South Africa: Kuche Safaris - Free State - August 2024

[jt13]

On forum members advice- copied here from HuntTalk:

It all started with a phone call to my wife last July about this absurdly cheap African safari hunt that was about to sell at a Ducks Unlimited banquet. I did some quick math in my head and a surface level Google search about the outfitter. I learned quickly that Kuche is a high volume outfit with multiple camps across the country, hundreds of clients, and thousands of harvested animals per year. There were mixed reviews online from previous clients, mostly positive, but the negative opinions were there. Someone even referred to them as the "Golden Corral" of African safari hunting, which I got a good laugh at. I decided to risk it anyway and with my wife's blessing I clicked the submit-bid button.

A few hours later I swipe the credit card for $2800 and became the proud owner of an all inclusive hunt for four hunters and 16 animals from Kuche Safaris.

We received a packet of information for the outfitter, arranged to add two additional hunters, and set dates for the trip.

Fast forwarding about a year:

Flights are booked, deposits are paid, and we're ready to go. My wife and I decided to stay in South Africa and sightseeing for about a week after the conclusion of the hunt. A few others in the group made touristy plans of their own.

I had communicated with their administrative assistant pretty continuously over the year sending information, asking questions, getting clarifications as needed. As recently as late April, 2024 I double and triple checked that all our ducks were in a row.

However, to my dismay, three days prior to departure I read a post on another forum about our outfitter having a huge price increase (250%) for add-on days and hunter daily rates. If true, this would increase our costs as a group by thousands of dollars due to us adding 2 extra hunters to the package ($4960 to $7840).

I reached out to the administrative assistant and was provided the fine print from their website "prices subject to change without notice"....

I was less pissed about the actual monetary amount but that they had no intentions on telling me this until it was time to pay the bill at the end of the week. They also greatly increased their suggested tips and bumped up the add-on animal price list.

The pricing still averaged out to be at or below market value per person but I was having some real last minute doubts about the kind of operation we were going to be dealing with. Last minute unannounced price increases isn't a fair play in my book. I assume these bait and switch tactics are a normal part of the repertoire for Kuche Safaris on the donated hunts. Once the clients are locked in for airfare and accommodations the prices change.

It was too late to back out now though... it was time to finish packing bags and head to the airport.

 

[Mekaniks]

On forum members advice- copied here from HuntTalk:

It all started with a phone call to my wife last July about this absurdly cheap African safari hunt that was about to sell at a Ducks Unlimited banquet. I did some quick math in my head and a surface level Google search about the outfitter. I learned quickly that Kuche is a high volume outfit with multiple camps across the country, hundreds of clients, and thousands of harvested animals per year. There were mixed reviews online from previous clients, mostly positive, but the negative opinions were there. Someone even referred to them as the "Golden Corral" of African safari hunting, which I got a good laugh at. I decided to risk it anyway and with my wife's blessing I clicked the submit-bid button.

A few hours later I swipe the credit card for $2800 and became the proud owner of an all inclusive hunt for four hunters and 16 animals from Kuche Safaris.

We received a packet of information for the outfitter, arranged to add two additional hunters, and set dates for the trip.

View attachment 629836


Fast forwarding about a year:

Flights are booked, deposits are paid, and we're ready to go. My wife and I decided to stay in South Africa and sightseeing for about a week after the conclusion of the hunt. A few others in the group made touristy plans of their own.

I had communicated with their administrative assistant pretty continuously over the year sending information, asking questions, getting clarifications as needed. As recently as late April, 2024 I double and triple checked that all our ducks were in a row.

However, to my dismay, three days prior to departure I read a post on another forum about our outfitter having a huge price increase (250%) for add-on days and hunter daily rates. If true, this would increase our costs as a group by thousands of dollars due to us adding 2 extra hunters to the package ($4960 to $7840).

I reached out to the administrative assistant and was provided the fine print from their website "prices subject to change without notice"....

I was less pissed about the actual monetary amount but that they had no intentions on telling me this until it was time to pay the bill at the end of the week. They also greatly increased their suggested tips and bumped up the add-on animal price list.

The pricing still averaged out to be at or below market value per person but I was having some real last minute doubts about the kind of operation we were going to be dealing with. Last minute unannounced price increases isn't a fair play in my book. I assume these bait and switch tactics are a normal part of the repertoire for Kuche Safaris on the donated hunts. Once the clients are locked in for airfare and accommodations the prices change.

It was too late to back out now though... it was time to finish packing bags and head to the airport.

Glad you decided to move this to its own thread. Following along with interest ….

 

[jt13]

There's only a few options for direct flights to South Africa. We booked the United Airlines flight from Newark to Johannesburg. I came to find that these are chronically delayed both coming and going.

It took a couple extra hours to get off the ground for a combination of controllable and uncontrollable factors, but I was just happy to get off the ground and headed across the Atlantic.

After delays, travel time, and time zone changes we departed around 8pm on Saturday and landed around 8pm on Sunday night.

Coming down into Johannesburg into O.R. Tambo:

After landing in Jo'berg we met up with a couple of the PH's and trackers waiting at the airport exit holding a signboard with our name on it. We found out which of the camps we were headed to (Free State), loaded up, and started the 4+ hour drive.

We stopped a few times along the way to stretch, pee, and fuel up. Ultimately arriving around 1:30am on Monday morning. We didn't get to poke around much before bed but it was blatantly obvious that camp was very nice. We came to find out that this lodge just opened this past May. It was plenty big enough, clean, well kept, and greatly exceeded my expectations. We had a beer or two then passed out until breakfast, orientation, and rifle zeroing at 8am.

A few photos of camp from the first morning:

Our group of 6 hunters were assigned 3 PH's. We were all renting rifles and ammo from the PH's at a rate of $30/day + $80/box ammo. We all fired a couple rounds from our respective guide’s rifle at an 8" steel plate at 200 yards and made hits. Our rifle was a suppressed Howa 1500 in 30-06, no complaints in form or function from us in that regard. The ammunition of choice was handloaded 165gr Hornady Interlocks over a modest load of Varget.

 

[DieJager]

Great start, anxiously waiting the next installment.

 

[jt13]

The overall terrain of the area we were hunting in Free State, just north of Bloemfontein, was similar to that of the Great Plains. Just beyond where row crop agriculture gives way to grassland cattle country. We utilized the property around the main lodge as well as several concessions, leased property, within about 60-120 minutes drive time from camp.

The main lodge itself has a few thousand acres attached that is stocked full of all the most common types of plains game. It's an old cattle ranch with all the interior fencing removed. As flat as a pancake, very little vegetation, dotted with water tanks, and circled in 8-12 foot exterior fencing.

If you're considering hunting South Africa, look into how they use fencing for wildlife. For better or for worse, everywhere wildlife is found is fenced in some way with very little free range movement. Some properties are very large, some are relatively small, but all are fenced. Some critters go over fences, some go under, but most seem to stay right where they're put. Outside of fenced areas we saw very few free range large ungulates in the hundreds of miles we drove around central and southern SA.

We had several hunters in camp that had no idea this is how things worked and were sorely disappointed to find it to be a "high fence" hunt when they expected something different.

There were 6 PHs guiding 12 hunters total in camp. The normal procedure was for two to three groups to hunt at the main lodge and the rest headed out to the concessions. The concessions were all an hour or two away. The terrain was much more hilly, had quite a bit of vegetation, and reminded me of some places I've seen in Eastern Montana or New Mexico. The properties we utilized seemed to be in the 2000-4000 acre size range.

 

[jt13]

On our first day in the field the target was springbuck. We hunted a concession, a little more than an hour away. We were greeted by the property owner were provided one of his employees was provided to help navigate the property. It was along a river just below a large dam.

A neat thing about this place was that there were free range kudu, nyala, warthog, and waterbuck that traveled the dense river corridor that we were told continually evaded capture by helicopter. The local landowners had various methods to try and lure/capture them to bring them inside the fences from baiting to remotely controlled drop nets.

Finding the herd of springbuck wasn't incredibly difficult, but what made it a hunt was trying to pick out the few adult male common springbuck that were in a herd of mostly coppers, blacks, and whites.

We stalked and walked around the entire property several times over the course of the day. We did 10+ miles on foot chasing these critters around waiting for the right shot, at the right animal, with a safe back stop, and no risk of hitting anything else in the herd. This is when we first learned that the more expensive the animal, the easier they were to hunt. The "package" animals were as switched on, cagey, and wild as you might expect a constantly hunted animal to be. Their safe stand-off distance was around 350-400 yards, any closer than that and they'd spook over the horizon.

However in stark contrast, the bigger animals like the Sable would let you walk up to them and whack them on the head with a shovel. The bigger and more expensive the animal, the less "wild" they were. Here's the first couple young Sable we ran into:

I missed a springbuck at 340 yards, I got my kentucky windage wrong and they are pretty small little antelope. So we relocated and stalked in again to about 220 yards. I made a half decent shot on one as he was walking quartering away and finished him with a second shot ending our first successful hunt.

We spent the rest of the day chasing springbuck for my wife and a cull "management" impala with a foot injury to no avail. We had a few opportunities but couldn't capitalize.

 

[jt13]

On day two we were scheduled to hunt the cattle pasture around the lodge. Our PH Divan wanted to chase springbuck and/or blesbuck with my wife up on the gun. His theory was that the springbuck and blesbuck were the hardest to get, so best to get a few of those under our belt before moving on to wildebeest and management animals.

We tried to hunt on foot as we did the day before, however it quickly became apparent that it was an exercise in futility. They'd see us walking across the big, flat, wide-open expanse and spook from a quarter-mile out. After half a dozen attempts we pivoted to hunting with the truck. We followed herds of critters indirectly, trying to ease up to them without blowing them out. Pretty standard road hunting techniques.

After chasing herds back and forth for a while we got one of the 100+ springbuck to separate from the group for my wife to get a shot. I had it ranged at 270 yards, the PH and I had her told at the top of the back and a few inches forward. The 25+ mph gusts pushed it further than we anticipated and hit liver/guts. It jumped back into the herd and disappeared into a blur of brown, black, and white as the ran hundreds of yards out of sight.

It was around lunch time so we headed in for some food and to give him some time to succumb to his injuries. We waited about 3 hours and headed back out. A little ways from the lodge we bumped into a herd of blue wildebeest with pretty good bull in it. With plenty of daylight left we deemed it reasonable to put on a quick stalk. We put the one bush in the pasture between us and them and got to 135 yards where I took the shot.

We spent the rest of daylight laying eyes on every springbuck on the property and then grid searched the area where she shot to no avail. He had disappeared on us and our PH Divan called it a loss at sunset. We did however put out the word to all of the other hunters and PH's to keep an eye out for it. With a lot hunters in the area for the next few days, I was hopeful that he'd turn up.

Spoiler alert....

Early the next morning we got the good news phone call that one of the other hunters found him! He was the largest of the dozen springbuck taken that week.

 

[jt13]

On day 3 we set out for blesbuck at a concession about 2 hours away. This was a large, hilly, and more densely foliated property called Botaskuilen. This farm held a healthy population of Cape Buffalo as well as the normal roster of plains game.

We met up with a ranch employee named "Malcolm" who jumped in the back with us. In pretty short order we were passed by a herd of stampeding blue wildebeest being chased by a truck full of local hunters and their PH. Malcolm told us that they were meat hunting, shooting some cow blues and springbuck for the freezer. We talked to them briefly, they didn't have much to say to us, seemingly annoyed that we were encroaching on their hunt. I had the same thoughts going through my head and we soon went our separate ways.

Around the backside of the property we found the herd of blesbuck. We rounded the corner and at the mere sight of the truck 500+ yards away they bolted into cover and up and over the next ridge out of sight. That proved to us that it was going to be a real hunt, no road hunting today.

We hiked, stalked, and chased them up and down the hills all day. We even did a good old fashioned deer drive at one point. We tucked behind a stone wall with sandbags and a stump set up and sent Malcolm up through the brush to chase them out to us. As often goes with a deer drive, they didn't read the script and came out too far below us. It certainly was neat to try though.

Passing some Cape Buffalo having lunch.

A few hills later our tracker, Shepard, located them down in a draw. We snuck down through some brush and set up in thick cover about 130 yards out. We sat on them for about 45 minutes while they fed and eventually bedded down. Without a steady rest, Sheppard offered a shoulder and my wife made the shot on the largest buck in the herd.

The rest of the blesbuck tore out of there. It took us a few hours and covering some serious ground to catch up with them again. We actually had given up for the day when we saw them way off at the back of the ranch. With no cover for a stalk, we set up on an adjacent ridge and tried the deer drive method again. We set up and Malcolm skylined himself on the ridge behind them, spooking them enough to send them running towards us. In the last few minutes of daylight, I made the shot on my blesbuck at about 125 yards.

 

[jt13]

Days 4 and 5 were more cattle pasture hunting at the lodge.

My wife killed a black wildebeest. Those critters can certainly soak up some lead.

For better or for worse, we got some pretty neat "management" animals. While the rest of the clients got female blesbuck or springbuck, we killed some trophy size female gemsbuck that had fallen ill.

On the main lodge property they had something sweeping through the gemsbuck herd, they guessed was some sort of tick-borne illness. They lost a dozen gemsbuck in the two weeks prior to our arrival and the remainder were not doing well. We happened upon these two, struggling bad. We did them the favor by culling them, likely wouldn't have made it another day.

One of the guys decided to splurge and hunt for a trophy waterbuck on the last day. He had a great hunt from all reports and killed a giant.

After dinner those last few nights, there were campfires, beers, cigars, and brandy... too much brandy.

I'm not sure I've ever laughed more in a week than I did on this trip. Made some new friends and got to know some old friends even better. Great times were had by all.

We set out back to Johannesburg and everyone went their separate ways. My wife and I headed to Cape Town and Franschhoek to be touristy for a few days.

FYI: No more major curveballs when it came to paying the final bill for the group. One more minor discrepancy was resolved, all else was as advertised. While I still don't agree with last minute price jumping antics, I will say that all of the members of my group were satisfied with their purchase and their experience with Kuche. A very serious thank you to my PH Divan and tracker Sheppard, they absolutely gave it 100% all week.

 

[jt13]

As I have done with my previous hunt reports heres a quick and dirty pricing breakdown for anyone that may be thinking about this kind of trip for themselves.

• Roundtrip flights from EWR to JNB were +/- $1400.
• The four animal package, lodging, and accommodations as described in the flyer in my first post worked out to about $1300/ea.
• Suggested tips were around $1800/pp but we believed that to be excessive. Everyone felt more comfortable in the $500-700 range- that included PH, tracker, skinner, cook, maids, etc.
• Rifle rental was $180 + $80 for ammo.
• Taxidermy was required to be paid in full including the crating fees. 4 euros and a tanned flat skin was around $1100.
• The bare minimum door to door cost for the trip was right around $4700 per person.
• This does not include the freight costs for finished taxidermy, that will will likely be between $2000-3000 when the work is done in about 18 months.

 

[jt13]

I hope this report helps any prospective hunters in the future. I tried to be as unbiased and honest as possible, good and bad. For context, all 6 members of my group were first timers in Africa and for 3 of them it was there first guided hunt of any kind. Let me know if anyone has any questions.