WB,
My father and I went in June 2004 and had a great time. We're currently looking at the options of going back in 2006/7 to try for some DG and plains game.
If you are serious about going make sure you do your homework and ask a ton of questions. I spent almost six months researching the trip before we booked it. There are tons and tons of booking agents and professional hunters that will take your money, it just depends on what your looking for. Ask anyone that has been there what they thought of the trip, what they would do next time, what they regret (if there was anything).
After I booked my trip with the booking agent I got in direct contact with the PH and sent him a two page list of questions I had to prepare for our trip. If you go expecting one thing and your trip turns out to be totally opposite, you maybe disappointed.
Ask about package deals, where you pay a set price for a specific list of animals. You can always add to that list later as I did. Or you can just pick the animals you want to take and pay for those as you go. You need to know what's included in what your paying. You don't want to get to there and find out you only paid for your lodging and everything else is extra.
Now, I had a great time and it was a perfect experience for my first trip but everyone has a different idea of what Africa is to them. If you are expecting to see the images of a National Geographic film, then you have to ask for them. Africa doesn't look like that everywhere, that kind of experience only remains in a few places. I hunted on a 50k acre game farm, as they call it, and was behind a high fence. (I don't want to start that conversation again). Going into the trip I knew the fence was there, although I only saw the fence twice in eight days, I knew it was there and to me it made the trip different. The next time I go I will make sure that I hunt free ranging animals that can travel hundreds of miles without the sight of a fence, that's my choice and everybody is different.
In our package we were able to take nine different animals with 12 total. There are some there we hunted and others we just picked out of a group and shot. The ones that we hunted were the most exciting and most memorable to me. You will basically tell the PH how you want your experience to be, spot and stalk, shooting from sticks, or you can drive around looking for the game. You make the call, and make sure you ask how they hunt before you go.
Here's a list of our expenses to date;
$4500 12 animal package
$1200 Extra cost for Kudu
$2000 Airfare from Sacramento to Kimberley, RSA
$900 Tips to PH, driver, trackers, ect..
$1500 Dipping, packing, shipping costs to San Francisco
$3000 Taxidermy fees for five animals(here in the states)
$13,100 total
I would expect to pay around $10k for a standard plains game hunt, you might find some for less or a little more.
You should probably expect to spend another $800-$1000 for gear you think you need and odds and ends. The best $100 I spent on the trip was a service that met us in Johannesburg to help us obtain our firearms permits. They met us as we walked off the plane, walked us to the front of the customs line, got our rifles first, had the paperwork all filled out for the police to just verify and sign and walked us to the contacting flight while the other hunters were still in the customs line.
I found another website has a ton of information about Africa on it and that helped me a lot to prepare. I had no idea there were so many things I needed before I left. If you want the site send me a PM and I'll send it to you, don't know if linking to another site is a no no.
Let me know if you have any questions. I'd be happy to answer them.
RcklinHuntr
