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Dear Fellow Bowhunter,
Happy New Year to
those of you I have not had the pleasure of speaking to yet this year. I hope
that it is going to be a great year for you all and bowhunting in general.
For those of you that
will be hunting with me this year, Amelia and I really look forward to
welcoming old friends back with us and welcoming all the new hunters and their
families.
With the start of the
New Year came the rain, so far for January we have had about 160 mm, which is
over half our average. Some parts of Namibia have had up to + 400 mm of
rain. Sossusvlei/ Sesriem got flooded
and the Milk Lilies (Crinum Palodosum) were out in their thousands in the
Maltahöhe
area in the south of the country.
In the middle of
December we had a bush fire that was started by lightning; we lost about 500 ha
of grazing. The trees and bushes that
you find in the kopjes are green again and there is no sign of the fire. The
smaller Mopane trees on the plains, that got hit hardest by the heat, are
slowly recovering from the ground up.
It is amazing how quickly the bush is able to repair itself. I hope the
good rains carries on, fingers crossed.
-In this issue of the The Archer:
-A lot of Thank yous
-Africa’s Bowhunter Magazine Challenge…!
- Forums.
- An Elephant on the Ridge.
- After making a shot.
-News from the Bowhunting World: North
Country SCI Chapter
-
NAPHA
-Kambaku Bowhunting School
~Firstly I would like
to thank Amelia for all her hard work last year in the Kitchen and the great
meals that she served up for the hunters and I. Also, for checking what I have
written for mistakes (and there were some big ones) and last but not least
looking after the girls while I was away with the NAPHA Guides bowhunting
courses. Lastly for looking after the running of the farm while I was hunting.
~The next thank you
goes to Johann Louw, my good friend and colleague on the NAPHA Bowhunting
Committee, for all your help through the last year and in running the Guides
Courses. I hope this year is going to be a good one.
~The ladies at the
NAPHA office for all the help with clients’ medals.
~Opportunity in
Windhoek (Roy, Carlin, Bianca and Gavin) for their great work with the adverts
and banners. I hope our relationship can grow with the year to come.
~Thank you to Jean
Wallace for having to proof read my Newsletters, see you soon.
Last, but not least,
to all my clients that hunted with Vieranas last year, I have great memories of
the hunts and some good laughs (Louis), Amelia and I hope that we’ll see you
all again one day.
-
The Double Bull blinds
work extremely well in our neck of the woods, visit their website and have a
look at the Matrix 360 with surround sight technology. They are more expensive
than other brands but well worth the money.
To view more on “Fair
Chase” principle I recommend you visit the following website: www.huntfairchase.com
Or visit the Boone and
Crockett club website. They were the first to write down the Fair chase
statement. The Boone and Crocket club, which is a non profit organization, was
founded in 1887 by Theodore Roosevelt. This website is well worth a visit.
Africa’s Bowhunter
Magazine Challenge…!
The editor of Africa’s
Bowhunter & Archer, Rean Steenkamp told me that they will try and get the
Africa’s Bowhunter Magazine Challenge up and running for 2006. If you subscribe
to Africa’s Bowhunter & Archer magazine there will be adverts placed early
this year. If you are interested in the Challenge the best thing is to contact Rean Steenkamp direct
Those of you, who are
traditional archers there is also a section by Rean Steenkamp (the editor of
Africa's Bowhunter & archer).
www.africanarcher.com
I will be continuing with the Gift subscription to Africa's Bowhunter &
archer for the overseas hunters that hunt with Vieranas Safaris next year. For
local Bowhunters it depends on how many days you book.
- Forums
Hunting forums are full of interesting tips and if you visit www.bowsite.com please look at a very
intensive thread on Kinetic Energy and Momentum.
Vieranas Safaris is a proud
Bowsite.com sponsor
I also found an extremely extensive list on what to pack for your hunt
with very useful information and tips on www.accurate-reloading.com
especially for overseas hunters.
Join www.africanhuntinginfo.com
and you will receive their newsletter with local news and plenty of good
articles. Submit your trophy photos and have a look at the forums. African
hunting info also offers a good deal when subscribing to African Sporting
Gazette, an excellent magazine and a must have for anyone wanting to hunt
Africa.
Contact Philip Pfeifer philipp@thefuture.co.za
Maybe we can start our own “forum” on malaria medication, as I have had
a few clients suffering from side effects, so please let me know what you have
used or are planning to use and I will post all the responses on my newsletter
next time.
-German Kinetic
Last year 40% of the
Bowhunters that hunted with Vieranas Safaris used 125 and 150 grain,
Silver-flame-German Kinetic Broadheads.
For more information
on the German Kinetic broadheads, visit their website. www.germankinetic.com.
For local enquires
please contact Gerrie Hough
by e-mail: gerrieh@novanam.com.na
An Elephant on the Ridge.
In North West Namibia,
we have the “Desert Elephant” and there are a fair number of them. They
normally move through my area at night, but sometimes you can catch a rare
glimpse of them during the day, if you are lucky. Sometimes they can be very
destructive and destroy fencing and water installations to the ground, I have
heard reports of Elephant killing livestock in the communal area a couple of
days ago. So I thought I would share an
Elephant story with you in this issue.
The other day I was
out with Christian and Oddgeir (Toby) from Norway doing some walking and stalking,
which is great at this time of the year as the ground is soft and the new grass
is coming through. We saw a lot of Game during the whole hunt.
We were on one of the
Mountains viewing a small herd of Gemsbok (Oryx) and three Hartmann’s Mountain
Zebra stallions.
I was working on the
route that we would have to take down the Mountain to get a close view before
the stalk could begin, when my tracker ( Piet) came to me and whispered that
there was something that I just had to have a look at. I thought he had located
some Gemsbok that were closer, as you know Bushman have very good eyes. We all
moved carefully to the highest point of the ridge, which luckily was not far,
as we, were close to being on top of the mountain anyway. Piet pointed to the
opposite ridge and there he was browsing on a Commiphora tree, a big bull
elephant - you did not need to use your binoculars to see him. Both of his
tusks were slightly broken, but he was still impressive by any means. My
clients were over the moon at seeing a free roaming Elephant in Namibia,
especially the so called Desert Elephant. The Elephant carried on browsing and
when we next looked he had gone to the other side of the ridge. We viewed him
for a while before getting back to the job in hand. Later Piet told me that
when he went to get the Land Cruiser, the Elephant was only about 150 metres
from the car.
The next afternoon two
different bulls sneaked passed us without us noticing them at all, it was only
when one of the other workers had to go and start the water engine that he saw
their tracks as they must have walked happily down the road. It is amazing that
such a huge animal can move so quickly.
The stalk is another story for another day.
Clients have asked me
about hunting dangerous game with the bow in Namibia. Unfortunately, it is illegal to hunt any Dangerous Game /
Big 5 (Elephant, Buffalo, Leopard, Lion, Rhino) plus crocs and hippos with the
bow in Namibia.
The Ministry of Environment
and Tourism are doing some studies with the help of one outfitter and the
results are pending.
So we’ll have to see
want happens, I will inform you of any changes in the law, so for the time it
is illegal.
One last thing, when
you come to Namibia to bowhunt, please make sure that the guide or outfitter
has a Bowhunting Trophy permit and not the normal rifle hunt permit as this
will affect your trophies for scoring with NAPHA and SCI.
Here is a photo of
some Elephant that I saw in one of the rivers, on the way to the coast back in
December just before Christmas.
Big Game Adventures magazine is a
quarterly publication dedicated to providing the finest big game hunting
magazine in the world today. The
great thing about the Big Game Adventures magazine is, it is more than just
Whitetail hunting. The Magazine comprises a rifle section, a bowhunting section
and recently a new section on photographic safaris.
- After
making a shot.
Once you made the
shot, what next…………! A small celebration is called for, but there are a number
of points that should be taken into consideration as well. Sometimes you get
that gut feeling, you’ve made a good shot, but there again it might not have
been, if you know what I mean.
Firstly, was it a
perfect shot (in the vitals), a heart shot, double lung, heart / lung shot,
liver shot and so on? Did the arrow pass the whole way through or was
penetration only half and what was the reaction of the animal?
Next, which way did
it go? Remember the direction, did it go past a tree, bush or kopje for
example. In some cases the animal will go out of view, did its back legs start
to wobble (so to speak)? Other times the animal might go down within view. If
so, is it sitting? Try to keep an eye on the animal’s head for movement. Yes,
your emotions will be going through the roof.
The best is to wait
for at least 25 minutes or more depending on the shot placement. The reason for
this is giving the animal time to bleed out in most cases. It is always
important for the animal to settle down and to leave the area, before you
reveal yourself.
Now you can go to the
spot where the animal was standing and recover your arrow. Look for signs on
the arrow which will tell you the story of your shot. Then look carefully
around for movement if the animal went out of sight. If the arrow did not pass
through, look for signs on the ground which can help to determine what type of
shot you made.
A shot in the vitals
(heart, double lung, heart / lung or sometimes liver) will cause the animal to
lose consciousness fairly quickly. However, a gut or gut/lung will require more
time, so then the best thing is to wait up to 8 hours, if you do not, it will
just cause the animal to keep running.
I would like to share
one case with you, where Wikus from South Africa shot a Red Hartebeest and it
went down within 15 metres of the point where it had been standing. After the
25 minutes of waiting, we could still see the horns moving in the grass. It was after 45 minutes of waiting when we
could not see any more movement did we get out of the blind. We approached with
caution with the client having an arrow knocked, just in case. The news was
that the Red Hartebeest had expired and on closer inspection of the entry
point, it looked as if the arrow had just hit the back of the lungs or vein.
I know most of you
know the above, but I thought a friendly reminder would not hurt because sometimes
it is necessary, even for me.
Hunters Pro:
www.hunterspro.com OR Karim Alameddine at karim@hunterspro.com
Information or anything
hunting related. Subscribe to their free newsletter - it is well worth it. One of the best general outdoors Newsletters
around!
Karim and the team at
Hunterspro keep up the good work.
The Bow-Shop in
South African
Juan and his team have
a real passion for Archery and Bowhunting - good advice and are great with technical
questions whether over the telephone or by e-mail. The quality of Service you
get cannot be better. They have a large variety of Archery equipment. Juan, please keep up the Great job…..!
Contact Juan: +27
(0)12 997 7761, fax +27 (0)12 997 7763
The Bow Shop: bowshop@mweb.co.za
The website is coming
soon…………………………………! Can’t wait………
- News
from the Bowhunting World
North Country Bowhunters 12th Annual Fundraiser
& Banquet tickets are selling fast!
If you have not already purchased your banquet
tickets and made your reservations at Treasure Island Resort & Casino for
March 3rd and 4th, 2006, you might want to
TODAY!
Check out www.scincb.org
for a current list of Auction Items and also to purchase your dinner tickets
from our Secure Online Reservation Form!
See you at the Fundraiser!
North
Country Bowhunters Social Event
February
15, 2006
6:00
pm Tinuccis in Newport
Join
us for a great evening with Special guest Keith Beam from Double Bull Blinds -
who will be discussing Blind Hunting and tips on how to video your hunt.
Napha
From this year Momentum will also
become a factor in the Minimum bow hunting requirements. I will keep you posted…………!
Please remember to use a Registered Bowhunting Guide / Outfitter with the
Ministry of Wildlife and Tourism for your Namibian Bowhunt…!
You will not be doing
Bowhunting in Namibia any favours, if you do not.
For more information on bowhunting in Namibia, about NAPHA and the medal
system please contact the office or view their website.
Tel: 061 234455.
E-mail: napha@mweb.com.na website: www.natron.net/napha.
Kambaku Bowhunting
School
There will be a NAPHA Bowhunters Guide Course on the 5-7April 2006.
We will be starting
with the advanced Bowhunters Courses in the first half of next year as
well. For more details, please contact
Johann Louw: 067 306292 or
Roger Coomber: 067 330214/687028
Vieranas Safaris is a member of
Dallas Safari Club
It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on “The Archer” Newsletter, is it
moving in the right direction?
*Please,
if you have any interesting hunting stories or tips that you feel passionate
about and would like to share with fellow Bowhunters, please forward them to me
and I will happily put them in the Newsletter.
Please feel free to
forward to friends or print The Archer Newsletter out for your clients to read.
If you are considering
a bowhunt safari with us for the 2006 season, I strongly suggest you contact me
with your requirements as soon as possible in order to avoid disappointment, as
the currant season is 80% booked
already.
If you book your 2007
archery hunt before the end of June this year you will be able to hunt on 2006
prices.
Vieranas Safaris also
offer photo safaris and fishing trips combined with your hunt, for more
information please feel free and contact me.
Lastly, let your arrows fly true and I wish you all the very best for
this year.
Sunny regards
Roger E. Coomber
P.O Box 46, Kamanjab, Namibia, Africa
vieranas@mweb.com.na
www.vieranasbowhunt.com
PS. (If you do not want to be on the
mailing list of this newsletter, just send a message with UNSUBSCRIBE in the
subject line.)