Maximizing Trigger Time

[Michael Dean]

I've given considerable thought to planning a plains game hunt to Africa. There was a recent thread here where the author acknowledged that he didn't have the capital or space to have his trophies mounted and shipped; the overall cost for everything was just too much for him, it got me thinking.

For my first trip to Africa I'm considering focusing on a cull hunt. What I'd prefer is to have the option to shoot 12-15 culls as opposed to taking 6-7 trophy animals. In short, I'd rather have the ability to shoot several more cull animals than focus on shooting trophies. I've already got 4-5 deer mounts sitting in my garage that have never been hung on the wall simply because I don't have the space. Can anyone make a recommendation as to an outfitter that could put together a hunt that focused on a cull hunt.

 

[TOM]

Im sure it wont be long til you get a bunch of offers. Cull hunts are generally off prime times so you arent shooting pregnant females. If you arent worried about taxidermy and just want the experience, I think its a great idea!

 

[BRICKBURN]

There are cull hunts offered here on AH constantly.
Look in the latest hunt reports and you'll see a report on several cull hunts.

 

[IdaRam]

Hi @Michael Dean
I don't have a recommendation for you, but I bet some of the AH sponsors here can arrange what you are looking for.
I do have a couple thoughts and recommendations, though. When I was on my first safari 2 years ago, my hunting partners and I were able to take advantage of an opportunity that popped up to go on a cull hunt for 2 days. It was a great experience and I'm grateful that we got to do it. The property was about 3000 acres, so decent size but not huge, but the vegetation was pretty thick in most areas. Lots of cover for animals to hide and escape.
The owner had sold the property, the deal was for the property but not the animals on it, so the original owner was removing the game from the property. There were both trophy and cull animals. The only animals off limits were giraffe and ostrich. Cull animals were no charge to us, trophy animals were standard trophy fee. A note on this, we were there for a month and hunting a lot of animals including lion and leopard. I don't want to inadvertantly create a false expectaction of what an outfitter might or should do on fees for cull animals.
Much of the game had been taken from the property by herding into an enclosure with a helicopter. There were still a decent number of animals on the property, but as you might expect they were a bit spooky . It made for a challenging hunt!
I would do this again in a heartbeat, but I'm glad this wasn't the only type of hunting I was doing. The message being, there's cull hunting and there's cull hunting. This was truly a hunt. It was dawn to dusk for two days of hard work. A braii and a mid-day nap. I loved it. But there were no trophy pictures, no deluxe acommodations and it had a different feel to it. We ended up shooting kudu, gemsbok, zebra, red hartebeest and warthog.
I would make sure that whoever you book a hunt with knows exactly what kind of experience you are looking for. If you want to book a hunt the same in every way to the outfitters standard offering, but you simply want non-trophy animals that is likely to result in a different experience than if you tell an outfitter you are looking for a cull hunt. I would talk to multiple outfits and see what they have to offer. Dig into the details! Make sure whoever you choose has a clear picture of what it is you are looking for.
Good luck! Let us know what you end up doing.

 

[Pheroze]

After I read this post I was reflecting on my own hunt. It was a trophy hunt, not cull, but I was surprised by how mentally fatigued I felt at the end. I think there is a difference in the two and not just in the taxidermy.

I totally understand why a properly put together cull would be fun. But, my observation is that it seems more like a job in some ways than a hunt. To put it another way, I wonder how many animals would be too much in a short span?

I am just thinking out loud. Good luck with your planning and I await the report

 

[Pheroze]

I don't know if you saw this:

https://www.africahunting.com/threads/karoo-cull-package.38808/