Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa RSA vs Namibia

There are probably a million different opinions on this, but I was hoping to hear some thoughts from people who have done it or know the two areas.

I am in the planning stages of a plains game hunt. To be honest I'm not even sure of all the species I would like to hunt, but they would probably include kudu, gemsbok, blue or black wildebeast, possibly eland, and my personal holy grail, sable.

I'm a lifelong hunter in Montana and have been on a Kodiak bear hunt and a Dall sheep hunt in Alaska and am looking for a true free range hunt. I like to think I'm fairly well seasoned as I have hunted my entire life and would go everyday if my job/wife would allow it.

I'm not interested in a canned hunt per se, but would like to have a spot and stalk hunt on free range/roaming plains game and am curious to hear what the opinions are which area would provide that opportunity best.

Please excuse my long narration. My intention is not to condemn high fence type hunts (and I know there are many variations on the term high fence), I just like to hunt animals that are truly wild and not stocked and it is very confusing trying to determine the difference when researching.

Any insight would be much appreciated.

Sincerely,

4Eyes

"My intention is not to condemn high fence type hunts (and I know there are many variations on the term high fence), I just like to hunt animals that are truly wild and not stocked and it is very confusing trying to determine the difference when researching."

Hi.
According to your desire, Namibia is your destination.
I've been at both places and in my (limited) experience, almost all of SA is fenced, be it a very large enclosure (70.000 acres) or a small one (8.000 acres)but the animals can't got out -�with the axception on warthogs and steinbucks!-.
Namibia, on the other hand is almost all free range, with a much smaller population.
Good luck in your hunt!

4eyes,

I like to hunt African game in country where the individual species is native. Your desire to hunt sable will present a problem as it is not as well distributed as a native in either Namibia or RSA. Yes, you can find them there, but they were likely from released stock.

I have seen lots of them in Zimbabwe, and you can also find plenty of them in Mozambique. I like to go to the country and hunt what lives there, and not get wrapped around the axle of a particular critter.

The second problem with hunting them is cost and license availability. Often sable require a longer hunt to be on license, and the trophy fees are high. Have you looked at that aspect yet?

A first plains game hunt in Namibia would be great for kudu and gemsbok, also springbuck, Mountain zebra, eland, and a few other species.

jim

Namibia isn't as widely fenced as South Africa, but there is still a lot of game fencing, and the only way to get certain species is inside a fence. That said, Namibia apparently doesn't allow the very small enclosures sometimes encountered in South Africa. I believe the minimum allowed is 13,000 acres if they are going to accept animals from the country's re-establishment program. That's a BIG enclosure.

There is actually more free-range hunting in South Africa than many hunters realize, but again the species available may be limited. I have hunted free-range springbok and gemsbok in the Karoo area, for instance.

The problem you are going to run into with a true free-range hunt and the species you desire is that not all may available in the same place. That has ALWAYS been the case in real hunting in Africa, a "problem" that has been solved for collectors by game ranching. Gemsbok and sable, for instance, never occurred in the same area naturally, as they have totally different habitat requirements. I have even seen red lechwe, a swamp species, on desert ranches in Namibia, which is just wrong. They are there so some people can complete a list.

Most sable in South Africa are ranched and often as dumb as posts. They are not naturally as wary as kudu anyway, but when ranch-raised they often look at a Land Cruiser like it might be their long-lost buddy.

Have not hunted RSA...but can't imagine anything better than a hunt in Namibia for indigenous species...


Ingwe

Namibia is far more interesting to me than SA, but you won't get the sable outside of a high fence. I did SA 37 years ago and did get the sable (not realizing that it was not native to the area where it was taken). I was a poor (and naive) graduate student in those days, and all I have are the pictures. There may be sable in the eastern part of the Caprivi, but I am a bit hazy as to whether they are native or introduced.

Zimbabwe and/or Zambia would be worth looking into..

Remember that the laws for fencing in RSA are not to keep game in the fenced area, but rather to keep the free ranging population of wild game out of the exempt properties.

An Exempt property is one that is allowed to set the hunting season by the landowner, not the country.

Most functional properties in RSA which have self sustaining populations of game are so large that the fence is not an issue.

10,000 acres is not a huge property in RSA and that is 15 square miles of land. Most Kudu will have a lifetime home range of 5-10 miles. Other animals are more or less, but even so these Kudu will not leave an area that is this big with or without a fence.

Having sat in a truck and watched several big Kudu bulls run and jump the fence easy as pie leaves you wondering what the point of the fence really is? It will keep in Buffalo, Zebra, wildebeest, Rhino, but the jumpers are going over and many others going under through the warthog burrows. Landelani Lodge was free range on three sides of the land. We saw more spectacular trophies over the years in those properties then I can count. I myself shot my red hartebeest and Gemsbok both on these open free range properties.

One interesting thing about Namiba is the water situation. Properties with good sources of water need no fence as the game will never leave the area with good water. Makes no difference if there is a fence or not, the animals will just run a few miles away and come right back to the the water anyway.

When I hunted in Namibia the ranch was fenced and contained 93,000 acres. Seemed free enough. I had a great time.

Fences and property sizes in Africa are a whole 'nuther subject.

The last time I saw sable in Zimbabwe they were in the Save' Conservancy, which is fenced but at 1 million acres is a fair sized piece of land. I saw the fence going in and coming out, but that was it.

jim

There are a lot of high-fenced operations in Namibia-the destination of my one trip-that are so huge they are as far from a canned hunt as AK is from Hawaii. But still, aesthetically, driving through a fence going and then coming, left me somewhat cold. However, the game had plenty, plenty of escape room and there was simply no guarantee on any species on any day. In fact the one specie I wanted the most, a big bull eland, I never saw.

However, had I to do it over again, I would have found a place where I could have taken most or at least some of the PG I wanted but would have made buff a priority.

Never been to RSA so no comment...

But, NAMIBIA is definitely a place I plan to hunt again, over and over again!!!

Good WILD sable areas based on my personal experience Selous Roosevelt's sable. Hunt was tracking/ spot and stalk. Zambia has excellent Common sable in the Kansoso Busanga GMA.

Thanks for the advice and expertise, folks.

I should have researched the sable's range before I through that one in there, I just love the way they look.

I'll keep researching, but it sounds as if Namibia would be what I'm looking for for the indigenous species.