Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Tell Me About the Karoo

I looked it up on a map and know where it is....that's about it. How is it for hunting stuff?

Have you hunted with them Fost? I'll tell you why I ask.....I met some great guys over in SA last year and hung out with them some. They were obviously successful businessmen over there, and we hit if off so well they're inviting me over for a weeks hunt with them at one of their buddy's farms in the Karoo. Not sure if it's trophy hunting or not, but I don't really care. I thought maybe, if possible, I could get with an outfitter, tell them the situation, and maybe do a quickie hunt before this other hunt, and try and bag a big kudu and mtn zebra, even if it meant flying on over to Namibia for a few short days. Is that feasible.?

Yes, I've hunted with Crusader Safaris. However, not in the Karoo.

Hell just go hunt the farm and have fun!

It's barren, open country with some hills. Rather rocky and dry as a dust bowl at the best of times.

Low shrub bush with no tall trees as can be expected in such topography. Shots will be quite long (300 yards on average) and prevalent game species in such harsh conditions will be springbok, duiker, steenbok, gemsbok and some kudu. Other game species occur in lesser numbers.

Hot as an over from October - March and very cold conditions during the late afternoons and early mornings from about mid-April to mid-August.

The Karoo aint in Namibia JGR!

Not going to find any mountain pajama donkey's there neither!

Exactamundo! I can't seem to talk him into Namibia, and he's been to RSA�.

Since he's already hunted RSA, if I were him, the ONLY reason I'd hunt there again would be for Nyala and bushbuck.

Don't give up hope Poobah. What I'm thinking is maybe staying a few days after the Karoo deal, go to Namibia, and find a kudu and zebra. I'm not sure the minimum days a Namibia outfitter would require though. It's hard to pass up a hunt with these locals. They are great folks.

All this time I thought they were called disco donkey's.

Mike

My advice would be Zim while it's still there and huntable. It will always be my "first love" when it comes to African hunting. My wife and I hunted SA in'04 and had a fabulous time, but it was just not the same. I love the rustic tented bush camps where the Hippo's, Hyena's and Leopard coughs wake you up at night.

I hope to have at least one Zim trip left in me before it's gone for good and after that Lori and I will check out Namibia.

Mike

I always attempt to tell the guys bitten by the "Africa bug" this, but they seem to have selective hearing and tunnel vision....

Personally, I'd rather hunt PG in Zimbabwe (Moz or Zambia if pockets are deeper) where you'll encounter DG daily. Lying awake in the stillest part of the night and hearing the deep grunts and low roars of a big male lion as he invites his ladies to join him. Or the sawing purr of a leopard, or the the deep throated Harooomph of a hippo from his channel in the river.

Spending the day walking in the elephants footsteps, or bumping a cape buff in the brush while hunting some other manner of PG.... exhilarating.

Experiences that makes you feel alive and know you're in Africa!

You just don't get that in RSA or Namibia....

Just depends on where in SA you go. On both trips for PG in RSA(Limpopo), we hunted in areas that had elephant, lion, hippo, and leopard. Not too uncommon on the rather large conservancies. Not the same as "wild" Africa, I suppose, but I certainly wouldn't take these critters lightly, no matter the local. Heard lions and leapords just about every night in camp.

Jeff

Yeah, Ive been around lion, leopard, and black rhino in Namibia�.but it aint quite the same as tooling through the miombo in Zim on the paths that elephant and buffalo make�.

No maybe not, but...pretty good at that

Yeah those fuggin' rhinos were humorless...

JG you will probably enjoy the Karoo hunt with these guys. Building friendships in Africa with who you hunt with adds to the fun.
I took my family to the Karoo and was not sure about what to expect but ended up enjoying it. We travelled to different farms to hunt so we were always seeing new country. The thing not expected that added to our trip was the farms and ranches we visited and seeing how they operated. My kids show pigs here in Texas at the stock shows and farm and ranch life is normal to us. On some of these farms it was like going back in time. One gentleman we encountered even had a black smith museum in his barn another another place in his house that he had collected all types of historical artifacts.
One of the ranchers had a group of his buddies come for their yearly visit to hunt and stock their freezers with game. These guys had a hoot and were fun to be around and I was quite envious that they were able to have this yearly outing.
We also met a group of guys that were using hunting as an excuse to get away for a few days that owned a winery near Cape-town. They invited us to stop by and left left me a case of wine behind.
I would not pass up this opportunity that was offered if it was me.
The experience of hunting this country might be more in line with what you might see here in some parts of the US as it is more open county and hilly. We even got snow one evening. But to hang out with guys with the excuse to go hunting in hand you go.

JG,

I hunted the Karoo in 2002, primarily on a cull-hunt for springbok, thinning out the herd on a huge sheep ranch. Unlike many parts of RSA, there were no game fences. The country looked EXACTLY like large parts of eastern Montana and Wyoming, especially since karoo bush looks like sagebrush--except it has thorns! There were big wide valleys and flat-topped buttes, and the herds of springbok off in the distance looked exactly like herds of pronghorn.

Consequently I loved both the country and the hunting, though I hunted toward the end of April when it the temperatures were tolerable and the country still fairly green. In fact it rained a couple of times. Killed my biggest springbok and gemsbok on the hunt, both very fine trophies, and also went up into the kills one day after mountain reedbuck. Found some but decided not the kill the ram. There are also vaal rhebok in some of the "mountains." There were also black wildebeest but I passed on them, as I needed to conserve my trophy money for another week in the Eastern Cape, hunting Cape kudu and bushbuck. (Got a very good kudu and a decent bushbuck.) The PH was Kevin Thomas (www.ktsafaris.co.za), who I hunted with again in 2008 in a different part of the Eastern Cape, and can highly recommend.