My old hunting partner has passed on! My life goes on, and, at 60 years young, I still have a lot of hunting that I want to do. A like-minded hunting partner(s) is needed to share the experience and costs.

My next major experience is a long hunt DG in Zimbabwe. The Devils Gorge concession area can be described as spectacularly scenic, wild and remote: Yet it is only a few minutes travel by boat on the Upper Kariba from, what can be regarded there as “civilizationâ€; a restaurant, bar and hotel, airport and tar road.

On concession are the following: Elephant, Leopard, Buffalo, Hippo, Crocodile, Hyena and a variety of plains game animals, including Kudu, Klipspringer, Bushbuck and a few others plus some birds. All hunting will be 100% legal with all trophies exportable, including CITES Schedule 1 species, for which Export Permits are available. The area does not involve any land-grab politics and no person involved is on the US government “Black Listâ€. Lastly, lying on the Zambezi River and Upper [western] Lake Kariba, you can also enjoy some great fishing!

I would like to hunt my DG without a PH, and rely on my own abilities to locate, track and shoot the game I hunt. I would also like to set up my own camp and in general “do my own thingâ€. My wife, an excellent cook, will accompany us to ensure that the hunters have good food and clean clothes etc. If you, as a candidate for being my hunting partner likes to hunt DG, but feels that a PH is required, then that cost associated with appointing and accommodating a PH will be solely for his account, and not shared.

If you had always dreamed of enjoying an African Dangerous Game Hunting Safari, without a lot of pampering by people constantly treating you as “the paying clientâ€, let me know and we will see if we can do it together on a costs-shared basis. You may wish to know that I’m well experienced in arranging similar safaris to other southern African countries.

In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren.

Andrew, Since I have been living and/or working in Africa for the last thirty years, I have had the opportunity to hunt as you mention, outside of the safari industry. One aspect which you might want to clarify for the other members of the forum, is what happens to the hunters that want to hunt with you with their own rifle and then want to export their trophies. As you may know, there is a lot of official documentation associated with rifle import permits, with trophy origin, etc. etc. How would that hunter deal with all the bureaucracy?

Wink,

You may have read a bit into my posting that is not really there. No PH required does not quite equate to "no Hunting Outfitter involved!"

The hunting is in fact arranged and paid for through a ZIMBABWE OUTFITTER. The actual Devils Gorge consession holder is a Zimbabwean citizen in good standing [not on any blacklist]. His firm will provide all the documents required for rifle import and trophy export. His firm will also provide the Game Scout that will be present at all times to oversee that all the hunting law requirements are met. If you desire to have a PH, a suitable licensed PH will also be appointed by the Outfitter.

You are quite correct in assessing that there is a mountain of paperwork to be completed if a hunter wants to export his trophies. This is done by the actual Hunting Outfitting firm involved.

There are some Zimbabwe Government prescribed minimum amounts of foreign currency [US $] that has to be banked through the official system before the Hunting Outfitter will get the required permission to arrange for the trophy export.

In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren

I hunted that area near the confluence of the Gwaai River in 2003. I purchased a quota from J. Tavengwa and contracted Zim PHs to do the hunts for me and 4 friends.

Perry