Africa Budget and Regrets
I’ve had a double handful of folks reach out to me since I got back so I thought I’d jot down as much as I could think of and post an accurate budget.
I painfully researched my Africa trip for more than a year in advance. I was most worried about getting scammed or finding out that the trip I booked was nothing more of a high-throughput farm with only a cardboard facade to make it seem like a real hunt. I was worried, too, that a miscommunication would leave me stranded at the airport on days when I expected to be hunting. I had only scheduled 7 days on the ground and I wanted all 7 of those days. None of that happened – the logistics and hunting were perfect.
Avoiding a total scam
I used Bayly-Sippel. I had never heard of them prior to starting research but they had something of a web/social media presence that some older companies didn’t. I did call references they gave me but I also found, through Facebook, others who had used Bayly-Sippel but weren’t listed as references and contacted them directly. I got a 100% positive reaction. Many of these guys remained friends with Dempsey Bayly and Michael Sippel after returning.
Identifying a farm
Ask questions.
1) Ask specifically if they buy, sell or trade animals,
2) ask if they supplementally feed their animals,
3) ask if you’re (almost) guaranteed to get the animals on your list, especially on a short hunt,
4) ask if they “charge by the inch” for trophies.
If they answer “yes” to any of those questions, it’s probably more of a farm than a hunt. You may want a more guaranteed hunt. That’s fine, there are “operations” that specialize in getting the maximum number of animals in the shortest amount of time. And, they are usually slightly cheaper than hunts on a self-sustaining property. If you price shop too much you might end up a one of these “high throughput” operations. Again, that’s fine if that’s what you want – just don’t let it be a surprise when you get there.
Ask how many other hunters will be in camp with you. It’s a matter of personal choice. A crowed camp may be fun in the evening but probably points to a more “structured” operation that will take away from the wild feel. I was the only client in camp for four of my 6½ days of hunting. The concession I hunted only had accommodations for two parties at a time - I slept in a walled tent. For me, that was perfect.
Communications
Communications were clunky at first. I started making contact with them through PM’s on an Africa hunting site then tried email. It was like communicating with someone on Mars. They’re 6 or 7 hours ahead of us and most of the smaller companies don’t have a “front office”. You’ll be most likely talking with an owner that’s also a PH. He’s out hunting during the day and entertaining a, probably, needy clients in the evenings. They just don’t have the time or facilities to check and respond to emails very often. WhatsApp was their preferred form of communication. Once I started using WhatsApp – things sped up and ironed out quickly. To minimize “stand around” time, find out a plane schedule that works for you then check with the safari company to make sure their openings coincide with when the plane is scheduled. Book the plane flight and send a deposit to the safari company to lock-in the dates simultaneously. Do this at least 4-6 months in advance. This will give you time to get other details taken care of including rifle permits, immunizations, malaria meds, pelican cases for you gun(s), etc. Make sure you have a valid Passport with, I think, at least 4 blank pages. Yellow Fever vaccines are not required when coming from the US but if your plane gets diverted to a country endemic with yellow fever, you’ll be required to receive the vaccine before getting to your destination. Just get it before you leave.
There are wild, no fences places to hunt in Africa but they’re much more expensive and add two to four extra days of travel and the risk of migratory animals just aren’t there when you get there. There are always trade-offs. If I were retired and rich, I would have gone to Tanzania – I’m neither, so it was South Africa for me.
High Fences
If you hunt Southern Africa you are almost assured to be hunting inside of a high fence. The fences are necessary to keep the animals in and poachers out, especially along public roads. Keeping animals in isn’t about corralling them for a hunter. Imagine if our population of whitetail was 100 times larger than it is and the average whitetail weighed 600 lbs. Modern life just isn’t possible in the presence of that many big, free-roaming animals.
The concession I hunted was 12,000 acres. I saw fences every day but mostly when heading to the salt shed, which was off-site. The property bordered Madikwe Game Reserve, a big five photo park, so that side of the property had very high electric fences to keep the elephants and lions in. Fences are such a necessity that both Safari Club International and Rowland Ward accept records from fenced properties if the population is self-sustaining, not supplementally fed and the area large enough.
According to Rowland Ward,
RegretsHunting within game-proof fences is acceptable if it promotes the general well-being and conservation of both the habitat and the species enclosed. For enclosures to be acceptable to Rowland Ward, they must contain self-sustaining, breeding populations that can feed themselves from naturally occurring vegetation and prey without supplemental feeding by humans. Enclosures also must provide enough acreage and vegetation so that animals can easily hide from humans and predators alike, and they must offer a hunting scenario whereby the outcome of obtaining a certain animal is never guaranteed.
I have issues with mentally pre-scripting my hunts with a bunch of qualifiers. Two of my biggest regrets were based on these preconceived ideas that I took to Africa with me – 1) I wasn’t going to shoot a primate, and 2) I wanted to kill my warthog coming into a waterhole.
For me, sitting in a blind over a waterhole turned out to be a very unsatisfying way to hunt. It’s a great way to see a lot of bird and animal life but it wasn’t the experience I thought it would be. I’m glad I did it because if I had killed my warthog by a spot-and-stalk I would probably regret that I didn’t kill him over a waterhole like I had always planned. I wouldn’t trade the way my warthog hunt played out for anything, though, because I got to experience tracking wounded African game in thick brush. I was keenly aware of this possibility of this happening but I couldn’t have predicted the circumstances. I would have never done it on purpose but am very, very glad it happened the way it did. About the only way it could have played out better is if we had been charged and I stepped up, shooting the beast before he hurt anyone. But, a PH gets paid to make sure things like that don’t happen and my PH was good at his job. If anyone killed a charging pig, it was going to be him while standing between me and the pig. I’m actually glad he let me tag along. He told a dozen or so stories about making certain clients wait by the truck while he sorted things out. Letting me wade into that situation with him was about the biggest complement he could have paid me. I would never wade into such a situation with a client I’ve known for only a couple of days carry a loaded gun behind me and the potential for all heck to break loose. It’s a wonder more PHs aren’t killed by clients than snakes or buffalo.
I’m still on the fence about shooting primates but, in hindsight, wish I had more deeply considered the offer to shoot the invading vervet monkeys. I would absolutely, now, shoot a big male baboon if I had had a chance – which I didn’t. They’re very wary and I only saw one troop so the chance of a chance encounter is low but I’ll be mentally ready for it if I ever go back. I wouldn’t waste a lot of time trying to do it on purpose but if one presented itself, I’d probably be taking photos that would never be on the internet.
I wish I had planned for at least one afternoon of bird shooting. There weren’t any waterfowl in the thronveld areas I hunted but there were four species of doves and three spurfowl in great numbers. If you want to add birds to your safari make sure to communicate this ahead of time since they don’t usually have a lot of loose shotgun shells laying around camp. I guess loose shotgun shells are too much of a temptation to use to provide camp meat when clients aren’t around… You can’t carry ammo into Africa unless you have a gun of the same gauge or caliber so you might need to tell your company to get some birdshot ahead of your visit, or have them stop on the way from the airport. Or, carry a shotgun and ammo with you but I doubt it would be worth the trouble and cost. Just use their shotgun if you hunt birds.
I should not have gotten so single minded about killing that “big” steenbok. I spent two days trying to get him and never did. In hindsight, I should have taken some of that time on that rocky spine looking for a bush buck or a shooter mountain reedbuck. We saw a steenbok there too but it wasn’t the long-horned one I wanted. I did have fun with that single-minded two-day pursuit, though, and got to see a lot more animals without the pressure to shoot. We even found where a honey badger had dug up a bunch of dung beetle larva casings – mud balls about the size of softballs – and eaten the contents. Every experience I had there was new to me, memorable and enjoyable.
Advice
Any hunting from a blind over a waterhole is easy and lame, in my option. I’m not a bow hunter but I honestly don’t think it would be any challenge at all even for a bow hunter.
Spot and stalk to around 100 yards was fun and challenging. I purposefully chose the Limpopo area because the brush was thick enough to allow for me to get within range of my rifle (less than 150, preferable less than 100 yards). Spot and stalking into bow range would have been exponentially more difficult. The Cape area of South Africa and the country of Namibia are much more open and, often, require shots of 200+ yards. I’m just not set-up to do that so I avoided those areas. I have zero regrets about picking the “thornveld” area, Limpopo area. If I go back, I might pick eastern Limpopo mostly to get a difference cross-section of bird life although it is definitely a malaria area and the couple of days I took malaria medicine made me not feel quite 100%.
You’ll probably fly from somewhere in the US into Johannesburg, RSA (Republic of South Africa). The airport at Johannesburg is JNB but also known as OR Tambo. If you want to hunt the southern Cape area, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, etc, then you’ll have to transfer from your initial airline to a domestic air service. This will take time and add hassle. I stayed within driving distance (about 3 hours) of Johannesburg to keep from having to transfer. I don’t regret that – I’m glad I did it that way.
I was in western Limpopo area of RSA which wasn’t a malaria area. I never saw a mosquito, so I didn’t use any bug spray. I ended up getting ticks on the last day or two. Several species were so soft that they’d pop when I tried to pull them off. I had itchy, redbud-like, spots for a month after I got back including one that turned black. Use bug spray.
Eating the animals I hunted was important to me. Most places do this but ask to be sure.
A .30-06 with 150 and 180 Nosler Accubond bullets was perfect for what I did. I originally planned to carry both Partitions and Accubonds just in case one or the other didn’t work well on the “tough” African animals, but couldn’t find a Partition load that worked well with my rifle so I only carried Accubonds. If I go back, Accubonds are the only thing I’ll take – they were perfect. And, I made sure that I had the ammo I wanted to carry in my hands before I even scheduled the trip. There’s no way I’d schedule such a trip then have to “settle” for lesser ammo because I couldn’t find what I really wanted before having to leave.
Shooting Sticks
I practiced on a tripod at a gun range before I left. I was terrible – it’s tough to make a good shoot on “sticks”. Luckily, my PH used a “quadpod” that supported both the butt and foreend of the rifle. It’s a huge difference. It’s almost as stable as shooing from a bench but, of course, very portable. If I go back, I’ll insist on my PH to have a set of those quad stick instead of the more traditional foreend-only supports.
Traveling alone
My wife doesn’t fly. I offered to pay for everything except plane fare for LR but he said he was fine right here in the US. I would have invited my brave, adventurous, fearless daughter but she would have, absolutely, without a doubt, 100%, dropped everything including her less-than-a-year-old baby and gone with me so I didn’t even tempt her. In other words, I went by myself. I fly and travel alone for work a good bit so it doesn’t bother me. It added to the excitement and adventure as far as I’m concerned.
I did buy Global Rescue travel insurance - $160 covered 14 days. It’s a great piece (peace?) of mind.
Jet Lag
It never bothered me at all even though I started with more than 24 hours of getting nothing but a couple of catnaps, three hours of sleep at camp the first night then started getting up at 6 am which is midnight our time. I think, I’m supposed to be on South Africa time – it’s the best, most alert and awake I’ve ever felt.
When to go
Their winter, our June-August, is their dry season – it’s the safest time to go and not worry about losing hunting time to rainy weather. It was cold, around 35 degrees at night but got warm, even hot, some during the day. The air was very dry so I never got really cold. That being said, most of their animals “rut” in May and June so you might want to consider going earlier than I did especially if you’re going to spot and stalk bow hunt.
Animals
My suggestion is to know well ahead of time which animals you’re most interested in hunting and know how much each will cost you. I’d say, go as far as making a prioritized list. I kind’of had my “must have” list, my “by chance” list and my “ahead of schedule” list. Each species cost money and each species had a different “degree of difficulty”. I could have killed a dozen sable bulls but they’re $4k each and I wasn’t interested in them to start with. I would suggest getting a book like “The Perfect Shot (Mini edition) for Africa” and studying the animals beforehand. Zebra and Wildebeest were fairly difficult to get into range. I was completely uninterested in Kudu but, in hindsight, they are in a sweet spot for affordability, difficult to hunt and magnificent trophy size. Same with Eland and giraffe. These guys are really hard to approach on foot. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to spot-and-stalk bow hunt a kudu, eland or giraffe.
Impala, warthog, springbok and blesbok are staples and fairly cheap and very common. Kill a couple of these just for the fun of it.
Rifle Permits
You have to get a rifle permit to get your gun(s) into Africa and you have to have a US Customs CBP Form 4457 filled and signed by a Customs Agent prior to leaving so you can get your gun back into the US. It’s an odd feeling just showing up, unannounced, into a government office with a gun but that’s what’s necessary to get the Form 4457 filled out…I kept my completed Form 4457 in my rifle’s airline case and had to show it before getting back in. And, oh, US Customs will want to swab down the boots you wore when you hunted so have those somewhere easy to get to on the return trip (like at the top of your checked baggage).
I never had to show it, but you’re supposed to have a Letter of Invitation from your safari company in order to get a visa into RSA. Remember Britney Grinder…do everything you can to be 100% correct and legal. Other countries don’t play games with immigration policies.
Taxidermy
I’m pretty much a digital taxidermist so I didn’t plan on having any taxidermy done. In short, you can get as cheap or expensive as you want to go…you can see my taxidermy list and invoice below…
Tips
Tips are expected. You should tip each and every person that “served” you while you were there including the PH, skinner/tracker, house keeper and chef. Figure at least about 20-25% of your total bill as tips. The PH get’s the lions share, about half, then work down from there. If you’re in a big camp, the chef and housekeeper can get a little less but if you’re the only guy in camp, plan on really hitting these two folks up good too. Of course, if things go bad, you hold a little back. But, these guys are professional at making sure things don’t go bad.
Tips in US dollars are welcomed maybe even preferred. Don’t try to convert your cash to a local currency, you’ll lose too much on the exchange. I brought cash for tips and just had it hidden in three difference places in case something got lost or stolen. You’ll settle with the safari company on your last evening in camp. I used paypal to finish the difference between the deposit and final bill, so you can always add tips that way too. But, there is an expectation that you hand each person their tip in person, looking them in the eye and thanking them. Anything less is an insult.
See below for my detailed costs – the only thing I don’t know at this point is how much shipping the final taxidermy products and customs “walk through” will cost.
Camo
Most of my huntin’ stuff is camo so I did buy a couple of green canvas shirts and a lighter weight green shirt to wear on the plane and that could also be used if I needed it to hunt. I didn’t want to totally look like a US Camo model especially on the plane.
Most safari companies provide daily laundry service so you won’t need a whole week’s worth of clothing, I basically had three changes of clothes plus some long johns and one fleece/gore-tex coat. That was about perfect.
I bought a pair of leather ankle boots but they refused to “break in” before going so I just carried my regular Columbia ankle boots – they were fine. The thorns are tough but cloth boots work, in my opinion, for a week or two. I had a sicklebush thorn poke through the sole of my boot and into my foot. It was actually hard to dig the thorn out of the bottom of the boot but that could have happened with leather boots too.
I know at least one country, Botswana doesn’t allow camo or certain camo patterns since it’s used in their military’s uniforms so ask before packing.
Pictures / Video
I took a ton of pictures – I didn’t take enough – I spent weeks after I got back cleaning, filing and sorting photos – it’s a real pain in the butt so it’s a double-edged sword. In hindsight, I would have taken a lot more photos SD cards are cheap and I have the rest of my life to sort things out.
I don’t think an animal should ever be hunted with the sole purpose to make a video. That being said, my wife got me a go-pro before I left. I really didn’t want it or use it much but I had it turned on and in my shirt pocket during the zebra hunt. I forgot it was there and it was on from the time the stalk started until we got our hands on the zebra – almost an hour of footage that was completely real and unscripted. It turns out to be a great take away. I should have been more deliberate about videoing things.
If I can think of other things, I’ll add them here.
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Originally Posted by Tha Dick
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