I placed my deposit to go and hunt South Africa for April 2025! THe culmination of a 15 year long dream is gonna happen.

My package includes 7 days with a Blue Wildebeest, Zebra, Impala, and Warthog. I may add a Kudu but have plenty of time.

SO DAMN EXCITED!!!!

I will update as I go and cant wait to post a hunting report when done.

Someone once wrote that the average age of such hunters was fifty.  Before that you can't afford it and after that you're too old.

That's awesome! What are you taking for a rifle(s)?

Please add the kudu and tag me in the thread. I will live vicariously through you because there is no shot I will ever make it there

Seven days is a good stretch. Save as much money as you can before going because there will be opportunities you never expect once you get there.

I had six hunting days and ended up with oryx, springbok, black wildebeest, blue wildebeest, blesbok, kudu and giraffe. I still would have had time for more if I'd had the money. Waterbuck, impala, roan, sable, zebra, warthogs and hartebeest were there for the taking. We saw plenty of ostrich but instead of shooting one we scavenged a lone ostrich egg and ate that. It was good.

FWIW the zebra in our area were very skittish. We never saw any baboons but it was made clear to me it was "weapons free" on baboons and I would not be charged a penny for any I could kill. They hated them. They didn't even care if I made clean kills on them. They really hated them.

My giraffe was not part of the original plan and turned out to be the hunt of a lifetime. Be prepared for opportunity.

Right now I am thinking a CZ600 Lux with a 2.5-8 scope should do most of what I want. I was thinking of bringing a 6.5PRC also.

What caliber?

FWIW most of my shooting was done at 6X. It just provided the sight picture I was most comfortable with.

The outfitter I am going with is one that the president of my local SCI chapter and a number of members have been on before so I have faith the outfitter will continue to be good. The package included the four animals but I am definitely saving up for more targets of opportunity.

Though, I do find myself now thank you but any purchases in terms of animals. Such as a kudu would be a set of NVG.

But I do plan to go back in a few years after that with my son who will be 15 or 16 at the time and have a family trip .

.30-06 with 180gr copper TTSX

I like my rounds old, fat, and slow like me.

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The bottom rifle was what I took. CZ 550 in 9.3x62.

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I was at Gordy and Sons this week and really want that rifle second from bottom.

Add the Kudu trust me.

Thy rifle and bullet combo is perfect. Zero at 200 yds and verify when you get there.  

Take as much extra money as you can because great targets of opportunity pop up sometimes.

For example I got to do some culling once.

On my first safari my very first animal was a Bushbuck. We literally tripped over him while taking a quick familiarization drive after zeroing the rifles.

Later in the safari we saw a monster bushbuck so I took him as well.

My first safari was s14 1/2 hunting days and 1/2 a day refereeing a rugby game. I shot a total of 17 animals.  15 trophies and 2 for camp meat.

An eland is a magnificent trophy as well. So is a waterbuck.


Go live the dream.  And be sure to tell us about it.

Congratulations! Look forward to hearing about it!

You'll be kicking yourself when you get back if you don't take more than those 4 animals, I did after my first trip and I took 7. For what it costs to get there plus the daily fees a few more successful hunts gives you more memories than the money you think you'll be saving is worth.

From reading all the testimonials of how awesome the experience is, it also sounds like you're guaranteed to kill what you're after.

Is that accurate?

Africa is pretty much that way on the common game.

On my first safari I had 14 hunting days (plus one day refereeing rugby in Rustenberg).

I had 16 animals on my list. I got 15 of them and had to leave the Black Wildebeast off because I shot a second Bushbuck. I also got to shoot a couple of cull animals for meats for the lodge and a pair of Impala that had deformities and he didn’t want them breeding.

Some animals are ridicoeasy such as a Blesbuck.

Other s like the Kudu, Bushbuck and Eland can be. Very difficult.

Not going to lie both of my Bushbucks were easy. The first day we had sighted in the rifles and we were driving around to let me get acquainted with the area and the animals and were going to head to lunch. We just saw him in a treeline and kept going so as not to spoil him. We drove several hundred yards past. Walked back using the road. Moved into the treeline and stalked a couple of hundred yards. He was still there browsing so we put up the sticks and shot him. I know people who have done 4 safaris to get one.

My Kudu who eventually went 56” we started out at about 430 am drove about 30 minutes over rough 2 track and then stalked in toward a huge watering hole thw PH wanted to sit over at daybreak. We say dozens of animals including several nice Kudu. To my PH none were good enough. We struck out there and hiked through several areas and about 130 after a nice lunch we had packed with us we spotted my Kudu. We took over an hour to get into position and I i promptly put my shot into his liver.  We tracked him for almost 4 hours in a great circle before we found him dead less than 200 yards from where we started.


The next evening we had both Kudu Carpicao as an appetizer as well as his Filets for the main course.


My Eland we hunted for 5 days and got busted by them numerous times. I probably walked between 50-60 miles. I cannot even put a number to the stalks we made. He is one of my favorite trophies.

I also know folks who have seen a heard of eland or so w other hard to hunt animal and put a stalk on them and 30 min later had one down.


The quantities of game are incredible. When I hunted in the Karoo for the Springbok slam I saw numerous herds in hundreds and several more over 1000. With the open terrain there you still have to get into a good position to make a shot.

Iff all goes well I am headed to Tanzania in 25 for my lifetime dream hunt.

Great read.

Almost gives me the wants for that experience.  Too much I need to experience here in the US yet.

I said the exact same thing.

I could have done my first Safari at age 31.

There was always another rifle or 3 to buy, another elk hunt to take.

I waited 13 more years before my first one and the prices just kept going up.

Wish I could get a do over on those decisions.

There are no guarantees but the success rate is very high. Common animals are abundant but there are trophies of each species. If you just want an impala, for example, you will have no problem finding one. If you want one that qualifies for an SCI or Rowland Ward acknowledgement you may or may not be successful.

I've yet to take an eland, the last sub-Saharan spiral horn on my list. I have passed on several that weren't anything special knowing that it costs the same to take a trophy as it does a lesser animal. We chased eland for 4 days in Zimbabwe once, they run more than Forest Gump once they get started, only to get close enough to put good glass on them and realize there wasn't a shooter in the bunch.

There are no guarantees with hunting. That said, when hunting game farms in South Africa, you will be hard pressed not to have a shot opportunity on all of the common plains game animals.

Ha. Me too.

I took my gemsbok at 200m, and the only time I cranked it up to 9x

I've never needed much magnification either. My PH mentioned a couple of times to, "put your telescope on the lowest setting", when in thick cover or hunting at night.

Both of mine gave the same advice.

I have always done this anyway

I have never needed to take a shot at running game or had a “dead” animal suddenly spring to life.

Until I did. The one time I didn’t turn the scope back down in my life and the nail am jumped up and ran off.

On my first safari we drove down from the Northwest Province to the Karoo to collect the springbok slam.

We had already collected a black and a copper on day 2 (Day 1 we found an enormous Gemsbok) and on day 3 which was cold and windy we were out after white springbok. I had a clean shot at about 270 yards and I was zeroed at 200. I am not o e to fiddle with the scope so as I always do I just held over. Unfortunately I belt over to mi h and just blew off the hide over the spine. He went down and wasn’t moving    So we started walking over side by side to grab him while our tracker went for the Hi-Lux. Me being all chuffed with myself didn’t bother to turn the scope down like I know I always should. As we are about 50 yards away he pops up and runs off. I tried to get a shot but since the scope was on 9x it couldn’t pick him up.

Fortunately the Karoo is flat and pretty wide open but it took us almost 90 minutes and 3 additional shots, 2 of which hit before we collected our pink springbok.

That last afternoon we managed to find a creat common springbok to complete the slam and to cap it all off my PH who had arranged all of this I got to watch his 9 year old daughter and 7 year old son take their first animals a few hundred yards from the lodge out of the game heard that they almost never hunt. That is one of my most memorable safari memories to this day.

The next step is complete, airfare booked, guest lodge booked, saving up more money, etc.

I did upgrade my scope to a Trijicon Credo 2.5-15 with a custom dial. That way I can just dial my distance and not worry about figuring out MILS in my head.

PH suggested 3-12 for magnification and it was a very easy nudge to upgrade my glass and I can move that scope to my 6.5 for Antelope in a few years.

There's almost always time to crank up the mag, but rarely time to crank it down.

Woo hoo!

Africa for a hunter is like Disney World to a five year old!

Savor the prep.

I have the first edition.

very helpful


http://safaripressbooks.com/books/9781493083718

I actually have 2nd edition and the mini. Plan to start reading soon.

A nice addition to prep is this month we are doing a family trip to the UK and one of the days my son and I are doing a shotgun lesson at the Holland and Holland shooting grounds and I am going to slip in an hour at the rifle cinema. Not a huge prep but certainly going to be fun and different.

Quite the epic 2 week family trip to England and Scotland.

Holland and Holland was as awesome as expected.  Even got a few tips and pointers on shooting of sticks and moving targets.  

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Dumb double tap

Bet that was a great experience at H&H. Those are some fancy sticks. I've never seen any like that in Africa, up until my last trip all the shooting sticks were homemade from actual sticks tied together with a shoestring.

Just got back from my safari, smaller family run outfit in Limpopo. Take binoculars and a range finder and a light jacket for riding around early and late though April might not be too bad.

You will have a good time, Kudu is excellent eating but beware of up charges if PH talks you into shooting a big one.

I won’t hunt with a PH who charges by the inch.

I much prefer the ones who have o w price and you take your chances.

This is the shit that happens at 1 am when you travel back from a West Coast business trip and can’t sleep.

Plan on taking the CZ and Fix and manages to fit them into a 1750 pretty well.

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Have you checked with your PH about that Fix?

Africa in general and SA has some serious heartburn about semi automatic rifles and even if that’s a bolt gun from Fix I have a strong suspicion you are going to be spending a LOT of time at the SAPS office in Jo’Berg.

The bolt gun looks interesting, I would love to get more details.


I have vowed that unless DG is on the ticket I won’t take 2 rifles again. I too 2 on my first and 1 rifle on my others.

The Fix by Q is a .308 bolt gun. I know some people are not fans of the brand but my gun shoots. Other people have taken chasis guns so I am not sure why ther would be a problem.


The walnut gun is my CZ 600 lux in .30-06.

My hunt.
I did it with a bow. Certainly do take a kudu if you can swing it.

My second trip was a bow hunting trip.

My third safari hasn’t happened yet, I’ll take my son on the next one.

Kudu was awesome, I hunted this one for several days.

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Beautiful animal!

I only ask about the Fix even if it is a bolt gun because SAPS can be an experience.

I would also ask about a 308 and an 06 because SA used to have a thing about 2 guns in the same caliber and they mean bullett diameter. Not sure if that’s still a thing or not.

You can save yourself a lot of hassle by taking 1 rifle. You only have a few animals on the ticket and both perform close to the other.

Your trip and do it your way. Just offering advice from experience.

I hope it’s an amazing f trip and look forward to the pictures.

Your post did inspire some research and I have reached out to my PH and Riflepermits.com and both say they are okay.

But thank you for starting research project, it did make for some interesting chat on another board.
Both fit well into my 1750 Pelican, and worst case is I buy some new foam and only take the 1.