Africa hunting wannabe

[Questor]

I've decided to hunt in southern Africa. Just getting started on the planning. What does an elephant hunt cost? -- not looking for world record, but want some reasonably good ivory. If the cost of that gives me vertigo, what are the relative benefits of hunting plains game only versus hunting plains game and cape buffalo?  How do I find out who the reputable outfitters are?  What countries are OK to travel to now?

Thanks.

[JJHACK]

A bull elephant will run you 25K minimum for about a 2week hunt on average. Thats it for one animal and your done.

The plains game advantage is that you could shoot an animal a day for 14 days and spend 1/2 that much. Everyday becomes an exciting event rather then tracking and searching for your one trophy. Yoru call but when thinking of value for the dollar the plains game wins by a large margin with a first time safari.

You can certainly hunt plains game and buffalo but it's likley gonna be a buffalo first and then plains game for the remaining time you have. It's not likely you will shoot plains game until the buffalo is in the bag.

Buffalo will be in excess of 10K alone in about evry country when you add all the nickles and dimes up you will spend.

Again compare this to a 8-10 animal plains game hunt for the same price or less, maybe much less!

I would not hunt in Mozambique right now because I have several friends with trophy export issues now and they cannot get the trophies out of there since June of 2004!

I would not hunt Zim due to the goverenment issues and the insane president who could disrupt your plans at any moment with his insanity.

Tanzania has a limited amount of outfitters and they lease the rights from others. Hunters there can be the best ever or a problem. Not to mention they are likely the most expensive anyplace usually cost well over 30grand for a 2 week hunt with DG involved. People don't go to Tanzania for plains game, not many species there.

Botswana is likely the best all around safari country on earth today. But really expensive

Zambia is a top choice and safe, Namiba is good, although longer range shooting is the norm.

South Africa is the easiest and the most cost competitive for the number of species available. It's the only country today where you can still shoot all the big five and they have the most indiginous species of plains game in all of Africa.

As far as reputable outfitters.............Email me or go to my website and see what I have. It's as good as it gets!

www.huntingadventures.net

[Grumulkin]

If you e-mail me, I'll be happy to give you contact information of 3 South Africa outfitters that treated me well.

[GEMSBUCK]

Nothing like starting at the top and working down from there. Elephants are fun and while I've never killed one have encountered several while hunting.

[tundragriz]

Just another thing you may want to throw into the myriad of possibilities.  That is, what style of hunt are you hoping for.  I am not a rich guy and probably will not hunt Africa more than a couple times.  I wanted to experience Africa through an old world style hunt.

I went to Tanzania and really enjoyed the extreme remoteness of the Selous area.  We flew into a dirt strip and hunted out of a tent camp.  There aren't even any indigenous people allowed in the massive area.  You could hear the lion prides roaring at night, mambas were killed in camp, scorpions were often in the bathroom, crocs routinely killed things next to our river camp (a monkey falling out of a tree into the water was especially interesting), you had to be careful because sometimes a hippo would decide to come through the camp.  

It was fun, exciting, and very memorable.  Tanzania is more expensive but they do offer a shared license where you and a partner can each take a buff and wildebeest (beautiful Nyasa's with a white stripe on the nose) and then there is a list of plains game that are shared between the two hunters.  This is a moderately priced way to experience Tanzania with a good friend.

[Questor]

Tundragriz:

That's very interesting. I'll keep it in mind because I'm much more interested in the atmosphere and the place than just killing a bunch of animals.