through a small window of brush.

He didn't move. Just stood there wobbling back and forth, so a second shot was required. That did it.

The second Zebra wasn't as interesting. We happened to drive up on a herd and the male stood out by himself. I'm not passing that up. I love stalking and tracking, but, you take what Africa gives you.

Waterbuck are stunning animals. We had stalked a few with no luck, then about halfway through the hunt, we snuck up on a big pan still full of water.

He was in the middle of the lake, fighting another Waterbuck. His distraction gave us a little bit of cover to stalk closer.

He was mid chest deep in the water, half of his torso above water, the rest was unavailable for a shot.

I snuck one in, a bit higher than I like. It had little effect on him other than to rock him enough for the other Waterbuck to attack. They fought a bit and we moved in a little closer for a couple more rounds to put him down.

Now, we have a dead Waterbuck in the middle of a small lake.

The trackers, ph and our driver all walked out there and drug this Waterbuck back to shore.

He was a beautiful old Waterbuck. And a heck of a fun hunt.

As far as hunted animals goes, that's it. But the entire experience was absolutely top notch.

I'm no stranger to Africa. Hunted Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. All of them multiple times starting in 1994. So, this wasn't a first timers experience.

Camp was great. They have Hippo (Mischief) who lived in the waterhole in front of camp. He would wander off to another big lake nearby, but always came back.

They have Rhinos as well. There is one cheeky bugger who is a bit of a problem. You didn't feel entirely comfortable around him! He's never hurt anyone, but he is a Rhino … he could if he wanted to.

He would show up to camp occasionally.

 

[Wendell Reich]

The rifle I used was a camp gun. A 300 win mag, Blazer R8 with Leupold VX3, 4.5-14x. I love the trigger on that gun. So crisp and light. That helped me shoot well through the hunt.

It had a 338 cal suppressor that was long and heavy, but extremely effective. You could easily hear the hits on the animals, which was comforting. Made me reevaluate longer suppressors after stalking in that thick brush the Kalahari is known for.

Shots were 180 and under. I'd guess most were 100 ish. A couple shorter.

Camp was very nice. Not sure why I didn't take any pics of it. Possibly because I have been here before?

Meals were way above average for a pg safari. And that is really saying something. Breakfast was whatever you requested the day before at dinner.

Eggs, mushrooms, hash browns, bacon and sausage with. We would have grilled tenderloin strips from the previous days animals as appetizers around the fire and 4 course meals for dinner.

I went with my wife, her sister and two clients.

The guys that came with us were great to have in camp. It really made fireside and meals entertaining at a minimum! Can't wait to hunt with them again.

 

[Mark37082]

Thanks for sharing. It sounds like a spectacular hunt. Do you have the taxidermy done in Botswana?

 

[Rick Richard]

Thanks so much for telling a great story and sharing all the pictures. I keep putting Africa off and I don't know why, probably because of the anxiety of all the travel and logistics required….maybe someday.

 

[Wendell Reich]

Thanks for sharing. It sounds like a spectacular hunt. Do you have the taxidermy done in Botswana?

No, I have it done here. Quality is better, more expensive but shipping fully mounted taxidermy is very expensive.

On the money, it's a wash. But quality (I believe) is superior here. And you have the taxidermist to warrant the work.

 

[Wendell Reich]

Thanks so much for telling a great story and sharing all the pictures. I keep putting Africa off and I don't know why, probably because of the anxiety of all the travel and logistics required….maybe someday.

Do it now. I can't stress that enough. It's not difficult at all.

As for travel, you use an agent who knows Africa and traveling with guns. I have used two for 25 years. Travel With Guns (Steve Turner's agency) and Gracy Travel. Both handle a huge amount of the hunters who go to Africa.

If you want to bring your own guns, both can make the travel stress free.

Don't put it off. They aren't getting cheaper and you aren't getting younger.

 

[Greyfox]

Thanks for sharing! Great animals! Congratulations!
Botswana is a beautiful place to hunt….I hunted the Okavango and Chobe a couple of times 30-40 years ago.. It was truly an adventure that will never be forgotten, with memories as vivid as if I was there yesterday!

 

[Wendell Reich]

Thanks for sharing! Great animals! Congratulations!
Botswana is a beautiful place to hunt….I hunted the Okavango and Chobe a couple of times 30-40 years ago.. It was truly an adventure that will never be forgotten, with memories as vivid as if I was there yesterday!View attachment 675754

That's a beautiful Lion. I'm glad you got that done when you could!

I wish we could still hunt the Okavango! I remember in 2000 or so when Lions were $20-$25k all in. Jeff Rann was $25k and he was on the high side!

 

[Greyfox]

Thanks! Back in the 80's the Okavango was a million acre hunting concession…..Looked like a giant garden laced with waterways…One the largest inland deltas in the world. My first hunt in the Okavango was a tent safari with PH Ian McFarland…Ian, myself, and two trackers spent a couple of weeks in pup-tents, traveling by mokuru(hollowed out tree trunks…crude canoe). Total cost of the hunt with Cape buffalo, kudu, impala, zebra, warthog was $3500.00! The lion hunt with sable, gemsbok, hyena, a few years later with PH Ronny Blackbeard(in pic below) was still about $20,000…But it was the investment of a lifetime!
PS..I can remember a much younger Jeff Rand, as well as Peter Capstick and Craig Boddington who frequented the Okavango back then!

 

[Wendell Reich]

Thanks! Back in the 80's the Okavango was a million acre hunting concession…..Looked like a giant garden laced with waterways…One the largest inland deltas in the world. My first hunt in the Okavango was a tent safari with PH Ian McFarland…Ian, myself, and two trackers spent a couple of weeks in pup-tents, traveling by mokuru(hollowed out tree trunks…crude canoe). Total cost of the hunt with Cape buffalo, kudu, impala, zebra, warthog was $3500.00! The lion hunt with sable, gemsbok, hyena, a few years later with PH Ronny Blackbeard was still about $20,000…But it was the investment of a lifetime!
PS..I can remember a much younger Jeff Rand, as well as Peter Capstick(in pic below), and Craig Boddington who frequented the Okavango back then!

Your story officially eclipses mine! . In a spectacular fashion! But, that's fine. Love the pictures. I remember seeing Ronny Blackbeard on a Jeff Rann video in the 90's and I believe it was Ian who was a guide on a photo safari in Chobe. (About 90% sure)

We came out of the lodge and I recognized him and claimed the front seat of the cruiser so I could beat him down with hunting questions!

He did not want to be there … at all! The photo crowd is not fun. They really don't appreciate the wildlife like a hunter does. I have seen it every single time I have shared a truck on a photo safari.

I spent some time in the Okavango in '94. What a spectacular place that is. Fairly certain that was the original garden of Eden.

Now the photo crowd has taken it over, but as long as someone is protecting it, I'm happy. It's an incredible place.

 

[lancetkenyon]

Sorry, no 1st hand experience with African wildlife.
But your animals are amazingly awesome.
Are they Blue Wildebeest?

 

[Wendell Reich]

Sorry, no 1st hand experience with African wildlife.
But your animals are amazingly awesome.
Are they Blue Wildebeest?

Yes sir. Those are Blue Wildebeest.