Ardent
AH enthusiast
Now, here's a horse I'm sure is rather ripe, though I have to ask: what would you recommend, for a budget Cape Buffalo hunt. I have no illusions of book bulls, or even one to make it onto the outfitter's website. I'm quite simply a young guy looking to hunt a decent buffalo, at a manageable price. So far, I've been talking over a 10k "all-in" 7 day hunt in Zimbabwe. I like Zimbabwe, and would be very happy to hunt there. Recently, I found another similar hunt for a touch less. I find myself wading through internet pages with little true direction on the matter, and perhaps even over-focusing on Zimbabwe when other well priced opportunities may exist elsewhere.
Hard numbers matter of course, so I should lay it out. I have a flat out max budget of 13,000US for everything, and airfare from Canada to SA is running at $1200 presently for my preferred departure dates (April 2010), as I understand it, $600 would be a safe guess on airfare to Bulawayo from SA, tips and unforseens will use the rest. At this point, with a 10,000 all in hunt including transport to the camp, I've eaten up my entire max budget. I'm looking to ship the skull back to Canada as well, and I understand I should anticipate $1000-1500 in this regard, and this pushes me further out of the comfort zone. Now, I'll likely find a way to do it, and keep my marriage. However, I have great aspirations of shaving that cost down to $10,000US or less all in, including my airfare to Africa, etc. A lofty goal, I'm aware, however if I manage to sort it I'd be booking tomorrow. I'd like to spend a true week, 7 days hunting, and I can jump at short notice opportunities for the mostpart due to my reasonably accomodating work schedule.
I'm aware this is a lot of point-by-point, but as you can tell, a little real direction beyond searches and page browsing would do me quite a lot of good. I'd actually much prefer a rougher hunt, and I'm no stranger to the world's backwaters, with 33 countries worth and years to date. French works for me, so I've also been looking further north, the CAR for instance. However travel technicalities and airfare skyrocket upon trying to reach such destinations, with firearms, I've learned. This is to be a last hoorah for some time so to speak, before my wife and I start a family and life gets "heavier" for awhile (that is until the kids grow, and can come as well).
I've looked at heavily budgetting my hunt by going after plains game, Wildebeest and Warthog would be of prinicipal interest in such cases, and I really like the financial point of such a hunt. Though I must admit, I'm not attracted by the drowning out of fenceless hunts by the plethora of ranch hunts I find when wading through the listing, and it pushes me back to my real aspiration, the Cape Buff. In a perfect world, I'd spend 7-10 days on the ground, take a nice bull and a nice Warthog and do some wing shooting. Perhaps even throw a line in the water somewhere a couple evenings if there's a chance. Any advice on how to realize these dreams, I'd be quite appreciative of. Cheers and thanks folks.
-Angus
Northern Canada
As an aside, curiously enough I live in the range of the North American wild Wood Bison (Buffalo), and you can bet I'm applying for my tag every year. For some time I thought when I sucessfully completed my self-guided home Bison hunt, this would sate my desire to go after Cape Buffalo. Well, I haven't won my Bison tag yet, but I can already tell that I'll need to pack my .375 and fly east to Africa. I suppose I'm after both.
Hard numbers matter of course, so I should lay it out. I have a flat out max budget of 13,000US for everything, and airfare from Canada to SA is running at $1200 presently for my preferred departure dates (April 2010), as I understand it, $600 would be a safe guess on airfare to Bulawayo from SA, tips and unforseens will use the rest. At this point, with a 10,000 all in hunt including transport to the camp, I've eaten up my entire max budget. I'm looking to ship the skull back to Canada as well, and I understand I should anticipate $1000-1500 in this regard, and this pushes me further out of the comfort zone. Now, I'll likely find a way to do it, and keep my marriage. However, I have great aspirations of shaving that cost down to $10,000US or less all in, including my airfare to Africa, etc. A lofty goal, I'm aware, however if I manage to sort it I'd be booking tomorrow. I'd like to spend a true week, 7 days hunting, and I can jump at short notice opportunities for the mostpart due to my reasonably accomodating work schedule.
I'm aware this is a lot of point-by-point, but as you can tell, a little real direction beyond searches and page browsing would do me quite a lot of good. I'd actually much prefer a rougher hunt, and I'm no stranger to the world's backwaters, with 33 countries worth and years to date. French works for me, so I've also been looking further north, the CAR for instance. However travel technicalities and airfare skyrocket upon trying to reach such destinations, with firearms, I've learned. This is to be a last hoorah for some time so to speak, before my wife and I start a family and life gets "heavier" for awhile (that is until the kids grow, and can come as well).
I've looked at heavily budgetting my hunt by going after plains game, Wildebeest and Warthog would be of prinicipal interest in such cases, and I really like the financial point of such a hunt. Though I must admit, I'm not attracted by the drowning out of fenceless hunts by the plethora of ranch hunts I find when wading through the listing, and it pushes me back to my real aspiration, the Cape Buff. In a perfect world, I'd spend 7-10 days on the ground, take a nice bull and a nice Warthog and do some wing shooting. Perhaps even throw a line in the water somewhere a couple evenings if there's a chance. Any advice on how to realize these dreams, I'd be quite appreciative of. Cheers and thanks folks.
-Angus
Northern Canada
As an aside, curiously enough I live in the range of the North American wild Wood Bison (Buffalo), and you can bet I'm applying for my tag every year. For some time I thought when I sucessfully completed my self-guided home Bison hunt, this would sate my desire to go after Cape Buffalo. Well, I haven't won my Bison tag yet, but I can already tell that I'll need to pack my .375 and fly east to Africa. I suppose I'm after both.
