Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa First Time to Africa - Advice/Suggestions Needed

Can anyone recommend a good "starter" plains game hunt in either South Africa or Namibia? Also, with the myriad of travel and firearm import requirements, my thoughts are that perhaps a hunting consultant specializing in African safaris would be helpful. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I do not demand an entry in Rowland Ward, nor accommodations on the order of the Four Seasons, just a fair chase hunt for Gemsbok, Impala, and perhaps Kudu. There are budgetary concerns, but not to the extent that a sub-par operation would be acceptable. My wife, who can "rough it" would most likely accompany me as a non-hunting observer. Thanks so much in advance for your help.

-Eric

I booked with huntergame safari's my son and I go in July for plains game in South Africa. His references check well and his prices are reasonable and his older brother is my MD. His name is Nihan Engelbrecht. Thereare lots of guys here who are far more experienced than me though.

I leave on May 23 with Jim Hackiwicz, who posts on here as JJHack. It will be my first trip, and I went with him mainly because he makes it easy. He offers a 4 animal package for about $4800-5000, including everything but tips, taxidermy, airfare and any extra trophy fees for additional animals. His book, Africa - THe First Time, is also very helpfuyl.

I will have better info and photos on my return on June 4th. His website is listed on his profile, if you search for posts by him on this forum. He also advertises here, so you will see a banner ad for him every once in a while at the top of the page.

I looked it up for you - his website is http://www.huntingadventures.net/

I can highly recommend Angus Brown Safaris in South Africa. We hunted ther in '04 and have great trophies to show for it. Check out their website and tell them Gary from Amarillo referred you.

Excellent accomodations, food and services. We are trying to work out another trip in '08 for Cape Buffalo. Can't wait.










g

Mafigeni is a first class outfit with reasonable prices. Their location near the west side of Kruger Park opens up great opportunities for observers, and Jill will have a jillion interesting side trips for your wife. Use your search engine...Mafigeni. Request one of their DVDs.

You can hunt everything from a first PG safari all the way to a full bag Tanzania 21 day safari. They offer everything you could ask for.

L2S

You might also like to consider researching the Tuli Block of Botswana for your first hunt. It often tends to be slightly less expensive than the other countries you mention, has all the species you want and is a bit wilder as it has animals such as lion and elephant passing through from time time.

"my thoughts are that perhaps a hunting consultant specializing in African safaris would be helpful. Does anyone have any recommendations?"

Ummmm..... that would be.... ME!

Seriously, I have some terrific plains game packages in the $5,000.00 range and as with Botswana you will be in truly wild Africa and see Cape Buffalo, Elephant probably Lion etc. Take a look at the website by clicking on the link in my signature line here or by going to www.aahsomeafricanadventures.com and see what you think. I agree that JJ Hack here is a good bet and I hope to hunt a few species with him someday that we do not have in our area's. A good frined of mine (actually the proffesional photographer who shot and is doing the edit work on my DVD) has hunted with Angus Brown and reccomends him highly but his operation is, from what I saw of the photos and vid. a farm type operation which I personally do not care for.

Eric,

I can recommend Jochen Hein's operation, Okatjuru Safaris, in Namibia. John Barsness recommended him to me and as usual didn't steer me wrong.

If you search this forum for "Okatjuru" you'll find my report from my first trip, last year.

There was also a very nice thread on first safari tips a few weeks ago here, which I strongly endorse for having a lot of great advice in a relatively short thread.

John

Eric, researched for 2-3 yrs., and finally booked our 1st safari for July 2008. References were stellar, and they have a booking agent here in the US.

www.cruisersafaris.com/

Agents name is Bob Clark, in Michigan.

Although I haven't been there, yet, check all references thoroughly, no matter who you book with. Good luck on your search. Some things you want to sort out prior to booking, are game you want to hunt, how many days hunting you want, etc. We decided that since we were flying that far we wanted 10 full days of hunting[not 5-7]. Bob put a pkg. together for us which includes the following kudu,gemsbok,blue wildebeast,impala,warthog, and blesbok, all-in for $5100. This includes pickup day,10 full days hunting, then departure day.

Mad Dog

Don't go to Africa !

You cannot go only once.

It gets into the blood and you will spend all year thinking of your next trip. You will be trying to work in two trips per year.

You will spend your life reading old African literature, planning side trips to Afrikanner battlefields, and debating rifles and cartridges that cost a fortune.

Take up less time and money consuming hobbies like yaughting, sail boat racing (the America's Cup), aerobatic airplane competition, or Kentucky Thoroughbred racing.

My wife and I hunted with Cruiser Safaris last March which is the outfit maddog is mentioning. The hunt was excellent. It is a farm type hunt but Pieter, the owner, owns or leases many properties. I hunted on six different properties ranging in size from 10,000 to 30,000 acres so although the perimeter is fenced that doesn't ever come in to play really. The hunting was first rate, the animals were great and the people and accomadations were also fantastic. I took very good eland, kudu, gemsbok, impala and blesbok and we had a great time. Now I've just got to find time to go again!
Matt

Thanks so much for the advice, I appreciate it.

-Eric

Eric: I leave Wednesday on my way to Otjiwarongo, Namibia, for a relaxed plains game hunt with www.shona-adventures.com. Will report, as this is my first time in Africa. Using a CZ 9.3 with Barnes 250 TSX. Isn't everybody?

Eric,

I am going to Africa for the first time this summer and am going as John Frazer mentioned to Okatjuru Safaris (Namibia) with Jochen Hein also on the recommendation of John Barsness and as affirmed by J.F. here and many other references. This is a PG hunt although he does offer leapard too. If IIRC, Barsness told me Jochen had 30k fenced and 100k unfenced.

I would recommend a sportsmans travel agency like Gracy's Int'l to book your flights and facilitate the travel logistics and regulations but there are other agencies too.

As JF mentioned above you can go to www.Okatjuru.com for full details.

By doing some searches here you can gain a wealth of info from the many African "veterans".

George

I will second Cruiser Safaris. Good choice for a first time hunter to Africa. Hunted there in 2005 and will be there again in june 2007. Accomodations are nice. We hunted multiple extremely large properties. Hunting is fun although they are game ranches. Some folks do not like that.

I have no problem hunting plains game like that. And had a great time and hope to again in June.

Eric,

I've hunted Africa twice, and my best suggestion is take half of the clothes you think you'll need and twice the money. Everything will work out just fine.

Mike

The longer I'm in the hunting business, the more I feel a lot of first timers to Africa might be making an expensive mistake going on a plains game (only) hunt first......esp when money and/or time is an important consideration. Assuming the potential client is a reasonably experienced hunter, he'll probably have shot his fair share of non dangerous game such as whitetail etc in his home country. So therefore, one could argue that travelling umpteen hours and spending all that money on airfare to do more of the same is a mistake. Why not instead use the same time and money on something like a Buff and plains game hunt instead. I appreciate it more money overall ,but your airfares and other travel costs are identical and although I haven't checked all the prices, I'd bet the costs wouldn't be a hell of a lot more.... and I know it's a much better hunting experience.

In retrospect, I think your idea is a very good one for the experienced hunter and one I wished I'd hit upon before I booked my PG hunt. However, I won't let that at this point ruin my time after PG.

I might add that the same idea would apply to doing some touring or sight-seeing after that long and expensive trip which is what we are going to do.

Gdv

I'd be interested to hear what you estimate all your travel costs etc to be. - If you don't mind telling us. That way, we could work out what the price difference would be and maybe do a comparitive analysis of costs between different types of hunts and perhaps also countries etc...... might be an interesting excercise.

I agree with you about the sightseeing etc at one end of your hunt. Africa has soooooo much to see and do and so many hunters just come in to hunt and go out again....... and miss so much.

I would be glad to share our expenses. I'm sure there are lower rates out there but for my wife and I and going through Gracy Int'l flying from Minneapolis to O'Hare on United then connecting with Lufthansa to Frankfurt, Germany, then Air Namibia to Windhoek it was about $5200 round trip. I wasn't too surprised by those prices but those are economy seats understand. We're in "sardine row".

The real surprise came when I enquired about upgrading to business/world class. Believe it or not to do so would amount to 8k more for the both of us. That's right. We've resigned ourselves to a fair amount of misery at that price. That's a buff hunt for cying out loud!

Our hunt cost including touring Etosha which our outfitter/PH does also is $510 a day for the both of us everything included except alc beverages. Then of course game is on the trophy fee basis, the prices of which I've found do not differ too radically across Namibia at least with the outfits I've checked.

If I take the main prize PG such as eland, gemsbok, greater kudu, warthog, hartebeest, hartmann's zebra,etc., the tally comes close to another 5k so it is easy to see that when all is said and done - and we are spending almost two weeks with 3to 4 days at Etosha and ten days hunting - the bill is going to hit close to 17k. And then there's whatever taxidermy we decide on....

In real dollars, yes, a lot, but quite a value all things considered in my middle-aged mind.

Gdv