About to book my first African Safari

Buy a cheap soft guncase, roll it up tight and pack it into your luggage. Use it to protect your gun while there as needed, then leave it there and use the extra space for souvenirs.

Take lots of memory cards for your camera, and keep the camera with you at all times. I took something like 2700 pictures over the course of about three weeks, and looking back I wish I had taken more. Digital is cheap.

Voltage convertors can be a pain, especially if visiting more than one country. Take a small 12volt invertor, and use it in the hunting vehicle to charge whatever you need using your standard cords/adaptors that you already have.

Keep a journal, either handwritten or electronic. I actually carried and used a small leather-bound diary. It is now one of my favourite souvenirs of the trip.

Study your flight itinerary and try to plan your sleep/wake times in such a way as to get over as much jet lag as possible while en route, rather than once you get there. I flew from Toronto to Frankfurt, arriving early one morning. I was tired, but stayed awake for a layover of about 6 hours, and then slept like the dead on the overnight flight down to Africa. I awoke rested and refreshed as we landed at dawn the next morning. Your African destination is probably in the same time zone, or one over, from your European transfer point...it's the transatlantic flight that screws you up.

Prepare for one of the most incredible experiences of your life!:)
 
I think if the cost of dipping and taxidermist is too much : pictures of the trophies can be taken and skin and skull left ...
or European mount there are not that bad, especially for a reverse warthog or baboon ...
 
Even just the freight for getting trophies home is high, then add dip and pack and more than likely some brokerage fees it starts adding up. People who can bear to leave everything behind except memories and pictures have a real leg up on going back. Add some taxidermy to that and the total for the trophy care/freight can easily be more than a plains-game hunt. A quick real world formula for plainsgame is to double the package price and add $5000. That will get you in and out, cover your tips, some incidentals and an extra animals or two. Its unlikely to get your stuff home and on the wall, but might be enough for a deposit at the taxidermist at that end.
 
Yep Dogleg, that's about the way my math works out too..........About 6 months after my son James returned from his first hunt there on his own (without daddy paying) he came to me and asked "doesn't it ever end, the cost, now they want another ### for dipping and packing" I told him he hadn't even spoken to his taxidermist yet (just to make him feel better)............Even if you know and figure all the advertised costs in like hotels and meals and tips and an extra animal or three, dipping, crating, and shipping, airport transfer fees, aircraft charter etc. etc. etc. ............It still ends up being double, I have had several guys say to me that they would not have gone if they had really grasped the true expense........one guy even got his trophies home and never got a single one mounted. He said he just couldn't afford it or justify the added expense.

Not to be negative NJ, but be prepared for the real cost when all the smoke clears and the mounts are on your wall...........
 
nick7 said:
Really? After working with a master taxidermist with 30 years in the business I have heard plenty of horror stories from him he encountered or heard about. Whole creates full of animals torched because someone ####ed up along the way and a bug got in there.
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Maybe I misunderstood. I had inferred that you could have a similar hunting experience in Texas, which is complete and utter bullsh*t (sorry 777 Ranch, no matter what you guys do you'll never be Africa).
 
c-fbmi said:
Yep Dogleg, that's about the way my math works out too..........About 6 months after my son James returned from his first hunt there on his own (without daddy paying) he came to me and asked "doesn't it ever end, the cost, now they want another ### for dipping and packing" I told him he hadn't even spoken to his taxidermist yet (just to make him feel better)............Even if you know and figure all the advertised costs in like hotels and meals and tips and an extra animal or three, dipping, crating, and shipping, airport transfer fees, aircraft charter etc. etc. etc. ............It still ends up being double, I have had several guys say to me that they would not have gone if they had really grasped the true expense........one guy even got his trophies home and never got a single one mounted. He said he just couldn't afford it or justify the added expense.

Not to be negative NJ, but be prepared for the real cost when all the smoke clears and the mounts are on your wall...........
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The only good thing is that you can spread the cost out over a long period. I booked my Zim hunt in January 2009, hunted in July 2010, paid the balance in October 2010, paid the shipping and taxidermy in July 2011 and paid off the final bit of taxidermy (took me a while to decide what to do with my civet) in September 2013. Even if you spread $30K over 45 years it's not crippling.

Euro mounts save a lot of money. I can't imagine going and not bringing back trophies but euros might save enough money to pay the deposit on the inevitable next trip.
 
Na I just built a bigger trophy room that should provide enough room to see out the rest of my hunting and trophy collecting days...............maybe. You can always add on to the house there Dogleg...........Besides I hate Euro mounts, if I can't afford the taxidermy then I'll borrow the money and pay it off over 3 or 5 years before I'd stoop to horns on plaques.........JMHO.
 
I've thought about building on a trophy room, or detached man cave. Cabins are also an option. I do know that I'm up to my butt in trophies and I'll soon either have to decide between finding more room somehow, leaving them behind or quitting hunting. I'd hate to do that........seems a bit drastic. The club has offered to make some wall space for me. I think that trophy hunters have many hurdles to overcome before they can move to the next level. Time, money, and space will all potentially stop you. Does anyone really think Boddington has 100 buffalo mounts? He doesn't, though he has shot that many. He has learned to let go. I really haven't, not yet.

Back to the OP. the adjusted formula is package rate X 2 + 5000 + taxidermy + freight + price of a natural history museum X the remaining healthy years of your life = real cost. It's worth it, but double or triple the hunting is a viable choice too. Pictures are cheap, and the real trophy of the hunt (memories) are priceless.
 
I hear ya on quantity Dogleg, I have 6 or 7 caribou antlers and 2 or 3 moose hanging on my fence in Whitehorse. All are probably worthy of mounts but I have bigger on my wall now. I look out at them and think Jeeze them are nice caribou I probably should have had all of them mounted......but then what.......caribou take up a lot of space, as shoulder mounts go they are one of the largest wall space consumers. I have a very nice hard horn mount and a stupendous velvet mount (my avatar) and I won't likely mount another unless he's a different species or bigger than what I have now. These antlers and mounts only represent a fraction of the caribou I have taken as well..........the same with moose, I have taken a lot but always said I wouldn't waste the wall space and cost of mounting one till I got a 60"+ moose. I have some quite nice sets that a lot of guys would have mounted but only one mounted one at 65". Of course these have been local game for me for the last 35 years and with 2 caribou tags a year, 2 black bear tags a year and a moose, sheep and goat tag every year, things tend to accumulate.............can't commemorate every animal I harvest !!
 
It would have to be a pretty exceptional North American animal for me to mount it these days but I'll mount a pretty average animal from another country. My taxidermy is my memories of different experiences, different cultures and different places but I too am getting to the point where I have no room left. It's a good problem to have I guess.
 
Some PHs seem horrified at the thought of someone leaving their trophies behind, but some are getting used to the idea that there is more money in the hunter coming back than in kickbacks from taxidermists. If and when the conversation comes up I like to ask them something like "Then I guess you have hundreds of mounts in your own home, right?" That usually jars them into seeing another point of view. I'm still mostly hauling stuff home, but have left some too. Cull and management hunts help a bit there, more action, less decisions, more quantity no trophy handling costs and sometimes no trophy fees. No real estate or construction costs.


How's my sales pitch?;):p
 
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Something to remember with African hunting is that you have to occasionally roll with the punches. Its not always the actual hunting, but the playing around in 2nd and 3rd world countries is not the same as being in Canada. Things will go wrong, don't let them get you down, because a lot of things will go right too. It might be a British saying to "Keep a stiff upper lip", but they got the idea in Africa.

South Africa is a little more predictable, but when you wander to other countries you just might get more adventure than you wanted and not all the good kind.
 
Dogleg said:
Something to remember with African hunting is that you have to occasionally roll with the punches. Its not always the actual hunting, but the playing around in 2nd and 3rd world countries is not the same as being in Canada. Things will go wrong, don't let them get you down, because a lot of things will go right too. It might be a British saying to "Keep a stiff upper lip", but they got the idea in Africa.

South Africa is a little more predictable, but when you wander to other countries you just might get more adventure than you wanted and not all the good kind.
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Our game scout, Little Richard, shot at illegal gold panners with his AK in Chewore South. That was "life with the volume turned up" for a few minutes.

As an aside, Chifuti has a private concession in southern Zim that they just opened up. My PH emailed me asking if I knew anyone that was looking for a good buff hunt in that area so I thought I should pass it on.
 
I'm starting to save up for an African plains game hunt in 2015. Given that my wife has barred a mounted trophy in the house, and given the cost of handling trophies, I think I will be doing a management / cull hunt. As a new hunter, I think the experience is worth much more to me at this point and it won't hurt to save some money on a management hunt. May be I may take ONE trophy animal in hopes that I can convince my wife to let me mount it some place other than my reloading room in the basement, where it can be appreciated - perhaps a trophy quality Impala so it won't break the bank.
 
Two words: Euro mount. I'm fortunate to have a wife who encourages taxidermy, but my budget, my available space and my personal tastes steer me towards this style of mount. A beautifully clean, white skull topped by a set of impressive antlers or horns makes a very attractive and artistic display that is enjoyed by lots of folks who don't care for mounted heads. It is also a very quick and inexpensive option that doesn't make you postpone your next hunt due to costs.
 
canoetrpr said:
I'm starting to save up for an African plains game hunt in 2015. Given that my wife has barred a mounted trophy in the house, and given the cost of handling trophies, I think I will be doing a management / cull hunt. As a new hunter, I think the experience is worth much more to me at this point and it won't hurt to save some money on a management hunt. May be I may take ONE trophy animal in hopes that I can convince my wife to let me mount it some place other than my reloading room in the basement, where it can be appreciated - perhaps a trophy quality Impala so it won't break the bank.
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Learn to read a diamond grading chart as fluently as a ballistic chart. That might help.;) The trouble with shipping trophies is that if you're going to send one home you may as well bring them all. The box will cost the same if its empty or full.
 
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