Hunting Africa - Any Takers

[jamaro]

Hey Guys...

Are there any bowhunters up for a trip to africa? I really want to go but I don't want to go solo...

 

Jason

[DesertBull]

You buying?

[jamaro]

I buy drinks and first class upgrades on DELTA...

 

jason

 

[billrquimby]

I buy drinks and first class upgrades on DELTA...

 

jason

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Jason, the last I checked a first class upgrade on any airline serving South Africa was a lot more than the cost of a 10-day, five animal bowhunt on your typical South African game farm.

 

If the offer to upgrade to a first class ticket on Delta still applies, and if you can wait, I'm planning my next (and last) trip to Africa in June 2007 to visit friends in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botswana. It won't be an organized safari, per se, but you should be able to meet some interesting people, fling arrows at some of their animals, and see a variety of places and game along the way.

 

If you've already booked your hunt, do yourself a favor and refuse to shoot antelope that are not indigenous to the area you're hunting (get a guidebook). It really bothers me when I see where friends have shot common nyalas these days. These beautiful antelope are indigenous only to wetlands along the Indian Ocean and offering hunts for them in arid Namibia and South Africa's Northwestern (Limpopo) Province should be a crime. Virtually all Nyala on farms in northwestern South Africa and Namibia were drugged, trucked there in a trailer and released sometime before "hunters" arrived. Shooting a nyala away from its habitat is like shooting an elk behind wire in Louisiana.

 

It's bad enough that there are Texas-style high fences literally everywhere in South Africa, but it is downright sinful when someone isn't told he's shot an "exotic" in an enclosure. Take impala and springbuck, for example. Generally speaking, these two antelopes do not occur in the same places. If your farm offers both on the same property, something usually smells. As with here in North America, different animals have different habitat needs.

 

South Africa has extensive game animal auctions where a farmer can buy any type of wild animal and have it delivered live to his property. Try to realize that a 2,000-hectare (about 5,000 acres) game farm cannot produce 50 to 60 greater kudu bulls, each with 50-inch-plus horns, year after year for all their clients, any more than 5,000 acres in Santa Cruz County could produce 50 to 60 100-point Coues bucks year after year. Hunting is an industry in South Africa, and there is a lot of put-and-take shooting by unsuspecting clients going on down there.

 

Also, Jason, if you can wrangle first-class upgrades for yourself, be sure to do it. Believe me, 19 1/2 straight hours in coach in a 747 was awful in the old days. In an Airbus, which many airlines are using now, it is pure heck. I know. I've flown first class (once) to Africa, business class (twice), and coach a whole bunch of times. I'll take first class every time.

 

BillQ

[billrquimby]

!]I buy drinks and first class upgrades on DELTA... jason"

 

 

 

I just checked Orbitz.com. There are less expensive ways to get to Johannesburg than the fares listed for Delta, but here's what I found.

 

First Class Delta Tucson to Johannesburg ...... $11,654

Coach Delta Tucson to Johannesburg............ 2,496

 

That's a difference of $9,158 -- for just one traveler. You can buy two multilple-species South African bowhunts for that and have some money left over.

 

BillQuimby

[Kilimanjaro]

Jason, good luck if ya go... Africa is a place that gets in your blood like no where else.. Bill, I know what ya mean about the difference between 1st class and coach. But the cost is outta this world for something that is going to get ya there just the same as the coach passengers. The only time I ever flew 1st class was when I had my accident in New Zealand and my issurance covered it for the flight back home.But man, was that livin!!! The best flight I found for the coach seats is British Airways. They were the most comfortable. But the layover in London was worse than just going nonstop to Joburg! Idid a trip to SA thru London once and did the non stop route on SA Air the second time round.

I have 3 months left before I get into the SA Airbus for the 19 hrs of torture. But at the end of that ride lays hunting heaven!!! And I've got 7 days of it and then 7 more days of just bumming around and sight seeing.

 

Jason, what animals are you planning on taking? I've got a list of 7 for my ucoming trip. A couple of them are animals I've already taken, but I love hunting them and could do so on every African trip. My repeats are another zebra. I had a rug done on the first one and am going to do this one in a ped. mount. Also warthog, and impala. I could go to Africa and hunt just these 2 and have a ball! The warthogs are just good fun and they are all different , and the impala remind me of the African version whitetail deer and they are just plain fun to hunt.

[billrquimby]

... the impala remind me of the African version whitetail deer and they are just plain fun to hunt.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Scottyboy:

 

If impala turn you on you will absolutely flip for bushbuck. I can think of no other antelope in southern Africa that is as difficult to hunt or have actions that remind me more of whitetails.

 

Impalas generally are found in herds of six to 300 animals. Bushuck rams generally are solitary and stick to the thickest riverine habitat in an area.

 

I've taken the Chobe, Limpopo and South African varieties in Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, and each was more intelligent and harder to hunt than the other.

 

Bill

[Kilimanjaro]

Bill, I never got a chance to hunt them personaly, but I was on several hunts with clients who hunted them. We hunted them on the banks of the Limpopo, and in a few spots along a river drainage that spilled out into some farm country in the waterburg mtns near Vaalwater. They were some sneaky little devils! we had a blast hunting them in the thick reeds. And although I never saw it personally, rumor has it that the rams have a nasty little temperment and have been know to charge when wounded. I could see where they could do some serious damage with those 16" daggers on their heads.

 

On one particular hunt on the Limpopo, we were sneaking along and heard the reeds rustle out ahead of us and then heard a small spalsh into the water. we all thought croc.. But when we got to the spot where we heard it, we saw the biggest snake we've all ever seen. It was a python that has to be at least 15 ft long. He crossed the river and slowly crawled onto the Botswana bank. I think he was Bushbuck hunting as well.. Everytime I think about hunting Bushbuck, that image pops into my mind.

 

I was thinking of adding one to my list on this go round, but I don't know... If I ad on anything, it just might have to be a waterbuck.. (if I can cough up the dough). I just can't get enough of them. i love the way they look. I passed on several on my last trip over there. they were nice, but not over 30'. If I see one this time, its gonna be hard not to bear down..

 

BTW, Bill, have you ever been to Thornybush Reserve along the west side of Kruger? Thats where i'll be hunting in a few months. Its a pretty good sized place (30K acres) and is loaded with good animals. Tons of Big 5 that wonder in from Kruger as well. Just curious if you've ever been there. On this trip, I am going to be taking Kudu, Zebra, warthog, impala, duiker, baboon, and Giraffe. Thornybush has a surplus of big bull giraffe on the place and my outfitter asked if I'd be interested in taking one at a very dicounted price. He assured me that it was only the big, mature black bulls we'd be hunting. I'd mounted several before and I guess the taxidermist side of me answered that question. I said to sign me up!! Now, if I can just figure out where I'm gonna put the shoulder mount!!

Thats my wish list of critters on this upcoming hunt.. Its gonna be fun !!

I'll be shooting a .300 RUM for all except the giraffe. I'll be borrowing my PH's .458 LOTT for him!!

[jamaro]

Because I travel so much I get free upgrades.. i am a platinum medallium member. I am going to cash in on my miles for the flight. . I was thinking about going with someone like Madigama or Dries Visser... i know they take alot of people but I have heard they are good operations... I want to take the usuall. Kudu, impala, zebra, bushbuck maybe a dikdik or a diker.... I would really like to take a BIG OLD DUGGA BOY.... but I need to work up to that level.

There is a group from the loca bowshop that goes every few years but I don't know when they are going next. I want to do this while I am young and can enjoy it..

There was a guy over on bowsite that said that 50 of the costs of the hunt occured after the hunt.. Taxidermy and shipping of trophies... is that accurate?

 

I really don't want to mount all my trophies.. European mounts and rugs would suit me fine.

When is the best time of year to go???? Our Summer?

 

Are there any bowhunting outfitts that you recommend?

jason

[billrquimby]

Jason: Shipping heads and hides from Africa, expediting your trophies and mounting them back home CAN cost more than the price of the animals you'll take on a South African budget bowhunt package. One of my hunting buddies here in Tucson, owns a considerable chunk of land along the Limpopo River in the Tuli Block in Botswana and has a bowhunting operation on one of his properties. He and his wife (she runs the business in Africa) are straight shooters, and if you want I can hook you up. Email me at billrquimby@cs.com I have no idea what they charge but I have seen some good kudu there. They also have free-ranging lion, leopard and elephant. (No buffalo.) Compared to South Africa, Botswana still is wild.

 

Scottyboy: I've never been to the Thornybush Reserve, but I have been all over that part of South Africa. In 1983, when the government wanted to promote tourism, I was the guest of the South African Tourist Agency at several of those expensive, exclusive lodges in the Sabi San just west of Kruger's Skukusa on my first trip to Africa. In the late 1990s I drove a rental car just about everywhere in and around Kruger for an article I was writing. Then, in 2002, a friend took me to one of the farms not far from Thornybush to see where lions were being raised commercially. I have good friends in Vaalwater and know the Waterburgs. (It has lots of leopards!) I've been fortunate to have taken a common waterbuck in South Africa and a Crawshay defassa waterbuck in Zambia. They are nifty antelope, but they are not as great a trophy in my mind as a bushbuck with 17-inch-plus horns hunted by stalking in thickets. Waterbuck are much larger than they appear so be sure to place your bullet properly.

 

BillQ

[billrquimby]

..... When is the best time of year to go???? Our Summer?  jason

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Sorry I overlooked your question, Jason.

 

Their winter months -- June, July,August -- are the best times for hunting in southern Africa. The weather is tolerable in April and May, but the grass still is up and it's harder to see the game.

 

You won't like their summer. The snakes and bugs come out and the humidity is unbearable, especially along the Indian Ocean.

 

Just remember to take warm clothing. I've seen snow in Johannesburg in July. It can freeze at night, even in the lower elevations as far north as Zambia and Zimbabwe.

 

Believe it or not, there is a ski resort in the mountains near Durban.

 

BillQ

[jamaro]

This is great info... I am really starting to do my research and it is starting to look better and better...

j-

[Kilimanjaro]

Jason, one of my best buddies went on a fantastic bowhunt over in SA last year. The property was bowhunting only, and took 12 animals ( Kudu, implala, warthog, zebra, etc..) . All were trophy quailty as well.

I do know he had the time of his life and that he said that everything was first class... lodge, meals, PHs, bowstands, etc...

The property he hunted was in the SW portion of SA near the town of Kimberly.

 

I can get you the info if you like.

[billrquimby]

.... took  12 animals ( Kudu, implala, warthog, zebra, etc..) . ....The property he hunted was in the SW portion of SA near the town of Kimberly.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Jason, if you hunt near Kimberley, you should know that impala are not indigenous to that area. Also, if you do go, be sure to the see the diamond museum, the Big Hole, and the "glacier paintings" from the last Ice Age.

 

BillQ

[jamaro]

Scott.

Any info would be great... I would like to stay away from the put and take places..

 

Jason