I may be done with africa, at least for a while

[375Fox]

Can you or someone else explain the cull vs trophy hunts in Africa? I may be mistaken but i thought that you could still have the opportunity to bring those home if they met the minimum. Are you only shooting femailes?

Depends on the country, but generally in South Africa and Namibia cull hunts are where landowners are reducing game numbers on their land and selling the cull hunt to hunters then selling the meat and maybe the skins depending on the species. A trophy hunt is obviously selectively looking for trophy bulls and all parts of trophy belong to you. A cull hunt might be young bulls, cows, broken horn bulls depending on the property. Cull hunting isn’t nearly as selective and provides a lot more shot opportunity. I don’t think it gives the same hunting experience though because you don’t pass nearly as many animals . You’d need to talk to outfitter, but most in South Africa would let you take skull and horns on a cull hunt and maybe pay a little extra for skins, however shipping “trophies” from a cull hunt home really defeats the purpose if the cost to get them home exceeds the cost of the hunt.

 

[TwentyTwo250]

Depends on the country, but generally in South Africa and Namibia cull hunts are where landowners are reducing game numbers on their land and selling the cull hunt to hunters then selling the meat and maybe the skins depending on the species. A trophy hunt is obviously selectively looking for trophy bulls and all parts of trophy belong to you. A cull hunt might be young bulls, cows, broken horn bulls depending on the property. Cull hunting isn’t nearly as selective and provides a lot more shot opportunity. I don’t think it gives the same hunting experience though because you don’t pass nearly as many animals . You’d need to talk to outfitter, but most in South Africa would let you take skull and horns on a cull hunt and maybe pay a little extra for skins, however shipping “trophies” from a cull hunt home really defeats the purpose if the cost to get them home exceeds the cost of the hunt.

Thanks for the explanation. I'm really interested to go to one of those two countries specifically to bow hunt so a cull hunt may or may not fit into my plans. I assume it's outfitter specific; are there any questions that I should be asking besides "can I bring the skulls home?"

 

[375Fox]

Thanks for the explanation. I'm really interested to go to one of those two countries specifically to bow hunt so a cull hunt may or may not fit into my plans. I assume it's outfitter specific; are there any questions that I should be asking besides "can I bring the skulls home?"

I’d ask yourself the experience you are looking for. On a cull hunt maybe every 5th animal can qualify as a cull on a trophy hunt you might look over 20 or 50 or 100 bulls before taking one. If you are looking for a better price for the experience and bringing trophies home, maybe ask outfitters about a non-trophy hunt targeting old bulls. Still a selective hunt just not the trophy quality/genetics of true trophy bulls something like a 30” gemsbok instead of 35”+ or old wildebeest that didn’t have genetics to get wide. Some outfitters will offer hunts like those if you ask.

 

[TwentyTwo250]

"maybe ask outfitters about a non-trophy hunt targeting old bulls. Still a selective hunt just not the trophy quality/genetics of true trophy bulls something like a 30” gemsbok instead of 35”+ or old wildebeest that didn’t have genetics to get wide. Some outfitters will offer hunts like those if you ask."

This is what I want, I just didn't know how to say it. I wanna shoot one each of the species I want but not necessarily a trophy.

 

[HuntingGold]

I've brought plenty of culls home as "trophys" but only when I already had a box trophies coming home. It will depend on your outfitter whether you can take them or not.
Going over specifically to hunt culls and not shipping anything home is the most cost effective ways to do it.