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One of Us |
Just home from South Africa and we were fortunate enough to bow hunt one of the most amazing places we've ever been. Yes it was a high fenced national park but inside that 65,000 acres was a totally natural environment where all of the animals are self sustaining and lions form and hunt in prides and rhinos and elephants and cape buffalo roam . For those that believe all high fenced areas in Africa are canned you really need to think again. Hunting is used strictly as a management tool to control population numbers in the park and operates alongside photographic safaris. Due to the unique nature of this park and the high population of rhinos we were asked not to reveal its name nor location but this is a true jewel in South Africa and a bow-hunting only paradise. We consider ourselves blessed to have experienced it. If you are looking at a bow hunting safari in Africa, this is the real deal. Thanks so much to Gerrie Theron of Theron African Safaris Pty Ltd. for sharing this with us!       | ||
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| One of Us |
We had this black rhino within 5 yards of the blind one day...it was a bit intense.  | |||
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I imagine someone will come alone and say this is not a wild hunt...it won't be me! The BVC has a double electrified high fence around the perimeter of its 850,000 acres. Someone will probably claim the BVC is not wild. Different strokes.... Glad you had a great hunt! Tim 0351 USMC | |||
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We've done many true free-range hunts in Africa and that's why I specified it was fenced but once inside it could quite easily be wild Africa. No put and take. No released lions. All animals living together as they would anywhere in wild Africa. | |||
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Congratulations on a wonderful hunt and your truthful evaluation. Cal _______________________________ Cal Pappas, Willow, Alaska www.CalPappas.com www.CalPappas.blogspot.com 1994 Zimbabwe 1997 Zimbabwe 1998 Zimbabwe 1999 Zimbabwe 1999 Namibia, Botswana, Zambia--vacation 2000 Australia 2002 South Africa 2003 South Africa 2003 Zimbabwe 2005 South Africa 2005 Zimbabwe 2006 Tanzania 2006 Zimbabwe--vacation 2007 Zimbabwe--vacation 2008 Zimbabwe 2012 Australia 2013 South Africa 2013 Zimbabwe 2013 Australia 2016 Zimbabwe 2017 Zimbabwe 2018 South Africa 2018 Zimbabwe--vacation 2019 South Africa 2019 Botswana 2019 Zimbabwe vacation 2021 South Africa 2021 South Africa (2nd hunt a month later) ______________________________ | |||
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Looks like a great place. Thanks for sharing.  Roger ___________________________ I'm a trophy hunter - until something better comes along. *we band of 45-70ers* | |||
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Yes you can fence in the wild and these large properties can offer outstanding hunting. We are seeing here some fences going up but mainly to demarcate land and to halt encroachment. More like a cordon than ring fence. Some good looking animals there and well done. ROYAL KAFUE LTD Email - kafueroyal@gmail.com Tel/Whatsapp (00260) 975315144 Instagram - kafueroyal | |||
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very nice TJ. Glad you guys had a good trip. Good Hunting, Tim Herald Worldwide Trophy Adventures tim@trophyadventures.com | |||
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Congrats to the OP. And I have been to Zim once and SA twice. Yes you can have a wild experience in a high fence situation. NRA Patron member | |||
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Congratulations on the hunt and the assessment of the property. Even the rocks don't last forever. | |||
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Looks like a great bow hunt! Congrats! | |||
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| one of us |
I am glad that you had a great time. Wild Africa? I really do not know what to say. | |||
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| One of Us |
really like the sable and seeing one like that in open congrats ... im a bowhunter too and i appreciate your honesty. | |||
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| One of Us |
Congratulations! Looks like you had a good time. I agree with your sentiments exactly. My wife and I did a hunt 2 years ago in KZN in a similar sized property that was high-fenced. Most of it was thick and brushy. They had all of the Big 5, crocs and hippos. As best I could tell there was no put and take hunting going on. It was quite exciting while stalking for bushbuck and red duiker to run into buffalo or hippo at close range. | |||
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One of Us |
TJ.....congrats on your hunt. As I am sure you may have noticed over time, I have not had a lot good to say about a lot of high fenced hunting. Here in Canada I have personally watched high fence hunting for elk that left me embarrassed to even be in the vicinity. Even the “elk hunters” looked dismayed afterwards and I could tell they were troubled by their “elk hunt”. I saw the same thing in South Africa. It that was on farms that had some self sustaining species, but really boiled down to them buying a bunch of trophy males from other game farms and auctions and releasing them to kill, especially for kudu bulls, etc. Nothing fair chase about it. Buy a trailer load of kudu bulls (or whatever) and turn them out in the 5000 acre or hectare pasture for the group of hunters and have at it. What you have described in your hunt report of a large area and self sustaining herds is a different thing. I hope more of it goes that way, with landowners combining resources and making things more of a real hunt and the game lives in a more realistic environment. Nothing beats real wild Africa....but there is no doubt that the private landowners and conservancy’s can create a very real hunt and environment if they put their minds to it. ______________________________________________ The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who are bereft of that gift. | |||
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While there are certainly places where you have a truly wild feel behind high fences, and while there are places where things behind the high fences a pretty much as wild as Africa can be (thinking of BVC and Save, but even there, see what's happening with the BVC lion situation now), I think the place you hunted refers more to the former. First off, I doubt you hunted in a national park. 65,000 acres sounds like a lot, but is actually not much larger than your average home range of a lion pride in unfenced areas. And male lion home ranges are usually quite a bit larger. So yes, it feels wild, looks wild, but really it isn't natural. It really needs to be managed quite intensively (hunting, culling, moving animals in, moving them out, disease prevention and treatments for certain species, possibly vegetation management as well) and isn't quite as 'natural' as you would imagine. | |||
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With our changing World/Times and Attitudes, especially as far as HUNTING is concerned, High Fence hunting, where the animals are basically Privately Owned and not property of the State or the citizens, quite possibly/probably be thec ONLY form of hunting available in the not too distant future. That is just an opinion. Even the rocks don't last forever. | |||
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Nice of you to take the time to come here, and make only your 32nd contribution to the forum in 7 years, as a "crap on another's hunt report" post.  | |||
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+1 Vote Trump- Putin’s best friend… To quote a former AND CURRENT Trumpiteer - DUMP TRUMP | |||
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| One of Us |
You absolutely can can have a very rewarding hunt on a fenced area. Curious, what national park was this in SA? | |||
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By your definition, any place with humans actively managing the flora or fauna is not "natural". That is a pretty strict definition and one I must reject. Edit: On second thought, my assessment of your statement might not be fair. You seem to recognize that "natural" exists on a continuum. Each of us must decide how natural our hunt must be, to be satisfying to us. Tim 0351 USMC | |||
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+2 NRA Patron member | |||
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All of the above is also done on unfenced government hunting blocks. True, landowners do it more but they are not the only ones. Cal _______________________________ Cal Pappas, Willow, Alaska www.CalPappas.com www.CalPappas.blogspot.com 1994 Zimbabwe 1997 Zimbabwe 1998 Zimbabwe 1999 Zimbabwe 1999 Namibia, Botswana, Zambia--vacation 2000 Australia 2002 South Africa 2003 South Africa 2003 Zimbabwe 2005 South Africa 2005 Zimbabwe 2006 Tanzania 2006 Zimbabwe--vacation 2007 Zimbabwe--vacation 2008 Zimbabwe 2012 Australia 2013 South Africa 2013 Zimbabwe 2013 Australia 2016 Zimbabwe 2017 Zimbabwe 2018 South Africa 2018 Zimbabwe--vacation 2019 South Africa 2019 Botswana 2019 Zimbabwe vacation 2021 South Africa 2021 South Africa (2nd hunt a month later) ______________________________ | |||
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| Administrator |
Regardless of the size of the fenced property, the most objectionable part as far as I am concerned is the endless sign of civilization there. Like trying to shoot an animal standing to a power line, having a road next to it with cars passing as you hunt. Under no circumstances can one term this as a wild area. | |||
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That's true Saeed...but unfortunately Africa is such that IMO - places like this are headed for the last bastion of wildlife havens and likely the best way forward for much of Africa's wildlife and their future! I too once hunted a 65,000 acre high fence place in Botswana for PG - it was awesome...never saw a fence the whole time. I too prefer wild / remote Africa, but that opportunity is dwindling both in opportunity and cost affordability for many. I honestly think places like this are the future, and a good thing in general. Congrats TJ - sounds like a really nice place. | |||
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Sorry, if there's a fence to keep the animals in, it ain't hunting. Just me. Grizz Indeed, no human being has yet lived under conditions which, considering the prevailing climates of the past, can be regarded as normal. John E Pfeiffer, The Emergence of Man Those who can't skin, can hold a leg. Abraham Lincoln Only one war at a time. Abe Again. | |||
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Like it or not, the fact is there wouldn't be a single animal in this area we hunted were it not for the fence. The two choices are animals in a fence or no animals...there is no in between. That's what much of highly populated Africa has come down to. It was nice to see an area do it right. | |||
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| one of us |
Folks, To me the fence itself is only a mental barrier to having a real hunt. There is a great deal of difference between a heavily stocked property in the RSA and a property holding only indigenous self sustaining populations of game. I've hunted these self sustaining properties ranging from 10,000 to 850,000 acres. If good anti poaching and a few added water points ruins that hunt for someone I guess that severely limits one's hunting opportunities. Let's not forget that a huge amount of NA hunting is on ranch land with pumped water and fences to keep out trespassers. Is this also not true free range hunting? Mark MARK H. YOUNG MARK'S EXCLUSIVE ADVENTURES 7094 Oakleigh Dr. Las Vegas, NV 89110 Office 702-848-1693 Cell, Whats App, Signal 307-250-1156 PREFERRED E-mail markttc@msn.com Website: myexclusiveadventures.com Skype: markhyhunter Check us out on https://www.facebook.com/pages...ures/627027353990716 | |||
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| one of us |
The first time that I ever saw a high fenced hunting area was in the Northern Transvaal as it was called back in the late 1970's. Driving the perimeter I noticed the bent metal rods where game had smashed into them while probably running for their lives from any one of the many predators in the area. Say what you will and explain away that it is the future … Bah!!! It is not 'wild' Africa. Perhaps a really big caged slice of Africa with lots of animals in it.? Go have fun in it. And a lion or buffalo can still kill you as dead as one in the Selous or Chewore … They just have no chance of ever just walking off into the sunset where you can not get at them. And that is a huge difference to me.. | |||
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| One of Us |
Part of his experience was created by misinformation. He did not hunt in a national park, 65,000 acres is not nearly enough for a lion population (1 pride, maybe 2 if game numbers are kept above carrying capacity). It is misinformation like this which has cause the EU to ban wild lion trophies from SA. Sorry to point some things out, won't do it again, keep living in your fairytale wild world behind high fences and believe people who tell you that you're in a totally natural national park. There is no need to misinform people like that. Good, wild experiences behind high fences are very much possible (like in this case) and fenced areas can be pretty close to completely natural too (unlikely in this case). Just tell people what it is. | |||
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| One of Us |
You've completely missed the point. It's been pretty well hashed out that Crapping On someone's hunt report is POOR FORM, unless they committed some violation of law or grossly deviated from widely held ethical standards (the latter being a slippery slope). A gentleman telling us about his bow hunting experience on an RSA property where they are trying to provide an experience that is a step up above the typical ranch hunt does neither. The point being that when someone takes the time to post a hunt report, you can pretty much bet they are wanting to share an experience that brought them great joy, or sometimes, in case the hunt went south, providing advise to those who may be interested in hunting with the same outfit / area. I view this "Crap On" post of yours to be along the lines of advising a fellow who just purchased the sports car of HIS DREAMS, say a late model Chevy Camaro, that HE has been mislead, wasted his money and time, and has no idea of what HE should desire in a sports car because YOU prefer a Ferrari. Sorry, but I'm calling BS to that. Not everyone can afford the Ferrari and even among those who can, there are a variety of valid reasons why they may still desire the Camaro. And rest assured, there are some real thrills to be had by ownership of that Chevy!! The fine point of my original comment is that not many discussions over a 7 year period have sparked enough interest on your part for you to feel compelled to speak up. In fact, prior to your comment on this thread, you've only felt inspired enough to speak 31 previous times in that 7 year period. The fact that the opportunity to Crap On someone's hunt report was enough to stimulate your 32nd comment in 7 years tells me all I need to know about how to value your opinion. Than again, that's just my opinion and YMMV!  | |||
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| One of Us |
Great post sir! Simple case of crapping on another man’s hunt report. Such activity will only discourage members to write hunt reports and we all miss out on valuable information contained in the reports. | |||
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| One of Us |
Fences in Africa are no longer to keep the animals in....they are to keep the damn poachers, thieves and the like, OUT! | |||
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| one of us |
Good point, Aaron. | |||
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| One of Us |
To anyone who disparages fenced hunts, put them in a locked van with an air rifle and a house cat. Let them take their best shot and after they are let out, they might have a little more appreciation for the reality of hunting big game in confined spaces. LOL I actually knew a guy who shot a cat in a van with an air gun. LOL BH63 Hunting buff is better than sex! | |||
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Imagine building any fence around the border of 850,000! Bet it would take most of the day! | |||
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Bushpeter you are correct that is a lot of lions and they are having issues with them now. The ideal solution would be to hunt some of them but with the politics involved with getting government permits and the pressure from the greenies it's not likely to happen. I'm pretty certain I know where we were but I guess it could have been an elaborate facade to fool us dumb Canadians.  | |||
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Thanks for sharing. I know you want to return. Many good hunts can be done in a fenced area...aswell as many bad hunts can be done on free range. DRSS: HQ Scandinavia. Chapters in Sweden & Norway | |||
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One of Us |
Nice trophies. Thanks for sharing your experience. DRSS Searcy 470 NE | |||
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The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Hunting Hunting Reports - Africa Wild Africa inside a high fence?
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