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I would hunt for 3 months. Do a Buffalo & PG in Zim for 10 days. 15 days for leopard and Sable in Zambia, Move to Mozambiq for more of the same - another 15 days taking croc plus the rest. Then a 30 day safari in Tanzania - in the Selous & also the Masailand. Finally finish with 20 days in Ethiopia.

The next year would be Botswana for PG, Namibia for elephant, Zimbabwe for buffalo & leopard, Congo, Burkina Faso, West Africa

..... Then I wake up!

I'd book the entire Tanzania season with Mark Sullivan. Several full bag hunts back to back. He has the trophy quality and the rifles to make it a great adventure.
Cal
(let the fireworks begin)

A traditional tented foot safari, anywhere that's still possible. It would last three months or so. Shoot for the pot, hunt cats and ele, but relish camp life most of all.

A sixty day safari in Maasailand Tanzania. Would want to do the hunt with one of the old school PHs that has operated in Tanzania for many years. Would take a .318 WR bolt and a pre-War .500/.465 Holland & Holland Royal. Would make them leave the Land Cruiser at home and take two Land Rovers (one to use while the other one is being fixed).

The forest area in Cameroon in a camp which the only way to get there is by boat, no roads. Hunting is done from boat and walking trails. Hunt for Bongo, elephant and dwarf buffalo. Seeing gorillas would be the icing on the cake. Combine that with a hunt in the savanna for LDE and elephant and buffalo. If you dream, dream BIG!

No limit

Start off here for 28 days: bongo, LDE, giant forest hog, yellow back duiker, other duikers, roan.

http://www.cawasafari.com

By the time I finished up here

Spend 10-12 days with my friend Karl--elephant bull and a non trophy..

http://www.huntingsafaris.net

Next, I would go see some friends in Petoria and visit a week.

I would then travel to see my friend Paddy"blood" Curtis hunt 21 days in U4 selous. Buffalo-3, Lion, Leopard, Croc, Hippo, a smattering of plains game
http://www.samarassafaris.com/hunting-areas/

Then finish up witha week in Masai land. For Tommys, grants, gernuk.maybe a lesser kudu.

I would head back to the bushveld in South Africa spend 2 weeks at:
http://spiralhorn.co.za

Hunting plains game, dart a rhino,and hanging with my family that I would fly there. Also get to hang with good friends! I would then head back to New Braunfels to plan my new trophy room that would be going up ASAP...

quote:

take two Land Rovers (one to use while the other one is being fixed).

I see you've been there and done that before!
Cal

I would just go with Cal if he would let me.

Pack a whole bunch of my rifles, from 6.5 mm to the 700 Nitro Express, and book a continuous safari to last several months, covering several countries starting from Tanzania.

I could, but wouldn't necessarily, have to spend the entire time in Tanzania, but a 28 day lion and leopard safari in western Tanzania with Michel Mantheakis would be hard to beat for a start. The man thinks like a cat.

For buffalo, I'd like to go to masailand again. I'd like to hunt with Lupo Santasilia. Great PH. We need to be a little more picky next time, but got a couple of great bulls and had a hell of a lot of fun doing it.

I want to go back to the Selous. Nigel Archer is great and would love to hunt with him again, anywhere, anytime.

Masailand deserves another trip to focus on plains game (and maybe a leopard or stray buffalo) , with the wife. Total luxury. Michel Mantheakis Safaris is the ticket there. Carved mahogany beds from Zanzibar in the tent, bath tubs, etc. Any wife would love it. While I hunt. That's actually on the ticket for '16 or '17.

Given the difficulties with elephant of late, I'd like to go hunt with Allan Cilliers in the Caprivi. I've hunted with Allan and he's an incredible PH. He is the former head game ranger of Etosha National Park (and married to the daughter of the previous head game ranger) and has been a whole lot of other things that would impress. Allan is one of the few whites who can speak to the bushmen in their clicks.

Last I talked to him (it's been a while), he had a pretty high ivory weight and that was with mostly European clients -- no offense there, but I've heard at least that they will settle and not hunt hard for something bigger, something I've been guilty of myself.

Then off to Moz for one of the Coutadas.

Maybe another elephant with Buzz or Nixon.

Then bankruptcy.

I would hunt lion, leopard, elephant and buffalo on Sango with Thierry Labat.

Throw in a ton of plains game and stay at the lodge with Lindsay and Nevin Lees May and I'd be a happy mofo for a couple of months.

I never get tired of that place.

Buffalo and Sitatunga in Bangweulu swamps, Kafue Flats Lechwe, Kafue Leopard, Roan and Sable. Luangwa for plains game.

Trick is to get paid to do this.

If we are talking about a fixed term safari, I figure a month or two scouring the borders of various Zim national parks should yield my dream elephant. That'll do....I don't need luxuries beyond that.

If we are not limiting the term of the event, I always thought it would be interesting to be wealthy enough to simply call up a Namibian outfitter and say "OK, how much for your whole season" and just live there for the better part of the year shooting only the largest and most unique game to be found. I would keep a house in the US for "importable" trophies and a house in Europe on the beach for the stuff unimportable to the US. I would visit these places in the "off season" and live in camp the rest of the year. After doing this in Namibia for a couple years (different outfits/habitat) I might switch countries and repeat the process every few years in different places. Just living out my days like that sounds great.

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
A sixty day safari in Maasailand Tanzania. Would want to do the hunt with one of the old school PHs that has operated in Tanzania for many years. Would take a .318 WR bolt and a pre-War .500/.465 Holland & Holland Royal. Would make them leave the Land Cruiser at home and take two Land Rovers (one to use while the other one is being fixed).

My goodness, Mike, why do you want to suffer like that? I would just rather walk all the way.

Nostalgia, there can be no rational explanation beyond that.

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
Nostalgia, there can be no rational explanation beyond that.

Jines, I like how you think.

When I make it big, you can go with me, and if you pick out a good enough single malt, I would probably even need you to shoot some of the animals......

some place that has game-very simple-and that is wild as can be-no transplanted game

quote:

Originally posted by Macs B:
What about camps? Who runs the truly luxorious michellin five star camps?

Someone out there has to be filling the niche market for Holywood starlettes, royalty, and billionaires on safari, be that photo safari or hunting. You can spend 1500 a night here in Washington to go "Glamping", surely there is someone in Africa who has put together a camp that eclipses your finer hotels in service, food and lodging.

Maybe Cottar's camp but that is in Kenya I think????

Maybe "Sasakwa Lodge" - Paul Tudor Jones ?

Maybe if one day God smiled on me and I were to take the leap it would be a hunt for buffalo until I actually got tired of shooting them.

Maybe shoot a few Eland/Kudu and Gemsbok for the fun of it.

I'd go back to the Niassa Reserve with Derek Littleton. We'd start at one end of Block L7 and do a portered walking Safari of unlimited time until we made it to the other end of the block along the 200+ kilometers of the Lugenda.

Resupplies would be done with drops ahead of our route never seeing or hearing the vehicle.

All clothing, gear, and rifles would be period correct for the early 40's.

An animal would occasionally die for the pot. Nothing else would be specifically targeted.

Cheers
Jim

Macs,

There is so much out there it would hard to choose. I guess for me it would be Uganda booking as much time as Bruce Martin thought necessary to take good specimens of everything including both varieties of sitatunga, Nile buffalo etc. Since you can hunt Uganda mostly year around I'd tack on a Mountain nyala in Ethiopia plus plenty of time for the Omo species with Northern Operations. That might kill 8-10 amazing weeks.

Mark

I would like to go for at least two weeks with Saeed just for the fun of it. After that two weeks in Namibia for various plains game, but specifically to bag some of the trophies that I do not already have. Lastly, a few days at Victoria falls to relax. Oh, and about a week in the Windhoek area.

Friends:

I'm the old timer as some may have read in other posts. Not only on this website back to it's beginnings but also as having lived and worked overseas in South America, African and Asia for 14 years. And yes I did hunt. It was not Safari style but rather with natives, residents and local politicians.

I want to focus particularly on Ethiopia where I lived and worked as manager of a drilling company. I travelled the country extensively and it was surely what could be described as eye opening, shocking, exhilarating, frightening, extremely dangerous, intereting ad infinitim:

Nothing like you could imagine outside of National Geographic. A throwback in history. I met tribes that were stone age living in the style of 10,000 years ago. Travelled the interior where game was prolific. In the Danakil you could see 10,000 head in one day.

Primitive villages at night, mud grass huts with the hyenas surrounding and howling.

Eritrea was a breakaway state full of repel, vicious killers, murdering with impunity.

Annually massive numbers perished due to starvation.

In the Danakil Elwarah Oil company *( German ) was drilling exploratory test holes. The renegades raided the camp and exterminated All of the local worker/employees. I bought some of Elwarath's equipment as they folded and moved out.

That was a long, long time ago, I haven't kept current so I do know now the current atmosphere.

Back in those days Ethiopia was a mystery country with little factual information.

What I do know is that I don't see that country prominently as a prime or even advertised place to Safari.

It had vast tapped resources back in the old days. Abundance of all sorts of species in super abundance virtually untapped.

If anyone can bring me up to date it will be appreciated. That includes the current political atmosphere, game and available Safari operators/PH's.

I'll mention too that the Brit's liberal, bleeding heart animal rights protectors succeeded in banning hunting in Kenya which is immediately South of Ethiopia. Result the place is overrun with millions of various species.

For my fellow historians here's a link to the Ethiopian stone age:

https://www.google.com/search?..........0.fQX2GxXchsY

This is actually eclipsed by a tribe in the Rift Valley that are even more primitive. Subsistence dwells.

I doubt that anyone wants to hear it but if yes I will dig it up ,and post.

If you are jaded with the usual, glitz and clamor of time worn repeated Safaris, some on domestic game farms,and are a gutsy adventurer who appreciated the throw back primitive aspect of historical game shooting in primitive Ethiopia is for you. conditions that you will want to check it out.

Quite possibly the last best bet for true authentic, old time hunting in the tradition of our ancestors left I Africa.

I'd split my dream hunt into 3 components: I'd start out in Namibia for a 15 day leopard/ plainsgame hunt with Jan Du Plessis of Sebra Hunting Safaris. After that I'd skip straight east to the Caprivi and hunt ele with Karl Stumpf. I'd then head north and hunt buff and sable with Andrew at Royal Kafue. That should keep me occupied for at least six weeks.

Crazy,

You cannot and will not tire of shooting buffalo.

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Crazy,

You cannot and will not tire of shooting buffalo.

quote:

Originally posted by Bud Meadows:
I'd split my dream hunt into 3 components: I'd start out in Namibia for a 15 day leopard/ plainsgame hunt with Jan Du Plessis of Sebra Hunting Safaris. After that I'd skip straight east to the Caprivi and hunt ele with Karl Stumpf. I'd then head north and hunt buff and sable with Andrew at Royal Kafue. That should keep me occupied for at least six weeks.

What about exploring lands that have never been hunted. Remote swamps that show evidence of populations of Sitatunga. A place that the Kaounde tribe avoids because of river monsters? That will keep us busy mate.

Fairgame,

Talk to me about that, it sounds interesting.

Well...... up late and just hauled two bears out of the bush, so chilling on the internet and will enter the fantasy hunt posts.

Now that Zamibia has cats again, I would book a long one with fair game for sable, roan, lion, leopard, buff and ele. Some time in the remote stuff for sitatunga and bushbuck, lechwe, etc.

Then I would go to TZ for what ever is require daily wise in one of the safari units with classic East African plains game like Roberts, Grants and Thompsons gazelle, Gerenuk and whatever else came along....... as well as a few more buff.

That should kill off about two decades of gross wages for the average middle class individual, such as myself.

Gotta buy another ticket to the 649 Lottery.
Everyones retirement plan.