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Old 10-01-2018, 08:11 PM
Dean2 Dean2 is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Alberta
Posts: 2,497
Default A South Africa Safari July 29, 2018 to Aug 9, 2018

I wrote this very long article to be both the story of our hunt, as well as a detailed primer of information for anyone interested in doing the same thing. Feel free to pick and choose the headings that are of interest to you. We took over 1500 pictures so the embedded ones are just a small sample. There is also a link that will take you to 140 https://imgur.com/a/q9q99KV or so selected shots if you are interested. Both the content of this article and the photographs are protected by Copy Write law. Please contact the author for approval to publish all or part of this information.

I have always wanted to go to Africa. Reading the books by all the famous African hunters when I was young always stirred the imagination of great adventures on the Dark Continent. Since I have been retired for 6 years already, I figured the time is right and that it isn’t going to get any easier the older I get.

Is Hunting South Africa Fair Chase Hunting

This brings up the first thing often debated about hunting South Africa. Is it really fair chase hunting. Virtually all the hunting land in South Africa is privately owned. You cannot hunt the reserves and parks and they represent about all of the crown land there is in South Africa. Many of the farms do have high fences, as much to keep Jackals and other predators out as to keep game in. A Kudu or Eland can clear a seven foot fence from a standing start, I watched an Eland do it. On top of the fences not holding most of the game in, the farms are generally large to huge. Some are pure wild game ranches, others are cattle and game.

The first one I hunted was 4,000 acres and the second one was 30,000 acres. Yes the game is allowed to breed and roam in order to produce trophy income for the rancher, and no one is allowed to hunt without paying a trophy or meat fee; but the game is wild, knows what hunters are and work hard to avoid them. These are not some pen raised animals released just before the hunt, these were born free roaming and have been their whole lives. Considering many North American hunters end up hunting on one or two quarters that they have heavily planted with food, simply another form of controlling game movement, I fail to see how one can be called fair chase and the other not. With respect to plains game, I am of the firm belief that if you are hunting with the right outfitter on the right ranches, then yes you are fair chase hunting and most of South Africa’s farms are large enough to qualify as free range animals.








Finding an Outfitter/PH and location

First order of business was to locate an outfitter/PH. Since I had been casually researching trips to South Africa for some time I had narrowed down the list quite a bit. A fellow AO member posted that he was looking for people to join him on a South African bird hunt, with plains game as an option. He had used the outfitter in the past and highly recommended him. I did a bunch of independent checking as well as talking to other past clients and to Stuart Pringle. All the recommendations were positive and the conversation with Stuart went well. I told him in March 2018, I was prepared to go whether the other bird shoot got arranged or not so we set dates, July 26 to Aug 8th, 2018 for me to shoot plains game.

He was fine with taking me as a single hunter. My brother ended up joining us as an observer later on but initially it was only going to be me hunting for 14 days. Stuart was also completely okay with doing a cull hunt. I am not a Trophy hunter and did not intend to bring home any of the skins or heads. All I wanted was a representative animal of the particular species for pictures and meat to try. Cull trophy fees typically run 50% of the regular fee for the animal, or about what the locals pay for meat hunting, so there is some margin in it for the PH but not a lot. The balance of the meat as well as the skins and heads are retained by the PH and sold. Meat sells anywhere from $1 a pound to $10 depending on species and time of year. The capes have considerable value when sold to taxidermist shops for use mounting game where the original cape was damaged or not removed properly. Skins like Zebra and some of the more colorful Antelope are also sold as throw rugs. A complete Zebra A grade throw rug goes for up to $1,500. After trophy cost, $700, and tanning, about $300, there is still a pretty good margin.

We agreed on an observer’s day rate of $200 Canadian, hunting rate of $400 Canadian per day for a single hunter, $350/ day if another hunter joined the group. Trophy fees of $250 for small antelope (Impala, Blesbock, Springbok, Warthog and Fallow Deer), $450 for medium antelope (Black/Blue Wildebeest, Red Hartebeest etc.), and $750 for large (Eland, Kudu and Waterbuck). Varmints like Jackal, Baboon etc were no charge. Gun rental was $40 a day, ammo included and Shotguns were $50 a day plus $15 per box for shells. These were very good rates and were only as low as this because I was going to be the last hunter of the season and was prepared to be flexible as Stuart had a lot of other irons in the fire.
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