One Day...
AH elite
A note from @AfricaHunting.com: As of May 1, 2019, @One Day has accepted to represent HUNTERSHILL safaris on the forum. His report on his August 2018 hunt at Huntershill predates this decision by almost a year and was filed when he was just a private party. Jerome Philippe, Founder of AfricaHunting.com
It was with some level of trepidation that I booked a plains game hunt with Huntershill Safaris. There are not a lot of Huntershill videos on You Tube; there was a conflict among partners some years back; and Huntershill price are very good. "Are they too good?" was my wife's question...
Since the trip from Flagstaff AZ (USA) to East London (RSA) would take 48 hours, and I would be in a plane or in transit for a total of 4 days going and coming back, I wanted to hunt more than 5 or 7 days. That meant a substantial trophies list, and I did not want to spend 4 to 6 hours per day on the highways going to and from various properties to hunt a specific animal, as is all too frequent - and, sadly, generally not disclosed ahead of time - with many Eastern Cape outfitters who offer a number of different species.
So, the 68,000 acres owned and operated by Greg Harvey, the owner of Huntershill were appealing, and the 80 or so species offered everything I could wish in term of animals.
So, I engaged the email conversation with Huntershill...
To my pleasant surprise, my emails to their agent were promptly answered and when I asked very specific questions, I received answers from no other than Greg Harvey himself.
Yes, I could customize my hunt duration. I ended up staying 2 full weeks, Arriving Sunday July 29 and leaving Saturday Aug 11, which was one of the smartest decisions I made considering the very reasonable cost of additional hunting days.
Yes, I could customize my trophy list. Very soon the initial package I selected was completely modified to remove animals I was not interested in, and add animals I wanted. I was concerned about endless "car-salesman" type haggling, but, again to my pleasant surprise, things were easy, and Greg swapped, removed, added as I wished. And the numbers kept looking good.
Yes, I could elect to hunt on foot with a PH specializing in 'spot & stalk.' Of course, the hunting truck would be used to go to the various hunting blocks, but from there it would be purely on foot if I wished so. Which was exactly my wish.
Yes, all of the species I wanted (except one, the bushbuck, that lives in a very specific habitat) are in abundance at Huntershill itself. And actually, Huntershill also hunts some next-neighbor properties, so over 100,000 acres were available and in 14 days I never hunted the same ground twice. That is a tremendous advantage compared to some smaller operations where you hunt the same ground 5 days in a row.
Yes, yes, yes to any question and request. Wow! This will be either very good ... or very bad. Generously, my wife suggested that I spend more money to go somewhere else with more 'Internet presence.'
But I went with Huntershill. I liked Greg Harvey's direct, succinct, no non-sense business-like answers; I liked that he is running very successfully a major business group (the Queen group), and I liked what I was about to get for what I was about to pay. That decision was one of the best I made over 40+ years of hunting.
I will be augmenting this report with additional parts over the coming days/weeks but suffice to say that Huntershill Safaris not only delivered on every commitment they made to me, but over-delivered well beyond my wildest expectations: five stars accommodation; French speaking Chef; incredible hunting territory; highest quality animals; never saw a blacktop road or stayed in a truck more than 20 minutes in 2 weeks (aside from going to the bushbuck hunting block 2 hours away); never hunted the same block twice; fantastic PH (I was lucky enough to have Huntershill's Head PH Jason Olivier - more on him later); shot a number of trophies qualifying for various 'books' if I cared; etc.
But enough talk, let me show you...
A very representative Blessbok. Solid mass, good length, worn out ridges and tips.
It was with some level of trepidation that I booked a plains game hunt with Huntershill Safaris. There are not a lot of Huntershill videos on You Tube; there was a conflict among partners some years back; and Huntershill price are very good. "Are they too good?" was my wife's question...
Since the trip from Flagstaff AZ (USA) to East London (RSA) would take 48 hours, and I would be in a plane or in transit for a total of 4 days going and coming back, I wanted to hunt more than 5 or 7 days. That meant a substantial trophies list, and I did not want to spend 4 to 6 hours per day on the highways going to and from various properties to hunt a specific animal, as is all too frequent - and, sadly, generally not disclosed ahead of time - with many Eastern Cape outfitters who offer a number of different species.
So, the 68,000 acres owned and operated by Greg Harvey, the owner of Huntershill were appealing, and the 80 or so species offered everything I could wish in term of animals.
So, I engaged the email conversation with Huntershill...
To my pleasant surprise, my emails to their agent were promptly answered and when I asked very specific questions, I received answers from no other than Greg Harvey himself.
Yes, I could customize my hunt duration. I ended up staying 2 full weeks, Arriving Sunday July 29 and leaving Saturday Aug 11, which was one of the smartest decisions I made considering the very reasonable cost of additional hunting days.
Yes, I could customize my trophy list. Very soon the initial package I selected was completely modified to remove animals I was not interested in, and add animals I wanted. I was concerned about endless "car-salesman" type haggling, but, again to my pleasant surprise, things were easy, and Greg swapped, removed, added as I wished. And the numbers kept looking good.
Yes, I could elect to hunt on foot with a PH specializing in 'spot & stalk.' Of course, the hunting truck would be used to go to the various hunting blocks, but from there it would be purely on foot if I wished so. Which was exactly my wish.
Yes, all of the species I wanted (except one, the bushbuck, that lives in a very specific habitat) are in abundance at Huntershill itself. And actually, Huntershill also hunts some next-neighbor properties, so over 100,000 acres were available and in 14 days I never hunted the same ground twice. That is a tremendous advantage compared to some smaller operations where you hunt the same ground 5 days in a row.
Yes, yes, yes to any question and request. Wow! This will be either very good ... or very bad. Generously, my wife suggested that I spend more money to go somewhere else with more 'Internet presence.'
But I went with Huntershill. I liked Greg Harvey's direct, succinct, no non-sense business-like answers; I liked that he is running very successfully a major business group (the Queen group), and I liked what I was about to get for what I was about to pay. That decision was one of the best I made over 40+ years of hunting.
I will be augmenting this report with additional parts over the coming days/weeks but suffice to say that Huntershill Safaris not only delivered on every commitment they made to me, but over-delivered well beyond my wildest expectations: five stars accommodation; French speaking Chef; incredible hunting territory; highest quality animals; never saw a blacktop road or stayed in a truck more than 20 minutes in 2 weeks (aside from going to the bushbuck hunting block 2 hours away); never hunted the same block twice; fantastic PH (I was lucky enough to have Huntershill's Head PH Jason Olivier - more on him later); shot a number of trophies qualifying for various 'books' if I cared; etc.
But enough talk, let me show you...
A very representative Blessbok. Solid mass, good length, worn out ridges and tips.
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