My sons and I are planning to go to either South Africa or Namibia for a plains game hunting trip in 2016. Never knew until now how many outfitters there are out there, near overwhelming! I did meet with a couple at a gun show in Calgary, Alberta, and am wondering if anyone here has had any dealings with them. They are Extreme Outdoors Outfitters and Pringles Legendary Outfitters. Others I have been looking at are McLaren Safaris and Uhlenhorst Hunting Safaris.

Honestly, when my own friends ask similar questions I find its better to start with what your objectives are and ask questions from there.
What animals are most important (kudu...Gemsbuck ? ) ? Certain animals dictate choice of area or perhaps more importantly variety of game can...i.e. RSA will have more variety.o
What type and size of area would you like to hunt in? 5,000hectares or 50,000 or even bigger?
What type of terrain? Namibia and SA can be very different in terrain.
Do you want to see more than one area?
You can find a ton of hunt reports here from both areas.
Lodging...budget...etc etc.

By no means an expert, but for my first trip in '03 I went with Cruiser Safaris (been a few times since bowhunting with other folks)but for rifle hunting they are great. I think you will find their website to be one of the best RSA hunting websites out there. www.cruisersafaris.com Just a thought...

Von Roon

welcome to AR

I have sent you a PM

Rather than start with an outfitter and then soliciting references here, if I were you, I would simply start by asking here for outfitters. There are a LOT of people here with a LOT of experience with a LOT of different outfits.

For Namibia, I would call Westfalen Safaris... http://www.westfalenhuntnamibia.com/ . Our own Greg Brownlee books for them and he will be a big help to you. Westfalen is run by great people, is a huge area, has no game fences, and lots of game! I would also take Nam over RSA most days of the week and for most species. RSA does have some specialized stuff that Nam doesnt offer though so it all comes down to what you want to hunt.

This offer is a good one...

http://forums.accuratereloadin...501060012#6501060012

Welcome to AR. You will encounter many knowledgeable and generous folks here.

My suggestion: Allow 4-5 days for touring. If in or near RSA, do Kruger National Park. (KNP) It's a bucket list item, for sure.

Welcome Von Roon,

Check out Matabula Safaris in South Africa. They hunt very large properties for most of the plains game. John and Laurie Abraham are great folks to work with.

Ian Wilmot (Ian Wilmot Safari)

Hunted with him in 2012, running good show in Eastern Cape for plain & dangerous hunting safari.
Highly recommended.
IH

Thanks for all the info and the emails guys. Time to start digging a little deeper!

Check out Omujeve Safaris in Namibia.
Went with them in May 2013 on my first Plains Game Hunt and probably my last--I'm 75, but in good health.
It took me a year of research to find the country and outfitter I wanted to go with.
The facilities, equipment, food and PH's were "Top Notch". You become part of the family.
My wife went with me and she is not the outdoor type. but she was impressed.
I hope to take a day trip to Dallas,TX for the DSC meeting in January 2016 to visit with the owners of Omujeve, Corne and Nick Kruger. They attend every year to give information and signup hunters.
Hope this helps.

MauserK98

Hi Von Roon

I will be between Edmonton and Calgary in September, lets meet up and have a long chat. There are a lot of things to consider.
Feel free to give me a call if you like

Ian

I've never been to Namibia, but just returned from my second trip to RSA.
My outfitter was Settlers Safaris, based near Grahamstown. We enjoyed all aspects of the trip, from the facilities, staff, food, quality of animals, etc.
Long story short...check out Settlers Safaris.
I'll be posting a hunt report here on AR in the next week or so.

One thing you really need to consider, is the property high fenced or not, if it is high fenced then how big is the property. That depends on how you feel about that. The Bubye Valley in Zim has everything you could possibly want plus you get to see and hear wild lions everyday. It is high fenced but is 900,000 acres with no internal fences. That is fair chase to me.

The first question you need to address is what type of hunting experience do you want. Farm hunting is behind high fence and concession hunting is typically on large, open range areas.

RSA is largely farm hunting (2,000 acres to 120,000 acres) with a few very productive, more expensive concession areas around Kruger. Namibia has a mix of both farm settings as well as concession hunting on the large Conservancies. The Conservancies are typically in the range of 300,000 to 650,000 acres.

In a farm hunting environment you have a pretty good idea (at least the outfitter does) what is there, the size, and location. Concession hunting is more of a crap shoot as the animals have huge areas to wander - but the outfitter has a pretty good idea where they are currently wandering.

Once you narrow down they type of hunting you want and the country that offers the best selection to fit your budget, you can then start to find a reputable outfitter -- that can be a hunt in of itself.

quote:

Originally posted by Opus1:
The first question you need to address is what type of hunting experience do you want. Farm hunting is behind high fence and concession hunting is typically on large, open range areas.

RSA is largely farm hunting (2,000 acres to 120,000 acres) with a few very productive, more expensive concession areas around Kruger. Namibia has a mix of both farm settings as well as concession hunting on the large Conservancies. The Conservancies are typically in the range of 300,000 to 650,000 acres.

+1. My first hunt in Africa was in South Africa on a high fenced ranch. With the benefit of hindsight, for me, I think it would have been a more rewarding experience to hunt an open concession since I just equate that more to the true African safari experience. So in retrospect, I would have booked a plains game hunt in Namibia with one of the outfitters that operates an open concession. High fence hunts are great and the areas are in fact huge, but at the end of the day you still know it was a high fence hunt. For some that is not a critical consideration, for me, I just prefer the low fence or open concession hunt.

If this is your one and only shot at hunting in Africa, then farm hunting is generally the way go. At least you know all the species on the land, approximate numbers, trophy quality, and probable success of collecting what you're after (assuming your outfitter is honest).

Farm hunting does not translate to fish in a barrel cage hunting. In fact, the animals on game farms start running before sunrise and stop long after the sun sets - they know what's coming...

I have hunted plainsgame in both Namibia and RSA, as well as Zimbabwe. As others have said, I would first decide why you want to go on the trip in the first place. Set priorities: budget; accommodations (resort-type lodgings, tented camp, something in between?);species you would like to take (here you should consider whether it is important to you that the species you hunt are endemic to that area or may include "imports"); high-fenced or not, if high-fenced then the size of the enclosure; activities for non-hunters who may not want to be with you 24/7; sight-seeing before or after the hunting, etc.

In setting your budget, you may also want to consider taxidermy and shipping costs: if you plan to mount everything, taxidermy and shipping of hides and skulls to your taxidermist can cost nearly as much as the hunt itself, depending on how many heads. How old are your sons? What is your style of hunting? Do you want to get out and walk most of the day, or are you content sitting in a car spotting and stalking? How accustomed are you to long shooting (200yds or more)? Much of the plainsgame hunting in Namibia and parts of RSA is in very open terrain where it is hard to get close.

Talk with your boys about what you all want to do and from there explore different options (of which there are many! Feel free to PM me and others if you want a less public conversation.

Game we intend to hunt include kudu, gemsbok, waterbuck, impala and warthog. Majority of trophies would be Euro mounts (too many white tails and antelope in the house!)Sons ages are 28 and 26. Not kids for sure. Accommodations? No 5-Star luxury resorts. Decent tents (AC would be nice!)but no spike camps. Have to see what's offered. Style of hunting? Fair chase, walk and stalk. We're looking for an authentic as possible hunt, no put and take or game animals specifically bred to be hunted in an enclosure. Must be legal and ethical. Not looking to be included in Rowland and Ward! This has been thought out a fair bit, but any and all additional information is gladly welcomed. Am currently putting together a list of questions / expectations that will be sent to all prospective outfitters I am considering.

Von Roon,

Your wish list is realistic in many areas but you need to know that desert animals like the gemsbok do not naturally occur in the same environment as waterbuck. You will find all these in one area but the waterbuck will most likely be introduced. For a PG hunt your probably going to get a lodge type accommodations anyway even on a moderately priced hunt. Spot/stalk and tracking are the norm but make sure your PH knows you want to walk as many hunters are very happy to shoot right from the vehicle. Tell your PH you are looking for good representative trophies for the area. Do not give him the impression you are not looking for good mature trophies as it would be too easy for an unscrupulous PH to let you shoot a bunch of dinks.

I'd be happy anytime to answer all the questions you have and talk with you about realistic expectations.

Mark

I'm a big fan of actually meeting safari company owners before hunting with them. Events like the Africa shows, SCI, sportsman shows are ideal for this. We've never hunted Africa without first meeting the owner. You definitely need to check their references out but looking a man in the eye and shaking his hand is important to us. If you liked a few of the operators you met, then check out their references.

If fair chase to you means no fences, then you will have to modify your list a bit as the species you outlined aren't likely to be found in the same place with no fences. If fair chase to you means a large tract of land where the animals have ample opportunity to evade hunters then your options are much larger.

Accommodations in Africa run the gambit but even most tented camps, at least in SA and Namibia, have flush toilets, showers and electricity. The best advice I can offer is set a fairly specific list of wants/needs and start eliminating from there.

Von Roon, first of all welcome, and second of all, you absolutely must consider Kowas Adventure Safaris in Namibia. They are world class people with world class hunting, no sliding scale fees, loads of open country. Good luck, and ask lots of questions.

Good call, Mark. We will have to rethink the Waterbuck.
As for meeting the owners, I would like to, but unfortunately I missed the Calgary show. Fair chase to me does not necessarily mean no fences. I am aware that the vast majority of SA is already fenced, and I'm alright with that, provided the fenced areas aren't small. Small being a relative term, of course.
We've been making our list of wants / needs and expectations, as well as questions concerning costs. The list is already pretty long and fairly comprehensive. The research involved to begin to realize the questions to ask was certainly illuminating!
JGRaider, thanks for the welcome! We did consider Namibia, but decided to do SA first. We will definitely be returning to Africa in the future, and likely will make Namibia our target.

As I said above, I have never hunted in Namibia. That said, if I would looking to book a plains game hunt in either South Africa or Namibia, Jofie Lamprecht in Namibia would be on my short list of people to talk to.

http://jlsafaris.com/

Oops, just saw that Namibia is not your choice on destination. Ignore the Jofie post.