I just got back from Kuche in August. This was a DU auction.
I hunted with Kuche at the end of June/beginning of July and I will offer what my buddy and I experienced. I also got the hunt through DU so I got a pretty good price for our hunt.
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.
We (myself, my wife, my buddy and his wife) enjoyed our hunt (for the most part) but as someone mentioned, this was our 1st time and we don't have anything to compare it to. I agree our PHs were great and I enjoyed the different properties we visited. Dinners were great and we definitely gained weight.
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.
I will say that communication is not one of Koos's strengths. In fact, he does not allow his PHs to share contact info with the hunters. My guess is that since they do not all work exclusively for him, it prevents them from promoting other outfitters.
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.
My buddy and his wife had this issue but our PHs stayed on site and they were able to resolve the issue the following day. We let them borrow our shower that night.
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.
We are not rich and found the accommodations sufficient. We also visited the Free State camp and the accommodations were much nicer but there we stayed at a resort that Koos has access to. Our wives opted to go to the blind with us and loved it. I know there was talk of a spa while we were in the Free State but they never made any attempt to take advantage of it.
- Breakfast and lunch was pathetic.
We enjoyed the breakfast and lunch but again, we're not very picky.
Camp is very close to cleaning/skinning area and constantly smells like death. I read another review about this and they are not lying.
We stayed (while in the Limpopo camp) in a room attached to the breakfast room and didn't smell the shed. Maybe there are rooms closer. I don't know.
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.
Did you get confirmation on this? After leaving, we suspected it. My PH was a senior there and I sat a different blind every day. Come to find out my buddy was stuck in the same blind every time (in Limpopo).
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.
If you bowhunt with Kuche, reiterate to the PH when he picks you up that you're bowhunting. Koos somehow forgot that I was exclusively bowhunting and sent us to his Free State camp. Come to find out he's not set up for bowhunting there and they had to scramble to accommodate us. As a result we did not get to hunt the evening we arrived. He found us a property to hunt the next day and I took (what I consider) a nice kudu. The following day we left before sunup for his Limpopo camp 8 hours away. We arrived in time to hunt the evening and I took a gemsbok cow that was nice and long. Over the next three days I took each of the animals from my package (a warthog, impala and a wildebeest). My buddy took a kudu, a few blesbok and a wildebeest. Except for the blesbok, he shot his with a rifle on the last full day. He wanted to switch to rifle sooner but was not allowed. He also wanted to shoot a zebra but was told that one in particular was off-limits. I wasn't covered up in animals and every animal I shot was a challenge which made me all the more satisfied with my hunt.
Now, I will say this. At Kuche they usually do not allow you to hunt the day of departure. However, I explained to Koos that because of his mix-up we were only able to hunt three and a half days of a 5-day hunt. And so to make it right, he made an exception and allowed us to hunt the morning before leaving. I shot my wildebeest right away but my buddy and his PH were sent to a property and given the wrong combination. He didn't get much time to hunt by the time they got in and was so frustrated he gave up and left not long after that.