SOUTH AFRICA: Kuche Safaris

[jball792]

Come on, no teasers. Say what you have to say or don't post!

sit down and chill out

 

[375Fox]

sit down and chill out

This might be only time I agree with that particular member, but no one is willing to write anything negative with specifics except in PMs so far. This negative thread occurred recently without follow up or details by the OP with their one and only post. There seem to be a lot of hints dropped but without details they don’t carry significant value for someone researching. If it’s actually important to you details need written, withholding negative details only leaves the positive reports.

SOUTH AFRICA: Kuche Safaris

Kuche safari Hunting in Africa is amazing if you go to the right outfitter, In my life time I have been to Africa 8 times, This last month I was in South Africa at Kuche safari with my husband, It was my husband first time, KUCHE SAFARI was the worst outfitter I have been to, THE LODGE WAS DIRTY...

www.africahunting.com

 

[Deepfork]

sit down and chill out

Nope...spill it or you are wasting everyone's time.

 

[MAdcox]

Nope...spill it or you are wasting everyone's time.

The attitude and need for drama by dragging it out pretty much tells you what you need to know.

 

[Deepfork]

The attitude and need for drama by dragging it out pretty much tells you what you need to know.

Good insight.

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

sit down and chill out

Just by the tone of this post we see what kind of member you are. People here share information so that they can share each other. The initial interest in your post was in the vain of supporting you. And you behave like this?! No manners at all.

 

[PARA45]

Very upset with Kuche Safaris. Will not recommend and I will post a complete explanation.

Why bother to type this, and not share what happened.

 

[NTH]

Come on, no teasers. Say what you have to say or don't post!

I concur, this isn’t Paul Harvey and we shouldn’t have to wait for the “Rest of the Story.”

 

[R.M.C.]

Not fair to the outfitters or potential clients, say what you have to say. That's what the internet is for lol

 

[bjh2oson]

Has anyone had the opportunity to hunt with Kuche Safaris? I'm looking into a plains game hunt for next year and have called several references but want the chance to see if anyone on the forum had any experiences with them. Thanks in advance

I just got back from Kuche in August. This was a DU auction.

I unfortunately did not have a great experience.

The good:
Ph's were great... knowledgeable, fun, good guys.
Access to many ranches with wide variety of game
main hangout/dinner spot was a nice building
The evening meal was pretty good, wild game with some basic sides. good dessert as well.

The bad:
Lack of communication, this runs across most aspects of the outfit
- To start our group of four traded several emails with Kuche and responded timely to any requests they had, but our emails were not always replied to, so things were missed or not known.
- Upon arrival, after traveling 24 hours, we were dropped off at our cabin and had no hot water. This would not have been an issue if we had known who to contact. The owner was not at the ranch until mid week and the ph's stay off site. The whole week we were never given a main point of contact. They need a manager to be this person and they just dont have it. They rely on the ph's to do everything.
- cabins are small and functional, nothing special, bathrooms suck. I would never bring my wife or kids here. There is little/nothing for them to do but sit around all day or ride around in the truck if you are hunting that way. I did not bring my family and it was never my intention just fyi.
- Breakfast and lunch was pathetic. Coffee was gross every morning. No variety as every morning was eggs and some sort of sausage. Lunch was the worst- most days bread sandwiches were the main item... yes bread sandwich.. 3 pieces of bread 1 slice of cheese 1 slice of ham. came with some off brand chips/snack items. 1 day was a chicken paste patty (liquid chicken) and 1 day was a meat pie (the only decent thing all week).
- Camp is very close to cleaning/skinning area and constantly smells like death. I read another review about this and they are not lying.

- Getting your hunting spot. This was a very frustrating aspect as it had to do with the actual hunting. I can deal with the other bs things that make this place a budget outfit but this one was the worst for me. Every day all the ph's get together and discuss or lobby where they will hunt the next day. For some of the guys i went with this was great. They were with ph's who owned their own land and hunted on it, therefore it was set where they were going. My guide did not own his own land therefore he had to lobby for places to hunt. More senior people get diff spots, hunter spending more money better spots , they like you more etc.

I was bow hunting and i would strongly recommend against bow hunting with these guys. Their blinds are trash/ cheap and vary greatly from location to location. I wish they had been up front about this as i would have switched to rifle before the last 2 days.

I had the four animals from my package and was adding 3, with kudu being the main animal i was targeting. I ended up shooting 2 animals from the package (wildebeest and impala) and 1 add on (Gemsbuck) Day 1. I hunted at the property attached to the main camp.
Day 2 also hunted at the main ranch. did not shoot anything
Day 3- this is where it gets crappy. We went to a property my ph had never been to. 20,000+ acre ranch. PH did not have good directions so we went the wrong way at first and then when we got there we had no idea where the blind was. We found a blind and hunted at it... not exactly what i was hoping for and not my guides fault. He should have been given specific instructions and was not. We ended up in a blind that had windows at chest level, so i stood a good amount of the day. While there, in the middle of the day a warthog got into a trap and scared away everything in the area... not sure why that was set but we let it out and continued to hunt. We did not end seeing/shooting any of the remaining animals on my list and come to find out there are no kudu in that area.. whole day wasted due to poor communication.

Day 4 - Hunted at a place that no one should ever go to. A poorly managed ranch where we sat in an abandoned party pavilion overlooking a lake. We saw 2 immature kudu and few impala and warthog.
This did not feel like hunting but on top of this we saw very little.

Day 5- Hunted a solid ranch but saw no animals on my list. When i asked to shoot a couple animals that came in (add-ons not on my list- additional impala and warthog) it was not allowed as that ranch's animal quota had been met.

2 of 5 days ended up being wasted. I dont fault anyone for not seeing certain animals but i dont feel i was put in a place to succeed. I was the only hunter in a camp of 20+ hunters to not even see a mature kudu. Somehow every fat middle aged guy who cant shoot worth a damn got a kudu but i didnt see one? I brought up my concerns to the owner after day 3, when he first arrived and he was mostly dismissive. He was more concerned about different hunters in camp. He also wasnt there my last morning either so i couldn't bring up the overall hunt with him after my last hunt. I get catering to guys who have more animals on their list but i would have gladly added more animals if i had the chance but i didnt even get to shoot the animals i paid for.

Overall it was fun to see animals ive never hunted before but the lack of success due to miscommunication and politics within the outfit definitely made it not a great hunt. I have been on some guided hunts before and the food and accommodations were by far the worst ive had at Kuche.

What it comes down to is that this is a low-rent hunt. You are just a number to them. I should have done some research so part of this is on me. Point being 90% of people who hunt here are cheap asses and dont care about where they stay, what they eat, and roll the dice with where they hunt. I should have spent more money and bought from someone who cares about their hunters. Seems like a lot of people shy away from writing reviews. If anyone has a question Im an open book. For what its worth i sent an email about my experience to the owner and he did not respond.

 

[375Fox]

I just got back from Kuche in August. This was a DU auction.

I unfortunately did not have a great experience.

The good:
Ph's were great... knowledgeable, fun, good guys.
Access to many ranches with wide variety of game
main hangout/dinner spot was a nice building
The evening meal was pretty good, wild game with some basic sides. good dessert as well.

The bad:
Lack of communication, this runs across most aspects of the outfit
- To start our group of four traded several emails with Kuche and responded timely to any requests they had, but our emails were not always replied to, so things were missed or not known.
- Upon arrival, after traveling 24 hours, we were dropped off at our cabin and had no hot water. This would not have been an issue if we had known who to contact. The owner was not at the ranch until mid week and the ph's stay off site. The whole week we were never given a main point of contact. They need a manager to be this person and they just dont have it. They rely on the ph's to do everything.
- cabins are small and functional, nothing special, bathrooms suck. I would never bring my wife or kids here. There is little/nothing for them to do but sit around all day or ride around in the truck if you are hunting that way. I did not bring my family and it was never my intention just fyi.
- Breakfast and lunch was pathetic. Coffee was gross every morning. No variety as every morning was eggs and some sort of sausage. Lunch was the worst- most days bread sandwiches were the main item... yes bread sandwich.. 3 pieces of bread 1 slice of cheese 1 slice of ham. came with some off brand chips/snack items. 1 day was a chicken paste patty (liquid chicken) and 1 day was a meat pie (the only decent thing all week).
- Camp is very close to cleaning/skinning area and constantly smells like death. I read another review about this and they are not lying.

- Getting your hunting spot. This was a very frustrating aspect as it had to do with the actual hunting. I can deal with the other bs things that make this place a budget outfit but this one was the worst for me. Every day all the ph's get together and discuss or lobby where they will hunt the next day. For some of the guys i went with this was great. They were with ph's who owned their own land and hunted on it, therefore it was set where they were going. My guide did not own his own land therefore he had to lobby for places to hunt. More senior people get diff spots, hunter spending more money better spots , they like you more etc.

I was bow hunting and i would strongly recommend against bow hunting with these guys. Their blinds are trash/ cheap and vary greatly from location to location. I wish they had been up front about this as i would have switched to rifle before the last 2 days.

I had the four animals from my package and was adding 3, with kudu being the main animal i was targeting. I ended up shooting 2 animals from the package (wildebeest and impala) and 1 add on (Gemsbuck) Day 1. I hunted at the property attached to the main camp.
Day 2 also hunted at the main ranch. did not shoot anything
Day 3- this is where it gets crappy. We went to a property my ph had never been to. 20,000+ acre ranch. PH did not have good directions so we went the wrong way at first and then when we got there we had no idea where the blind was. We found a blind and hunted at it... not exactly what i was hoping for and not my guides fault. He should have been given specific instructions and was not. We ended up in a blind that had windows at chest level, so i stood a good amount of the day. While there, in the middle of the day a warthog got into a trap and scared away everything in the area... not sure why that was set but we let it out and continued to hunt. We did not end seeing/shooting any of the remaining animals on my list and come to find out there are no kudu in that area.. whole day wasted due to poor communication.

Day 4 - Hunted at a place that no one should ever go to. A poorly managed ranch where we sat in an abandoned party pavilion overlooking a lake. We saw 2 immature kudu and few impala and warthog.
This did not feel like hunting but on top of this we saw very little.

Day 5- Hunted a solid ranch but saw no animals on my list. When i asked to shoot a couple animals that came in (add-ons not on my list- additional impala and warthog) it was not allowed as that ranch's animal quota had been met.

2 of 5 days ended up being wasted. I dont fault anyone for not seeing certain animals but i dont feel i was put in a place to succeed. I was the only hunter in a camp of 20+ hunters to not even see a mature kudu. Somehow every fat middle aged guy who cant shoot worth a damn got a kudu but i didnt see one? I brought up my concerns to the owner after day 3, when he first arrived and he was mostly dismissive. He was more concerned about different hunters in camp. He also wasnt there my last morning either so i couldn't bring up the overall hunt with him after my last hunt. I get catering to guys who have more animals on their list but i would have gladly added more animals if i had the chance but i didnt even get to shoot the animals i paid for.

Overall it was fun to see animals ive never hunted before but the lack of success due to miscommunication and politics within the outfit definitely made it not a great hunt. I have been on some guided hunts before and the food and accommodations were by far the worst ive had at Kuche.

What it comes down to is that this is a low-rent hunt. You are just a number to them. I should have done some research so part of this is on me. Point being 90% of people who hunt here are cheap asses and dont care about where they stay, what they eat, and roll the dice with where they hunt. I should have spent more money and bought from someone who cares about their hunters. Seems like a lot of people shy away from writing reviews. If anyone has a question Im an open book. For what its worth i sent an email about my experience to the owner and he did not respond.

Thanks for writing a reasonable bad review with detail. It’s a lot of what I expect for a low cost high volume operation. The attention to detail just isn’t there. You know better what you want for next time now at least.

 

[R.M.C.]

I just got back from Kuche in August. This was a DU auction.

I unfortunately did not have a great experience.

The good:
Ph's were great... knowledgeable, fun, good guys.
Access to many ranches with wide variety of game
main hangout/dinner spot was a nice building
The evening meal was pretty good, wild game with some basic sides. good dessert as well.

The bad:
Lack of communication, this runs across most aspects of the outfit
- To start our group of four traded several emails with Kuche and responded timely to any requests they had, but our emails were not always replied to, so things were missed or not known.
- Upon arrival, after traveling 24 hours, we were dropped off at our cabin and had no hot water. This would not have been an issue if we had known who to contact. The owner was not at the ranch until mid week and the ph's stay off site. The whole week we were never given a main point of contact. They need a manager to be this person and they just dont have it. They rely on the ph's to do everything.
- cabins are small and functional, nothing special, bathrooms suck. I would never bring my wife or kids here. There is little/nothing for them to do but sit around all day or ride around in the truck if you are hunting that way. I did not bring my family and it was never my intention just fyi.
- Breakfast and lunch was pathetic. Coffee was gross every morning. No variety as every morning was eggs and some sort of sausage. Lunch was the worst- most days bread sandwiches were the main item... yes bread sandwich.. 3 pieces of bread 1 slice of cheese 1 slice of ham. came with some off brand chips/snack items. 1 day was a chicken paste patty (liquid chicken) and 1 day was a meat pie (the only decent thing all week).
- Camp is very close to cleaning/skinning area and constantly smells like death. I read another review about this and they are not lying.

- Getting your hunting spot. This was a very frustrating aspect as it had to do with the actual hunting. I can deal with the other bs things that make this place a budget outfit but this one was the worst for me. Every day all the ph's get together and discuss or lobby where they will hunt the next day. For some of the guys i went with this was great. They were with ph's who owned their own land and hunted on it, therefore it was set where they were going. My guide did not own his own land therefore he had to lobby for places to hunt. More senior people get diff spots, hunter spending more money better spots , they like you more etc.

I was bow hunting and i would strongly recommend against bow hunting with these guys. Their blinds are trash/ cheap and vary greatly from location to location. I wish they had been up front about this as i would have switched to rifle before the last 2 days.

I had the four animals from my package and was adding 3, with kudu being the main animal i was targeting. I ended up shooting 2 animals from the package (wildebeest and impala) and 1 add on (Gemsbuck) Day 1. I hunted at the property attached to the main camp.
Day 2 also hunted at the main ranch. did not shoot anything
Day 3- this is where it gets crappy. We went to a property my ph had never been to. 20,000+ acre ranch. PH did not have good directions so we went the wrong way at first and then when we got there we had no idea where the blind was. We found a blind and hunted at it... not exactly what i was hoping for and not my guides fault. He should have been given specific instructions and was not. We ended up in a blind that had windows at chest level, so i stood a good amount of the day. While there, in the middle of the day a warthog got into a trap and scared away everything in the area... not sure why that was set but we let it out and continued to hunt. We did not end seeing/shooting any of the remaining animals on my list and come to find out there are no kudu in that area.. whole day wasted due to poor communication.

Day 4 - Hunted at a place that no one should ever go to. A poorly managed ranch where we sat in an abandoned party pavilion overlooking a lake. We saw 2 immature kudu and few impala and warthog.
This did not feel like hunting but on top of this we saw very little.

Day 5- Hunted a solid ranch but saw no animals on my list. When i asked to shoot a couple animals that came in (add-ons not on my list- additional impala and warthog) it was not allowed as that ranch's animal quota had been met.

2 of 5 days ended up being wasted. I dont fault anyone for not seeing certain animals but i dont feel i was put in a place to succeed. I was the only hunter in a camp of 20+ hunters to not even see a mature kudu. Somehow every fat middle aged guy who cant shoot worth a damn got a kudu but i didnt see one? I brought up my concerns to the owner after day 3, when he first arrived and he was mostly dismissive. He was more concerned about different hunters in camp. He also wasnt there my last morning either so i couldn't bring up the overall hunt with him after my last hunt. I get catering to guys who have more animals on their list but i would have gladly added more animals if i had the chance but i didnt even get to shoot the animals i paid for.

Overall it was fun to see animals ive never hunted before but the lack of success due to miscommunication and politics within the outfit definitely made it not a great hunt. I have been on some guided hunts before and the food and accommodations were by far the worst ive had at Kuche.

What it comes down to is that this is a low-rent hunt. You are just a number to them. I should have done some research so part of this is on me. Point being 90% of people who hunt here are cheap asses and dont care about where they stay, what they eat, and roll the dice with where they hunt. I should have spent more money and bought from someone who cares about their hunters. Seems like a lot of people shy away from writing reviews. If anyone has a question Im an open book. For what its worth i sent an email about my experience to the owner and he did not respond.

Thanks for providing the details! Sorry to hear about your shitty hunt. Hopefully you give Africa another shot.

 

[bjh2oson]

Thanks for providing the details! Sorry to hear about your shitty hunt. Hopefully you give Africa another shot.

I definitely will. I have a few places i have planned first but it wont be long

 

[R.M.C.]

I definitely will. I have a few places i have planned first but it wont be long

Good!! I had a great time with Moretla safaris last year, and they only book one party at a time so I was the only guy in camp. Great experience.

 

[Dinsdale]

I definitely will. I have a few places i have planned first but it wont be long

After reading your report; I couldn’t help but think of the similar experience I had my first time also in SA (thankfully that outfitter is out of business) I booked on recommendation of a local taxidermist and found out all they did was drink and shoot off the truck…..

But then I figured out you need to book the experience YOU want, sometimes folks love big camps and the same place several times, others intimate solo experiences. I was already writing down what went right and wrong on the flight home; I knew I could do better and find what I wanted.

So I went back armed with a better understanding/expectations and been booking what I want (often using forums and talking to other hunters in PM’s) and now many trips later it has been just one terrific experience after another.

 

[Hunt anything]

Does anyone have any contact information for the shipping company Koos uses? My group was advised months ago by Koos that our taxidermy was competed and ready to be crated...but I have since been unable to get ahold of Koos. Just looking for any suggestions on this....I understand getting everything back takes time.

Did you ever get this resolved?

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I just got back from Kuche in August. This was a DU auction.

I unfortunately did not have a great experience.

The good:
Ph's were great... knowledgeable, fun, good guys.
Access to many ranches with wide variety of game
main hangout/dinner spot was a nice building
The evening meal was pretty good, wild game with some basic sides. good dessert as well.

The bad:
Lack of communication, this runs across most aspects of the outfit
- To start our group of four traded several emails with Kuche and responded timely to any requests they had, but our emails were not always replied to, so things were missed or not known.
- Upon arrival, after traveling 24 hours, we were dropped off at our cabin and had no hot water. This would not have been an issue if we had known who to contact. The owner was not at the ranch until mid week and the ph's stay off site. The whole week we were never given a main point of contact. They need a manager to be this person and they just dont have it. They rely on the ph's to do everything.
- cabins are small and functional, nothing special, bathrooms suck. I would never bring my wife or kids here. There is little/nothing for them to do but sit around all day or ride around in the truck if you are hunting that way. I did not bring my family and it was never my intention just fyi.
- Breakfast and lunch was pathetic. Coffee was gross every morning. No variety as every morning was eggs and some sort of sausage. Lunch was the worst- most days bread sandwiches were the main item... yes bread sandwich.. 3 pieces of bread 1 slice of cheese 1 slice of ham. came with some off brand chips/snack items. 1 day was a chicken paste patty (liquid chicken) and 1 day was a meat pie (the only decent thing all week).
- Camp is very close to cleaning/skinning area and constantly smells like death. I read another review about this and they are not lying.

- Getting your hunting spot. This was a very frustrating aspect as it had to do with the actual hunting. I can deal with the other bs things that make this place a budget outfit but this one was the worst for me. Every day all the ph's get together and discuss or lobby where they will hunt the next day. For some of the guys i went with this was great. They were with ph's who owned their own land and hunted on it, therefore it was set where they were going. My guide did not own his own land therefore he had to lobby for places to hunt. More senior people get diff spots, hunter spending more money better spots , they like you more etc.

I was bow hunting and i would strongly recommend against bow hunting with these guys. Their blinds are trash/ cheap and vary greatly from location to location. I wish they had been up front about this as i would have switched to rifle before the last 2 days.

I had the four animals from my package and was adding 3, with kudu being the main animal i was targeting. I ended up shooting 2 animals from the package (wildebeest and impala) and 1 add on (Gemsbuck) Day 1. I hunted at the property attached to the main camp.
Day 2 also hunted at the main ranch. did not shoot anything
Day 3- this is where it gets crappy. We went to a property my ph had never been to. 20,000+ acre ranch. PH did not have good directions so we went the wrong way at first and then when we got there we had no idea where the blind was. We found a blind and hunted at it... not exactly what i was hoping for and not my guides fault. He should have been given specific instructions and was not. We ended up in a blind that had windows at chest level, so i stood a good amount of the day. While there, in the middle of the day a warthog got into a trap and scared away everything in the area... not sure why that was set but we let it out and continued to hunt. We did not end seeing/shooting any of the remaining animals on my list and come to find out there are no kudu in that area.. whole day wasted due to poor communication.

Day 4 - Hunted at a place that no one should ever go to. A poorly managed ranch where we sat in an abandoned party pavilion overlooking a lake. We saw 2 immature kudu and few impala and warthog.
This did not feel like hunting but on top of this we saw very little.

Day 5- Hunted a solid ranch but saw no animals on my list. When i asked to shoot a couple animals that came in (add-ons not on my list- additional impala and warthog) it was not allowed as that ranch's animal quota had been met.

2 of 5 days ended up being wasted. I dont fault anyone for not seeing certain animals but i dont feel i was put in a place to succeed. I was the only hunter in a camp of 20+ hunters to not even see a mature kudu. Somehow every fat middle aged guy who cant shoot worth a damn got a kudu but i didnt see one? I brought up my concerns to the owner after day 3, when he first arrived and he was mostly dismissive. He was more concerned about different hunters in camp. He also wasnt there my last morning either so i couldn't bring up the overall hunt with him after my last hunt. I get catering to guys who have more animals on their list but i would have gladly added more animals if i had the chance but i didnt even get to shoot the animals i paid for.

Overall it was fun to see animals ive never hunted before but the lack of success due to miscommunication and politics within the outfit definitely made it not a great hunt. I have been on some guided hunts before and the food and accommodations were by far the worst ive had at Kuche.

What it comes down to is that this is a low-rent hunt. You are just a number to them. I should have done some research so part of this is on me. Point being 90% of people who hunt here are cheap asses and dont care about where they stay, what they eat, and roll the dice with where they hunt. I should have spent more money and bought from someone who cares about their hunters. Seems like a lot of people shy away from writing reviews. If anyone has a question Im an open book. For what its worth i sent an email about my experience to the owner and he did not respond.

I think some of this is due to the complexity of booking archery hunts. Those are typically over bait or waterholes ... if any "sucess" is expected. Honestly, I don't know why anyone would go to Africa to hunt that way. I prefer to be on the move seeing new country and as many animals as possible. But that's just me. For your next trip I think you will find the hunting MUCH more enjoyable if you do a rifle hunt.

I am not into eating fancy stuff in Africa or anywhere else. Ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch were fine with me. And I was happy to make my own breakfast for early hours departures rather than wait for the cook to come in. I didn't want her coming in especially for me at 5:30 when other hunters didn't eat till 7:00.

No hot water doesn't work for me either, not for a paid guided hunt. They should have made that right.

I have never had a problem hunting new property with my PH. At the property we pick up a farm hand who knows the land and animals. He often has been a better tracker than the one we brought along. Sometimes it's been a bit of an adventure but never any shortage of opportunities. Again, I think your choice to hunt archery had a lot to do with your field mishaps.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I just got back from Kuche in August. This was a DU auction.

I unfortunately did not have a great experience.

The good:
Ph's were great... knowledgeable, fun, good guys.
Access to many ranches with wide variety of game
main hangout/dinner spot was a nice building
The evening meal was pretty good, wild game with some basic sides. good dessert as well.

The bad:
Lack of communication, this runs across most aspects of the outfit
- To start our group of four traded several emails with Kuche and responded timely to any requests they had, but our emails were not always replied to, so things were missed or not known.
- Upon arrival, after traveling 24 hours, we were dropped off at our cabin and had no hot water. This would not have been an issue if we had known who to contact. The owner was not at the ranch until mid week and the ph's stay off site. The whole week we were never given a main point of contact. They need a manager to be this person and they just dont have it. They rely on the ph's to do everything.
- cabins are small and functional, nothing special, bathrooms suck. I would never bring my wife or kids here. There is little/nothing for them to do but sit around all day or ride around in the truck if you are hunting that way. I did not bring my family and it was never my intention just fyi.
- Breakfast and lunch was pathetic. Coffee was gross every morning. No variety as every morning was eggs and some sort of sausage. Lunch was the worst- most days bread sandwiches were the main item... yes bread sandwich.. 3 pieces of bread 1 slice of cheese 1 slice of ham. came with some off brand chips/snack items. 1 day was a chicken paste patty (liquid chicken) and 1 day was a meat pie (the only decent thing all week).
- Camp is very close to cleaning/skinning area and constantly smells like death. I read another review about this and they are not lying.

- Getting your hunting spot. This was a very frustrating aspect as it had to do with the actual hunting. I can deal with the other bs things that make this place a budget outfit but this one was the worst for me. Every day all the ph's get together and discuss or lobby where they will hunt the next day. For some of the guys i went with this was great. They were with ph's who owned their own land and hunted on it, therefore it was set where they were going. My guide did not own his own land therefore he had to lobby for places to hunt. More senior people get diff spots, hunter spending more money better spots , they like you more etc.

I was bow hunting and i would strongly recommend against bow hunting with these guys. Their blinds are trash/ cheap and vary greatly from location to location. I wish they had been up front about this as i would have switched to rifle before the last 2 days.

I had the four animals from my package and was adding 3, with kudu being the main animal i was targeting. I ended up shooting 2 animals from the package (wildebeest and impala) and 1 add on (Gemsbuck) Day 1. I hunted at the property attached to the main camp.
Day 2 also hunted at the main ranch. did not shoot anything
Day 3- this is where it gets crappy. We went to a property my ph had never been to. 20,000+ acre ranch. PH did not have good directions so we went the wrong way at first and then when we got there we had no idea where the blind was. We found a blind and hunted at it... not exactly what i was hoping for and not my guides fault. He should have been given specific instructions and was not. We ended up in a blind that had windows at chest level, so i stood a good amount of the day. While there, in the middle of the day a warthog got into a trap and scared away everything in the area... not sure why that was set but we let it out and continued to hunt. We did not end seeing/shooting any of the remaining animals on my list and come to find out there are no kudu in that area.. whole day wasted due to poor communication.

Day 4 - Hunted at a place that no one should ever go to. A poorly managed ranch where we sat in an abandoned party pavilion overlooking a lake. We saw 2 immature kudu and few impala and warthog.
This did not feel like hunting but on top of this we saw very little.

Day 5- Hunted a solid ranch but saw no animals on my list. When i asked to shoot a couple animals that came in (add-ons not on my list- additional impala and warthog) it was not allowed as that ranch's animal quota had been met.

2 of 5 days ended up being wasted. I dont fault anyone for not seeing certain animals but i dont feel i was put in a place to succeed. I was the only hunter in a camp of 20+ hunters to not even see a mature kudu. Somehow every fat middle aged guy who cant shoot worth a damn got a kudu but i didnt see one? I brought up my concerns to the owner after day 3, when he first arrived and he was mostly dismissive. He was more concerned about different hunters in camp. He also wasnt there my last morning either so i couldn't bring up the overall hunt with him after my last hunt. I get catering to guys who have more animals on their list but i would have gladly added more animals if i had the chance but i didnt even get to shoot the animals i paid for.

Overall it was fun to see animals ive never hunted before but the lack of success due to miscommunication and politics within the outfit definitely made it not a great hunt. I have been on some guided hunts before and the food and accommodations were by far the worst ive had at Kuche.

What it comes down to is that this is a low-rent hunt. You are just a number to them. I should have done some research so part of this is on me. Point being 90% of people who hunt here are cheap asses and dont care about where they stay, what they eat, and roll the dice with where they hunt. I should have spent more money and bought from someone who cares about their hunters. Seems like a lot of people shy away from writing reviews. If anyone has a question Im an open book. For what its worth i sent an email about my experience to the owner and he did not respond.

Also, if you were expecting to shoot a kudu bull with bow, your expectations were indeed high. You might get one to come in to a citrus bait pile right at dark or just after dark but only a crappy PH would let you shoot at it then. They are difficult to hunt with a rifle.

 

[375Fox]

Also, if you were expecting to shoot a kudu bull with bow, your expectations were indeed high. You might get one to come in to a citrus bait pile right at dark or just after dark but only a crappy PH would let you shoot at it then. They are difficult to hunt with a rifle.

Shooting kudu at a waterhole or bait pile with a bow is an accepted method generally with high success if priority animal. I’ve never had issues taking kudu on any hunt (as a rifle hunter). Some areas are easier or more difficult than others. Eastern Cape where you hunt is one of more difficult. Limpopo really depends on ranch. Limpopo is generally endless smaller ranches 2000-10000 acre high fenced farm with some bigger. If you go to a poorly managed farm there just isn’t kudu. The farm on other side of high fence could have a very dense kudu population. The fences in Limpopo are generally high and well maintained and will not be jumped by kudu in most circumstances. Everything I read of the bad review is simply a lack of attention to detail from a large hunt factory operation.

 

[Rickmt]

My experience with outfitters is you often get what you pay for. You must do your research.