SOUTH AFRICA: Kuche Safaris - Free State - August 2024

[DonPablo]

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Whether it's due to negligence or reasons completely out of one's control, all that I ask is clear communication of what's going on.

As others have stated already, hunting with Kuche you may very well have a great experience. You may get great opportunities at Wiley animals. You may have The Hunt of a lifetime. But good communication is the one thing that you should know without a doubt you will have to go without.

 

[Denvir Tire]

The silence from the legion of "Kuche Apologists" is deafening...

 

[KuduKiller]

He was an old salt. Worn down teeth and horns, faded stripes. He measured out at 52". I would loved to have seen him in is prime. I was super happy with him. And the mountainous property we harvested him on was stunning.

That’s a nice bull for sure!

 

[sureshot375]

I do love a good Kuche thread. I feel like maybe we should have a Kuche Safari sub forum.

Wonder how all that rebuilt taxidermy is going to turn out??

Hadn’t looked them up on YouTube in a while.

Here is the latest influencer trying to influence me to go on a hunt of a lifetime with Kuche safaris.

Kuche Hunt Video

Never heard of anyone having to pay a fine for shooting a female warthog. Typically the PH prevents this kind of thing.

They diesel stalked a heard of wildebeest who just happened to be standing by the food pile. Lucky they were able to find them on 10k acres, could have taken weeks according to the caption. Poor little fella still had brown hair under his eyes.

I’m hoping they were on a cull hunt because most of their animals were not mature.

 

[DonPablo]

Not to

Kuche Hunt Video

Not to hijack the thread but I've gotta wonder what the black dude thought about the fact that none of the black staff eat with the clients. Not trying to bash SA. I understand they're still several decades behind us in terms of race relations. But I'd honestly love to ask the guy what his impression was.

 

[Arty0802]

I do love a good Kuche thread. I feel like maybe we should have a Kuche Safari sub forum.

Wonder how all that rebuilt taxidermy is going to turn out??

Hadn’t looked them up on YouTube in a while.

Here is the latest influencer trying to influence me to go on a hunt of a lifetime with Kuche safaris.

Kuche Hunt Video

Never heard of anyone having to pay a fine for shooting a female warthog. Typically the PH prevents this kind of thing.

They diesel stalked a heard of wildebeest who just happened to be standing by the food pile. Lucky they were able to find them on 10k acres, could have taken weeks according to the caption. Poor little fella still had brown hair under his eyes.

I’m hoping they were on a cull hunt because most of their animals were not mature.

Funny you should mention that. We had a slight issue with our PH putting us on immature wildebeest. I'm giving him grace because, other than that, he was absolutely fantastic and we all make mistakes from time to time. Also, because when he misidentified a young bull as a cow he was absolutely beside himself. It was evident that he made an honest mistake. He and Koos did make it right by allowing her to take a mature cow (in the picture I provided) free of charge.

 

[jt13]

Checking back in and glad to see so much new added to my thread.

I don't really care about our taxidermy but hope it works out for the other members of our hunting party

 

[cwickgo9]

I was able to communicate with Koos today. He responded that he shows my items were delivered to Eagle Eye Global in December (?!) He's supposed to reach out to them and find out and I've fired off an email to them as well. I double checked my SPAM folder, in box and deleted and nothing from either Kuche or Eagle found so I'm really not sure what might be going on.

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

I was able to communicate with Koos today. He responded that he shows my items were delivered to Eagle Eye Global in December (?!) He's supposed to reach out to them and find out and I've fired off an email to them as well. I double checked my SPAM folder, in box and deleted and nothing from either Kuche or Eagle found so I'm really not sure what might be going on.

He didn’t even give you the option of soliciting shipping prices from anyone else or let you know that’s where it was going?

 

[DonPablo]

I saw something on another thread about painting euros. Koos's taxidermists don't do that, do they? I hope not.

 

[Jared640]

I saw something on another thread about painting euros. Koos's taxidermists don't do that, do they?

The ones I have gotten from him are not painted and they look really good. The shoulder mounts are hit and miss. I have some that look as good as any reputable US taxidermy if not better and some that look mediocre at best.

 

[Jared640]

The silence from the legion of "Kuche Apologists" is deafening...

Kuche is what it is. We used them for our first 2 trips. They are good for getting your feet wet in Africa. We have since learned alot and gone a different direction. I won't hunt with them ever again but they do introduce a ton of people to Africa and that's what we need as many people advocating for african hunting as possible.

 

[cwickgo9]

Continuing to follow up with my situation. I just received the quotation for freight from Eagle Eye transport to get my items shipped. I've been in touch with Coppersmith to receive on this end.

 

[jt13]

Continuing to follow up with my situation. I just received the quotation for freight from Eagle Eye transport to get my items shipped. I've been in touch with Coppersmith to receive on this end.

Care to share crate size and cost?

Thanks

 

[cwickgo9]

Care to share crate size and cost?

Thanks

Crates 1

Dimensions: 102 x 67 x 80 cm

Actual Weight: 64.0 KGS

Volumetric Weight: 91.0 KGS

$1200 to DFW Airport

 

[cwickgo9]

Now I have perhaps a real stupid question. Eagle Eye has provided their banking info to pay them - how do I do that? Do I have to do a wire Xfer of some kind? Is there no way to simply provide a CC to pay for the costs?

 

[Mekaniks]

Now I have perhaps a real stupid question. Eagle Eye has provided their banking info to pay them - how do I do that? Do I have to do a wire Xfer of some kind? Is there no way to simply provide a CC to pay for the costs?

It usually states their preferred payment method on the invoice…. That said, if it has their acct and routing number they likely want a wire transfer directly from you bank…

 

[Hunt anything]

Don’t know about this particular company but with the 4 companies that have had shipped my trophies they have done it either way. Credit Card is the easiest if they will accept it.

 

[Rumrunner]

So I hunted with Kuche in August ‘24 at the Limpopo lodge. A relative had bought a hunt at a DU banquet like so many others then covid hit and everything shut down then there were other personal issues and he was unable to go. He asked if we wanted the hunt and we said hell yeah. Kuche allowed the hunt to be transferred to us in ‘23 and we booked the hunt for ‘24. Three of us were going, my son and I were first timers and another friend who has hunted in multiple countries said he would like to join us. The price increase hit us somewhere over the Atlantic and trophy fees jumped considerably. The 4 animals that were included and the lodging were not affected. The other animals we harvested (Kudu, Golden Wildebeest, Bushbuck, Nyala and Zebra) did cost considerably more than planned. This was troubling but I looked at other outfitters and it seemed that quite a few raised their trophy fees around the same time.
I didn’t care much for the Kuche huts but it had a comfortable bed and bathroom so it met the minimum. The food was just ok at best. 95% of our interaction was with the PH and he was fantastic, I don’t know much about PHs but I can’t imagine a better hunter and person. We had a blast. I feel overall the experience was very positive but I will probably go to a different outfitter in ‘27 with better accommodations.
We also are waiting on our trophies. When we settled up we were told about a year, I took that to mean 18 months minimum most likely closer to 24. Island time in South Africa. We paid 50% of the taxidermy so they have incentive to complete the work. I have since heard that hunters at Kuche harvested ~6,000 animals in ‘24 between both camps over all of their concessions. I’ve been waiting 9 months and figure another year minimum before I start attempting to get status. Hopefully the larger facility will allow them to get work done faster and communicate better since they won’t have to make excuses. Or, I could be wrong and 18 months from now I’ll be asking questions and trying to get status. Hopefully this is not a recurring theme.

 

[cwickgo9]

Thankfully my bank is pretty convenient to my work so I just went there and did a bank draft. Now awaiting Eagle Eye to confirm they got it and let me know when they are shipping.