first time africa trip

New to the site and figured I could get some good ideas her.What 4 or 5 animals make for a good first time hunt.Looking for a hunt in south africa for maybe like 7 days.Any ideas would be great.

Welcome to the Forums and AH!

I would say kudu, eland, oryx, waterbuck, bushbuck, nyala, impala, springbok, blesbok, warthog and blue or black wildebeest...pick any of those that you can afford, they are found in RSA depending on which Province you are visiting. Look at there pictures and go from there. Kudu would be a must for me!

Enysse has it about right. You might consider also blesbuck which are common and relatively inexpensive in RSA. Go for ten days if you can afford it because 7 days is gone in the wink of an eye on safari. Putting together your first safari is perhaps the most delicious pastime on earth, enjoy!

Hi TrophyChaser,
Welcome to the forum. You have certainly come to the right place to get all the info on hunting Africa. Should you need any assistance. Please dont hesitate to contact us.

Best Regards
Marius Goosen

Welcome to the forum Trouphychaser!

You will certainly find all the info needed to plan a great hunt right here on AH.

I would defiantly look at blue wildebeest and a nice kudu bull those two animals always provide a good challenge.

Best Regards
Louis van Bergen

Originally Posted by trophychaser

New to the site and figured I could get some good ideas her.What 4 or 5 animals make for a good first time hunt.Looking for a hunt in south africa for maybe like 7 days.Any ideas would be great.

..4 or 5 buffalo..!

It appears you like ELK so you have to take a Kudu, after that Impala, Blue Wildebeest, Warthog, Springbok, Bushbuck would be a good smattering. You will find this selection at a lost of outfits in various provinces in SA.
Good Luck!

I second DOCMAN with one slight modification...4 buff and 1 leopard. Seriously my top five would be kudu, eland, waterbuck, bushbuck and wildebeest. You might as well go ahead and throw in an impala and warthog for good measure. I also agree with the earlier post of considering 10 days if at all possible.

Nobody mentioned zebra. I wouldn't look past them, they make a beautiful rug. I guess it's also on my list since it's the one animal that I tried to get but missed out on.

One thing not mentioned here is that you can't necessarily count on all of the animals listed as being available on the same piece of property. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I wouldn't personally want to have to travel a couple of hours to a different property just to chase one animal on my list.

Trophychaser,
You have received some excellent advise from the forum members here. I agree on the Zebra and Wildebeest. Here is one of the higer end offers that I still have available, but please feel free to make any changes on the animals.

Hunt Kudu, Nyala, Zebra, Waterbuck and Impala - 6850

Best Regards
Marius Goosen

I agree a 100 percent with the zebra, I forgot about it on the first list. They make great pedestal mounts and rugs! And on my first safari, it was right there with the kudu as a must have animal.

And if you have the time and money, Marius offer above is very, very good!

I know kuda was on my list and was thinking gemsbuck also.The problem is after that as there are so many others.I have seen a zebra mount and they look beautiful also.This is helping so I must just do more thinking.

I've been studying up on exactly this topic for about a year now. I'd choose from these:

Impala - IMHO, the most beautiful animal on Earth!
Nyala - IMHO, the most beautiful spiral-horned anetelope available in RSA!
Bushbuck - Tough, tough to hunt and gorgeous spiral-horned antelope that makes a worthy trophy.
Kudu The spiral-horned antelope everyone comes to Africa for.
Zebra - Does anything say "Africa" quite like a zebra?
Reedbuck - Neat little animals that can be very tough to hunt. I prefer the Common Reedbuck but would also like to hunt the Mountain variety.
Gemsbok - Big, tough animals with LOOOOONNNNGGG horns!
Springbok - RSA's national animal. Personally, I wouldn't leave South Africa without one!
Wart Hog - See: Zebra, above.
Wildebeest - Tough animals that are ubiquitous but wary.
Blesbok - Perhaps the ideal first safari animal.
Eland - The biggest of them all!
Waterbuck - Impressive, large antelope with huge horns.
Hartebeest - Unique antelope that looks very cool on a wall.
Steenbok - IMHO, the best-looking of the tiny antelope.
Lechwe - A bit expensive, perhaps, but one of Africa's most handsome animals.

There's no hope for you seattlesetters, you will never be able to get Africa out of your system, check yourself into a Africa addict clinic. I'll meet you at the door (lol). You can maybe throw the lion and sable on the list too in RSA. There are some pretty good hunts for them too.

Originally Posted by enysse

There's no hope for you seattlesetters, you will never be able to get Africa out of your system, check yourself into a Africa addict clinic. I'll meet you at the door (lol). You can maybe throw the lion and sable on the list too in RSA. There are some pretty good hunts for them too.

You're right. There is no hope. I'm hopelessly addicted.

Lion, leopard, sable, roan and buff are all on my wish list. In fact, I've even been kicking around the idea of adding a .404 Jeffery to the quiver so I'll have time to get familiar with it before booking a hunt for DG. I just feel I need to get some experience before I aim so high.

I am rather stuck on getting impala, nyala and bushbuck on my first safari, though.

I would recommend Leeukop Safari, Neil hasn't posted too much lately but, I really like him! You have to go back in the data banks to read his comments. For the animals you mentioned seattlesettlers, he is awesome outfitter. I would go today if I had the money.

As stated, not all your animals may be available/naturally occuring in one place unless they are 'put and take'. Just as important to me is where I am hunting. For me Africa is the Lowveldt. However, the grassveldt, bushveldt and other biomes of Africa hold just as much appeal.

I would select an area, look at the animals that occur naturally in that area and make a selection. Don't discount some of the smaller species. They can make an excellent hunt and great trophys.

Kudu and Zebra are a must for a first time African hunter. If you want to go larger, then Eland, Gemsbok and Blue Wildebeast can be found together.

For smaller species I'd recommend Impala, Springbok and Warthog as typically African.

There seems to be a progression in Hunting Africa (we all go back). Plains game, then larger Plains game and Buff, then DG if you can afford it.

I think for a first time hunter it is important to look for a destination where all the animals are on the same reserve so that a lot of time is not wasted on travel .Also the trophies that I would take if I were a first time hunter to africa would be Kudu as this is one of the most spectacular trophies found in africa with the long spiral horns and it is also a challange to hunt , followed by Gemsbuck ,eland and other animals like impala, bushbuck, wildebeest, nyala and what ever occurs in the area that you fancy .
Also what I would look for in a area is where the animals are are not put and take but are a naturally occuring population where only a small number of trophies are taken a year to control the balance and not a large no of males are put in every year to hunt .
Regards
Chris

South Africa is probably the best place for a beginner to start with a Plains game Safari. Plenty of species and affordable prices.

For example : Safari 8 days 1x1 (7 real hunting days) ; in Northern Cape , Kimberley. With the following trophies : 1 Kudu Bull, 1 Gemsbok, 1 Zebra, 1 Blesbok ram, 1 warthog and 1 Spingbok Ram. Total price : 3790€ (that means 5.300 USD according to today rate exchange).

Feel free to do any changes over this offer, just apply our pricelist available in our web site.
Don´t hesitate contact us for further information

Jose

It depends where you want to hunt, how much you want to spend and how much time you have. The typical plains game species for first time hunters in SA are kudu, impala, warthog, wildebeest, springbok and in Namibia it's kudu, gemsbok, warthog, springbok. But it all depends on what the hunter wants.