Well, so far the consensus seems to be:
1. Add WhatsApp to the list! Near unanimous on that. I use it now as well, although as some have noted, mostly to communicate with the rest of the world - especially Africa. North America seems stuck on texting and iMessage.
2. I didn't mean to start an argument on bullets, because that's one thing that hunters will likely never agree on! I should have been clearer. While I like Barnes bullets, what I should have focussed on was not the brand, but the fact that apart from elephants and maybe rhinos, you rarely see anyone using solids anymore. Hippo body shots as well, maybe, but not many take a body shot on a hippo.
3. As for power, I think almost any more or less permanent camp now has the ability to provide power off-grid. So really shouldn't be any excuse not to have it. My last hunt in Moz I had an emergency at home and had to communicate standing on the top of a hill holding my phone in the air. While I like to get away from it all too, we live in a world now where we're pretty much expected to be in contact or reachable 24/7.
4. Pricing. This is an interesting one and as noted, is very much country dependent. But I can make a few personal observations:
(i) Trophy fees for many animals in southern Africa have dropped pretty dramatically since I started. Sable and roan used to be north of (all USD) $12,000, and often up to $15,000. Golden wildebeest were in the 10s of thousands. Buffalo were around $15,000. CB Lion were north of $30,000 for anything with a big mane. Copper or black springbok were each in the thousands. All those have declined, in some cases dramatically. I was offered a golden wildebeest in the Eastern Cape last year for $1200.
(ii) On the other hand, trophy fees for the more commonly sought game - impala, springbok, warthog, blesbok, wildebeest, kudu, zebra, etc., have, at least in my experience, tended to stay flat or increased a bit.
(iii) Day rates in South Africa and Namibia have either come down or not moved very much, but they certainly haven't gone up much if at all.
(iv) In other parts of Africa, hunting for game such as Lord Derby eland, mountain nyala, bongo and other similar animals has become more expensive, with day rates and trophy fees increasing. If you want to complete the spiral horns, you have to visit Cameroon (or CAR if you're very adventurous) and Ethiopia, and they know that. The more remote the destination, the more expensive it will be. And places like Tanzania, where outfitters have bid up concession fees to dizzying heights, are looking to earn returns on that investment through higher rates.
These are just my impressions, and I'm sure that those who are closer to pricing issues would have their own, and better, take on what's happened over the last couple of decades. That said, I'd suggest that overall, with the inflation we've seen in the West, hunting southern Africa today is considerably more affordable than it was 25 years ago.
