On my hunt in May 2009 plains game to Botswana I did everything I wanted and it turned out great. I now also have a true grip on all the costs involved. Basically I break it down as the following.

Airfare $1,500-$2,500
Daily rate $300-$1,200 per day
Tips $1,000-$1,500
Dip and pack $500-$800
Shipping Trophies home $2,000-$2,500
Taxidermy $500-$5,000
Trophy fees $4,000-$10,000
Road Transfers $500
Rifle Import fees $200

When it was all said and done a $5,000-$6,000 plains game hunt was pretty god damn close to $20,000.

The real killer is the shipping of the trophies home for approx $2,400 and Taxidermy of roughly $4,600.

If my math is right shooting tuskless cows, even with the sky high daily rates, ends up being a good value hunt when you eliminate dip and pack, shipping home and taxidermy. Problem is I don't see myself ONLY shooting a cow elephant while over there and that adds the dip and pack, shipping home and taxidermy. Even if I go European mounts I still have shipping and dip and pack.

What tips do you have to keep the costs in check?

Never add up the total cost, just do it and don't worry about it.

Geoff:
1. Book the hunt directly. The 15% the company pays to the agent should be credited to you.
2. Look for your own dip and pack company in Africa. Most pay a kick back to the PH for the business. Look around yourself and negotiate the costs yourself.
3. European mounts cost less as: no taxidermy (you can do these yourself), less weight and size of the crate to ship over, less costs as no hides to dip and pack.
4. Hunt with company that does not charge for road transfers. Many still do not charge.
5. Only tip if the hunt is to your 100% satisfaction. A poor hunt = less tip.
6. Tip the camp staff directly. I know of PHs who keep the tip money and tell the staff the client was a cheap bastard.
7. Use miles and/or fly at low volume times of the year. Example: I have returned on Christmas day and nearly no one flies that day. Fares are lower. Or, hunt before the high season and pay less in April than in June.
8. Borrow the PHs extra rifle and leave yours at home.
9. Try a cull hunt. Every thing's cheaper.
10. Big one--wait to December and buy unsold permits. If the PH can't sell them by year's end, he will have to eat them. Savings up to 50% I have seen!
11. Look for sea freight rather than air freight for the trophies. I have saved 2/3 on some crates!
12. Shop around. As I write this, Zim buffalo are between 7200$ and nearly 15,000$.
Cheers,
Cal

get into a poker game with the taxidermist - and cheat
don't forget all the money doesn't get paid out at the same time. all totaled it will take a couple or years

quote:

get into a poker game with the taxidermist - and cheat

I wouldn't bet anything with a taxidermist that I could not take off the table before I leave.

Skip the taxidermy....take lots of digital pics.

I get the same mental lift looking at pics as the mounts.

quote:

Originally posted by cal pappas:
Geoff:
1. Book the hunt directly. The 15% the company pays to the agent should be credited to you.
2. Look for your own dip and pack company in Africa. Most pay a kick back to the PH for the business. Look around yourself and negotiate the costs yourself.
3. European mounts cost less as: no taxidermy (you can do these yourself), less weight and size of the crate to ship over, less costs as no hides to dip and pack.
4. Hunt with company that does not charge for road transfers. Many still do not charge.
5. Only tip if the hunt is to your 100% satisfaction. A poor hunt = less tip.
6. Tip the camp staff directly. I know of PHs who keep the tip money and tell the staff the client was a cheap bastard.
7. Use miles and/or fly at low volume times of the year. Example: I have returned on Christmas day and nearly no one flies that day. Fares are lower. Or, hunt before the high season and pay less in April than in June.
8. Borrow the PHs extra rifle and leave yours at home.
9. Try a cull hunt. Every thing's cheaper.
10. Big one--wait to December and buy unsold permits. If the PH can't sell them by year's end, he will have to eat them. Savings up to 50% I have seen!
11. Look for sea freight rather than air freight for the trophies. I have saved 2/3 on some crates!
12. Shop around. As I write this, Zim buffalo are between 7200$ and nearly 15,000$.
Cheers,
Cal

+ 100% Too many people put this in the too hard basket and all it takes is time and organisation.

quote:

Geoff:
1. Book the hunt directly. The 15% the company pays to the agent should be credited to you.
You might want to consider that a safari company that will give you a discount to circumvent an agent therefore jeopardizing their long term realtionship with an agent for short term gain might be be inclined to treat a client with same regard.
2. Look for your own dip and pack company in Africa. Most pay a kick back to the PH for the business. Look around yourself and negotiate the costs yourself.
How does a novice know how to choose a dip/pack outfit? There is alot more to dip/pack than just price. It would seem to me that the outfit the safari operator has had a good relationship with for years would be the logical choice. Even better would be the outfit that does their own dip/pack.
3. European mounts cost less as: no taxidermy (you can do these yourself), less weight and size of the crate to ship over, less costs as no hides to dip and pack.
Euro mounts are cheaper and with some animals they look very nice.
4. Hunt with company that does not charge for road transfers. Many still do not charge.
Your going to pay for the road transfer one way or another.
5. Only tip if the hunt is to your 100% satisfaction. A poor hunt = less tip.
It would be an unusual safari that was 100% satisfactory in all respects but there is no need to tip big if you think your trip was sub par but if it was a mess which is unlikely you are not obligated to tip at all.
6. Tip the camp staff directly. I know of PHs who keep the tip money and tell the staff the client was a cheap bastard.
If you don't trust your PH to tip the staff appopriately you had better not book with him.
7. Use miles and/or fly at low volume times of the year. Example: I have returned on Christmas day and nearly no one flies that day. Fares are lower. Or, hunt before the high season and pay less in April than in June.
Credit card miles are the way to get to Africa.
8. Borrow the PHs extra rifle and leave yours at home.
I just don't agree with this at all. His rifle spare is often a POS.
9. Try a cull hunt. Every thing's cheaper.
I've never understood going to Africa to shoot crap trophies on purpose. Non trophy buffalo and eles being the exception.
10. Big one--wait to December and buy unsold permits. If the PH can't sell them by year's end, he will have to eat them. Savings up to 50% I have seen!
Cheap possibly. 115 degrees and showers most likely.
11. Look for sea freight rather than air freight for the trophies. I have saved 2/3 on some crates!
Definitely cheaper although I've never tried it.
12. Shop around. As I write this, Zim buffalo are between 7200$ and nearly 15,000$.
A $7,200 hunt is not equal to $15,000 hunt. I promise you that.
Cheers,
Cal

Geoff,

If you book a hunt far below the average cost you will get a far below average hunt.

Mark

Drink water and not beer or whiskey, dont eat out, dont eat meat, dont smoke, round up each transsaction to the next dollar and deposit the difference in a cookie jar... make craigslist your new best friend and get rid of all that shit laying around your garage...etc etc etc

May sound like a joke but it's not.

I have done it both ways and Mark's suggest is the best. I would rather pay a little too much for what I want and get it than paying too little and getting nothing but problems and grief.

You get what you pay for in life.

Don't bother selling your shit on Craigslist. Always pick out a top shelf operator in a good area. But first and foremost you will need to knock over a Federal Reserve Bank to the tune of 500k to 3 million$$. Stash this in a very safe place and lay low while you start making your safari plans. Wire the money in 5-8k increments to your agent/safari operator. When things start looking cool PM me with the stash place so that I can watch over it while you are away on safari.Trust me when you get back everything will be fine.Just tryin to help.
Wesley

If there were a way to hunt Africa on the real cheap, everybody would be doing it.

You can save some money, but you pay peanuts . . . you might get monkeys.

Can you afford a total bust? Will you be happy if the hunt is a failure? Time away from work and family cannot be replaced. Transportation costs cannot be refunded. Will you go back and try again. What is the real cost of two or three cheap hunts compared to one top hunt?

The difference in day rate is the principal difference between most hunts in the same country for the same species. TFs are comparable (sometimes equal), charter costs are the same deal. If the difference in the "best" and the "not best" is $300 per day, I'm going with the best. That's less than 5k difference on a 15 day hunt.

quote:

Corners to cut to get to Africa for less money

note; G-E-O-F-F-M-2-4, I will be watching the Hunt reports

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
1. Book the hunt directly. The 15% the company pays to the agent should be credited to you.
You might want to consider that a safari company that will give you a discount to circumvent an agent therefore jeopardizing their long term realtionship with an agent for short term gain might be be inclined to treat a client with same regard.

+1

Using a booking agent should not cost you anything, and should give you quite a few great benefits.

An reputable outfit will have one price whether you book with an agent or not. The outfits that do book clients through agents(most do)
are willing to pay 15% because they get more clients and less hassle.

I have booked direct and through an agent, and would be happy to do it either way again.

I would not want to deal with an outfit that charged extra to book through an agent.

The only way I can see that you can cut some corners and still have a good hunt is by not having any taxidermy made, and by trying to see how to save on your air ticket.

Anything else, and you WILL be cutting corners, and as a result, your hunt is not going to be as you might have wished it to be.

As Mark mentioned, ANY outfitter who will give you a discount because you booked directly with him is being dishonest, and should not be trusted.

I think Saeed is almost totally correct.

One place that I think you can cut corners and still have a great hunt is to book with an outfit that caters to European hunters.

As an example, many farms in Namibia take out mostly German hunters. They often spend little on advertising(shows and printed material) and get most of their business through word-of-mouth. Their prices are often far cheaper than outfits that utilize the American market

First, being thrifty is not necessarily being cheap, so it doesn't hurt to look around. If there is quota left towards the end of season which must be paid for anyway, sometimes there are substantial discounts. Like Mark also says, professionalism has a cost, but sure provides peace of mind that everything will go well. If an air charter is involved, talk to the outfitter about an extra day on either end at observer rate, in order to share a charter - $300 spent vs. $1000 saved is another trophy fee. Hunt harder game with smaller trophy fees (hyena, really big impala, honey badger, civet, etc). Like some have said, minimize the taxidermy and take lots of photos with an excellent camera and have blown up. Go with a well-respected shipper who has it down pat, and gets it done properly the first time (Andy Hunter in Zim). The tuskless hunt is probably one of my greatest hunts ever, with 200+ elephants seen in 2 weeks.

I see all these end of season or late season deals, I keep thinking that what I'd love to do is save up the money (as I understand the bulk needs to be cash, which kills my idea of charging my safari and paying it off over the years after ) and then jump on one of those. Fortunately, right now, I have enough flexibility in my life/job that I could schedule a bit shorter notice. (I am down to 25 days of vacation time )

The other thing I'd like to do would be just get leather made of the skins, then over the years I could have other things made out of the leather. But no trophies at all. if there were a good tanner there in country I think it could be a great savings.

Red

I have found you can live quite well with only one or part of your Kidney or Liver.

quote:

Originally posted by JBrown:
I think Saeed is almost totally correct.

One place that I think you can cut corners and still have a great hunt is to book with an outfit that caters to European hunters.

As an example, many farms in Namibia take out mostly German hunters. They often spend little on advertising(shows and printed material) and get most of their business through word-of-mouth. Their prices are often far cheaper than outfits that utilize the American market

And if they take out mostly Germans they don't expect much in the way of tips. At least that is what I was told while in Africa.

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:

quote:

Geoff:
1. Book the hunt directly. The 15% the company pays to the agent should be credited to you.
You might want to consider that a safari company that will give you a discount to circumvent an agent therefore jeopardizing their long term realtionship with an agent for short term gain might be be inclined to treat a client with same regard.
2. Look for your own dip and pack company in Africa. Most pay a kick back to the PH for the business. Look around yourself and negotiate the costs yourself.
How does a novice know how to choose a dip/pack outfit? There is alot more to dip/pack than just price. It would seem to me that the outfit the safari operator has had a good relationship with for years would be the logical choice. Even better would be the outfit that does their own dip/pack.
3. European mounts cost less as: no taxidermy (you can do these yourself), less weight and size of the crate to ship over, less costs as no hides to dip and pack.
Euro mounts are cheaper and with some animals they look very nice.
4. Hunt with company that does not charge for road transfers. Many still do not charge.
Your going to pay for the road transfer one way or another.
5. Only tip if the hunt is to your 100% satisfaction. A poor hunt = less tip.
It would be an unusual safari that was 100% satisfactory in all respects but there is no need to tip big if you think your trip was sub par but if it was a mess which is unlikely you are not obligated to tip at all.
6. Tip the camp staff directly. I know of PHs who keep the tip money and tell the staff the client was a cheap bastard.
If you don't trust your PH to tip the staff appopriately you had better not book with him.
7. Use miles and/or fly at low volume times of the year. Example: I have returned on Christmas day and nearly no one flies that day. Fares are lower. Or, hunt before the high season and pay less in April than in June.
Credit card miles are the way to get to Africa.
8. Borrow the PHs extra rifle and leave yours at home.
I just don't agree with this at all. His rifle spare is often a POS.
9. Try a cull hunt. Every thing's cheaper.
I've never understood going to Africa to shoot crap trophies on purpose. Non trophy buffalo and eles being the exception.
10. Big one--wait to December and buy unsold permits. If the PH can't sell them by year's end, he will have to eat them. Savings up to 50% I have seen!
Cheap possibly. 115 degrees and showers most likely.
11. Look for sea freight rather than air freight for the trophies. I have saved 2/3 on some crates!
Definitely cheaper although I've never tried it.
12. Shop around. As I write this, Zim buffalo are between 7200$ and nearly 15,000$.
A $7,200 hunt is not equal to $15,000 hunt. I promise you that.
Cheers,
Cal

Geoff,

If you book a hunt far below the average cost you will get a far below average hunt.

Mark

Well said. Guided hunts, anywhere in the world, are not something I care to cut corners on. I would rather take 3 outstanding hunts then 5 average ones. I'm sure not everyone will agree, but that's my take on it.

If you really love to hunt Africa, spend your energy figuring out how to make more money instead of eating hamburger helper for five years.

I agree with everything Mark said. I don't count my taxidermy bill as part of the hunt. I want a high taxidermy bill - it means I shot a lot of good stuff!

Eliminating taxidermy, dip and pack is your biggest savings. Take lots of good photos.

Renting a rifle from your PH won't save you any money, but it will make your travel easier.

Get a good 375 and sell everything else.

Despite what Mark says, cull hunts are lots of fun with great shooting action and very reasonably priced. You will still have a great African experience.

Waiting to end of season and being able to leave on short notice is a great way to save on the daily rate, but not much else. Still very worth it.

I just did a 10 day double tuskless hunt (Sept)with no other animals taken and the costs is comparable to that plains game hunt that starts out being $ 6,000.

You'll notice all the third partys that make a living out of charging a fee for services are all saying spend, spend. It's like the meet and greet services, they exist on the self doubts of those unwilling to make the effort themselves.

As someone said, being thrifty is not being cheap and you can have a good hunt without paying a P/H to go to the big Safari shows. It costs to go to those shows and it costs to advertise. We the consumer pay for that, not the provider.

Lots of Safari operators survive very nicely without the need to add or pay 15% here and 5% there and big note on the web.

I must say, I'm in a similar dilema and have been asking the same question of how to save money on my next safari. Here's what I've devised as a plan if I go agian.

1. I would definately go with the same PH, mine was outstanding and repeat business has to be worth something.

2. I shot most of the animals on my wish list the first time around. On the second trip I would limit my trophies to only a couple. I don't have a need for a huge cluttered up trophy room, I just want a few nice examples of my trophies. No more than two shoulder mounts. I will concentrate on only huge examples and quality hunting opportunities.

3. I will look into cull hunts. I believe you can do them in the off season and you get to do a lot of quality shooting and hunting for the money. I don't know much about cull hunting but if you can shoot more animals for less money, I'm all for it.

4. I will hunt for part of the time and go sight seeing for the rest of the time. I think an 8-10 day hunt plus another 5 days of sight seeing would be great. That's about twice as long as I really should take off of work but it's also the minimum time that I would ever recommend for Africa. A month would be better, but not in the cards for me.

5. I am not a wealthy man. I work very hard for my money and I worry more about value than I do the bottom dollar cost. On my first trip I sold an older Jeep that was a toy to me, this generated most of the money that I spent on my trip. The experience was worth 10x the material value of that Jeep, mho. I also sold some rifles and other things. My point is, the poster that suggested craigslist and eating beans and cheese for the next year is spot on. Get rid of the crap that you no longer use and put it on your next hunt.


On my first hunt, I had a dip and pack bill waiting for me when I got home for $800. The last thing I wanted was to wire more money to Africa right away upon my arrival home. Now I just got another bill for $1300 for shipping. Next I'll have to pay the importer and the taxidermist. Do I have any regrets, hell no. Would I take more quality pictures and ship less hides next time, hell yes.

quote:

Tip the camp staff directly. I know of PHs who keep the tip money and tell the staff the client was a cheap bastard.

+1

I do not regret on dime I spent on my hunt and I would do it again in a heart beat. you get what you pay for!! is as true now as it ever was. I personally have meet a man who has shopped for the cheapest of everything on five hunts and he was not happy with any of them. I had a choice so I bought less expensive rifles and did not buy the 100 dollar ammo pouch, the designer shoes and clothes etc. that some folks seam to think you can't live with out. remington shoot as straight as rigby at one 1/10 the cost. You can save money without cutting corners where it counts JMO

Thanks for some of the great points. I probably should have worded the post slightly different by saying reducing wasteful and foolish spending like shipping home a whole Eland hide and then not using it.

Here are some of the reasons for my thinking.

1) I'd like to go with some friends and I do much better then most of them financially. It seems like once you get to the $2,500 point the guys willing to pay more then that to hunt drops off dramatically. Sure guys will pay more for Africa but not 10 times more. I always say I have friends who hunt and I have friends who have money but I don't have many friends who hunt AND have money.
2) The more value I squeak out the more often I can go.
3) The experience is what I crave so spending $6,000 on shipping and taxidermy is hard to swallow. I love my mounts, I just don't love them $6,000 worth.
4) The planning stage for me is some of the most fun so booking a last minute hunt might take away a lot of the fun of dreaming about Africa for a year and a half. Saving 20-40% on a hunt might be worth it though.
5) Most people would love to pay for a head or two to be mounted each year but getting 7 animals at once is just too much all at once.
6) Everything in life has an opportunity cost. I have a buddy that is a prison guard who saves every penny to hunt and works tons of extra shifts. He works his ass off to be able to hunt. The problem is that comes with great costs, he loses countless hours away from the family, that money could go towards retirement, home improvements, a FAMILY vacation etc. My wife is very supportive of my hunting and my family does not go without but if she could vote she'd take 2 first class trips to Europe or Hawaii over one African safari for me every time. Since I'd like to stay married I consider the whole picture.

So getting back on topic a Tuskless cow might be the ticket and if I shoot anything just have the skulls sent home? I assume skulls could be send via ship where my skins where flown over?

To increase the value I get for my African hunting there are a few things I do.

Don't be tempted to go with the to good to be true offer unless it's with an outfit you absolutely know you can trust.

Book directly with the safari company and don't be afraid to negotiate. If you are dealing with a reputable safari company they'll either give you a discount or not and you should get the same experience either way.

Only bring back pictures and apply what would have been the trophy shipping and taxidermy fees towards your next hunt.

I'm one of those guys that has to budget his money and spend it wisely. One thing is you need to be dedicated to a particular target.

I book 18-24 months in advance of when I want to hunt. This gives me my goal and target. Therefore, I know exactly what the costs are going to be for, in general terms, for this trip and the animals wanted. Also, this will set the cost of those animals, which my go up in price with the 2 years booking time and when the hunt takes place.

I've got a specific amount of money I set aside every month for my hunting. I don't ever get into that money and it always goes into the savings account. These funds also pay for the taxidermy, dip/pack, shipping, etc. Once one trip is paid for, including taxidermy, etc. and I have a sufficient amount of money for the deposit, I book my next hunt and it starts again.

Good luck!

quote:

Skip the taxidermy....take lots of digital pics.

Or get somebody like "Big Five Productions" to Video your hunt. Much cheaper than Head Mounts and takes up a lot less room. Also much easier to dispose of when no longer needed. Plus you can re-live the whole hunt when you watch it. Just my .02 cents worth.

Larry: Hadn't thought of it that way ... but what if my shooting is crappy?

quote:

Originally posted by GeoffM24:
On my hunt in May 2009 plains game to Botswana I did everything I wanted and it turned out great. I now also have a true grip on all the costs involved. Basically I break it down as the following.

Airfare $1,500-$2,500
Daily rate $300-$1,200 per day
Tips $1,000-$1,500
Dip and pack $500-$800
Shipping Trophies home $2,000-$2,500
Taxidermy $500-$5,000
Trophy fees $4,000-$10,000
Road Transfers $500
Rifle Import fees $200

When it was all said and done a $5,000-$6,000 plains game hunt was pretty god damn close to $20,000.

The real killer is the shipping of the trophies home for approx $2,400 and Taxidermy of roughly $4,600.

If my math is right shooting tuskless cows, even with the sky high daily rates, ends up being a good value hunt when you eliminate dip and pack, shipping home and taxidermy. Problem is I don't see myself ONLY shooting a cow elephant while over there and that adds the dip and pack, shipping home and taxidermy. Even if I go European mounts I still have shipping and dip and pack.

What tips do you have to keep the costs in check?

Aside from the fact that hunting tuskless cows
is one of the most exciting hunts the additional
advantage is not have to pay for dip and pack taxidermy and shipping of the trophies.
20 K US$ is quite a LOT of money for a plainsgame hunt. Why don't you hunt in Zimbabwe or Namibia where such hunts are cheaper?
Cheers, Hans

quote:

Originally posted by HJ wild:

quote:

Originally posted by GeoffM24:
On my hunt in May 2009 plains game to Botswana I did everything I wanted and it turned out great. I now also have a true grip on all the costs involved. Basically I break it down as the following.

Airfare $1,500-$2,500
Daily rate $300-$1,200 per day
Tips $1,000-$1,500
Dip and pack $500-$800
Shipping Trophies home $2,000-$2,500
Taxidermy $500-$5,000
Trophy fees $4,000-$10,000
Road Transfers $500
Rifle Import fees $200

When it was all said and done a $5,000-$6,000 plains game hunt was pretty god damn close to $20,000.

The real killer is the shipping of the trophies home for approx $2,400 and Taxidermy of roughly $4,600.

If my math is right shooting tuskless cows, even with the sky high daily rates, ends up being a good value hunt when you eliminate dip and pack, shipping home and taxidermy. Problem is I don't see myself ONLY shooting a cow elephant while over there and that adds the dip and pack, shipping home and taxidermy. Even if I go European mounts I still have shipping and dip and pack.

What tips do you have to keep the costs in check?

Aside from the fact that hunting tuskless cows
is one of the most exciting hunts the additional
advantage is not have to pay for dip and pack taxidermy and shipping of the trophies.
20 K US$ is quite a LOT of money for a plainsgame hunt. Why don't you hunt in Zimbabwe or Namibia where such hunts are cheaper?
Cheers, Hans

It wasn't really much more where I hunted in Botswana. Daily rate was only $350 or so and the trophy fees were siimliar to Namibia. What killed the budget was the airfare at $2,800 (oil was $150 a barrel and I didn't want to fly through RSA), shipping back to the States and then shipping to my Taxidermist was $2,400 (air was the ONLY option). Taxidermy was $4,600 for 4 shoulder mounts and 3 European mounts. Namibia probably would have been $2,000 less.

The hunt portion of daily rate and trophy fees weren't too bad but that isn't the whole cost of a safari. If I include the day room in Frankfurt, ammo costs getting ready for the safari, money spent in Frankfurt to and from, clothes, gear, videos, books the total cost just soars.

quote:

8. Borrow the PHs extra rifle and leave yours at home.

I cant recomand this.

If you can be happy with pics, some capes and some euro mounts, you will save a ton of money over shoulder/full body mounts. I did the euro/capes thing in 2008. For 2011, we are having the hunt filmed, and I have no intention[at this time ] of shipping anything home.


Mad Dog

Geoff,

I hear ya on the friends/$$/hunting thing. It's why I have always hunted solo.
I'm a last minute hunter. Really good bargains but have found the weather usually sucks. Have yet to be disappointed in the quality of game though.
On cull hunts, I just haven't been able to bring myself to doing that. Too much time and already have a pretty good investment to shoot something nobody else wants. Would rather wait and save some more $$ to go after what I really want.
Airline miles blow. Never have been able to redeem them for a trip to Africa.
Taxidermy is just plain expensive. I have been warming up to Euros though. Shoulder mounts take up too much room and the cost....
Using someone else's rifle doesn't work for me. It's like driving your little sister's car.
Booking agents are like last minute hunts. There are good ones and bad ones. The regular posters on here ie Aaron Neilson, Mark Young and Wendell Reich I would trust. But if you have followed AR for any length of time you shouldn't have much problem doing it on your own.

And lastly, if you think it's expensive to hunt Africa now just wait 10 years.

quote:

I'm one of those guys that has to budget his money and spend it wisely. One thing is you need to be dedicated to a particular target.

I book 18-24 months in advance of when I want to hunt. This gives me my goal and target. Therefore, I know exactly what the costs are going to be for, in general terms, for this trip and the animals wanted. Also, this will set the cost of those animals, which my go up in price with the 2 years booking time and when the hunt takes place.

I've got a specific amount of money I set aside every month for my hunting. I don't ever get into that money and it always goes into the savings account. These funds also pay for the taxidermy, dip/pack, shipping, etc. Once one trip is paid for, including taxidermy, etc. and I have a sufficient amount of money for the deposit, I book my next hunt and it starts again.

Good luck!

Graybird

This is how you do it. I could not have said it better myself and this is almost exactly how I've handle most of my own safaris. You have to make a plan and stick to it.

Mark

quote:

7. Use miles and/or fly at low volume times of the year. Example: I have returned on Christmas day and nearly no one flies that day. Fares are lower. Or, hunt before the high season and pay less in April than in June.
Credit card miles are the way to get to Africa.

Mark,

I know I am probably ignorant...but could you please explain to me how to get credit card miles? PM me if you think irrelevent to thread.

Lane,

Several credit cards offer miles for each dollar you spend. I personally use a Bank of America card that gives me mileage on Alaska Air and its partners. I put 99% of what I spend on everything on the card. I pay an anuual fee of $75.00 and completley pay off my balance most every month. I find that Sadie and I can go to Africa almost free business class about every other year. I call that a heck of a deal.

Some airlines make it quite difficult to almost impossible to redeem your miles but I've had excellent luck with Alaska Air and their partner British Air.

I have not been able to use mileage on every trip because things some time come up too quickly but I think we've done 9 business class trips on our mileage. If you figure what a businees class ticket costs we have saved a pile of money that could go toward trophy fees.

Mark