blkbearklr
New member
Where do you even begin? The hunt of a life time, the experience you will never have unless you visit and hunt South Africa. Well for me this journey started about 40 years ago. Young snot nosed kid looking at some magazine and seeing someone standing over an elephant. I knew then I would be one of those people or close to it. So for the next 40 years I became what I would like to call a dreamer. I would dream of hunting Africa but then life happened, you grow up, you join the Army, you get married you have kids, buy a house and life begins and that dream always stays in the back of your mind. At times there will be months you do not even think about it but other times you may be watching the lion king with your daughter and it all comes flooding back to you. I finally made the decision that by the time I was 50 if I did not go I would never go. Well it happened I turned 50. Still no solid plan, I then knew it was a do it or live to regret it.
I took my first step I put out a request on AfricaHunting.com it was very simple please send me your list of animals and your price list. Nothing special just a simple request. I got plenty of hits I did this for two reasons. One first and foremost unless you are Warren Buffet was to make sure that I could stay within my budget that my wife and I both agreed on. So as said I got plenty of hits. Some were just plain links to their hunting websites. As I responded back to some I did get some responses. I would list the animals that I would like to take they would come back with their price list, their daily rates, their weapons rate, their ammo rates and what I should tip rate. Why do I put all this in there, well if you are going to stay on budget you need to make sure you understand each piece of this and where it will play into your budget at. After all this is done then you have dip & pack and import and export fees. So as I was receiving all this information I had other questions. 1. do you own your own lodge? 2. How many vehicles do you have readily available? 3. What is the total amount of land you own or have leased? 4. What types of weapons do you rent out and the type of glass on them? All basic questions that you should ask to make sure your trip is going to be a vacation trip or what the hell did I get myself into trip.
Question number 1 do you own your own lodge? Some answers I got back - A simple yes with no name to their lodge, a yes I own 7 lodges we will jump all over stay one night here and then drive four hours and spend time here etc etc. UMMMMMM NO, I don't think anyone over there owns 8 lodges so I knew from previous research he was a renter meaning he rents a room from a lodge for a day or two and then jumps to the next one. But I did get a nice response from Game4Africa. Yes we own our lodge you stay in the same room each day we will travel but we always return each night.
Question number 2 vehicles . This may sound very selfish of me but it was my trip and I know from being all over the world in all types of vehicles on all types of terrain, shit happens if a vehicle breaks down your day just went from filling a tag or two to sitting there waiting for repairs to be completed, if they can be completed at all. I got a lot of answers, One, One but I have other vehicles I can get to. Game4Africa - Yes we own 5 vehicles all for different types of terrain and to accommodate any type of hunter.
Question number 3- Why is this one so important?? I know South Africa every piece of land is high fenced I did not want to feel like I was hunting a fenced in area and I did not want to see another hunter I wanted this to be my vacation and mine alone. I got plenty of responses to this I own a million acres, I own 20,000 acres, I don’t own any land but I have a lot of land I can hunt. SO with that last statement I had another question, do you own the entire hunting rights to that land or did you buy an animal right? This is simply if you own the hunting rights to the entire land when I am hunting that piece of land no one else will be on that land, if I see an animal I want to take I can but if they only bought rights to an animal I may only be able to take a specific type of animal on that piece of property. I was informed by Game4Africa that they had roughly just around 250,000 acres all owned or complete rights leased to.
Question number 4 – Some of the answers I got – Yes I own a rifle very large caliber. Well WTF does that mean? Am I shooting an impala with a 416 rigby? I got different replies to this one I thought that was the best answer though. Game4Africa – We use Sako rifles we have Zeiss/Swaroski scopes on each one of them. Calibers will be from 375 to a 7mm to a 25-06 to a shotgun depending on what we will be hunting that day.
OK everyone I know this is a lot of info and kind of boring not a ton of lead going down range but if you are going to go on a hunt you need to ask these questions and make sure the answers are what you want not what you want to hear. So with going through and narrowing down the possibilities I was down to two candidates one was Game4Africa the other I will not mention But it was down to two, I was content to do some final research on both. Then I really started looking at the package presented by Game4Africa 7 day hunt / 2x1 meaning 2 hunters per one ph and you had to shoot at least ten animals and there would be no daily rates. I am thinking to myself how the heck can they do that, my original list of 7 animals is going to cost ex amount of money plus 350.00 a day for daily rates but if I increase my list to ten I will save 2450.00 for daily rates well shit that is a no brainer for 2450.00 I can shoot an impala, springbok, blesbok, gemsbok, porcupine, increase my animal list from 7 to 11 and still be under budget? So I made sure everything was outlined and detailed first and all things pointed to a YES I actually read everything correctly. Price list was established and then I knew then and there who I would be hunting with. I could at that time choose to hunt with a hunting buddy also if I did not want to take that many animals alone and split the ten animal requirement or I could keep that many animals on my list invite a friend and maybe they would have a smaller list and a smaller budget but it would apply for them if they simply went and shot 5 animals. So yes I contacted an old Army buddy and told him about the gem I found and if he was interested well little to me his list was bigger than mine. So we put his list together and got a quote. Both Happy both ready to hunt. Now comes the big part sending in the deposit and hoping it all goes well and that you did not just send someone in South Africa your money. Two days later confirmation deposit received these are your hunt dates!! Do you have any problems with your dates?? Me --- UMMM YES no way am I going to miss my nine year old turning ten so you need to shift dates before or after July 18th. Ok not an issue do these dates work for you. YES those dates work perfectly. Ok you are all locked in for those dates. Ok can you tell me how many other hunters will be in camp that week? No one the entire lodge and all assets are yours for the entire week, you and your hunting partner will have your own chalets and you will be exclusive. Now the next big thing is PLANE TICKETS!!! This will become a logistical nightmare to figure out how close you can get a ticket to your actual date and still stay within budget. NYC to Port Elizabeth – 2700.00 New Jersey to Port Elizabeth – 2800.00 Philadelphia to Port Elizabeth – 2400.00 Montreal Canada to Port Elizabeth 1347.00… Holy crap we have a winner!!!!!!! In other words look around. Between my partner and I we are going to save 2200.00 by driving a little bit well worth the research!!!!!! Ok you have taken the time to hopefully have read all my planning and now you are ready for the LTA effect. Oh what is LTA that is Lead to Animal effect!!!!! I will only write about my hunting experience and what I accomplished if my hunting partner at some time wishes to add to my story then so be it if not then I will not speak for him.
I took my first step I put out a request on AfricaHunting.com it was very simple please send me your list of animals and your price list. Nothing special just a simple request. I got plenty of hits I did this for two reasons. One first and foremost unless you are Warren Buffet was to make sure that I could stay within my budget that my wife and I both agreed on. So as said I got plenty of hits. Some were just plain links to their hunting websites. As I responded back to some I did get some responses. I would list the animals that I would like to take they would come back with their price list, their daily rates, their weapons rate, their ammo rates and what I should tip rate. Why do I put all this in there, well if you are going to stay on budget you need to make sure you understand each piece of this and where it will play into your budget at. After all this is done then you have dip & pack and import and export fees. So as I was receiving all this information I had other questions. 1. do you own your own lodge? 2. How many vehicles do you have readily available? 3. What is the total amount of land you own or have leased? 4. What types of weapons do you rent out and the type of glass on them? All basic questions that you should ask to make sure your trip is going to be a vacation trip or what the hell did I get myself into trip.
Question number 1 do you own your own lodge? Some answers I got back - A simple yes with no name to their lodge, a yes I own 7 lodges we will jump all over stay one night here and then drive four hours and spend time here etc etc. UMMMMMM NO, I don't think anyone over there owns 8 lodges so I knew from previous research he was a renter meaning he rents a room from a lodge for a day or two and then jumps to the next one. But I did get a nice response from Game4Africa. Yes we own our lodge you stay in the same room each day we will travel but we always return each night.
Question number 2 vehicles . This may sound very selfish of me but it was my trip and I know from being all over the world in all types of vehicles on all types of terrain, shit happens if a vehicle breaks down your day just went from filling a tag or two to sitting there waiting for repairs to be completed, if they can be completed at all. I got a lot of answers, One, One but I have other vehicles I can get to. Game4Africa - Yes we own 5 vehicles all for different types of terrain and to accommodate any type of hunter.
Question number 3- Why is this one so important?? I know South Africa every piece of land is high fenced I did not want to feel like I was hunting a fenced in area and I did not want to see another hunter I wanted this to be my vacation and mine alone. I got plenty of responses to this I own a million acres, I own 20,000 acres, I don’t own any land but I have a lot of land I can hunt. SO with that last statement I had another question, do you own the entire hunting rights to that land or did you buy an animal right? This is simply if you own the hunting rights to the entire land when I am hunting that piece of land no one else will be on that land, if I see an animal I want to take I can but if they only bought rights to an animal I may only be able to take a specific type of animal on that piece of property. I was informed by Game4Africa that they had roughly just around 250,000 acres all owned or complete rights leased to.
Question number 4 – Some of the answers I got – Yes I own a rifle very large caliber. Well WTF does that mean? Am I shooting an impala with a 416 rigby? I got different replies to this one I thought that was the best answer though. Game4Africa – We use Sako rifles we have Zeiss/Swaroski scopes on each one of them. Calibers will be from 375 to a 7mm to a 25-06 to a shotgun depending on what we will be hunting that day.
OK everyone I know this is a lot of info and kind of boring not a ton of lead going down range but if you are going to go on a hunt you need to ask these questions and make sure the answers are what you want not what you want to hear. So with going through and narrowing down the possibilities I was down to two candidates one was Game4Africa the other I will not mention But it was down to two, I was content to do some final research on both. Then I really started looking at the package presented by Game4Africa 7 day hunt / 2x1 meaning 2 hunters per one ph and you had to shoot at least ten animals and there would be no daily rates. I am thinking to myself how the heck can they do that, my original list of 7 animals is going to cost ex amount of money plus 350.00 a day for daily rates but if I increase my list to ten I will save 2450.00 for daily rates well shit that is a no brainer for 2450.00 I can shoot an impala, springbok, blesbok, gemsbok, porcupine, increase my animal list from 7 to 11 and still be under budget? So I made sure everything was outlined and detailed first and all things pointed to a YES I actually read everything correctly. Price list was established and then I knew then and there who I would be hunting with. I could at that time choose to hunt with a hunting buddy also if I did not want to take that many animals alone and split the ten animal requirement or I could keep that many animals on my list invite a friend and maybe they would have a smaller list and a smaller budget but it would apply for them if they simply went and shot 5 animals. So yes I contacted an old Army buddy and told him about the gem I found and if he was interested well little to me his list was bigger than mine. So we put his list together and got a quote. Both Happy both ready to hunt. Now comes the big part sending in the deposit and hoping it all goes well and that you did not just send someone in South Africa your money. Two days later confirmation deposit received these are your hunt dates!! Do you have any problems with your dates?? Me --- UMMM YES no way am I going to miss my nine year old turning ten so you need to shift dates before or after July 18th. Ok not an issue do these dates work for you. YES those dates work perfectly. Ok you are all locked in for those dates. Ok can you tell me how many other hunters will be in camp that week? No one the entire lodge and all assets are yours for the entire week, you and your hunting partner will have your own chalets and you will be exclusive. Now the next big thing is PLANE TICKETS!!! This will become a logistical nightmare to figure out how close you can get a ticket to your actual date and still stay within budget. NYC to Port Elizabeth – 2700.00 New Jersey to Port Elizabeth – 2800.00 Philadelphia to Port Elizabeth – 2400.00 Montreal Canada to Port Elizabeth 1347.00… Holy crap we have a winner!!!!!!! In other words look around. Between my partner and I we are going to save 2200.00 by driving a little bit well worth the research!!!!!! Ok you have taken the time to hopefully have read all my planning and now you are ready for the LTA effect. Oh what is LTA that is Lead to Animal effect!!!!! I will only write about my hunting experience and what I accomplished if my hunting partner at some time wishes to add to my story then so be it if not then I will not speak for him.
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