Mt. Etjo Kalahari Gemsbok

Col. John Roush’s Mt. Etjo Kalahari Gemsbok
Reminiscent of the ancient wonder and reverence men had for the fabled unicorn, replete with tales of its magical properties, trophy hunters have stalked the largest of the oryx species with the devotion employed by seekers of the Holy Grail.

Five thirsty female gemsbok with long horns waiting out a lion guarding a waterhole in Namibia.

Onduno, the Herero name for gemsbok, are especially adapted to arid conditions and can go for weeks without water. In the savannah area of the Namibia’s highlands, they are most often seen in the cover of thorn acacias. We were pleased to find that often they would stand a short while staring at us before scampering off into the cover of the high veld.

On this trip we were hunting from the Mount Etjo Safari Lodge on the vast ranch formerly called Okanjati, place of the buffalo, probably named for the fossil tracks of huge ancient buffalo found in the hundred-million-year-old hard sandstone exposed by a riverbed. As the sole hunter on the ranch at the time, with over 25,000 acres to search, we took our time to look over many specimens carefully, with the expert assistance of my guide, PH Steve Tors of Oelofse Wild, and a fine Herero tracker, Manyo. They often spotted the distant gemsbok long before I did and could evaluate it based on their great experience.

We saw from the spoor that gemsbok were abundant throughout much of the land. They seemed to prefer certain areas, since the onduno is more of a grazer than a browser. We drove along dirt tracks, bouncing along in a Jeep, slowly covering widespread areas, stopping to use our binoculars, and then planning stalks on promising animals we saw in the distance. The clarity of the sky allowed us to see them far away.

Even after several weeks I was still impressed by the extended vistas of the vast highveld. The striking outlook over immense expanses of game range that one sees from the kopjes and stark mountains we climbed are memorable. Many of the kopjes appear to be impregnable, ancient ruined castles with towers and battlements rising steeply in the air. These abrupt, castellated hills are of massive blocks of stone, or more often a great jumble of huge boulders, piled up in the most fantastic shapes. The weird plants, such as the euphorbia candelabrum, that grow among the rocks offer another strange aspect to the scene adding a surreal nature to the landmark. Many kopjes provide habitat for a few klipspringers, one of the most sporting of the small antelopes, and also snakes that one had best avoid.

John Roush using convenient piled up stones for a long-distance shot with his .375 magnum Whitworth rifle.

The grey and sandy-coloured country now before us extended for miles, accentuated by intermittent kopjes with scanty desiccated vegetation, but otherwise arid.

Often we would see the black stripe above white bellies of gemsbok out among the thorn acacias; they came out of the trees into open grassland to graze, but retreated to the shade soon after the sun's heat warmed the ground. At dawn we were out on our patrols, when the gemsbok are more often found in the open meadows.

To most hunters, just about any gemsbok would make a striking trophy, but to make the SCI Trophy Record book, the male's heavily ringed rapiers should be three feet long, and female's must be longer, for their base circumferences are less. I told my guide I did not want to shoot a female animal, so we had to carefully scrutinize the beasts that provided targets of opportunity.

In the Kalahari sands the gemsbok horns seem to average longer, sometimes approaching four feet in length. Steve speculated that in the Kalahari the gemsbok horn tips are not polished down. In the higher mountains of north-central Namibia, the bucks do make a practice of polishing their points against hard rocks and abrasive termite hills, wearing down the length. Our observations in the Etosha National Park, 250 km north, supported that conclusion, for in the west, where there are no termite hills, the gemsbok horns seemed longer than those seen in the eastern portion of the park where termite hills are common.

Bull gemsbok fight fiercely at times. Steve had seen bulls with fragmented horn tips protruding from their necks, broken off in the course of a wild battle. It is impossible for a man to break a gemsbok's horn using only his hands, so the force involved in such a clash of weapons must be tremendous.

Steve remarked: "I have found old bulls dying from puncture wounds from such fights. They can also kick fiercely. One of the ranch employees learned that to his dismay. He carries a livid, six-inch scar from the mishap."

On one of our rounds we stopped the Jeep near the foot of a tall kopje and climbed the gradual 300 to 400 yards of loosely scattered rocks to a rounded, stony eminence that dropped off abruptly on the other side. Our vista from atop was of a plain without bounds, extending to distant, pastel-blue mountains far away, forming horizons that seemed so typical of African endless space. Circling overhead were watching scavengers, ubiquitous vultures. We could see three giraffes close in, and a couple of zebra a bit farther away.

Scanning the panorama below, to my intense delight I perceived the tall straight horns of some splendid male gemsbok that appeared worthy of a stalk across the acacia veld. We carefully studied them with our binoculars.

Castle kopjes, remnants of hard blocks of rock that have resisted weathering make wonderful lookouts for the big-game hunter. They are also attractive resting places for baboons; the simians use them as a gathering spot at night where they can be approached only with greater difficulty by prowling leopards. No group of animals is more alert than those apes. They are so vigilant it is almost impossible for hunters to sneak up on them.

Steve and I started down from the rocky eminence eager for the stalk. Obviously it would continue on past where we had parked the Jeep. Our tracker lingered where he could watch the spectacled onduno. We looked back to see him wave his hands horizontally, while showing a forlorn look. It seemed that baboons had spooked the giraffe with their alarm calls, and the giraffe had run toward the gemsbok, causing them in turn to run off also. That sort of chain reaction occurs frequently in Africa where there are many species occupying the same areas. Although their senses of sight, scent and hearing are excellent, gemsbok are quite happy to have the benefit of lookouts in the form of other alert beasts.

A great joy of hunting Africa is the many different species sharing the range in close proximity. Since I already had bagged fine, gold medallion specimens of black wildebeest and eland, I could afford to be discriminating. We passed up a great many of the striking animals. We studied carefully with field glasses at least 100 gemsbok, looking for a large male trophy. Steve deterred me from shooting in several cases where I had an easy shot. "The bulls were young," he said, "and the horns immature."

As we travelled along late one afternoon we suddenly came upon a nine-foot black mamba only 10 feet away, one of the world's most deadly snakes. Fortunately, it was in short grass and we saw the reptile in time. I was told that if a wheel runs over the tail, the deadly creature has been known to whip around and bite the occupants of the vehicle. The grass was as high as four or five feet in some areas, making it impossible to see snakes while either driving or walking.

Coming back in, we saw some astonishingly large nests – the bulk of a pickup truck - of the sociable weaver birds, ponderous masses of sticks and dry grass. There were so many interesting things to see that it was hard to keep my attention focused upon the task of looking for an exceptional gemsbok.

On the afternoon of the fifth day two fine bulls stopped several hundred yards out to look back at us from the shade of some particularly large acacia trees. The nearer of the two seemed to have horns of trophy length. By that time I’d been taught some of the fundamentals of evaluating gemsbok. Steve concurred that it was a good representative head, so I squeezed off a round from the .375 H&H Whitworth Magnum using 300-grain A-Square Dead Tough bullets. I heard the bullet smack home, and the bull went down with an audible thump. They are heavy beasts and take a substantial impact, thus a larger calibre rifle is recommended.

When he flailed his rack several times as if attempting to rise, Steve cautioned, "Be ready to hit him again." I was ready to do so, suggesting, "Why don't you take my other rifle, go around a bit, and approach him from the side while I cover him from up here?"

Gemsbok are tough animals, and they are hard to kill. Some say they are harder to drop than an eland, but my experiences are the reverse. Before he left, Steve emphatically warned me, "Shoot right away if he gets up." He told me earlier that gut-shot animals can run for a mile-and-a-half, and are found only when the gathering carrion birds signal the spot. However, I was confident that this one was hit right.

They are dangerous when wounded, for they are exceedingly good swordsmen, most agile in swinging those long rapiers, so Steve left with the rifle at port arms ready to dispatch the bull if necessary. He had told me of incidents where they had killed dogs. Once he found a dead jackal that had been pierced by a female gemsbok and thrown up into a bush after the predator had attacked her calf.

I was glad to hear Steve call out, "He's done," allowing me to relax my vigil. While in a sitting position, I had been alert, with the rifle held to my shoulder maintaining the aim.

It was good news when our quick measurements brought the 500-lb bull to within an inch of the record book minimum score. It tallied 87 points, with one horn at 35 inches and bases measuring 8-2/8 inches. The diameter measurement was equivalent to that of the Top Ten. In some areas, it is very difficult to find one with adequate horn length because of brooming - however the Mount Etjo area has produced 10% of the SCI entries.

Later, in the far different hills west of Kimberley in the north-eastern portion of the Cape Province of RSA, on the Zulani Ranch along the Vaal River, I took a much larger horned gemsbok that made the lower ranks of the record book.

On a later trip, several years afterwards, in RSA I bagged a magnificent male scoring 104-3/8 that is still among the Top Ten. With four on the wall, they are among my most admired trophies.
(Condensed from Roush’s excellent 400-page book, Hunting Amazing Africa which can be ordered: Fax: 415-499-5112; E-mail: ColJHRoush@comcast.net)

John Roush is a retired Army Colonel and combat veteran of World War II, inducted into the Infantry Hall of Fame at Fort Benning, Georgia. A 25-year member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA), Roush has published 19 volumes, including several about hunting.