Africa Safari...what's the real costs?

wildfowler.250

Well-Known Member
I know this will probably vary depending on where you go but I was wondering what the total costs of a trophy hunt in africa really is? By the time you've booked flights, paid for the shot, paid for proper taxidermy and shipping? Say you shoot a few trophy animals?

I realise this probably varies a lot but what sort of ball park figure are you really looking at by the time you've gone for a few animals?
 
In all seriousness you need to give a lot more specific information. A bongo cull fee can be £20,000 just for one animal. You could take several trophy animals with everything else included for under £5,000. In order to get a figure of any relevance you'd need to know :-

What country you want to hunt in (flight prices vary significantly).
Are you taking your own weapon?
Number of days (To calculate the PH's daily rate)
Number and species. And are these trophy or cull animals.
Taxidermy including shipping and paperwork costs. This can potentially be more than the cull fees with some species!!!
Insurance and many more incidental costs too, but if you supply more info you might get a sensible and realistic figure.

I've seen cull springbok as low as £70 and 'designer; copper springbok as much as £1200. Just to give you an example of how much a species can vary in cost to hunt.
 
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In all seriousness you need to give a lot more specific information. A bongo cull fee can be £20,000 just for one animal. You could take several trophy animals with everything else included for under £5,000. In order to get a figure of any relevance you'd need to know :-

What country you want to hunt in (flight prices vary significantly).
Are you taking your own weapon?
Number of days (To calculate the PH's daily rate)
Number and species. And are these trophy or cull animals.
Taxidermy including shipping and paperwork costs. This can potentially be more than the cull fees with some species!!!
Insurance and many more incidental costs too, but if you supply more info you might get a sensible and realistic figure.

I've seen cull springbok as low as £70 and 'designer; copper springbok as much as £1200. Just to give you an example of how much a species can vary in cost to hunt.

Thanks for the reply! In truth I was just looking for general figures as everything is in early stages. I'd rather go for one trophy animal like a kudu or nyala than shoot several cull animals. I could use my own rifle,(.270 or is that too marginal?). And for a week? I was assuming that country would be dictated by what you wanted to shoot? I'm sorry everything is so vague as I'm totally a novice to this whole thing. I know of a couple of people who go out so I could try and tie in with one of them but I was just wondering what to expect money wise first :lol:
 
To go, shoot and get your trophy kudu back you'd probably be looking at around £4000 to £5000, but you could make it a lot more expensive if you wanted too, very quickly and very easily. If it's your first time to Africa I'd recommend Guy Swart at Wild Horizon. Several SD forum members have recomended him personally, myself included. Animals have been introduced for the purposes of hunting all over Africa so you can hunt animals in countries they are not naturally found in.
 
Try contacting Nduna safaris on here once you know roughly what you are wanting and they are very competative.
ATB
 
It depends on the adventure that you want. Here's an example of a very good outfitter in a true wilderness conservancy/concession with a traditional tented camp (350,000 hectares/~1,000,000 acres, no fences, resident indigenous population ~600):

London to Namibia (via Frankfurt) ~ GB£ 1,000
10 days (2 days transfer to/from airport (approx 7hrs each way); 8 days hunting) for plains game @ USD450/day +15% VAT = UK£ 3,200
Trophy fees e.g. kudu, zebra, gemsbok, springbok, warthog USD 3720 ~ GB£ 2,300
Trophy preparation, hunting license, concession fee USD 775 ~ GB£ 475
Total UK£ 6,975
Tips at your discretion
Trophy shipping/taxidermy extra

My only advice is don't do Africa on the cheap at a high intensity fenced operation as you are cheating yourself of a real adventure; but each to their own I guess...
 
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Wildfowler.250,

My experience is that if you just Dip & Ship your trophies back and get taxidermy done here it costs roughly the same as your original fee for the animals.

Stan
 
Wildfowler.250,
I must be at the same stage in planning a hunting trip to South Africa for June/July next for a cull hunt with one trophy head, for myself and wife [ She is a non hunter ]. I am waiting for a package price at the moment from the outfitter, what I need is information on Holiday / Medical insurance as its all geared for the American market, have you solved this or can anyone else help.
Thanks Alex
 
How much do you want to spend? If you have a budget you have to stick to, you can then organise your trip around the funds you have available. I consider myself very lucky in that my first safari was my best one but it cost me about 24k including taxidermy and shipping the trophies back home. I hunted for 15 days in complete wilderness, no human habitation whatsoever, in a concession of 2500 square kilometres and from a tented camp. I took a leopard, buffalo, eland, kudu, 3 zebra, 19 impala, 2 baboons, hyena, grysbok, bushbuck, warthog, guinea fowl, sandgrouse and francolin.
If I hadn't wanted a buff or leopard then my hunt could have been 7 days and my daily rate would have dropped from $950 per day to $450 per day.
You pays your money and takes your choice. Good luck with whatever you decide. If you want a chat please feel free to PM me. I have some contacts who may be able to help you.
 
Thank you all for the suggestions! I'm still in the very early stages of planning something but needed to know what to expect and where is good ect. Has anyone actually been to nduna? Do you think you are better getting animalsmounted over here? Is the quality of work better?

I should maybe have rephrased the question to something like,"how do you go about booking an African safari?".


Admittedly cost was my primary question but how do you go about booking something?
Decide what you want to shoot?
Read reviews and choose location?
Look at taxidermy fees before hand?
I assume most hunting agents sort out a license for you?



Aprreciate the comments and if anyone has any reviews it would be great to hear them! and sorry about the stupid questions, theres so many options it makes my head spin :lol:
 
Thank you all for the suggestions! I'm still in the very early stages of planning something but needed to know what to expect and where is good ect. Has anyone actually been to nduna? Do you think you are better getting animalsmounted over here? Is the quality of work better?

I should maybe have rephrased the question to something like,"how do you go about booking an African safari?".


Admittedly cost was my primary question but how do you go about booking something?
Decide what you want to shoot?
Read reviews and choose location?
Look at taxidermy fees before hand?
I assume most hunting agents sort out a license for you?



Aprreciate the comments and if anyone has any reviews it would be great to hear them! and sorry about the stupid questions, theres so many options it makes my head spin :lol:

Just had an email saying you have tried to PM me, but my inbox was full. :)

Just deleted a message so if you try again it should get through. Cheers.
 
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