For those thinking about Africa in 2008...

A-zone

A-zone

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If you've ever thought about visiting Africa for a plains game hunt, the outfitter that our group hunted with this summer (Pierre Moolman of Sun-African Hunting Safaris) is planning a trip up to Edmonton in late January/early February, 2008.

Pierre will be visiting here for a few days and the guys would like to set up an evening when people can stop by and ask the outfitter himself about what an African plains game safari is all about.

Two of our group of seven (Neo and I) travelled from Canada to South Africa with our firearms, so we can share our experience with the various agencies that we dealt with. Also, the details of how the hunts are conducted are bound to be discussed and so on.

If anyone would like to be in on the "meet and greet" let me know. I'd like to gauge the level of interest to help with getting it arranged and, of course, we'll provide more details as they become available.

It'll be after hunting season, after Christmas and New Years, so it should be fun (and informative). :))


A-zone


For those who haven't seen our African hunt threads, they're here:
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=174934
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=174930
 
Would everyone who's interested please send me their contact info (i.e. e-mail address) via pm (just in case the forum crashes).

I'll send out a reminder as we get closer to the event.
 
If you have even been thinking about going to Africa, book a hunt now. Prices are generally in US dollars and our dollar is high. I've got a hunt booked for 2008. I did the math on the hunt using the current exchange rate and the total cost was 18% lower than when I booked. I'll pay the rest of the day rate sooner than necessary just in case the CDN dollar goes down again. Looks like I'll be able to pay for the airline ticket and more just on the exchange rate change.

Exchange rates change and if the US dollar stays weak (as expected) the safari operators will adjust their prices. If you can, get locked in before either can happen.

Cheers,
Dean
 
Hey, there's nothing wrong with looking at price lists and making inquiries. We've got a bit of a unique opportunity here as our outfitter is actually visiting Edmonton as part of his promotional work (he normally does a trade show circuit in the US).

It's not every day that you get to ask questions face to face with an outfitter from Africa. When we booked the trip it was largely decided on the strength of a referral that we got from another Gunnut (Redfrog) who had hunted with Pierre last year. Even if you don't ever go there to hunt, you'll probably pick up some good information.

The bottom line is that we'd like anyone who is curious about the process to feel free to attend the session and make the most of the opportunity.
 
That's the truth. It's always great to talk to people from other places about hunting. If I was going to be around I'd be there too, regardless whether I was going again or not (but then again, no one ever goes once!)
 
For all those folks who might be interested in meeting with our outfitter, Pierre Moolman, he's going to be in Edmonton between February 7th and 9th.

We're planning a "meet and greet" at the home of one of our hunters (in NE Edmonton) with pictures and most of the guys who were in our group for the evening of February 7th (Thursday), starting at 7pm.

Anyone who wants to attend, please send me a pm for the address. It will be a casual reception with refreshments, DVD's, pictures and stories about our experience.

The idea is to provide an opportunity for people who might be interested in hunting in Africa to ask questions of an experienced outfitter and PH as well as talk to those of us who went through the (awesome) experience.

Pierre will also be at the Edmonton location of Wholesale Sports on Friday the 8th and Saturday, Feb.9th. Probably for most of the day (look for him by the fireplace at the front of the shop.)

DonsAfricaPicsAugust3-142007222.jpg

Pierre with Neo and trophy waterbuck
 
Big Game said:
I've heard that it is a really big hassle to get your own firearms over there. It is it worthwhile or are the guns most outfits offer up adequate?
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This is a good example of the type of question that comes up when you start thinking about actually going over there and something we'll talk about on the 7th.

The fact is, I don't know how anyone could tell you what "most outfits" can provide you with. In our case, five out of seven hunters chose to rent what turned out to be their PH's rifles. That was our outfitter's arrangement and I sure can't tell you how other outfitters do it (definitely worth asking them, though). Three of our guys ended up sharing a Sako and a Winchester Model 70 (in .270 Win IIRC). That's not bad, but you're shooting factory ammo out of a rifle that isn't yours. So, that may or may not be important to a given hunter.

Neo and I chose to take our own rifles two rifles each (Tikka 695, custom Mauser, HS Precision and Winchester Model 70) with handloaded ammo as you would expect from die-hard rifle loonies).

Yes, the rules are a little tricky, but we jumped through the hoops without too much trouble.

There is a temporary export permit you need from the Canadian government, a temporary import permit from the South African police, and you have to ensure that the countries that you travel through allow the inter-country transport of sporting rifles (by foreign nationals - that'll be you) through their country.

Also, there are countries that have a poor record when it comes to losing guns when their baggage handlers come in contact with your stuff.

We chose to fly through Germany to Johannesburg and that worked out very well.

All in all, you have to be confident in your outfitter, so get and check out references before you book.

But, if you ask anyone who's been there, it is an incredible experience, and considerably different (more intense and concentrated) than what we're used to here.
 
It was easy for us as well, we used a service HolaSA recommended by the PH.

His loaner guns were Tikka 695's in 270 and 300 win mag, bith with 6x straight power scopes. A pretty good combo for a standard sized guy.

I'm working on my wife to go in a 2009 combining it with a visit to a couple of eurpoean cities and Capetown, so I will be using loaner rifles. I would make sure I asked lots of very directs about the rifles, loads and scopes before leavinq home without mine.
 
martinbns said:
I'm working on my wife to go in a 2009 combining it with a visit to a couple of eurpoean cities and Capetown, so I will be using loaner rifles. I would make sure I asked lots of very directs about the rifles, loads and scopes before leavinq home without mine.
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I'm looking at the same type of scenario, so I don't know if packing my own gons would be practical. I'd hate to show up though and get handed something left over from the Boer War.
 
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