Not in any demeaning manner of course. But, I am new to this forum, about a year, and I went on my first safari last summer. I was only 34 and now I have a sickness that I can,t cure. I saved for several years and sold many things in order to fund the trip. Anyway, my question is, what age are all of you? It sounds like most of you are pretty well off and you seen to go to africa an awful lot. I'm probably out of my league with ya'll, but I like to read about all of the safaris. It sends me off to a place I dream of going back to. Thanks for any comments......wapiti7

I'm 42 and am still saving for that first trip to Africa (planning to go in about 3 years and then every other year thereafter Lord willing), but I love to read everything I can on it and look forward to getting over there soon enough. This forum is very educational and always interesting and entertaining. There's much to be learned from our experienced and senior members here and I look forward each day to checking the site.

I'm a North American hunter and have been hunting, shooting and loading for 30 years. I live in the rural desert Southwest and am 8 years, 2 months from retirement - not that anyone's counting! (Then the fun really begins...)

45 as I type this and leaving on Friday for my second "go". Went after plains game in 2003.

This will be my last trip for awhile though, as I need to get caught up on taxidermy and have some other "rats to kill" but it's something I've wanted to do since I was about 12. Too much Ruark I guess.

(53 and 7 trips to Africa).

I think I see what you are getting at...how do some of these guys manage to go hunting in Africa so much. They must be all rich! No, not necessarily.

1n 1990 a buddy of mine made the trip to Zambia. He was 45 at the time and he was the first person I knew that went to Africa. He died of a heart attack on the first day there.

That weighed heavily on my mind. No, I'm not particularly well-off. So I worked a lot of overtime to pay for my first trip. I'm on good terms with the folks down at the credit union. I drive a 1987 GMC pick-up rather than make car payments. I mow my own grass and save enough each year for about two or three days of quality hunting just from that. No boat, snowmobile, or ATV. My two sons are grown and gone. They paid their way through college, one with brains, the other with his ability to play sports.

Ain't never seen a U-Haul trailer hooked onto the back of a hearse. i.e., you ain't taking any of your stuff with you. On my death bed I want some of my last thougths to be of the places I have seen and hunted.

Years ago I was admiring a bunch of Frederick Remington bronzes that an older guy owned. During our conversation he told me how he got to where he was collecting them. He told me..."You can afford anything you really want". And he was right. If you really want to go to Africa, you could have the financing in place tomorrow.

Put in a deposit, set a date, and GO

I just turned 50 a week and a half ago, been on 6 safaris, went on my first one when I was 43.

I told myself then, "I only want to see Africa once! Just one time and I'll be happy!"

I'll be 45 next month...been 3 times since I was 37...probably go back on 07.

I buy $25k cars instead of $35k cars keepin for 7 years instead of 4, no ATVs, no big screen TV, enough frequent flyer miles to fly for free, sold most of handguns and shotguns...

I'm 55 years old next week. Went to Namibia last year, managed to work a discounted hunt to the same ranch for my son this year, and hope to go together on a return hunt next year.

I promised the wife - just once, before I get too old. It worked, and she let me go.

This past weekend the kid tried to kill me while elk hunting in the mountains, and at the end of the day his comment was "You still walk pretty goood, for an old guy ).

I just turned 38 and have had the unbelievably great fortune to have gone on safaris each of the last 3 years.

It's been an obsessive dream of mine since I was 10. Honestly I couldn't afford a fraction of the cost of any of those trips (it's a REALLY long story how it worked out).

Now I'm hooked and have made some very serious changes in my life to hopefully be able to get a few heads stuffed and go again someday.

All the best,
Kyler

wapiti7 /

I am twice half my age ( 62, actually ) and fortunately I have the same illness as you have BUT even more ACUTE as being born in Africa it is more like a Disease .. After a good nite on the town I often feel twice my age the next morning

And NO I am definately not well off at all.

Peter


This chap is only 40 - life is hard in Africa

I'm 41 and will be semi retired middle of 07. I'll still work as I want to but will have more time to play on the things I like to do.

I've owned a machine shop for 15 years and probably average 16 hour 7 day a week days for the whole of the 15 years. My longest time off was 4 days. I had to see a client in new Zealand and on my way back thru RSA I did a 4 day ranch hunt for 4 animals. That is the grand total of my time off except for an average of 3 sat or Sundays during elk seasion. I do manage to take some time to shoot varmints in the summer tho but still when I'm working I'm usually at the office for 18-20 hours and have a sofa that I have been known to sleep on.

I'm not well off at all. I made some lucky/good choics and have a bit of breathing room. If I had to I wouldn't need to work again but I would not b going on hunts just getting by.

It's a matter of pryorities. I decided when I was 18 that I was going to retire (semi or fully) by the time I was 45. Everything I've done from a business perspective has been to that goal. I don't piss money away on new cars every year or flashy duds. I wear jeans and tee shirts. If I had to go to a funeral or a weading I would either have to wear teh above or go buy a new out fit. (I'd be i jeans and a tee). I do't think of myself as cheap. some on the board can speak to that if they like but i have never and I mean never lost sight on my 45 year plan. I got lucky this year and it will happen 2 and a half years early but it would have happened right on time even without luck.

Now I will be doing the trips I always anted to. I'm kicking off my retirement with 28 days in tanzania and 14 days and RSA for PG. I will do at least one 3 wek hunt or hunt fishing trip each year from next year on and I only hope I live for quite awhile.

I hope this doesn't come across as bragging. I'm not trying to just saying that if you make a plan and stick to it without any wavering you can do amazing things but you will bust your ass to get there.

You can save now to play later or you can live in hte moment but never reach that level of security you need to really go all out with your dreams. In truth both have merit. I just picked the former adn never, never straied from the path.

Best of luck. Make a plan and stick with it and you can make just about anything happen at least once or twice.

john

I am 22, went on my first safari to RSA last year. (I Have the Best Father in the World) Now, since I have a job, I have to buy him his next hunt over there. Africa is addicting. Stopped drinking my Senior Year of College, took the money I normally earned working that I spent at the bars and instead spent it on Trophy Fees for more animals in RSA. It was well worth it.....

31, been on two hunting trips to Africa. Like most of the guys above said, you have to decide you want to go, then make it happen. You need to prioritize and sacrifice.

I don't live in a fancy house, I don't drive a $40K truck, I don't eat out for lunch, I borrowed against my retirement (when that loan is repaid next year I'll do it again), I quit buying guns "just because," I'm still wearing shirts to work that I bought in high school, I carpool to save gas, I work overtime when it's offered, I started a savings account and make regular direct deposits to it, I keep spare change (up to $1/5 bills), I don't carry cash that I can piss away on sodas and junk food, etc. The list is long.

Make the commitment to yourself to go, then make it happen. It is possible, and not nearly as hard as you make yourself think it is.

I'm 38 with one trip so far. The above advice is solid and sound. Myself, I drive a 10 year old pickup, work fulltime and consult on the side, don't eat out, quit some of my more frivilous sports, and am saving for another trip next year.

I'm 49.
I saw the world, especially the seamy side courtesy of the US military (there is only one thing more addicting than hunting game). I picked up a medical degree on the side (I still hurt when I think about how hard it was to fly jets nearly full time and go to medical school and residency concurrently). I retired as a lieutenant colonel in March of 1996 at the age of 39. By then I had paid all my school loans and other debts off. My scheme was to work at emergency medicine 8 months per year, and hunt and fish for four.
In May of 1996 I contracted a normally benign virus (Epstein-Barr) that very nearly killed me. It totally destroyed my health. This was one week before I was scheduled to take a disability insurance physical (God has a sense of humor). I slowly regained the use of my legs and then arms. After six months I went back to work as a doctor for eight hours a week. After four years I was back to 40 hours. I realized the pace in the city would kill me eventually so I moved to rural Idaho and started a small clinic. Now I am up to 48 hours a week, and getting weaker again. But, there is a new chemotherapy on the near horizon (one year or so). After forty weeks of that I will likely be able to resume a fully active life. Then I will sell my clinic and resume my plan to hunt and fish all over the world until I die. Like many others on this forum, I drive a 1990 Nissan pickup truck (a newer 1991 Toyota 4WD for backcountry visits). Both have ~ 230,000 miles on them. I wear carhart pants and buy my shirts from e-bay. I own one pair of shoes and pay $400.00/month to rent a beat up farmmhouse with a wood stove for the winter and a swamp cooler for the summer.
Two points, both of which have already been made:
1. You can croak tomorrow, or experience a disabling disease or accident today. Go now. Hunt the world. Kill bad guys on Uncle Sam's nickel. Chase a few hot girls (they will go for you because you are exciting, and leave soon after when they realize you are poor ). Learn to fly fish. Kayak, climb or bicycle; whatever gets you going.
2. Nice cars, nice houses, nice clothes and nice meals don't mean anything. The cars will rust, the houses will be bulldozed down some day, the clothes will be thread bare and the food turns to shit in four hours or so. Being halfway up El Capitan on a climbing rope is indescribable, running a huge whaitewater rush is the ultimate thrill ride, dropping 500 or 2,000 pounds bombs, strafing or shooting missles - yeehaw!, making a neat double on quail is the definition of fulfillment. I hope and pray that I will be able to walk down Lord Derby Eland and Elephant in a few years. If I can, I will.

Like many others on this board, I am here because I can hang with like minded people. People with drive, imagination and the need to do these things. People that you won't find in your daily world.

People like me outnumber the wealthy on this board. Most of the (relatively) wealthy on this board got there by a life of very hard work.

I had a wife once. There were obviously other problems. When she realized I would always be poor, she skedaddled back to Chicago. If not, there would have come a day when she demanded that I not go to Africa so that I could buy here a BMW or a town house. She would have said that I was being selfish, and she would be right. Just as selfish as her. And then I would have left for Africa anyway, and never come back to her.

Decide how much all this stuff here means to you. This type of life is just as valid as going to church every Sunday, raising four kids and sending them to the best schools, and buying your wife silk panties to fart through when she knows you can't here.

Whew.

lawndart

I have 5 yrs to retirement. I will be done with my twenty got a good degree along the way wife finished college now and makes more than me. She bless her soul knows my vices. I have managed to buy two homes for rental properties. They will both be paid off before my retirement in 5. I will be a wonderful 38 and will be able to work as little or as much as I want.

Side note pick the right woman the hot sex will not keep you together forever. When asked by her friends why do you tolerate him taking off weeks at a time to hunt. Reply well I know he is out in the wilderness miles from a road chasing elk, deer, and bear. Isnt yours out at the bar tonight with his friends looking at women drinking ETOH.

29 yrs

37 in a month, and 6 trips since 2002

I am 30 years old and certainly not wealthy but know my priorities wich is hunting around the world in particular Zim and New Zealand.

I´ll be 46 this fall and I´m leaving for my fourth hunt in 10 days time! So far I´ve hunted plainsgame but looking to do some bigger things in -06 or -07.

Rich? Hardly. I work parttime as a GP for the military and parttime at my own clinic. I try too work nine months of the year, two months are spent hunting and one beekeeping. Then I dabble in writing and other things that won´t make me rich.

I had melanoma three yeras ago and that´s when I decided to start living -and I´ve kept that promise. Luckily I have an understanding family that also enjoy Africa, they´ll be joining me for my fifth hunt in March -06.

No fancy cars, no big house, no major investments -unless taxidermy counts!

Born 100 years to late in the wrong country...
The year should have been 1905 and I would be a Brittish Colonial Officer in India with a new appointment to Turkana or Uganda...

Now, I am 41 years, 6 times to The RSA

husky

53, been to Africa hunting 3 times. I always thought only the rich could afford to hunt Africa. A friend convinced me that if you don't pursue the dream, you'll regret it when you can't do it physically. This was shortly after his grandpa died and told him all the things he had wanted to do, but had put off. Since my second trip, I've had some injuries that could have ended my hunting altogether. I have persevered and made one more trip, don't know when I'll be able to make another.

Just turned 34

Like most here, I can say it has been about determination and priorities for me and not personal wealth. Sometimes, of course, we get nudged into changing these priorities. I had a personal cancer scare at age 27 after losing my father unexpectedly at age 20. "To hell with this mortality bullshit", I thought and went to RSA at age 29 and Zim. six months later. I finished my Ph.D. and got a job here in North Africa where I can hunt ducks and be closer to the action down south. Ironically, I am hunting North America this winter but nor before I bring down some Northern Shovelers and Green Winged Teal in the nearby oasis!

Best,

JohnTheGreek

I turned 30 last month and my son just turned one a week ago. I have not been on a safari yet.

Right now I work hard, my wife and I fund every type of retirement account we have to the legal max (401k, Roth IRA, Life Insurance and annunity) and the extra money goes into a taxable investment account, a 529 account for my son's college costs and a life insurance policy with a growing cash value in his name.

A safari for me is a long time away. But I figure if I work hard, made sound financial decisions, I will be able to go on bigger and better safaris when I'm older and have more money.

I would like my first safari to be for plains games when my son, now one, is about 12 and old enough to hunt. That will be the hunt of a life time for me.

65 last May - Been to RSA for plains game last year for the first time and can't quite see my having the money to do it again. I don't regret many things in my life and have wonderful memories of Africa that will be with me all the rest of my days. My wife went with me and I wouldn't have had it any other way. I will retire within the next six months and may be able to do it again but doubtful. Those who posted and esentially said, save today and experience the "good life" later are absolutely correct. I always lived for the moment until one day I discovered the possibilty of not being able to have what I wanted/needed. Don't follow my example. Save your money, the heck with new cars and all the trappings of the "American Way" (of debt). Take heart in the fact that, so far, a ten day African hunt for 4-6 species will be no more expensive than a 5-7 day Alaskan hunt for one. DO IT!

Going on 69 yrs old, and poor as a snake!

40. Three visits to the continent, with three safaris during two of them. First at 23, the last at 38.

I need to save for several years for each trip.

I'm 62. Been over there 17 times so far.

Work like a maniac for 6 months, then play for 6 months.

Live in an OLD house, drive a car with 138 K on it, owe nobody anything, just save all my money to hunt.

Take my lunch to work everyday, and take my wife out to for a burger once a week if she is lucky.

27, and my wife just turned 26, we just got back last week from RSA. I know I'll be back in the next 3 years.

I grew up in rual MT, and if you know anyting about Montana you'll know that the richest people in the country don't make a living there. My mom worked three jobs and raised three kids, my dad was a highschool teacher abd ran his small ranch in his "off" time. I would say that we were far from "rich" other than in life.

I went to engineering school on scholarships, and worked good jobs in the summer to pay for board and books. My school wasn't that expensive either. I got just as good of an education as the guys that I work with that spent 10 times as much. I graduated owing the bank $7000 for a truck that I bought at graduation and that was it. I'm not sure if I'm lucky or smart because the degree I got lets me work anywhere in the world, AND I can find work anywhere if I look... I got a good job, and married a woman that is smarter and makes more money than me... not sure who the smart one is though. We don't drive new cars (4 and 5 years old), didn't buy a big house (actually bought a fixer upper), don't have expensive toys like boats or ATV's, and don't carry any floating debt such as credit cards... Don't waste exhorbinate amounts of money dining out and playing on the weekends. We budget for trips and everything else for that mater and stick to it. We put $300+ a month into a vacation account. And when we have enough to go we take it out and go on vacation. I can't believe that some of my friends say "you must be loaded to go on an African trip" while we stand BS'ing leaning up against thier $45,000 pickups... that I'm sure the payment for has got to be pushing $600 a month...

Some months are a little tighter than others and when we have extra cash lying around, we split it equally between our vacation fund and retirement investments.

If you want to go make it happen. Even if you can only save $10-20 a week you can still go every few years. You'd be surprised if you cut out all the crap how fast you can save $20. Think about how much money you spent on the computer you're reading this on AND the internet connection... I use my computer at work and don't have internet at home, I know a lot of people can't do this though, but how did we make due before the age of the internet and cell phones??? I think the biggest thing is to make a budget and stick to it.

I'm 41 and have been on two safaris. My first was a 10-day plains game hunt in S. Africa and on the way home I was figuring out how to get back. The second trip was 21-days in Tanzania and it was a trip of a lifetime, but again I knew it wasn't enough. I have booked another 21-day safari to TZ for 2007. Fortunatley for me my wife also hunts, so I don't get any objections from her (she think's it is a magical place and who am I too argue). For us, it is something we both want to continue to experience and we make allowances in our lifestyle to make it happen. Personally I would rather collect memories than material stuff. Hunting in Africa has enriched our lives in many ways!

33 and hunting bull elephant in... 23-days!

I'm 48, and I started hunting Africa ten years ago. I have a Tanzanian hunt right around the corner, and another safari in Zimbabwe next August. I can't get enough of Africa, and I try to go every year if I can.

I have one African hunting philosophy: Spend as many days in the bush as you possibly can per safari, and take as much trophy fee money as you can possibly afford to spend. Airfare costs the same no matter if you go for seven days or 21 days (not counting charters), and you never know if you're going to be afforded the opportunity to go back. Some opportunities you'll NEVER be able to get back, so make the most of all you can possibly enjoy.

So hunt Africa as much as you can and take as many animals as you possibly can NOW. The world is changing fast, and that "someday" safari may never happen unless you make it happen as soon as you can.........

AD

44

Went to RSA last year and am heading to Zimbabwe next year. Kicking myself that I did not go this year.

Doug

50 and broke as I have 3 kids private schools and colleges

quote:

Originally posted by dogcat:
...broke as I have 3 kids private schools and colleges

My present and future.

42...First trip over there was this year....Got the bug as well and am endeavoring to return next season...Came to West Texas in '93 with 16.00 in my pocket and nuth'n else....Got busy, ain't rich, but can justify going out for a couple of weeks each year....live in very modest home, don't drive BMWs, drink cheap beer and work my ass off!

That's how this Texas Redneck gets over there!

Jeff

42, to Africa twice, but didn't hunt (not much hunting going on in Sudan when I was there). Technically I could grab the piggy bank and do one good safari, but realistically that would cost me much more in divorce settlements.

Frans

I'm 35 and haven't been there yet. I think I'm hooked, though, as buffalo and kudu are all I've been thinking about for a few years now.

I'll have to go in the next couple years, as long as hunting is still going on there...

66 and took first Africian Safari when I was 61 and have done 4 more. Now for the good part - I want to thank you young working guys and gals who are still working in the USA. I have not retired nor do I plan on retiring so my Social Security checks provide me with more than enough for my hunting needs. THANKS!

58 and been four times in last 4 years, with another booked for July, '06. We all differ in some respects, but I decided to wait till my daughter was out of college, house, cars etc. paid for and mine and wife's future financially secure. Justified the first trip in '01 as a once in a lifetime trip, get it out of my system, cheaper than an elk hunt type rational. Wrong ! As those on this forum that have been know, it's a damn addiction. By the way, been a cop for 38 years (now a Narcotics Task Force Commander) so I know something about addiction and modest income. My advice - go as soon as you reasonably can, hunting Africa is only getting more expensive with less and less areas to hunt. Good Luck.

A month shy of 36.

And I'm hoping for a Searcy in 470NE from all the AR members as a collective birthday present!