Seems like all the reports about African hunting has the parties coming back to camp each night. Anyone camp on the trail if the quarry you are after is still on the move? Is there a possibility that you could move off the concession you are on if you keep after the beast on the move? I would love to go to Africa to hunt but the driving around in a truck until you see animals rubs me the wrong way.

It isn't necessary to see animials but also tracks. There is a lot of area to cover. Isn't that the way most Pronghorn are hunted? You are going to do a hell of alot of walking to see a little game. Most PH's don't hunt near camp. In africa you can see game at very long destances and speen a good whil stalking them. If you want I am sure most PH' will walk you into the ground if that is what you want. As to moving off a concession it is like trespassing (well I guess that is what it is) and you don't do that in the western US do you.

Pegleg,

True camping on the trail of a large bull elephant is something I still dream about. But I'm afraid it will have to remain an unfulfilled dream.

I can and do offer hunting where you can drive in a sedan car to comfortable accommodation, but next morning you walk on your own two legs to where your Ph thinks - or knows- the animals are likely to be. You search for animals on foot, stalk on foot and shoot without any vehicle in sight at all.

The reply to the next logical questionis: Yes, we have grown soft! Once a trophy is down we use a cellular phone, or radio home, and ask for a 4X4 truck to come and pick us up. Or I sometimes just walk home and go get the 4X myself!

True ethical walk-in-search-of-a-trophy and hunt on foot IS STILL AN OPTION with some Hunting Outfitters. It is also the normal, but admittedly not the only, way that clients of Andrew McLaren Safaris hunt plains and dangerous game.

In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren.

I'd say at $250, to $1500 per day of daily fees, you don't want to take too many days following one animal, when the average 21 day tSafari will include as many a 15 to 20 animals. If you only spent one day for each animal, @ $250 per day= $5000 , or at $1500 per day=$ 30,000, for daily fees only.

I think when one considers the cost of time spent negates simply setting out from camp on foot! The car is used more the find tracks crossing the roads , and spotting game from a distance, that actually hunting, and transporting the animals to the skinning shed.

When game is spotted from a distance, the car is usually driven on for a mile or so, and the stalk starts from there.
I'm not saying some don't shoot from the Bakki, but I've never seen it personally, except where gathering bait for lion , or Leopard sets, or "CULLING!" meat for the camp!

I think if you intend doing everything on foot from camp, back to camp, you better bring a large sack full of $1000 bills, with you!

Gentlemen,

It is physically impossible to hunt some areas unless you drive along and look for game.

I have seen this in certain areas of the Selous.

Where one finds very large tracts of long grass, where it is impossible to track single animals

Several times this year, we had to give up following single buffalo bulls because they have gone into long grass.

In fact, sometimes even when we followed a herd in long grass, we had to stop and look which direction they had gone every now and then.

Most of the time we followed them by their droppings. Not by seeing their tracks.

Most true wilderness areas demand that you spend a fair amount of time in the truck - just to cover the ground..... that said, in the Selous this season, I was (fast) walking between 4 and 8 hours a day on the Buff hunts...... two seperate clients said they suspected me of being a war criminal as I was taking them on death marches. .... but we always got the Buff....... eventually!

I think Vaughan Fulton and a client spent 2 or 3 days on the track of a lion and slept on the ground and had only a few candy bars and a bottle of water for the duration. It wasn't planned that way but sh*t happens and yes they got a hugh black maned lion, the story was posted on here in 2004 I believe.

quote:

Originally posted by Pegleg:
Anyone camp on the trail if the quarry you are after is still on the move?

If you do that then the tracks you follow will probably be 12 hours old when you pick them up, giving you a decreased chance of catching up with the game. Usually it is better to find fresh tracks coming from a river or water hole first thing in the morning.

Also, if you did wish to follow the same tracks again in the morning, in many concessions you could drive to camp for a comfortable shower, dinner and snooze, and still be back on the same tracks in the morning.

Pegleg,

Walking a trail in Africa is like nothing here in the states...Just imagine you can hunt the entire county you live in..The only problem is that the temp is much highter...You will need to carry enough water for the whole day and not just a 10 to 15 K walk, tracking buf...Now you will need to have enough boys to carry water and to port out game harvested..
Hunted lion in the Selous this summer had to drive for 2.5 hrs to get to baited area...Now imagine walking that distance and back you would be worn out in a few days...

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Die Ou Jagter:
I think Vaughan Fulton and a client spent 2 or 3 days on the track of a lion and slept on the ground and had only a few candy bars and a bottle of water for the duration. It wasn't planned that way but sh*t happens and yes they got a hugh black maned lion, the story was posted on here in 2004 I believe.

That was Mrlexma and he did take a great lion.

If you want to walk more and ride less, tell the PH and I think they can usually accomodate you.

quote:

Originally posted by Pegleg:
Seems like all the reports about African hunting has the parties coming back to camp each night. Anyone camp on the trail if the quarry you are after is still on the move? Is there a possibility that you could move off the concession you are on if you keep after the beast on the move? I would love to go to Africa to hunt but the driving around in a truck until you see animals rubs me the wrong way.

Pegleg.

I agree with you and so do probably most of the posters, they just don't know it.

If I read your question you want camp moved every night and the ability to hunt to it. Rather than stay in a permanent camp.

Used to hunt that way in the Luangwa. A client, Ph and tracker/gun bearer would walk out of camp and we would move the camp, by vehicle, 10 to 12 miles to a prearranged site. This way the client got to deal with the real Africa, native villages and all. It worked great and the amount or quality of trophies seemed fine.

Now the areas were very game rich and this was almost 30 years ago but it is the way Africa should be hunted.

It could be done now except it takes a couple of things. A client in good shape with a good attitude and a PH willing to live in a bit rougher environment. Tent Camps.

It also takes an area with plentiful game.

quote:

Originally posted by Pegleg:
Seems like all the reports about African hunting has the parties coming back to camp each night. Anyone camp on the trail if the quarry you are after is still on the move? Is there a possibility that you could move off the concession you are on if you keep after the beast on the move? I would love to go to Africa to hunt but the driving around in a truck until you see animals rubs me the wrong way.

There are PH's that do this. You start at Point A and walk until you get to Point B 10 to 14 days later. And hope you see something to whack. Have at it Bwana. Doug Carlisle is one of the PH's that has done this pretty regularly.

We were ready to fly camp last month, if we found a reason, while hunting an elephant bull. Would have been matresses and nets, no tents. Unfortunately, we never had a good enough reason - read fresh enough, really good bull tracks.

JPK

Well if you've got the bucks, there is a safari company in Tanzania (help me out here gentelmen) who are offering a Roosevelt style completed footed safari with a long train of porters and camp tenders wandering over the Selous and other areas. They intend to do this once a year. Great stuff IFFFF you don't know what's in your checking account because you don't care. Tee hee.

We did. We spent 2 seperate, but not successive, nights outside of a village in the Omay. Did we have to? No. We could have, and did on most occasions, drive the 2.5 hours (minimum) back to the camp. I was asked and agreed to spend the night "in the bush". There are sounds out there you don't hear in camp. I can't tell you how it enhanced the experience of my hunt....but I'm glad we did it....it was just that....an experience that you'll get nowhere else. I'm glad the 'ol skeeters were'nt bad, though.

Gary
DRSS
NRA Lifer

Yellowstone,

They'll still be bound by law to remain within the "confines" of their allocated block(s) as defined ib their lease...........

Doug Carlisle and Nick Murray are two PHs that specialize in back pack fly camp hunts in the Zambezi Valley of Zimbabwe for most game animals.
I try to spend a night or two out in Bed rolls during a Safari which create a memrable experiance, one not easily forgotten.
ozhunter

Muhvimi who occasionally posts on the back packing forum offers full on dangerous game back pack safaris in the Chewore North concession.

It is getting more difficult though as the new generation parks game scouts are afraid to sleep out!

quote:

Originally posted by ozhunter:
I try to spend a night or two out in Bed rolls during a Safari which create a memrable experiance, one not easily forgotten.
ozhunter

In my case, not easily REMEMBERED, because I will not be in a sleeping bag on the ground in Africa. Sleeping on the ground with Brown bears of Alaska, is quite enough for me!

quote:

Originally posted by Ganyana:
Muhvimi who occasionally posts on the back packing forum offers full on dangerous game back pack safaris in the Chewore North concession.

Andy Hunter: http://www.chipitanisafaris.com/

FROM THE WEBSITE: "With a limited road network and beautiful rugged terrain, much of the area is inaccessible by vehicle. We invite you to test your pioneering spirit and hunt elephant and buffalo in this vast wilderness, the real way - on foot with a backpack. Chewore is inundated with remote, perennial springs where these great beasts often retreat. Sleeping under the stars is an exciting experience with only a mosquito net around you. Climb mountain peeks and spend hours gazing at the maze of valleys in this wild piece of Zimbabwe."