Hello!

This is a first post so please excuse me if I step on any toes and if there is another area where this post is more appropriate, please feel free to move it.
A little background then my question. I am a long time shooter but haven't hunted much. Some deer and small game about 30 years ago. So my wife and I have a fairly large collection of rifles and one day she says, "Why don't we use these for what they were intended?" (Gotta love her!).
So this year, we are planning a deer hunt in Utah. But my ultimate goal would be to hunt Africa. The countryside, the animals, the experience just seem to be just so over the top!
So my question is, we are experienced gun handlers, but inexperienced hunters. How much hunting experience should we have before trying an african hunt?

Pizzaboy: You're ready right now, you just don't realize it. Jump in man! What have you been waiting for? 30 years of shooting experience! Do your research and book a trip to South Africa or Namibia? During many "first" safaris, you're more of a shooter than a hunter anyway, so you should do real well. Welcome aboard.

Moja

Hi pizzaboy..

Welcome.

go like hell get there and do it while you still can. plan a trip for sumer of 09 and study plan and collect your gear and practice till you leave. the hardest part is making up your mind and the courage to actualy go after that it is all good.

quote:

plan a trip for sumer of 09

Why wait for 09 '08 is still not over yet

quote:

So my wife and I have a fairly large collection of rifles and one day she says, "Why don't we use these for what they were intended?"

You really do have to love her. Only if they all thought that way.

Welcome.

PB,
I would recommend you buy yourselves a copy of the "Perfect Shot." You'll find soft & hard copies or now on video. Safari Press would be a place to find it. Use it as a guide to begin the learning process of the anatomy of African big game. They are NOT built "just like Deer." Their vital organ's are different in position. Next, get some full color game targets, African if possible, and practice shooting off standing and sitting bi, and tri-pods. Ranges should be 100-300 yards. Once you are proficent, take turns playing "PH." Your routine should be having someone tell you: "There's a good ram" (you find the target in your cross hair's and prepare for the shot) next your "PH" tells you: "Take him" and you squeeze the trigger. My point is to prepare you for someone telling you when to take a shot, and at what animal. It will prepare you for better accuracy and a much better experience. Practice makes perfect. Have questions? You are welcome to call me. You two will never be the same after Africa. It's a true adventure of a lifetime...no matter how many times you wind up going.
Good hunting,
David

The first nonfeathered animal that I shot was a cape buffalo in Botswana in 1998.
Just be honest with your PH, listen to what he says and place the bullet where he tells you. You will do fine.
I would suggest that you practice getting a shot off, gun mount to shot, in 3 seconds. Unlike paper targets, animals tend to move.
One word of warning, If you go once, you will go again, I'm leaving for my 4th african hunt this May.
Don't wait, book a hunt and go.

TerryR

I will echo what the others have said...go now!

My lovely wife, after having hunted deer unsuccessfully for four years, bought us both a plains game safari in South Africa at the 2005 NRA Meeting and killed her first animal, an impala, in RSA in 2007!

I will second L. David Keith's recommendation that "The Perfect Shot" be your first investment, both for information on shot placement and the excellent treatises on the animals. African plains game are not built like whitetails and the shot placement is different. The DVD version is also excellent.

Other books and DVD's such as Craig Boddington's "African Experience" will give you an idea of what to expect.

The members of this Board are very generous with their knowledge and experience and were a great help to us before our trip. Their advice on travel agents (use an African specialist such as Kathi, they are worth their weight in gold!), guns, ammo, clothing, every aspect of safari planning is excellent.

And from personal experience, you WILL be planning your next safari on your flight home form the first!

Good hunting!

Hello and welcome pizzaboy,

Welcome to the forum - a good place to get experienced hunters to 'hold your hand and walk you through the steps towards experience'.

You have already been given some very good advice, making it difficult for me to add anything worthwhile. Do get the shot placement book. Do realize that 2008 is not nearly over yet. Do tell Mrs. Pizzagirl that she’s a darling!

It is quite true what Sable Trail said: You need not be much of a hunter. However, if your PH is any good, he will let you do most of the ‘hunting’. I like to ask youngsters or otherwise inexperienced hunters what they would do. My clients search for game by walking, not from a vehicle. We may come up on a hill, and I ask: Do we go left, right or right over it? If there is an immediate reply, I ask why? If the client is unsure we then discuss where the wind comes from, the position of the sun, possible shade, possible sunlight reflections of white faces shiny telescopes, how much noise we well make going straight over and so on. The client and I then make an informed decision on how to proceed. That way the client becomes at least part of the hunt. If the client makes a ‘wrong’ decision I will attempt to tactfully correct him/her and point out why I do not agree. And there are really no ‘wrong’ choices – only choices from which you gain experience! I know that some PH’s simply hunt the animal themselves and their clients are just the ‘shooters’. But its YOUR safari and YOU tell the PH how you want to hunt. I welcome clients who want to hunt as much as possible.

A ‘game’ that you and Mrs. pizzagirl may want to play is: “Listen to your PH.†You set up one or a few animal outline targets quite close to make for an easy hit – long shots can be practiced later! One then plays client, and one is PH. The PH then intentionally tries to confuse the ‘client’ by rapidly saying a long string of instructions like: “do you see the one scratching its’ ear? now go for the one just to it’s left, no, watch out there may be a twigg in the way, look at the one on the extreme right, he is a better trophy, oh no, I see now that he’s got only one horn, the one next to the tree is the best of the group, wait for him to stand still, I’ll tell you when to take him, not now, shoot the one on the left of the one facing away from us, ,,,,,,†The client is to react on each new instruction by acquiring the target, lining up his rifle and wait for the final urgently whispered instruction of “OK take that one now!â€

Mostly if you are trophy hunting you will be after lone territorial males, and all the target identification is simple: He is the only one around! But some very good trophies are found in bachelor herds, when a lot of looking, taking a second look, evaluating, and deciding must be done quickly! You don’t want to do this for the first time on real trophy animals where the PH has to whisper and the pressure is on! Practice listening to varied instructions while your rifle is on shooting sticks! Switch roles as PH and client. You and Mrs. Pizzagirl can see who can think up the most weird methods of identifying the correct target. You will be a much better client if both of you are tuned to listen to instructions when getting ready to actually shoot. I know how extremely frustrating it is when I have identified the “real monster†standing behind a certain bush and I want to get my client to see the same animal. I wisper:†Do you see the one scratching his ear?†No reply, just the motions of scanning the group from let to right and back. I whisper again: Do you see the one scratching his ear, he is standing right in the open on the left?†No reply! Client looks through telescope from left to right and back, concentrating on the right. I say: “Look on the left, do you see him scratching his ear?†Still no reply. My frustration level rises, the real trophy is still totally obscured by a bush, but I know he is there! Problem is all the bushes look very similar, no way of indicating to the client behind which bush he must look. By now the animal just to the left of THE BUSH is no longer scratching his ear. Let me assure you that the type of scenario that I have just attempted to describe is real for bushveld hunting. It is essential that you as the client reply, and as close to immediately as possible, to any question by the PH and be ready to respond to any instruction immediately.

If you feel you need some guidance on how to plan for an African safari – go read on my home page about how to do it. It is my effort, but IMHO, certainly the most comprehensive single safari planning guide that I know of.

Enjoy planning your first safari!

Andrew McLaren

Wow! Thanks for all the replies. My wife and I have talked about this and we both feel that we would like a little more "personal comfort zone" before heading out to Africa. At this time, we hope to get in a couple of hunts here at home and then attend the SCI convention next Jan., hopefully to book a hunt at that time. Beside, my gunsmith is building a 9.3x64 for me and I wouldn't want to leave without it!

Thanks for all the great advice. The book ideas and the shooting games all look fun and instructional. Boy, if I get too psyched up, I may book something this year yet!

I've already got places picked out on the walls for the heads/horns we plan on harvesting in the near future!

Thanks again!

if you're uncomfortable about hunting and want to do some more 1st there are pronghorns, ducks, pheasants etc. all those things out there that you do a miramid of, gaining hunting experience. have at it. You already know how to shoot, many hunters don't. A whole new world is open to you. The last thing my dad said to me before he died was _ it took me 30 years to learn how to take off, don't let it take you that long That advice I'll forward on to you

welcome PB,
with that nickname I was going to think that youwere Italian. Then I read about SCI convention

Welcome aboard mate. You are ready for Africa as is, just, as one of the blokes said buy the Perfect Shot, study that and we all here will give you any advice possible. Don't be frightened to ask, it is a fantastic resource here on the African Forum.

Cheers,

I think a trip to Africa is essential for your experience. Once you become a confident shot through practice, you're ready for a Plains Game safari. RSA and Namibia would be the first places I'd direct you for an introduction to Africa.

Often enough I hear the uninitiated ask "Why do hunters with one safari under their belt seem to know it all" Well, they don't, but they know a whole lot more than before the safari.

The education you get hunting with a profession hunter and his staff is a product of many lifetimes in the bush. The hunting skills they will show you and you will observe in 10 days are worth far more than years sitting in a tree stand waiting for a deer to walk by. You will learn how to spot game at a distance, how to track from masters, and how to stalk. If you want to know how to field dress and skin/cape your game, put down the beer and wander over to the skinning shed. You should have the chance to judge trophies and pull the trigger on a number of animals. With each stalk, each evaluation, and each head taken, you are gaining experience.

Read Ruark's Horn of the Hunter. Harry Selby taught him 90% of everything he knew about Africa. Selby was only about 24 then. It boggles the imagination at what one could learn from him now.

When you start looking for an outfit to hunt with ask around here. You have at your disposal the benefits of many safari's and many days in the bush. You can get some fine references. BTW, go once and you're hooked.

You actually need less in the way of hunting skill and experience for a successful plains game hunt in Africa than you do for a mule deer hunt in Utah. In Africa (I recommend Namibia -- everything's as good as RSA but usually a bit more economical with less red tape) your guide (Professional Hunter, or PH) will help you and your wife along with every step: Identifying game, stalking, shot placement, and care of the meat and trophy. African guides get lots of "low time" hunters, particularly from Europe, and are accustomed to matching the needs and extent of their services with the experience and skills of their client.

All you have to do is be willing to take instruction and make a reasonable effort to follow it. If you do this, you'll get along just fine and have a great time. By the way, if I were a PH, I would much rather guide a willing but inexperienced hunter than a "veteran" who thinks he knows it all and refuses to listen to my advice.

pizzaboy,

As others have stated you need no long standing hunting expereince to do a plains game hunt in Africa. If you hunt with a good PH he will tune the safari to your experience. These guys are used to guiding folks with all levels of expereince and ability including raw beginners. As other have suggested you will get a huge amount of hunting expereince in a 7-10 day plains game hunt and the PH's are all a wealth of knowledge about all the flora and fauna.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if I can be of any further assistance. We offer plains game safaris in 5 African countries with something to fit most any budget.

Mark

With all due respect, I would also disagree that you need more experience before hunting in Africa. You would be far from the first rookie that your PH has dealt with. On my last hunt I was accompanied by several non hunters. When one of the women expressed an interest in taking an ostrich, one of the PH's taught her how to shoot (she had never shot a firearm of any kind) and guided her in taking a fine ostrich, all in the course of two days. The fact that you already have a facility with rifles means that are ready. Often people are reluctant to go to Africa because they are afraid of "messing up" in front of their PH and trackers. First, if you can shoot reasonably well, and are willing to listen to your PH, the odds of screwing up are low. Second, we have all screwed up, at one time or another. It is, unfortunately, part of hunting. Show me someone who has never screwed up in the field and I'll show you someone who has not been in the field. On my last hunt I took an ill advised shot at a zebra wounding it. We tracked it all day and ultimately finished it off at dusk, but only after literally chasing it with the truck, not something that I'm particularly proud of. I'm sure that others here can relate similar stories. My point is, don't let fear over potentially making a mistake deter you. You probably won't make a mistake until you get overconfident, usually after having several hunts under your belt. If you do, it has happened to all of us and you PH will help you sort it out. Ultimately it will be something to laugh about on later hunts with that same PH.
If you can afford the hunt don't hesitate. Book now and go. You will learn more, enjoy it more, and find it more rewarding than the hunts you plan go on to get ready for Africa. You will also find it to be easier hunting.