For those contemplating Africa

[onelastshot]

If you can get four guys together, a venue I hunted has a six day, ten springbok management hunt for $2100. Extra animals at $85 each. Hides and head can be kept for taxidermy. It's not a five star lodge, basically a hunting lodge, but the food is top shelf, laundry done every other day, airport pickups and you are treated like family. You can combine this with some trophy animal hunting a la carte. For most first timers, the package deals are the best value.
The main property has some fences but is 56 square miles and an adjacent farm that is hunted almost doubles that amount.

http://www.jakkalskuilsafaris.com/management_hunting_gallery.htm

THe difference with mine is that I'm taking a variety of animals; Kudu, Zebra Impala, Eland, Blue Wildebeest, Black Wildbeest, Blesbok, red heartebeest springbok and others.

 

[hogpatrol]

THe difference with mine is that I'm taking a variety of animals; Kudu, Zebra Impala, Eland, Blue Wildebeest, Black Wildbeest, Blesbok, red heartebeest springbok and others.

That's a great selection for a cull hunt, trophy hunt too.

 

[ballisticxlr]

I went last summer and loved it. Being in the back of a bucky (what they call a pickup) while shooting game was weird... a little bit like doing a drive by in a grocery store. It was definitely strange to be shooting from a vehicle. The stalk hunts are the real fun but take time and the country there is rough.

TIPS:

Bring well broken in and high quality boots.

Don't go to Africa for 2 weeks. Go for 3. You'll need the extra days to unscrew your body from the long flight and the time change and you really don't want to be on a tight schedule there. The big game ranches are great about being on time, NOBODY else is. There's also a lot of SA to see. You should definitely make a trip to the hill of crosses (google plaasmoorde). It's one thing to see in pictures, it's another entirely to see it in person.

Fly from Atlanta and you can go straight to Joburg without stopping over in Dubai. If you depart from some other city, you'll probably go through Dubai... well my advice is don't if you're bringing a rifle or any optics. If you're not bringing guns/optics then Dubai is quite a nice airport with friendly, helpful, courteous, oodles of staff never more than a few steps away in what is basically a giant duty free store surrounded by departure gates. Basically everyone there speaks clear English. The bars in the airports serve amazingly well made mixed drinks. If you want food, they have lots of great spots but you have to go across the aisle from the bar to the restaurant where they do not serve alcohol. You will not have a beer with your sammich. Try the arabic tea. I liked it cold. You will never have to be exposed to the burning Dubai sun outside of an air conditioned space, so don't worry.

Summer in the states is winter in SA. It does, in fact, get pretty brisk there during the winter. Pack accordingly.

The most common beers in SA will not make some Americans very enthusiastic. If you at all are an ale guy, prepare to be disheartened. You could take it intravenously and not cop a buzz. It doesn't taste bad though for being basically yellow water with bubbles in it. On the upside, they have some great wines and those are cheap and available and will give you the hangover you're looking for if you're so inclined.

Don't forget to look up! You have the best seeing to be had almost anywhere in the world at your fingertips in rural South Africa. The southern cross, large & small magellanic clouds, various sundry other nubulae. The southern hemisphere is where it's at for astronomy.

Africa is cheaper to hunt than the USA if you keep the game smallish. Springbuck and impala are cheap and plentiful. Cull hunts are just as exciting as trophy hunts.