Big game, BIG money
Hefty wallet required for overseas excursions
Don Cox RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
1/28/2005 12:04 am
Hunting a Cape buffalo in South Africa with expert guide Edmond Rouillard costs $400 a day, which includes room and meals, but not after-dinner drinks.
The gun is extra. If you manage to shoot a buffalo, one of the biggest of big game, its also extra, a lot extra.
You can hire Rouillard and order the gun, which is custom-made, inside the Reno-Sparks Convention Center, where Safari Club Internationals 33rd annual trade show opened Wednesday and ends Saturday. What you cant do is shoot the buffalo.
For that, you fly to Johannesburg, South Africas largest city, then travel by land a couple hours to the town of Pongola, where Rouillard lives in a region known as Zululand.
But you can start at the convention center, which, this week, is a shopping mall for hunters with 1,100 stores, including Harloo Safaris operated by Rouillard, selling guns, ammunition, knives, clothes, expert guides and everything else you need for a safari.
For big game, youd better have big money in your pocket or bank account. Shopping at this mall isnt for the faint of heart, wallet or credit card.
A rifle fit for a safari, the Dakota 76 Classic, can start at $4,295, with more elaborate models going for as much as $25,000, depending on options.
If you want your picture engraved (on the gun), we can do that, said Steve Giordano, national sales manager for Dakota Arms of Sturgis, S.D., which occupies a prime display space just inside the malls front doors. We make (to) order. Depending on the options you choose, the skys the limit.
Lets say you want the gun to shoot straight, but dont care if youre picture is on it. Call the limit $8,000.
Going from there, you could end up spending more than $12,000 in just a couple hours of safari shopping. That doesnt include the plane ticket to South Africa or the price of anything you shoot once you get there.
It does include the gun, the guide, the bullets, the clothes, a pair of binoculars and a knife custom-made by Jason Jacobs in Idaho for $69.95.
During the Safari Clubs convention, the biggest held in Reno-Sparks, about 19,000 hunters will shop at the convention center.
At this mall, before you actually buy something, you have to spend money just to get in. A Safari Club membership is required. Its $55. Once youve got that, admission to the show is $125. Once inside, you can really start spending.
Well do a lot of business, Giordano said less than an hour after the trade show opened. Weve had five orders (already).
The stock on a Dakota rifle is walnut.
This is your basic hunting rifle, Giordano said. You can upgrade to exhibition walnut.
A Dakota takes time to make.
If you order a rifle from me today, you can have it in six months, Giordano said.
Youll also need bullets, two kinds.
You need softs and solid, said Larry Barnett, president of Superior Ammunition Inc., of Sturgis.
It takes two shots to bring down a Cape buffalo, according to Barnett, and you need the right bullet for each shot. Thats good to know.
The soft nose is an expanding bullet, Barnett said. On a Cape buffalo, the first shot, you can place that round exactly. You want solid for the next shot. The solid one will break bones.
Thats in case the buffalo charges after the first shot, explained Annie Barnett, Larrys wife.
You want to make sure you can knock him down, she said.
Larry Barnett recommended two boxes of Swift A Frame or Barnes Triple Shock for the soft bullets at $97.20 per box. Theyd go with one box of Barnes Banded Solids at $101.28. Each box contains 20 bullets.
Binoculars are considerably more expensive. The mid-range pair displayed at the convention center and made by Kahles of Austria cost $749. Theyre waterproof and fog resistant.
After the binoculars, the $69.95 price for a Jacobs Custom knife seems cheap. The steel for each knife comes from Europe. The knife handles are made of animal antlers.
We try to sell high-end gear, said Gene Aragon of Field Products Inc., which carries the knives.
Cotton is the material for hunting clothes from Foxfire of Yelm, Wash.
Its easy to wash and it breathes, said Jim Larson, president of the company. What most people would get is a vest and a jacket. Usually you get a couple pairs of pants and two shirts.
The shirts, $41 each, have extra deep pockets for passports and airplane tickets.
Rouillard isnt clothes-conscious on his South African hunts. Some of his clients wear shorts. They go looking for Cape buffalo, wildebeests, impala, zebra, warthogs and other wild animals on a 9,500-acre ranch owned by Rouillard, a part-time hunting guide and full-time sugar cane and citrus farmer.
The farm and the hunting ground are separate.
Its hunting, Dr. Jackie Rouillard, Edmonds wife and a physician in Pongola, said of trying to find a Cape buffalo. Its not window shopping.
Thats why the trophy fee, the price you pay Edmond Rouillard for shooting one of his animals, is $8,950 for a buffalo. Its much cheaper, at $350, to shoot a warthog. The fees are on top of the daily rate Rouillard charges just to hunt.
Thats why you pay me for my product, said Rouillard, who explained that 80 percent of the hunting in South Africa is done on private land.
But all food is included, along with accommodations in Rouillards hunting lodge, which employs a chef. If you want it, you buy your own beer, wine and liquor.
The U.S. dollar goes a long way in South Africa, according to Dr. Rouillard.
Once youre there, its really cheap, she said.
But, if you decide the whole thing is just too expensive, you can buy a couple Harloo Safaris baseball caps for $20 from the Rouillards, just to impress your friends, and stay home.
GOING ON SAFARI
Outfitting yourself at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center to hunt for Cape buffalo in South Africa:
Membership in Safari Club International: $55.
Admission to the convention center: $125.
Rifle, Dakota 76 Classic with options: $8,000.
Ammunition: Two boxes of Barnes Triple Shock at $97.20 per box; one box of Barnes Banded Solids at $101.28 for a total of $295.68.
Clothes: One hat $33; two pairs of pants $47 each; two shirts $41 each; vest $52; jacket $79 for a total of $340.
Binoculars: Kahles 8 x 24, $749.
Knife: Jacobs Custom, $69.95.
Guide: Harloo Safaris for 7 days at $400 per day for a total of $2,800.
Total bill: $12,434.63 Additional costs o Air fare (round trip between Reno and Johannesburg, South Africa): $1,700. o Ground transportation in South Africa: $180. o Trophy fee: $8,950 for Cape buffalo. Total: $10,830 Grand total: $23,264.63
