Just wanted to share some stories from my RSA-experience in 2001, and hear about your opinions. First of all I want to say that I know that you can`t really predict all the aspects of a safari, but I`m a little bit disappointed about this trip. I hunted for 7 days along the Limpopo river in Northern Province. The area where thick thornbush, which of course makes the hunting more difficult. The terrain it self was a littlebit boring. No valleys, no rocky outcrops, no hills.. Just thick bush (with small openings here and there). But that`s no what`s negative. I think their population of animals was a little bit low, and good trophies all most missing. In these 7 days I shot two small warthogs, two young (and small impalas), one female blesbuck and one young/small steenbuck. My bag didn`t even include one mediocre trophy. Of course this could have been bad luck. I went along with two friends. One of them was a bowhunter, who shot a small impala and the other was another rifleman. His bag was a small impala, two warthogs (one pretty good and one small), a small kudu (35-40"), one steenbuck (a little bit bigger than mine) and a beautiful bushbuck (17-18"). So he got at least a couple of nice trophies..
We were told that we couldn`t shot red hartebeest or eland, because they wanted to increase their populations first.
Anyone experienced the same..? What do you think?

I know that a great part of hunting is luck, but..
This was neither a cheap safari. At the end I would like to say that we had a wonderful time anyway. The staff and people there were great! And Africa..I`ll be back!

Anders,

What were you led to believe regarding game availability and trophy quality?

There are mechanisms in place to protect clients, but only if there was some misrepresentation of malfeasance on the part of the operator or PH.

By the way, you should not have shot such inferior specimens. These are more in line with bait or biltong quality.

George

Anders,

I agree with George, it sounds more like a cull hunt than a trophy hunt.

What animals did you have on your "wish list"? Zebra, eland, wildebeest, kudu, waterbuck? Surely you were after more than impala and warthog.

Regards,

Terry

After talking with the operator before booking, at least I had a lot of expectations. Maybee I should have asked more about trophy quality..? I don`t really know if I did. But I have to say that I wasn`t really sure what to look for and what to ask about.. But I certainly paid for a trophy hunt (about 4000USD for 7 days hunting, travel and trophy-fees). It was the first time I was about to hunt outside of Norway, and I wanted to use a norwegian operator to avoid unpleasant situations. So I made some telephones here and there, and talked to people who had hunted there before. Nobody gave nothing but good critism. Before I went to RSA, and also while I was there, I hadn`t really made up my mind about what I wanted to shoot. It was my first African-experience, and all of the animals were really similar in interest. But I guess that should have increased my chances of getting better trophies..?
It`s 1,5 years ago now, so it`s to late to get some money back anyhow..
But when I look at pictures and hear stories from people I know, who`s been to Africa, I feel that my hard-earned student-economy could have been used better..
Anyhow I had a great hunt! My trophies, a couple of shouldermounts and horns/skull, are suposed to be here any day, and they are nice memories of my first African hunt!
Next time I hope to be better informed before I book. I`m planning a trip to Namibia next year. I have read some information about Boet Nel Hunting Safaris which sounds good, so we`ll see..
Thanks so far!