Many cheap hunts vs only one very expensive premium hunt in a lifetime

[Scott CWO]

I’ve taken both kinds of hunts. The once in a lifetime was in Masailand, just me hunting shared by thousands of Maasai, cattle, goats and sheep, but it was “Wild Africa” but not really. My South Africa Ranch hunt was me on 26k acres, no other people or livestock. Take your pick.

Massailand is great but yes, not remote and can be reached with a vehicle in three hours or so from Arusha. As you know, most other areas are more remote and you won’t see much for people in Game Reserves where settlements are not allowed. Many require a charter flight or two days driving.

 

[MacJenkins]

3 trips in 1 month is fun. Someone will need to cut your grass!

So funny you say that. Just tore it all out and put in fake lawn right before I left.

 

[grand veneur]

I’ve taken both kinds of hunts. The once in a lifetime was in Masailand, just me hunting shared by thousands of Maasai, cattle, goats and sheep, but it was “Wild Africa” but not really. My South Africa Ranch hunt was me on 26k acres, no other people or livestock. Take your pick.

The problem is that many of my memories of so-called wild areas in Africa are 30 years old. In the swamps from Kilombero in southern Tanzania for example where I hunted back then and that still looked original at this time, is it apparently no longer the case nowadays. The southwest of Uganda also no longer looked so wild back then, but for that the Karamoja area in the northeast of the country. I don't know if it's still the case nowadays, but perhaps I will go there again.

 

[Osama Mahdi]

Time is not on your side. If you have the opportunity to go hunting, do it sooner rather than later.

For new hunters, it's absolutely possible to enjoy an affordable and rewarding hunt in South Africa. On the other hand, even in expensive, free-range areas, a hunt can still turn into a disappointing experience.

Experienced hunters who have tried both fenced and wild areas are in the best position to compare and choose what suits them best.

If you choose to skip taxidermy work, trophy import, and the associated costs, you may free up enough resources to afford another hunting adventure instead.

 

[skydiver386]

Although I love Africa, there are other places and other hunts that fill the horizon of my dreams.

Stags and Chamois in Romania.

Driven Boar in Austria.

Markhor in Asia.

Doves and Blackbuck in Argentina.

Most of all, I will never, ever tire of hunting Pronghorn in the western United States.

..and now, due to the enablers on this forum, I've discovered I need to hunt Cameroon for Lord Derby Eland.

See, I'd have gotten off cheap if it wasn't for the crowd around here!

I can hunt outside the U.S. possibly every year or every 2 years , depending on country and species. Along with local hunting I feel very blessed.

 

[thi9elsp]

I believe we each make that choice. Neither is right nor wrong. Sunny case, I prefer fewer trips and wild areas.

2011 Zambezi Valley Buff/plainsgane
2016 Niassa Province Buff/plainsgane
2025 Binga District Elephant

 

[Tundra Tiger]

The fact is our various financial realities reflect such a very broad range. Those that can afford the remote free range stuff... good for you and more power to you. But to tell others "just save up" doesn't always jive with real life. For example, when I went on my first trip to RSA in 2021 I did not know I'd go through a divorce in 2024, nor how much that would cost. Had I waited and saved I might still be in the position of hoping to go, rather than having gone. Also, I have had a couple of classmates and friends in the past few years wind up with health situations that took their lives very quickly or immediately, so saving for something that could be years down the line isn't always feasible.

For myself, based on my financial situation, my job, my income, I am very much happy with the idea of less expensive but more readily available hunts. My two trips have provided me with memories that would not, for me personally, have been improved upon by waiting longer for a more expensive option in a different country. I am blessed to live and hunt in some really remote areas here in Alaska; I feel like I have a decent understanding of what it feels like to camp and hunt in some very wild areas. My two hunts to RSA, while not remote like Alaska, certainly met my threshold for a real hunting experience, and not something "canned." Again, for those of you who go every year, or even multiple times, your financial situation is not mine. My goal is to finish paying off my divorce and get back to where I can possibly look forward to making a trip to Africa every other year. That absolutely works for me.

 

[gcbailey]

That's a very interesting question. My Africa safari was the trip of a lifetime and there is nothing that I have hunted before or since that compares. It seems to come down to priorities. Some aren't as romantic as I was, and still am, about hunting dangerous game or Africa in general. It may not be worth it for them to spend a lot of money on something that is based on a romantic notion and make it a reality, but it was for me. I was fortunate that my PH had a bit of romantic tendencies as well and did his absolute best to show that version of an African hunt. I thought it was worth every single red cent; from the vintage guns, to riding in the back of the Hilux, to seeing Victoria Falls in person, to following up on a wounded lion. A plains game hunt using a modern rifle and suppressor wouldn't hold a candle to that experience.

 

[DLSJR]

I believe there is a place for everyone to find an African hunt to suit their wants. They’re all GOOD!

For me, it’s mostly the big wild areas and usually including dangerous game. I’ve been fortunate to make 10 hunts and a photo trip to seven different countries. The photo trip was to Kenya and one of my most enjoyable. I’ve only hunted South Africa once and enjoyed it greatly. I’ll likely hunt there again some day. But the rest of my hunts, 9 of them so far, have been in big, wild country. There are significant degrees of how wild a place is. I just returned from a very enjoyable hunt on Hammond, in the Savé Valley Conservancy. It was wild, sort of. Hammond is 32,000 acres of the 800,000 acre Savé Conservancy, no internal fences and game wanders very freely. BUT, you see other vehicles and people on the main road going through the Savé. There are villages and lots of people as soon as you leave the Savé. It doesn’t seem all that wild as other places I love. When you’re on foot in dense bush with buffalo all around it feels pretty damn wild though. I’d enjoy hunting on the Savé again or Nuanetsi in the future.

In contrast, a 2023 hunt with my son on Madaba in Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve was the very essence of wild land hunting. 90 minute ride in a Caravan, land on a small remote airstrip, nearest village is 7 hours away on a rough two-track, nobody else around at all. We only saw two airplanes overhead in 16 days! Buffalo visible in front of camp, lions & hyenas calling at night. It’s expensive as hell and not for everyone but it’s truly wild hunting, you earn everything you take, you’ll never see anyone else, outside of your own party and you never know what the new day will bring. This was the 3rd hunt I took my son on and that gives me more enjoyment than doing it myself. We are planning another Madaba hunt for 2028, 16 days chasing whatever we feel like hunting (Gonna be a lot of buffalo hunting since we will have 5 on license between us).

I spend more $$ hunting than I should, a lot more, but I’ll be fine through my life and my two children will enjoy a nice inheritance when I die. I never forget that my father died at 46 years old, before he got to do so many things he wanted to do once my brother and I got old enough. I’m also reminded daily of how fragile life can be as my wife suffers from a long term illness that will end her life prematurely. So, I’ll be hunting Zambia, Congo and Mozambique next year. I was going to hunt Zambia this October but pushed it to 2026 to be here for my wife. I typically don’t shoot a huge bag on most hunts, I think my last 3 hunts before Hammond (Cameroon and twice in Tanzania) were 5 or 6 animals each time. Hammond was only a Buffalo hunt and I shot exactly what I wanted, an ancient non-trophy bull of 12-14 years old.

I don’t know how many years I have left, but I do know my goal is to hunt Africa at least once a year as long as my health allows. I don’t care if it’s dangerous game, plains game, birds, fishing or photo tourism, I plan to spend a ton of time in Africa. I’m sure some of it will be in South Africa. There is a lot of South Africa I’d love to visit and hunt across.

 

[DLSJR]

That's a very interesting question. My Africa safari was the trip of a lifetime and there is nothing that I have hunted before or since that compares. It seems to come down to priorities. Some aren't as romantic as I was, and still am, about hunting dangerous game or Africa in general. It may not be worth it for them to spend a lot of money on something that is based on a romantic notion and make it a reality, but it was for me. I was fortunate that my PH had a bit of romantic tendencies as well and did his absolute best to show that version of an African hunt. I thought it was worth every single red cent; from the vintage guns, to riding in the back of the Hilux, to seeing Victoria Falls in person, to following up on a wounded lion. A plains game hunt using a modern rifle and suppressor wouldn't hold a candle to that experience.

I can 100% relate to what you say!

My first African hunt was a 24-day affair and we took a large bag that included leopard, 2 buffalo and an elephant bull as well as some excellent plains game. That was in 1983, on Zimbabwe’s Deka Safari Area. That still ranks as the most enjoyable month of my entire life. 42 years later, those memories still burn bright and I reminisce often.

 

[grand veneur]

I have experienced many different so called wild hunting areas in various countries of Africa and for this reason can better judge how real they all are. It remains a subjective judgement, but in recent years I had to realize that a lot of areas are not as wild as presented. That made me very critical about hunting in Africa in general. That is why it is hard to say what is better or not. It is easier to say what is cheaper, but that also does not mean it is of lower quality. Ultimately everyone has to decide for themselves and the different posts show that it is so.

 

[Sideshow]

If you get the opportunity take it with both hands!
For once you hear the doves in the morning, smell the dust kicked up by the animals and see the light of dawn and dusk. You will be bitten and will always remember and want to go back again and again….AWA “Africa wins again”
It’s those million little things that draw you back. To hard to explain it to anyone who’s not been. So tall fence or wild area you will see and know this.

 

[BryceM]

If you haven’t been, it’s a question for which the answer will have no meaning, as you won’t be able to understand it. If you have been there, you will easily come to your own conclusions about how many and what type of hunts you want to do from there forward.

I’ve done 6 PG hunts and one “big & wild” DG hunt in the middle. They both suit me. As long as you can afford it, and are having fun, why not do whatever you want?

 

[3chunter]

What’s wild? 200,000 acres. 1 million acres with no fence whatsoever?
With research, a man can find large properties in Africa with no more than a cattle fence just like you are hunting white tails in iowa or Kansas. That is wild Africa to me. I have hunted in two such places in Africa and my hunts were done without breaking the bank.

 

[375Fox]

I hope I have another 40 or 50 years of hunting left. If it’s a choice of 1 once in a lifetime hunt or a smaller hunt every year in South Africa I’m definitely taking the smaller hunt every year. However that does not mean I’d be willing to compromise to hunt put and take Sables or CBL lions or unnatural color variants or hunt with an high volume outfitter running 20+ clients a week through camp. I’d search out outfitters doing what I think is proper hunting for native species. I’d be very happy to hunt kudu, bushbuck, warthogs, etc on less intensively managed farms. I don’t need to leave with 10 animals on a 7 day hunt. My focus would still be quality hunting even if going to more wild concession areas in other parts of Africa was no longer an option for me.

 

[375Fox]

You bring up a good point. Wild Africa has its odd moments also. We had the Zim army come through camp on my first trip over 20 years ago with CMS. CMS was pissed of course as they had made arrangements to avoid such situations with their contracts and govt connections. I’ve certainly seen more negative things in wild Africa than I have on big game farms in SA. Just part of it. TIA.

Depends on how you look at it. That’s all part of the adventure to me. It’s not a negative looking back on those occurrences now. However, seeing a buffalo randomly getting chased with dart guns along highway, seeing ear tags, seeing sable and buffalo breeding pens, seeing color variants has become more negative to me the more I look back on them and how it changed the way I view the overall experience.

 

[grand veneur]

I am over 70 years old and don't know how many hunts I will still do in Africa. Going hunting more often in Africa is for myself now rather questionable. I will just focus on a few more or less wild open areas that are not hunted that often, or on hunting a game species that I have never hunted before, a rhino for example. All of this will cost something, but since thereafter I will no longer going hunting in Africa, it will play a minor role.

 

[kpoynter]

Lot of great conversation on this….
The question is a bit broad on the “high end” of the spectrum.
The one “Big Safari” to me means a 21 day “Full bag” type hunt. That, in today’s world, is generally 100k+ and well over that with taxidermy etc.
on the smaller end of the “one big hunt” to me would then be say Leopard/Buff etc in a primer area which is a 50k hunt.

To me…. I’d do multiple smaller hunts in multiple areas and make sure I see “more of Africa”
Knowing what I know now (after 13 Safaris in many different areas) I would break it up.
I would do a hunt in the Eastern Cape and add the Karoo ona nice but cheap plains game hunt. See beautiful hills, flora and fauna of South Africa and the Karoo maybe for say Springbuck etc.
That’s a $7,500 hunt
I would do a Buff, Sable, plains game in Zim…see a wild area with Elephant, Lion, Leopard etc (maybe Hippo and Croc) but also make sure I worked in Victoria Falls… 25k
I would do the Kalahari in Botswana… best Kudu in the world and track Eland with Bushmen…$7,500
I would do a Multi Area Namibia hunt and see more terrain and also experience more of Africa…

On that same budget (or damn close) I could see and hunt 4 Countries…hunt Multiple multiple species, experience a VERY wide variety of Habitat, one of the Worlds Seven Wonders and zip G&Ts on the deck of the Vic Falls Hotel…
Experience totally different cultures, see the Bushmen, the Himba, learn some Shona…

You can see and do A LOT on that “one big hunt” budget !!!!

 

[LivingTheDream]

For example, when I went on my first trip to RSA in 2021 I did not know I'd go through a divorce in 2024, nor how much that would cost. Had I waited and saved I might still be in the position of hoping to go, rather than having gone.

In theory you should have took out a HELOC and hunted wild africa. Better to split the debt rather than the savings!!

Follow me for my marriage and financial advice.

 

[wesheltonj]

Massailand is great but yes, not remote and can be reached with a vehicle in three hours or so from Arusha. As you know, most other areas are more remote and you won’t see much for people in Game Reserves where settlements are not allowed. Many require a charter flight or two days driving.

Unfortunately, those areas will be changing soon. Examples: in Serengeti NP, the government of Tanzania wants to build an international airport. In the Selous, part of it is now a lake with a Hydro dam (requires workers) and turn another large section into a National Park. Even more visitors and infrastructure.