Ladies and Gentleman....

I am doing a bit of research on the "extra" cost of a 7 day 7 animal PG 1x1 Safari to South Africa...

The questions as follow:

1.)How much did your trophies cost you on average, A dip and pack, B- done in SA and shipped over.
2.)How much did you spend on extra's, like tips, presents, etc.
3.) On avg. what does your airline ticket cost you per person....
4.) Any other extra cost that might apply.

Please do not give information about Namibia or Tanzania, or other African countries....it is not relevant to this post.
We want current, relevant info, not about hunts that took place 5-7 years ago.

I have a lot of clients and friends in the States, and got a lot of feedback from them...just would like to get as much info. as we can possible get....

We are trying to get an idea of what it will cost clients, as this is the most common question asked by the "rookies". Our packages are "all inclusive" but most of you know what that means.

We worked it out at about a third of your TF and Day rates put together, and I want to see how far we are in or out with those figures......

As an average we would say for mounting of trophies in SA....and for dip and pack.....
1x Kudu
1x Waterbuck
1x Gemsbuck
1x Blue Wildebeest/Red Hartbeest/Black wildebeest
1x Springbok
1x Impala
1x Warthog

Your input will be much appreciated.....

The aim of all this is to give a better service to the hunting community.

Regards

CharlvR
www.infinito-safaris.com

Sorry, interested mainly in the cost to US citizens, although Europeans are welcome to club in with some info....always good to know...

Thanks you

infinito ,
booking from this end , heres what i usually quote

air ...this comes in at between 1500 and 2500 ...thats depnding on how far ahead you book , where in the states you live etc etc..i usually end up paying , one way or another about 2000 each time i cross the pond .

dipping and packing depsnds a lot on who is doing it, however 8 animals or less most guys are right around 600 to 800 so i quote 800 and then if it comes out lower everyne is happy

shipping is out of our hands , but having worked for some taxidermists over here and seeing what people will pay , i give a ball park of about 1200 per 8 animals ..that would , of course increase if there was a shoulder mount elephant !!!

the client will pay a clearing fee this end to the agents here , and then a shipping fee from the clearing agent to their home ..

the clearing fee will be about $150 the shipping fee will depend of course on where they live .

as far as taxidermy in south africa , most of those guys have their pricesheets on their websites ... i dont know costs of shipping mounted trophies , however there was a post about that a few weeks back ..

i am sure you will get lots of replies here ,

hope this helps ,

happy new year everyone ,

imc

I am working on an article for Magnum and African Outfitter magazines in South Africa....about all the cost of a hunt for American hunters...to put it into perspective for the uninformed in our (South African) hunting industry......

Over and above our own research as pointed out in the original post. Thank you for the confidential PM's that I received....you are all helping yourselves!!!!

/

This is a mesage I added to another thread earlier. -TONY

*****************************

Since I don't have a stake in trying to sell you something, and since I was in the same position in 2003 as you are now, here's some input from a very experienced but rookie-in-Africa hunter.

I booked a 10-day package hunt for the East Cape of SA with John X Safaris who supposedly has access to about 3,000,000 acres of private land. We hunted in at least five different locations, some of which were based at other lodges from one to 4 hours from the main lodge.

None of the ranches were the put-&-take variety either. Yes, they were all fenced properties, but the only time I actually saw the fences was going through the gates to enter or leave the ranches. Most of them were huge. The game species were populuous and included males (both trophy and non-trophy), females and young ones, i.e. naturally reproducing herds.

The cost was $4,995 ALL INCUSIVE for the daily rate, licenses, 1x1 PH and tracker, ground transportation, lodging, alcohol, food, laundry, trophy preparation (not dip/pack!). The food and accomodations were all first rate.

The package included up to 5 or 6 critters, depending on the ones chosen from the basic list. My choices were kudu, gemsbok, impala, blesbok and springbok. I could have chose two of the smaller deer in place of either the sprinbok, impala or blesbok.

I then added blue and black wildebeests, zebra, bushbuck, warthog and nyala. Total for the additional trophy fees: $5,000! The PH threw in a second springbok at no charge because I wanted a full hide for a rug. I don't concern myself with record books like some do, but each animal I killed was a good representative trophy for the species.

So, right there you've got $10,000 at 2003 prices! Adding on airfare of about $2,200 for ONE person from AZ (probably higher now), tips for guide & staff, dip & pack, shipping of trophies to the US and you're easily up to $15,000 BEFORE any taxidermist gets his hands on you.

The taxidermy for those 12 animals cost me WELL over $5,000, though I stretched it out over 4 years.

Obviously, the fewer animals you take above the package price will reduce your total, but then adding the airfare and daily fees for your wife will increase it again. And...that doesn't include any shopping for trinkets.

The point: LOOK at ALL the costs involved, not just the daily rate and trophy fees you get quoted here. The devil is in the details, and the "incidentals" add up quickly. -TONY

Round trip airfare in September '04 was $2,000.

Dip and pack for 10 animals was $200, but they cooked the skulls too hot and they became brittle. Only animal I had taxidermied was the warthog...$625.

Shipping from SA to port of New York via sea freight was $650 for a 230 pound crate.
Customs charges and storage by Wesco Freight was almost $2,000!!!! I refused to pay such an exorbitant fee and told them to dump my stuff in the Hudson River. Whether they did or not, I have no idea. That experience soured me forever. No more trophys for me. Just the obligatory hero snapshots is now good enough.

Tips to the PH and staff amounted to $1,000.

Only extras for me was specialized clothing and luggage. ~$500.

Current airfare averages $2,000 with round trip from your home (domestic flight)to exit airport/destination (say Dulles to Jo'burg). For another leg (Zim, PE, etc) add another $500. Dip/pack depends on who handles your trophies. Depends upon size of trophy as well. Will run $65-$115 per animal. Add doc fees and crating: $300-$400. International shipping to your port of entry will widely vary, $1,200-$3,500 so plan on combining trophies with your hunting partner if you have one. It IS NOT illegal to combine trophies into one crate if room permits, no matter what a foreign Taxidermist or shipper tells you. You can add $300-$400 if you use a Customs Broker. There are ways to save money but don't do it to spite your face.
Good Hunting,
LDK

quote:

Originally posted by ALF:
Infinito:

Contact the Chair of wildlife economics at the univerity of Potchefstroom for info. They have validated scientific data on the economics of the wildlife and hunting industry. Their post graduate students have done all of the legwork on the subject.

Every year they deliver a number of seminars on the economic aspects of the indutry at the Wildlife expo.

Thank you ALF, my brother is a honoured post graduated from that faculty, and I asked him for the same, they could not help him....

Strange how things pan out. I studied law and ended up being a PH because I hated an office, he ended up being a fruit exporter, because he likes travelling!!! Thanks in any case...

Infinito,

I have collected something like 105 lists of prices from various Hunting Outfitters. Here are some statistics on the more regularly hunted species. as posted it will be difficult to read, I suggest that you copy the text, starting at the word "Service..." and then pasting it in a spreadsheet. I sppecifically list the quartiles, as all the "fliers" are so removed from the prices and you get a feeling for the range of prices for different species this way.

Service First Quartile Second Quartile Third Quartile
Plains Game Hunting 1x1 Per Day $325.00 $375.00 $400.00
Plains Game Hunting 2x2 Per Hunter Per Day $250.00 $300.00 $350.00
Non-Hunting Observer Per Day $150.00 $180.00 $240.00
Baboon $60.00 $100.00 $150.00
Blesbok $300.00 $350.00 $400.00
Bushbuck Cape $500.00 $650.00 $800.00
Duiker Grey or Common $200.00 $250.00 $300.00
Eland Cape $1,500.00 $1,750.00 $2,000.00
Gemsbok $850.00 $950.00 $1,100.00
Hartbeest Red $765.00 $900.00 $975.00
Impala $275.00 $350.00 $400.00
Jackall Black-Backed $50.00 $85.00 $150.00
Kudu Greater $962.50 $1,100.00 $1,500.00
Kudu Eastern Cape $998.00 $1,000.00 $1,020.00
Mountain Reedbuck $350.00 $450.00 $650.00
Nyala $1,637.50 $2,225.00 $2,500.00
Reedbuck $650.00 $800.00 $900.00
Rhebok Grey or Vaal $747.50 $900.00 $1,125.00
Springbok $250.00 $300.00 $380.00
Steenbok $220.00 $275.00 $300.00
Warthog Boar $242.50 $300.00 $400.00
Waterbuck $1,381.25 $1,750.00 $1,990.00
Wildebeest Black $800.00 $900.00 $1,100.00
Wildebeest Blue $800.00 $850.00 $950.00
Zebra Burchell's $850.00 $975.00 $1,250.00

In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren

I made 2 trips to Sout Africa to hunt plains game, one in 04 and another in 06. Prices go up each year. In 04 a 10 day 9 animal hunt up graded to 1 X 1 cost me $4250 air fair was $1600 + and with the added ins close to $1700 from DFW. Tips $800, a side trip for 1 day another $125, junk and food in the airports another $100. This turned the $3995 package hunt into $7000 before we talk about taxidermy or shipping. I had the mounts done over there and saved a lot of money from the prices I got from texidermy shops in the DFW area. By using a local taxidermy the dip and pack fee was 1/4 of what it would be to ship back to the states, less than $20 per head. I think that the taxidermy bill was about $2800 for 5 shoulder mounts and 2 Euro mounts and they charged me $295 to crate the mounts for shipping so call it $3100. Shipping was a little over $1200 I think and a $50 fee from Fwd Air at DFW when I picked up the crate. I did not pay a Broker on the shipment, just went to the FWD Air picked up the papers and walked them through US fish and wildlife and customs myself. The total was about $11,500, and in 06 the package was $4,750 for 2 x 1 and we did not upgrage and air fair was about $100 more. All the other stuff was about the same so the last trip cost me about $12,000 and I am sure you could add $1,500 to $2,000 to that for this year.

Jim

I thank you all for the input, and those that PM'ed me too.....

Regards

Charl

Does anyone ever just do the hunting and forget about the trophies?

Or even (slightly madder) do European mounts themselves while they're there - actualy not so mad as it sounds as a good European skull mount needs to be done within 24hrs of shooting anyways.