Dylancadby23
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- Mar 19, 2025
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This thread may be in the wrong forumn. If it is admins please move this. I am new to this forumn and still learning to navigate it.
I made a post looking for recommendations of outfitter to book a safari to celebrate my first anniversary with my wife on. The animals that are priority is Kudu 1st, Sable 2nd, then zebra and oryx and possibly add others. I had over 30 outfitters reach out and got very overwhelmed. I ended up continuing talking with 4-5 different ones and I know there were a ton of extremely reputable places that I spoke with. My wife and I ended up narrowing it down to these 3 outfitters: JKO, LJ, and Limpopo North Safaris. These 3 just were the closest to our budget and seemed to offer what we were looking for.
Jacque with JKO was great to talk to. We are interested in going to his Free State location. It looked to be a beautiful lodge, said they have great meals, great staff, very accommodating offering night hunting for critters and varmint animals. The only con I see was this place was further from a lot of non hunting activities which my wife and I do want to do some of too. Also he did say the kudu in this area aren’t huge, but thinks we can get a 50ish inch kudu. He did say we can arrange pilanesberg park, but will require more traveling. Really loved talking with Jacque and he did have several references.
Sampie with Limpopo North was also great to talk to. We initially talked about one location that was a little cheaper, but was further from some non hunting activities so he said we could do his Limpopo area and do pilanesberg as well as other non hunting things. He said in that area it will be the greater kudu and does think we can get a bigger kudu 52”+ and great sable as well. I did like the way his first lodge looked better than the Limpopo lodge, but both were nice. I’m not sure how much time my wife and I would actually spend in the room anyway. He also can offer 12 month financing at 0 percent interest.
Juan with LJ safaris was one of the first to message me and awesome to talk to. He was very helpful and honest and has remained that way in communicating. He offered us a safari and from there a trip to Capetown for a couple days, which my wife loved that idea. He’s been great talking with and if I don’t book with him this trip I’d love to in the future! Only con I saw was obviously the cape kudu do tend to be smaller and we would have to hunt kudu on a separate concession instead of hunting where we would be staying.
Others that were awesome to talk with but we just ended up either slowly losing contact or decided not to go with for some other reason we’re: Derian Koekemoer (awesome guy, but my wife doesn’t want to do malaria shots, and they don’t have gemsbok to hunt on the place we talked about. Kemp safaris, honestly Kemp was great and place was beautiful, just the sliding scale trophy fee kind of turned me off, but I totally understand. Spear, I didn’t get to talk to much, but he clearly runs a reputable place with lots of references! Daryl with Mount Carmel, I met him at the sportsman show in the states and we clicked, but just little more expensive for what I wanted then some others. Limcroma, they were awesome, but more expensive for less trophies and said it would be a camp full, which for a anniversary trip we would rather be more personable!
Help me pick between the few I’m torn on. Any references or testimonials would be great! We want to be safe, comfortable, have fun, and obviously get great trophies, and be treated fairly! It’s a 1st anniversary trip so I do want it to be nice and my wife enjoy herself and be treated amazingly!
Thanks in advance!
I made a post looking for recommendations of outfitter to book a safari to celebrate my first anniversary with my wife on. The animals that are priority is Kudu 1st, Sable 2nd, then zebra and oryx and possibly add others. I had over 30 outfitters reach out and got very overwhelmed. I ended up continuing talking with 4-5 different ones and I know there were a ton of extremely reputable places that I spoke with. My wife and I ended up narrowing it down to these 3 outfitters: JKO, LJ, and Limpopo North Safaris. These 3 just were the closest to our budget and seemed to offer what we were looking for.
Jacque with JKO was great to talk to. We are interested in going to his Free State location. It looked to be a beautiful lodge, said they have great meals, great staff, very accommodating offering night hunting for critters and varmint animals. The only con I see was this place was further from a lot of non hunting activities which my wife and I do want to do some of too. Also he did say the kudu in this area aren’t huge, but thinks we can get a 50ish inch kudu. He did say we can arrange pilanesberg park, but will require more traveling. Really loved talking with Jacque and he did have several references.
Sampie with Limpopo North was also great to talk to. We initially talked about one location that was a little cheaper, but was further from some non hunting activities so he said we could do his Limpopo area and do pilanesberg as well as other non hunting things. He said in that area it will be the greater kudu and does think we can get a bigger kudu 52”+ and great sable as well. I did like the way his first lodge looked better than the Limpopo lodge, but both were nice. I’m not sure how much time my wife and I would actually spend in the room anyway. He also can offer 12 month financing at 0 percent interest.
Juan with LJ safaris was one of the first to message me and awesome to talk to. He was very helpful and honest and has remained that way in communicating. He offered us a safari and from there a trip to Capetown for a couple days, which my wife loved that idea. He’s been great talking with and if I don’t book with him this trip I’d love to in the future! Only con I saw was obviously the cape kudu do tend to be smaller and we would have to hunt kudu on a separate concession instead of hunting where we would be staying.
Others that were awesome to talk with but we just ended up either slowly losing contact or decided not to go with for some other reason we’re: Derian Koekemoer (awesome guy, but my wife doesn’t want to do malaria shots, and they don’t have gemsbok to hunt on the place we talked about. Kemp safaris, honestly Kemp was great and place was beautiful, just the sliding scale trophy fee kind of turned me off, but I totally understand. Spear, I didn’t get to talk to much, but he clearly runs a reputable place with lots of references! Daryl with Mount Carmel, I met him at the sportsman show in the states and we clicked, but just little more expensive for what I wanted then some others. Limcroma, they were awesome, but more expensive for less trophies and said it would be a camp full, which for a anniversary trip we would rather be more personable!
Help me pick between the few I’m torn on. Any references or testimonials would be great! We want to be safe, comfortable, have fun, and obviously get great trophies, and be treated fairly! It’s a 1st anniversary trip so I do want it to be nice and my wife enjoy herself and be treated amazingly!
Thanks in advance!
