Jack O'Connor on African Hunting License Fees (1972):

I really must finish work on my time machine.

quote:

Originally posted by 308Sako:
I really must finish work on my time machine.

You said it, brother!

You know what I love about this "blast from the past?" EVERY Kenyan license fee quoted is calculated down to the last bloody red CENT!

General license: $214.30. Rhino license: $357.15. Extra rhino fee if successful: $714.30. Leopard license: $142.86. Extra leopard fee if successful: $285.72. Fine for female leopard: $571.44. Elephant license: $285.71. And a really big set of tusks adds another thousand!

And God forfend, if you want to hunt birds: $8.57 MORE!

If Jack hadn't died when he did, modern day trophy fees would have killed him!

Thanks again, Nick, for another gem.

Of course in 1972 I was in graduate school living on a research assitantship that, after taxes etc, put not quite $500 a month in my pocket. However one must also consider that the graduate student is the last legal form of slavery in this country.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

TIME: With luck, you might get trophies of the Big Four of African game, together with plenty of lesser game, in as little as two weeks' hunting. But if your're making a trip to Africa, you'd be foolish to depend on luck. The best outfitters recommend that you allow three weeks for the safari itself, from the time you leave Nairobi until you get back. If possible, of course, allow more - but if you allow three weeks, you'll be about as sure as anyone can be, hunting wild game, that you'll get the trophies you're after.

Three weeks, then, for one safari. Allow two days in Nairobi, for preparations beforehand, two days in Nairobi afterward before emplaning. Add travel time, one and a half to two days by air each way between Nairobi and New York. Total: four weeks home to home, plus a day or two. Figure on the two days and call it one month.

MONEY: For the safari itself, one white hunter for one client, about $2,000. Two clients and one white hunter, $1,200 per client.

Say you go with one good hunting friend, your safari cost is $1,200. That covers everything on safari, including fourteen native helpers - everything except liquor and your ammuntion. You'll bring your own ammuniton. Add liquor. Add a few days' hotel expenses in Nairobi at about $6 a day, including meals. Add extras for tips and for clothes you'll buy in Nairobi. Call it $1,400. You do not tip your white hunter.

Add game licenses. These differ somewhat according to the territory and game. Tanganyika is representative. General license, plus special licenses to include all the Big Four, $450. Much of that is elephant. Include buffalo, rhino, lion, but not elephant, and the cost is about $250. All right, you want elephant, $450.

Add cost of taxidermy afterward. This will depend, obviously, on how much of what you get you want to keep. At a fairly generous guess - elephant tusks, rhino horn, buffalo head, lionskin rug, some antelope - say $500.

Add plane fare. Round trip New York-Nairobi costs $1,593 first class, $1,106.70 tourist. There is no tax to be added. First-class and tourist use same type of planes. On tourist flights you don't get free drinks.

Add it all, assuming you fly tourist. In round figures, $3,450. You can fly now, pay plane fare later in installments if you want to - twenty-five percent down, twenty months to pay the rest. You can postpone taxidermy, you can shoot your elephant with a camera instead of a gun-you need no license for that and no taxidermy either. But figure it without cutting corners at all - for the hunt of a lifetime, it's a bargain.

WHAT TO TAKE WITH YOU?

GUNS. you will want three rifles on safari - a light but hight-velocity one, caliber .22 to about .25; a medium, caliber .30 to .375; and, for elephant and rhino especially, a heavy, .450 to .475. You will want scope sights for the light and medium rifles - 2.5X is about right - but not for the heavy rifle; big game animals are shot at short range. You will also want a shotgun for birds. You can, if you wish, rent rifles and guns in Nairobi, but you will obviously enjoy shooting more if you bring your own. Do not bring handguns; you will have more trouble getting them through customs than they'll be worth. Do not bring more than the three rifles you'll need; you will be shooting with native gunbearers, and three sizes of rifle ammuntion to keep seperate and ready for you in the field are enough.

AMMUNITON: For a three-week safari you will want for the heavy rifle about fifty rounds of ammuniton, thirty solid and twenty soft; for the medium, 120 rounds, thirty solid and ninety soft; for the light rifle, 150 rounds, soft. For the shotgun you'll want 300 rounds Nos. 4 and 6. If you can give your outfitter enough notice, he'll lay in your ammuntion for you and save you the trouble of carrying it or shipping it ahead.

CLOTHES. Most of your hunting clothes you can buy in Nairobi. Get measured as soon as you arrive, and your clothes will be ready for you the next day. They are not expensive. You can get boots in Nairobi too, but you may prefer to bring your own. You'll be doing a lot of walking, and you want to be sure of having footwear you can depend on. Bring along a sweater or two. If you have woolen pajamas and a woolen bathrobe, bring them too; the hunting country is warm by day, but cool after sundown. Do not bring any large supply of underwear, handkerchiefs, socks and things like that; on safari, laundry is done every day. If you happen to have a sun helmet, leave it at home. In East Africa, sun helmets are jokes.

Regards,

Terry

[Taken from an August 1956 article in Field & Stream, as reprinted in the book Robert Ruarks' AFRICA.]


"A man always finds what he looks for in Africa, even if it's only himself." Robert Ruark

I'm saving all my licenses and safari bills so that my grandkids can laugh about the pittance I spent to hunt in Africa.

It's interesting to note that hunting fees went up about 10X to 50X, while coach airfare barely doubled. I know a guy in San Antonio who hunted in India and East Africa in the 50's and 60's. He said the travel expenses were horrendous, usually equal to or more than the hunting fees. How many hunters would travel to Tanzania today if the airfare was $35,000?

mrlexma said:

quote:

If Jack hadn't died when he did, modern day trophy fees would have killed him!

My thoughts, exactly!

Yes, I've got a friend here in town that has been to Africa nine times, but back in the 60's-early 70's. He tells me that a buff license was $25 or $35 per buff and he that could shoot a fair number of them at that price. When he told me of other prices and I related the current ones to him I thought we were going to have to call for the medics! He had also hunted many places that are completely closed today, and shot animals that are also off limits to hunters now as well. His advice: Go now and go often before it gets any more expensive or prohibitive.

Do keep in mind that you have to multiply the 1972 numbers my 4.75 to come up with the current value. That $1,400 would be $6655.02 in today's USD.

It would be interesting to do a work up on the cost of a safari now compared to the "Golden days." If you included the cost of travel I would bet the costs would not be too far apart.

Jason