SOUTH AFRICA: Americans Gone Wild - SA PH School

[mdwest]

Americans Gone Wild

Sitting in the United Lounge in Newark (yuck!) right now, getting ready to board for Jo'berg in a couple of hours... thought I'd get a thread started to chronicle the next couple of weeks adventures..

Myself and a handful of other AH members will be attending a Professional Hunters course at @Bos en Dal SAFARIS starting on the 18th of this month..

These guys are teaching the course: https://www.huntingschool.co.za/

Assuming the PH Instructor doesnt fail all of us for being idiots and none of the prison yard Bos en Dal impala impale any of the students, there should be a bunch of pretty new PH certificates hanging on the walls of several AH member houses by the end of the month...

All of us are doing a little hunting along the way as well while we are there... so there will be some "hunt report" material included too...

More to follow!

 

[Hunt anything]

Can’t wait, hopefully another opportunity will arise for this when I don’t have anything else on the books!

 

[Altitude sickness]

Sounds fun. You don’t have to be a resident of SA ?

 

[mdwest]

Sounds fun. You don’t have to be a resident of SA ?

To obtain a license from the government, yes.

To take the course and get the certificate, no.

We (wife and I) are largely doing it to have fun and hopefully glean some cool information and maybe learn a few new things… it’s also an outrageously inexpensive way to spend a 10 day vacation in South Africa… the course cost, inclusive of meals, drinks, housing, laundry, etc and all training, materials, etc is cheaper than the day rate for 10 days in a safari lodge for most outfitters… AND we all get a small hunt as part of the training package as well…

Others attending may have other motivations (I’ll let them all tell their individual stories as they see fit )…

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

You all have fun! I know blood has been spilt already by one of the early arrivals. I will let him tell the story tho. Safe travels and tell the crew hello for me.

 

[mdwest]

You all have fun! I know blood has been spilt already by one of the early arrivals. I will let him tell the story tho. Safe travels and tell the crew hello for me.

Will do! I think Gerrit, Francois, Rikus, and Elna are all in camp already… and a few more are possibly going to stop in for a bit while we’re there..

 

[wesheltonj]

Have fun. Full report upon return, please.

 

[Green Chile]

I've been looking forward to this. Sorry I couldn't join you.

 

[deewayne2003]

Watching with interest, if not for work obligations I’d probably be there.

 

[Altitude sickness]

sounds like a lot of fun in a group setting.

 

[DieJager]

Have fun. Will be an interesting thread to follow.

 

[John Telford]

Just in time! The new SA PH module is under development and it will most likely be a 6 month or longer course.

 

[spike.t]

Just in time! The new SA PH module is under development and it will most likely be a 6 month or longer course.

Ahhh....shame so the week or so courses won't be anymore.....

 

[mdwest]

Ahhh....shame so the week or so courses won't be anymore.....

Talked to gerrit a bit about that tonight when we arrived in camp… things are definitely going to change… but what the new program is going to look like, no one really knows just yet…

Apparently what they’re hoping to go to would be similar to what South Africa already has for other trades where you attend a little training, then you do some work as an apprentice applying what you d learned… then return to the classroom for some more training… the go back to the field and work to apply what you’ve learned, etc.. through a few cycles until you’re ready to be set free and work on your own… whether that program will be a few months, 6 months, etc is yet to be determined.. and what specifically will be involved in the training is still yet to be determined… they’re still working things out…

But it sounds like the standard will be higher, and that it will likely be good for industry…

 

[Whit]

Man, I am definitely finding myself wishing I was on a plane to South Africa with you all! Really bummed it didn’t work out for me, but hopefully another iteration will pop up.

 

[AZDAVE]

Looking forward to hearing about your experiences in the course. have fun.

 

[Mountainshadows]

Whishing a good time for you and the wife, and those others! Really wanted to go to that one but it didn't work out. Please give my best to Gerrit, Rikus, and Elna, and also my good friend Francois

 

[mdwest]

We had a busy first day…

The morning started out with a 48 question ungraded quiz designed to gauge how much the student group already knows or understands about a wide variety of topics ranging from game animal anatomy to species identification, to the law, etc et ..

I think the quiz was a bit humbling for most of us.. everyone in the group is a very experienced hunter, and everyone has hunted the African continent multiple times… how much we either outright didn’t know, or guessed at was pretty eye opening I think..

We were also issued a course manual that is as thick and information filled as a common text book that would be used for a semester of study… there’s obviously going to be a lot of information exchanged over the next several days…

From there we progressed into a series of videos on various South African species, shot placement, recommended calibers (and why, etc etc)…

Later in the afternoon the student group applied the knowledge gained from the videos by using a South African hunting simulator that looks like it was probably released in the late 90’s or early 2000’s by “Hunters Craft”… while obviously old/dated, it was (in my opinion) a pretty cool and effective tool that I think we all enjoyed playing with… I’ve tried googling it this evening to see if it was downloadable or could be purchased anywhere, but was unsuccessful…

The day finished out with a lecture dedicated to shotguns and bird hunting in South Africa that also included a discussion of the various laws and common practices and ethics associated with bird hunting here..

All in all an informative day…

Which was followed by the typical safari camp behavior of hanging out by the fire, telling tales, laughing, and general bullshitting around until at least an hour later than you should have stayed up

 

[Altitude sickness]

I would Ace the camp fire portion of the syllabus

 

[Mountainshadows]

Great write up @mdwest ! Sounds like a lot of info being put out. I can't wait for my chance.