The Unsung Gemsbok, by John Barsness

truck driver · Oct 25, 2013

That is one fine piece of wood. I would find a Gun Smith who is known for his ability to carve and checker a fine piece like that and let him checker it by hand.

Rigbymauser · Oct 25, 2013

The good thing about the bosveld is it allows the hunter to crawl low as you see. A set of kneepads and leathergloves is advised as I experienced during a kuduhunt...many thorns.. the smaller the worse.

muleman · Oct 25, 2013

Rigbymauser":1lxmjy9j said:
The good thing about the bosveld is it allows the hunter to crawl low as you see. A set of kneepads and leathergloves is advised as I experienced during a kuduhunt...many thorns.. the smaller the worse.

+1
Scott

preacher · Feb 27, 2014

Hey Guy, I had an opportunity to hunt Gemsbuck and springbuck just to the northwest of Aroab, Namibia, back in '98. I took four of each! No kidding, due to my friend arranging the hunt ( we drove over from Johannesburg) and selling the meat to cover most of the costs, and since there was five in our party, we paid $275 for the Gemsbuck and $175 for the Springbuck...those days are gone, lol. I had taken a very ltwt .340 Weatherby ( a Matchgrade Arms custom) and it had kicked the guts out of its Zeiss Conquest scope, ended up wounding one and lost it, bummer. I had given a Mod 700 Classic in 300 Win to my buddy, so we just shared it. I had loaded the 180 XBT to around 3050 and it was poison on both species. He and I both shot two cows over 41", I shot another cow that was 39" and one huge bull. The bull was only 38" but had massive bases (boss) that measured 11" around! My biggest Springbuck was right at 17" and, unfortunately, it is the only head I got back. I did get a couple hides along with it. Long story short, my "friend" had some marriage issues come up and yada yada yada....no horns. Oh well, my other friend had some video of the trip and some pictures. I have to say that the 300 Winmag with that 180 XBT was perfect for the ranges ( I shot that bull around 370yds) the cows averaged about 250. The Springbuck male was about 300 and I shot one freak horn male ( for the skin) almost 350. A couple does for camp meat were around 200. It got down to 20 deg at night and was 120 deg by noon! Sheboygin! Nice people there, the Namib people are a very gentle race, very pleasant people. The Afrikaners are, well, Afrikaners, ha.