Mmmm, can of worms...
1. If you are hunting with the owner of the farm, he takes 100% of the trophy fee. Now this causes some problems from a technical and practical point of view:
a. If you want to shoot a great trophy, you might not find that on his farm, but because he bags 100% of the trophy fee, he will probably try and convince you to shoot "a great representative" of the species.
b. Example: I want to come and hunt in the US. I want to shoot white tail. Where should I go to shoot the biggest one?
c. So, the same applies for Africa: you want to come and shoot a very big A,B, or C. Where then, geographically and statistically speaking, will you find the biggest of those?
d. The outfitter/ph/game farm owner would like to tell you on his farm. It minimizes his costs and maximizes profits. It is business after all. An excellent outfitter would walk the extra mile and take you to where you will find the best trophy if it is not on his farm.
2. You are hunting with an outfitter that does not own a game farm:
a. He buys the animal from the game farm owner at a pre-determined price in ZAR and sell to you in US$. So typically this can be about 2-300% markup on the ZAR price and in some cases much more.
b. He pays the owner daily rates etc.
c. This outfitter/ph is not bound geographically so theoretically should correspond with you to find out which animals on your wish list are the most important and what kind of experience you would like to have.
d. This, theoretically, will enable the outfitter to tailor-make your hunt to your needs, requirements and expectations.