Looking at booking with Grindstone African Safaris or Dinkwe Safaris and taxidermy.
I am looking at hunting Blesbuck, Impala, and Blue Wildabeast or equivalant. I would love to hunt a black Buffalo but the cost for this is way more then I can afford. Just purchased a Merkel 470ne double rifle. But the double rifle hunt for the black buffalo with have to wait.
The following includes my opinions which are worth as much as you paid for them, and the very valuable comments from other AH members.
From the limited information in your post, it seems your funds are limited. That’s okay for many of us were for our first trip to hunt Africa! From the school of hard knocks, here is some hard earned wisdom…
You have a .470 double rifle that likely cost at least $9,000, if not more. Put that rifle to work! Work up loads that will regulate and practice “off the shooting sticks” until you can maximize the rifle and your maximum effective range. Maybe that’s 50 yards or perhaps out to 100 yards. Whatever it is, select your safari operator that will have their PH guide you into the range of your double rifle. Communicate that requirement in writing with the operator and ask them to confirm they will do their best.
Since your funds seem to be limited, why bring back common species “trophies”? Spend your taxidermy money on experiences with photos and perhaps short videos as mementos. Use the saving to shoot a buffalo or if money is really tight, a cull buffalo. Shooting your first buffalo with your double rifle regardless of its size or sex, is something you will not forget. My first buffalo was a cull female. The PH and I took over 40 minutes to low crawl (elbows and very low body) 50 yards to a spot less than 50 yards from the herd. The PH said he had never been able to crawl that close to a herd. Bang, bang with a .458 Lott and she was mine!
Note:
- I paid for a professional video of my recent tuskless elephant hunt. Tuskless are non-exportable so the video was the best trophy I could have. This was a hard decision to spend the money for a video but in hindsight, it was the best money spent!
- I would not pay for a video of a first South African game ranch hunt. I would however ask the PH use my phone to take short videos of my shots!
All the photos below were professionally printed for about $300.
Don’t be ashamed to do a cull hunt at the end of the hunting season such as October. One can hunt and shoot a surprising number of animals for the cost of a couple trophy size animals. Yes, it’s hot then in Africa and the ground is covered in dry leaves that crunch under foot like corn flakes, but that makes your hunt more challenging! Anyway, a bunch of cull animals will make for great memories for your first African hunt. After that you will have much more experience to determine where to spend your future safari funds.
Like most of us you unless you are over 80 years old, this won’t be your only Africa hunt. With that in mind save the taxidermy money for exceptional, near record book animals that you take on subsequent hunts. Instead, use the money saved on additional animals that you will slay with your double rifle.
There are fixed costs to hunting Africa such as:
- A good Pelican brand or equivalent rifle case, $200 to $300. Luckily if one selects very good case, this is a one-time cost.
- Cost to drive to US Customs to have rifle(s) inspected for Form 4474. That form is required by African countries in lieu of a gun license. This may be $20 for some or $200 for others depending on how far you need to drive to reach a Customs and Border Protection location. For my last trip, I made an appointment with CBP at a private aviation airport. It was easy since was the only visitor there. The 4474 must be less than a year old (or for the current year…). One can’t get around this. Also, you will need a current 4474 a month or two before you fly to complete, submit, and be approved to “temporally export” firearms. You cannot wait until the day you fly to obtain a 4474!
- Cost of airfare. One can assume you will fly in coach but that will be approximately $1,000, depending on the month of travel. Summer months are the highest cost. October is normally a lower cost travel month.
- If you arrive in Africa late in the day or night, you will need a hotel room at a place where your rifle(s) will be safe, $200+ per night. Plan your travel to arrive at an hour your safari operator can pick you up and drive to their location.
- Personally I pay an expediter to make my arrival in an African airport and clearing customs and rifle permit inspection a whole bunch easier. AH sponsor @rifle is worth the money to avoid getting grumpy (15 hours in coach…) with foreigners who have the authority to “detain” you. At least it is for me!
All the above listed costs and others add up to maybe $2,000. With proper planning one can save some money.
Read the suggestions that experienced AH members have provided. Ask them for links to their hunt reports such as mine of hunting
@Tally-Ho HUNTING SAFARIS posted below.
If their recommendations spark your interest, ask via Direct Message (DM, whatever happened to PMs? ) for a phone conversation. What people will provide via phone calls is often more direct than what they will put in writing. An example is a member’s opinion of a very respected operator/PH, “What’s his name is an AXXHOLE”. Hearing that I inquired why and received a play by play review of the member’s experience. Of course I know others who hunted with the same PH who say nothing but good things. The hard part of the this is figuring out if you will get along with a safari operator and/or their PH. I gather assessments from a half dozen persons and try to determine if the negative things were the fault of the client, PH, or a combination of both such as two egos so big that one of which would be more than enough for any hunt!
I am very direct when contracting for anything. I ask operators/PHs yes or no questions and expect an answer. Any non-direct answer is weasel-words, i.e. bull shxt! I take those as not only no but f-no. I then document those replies in an email in which I ask them to confirm their statements. This puts off some whose culture is different than mine. Fine, there are a lot of operators in Africa! My bottom line is integrity. I tell the truth, the whole truth and expect the same from others.
There are of course a lot of variables when hunting Africa but for the hunt objectives, I want to know what to expect. Lesser things like “Is there 24-hour generator power and WiFi in camp? How about hot water? I also like to know. Now, if there is a problem such as the camp generator becomes inoperable for a day or so, well I can rough it. But if other hunters previously mentioned that and I experience the same, whose fault is that?
Others posted about hunting other farms for different species. Ask about,
- How many contiguous acres does the ranch or hunting have?
- How long is the drive to that area?
- Are all of you animals available on that area?
- If needing to drive to another area for a species, how long is that drive? Remember to multiply that time by two since you will be going and returning to camp.
This is a lot but there is a lot more that most of us didn’t know until we had been on a safari or two. Check out
@Philip Glass videos. for more common sense information!
Safari planning and preparation advice and tips. Hunting and travel reports.
www.youtube.com
