SOUTH AFRICA: Has anyone hunted with Ben Pringle Safaris in Eastern Cape SA?

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Hello, I was wondering if anyone has hunted with Ben Pringle Safaris in the eastern cape of South Africa. Have been contacting him and his operation sounds good with fair package prices, but the trophies taken with the pics online are several years old and not recent. If anyone has had experience with him or knows more about his operation and could provide some more information I would appreciate it.
Thanks,
Jody
 
I would agree that the prices seem reasonable enough. Hopefully someone on this site has hunted with this outfitter before and can advise you. Whatever you do ask Pringle for references you can call. Try to talk voice to voice with at least two before you book. With the pictures being dated that could be a concern but then again this guy may pay someone to update his site and he just hasn't done it lately.
 
Yeah Im hoping someone has. Im still in the early talking phase with him and after hunting with another outfitter in SA last year, so Im gonna ask about an reference to speak with. Like you said, the website might need to be updated, and if all is good, he quoted me a great custom 10 day package. I appreciate your input CAustin!
 
Jody, I sent you a PM. Thanks.
 
Jody,
I head over in one week to hunt with Marius and KMG. Have you contacted the professional Hunters of South Africa (I think theat's what they are called??) or the Africa Hunting Gazette?
 
Marcuis, they are located in Adelaide about 3 hours from Port Elizabeth. Operates on "Thorn Dale" farm, and is 125,000 hectarces all free range. Thanks Greyfox, Ill look into those and see if I can find anything.
 
Marcuis, they are located in Adelaide about 3 hours from Port Elizabeth. Operates on "Thorn Dale" farm, and is 125,000 hectarces all free range. Thanks Greyfox, Ill look into those and see if I can find anything.

I will assume you put two extra zero's there by mistake and you meant to say 1250 hectares.
 
Yes that is what he said in the email, so I don't know if he meant 125,000 acres and put hectacres, so I'll have to clarify with them.
 
1250 hectares equals 3088 acres BTW
 
Yes I am aware of the conversion, so according to their response it 308,881 acre operation over a 300 kilometer radius. I will double check if there was a error with the response or if it's it's true operation size. That is why I want to see if anyone has had an affiliation with the outfitter or has personally hunted with him for references.
 
I would bet it is acres. If he does not own it all, I'd bet he at least has permission to hunt on 125,000 acres right there by his lodge (or possibly hectares, but I found they tent to speak in acres, feet and inches as they are accustomed to accommodating US hunters). Yes it is a lot more if they are talking hectares, but in either case it a large chunk of land!

When we hunted in that general area, we were regularly on farms of 8000 to 20,000 acres, we would often cross over to the next farm and as the hunters, we might remain un-aware as it is all part of the outfitters area.

We hunted very large conservancies, I think up around 450,000 acres. Of which the outfitter had negotiated hunting rights on significant portions but had deals with each land owner and either he or the PH called at least the night before to get permission for the day. On one example a farmer had family members coming out for a cull hunt on a weekend so we went elsewhere and got to that place a few days later. Heck sometimes people just don't get the call or message for a few days, life is going on and does not stop because some hunters show up.

The PH would be re-organizing and coordinating all the time based on animals we had already gotten, priorities we still wanted, which areas we were going to be close to, where other PH's were heading the next day or next few days.. or had been. What other PH's, land owners, farm hands etc. had reported seeing, climatic conditions, and just how hard a day we had and whether we felt like taking it easy or pushing hard up a mountain or through a river bottom the next day. Sometime we would head out 2 hours before sun up to get to a new place. And drive back late at night or even stay at a different place a couple days.

To my wife and I those circumstances were just what we wanted, a laid back and flexible hunt without pressure. We wanted to experience all the different terrain, sights, smells, flora and fauna. and we had an extra great time because we were somewhat flexible on animals we would take... Heck I did not know I was going to hunt Mountain Reedbuck until 5 minutes before making the shot. The outfitter and PH were doing their jobs and making it all happen!

That was all free range, this is working farm country... More ranch country to us from the US as not a lot of tilled fields but there were cattle grazing in places, and lots of sheep and goats. On the other hand we would go over large tracts and not see any domestic livestock. There are cattle and sheep fences just like we have where we live... but just like the whitetails here, the fences do not restrict the wild game. We did go to one area that must have required passing through 15 or 20 cattle gates in various states of repair. But you drive over cattle guards and through gates in Colorado and other US places as well. We saw some high fences but they were more to protect or keep in high value or dangerous animals. I believe they have laws in RSA that certain animals (Buffalo, Lion) must be kept behind fences constructed to code.

Bob
 
Make sure the outfitter has a registered PH and outfitter license.

I'm sure ActionBob is correct too. I kinda like that way of hunting, you get to see different sights and sounds.
 
Yes I checked and Ben Pringle is registered with PHASA. So I'm confident he is a PH and has an operation, just wanting to see if anyone on here has hunted personally with his outfit and how good a operation he runs. He stated he has 100% succcess on all species and has never had a client leave without their trophy and follows all SCI recommendations and guidelines for mature animal harvesting.
 
I recently hunted with Ben Pringle and had a great experience. It was my first time big game hunting and being in Africa.
Ben and his staff are very knowledgeable and have access to a lot of hunting areas. Feel free to message me with any questions.
Hello, I was wondering if anyone has hunted with Ben Pringle Safaris in the eastern cape of South Africa. Have been contacting him and his operation sounds good with fair package prices, but the trophies taken with the pics online are several years old and not recent. If anyone has had experience with him or knows more about his operation and could provide some more information I would appreciate it.
Thanks,
Jody
 
I hunted Thorndale in 2011. If you search the site here I reported the hunts in May/June 2012. I did not hunt with Ben Pringle. A part owner was the head PH then. My taxidermist found the property in 2010 and pushed hard for us to go there. I got some good animals, but only a couple actually on Thorndale. At that time they had cropped the better Impala off pretty hard. In my opinion there are better East Cape properties for Kudu also. I guess my impression at this point in time is that the property has been hunted pretty hard and not a lot of really good trophies were available ther. Some good representative animals are there. Things could of changed since I was there. It's been 5 yrs. so things can change. I would suggest getting a list of his clients from last year and contacting them. Too many good operators here to take a chance with someone else. Bruce
 

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