dear all

I have just returned from my second hunt in africa and am really hankering for a sable. I do have access to land for a breeding herd and may instead of just hunting one may decide to buy a few and cultivate a herd for all to enjoy. Can anyone out there help? what are basic trophy fees or cost of a breeding sable. I figure 1 male 3-4 females.

cheers, tm

welcome to the forum. I'm sure you will get answers to your question here...Tell us a bit about you first and if you don't mind, fill out a bit more of your profile please.

At a recent game auction in the East Cape Bulls sold for R96,000 each. (FWIW)

That's almost $15,000. Auction prices in SAR have been quite steady for 3 years, but they have gone up by 50% in US$ because of the weakness of that currency. However, one can hunt Sable for trophy fees quite a bit less than that, if you only count the incremental cost. Depends where you go but Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe offer Sable hunts. You can pay as little as $3500 in trophy fees. Some or all of the day rates have to be applied to that fee, depending on how many animals you plan to take on your Safari.

That's the paradox of auction prices. They reflect the buyer who is buying a breeding herd and is willing to pay for the future yield from that herd, or in some cases they reflect a put and take operator. Auction prices and trophy fees are quite tightly linked in SA where demand for trophies sometimes outstrips natural yields, but less so when you get into the real boondocks, where capture and auction are not viable. Even in SA, it costs about R1000 to capture an animal, so the animal on the hoof can be shot for a little less than the going auction rates.

Trapmonkey

Sable prices a higher for life animals than for trophy ( dead) cheaper

Life 93 000.00 SAR average game auction price 2003 per one

For the price of 5 sable you can get a game farm with some sable in Mozambique

Hope this helps

While looking around the South African outfitters' web sites prior to my recent trip, I saw prices in the USD 10-12,000 range for a sable. The package my PH put together for me in Zambia, including a five-day minimum on daily rates and all fees (and if you also add in my round-trip airfare from JNB) was around USD 7,500.

For the Blood line, $15,000 is quite reasonable..Seleti Game preserve paid more than that for breeding bull that goes about 49 plus inches...There trophy fee is $6500 and they have some awesome bulls on 75,000 ac. of thick bush..

Most Sable trophy fees in RSA run $5500 to $6500 for the good bulls...

The concession sable of Zimbabwe run about $2400 to $2700 these days...

Tanzania Sable generally run $2000 to $2200.

Zambia is $5500 to $6500 for the most part, but I have not been keeping up with pricing there lately..

The Monkey

With whom and where did you hunt in SA and where about and what size is the land you have lined up for the breeding herd !!!

Have a wonderful day in cyberspace (-:

Peter