Why Namibia and not South Africa?

South Africa has become well known as a game farm hunting destination. It is not uncommon for hunters to find out once they have arrived in South Africa that much of the hunting is done on small 1,000 to 5,000 acre high fenced pens. Where as in Namibia it is common to hunt on completely free range concessions and any hunting inside enclosures is done on extremely large tracts of land and for specific species. Unlike in South Africa anyone who wants to exclusively hunt for completely free range animals can do so simply by booking the appropriate package.

In fact new for 2010 we have just obtained a exclusive permit to guide safaris on a 500,000 acre government concession that is 100% free range and has not been hunted in over 12 years. The concession includes permits for desert elephant and leopard as well as the occasional problem lion. The concession has world class plains game hunting for Kudu, Gemsbok, Mountain Zebra, Eland, and several other species of game.

Also, one of the biggest draw backs to South Africa is that most hunters have to fly into Johannesburg and then drive to their game ranch from there – this is becoming increasingly dangerous with an extremely high crime rate in the city. Every year stories of hunters being mugged, robbed, or being forced to pay off thugs to get their firearms back are circulated through the hunting community. In Namibia all of our clients fly into Windhoek International Airport which is located 45 minutes outside of town. Even though  Windhoek is a clean and trouble free city our clients do not have to ever see the city if they do not want to!

 How do you travel to Namibia?

Travel to Namibia is very simple and very leisurely. Our clients all fly overnight from major US Cities to Frankfurt, Germany where they spend the day exploring the history rich German city before taking a short ten hour overnight flight to Windhoek. Almost all flights arrive around 8:15AM in the morning. Our staff meets your flight, clears your guns through customs (15 minutes process – easy!), and by 11AM you are on the main concession and sitting in a five star lodge facility.

Can we hunt leopard with hounds?

Yes, while the leopard season is closed for the 2010 season while they export all of the big leopards killed during the 2008 and 2009 seasons. Right now Namibia is the premier leopard hunting destination in all of Africa. The cats are big and there are lots of them. The liberal game laws allow for the use of hounds to bay or tree the leopards just like hunting cougars in our western United States. This is an extremely effective way to selectively hunt for and harvest mature male leopards. Our success rate is almost 100% - the one SOA client to ever go there for a leopard and not get one went home, quit smoking and got into great condition – then returned the next year for a big tom leopard. Right now we are booking 2011 and 2012 leopard seasons with seven hunters per season.