Three of us are heading to South Africa to hunt plains game with Russ Fields Safaris for our first ever trip to the Dark Continent.

Best wishes, my son and I went on our first safari last May. You'll never be the same. Saving my pennies for my next trip.
Jeff

But y'all wil miss out on finding out about Ziva! Just kidding, NCIS can wait. Enjoy!

Wow, time flies. Down to just over a month to go. Flights confirmed via Madrid, JNB, then Port E.

Paperwork for PHASA sent in, ammo ordered, rifles sighted in, cases acquired. Handguns need sighting in still. Been practicing off sticks with small caliber rifle and handguns for past 6 of 8 Fridays. 4 more available Fridays left for practice.

Tick, tick, tick......

Double-check thread "Getting through customs" for comments on returning from P.E.

Drink your water!

quote:

Originally posted by Ske1eter:

Paperwork for PHASA sent in, ammo ordered, rifles sighted in, cases acquired.
......

I hope one of the cases you acquired is your hard, lockable ammo carrier, that can be checked separately. You WILL need one to return from Port Elizabeth [if you bring ammo home! I always shoot all mine!]

You MAY not need the separate checked case from JNB to PLZ, but - you never know.

You might want to arrange [through PHASA or your travel agent] for a "meet and greet" at International and escort/guide to domestic flights and fireams recheck etc. Depending on your comfort level and connection times.

Also, be prepared to "tip"/bribe/reward the airport security contractor who will have your firearms in JNB baggage claim - they were very forward in asking for "a little something" at every stop. [PE was the worst, though steps are being taken there so..]

Have a great hunt, it soulh be warming up nicely there now, it was a bit chilly in July, but a nice break from FL!

Les

Let us know how the hunt goes! I will be hunting with Blaauwkrantz two months later, in November.

Well, we got back a couple of days ago. Our trip actually changed to end at JoBurg. The travel was generally uneventful. We had Pelican cases for the guns plus one other checked-in bag. AA had issues with their automatic baggage ticket generator as we had a layover in Madrid that was over their 12 hr. limit. They had to get a supervisor to get the baggage claims set up. After that we really had smooth sailing. When we ended up at JoBurg, we used PHASA to set up the gun permits. Once we picked up our checked bag, we went straight to the front of the SAP "gun line" and were gone in minutes. I'd recommend using a service that gets the permits squared away ahead of time.

Fortunately on the return trip we got a really nice guy that checked our guns against the initial entry form. He didn't even hint that we had issues and that it might be addressed by slipping him a bit of cash. Totally smooth.

And you killed what.....?

For my part, I took a greater kudu, blue wildebeest, impala, springbok, blesbok, zebra, and gemsbok. None of mine would probably be considered monster trophies but I was very happy with what I shot as I used handguns to take all but the kudu.

My friend and his wife loaded up on a few more critters taking a greater kudu, blue wildebeest, two black wildebeest, a gemsbok, zebra, two impala, two springbok, a blesbok and a mature eland.

We booked with Russ Fields Safaris in April, www.southafricanhunting.com, and were planning on hunting the Grahamstown area. Russ asked if we were interested in the Eastern cape or greater kudu. When we chose the greater kudu, we ended up hunting near Hoopstad and the Sandvelt Reserve and while there stayed at the accommodations of Gnu Safaris, www.gnusafaris.co.za, where Johan van Zyl was my PH.

As an aside, while we were there, a bow hunter was able to take what is figured to be the #2 blesbok according to the SCI books. It easily made #2 while wet.

It turned out that I didn't get many picture as I was too busy hunting, not picture-taking. Anyway, some pictures can be seen in a Flickr slide show at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1...57622558981360/show/