Last evening a couple friends of mine who belong to the local huntng club were talking about a fella who won an auctioned hunt. The hunt included the airfare and a safari in South Africa. He paid 1500.00 for the hunt which means it's actually free because the airfare alone will be about that.
For starters there will be tax due on this hunt which will be based on the actual value not the price paid. That was news to me. I thought tax was always paid on what you spend not the actual value. However there is some kind of IRS law thats creates this set of circumstances. One of the two fellas visiting works for a brokerage firm and he knows about all this stuff( I sure don't). This hunts advertised value was 6000.00 with the included airfare. It's also only available in March or April which is a very rainy and poor choice of hunting dates. The bush is lush and green and very poor visibility. It's also very Hot during the day often near 100 degrees in March
The hunt included as stated Airfare, 5 days and 3 animals. Any additional days were charged at 300.00 per day and additional game at the standard trophy fee levels. The three included animals are Kudu, impala, and steenbok. The hunt days also included the day of arrival which is typical but with only 5 days that's cutting into the hunting time a lot.
So the hunt was purchased for 1500.00, he will owe about 1200.00 in taxes making it 2700.00 and if he stays the typical 10 days another 1500.00 for daily fee. he now has 5700.00 into this for three animals. Lets assume he shoots an additional 2 animals for 1600.00 total and he is now up to $7300.00 for the trip to shoot five animals including airfare.
What a great deal, NOT!!!
Be careful of the "deals" out there. Had he just booked a hunt he could have saved himself at least 2000.00 over this "special auction" hunt. He would also have been able to hunt during the prime rut not the "pre" season during the rain and heat. I have 10 day 5 animal hunts for 4500 plus airfare of about 1500.00 and there are no steenbok Which are small and inexpensive in my package, although you can shoot one as an extra if you like. My Package is all bigger animals.
The two fellas asking me about the prices were with the guy at the auction begging him not to bid on this without talking to somebody about it first. He bid on it anyway and thought he had a great deal on a Safari in Africa for 1500.00 bucks. I suppose if you only stay the 5 days (and hunt for 4.5 days) it's cheap. However who goes that far with that amount of time change and only stays five days? With free airfare why not shoot more game?
That's what the outfitter is banking on. He will make his money one way or another! As a side note they said the outfitters donating these hunts had about a dozen auctioned and they all went for 1500-2000 bucks! These outfitters want to sell the pre-season time period which nobody will book anyway.
