Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa just like I thought Africa is just an expensive Texas hunt

STOP, Wait a minute, I'm such a dick. I just posted a thread stating "we", all shooters must stick together to fight what is heading our way to try and stop us from doing what we love. And A__ hole me is bagging on Afarica and the people who hunt there. I'm such a hypocrite and I ask for your forgiveness.

how about it guys...it is Christmas ya know???!!!

Really. How would you want to judge anyone on his clothing? You wear what you are comfortable wearing. Medicman is one of the very respected participants on this forum.

You obviously have a very tainted view of hunting in Africa and if you can find a $ 25 000 dangerous 6 hunt anyhere in Africa I would be one of the first prospective takers.

How bout you put $ 5 000 up for a hunt so you can see what it's all about.

Even my safari outfit of shorts, knee high socks, pith helmet with leopard skin band, monocle and long stemmed pipe?

Buzzsaw,
Africa is a truly wonderful experiance, and somthing you should try. If finance is holding you back, then maybe think of a management hunt, and maybe go on a 2+1. I will put my hand on my heart and say that after you have got back from Africa , you will be planning your next trip. It gets in your blood.
Like every where in the world, you get good people and bad people. There are some PH's I would never use againg, and some that I have become great friends with and that stay with me when they visit the UK.
I have seen and hunted some wonderful parts over the years,Like Limpopo, Natal, Damaraland,Etosha, Bushmanland , all very different. To be walking in the bush with your rifle over your shoulder and come onto Ele's and Rhino, is incredable. Once came onto a Black Rhino in Limpopo. It had charged some Itialians the week before, and they had to climb a tree. The PH, said look for a tree you can climb...the only thing was, nothing was thicker than 2".
My best trip was last year in Namibia, and that was too see my kids take cull Springboks, and my oldest girl, 12 take a cull Kudu. That was very special for me the look on her face after she shot a Kudu with a .303!.
Texas, its a place I would truly love to visit. It looks a very stunning place.Also interested in the history , would love to visit the Alamo.
May take you up on that!
As for Africa, don't let it pass you by, start planning a trip!
Cheers,
Paul.

Yep, fully agree with you on that one Pieter!
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I put this through Google Translator and got this:

Google Translator - Sourgrapes to English

"I have never been to Africa, so I am high envious of those of you who have. Instead of sharing the experience vicariously with you, or planning my own trip there, I have chosen to chitt on your parade. Africa sucks. Your rifles suck. You all suck. If it ain't from Texas, then it ain't chitt. Because none of you go on 3 month safaris out of contact with the modern world and die of malaria or Blackwater fever, you are all puzzies. [bleep] your black mamba and the elephant you rode in on. Have a nice day."

LMAO Hatari......!

Jeff, you forget the other "whinne celebre" of the pocket T shirt crowd; if you don't DIY (pay to hunt), you ain't schitt...

actually ive been reading bout modern DIY African hunts lately can be done....as much as i want to hunt Africa and cant afford it even this route i wouldnt go.....the guy that does it, and has done it over 25 times in the rainforests of Cameroon is freaking nuts

I read about that dude in The Cameroons. That would be neat and still doable, the only issue are the bands of heavily armed poachers and militia out there.

absolutely neat but my French is sorely lacking.....that and the guy is a freaking top notch athlete for the amount of miles he would slog in that heat and humidity.....ild be dead the first day....add to teh fact you dont see the forest elephant and buffalo or even gorillas until bout the time they touch the end of the gun barrel and your ticker needs to be in top notch working order....im real glad he took the time to write down his experiences, its now one of my favorite books...

A-freaking-men to that! I've been there. Without outfitters, the PH's and especially the pygmy trackers, I'd still be there. Probably 6' under from stepping on a Black Forest Cobra (saw them) or ripped in two by a gorilla (saw them), or attacked and pummeled by a troop of [bleep] (considered dangerous by the pygmies.)

But I'm a wimp. After all, it's just like Texas, so I hear.

What is the name of the book & author that did the DIY Cameroon hunts?

Thanks in advance,

Allen

"Elephant, Buffalo & Bongo" by Reinald von Meurers......he also wrote a few chapters for Terry Cacek's "Solo Safari"

This past May, my wife and I went to the Eastern Cape Region of South Africa and hunted with KMG Hunting Safaris, owned by Marius Goosen. Let me tell you- that while there may be some fences, you will literally be on property much larger than that you've ever experienced in the United States, short of Alaska. Perhaps I was just lucky to be hunting with someone who could put me on such properties, but at one point, we were glassing on top of a ridge and my PH said, "There! Do you see the Gemsbok?" I looked at him as though he was screwing with me, as we literally could see to the horizon in ever direction and it was all the "farm's" property, with no animals in sight to my eye, even through 10x binoculars. I replied that I had no idea where he was talking about and he replied they were AT the horizon. Still on the property, of course.

This was no where near the end of the "farm" but let me tell you, fences don't mean a damn thing, except to keep those out who would rather help themselves to your land, including both two-legged and four-legged vermin. To those who claim hunting plains game in Africa is like hunting in a fenced-in farm, then I pity you for not vetting your outfitter better!

-John

Hi John,
The whole fence thing is a matter of perspective. Some properties are small (1000HA) and some as you state your experience are huge and the fences play no role at all. I took my wife for her first safari to a game farm in Mazabuka, Zambia, the place was huge, saw the fences at times but as long as they never play a role in the hunting what real cognitive difference does it make. I have seen the same animals in the same place's day after day after day in Zambia (Luangwa Valley), Botswana, CAR. those animals were obviously not fenced in.

Just perceptions are different.

Thanks for the reminder on the name. I agree it was one of my favorite reads. I especially thought his 460 Wby idea was brilliant with the heavy and light loads. He had a reduced chamber 460 cart made to hold a pistol cartridge insert? He wanted a real stopper for dg and a soft report for smaller game. Don't remember the details. He was/is a terrific planner.

Agree it was different than any Texas hunts I have seen

As the curtain prepares to close on my 58th year of hunting Texas whitetail and other specie, I feel blessed to have but one fourteen day period in Zimbabwe to compare the two. Hands down Texas is not near as large or have near the diversity of animals as even a small sliver of Africa AND believe it or not no where close to the number of miles of "high fence" as does Africa! Although I spend two or three weeks in the field during whitetail season it has been six long years since I have put one "on the wall". In that same period of time one trip to NWT put a Mtn Caribou/moose on the wall, Alaska a brown bear and Africa eight lovely creatures including sable and cape buffalo. So, trophy whitetail in Texas is just not the pushover many would have us believe. Cost, the six years of hunting whitetail about $50-$60K and the combined cost of the three wonderful "out of state" hunts about the same. So 11:0 the odds are with Africa, NWT and Alaska! But hey come on down to S. Texas we would love to have you visit.

"Let me be very frank. Most local south african hunters see overseas hunters that visit our land as inferior hunters. Local hunters dont need or use a ph, thus they see a hunter that does use a ph as a dependant hunter. A term that is somewhat deregatory. Mentioning kudu seems a bit silly. The kudu is one of the last free roaming game in Africa."

I was fortunate to have hunted many times without the assistance of a professional hunter on properties owned by friends in several South African provinces (as well as Botswana's Tuli Block) before South Africa passed what I prefer to call its "Outfitter Protection Act."

By law, foreigners now must be accompanied by licensed professional hunters and the government has set standards for the food, services, vehicles, and accommodations that are provided for us. Any friend who owns a farm and loans us a rifle, a baakie, and a farm employee to drive that baakie, and asks us to go out and collect venison for a braai would be subject to prosecution under that law -- and so would we if we did what he asked.

IMO, many local hunters in South Africa would have trouble hunting by themselves or with one or two South African friends in our Rocky Mountain West. They are not accustomed to our rugged terrain, high altitudes, vast wilderness areas, relative scarcity of game, and having other hunters in the same area. They also have grown used to others doing menial things for them, such as gathering firewood, setting up and tearing down camps, and gutting, packing out, and caring for their game.

As for kudu being one of the last free-roaming game animal in Africa, the poster obviously was talking about South Africa and not the many other countries on that continent. Unfortunately, not all kudu offered to foreign hunters are free-ranging in South Africa. A small industry has grown up that specializes in capturing, selling, and moving large antelopes (including kudu, eland, waterbuck, nyala, gemsbok, wildebeest, etc.), lion and rhino to hunting farms.

As for Africa being like Texas, it depends. Hunting of closely managed herds behind high fences is done mostly in South Africa, parts of Namibia, and on only a very few properties in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Game moves freely in the majority of the game fields of Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania, and nearly every other African country.

Bill Quimby

When I made the decision to go to South Africa, the outfitter asked me what I wanted from my trip. I told him I wanted to see the country and experience what South Africa was like. I wanted to meet the people, see the land, and hunt birds, mostly. When I made my two trips there, and I had the option of staying in a hunting lodge or staying with South Africans in their homes, guess which option I took? They are great folks, those South Africans.

I saw Northern Cape, Free State and Eastern Cape, I hunted rock pigeons, Egyptian geese, and guinea fowl. And I discovered plains game hunting that put a hurt on my body with many busted stalks. I've taken kudo, wildebeest, steinbok, duiker, impala and other great animals. I've seen puff adders up close, too. My clothes are tattered from acacia shrubs and I wear them today like a proud uniform.

Now I've been to Texas, too, and stayed with Texans in their homes, they're great people. I've hunted morning and white-winged doves, quail, whitetail deer, and feral hogs. I've seen a lot of rattlesnakes and stepped in cactus that hurt and shredded my boots.

Since I've been to both places, hunted as I did, experienced what I did, guess which one I want to go back and see again? Would I rather hunt a 6-7" steinbok or a 5x5 whitetail? No contest.

If you haven't been there, well, go or quit trolling.