I’ve been to Africa (RSA) once in 2016. Affordable hunts can be found. Me and a buddy hunted 6 days 1x1 and killed 5 animals each, kudu, gemsbok, impala, block and warthog. I left my heads over there, my buddy bought his home and it was well north of $10K for everything (dip, pack, ship and mount)! The hunt cost $4350 and we could have taken additional animals but didn’t. The PH/Outfit was Cruisers Safaris. They were OK, food was good, PH’s were fine, the owner was a drunken ass!
If you search around you can find affordable hunts. One of the TV shows, Elk Camp I believe advertises reasonably priced hunting packages with Crusader Safaris in RSA, I believe they have close to a million low fence acres. I think they advertise hunts as low as $2700 and you can add additional animals for a fee.
I used a Kimber Montana in 7-08 and 120 TTSX’s on the warthog, impala and blesbok and a 270 Winchester and 156 Hammerheads on the kudu and gemsbok. I had an elbow injury and couldn’t take the recoil of the two rifles I wanted to bring which were a Ruger Alaskan in 375 Ruger and a SS Ruger Hawkeye in 35 Whelen.
This was a budget hunt and we didn’t do any sightseeing which I will do on my next trip over there. I flew from JFK and departed at 11:00AM and landed in Joberg the next morning at 8:30AM, 15 hour flight. The PH wanted to pick up that morning and head to camp giving us a free evening of hunting. We declined and opted to book a room and rest up. I don’t recommend this because even though I didn’t sleep on the flight over I also didn’t sleep the night I landed due to jet lag, just head to camp!
The next time I go to Africa I will be better off financially and shoot more game, I have on my list zebra, hartebeest, waterbuck and wildebeest! The rifles I will bring will be a first gen Ruger 9.3x62 that my father got through Ruger’s armorer school and a Winchester Featherweight in 7x57! Good luck in your search and have fun on your journey!
