Cost to hunt

You’re going to need to add a lot more context and information to this question for any response other than $1 - $500,000

What country? How many days? How many animals? What animals? Trophy Animals or Management/Cull Animals? Are you exporting them or leaving them in country? If you’re exporting what are you doing taxidermy wise? Euro? Shoulder? 1/2 body or full body? Game scene?
My country of choice would be Namibia. If I were to go, I’ll say a week. When it comes to the animals themselves, just plains game.(Not sure which one is more affordable, trophy or Cull). When it comes to exporting them it truly depends on the animal in question. But if I did, probably something simple like how we would do for whitetail.
 
I’m not sure if this has been mentioned, but how much does it cost to hunt over in Africa?
Anytime I want to find this I go to BookYourHunt. It gives you a very accurate of the cost you’ll be looking for.
Maybe is not great for very special hunts, but hands down is the best anchor point for this matter
 
What’s the price of that? I’ve never been elk hunting.
Non resident tag if you can get one will be $700-$1900 depending on state.

Drop camp hunt- $3500 plus travel expenses. (Fun but unlikely to actually take an animal)

Fully guided public land in an easy to draw unit outside wilderness. $5000-$10000 plus travel expenses. (Fun and maybe you’ll get lucky)

Fully guided in a true trophy unit or tribal reservation hunt $15,000-$60,000 plus travel expenses.(fun and you’ll probably tag out)
 
You can honestly spend as little, or as much as you want.. price is going to be driven by a number of factors within your control.. the biggest ones are:

Country you want to hunt in
the lodge/outfitter you want to hunt with
the animals on your "list"
the amount of time you want to hunt

Ive taken 1st time safari hunters with me to South Africa numerous times for a cost well below what a week at Disney would cost (a particular "starter" package I have had several look into is $2895 all in).. Ive also spent time in camp with guys that paid more than $40K for about 10 days of hunting..

It really just "depends"..
 
The "Once in a Lifetime" hunts can be killers and credit cards have been melted on these.
 
There are also other prices for hunts in Africa, but they depend on other factors. If you know people, have friends and various connections to certain countries, prices sometimes look different than in the previous catalogs or the current websites of the outfitters. Unfortunately, nobody can give advice for this, but discussing prices with an outfitter is(was) often possible.
 
ping and packing, shipping, and taxidermy. So a $10k hunt is $20K all-in.
This is a pretty good way to figure it, and it's pretty close to accurate.

It's all getting so dang expensive it's hard to come to grips with at times.
 
This isn’t a recommendation for their services because I’ve never used, but take a look at Worldwide Trophy Adventures website. It’s a good reference for costs of hunts on multiple continents and multiple countries.
 
Just a very rough figure for you.

My last hunt was for 10 days and 12 plains game animals for $6500

Airfare and trip insurance $3,000

Taxidermy for 3 shoulder mounts warthog, blue Wildebeest, mountain reedbuck, and 5 euros $4800
Shipping to my house plus importer fees 5,000+-.

Tips around $2000psi

I budgeted around $13,000 but in the end it was closer to $20,000.

Prices have gone up for everything, this hunt was in 2022. You can do it cheaper and then again you can go for broke.
Sent you a pm.
Thanks
 
All is covered!

I think we all deserve some comments from OP. @Duckhunter3000 what say you?
 
My country of choice would be Namibia. If I were to go, I’ll say a week. When it comes to the animals themselves, just plains game.(Not sure which one is more affordable, trophy or Cull). When it comes to exporting them it truly depends on the animal in question. But if I did, probably something simple like how we would do for whitetail.
So my experience with Namibia is as follows you can do the math

Day Rates: $300-450/day
Trophy Fees: $300-several thousand - animal dependent (Trophy Animals will ALWAYS cost more than Culls).
For a rough breakdown let’s call it 6 Animals prices below might not be 100% accurate but are probably in the ball park of avg
(Zebra - $1000, Hartebeest - $800, Gemsbok - $800, Warthog - $600, Springbok - $600, Impala - $600)

So if we account for Day Rates on the low side
7x$300 = $2100 + Trophy Fees = $6500

This doesn’t include your Tip, Travel, Taxidermy, or Shipping.

The easiest place to save in my opinion is Travel. With proper budgeting and planning you can accumulate enough airline miles through ordinary day to day spending to eliminate this cost.

On the above hunt, I’d budget $1500 for Tips.

The unknown is your taxidermy/shipping and that really depends on you and what you want. Euros will be the cheapest. I shipped 8 animals dip & pack from Namibia (Air Freight) for around $850. Customs/Clearance Fees put it around $1600-2k with shipping, and my taxidermy stateside was more than the entire hunt. Taxidermy wise, you might also be able to work with your taxidermist to break into chunks over time so you don’t get hit with everything bill wise, all at once.

My ROUGH ROUGH estimates put your all in cost (excluding shipping/taxidermy) around $10k. You can probably carve a little more out here/there
 
Unfortunately, it’s getting to be like JP Morgan once famously said, “If you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it.”
 
All is covered!

I think we all deserve some comments from OP. @Duckhunter3000 what say you?
Sorry for the late response, things were busy the other day. But I can say I learned a lot, I didn’t know everything added up in terms of price. From what it sounds like, these are some pretty expensive hunts.
 
So my experience with Namibia is as follows you can do the math

Day Rates: $300-450/day
Trophy Fees: $300-several thousand - animal dependent (Trophy Animals will ALWAYS cost more than Culls).
For a rough breakdown let’s call it 6 Animals prices below might not be 100% accurate but are probably in the ball park of avg
(Zebra - $1000, Hartebeest - $800, Gemsbok - $800, Warthog - $600, Springbok - $600, Impala - $600)

So if we account for Day Rates on the low side
7x$300 = $2100 + Trophy Fees = $6500

This doesn’t include your Tip, Travel, Taxidermy, or Shipping.

The easiest place to save in my opinion is Travel. With proper budgeting and planning you can accumulate enough airline miles through ordinary day to day spending to eliminate this cost.

On the above hunt, I’d budget $1500 for Tips.

The unknown is your taxidermy/shipping and that really depends on you and what you want. Euros will be the cheapest. I shipped 8 animals dip & pack from Namibia (Air Freight) for around $850. Customs/Clearance Fees put it around $1600-2k with shipping, and my taxidermy stateside was more than the entire hunt. Taxidermy wise, you might also be able to work with your taxidermist to break into chunks over time so you don’t get hit with everything bill wise, all at once.

My ROUGH ROUGH estimates put your all in cost (excluding shipping/taxidermy) around $10k. You can probably carve a little more out here/there
I didn’t know that all of the small things that go into it these safaris add up to that much. It’s worth the money though.
 
From what it sounds like, these are some pretty expensive hunts.
From 6.000 USD plains game safari, up to 300.000 USD black rhino safari, and everything in between.
From fences up to free ranges and wild areas. From plains game to dangerous game and aquatics in between.
There are also guaranteed hunts (with 99.9% success rate) and non guaranteed hunts on specific species (funds non returnable).
It can be done in savanna, bush forest, mountain, deserts, semidesert, rain forest, swamps and flood plains.

But one thing is certain, there is a safari available, for every hunter profile. The last frontier for modern adventurer.

Safari whichever you pick is the adventure of lifetime. I can say this after having 4 safaris in different habitats, from plains game and up to dangerous game (buffalo).
Go there, do it, you wont feel sorry.

The only money you have, is the money you spent. Think about it.
 
I didn’t know that all of the small things that go into it these safaris add up to that much. It’s worth the money though.
You can get a package (day rates + trophy fees + airport transfer) and only have the Airfare, Tip, and Taxidermy/Shipping component to worry/think about if you wish. Packages are normally a South Africa/Namibia deal on game farms.

A Safari adds up to less money than a decent guided elk hunt in the Western US and you get to hunt a lot more animals while experiencing some unique culture and places.

I’d encourage you to talk to several outfitters and sponsors here on AH and plan something sooner rather than later.
 
What’s the price of that? I’ve never been elk hunting.

If you drive and do everything alone, you are probably looking at least $6K.

If you fly and rent a car, then add at least $2K more, if you want to bring meat home.

If you bring a buddy, (which I always prefer), then double the expense.


Plus, you will have to both be drawn to hunt and have to pay at least about $750/each for tags for the "opportunity" to hunt elk.


You could easily go home with no elk at all, which I have twice.


So, for two people, about $18K for a "chance" to shoot an elk in Wyoming.



For $18K you and a hunting partner should, definitely, be able to collect at least 4 PG animals in RSA.
(You can't bring home the meat, but you can enjoy it to the fullest while you are there)
 

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