Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Recommend a South Africa outfitter?

I've hunted 7 times with John X Safaris. Just spoke with director Carl van Zijl yesterday. They can take you anywhere in RSA you want to go and arrange tourism after the hunt. I've taken 3 SCI top tens with them. Can't say enough good things about them.

Alternately, contact our own JJHACK.

10 days MINIMUM. It's a long flight, you don't get there often. What's another 3 days off of work????

I have hunted with Spiral Horn Safaris (a 24hourcampfire sponsor) and had great hunts. You will have a fantastic hunt and african experience! www.spiralhorn.co.za

Good Info!

Ditto for Spiral Horn Safaris....

http://www.spiralhorn.co.za/

I've done this for a long time and had a whole lotta folks from this site hunt with us.

Your package above is 6 hunting days. You're gonna take the whole week from work I assume? That gives you 9 days off. Why make this trip only 7? We figured this out a long time ago. WIth a 9 day hunt you have the travel time and get 7-8 full days of hunting.

You're going to have a significant time change to deal with as well. Add in windy, rain, having an off day, and those 6 hunting days in your package go by really fast and put a lot of pressure on you for the remaining hunting time.

I like guys who come for 2 weeks and have the flexibility to change plans to hunt different places or deal with anything that comes up. 6 days is marginal at best, even one or two more days (30% more time) is a huge benefit to this hunt.

Look at the trophy fee's for the game you want. Impala and blesbok are rather inexpensive trophies and you will see 1000's of them. The real trophy in this package is the Blue Wildebeest. That is about a 900-1000 trophy fee. so the rest of the money is for your daily fee. How much is the trophy fee for the Kudu, Zebra, waterbuck, eland, etc. the lure of the low cost trip to get you there and use your Visa card like a kid in the candy store is likely the hope when you don't see a top trophy in the original package offered.

I've had a total of .......... one.......... guy in just over 400 that said he did not want a Kudu. Get the Kudu in the package price with these people, or go with somebody that is including it into a package hunt. Find out if you get a refund for the animals in the package that you don't shoot, find out if you can use the value of those animals towards a different animal.

Add some days, at least two days, 6 days will cut you short of the experience at just about the time your thinking clearly and sleeping good and excited to be out in the bush hunting. The time change is always a tough first couple days for my hunters. In most cases it's about day three that they are bright eyed and bushy tailed for the days hunt.

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My first and only trip was with JJ. I would and have recommended him for anyone going to South Africa. There may be better as my experience is obviously limited, but I didn't find one thing to complain about and had a great time, as did the other hunters in camp. I still plan to go back and see him soon to get my waterbuck and nyala.

try
www.thehuntingagency.com
fully recommend, lots of good deals in SA and Namib.
well worth a look

Check out Kubusi Safaris.
You can look them up "on the net". James does not activly advertise, but relies on word of mouth, references, and has a booking agent here in the US to handle things here in our time zones. His prices reflect the savings of cost of advertising. He also offers on-site taxidermy for his hunters.
I went with them in 2009 and had 5 animals booked, but added two more when we arrived. Short story, (although I was not interested in record book animals), I ended up bagging a Blue Wildebeest, Blesbuck, Eastern Cape Kudu, Bushbuck, Warthog and Springbuck that made the SCI books. Also an Impala that just missed the minimum.
Staff and facilities were great. Accomodations were hardwall thatch roof cabins at one camp and "Luxury Safari Tents" in the other.

I hunted with Tollie's African Safaris in 2006 and had a great time. They are in the East Cape and the family has been on the ranch since 1876. A ten day hunt with six trophies, including a kudu and a blk. wilebeeste was seven grand. Wonderful folks to be with. Take good boots and get in shape. We hunted kudu up in very rocky, rough hills that reminded me of elk hunting in the states. Don't cheat yourself with a short hunt. Africa is a place that you need to take the time to enjoy.

I hunted with
http://somerbysafaris.com/
Had a great time and would certainly recommend them. I am sure any of the outfitters recommended above are good. I have never recieved bad advice on this board!

We had a great trip with www.hannesswanepoelsafaris.co.za in '08, and anticipating another wonderful hunt/tour this coming April/May.

Jeff

Even if you don't go with JJ, you should listen to him. The packaged hunts without flexibility scare me.

Just my 2 cents

I'd love to send you some e-brochures on our plains game outfitters. We work with excellent ones in Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. All have great lodges and huge ranches that offer a true, fair chase hunting experience. One property is high fenced, but it is 264,000 acres. Send me an e-mail at ggrodmsn.com for more info.