Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Hey, all you African Hunters...

I have a few more that I would like to hunt and then I am done. Not worth the hassles, especially JNB.

YOU SUCK

Love you too!

Im waiting for a direct flight to be established between the states and Windhoek. Id like to go shoot a bunch of smaller stuff ( Impala, blesbok, springbok, hartebeest etc) with the .223AI!

Hatari, I apologize for the lack of enthusiasm lately for reasons you fully understand. I am still running a very successful and safe Safari operation in RSA, with some specialty hunts in other locations.

Recently A young PH I have hired in the past has struck out on his own and has some hunting price levels that I have not seen since the early 90's. He is hunting on lands that are family owned and never sport hunted. Or at least not sport hunted in my 25 year career here!

It's not a 5 star operation, although it meets all international hunter requirements set by the RSA government and PHASA. Its a nice camp with perfectly clean functional accommodations, it's not "luxury" as is the case on some of my other locations.

If anyone becomes interested in a startup hunting operation with a young guy very hungry to please everyone hunting with him to create a successful return clientele I can set this up! I would vouch for his integrity and his Skills as a PH. He is in the Elisrass area northern Province and provides all pickup and return to the Joburg Airport.

I gave dad a .416 Rigby and booked us a trip to Zimbabwe back in 2007, figuring he wasn't getting any younger. We went in 2008. Didn't realize I'd be the one having a stroke 10 years later. Glad we went though.

After much reading, listening and digesting of info, I bought a hunt in Namibia at one of the local SCI chapters earlier this year. The price I paid included daily fees for the hunter and one observer, an Eland, Gemsbok, Impala and warthog, with other game available at the PHs published trophy fee rate. The could be taken anytime in '17 or '18. At this point I'm looking at fulfilling the journey in '18. I've had feelers out to friends and fellow hunter but haven't found anyone that wants to spend the ~$2K for airfare and come as an observer, even thought they could pay the difference in daily fees between the observer and hunter and shoot desired species for the cost of trophies fees. Other than setting the date, making airline reservations, everything is in order.

Good Morning JJ.

When I began my Africa hunting, I was fortunate to meet a young PH that sounds very much like the young man you describe. He was hunting for Phillip Bronkhorst at the time. We hunted together twice and as happens, a friendship blossomed. His Uncle had a private "hobby farm" that was never sport hunted.

You may know of the farm in Elisrass (Steenbokpan) the original property was called "Vitvogelfontien". His uncle continued to buy connecting farms and is now something like 15,000 Hectares. I was able to hunt it as a family friend and we had many good times, I even brought my wife and young son a coupe times. My wife shot her very first animal there as well.

The klipspringer genetics in that area are amazing. My friend (Pieter) picked up a skull that would have been the world record. Looked like a Vaal Rhebok!!

My first trip was 1999, there have been many since. I truly envy those who are still looking forward to going as much as I did back then. Those feeling can never be replicated. Cherish them.

Pieter has moved on to being a farmer in the Golden Gate area. We still speak every couple months. His relationship is the only real "friendship" I have made in Africa. Our friendship outlasted his hunting career. Which speaks volumes.

Anyway, your post brought back some fond memories, thanks for that.

Steve

I think it was Mario Andretti who said "if you're ever going to stand on it, stand on it now. The older you get, the slower you go".

It's illegal to hunt Africans....damn it.

Another hats off to Debbie and the folks at Gracey Travel for help putting my trip together. I usually book the logistics all by myself, but multiple stops in multiple countries is suicide for connects sometimes, so IMHO worth their fee to have professional oversight,especiall with the gun issues these days.

Is it to soon to contact someone for a trip next August? Gracey vs Travel With Guns?

No. Call them, I think they're both good.

I call them a full year in advance, especially to get the better deals if you plan to use FF miles. Both Gracy (whom I use) and Steve are GREAT outfits.

I'll get on it.

After a hard fall this spring and a bit of a spine injury and concussion i came to the conclusion life can be too short.

So with the encouragement of my wife I booked my first trip to Africa, a plains game hunt in Namibia.

Excitement doesnt begin to describe how i feel.

Good for you! Life is indeed too short. Go while you can.

Bought the rifle for the hunt in 2002 i think, practised a fair bit with it since then.

It will be interesting to hunt in the heat, too used to the whitetail rut hunting here in November.
I can just imagine the kalahari will be a wee bit warmer than i am used to in march.

The wife and I are rapidly approaching the age where we will be starting to have (or try to have) kids. My friends who have kids have all said "If you thought you were broke now, wait until you have kids." My wife also says that when the kids are young, I will not be leaving her alone to go spend 2 weeks off in some foreign place. Seemed like a good reason to book a big trip.

As a birthday gift / pre-kids gift to myself, I booked a tuskless elephant hunt at the end of 2016 to be taken in 2018. I originally had planned to do a mountain animal hunt, but decided that an elephant was something I wanted and could potentially be something that 10-15 years down the road, due to societal views and the snowflake effect, would not be hunt-able. I paid my deposit at the 2017 DSC, met the outfitter, and ... well... uh, have pretty much just been waiting for 2018 since.

Exciting events that have occurred during the waiting process:

- Told family I booked an elephant hunt. Quickly learned not to tell everyone you're going elephant hunting. For example, my little brother's response was "Wow, that's awesome." My mother's response was "You're killing dumbo" followed by some tears. A much different response than the my Cape Buffalo hunt in 2011, which, as long as they weren't anti-hunting, was unanimously "cool, that sounds exciting."

- February I decided to finally get a nice stock for my CZ and ordered a McMillan. I ordered the brown paint, black specs, and a red pad with a 14.5" LOP. Somewhere during the process, I get an email saying that the red pad will not fit a stock that long and would I be okay with black. Well, given my recoil pad colors choices were the same as colors for the Ford Model T, black sounds great. Stock still looks great, but do wish I could have gotten a red recoil pad.

- September put me in the less-than-one-year-to-go mark, which meant it was time to start looking at flights. My final destination is Bulawayo (BUQ), which has 1 flight per day into it at 10:40 AM from Jo'berg (JNB). This poses a challenge as you either need to find a flight that lands in JNB really early or spend the night in South Africa and come back the next day. Similarly, on the way home, the BUQ to JNB flight lands at 2:40PM, which means you need a late flight out of JNB to connect home.

I had found a well priced Lufthansa flight, similar to what I took in 2011, that seemed to work for me. Travel Agent shot that one down as traveling anywhere through the EU with a rifle on to Zimbabwe was a no-go. Alright, so much for that idea, guess I've either got to fly from DFW to the east coast then to JNB, or fly DFW to somewhere in the gulf (Dubai, Doha, or Abu Dhabi) and then down to JNB. I have a strong dislike of pretty much all the USA based airline carriers as the level of service is horrible compared with the international airlines (actually I really hate flying in general as the seats are way too small for someone as tall as I am), so since I have the option to fly the "2017 Trip Advisor Airline of the Year," and they have a flight that works for all my connections, and I get to layover in place I always wanted to go, I'll be flying Emirates! Well, at least that is the plan, waiting to see if they run any specials to save me a few bucks or get me into business class. It's pretty much the only airline though that offers a flight that gets me to my final destination with enough layover time for bags and rifles to transfer. All the reviews I have heard about Emirates are great, so I am excited to use this airline as well as see Dubai during the layover.

And that folks is basically where I am at in the planning process. When I booked back in 2016, I was excited, but it was so far off it didn't really hit me (my bank account certainly noticed though). As we get closer, especially now that I can book my flights, I am getting that excitement I had back in 2011 before my buffalo hunt - I'm going to Africa again!

You are correct that you cannot fly from the EU with a gun to Zimbabwe on a single ticket. From DFW you could fly to JNB on Lufthansa or BA and then on a separate ticket fly on SAA to BUQ, but you would most likely be overnighting in JNB and have to get a RSA gun permit. Or take a risk and try for the 10:40 AM flight, but with Customs and Immigration, SAPS and then recheck the gun, doubtful.

You can also fly Emirates into Harare (HRE) and skip JNB and fly Air Zimbabwe to BUQ.

If there is space available the Emirates flight they will send you an e-mail about 2 days before your flight with a upgrade offer of $1000 from DFW to Dubai. I don't know the upgrade price from Dubai to JNB or HRE. But the upgrade does not come with lounge access or business class hotel and private car.. Coming home from Dubai, Business class makes for a good night sleep and a good meal. The food in Coach on DFW/Dubai is geared towards Indians. Coach will be at least 95% Indians.

If are collecting AA miles you also have the choice of Qatar Air into JNB, which you will earn AA miles too. You might also look for a credit card that will give you a Priority Pass. That will get you into lounges in DFW, Dubai, Doha, JNB, Harare and Bulawayo.