Self-Guided Hunts In Africa

Reaper,

I share your exact sentiments. I hunt alone and unguided, and always have. There are opportunities worldwide to do so. We all have our methods, but me personally, I would derive no satisfaction from a guided hunt.

I too had to filter through a lot of misinformation. Some of it I have to assume is to protect the African hunting industry as a business. But hunting endemic plains game self-guided in Africa is indeed a possibility.

When planning for your own such hunt, you will need to be invited by the landowner to hunt the property he or she actually owns, and not an outside concession.

Good luck, stay true to your purpose, do your homework, and I'm sure you too will make it happen. The opportunities are out there.

NG
 
I can't tell from your information, but to contemplate this, I am sure that you have some experience hunting or simply visiting some of the more remote corners of the world? Hunting the backside of Cameroon means mounting a bit of an expedition just to get where you are going. And though I am sure your tracking skills are excellent, staying on a bongo or Lord Derby for six-hours or so is no mean feat. And of course with the later, you literally will have a ton of dead animal to process out in the middle of nowhere in equatorial heat. You are going to need a fairly extensive investment in equipment, supplies, and staff. That is hard to put together without an outfitter or extensive local knowledge and contacts. I believe Environ could give you some meaningful and informed advice.

I have never hunted Switzerland, but I have hunted Austria and Germany (extensively), and other than shooting, know of no experience there which would prepare me for a true wilderness hunt on the African continent. Staying at a lodge in the RSA and walking out alone to go hunting would be something that could be done by an inexperienced visiting hunter were it not illegal. Those game farms are relatively controlled environments, and were you there in the winter, on a PG concession, a lone inexperienced (with Africa) hunter likely wouldn't get in too much trouble. But no one offers that hunt because they can't. Brickburn has it correct. Buy a property or an interest in one. I know two people who have shared interests in game ranches - one in Namibia and the other in the RSA. Both hunt with a tracker and a driver while there, but act as their own "PH".

It seems as though the Cameroon or Congo hunts or not "adventurous" enough because you feel you would have a de facto PH.
.

Mike,
I've been reading Cam's website for the past two days. I fully agree, that this hunt would be extremely challenging as is. Without the trackers, support staff it would be next to impossible and not something I would try on my own.
However, a southern African Bushveld game farm type of hunt would be doable without trackers. Ideally, the consession owner would put a landcruiser at your disposal. You could stalk river bottoms looking for Kudu or you could climb to the top of copjes (spelling??) to spot game and plan your stock. Once game is down, either you could winch it into the truck by yourself or call for skinners/porters on the radio. I know its not possible in several countries due to laws, and the property owner is taking a risk. Well, I can still dream.

Reaper,

I share your exact sentiments. I hunt alone and unguided, and always have. There are opportunities worldwide to do so. We all have our methods, but me personally, I would derive no satisfaction from a guided hunt.

I too had to filter through a lot of misinformation. Some of it I have to assume is to protect the African hunting industry as a business. But hunting endemic plains game self-guided in Africa is indeed a possibility.

When planning for your own such hunt, you will need to be invited by the landowner to hunt the property he or she actually owns, and not an outside concession.

Good luck, stay true to your purpose, do your homework, and I'm sure you too will make it happen. The opportunities are out there.

NG

It's a bit strong to say that you would derive no satisfaction from a guided hunt. There is some. But yes, Not nearly as much as there would be if you would do it unguided. Let's be honest, hunting PG in RSA with a guide is not much of a challenge. The game is so plentiful and so many species available that coming home empty handed is not really a possibility.

I am constantly seeking out Unguided hunts, also called "outfitted hunts". I went on a great unguided hunt for red stag in Scotland two years ago. It was great. On the first day, the gamekeeper drives you around your area. Informs you of the boundaries, the shooting regulations, gives you some tips on animal habits and leaves you alone to run up and down the Scottish highlands for the next week. The satisfaction that you get from harvesting a beast in a strange land all by yourself is second to none. In my opinion!
 
Reaper,

Good luck in your search. The actual hunting can be just as fulfilling whether it is in south Africa or Cameroon. Some of my favorite hunts were free range nilgai in south Texas on my own and a diy bear hunt in Alaska that was a drop off trip that pre-dated sat phones.

Neverguided may be on to something, sort of like a buddy hunt.

We all have different goals and desires, and as long as we hunt legally and ethically it is all good.
 
...Let's be honest, hunting PG in RSA with a guide is not much of a challenge. The game is so plentiful and so many species available that coming home empty handed is not really a possibility...

really! how many times did you hunt RSA? yes, there are small enclosures where some of these PH/ Outfitters operates from, but that's not all of us...

perhaps we must ask high day fees and then make sure you do go home with nothing...we cannot help we are a country like 'Sodom and Gomorrah' on natural occurrence of game animals...RSA is unfortunately that, probably not many open free roaming areas, yes, but poaching are far less active in RSA than any other country in Africa...perhaps if RSA has the only huntable animals left in Africa in the future, will your view change about us...
 
really! how many times did you hunt RSA? yes, there are small enclosures where some of these PH/ Outfitters operates from, but that's not all of us...

perhaps we must ask high day fees and then make sure you do go home with nothing...we cannot help we are a country like 'Sodom and Gomorrah' on natural occurrence of game animals...RSA is unfortunately that, probably not many open free roaming areas, yes, but poaching are far less active in RSA than any other country in Africa...perhaps if RSA has the only huntable animals left in Africa in the future, will your view change about us...

Please don't take it as a criticism, as its just an observation. Besides, not all hunts should involve a death climb to the top of the Himalayas to hunt some wild goat. An African PG safari, in my experience, is a very leisurely and pleasant hunt which can include the whole family. But harvesting a mature Impala ram or Wildebeest is not something that is particulary difficult to do. The biggest challenge I have found is pacing yourself and not harvesting all the animals on your "list" too early in the hunt.

To answer your question, I have only hunted RSA two times. Both with Limpopo safaris. Their hunting area is a approx 100'000 acre enclosure. Its huge. The game is plentiful and the trophy quality is high.
So that's just my opinion. No offence meant.
 
non taken...(y)

sounds to me you were extremely lucky harvesting "easy animals" on a 100 000acres ranch. :rolleyes:
 
So your sum total experience with Africa is a single high-fence game farm in the Limpopo. From that you draw conclusions about all guided hunting in Africa. May I suggest you need to get out more? It would be like hunting a large game farm in Texas and then drawing conclusions about all North American hunting. At the Texas Ranch or in Colorado or in British Columbia, as an international visitor, you likely will have a guide, but the challenge and experience could not be more different in each location.

And I have to agree with you. Most PG hunting on the typical game farm is not very challenging. Typically, lot's of driving around time punctuated by fairly short stalks on surprisingly unwary animals. So don't do that again. You have obviously graduated. Go to Zim or Moz and take on a Cape buffalo or a leopard or both. Spend a couple of days mucking around the Zambezi Delta swamp fighting mosquitos and leaches, and see if that isn't a meaningful team sport. Or sit with your PH in a tiny pop-up blind at 2 am while a very untame cat sniffs at you from three feet away through a couple of millimeters of canvas. As Mike and several others have intimated earlier, there are some dramatic alternatives to you current African experience list.
 
non taken...(y)

sounds to me you were extremely lucky harvesting "easy animals" on a 100 000acres ranch. :rolleyes:

Maybe so...and Limpopo Safaris run a great operation!

So your sum total experience with Africa is a single high-fence game farm in the Limpopo. From that you draw conclusions about all guided hunting in Africa. May I suggest you need to get out more? It would be like hunting a large game farm in Texas and then drawing conclusions about all North American hunting. At the Texas Ranch or in Colorado or in British Columbia, as an international visitor, you likely will have a guide, but the challenge and experience could not be more different in each location.

And I have to agree with you. Most PG hunting on the typical game farm is not very challenging. Typically, lot's of driving around time punctuated by fairly short stalks on surprisingly unwary animals. So don't do that again. You have obviously graduated. Go to Zim or Moz and take on a Cape buffalo or a leopard or both. Spend a couple of days mucking around the Zambezi Delta swamp fighting mosquitos and leaches, and see if that isn't a meaningful team sport. Or sit with your PH in a tiny pop-up blind at 2 am while a very untame cat sniffs at you from three feet away through a couple of millimeters of canvas. As Mike and several others have intimated earlier, there are some dramatic alternatives to you current African experience list.

Yes, I definitely need to do more African hunting.
Please note that I was only commenting on the typical PG "safaris" - not all African hunting. I am well aware that that there are more challenging hunts, and that was the purpose of this post, to identify them!
Thanks to this post, I've already been introduced to the unguided hunts in Cameroon. I hope I can find other challenging options. Unfortunately, at this time I have no interest in hunting any of the big cats. Maybe this will change one day.
 
I was fortunate to have hunted many times on several large farms owned by friends in South Africa during the early 1980s before passage of what I call its "Outfitter/PH Protection Act."

I stayed in hotels, rented a baakie and hunted with only a black farmworker to help me load the game I shot. I did similar hunts on private land in Botswana's Tuli Block in the late 1990s.

I paid no daily rates or trophy fees because I shot only what the landowners wanted for braais or to donate to local tribesmen.

Unfortunately, those days are long gone.

Bill Quimby
 
To put more hunt back in to it try walk and stalk bowhunting. My PHs never stalked the final distance with me , once game was spotted it was up to me to execute the stalk. Those critters mean more to me than the ones when a PH was by my side.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
53,628
Messages
1,131,474
Members
92,687
Latest member
JohnT3006
 

 

 

Latest posts

Latest profile posts

Impact shots from the last hunt

Early morning Impala hunt, previous link was wrong video

Headshot on jackal this morning

Mature Eland Bull taken in Tanzania, at 100 yards, with 375 H&H, 300gr, Federal Premium Expanding bullet.

20231012_145809~2.jpg
 
Top