I seem to remember that Robert Ruark wrote a piece entitled "The Price of Lions"........this little snippet would probably give him a heart attack if he wasn't dead already.

I'm told by 2 seperate sources that at the recent DSC convention an outfitter sold a Botswana Lion hunt for US$145000...........that same amount would have almost bought the client 3 yes 3 - 21 day back to back safaris in Tanzania complete with the trophy fees for 3 Elephants, 3 Lions and 3 Leopards.

It's enough to make your bank manager wince

Steve, a lion hunt at the price that guy paid is a sucker's bet, Botswana or not.

It can be done for a fraction of that cost.

But you have to be a lucky bastard.





I am almost ashamed at how little I paid for both the safari and the trophy fee for this monster--but it can be done for very little, relatively speaking.

How much can one expect to pay for a lion hunt in Africa?

what you are going to pay depends on where you are going and your odds of sucess & you idea of what you want to shoot. In tanz. you can expect $50000, RSA 40-50000 for a nice pen raised one, zim 25-30000 with the poorest sucess ratio, zambia 35000 with alot of shot haired lions. mozembique is beetween zim and zambia. AND $$ are going up every day

MR...how much did he cost you?????

It's a bit like asking how long is a piece of string......for example we offer a 1x1 21 day hunt in Selous or Masailand Tanzania (or split destination and you just pay the additional charter between the two) for US$35500 which includes rifle import, charters, dip & pack and all of the odds and sods and our trophy fee for the Lion is US$3500.......but having paid that daily rate you can hunt a whole bunch (40 odd) of other animals at just the cost of the additional trophy fees.....including an elephant, a Lion and 3 Buffalo.

The least expensive 2x1 - 21 day Tanzanian hunt we offer is US$20750 per hunter including everything except trophy fees.

We also offer a Lion hunt in Mozambique for quite a lot less.....but it's far tougher hunting, camps are not as comfortable and you can only hunt a few other species as part of the hunt.


But there's no such thing as a cheap Lion hunt....except where there's no Lions !

Because mine was a problem lion, and because the likelihood of success was therefore incredibly small, I paid only Vaughan Fulton's usual plains game daily rate and his usual lion trophy fee, which is low by African standards.

Here's a link to the Classic Safaris website for more information.

Classic Safaris

The lion you see in my post above was a problem lion for which the government had issued a special permit to Vaughan only. It had "broken out" of Etosha National Park and killed over 60 head of livestock north of the park boundary.

I hunted the last three days of my ten day plains game hunt, plus three additional days that I added just for the lion. I was luckier than I had any right to be and we finally stalked and killed that big bruiser after a mere six days of hunting. The story is a long and, I think, interesting one. I have written it up and may try to publish it if anyone with a printing press is interested.

I also took a nice southern greater kudu, a gemsbok, a red hartebeest, a Hartmann's mountain zebra and a steenbok before I finally decided to go after the lion exclusively.


Of course, this kind of lion hunting is catch as catch can--not something that you can count on, especially not a lion like mine. He was about ten years old and fully maned. But I know Vaughan has taken other problem lions and it can be done! But I was a truly lucky bastard on this one and I know it.

If you are interested in a problem lion, find out before you go whether your outfitter has any on permit. In some jurisdictions, there is no such thing as a problem lion hunt. While I was in Namibia, however, Vaughan had permits for two problem lions in different parts of the country around Etosha. He also sometimes gets permits for problem elephants.

I originally didn't even think I wanted one of the lions. My priority was to hunt plains game. After I took the animals I mentioned, I decided to take a long shot on the lion. It paid off, but I bucked the odds. I have to think that far more often than not, anyone, including me, would go home empty handed.

But that is not altogether a bad thing. Hunting lions on foot in the heart of wild Africa is life lived to the fullest. I have done it twice and been successful, but notwithstanding the odds, as long as I thought I had any possible chance of success, I would do it again anytime.

MR,

Thanks for the details of your safari and the link to Classic Safaris. I am already planning on a buff hunt in Zambia in 06 and I think I will start making a plan for the leopard hunt with Classic in 07 and keep my fingers crossed that a problem lion or ele will come on quota!!

Lion in zim are where you find them.. On three trips I have seen lions twice". Some outfitters dont have enough of them to sell quality hunts but have one or two on quota if they see one. Thats what happened to me and I killed a nice maned male that was number 26 in the sci book when I killed him in 97. I saw and could have killed one this year for the price of the trophy fee but the taxidermy would have set back future hunts for to long. Something special about seeing lions in the wild and Im glad I left them for future hunts.