Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Preparing for Africa rifle/scope

Way back in the 80's when I accompanied my wife on a business trip to SA
I did some reasearch and discovered that a plains game hunt was cheaper
than a guided elk hunt stateside.
Cape Buffalo cheaper than Alaskan Brown Bear!
My cull hunt was free courtesy of our host.
whelennut

All that is still true.

Thanks Kevin! These other guys on here think it can't be done unless you spend a fortune on everything

$6000 plains-game packages are common enough. You can realistically expect to double that between a few extra trophies, taxes, maybe a meet and greet, and transport to and from. Then there's air-fare, a room here and there, incidentals and tips. Better add another $5000 for that. Do you want to take your trophies home? Most do. Taxidermy and/or D&P, permits, air-freight, brokerage add up too. If you can't turn a $6000 safari into $20,000 you're not even trying. The good news is you can spread it over 2 or 3 years.

Its still worth it.

I just returned from a 7 day plains game hunt (7 hunting days, 9 days total). My package was $7500 and trophies included red hartebeest, blesbuck, springbuck, nyala, bushbuck and waterbuck. Add airfare at $2100, one night hotel in NY $250, tips $600, trinkets $200, dip/pack/freight $1500 budgeted and the taxidermy stateside $4400 quoted.
Total: $16550.00
It adds up awfully fast.

But the experience and memories are worth every penny!!!

My 7 hunting day pg hunt in Limpopo in May is going to total
about $11,000 by the time my stuff gets home. Includes airfare, tips, mounting 2 heads and euro'ing the rest(is that a word?)
Going back in June and should spend about the same except the Mrs. is supposed to go and she wants an ostrich of all things!
Go while you can...you're not getting any younger.

I agree you can turn a $6000 pkg. into $12,000 very fast. Although the Eastern Cape Plains game hunt my wife, son and I went on this spring, seemed very economical. Here were our total costs.

1) 3 round trip tickets to Port Elizabeth from Rochester New York @ $1535 each = $4605

2) 10 full hunting days 1x1 for me, Sherry and Josh were observers. $2800 for me w/ $1000 credit towards trophy fees. $1000 each for Sherry and Josh. Also arrival day and departure day were included at no additional cost. $4800

3)Kudu- $1150, Black Wildebeest- $1000, Bushbuck- $700, Warthog-$475, Blesbok- $450, Impala-$400, Springbok-$300. Total-$4375 minus $1000 trophy fee credit= $3375

4)Tips PH, tracker and staff - $600

5)Dip and Pack, crate and ship. 7 european mounts, and salted skins of all the animals. $1450. I shared the crate with my buddy.

6) $500 misc.

Grand total $15,330

That is the whole thing I believe. We did get great deals on the flights and there were no rooms on either end. Our flights left Rochester NY at 6:30 am on Saturday and arrived in PE, SA at 1:30 Sunday afternoon. We were picked up at the airport that day then brought back to PE 12 days later to get on our flight at 12:30 pm. We then arrived back in Rochester New York the next day. Hope this helps. Kevin

So it worked out to 5 times your day rate? You did well on the plane tickets and the trophy fees seem to be quite reasonable depending on size. $3000 kudus certainly aren't unheard of.

When I see "Credit toward trophy fees" I automatically think auction hunt. My first hunt was one of those, bought on the secondary market for $2000. It came with a $2000 credit on trophy fees and free observer so basically was free, right? The total came to $25,000 by the time the heads were hanging on the wall, but I did have a lot of fun. Enough that I keep going back.

I'd be the last person to discourage someone from hunting Africa. The point I'm trying to make is that the appealing low prices are just the beginning and the potential new hunter should be aware of that.

Maybe there's three points:

1) Total costs are considerably higher than package or day-rate costs.

2)Against those costs the price of a new rifle means more or less nothing.

3)When the total costs are considered, buffalo hunting starts looking like a bargain.

Wow, Some free hunt huh? I agree the costs go up very fast. Although the hunt I went on with my family and a friend and his wife was not an auction hunt it was a very reasonably priced hunt in my opinion. I did my homework and spoke with many references. My buddy and I are going back without our families in 2015 or maybe next year if we can swing it. We booked again for $2800 each w/ $1000 credit towards trophy fees. The animals I got seemed to be good trophys to me. You can see the photos of all the animals on this forum (My safari with Mankazana this spring). Check them out if you would like. My buddy and I are hooked! And that Buffalo is beginning to look like a real bargain! Kevin

It does require some careful rationalization, but if you squint just right it is. I took two this year, but one in Moz and one in Oz. My son shot his first in OZ.

Im going to RSA in June and my old rusty Rem ADL with a 3x9 Leupold is what I will drag over there

No worries

Savage88 PM sent out. Kevin

Just reflecting on a hunt the family took in 2011, to the Limpopo for PG. Originaly just wife and myself, then daughters said , sounds like fun, and son was getting back from A-stan 2days before we left . So everyone piled on. We took a total of 12 animals on a 10 day hunt, went to a lion rescue(played w/ tiger teenagers). The costs in SA. came to a tad over $22K for the 4 of us. Trophies, airport pick up, gratuities, all the accessories. Airfare, roundtrip was about 1375$ @, 1500$ for late booking for son. Shipping on trophies and other incidentals added about 2000$. For 14 days travel, hunting lodging and all the etc. it was way cheaper than a semi-guided 3 day elk hunt in Co in 2008. And actually got to shoot several animals. Incidentally daughter took a wart hog and a wildebeest. She couldn't find a baboon(I think she was thinking of her ex-husband). Pardon my running on.

I was just wondering why on such a tight budget one is spending several thousands to hunt Africa, but has to skimp on the rifle/bullet/scope combo to hunt over there.

Save pennies until you can afford it better, then go!

You better hurry. With Botswana closing, Mugabe's thugs have just sent trophy fee prices through the roof. On principle, I'm "this close" to [bleep] my 2015 safari and go somewhere else...

Betterkeep me in that loop!

Shoemaker has an open invitation for us to do bear and moose....but its cold where lives!!

No worries Jeff I will. I'll see what shakes out at the Convention, but look at these trophy fees for 14, outrageous....

Baboon: 120.00 $ Eland: 1800.00 $

Impala: 350.00 $ Sable: 5000.00 $

Buffalo Bull: 5500.00 $ Elephant: 20500.00 $

Impala bait: 170.00 $ Serval: 600.00 $

Buffalo cow: 3500.00 $ Genet: 500.00 $

Jackal: 350.00 $ Steenbok: 450.00 $

Bushbuck: 1050.00 $ Giraffe: 2300.00 $

Klipspringer: 950.00 $ Tsessebe: 1150.00 $

Bush pig: 750.00 $ Grysbok: 550.00 $

Kudu: 1800.00 $ Warthog: 650.00 $

Caracal: 800.00 $ Hippo: 4500.00 $
Leopard: 6500.00 $ Waterbuck: 1900.00 $

Cheetah: 6000.00 $ Wildebeest: 1000.00 $

Lion: P.O.R. Hyena: 850.00 $

Civet: 800.00 $ Zebra: 1050.00 $

If you want a good hunt in SA at very fair prices give Wade Derby a shout at Crosshair Consulting. We did a family trip lat year through him with me and my three sons hunting for seven days and had a great time. Dear wife enjoyed it all as well.

JorgeI,

YIKES!

Never thought in a million years I would find myself saying Tanzania is looking better everyday...