12 days in South Africa - Free State, Cape Town, and Franschhoek

[7mm08mo]

Sounds like an awesome trip. South Africa was good to me last year, I was in port Elizabeth and Jeffries bay, and of course hunting. Sounds like we had similar experiences with the disparity in housing.

 

[Bambistew]

Looks like a great trip. Nice animals.

Did you have a contract? I would be pissed if they jacked the prices around.

 

[bowhuntmontana]

Glad things worked out well in the end, and congrats on some beautiful animals and memories. I spent about a week in South Africa in early 2020 doing some qualitative research for a humanitarian organization. That meant I spent time doing in-depth interviews with people in their homes in Jo-burg and Durban, mostly in the townships. I studied up on Apartheid and some of the colonial history. Very eye opening and disturbing in ways I didn't anticipate.

And that flight over the Atlantic is no picnic for a guy who can't sleep on planes.

Again, congrats on a very memorable trip.

 

[jt13]

Looks like a great trip. Nice animals.

Did you have a contract? I would be pissed if they jacked the prices around.

We bought what was shown in my first post from Ducks Unlimited. That is the closest thing to a "contract" we had. After purchase, the outfitter follows up with a 20 page document outlining how things work, prices, accomodations, and a lot of fine print. In there you will find the same verbiage as the website "prices subject to change without notice".

I didn't expect them to pull the "oopsies, prices doubled" card when it was too late to back out or modify our plans without even sending us an email about it. That's on me for being naive I suppose. As mentioned before, less the monetary increase, more the "without notice" part that I was pissed about.

 

[jt13]

Glad things worked out well in the end, and congrats on some beautiful animals and memories. I spent about a week in South Africa in early 2020 doing some qualitative research for a humanitarian organization. That meant I spent time doing in-depth interviews with people in their homes in Jo-burg and Durban, mostly in the townships. I studied up on Apartheid and some of the colonial history. Very eye opening and disturbing in ways I didn't anticipate.

And that flight over the Atlantic is no picnic for a guy who can't sleep on planes.

Again, congrats on a very memorable trip.

That must have been an amazing experience. I had done some research on the topic prior to the trip but it was worse than I had imagined. I didnt think that we'd be seeing bodies in the ditches along the highway, but we did. Apparently, its a pretty normal occurance to find murdered mining claim jumpers from Zimbabwe left out as a warning to others.

 

[Green n' White Troll]

Franschhoek

While it's little more than an hour outside of Cape Town, its a very different place. It feels much safer and is absolutely stunning in every regard. Its serious wine country with more wineries than one could visit in a month. We stayed right downtown, walked to the wine tram and all the local restaurants.

Anyone who spends any time in the Western Cape needs to check it out. I'll let the photos speak for themselves:
View attachment 337658View attachment 337659View attachment 337660View attachment 337661View attachment 337662View attachment 337663View attachment 337664View attachment 337665View attachment 337666View attachment 337667

Wow, beautiful! Thanks for the hunt and the great pictures.

 

[Sytes]

Some amazing animals! Blesucks ranked higher on my list after reading you and your wife's hunts. It's valuable to grasp a better understanding of your experience with high fenced acreage sized vs open range / public land hunting. Different land/different settings.
Peppering you w/ questions:
Were the cull animals free, discounted, or ?
Did you and your wife enter with specific trophy animals to hunt and your PH focused on those trophy animals with additional opportunities incidental to the hunt? i.e. cross an animal they sought to cull or another quality trophy species not on your intended list?
When guides hopped aboard from concession areas, did you tip them that same day or are those specified tips at the end of your stay?
You mentioned range on trophy animals outside the high $ choices are much more skittish thus range is in/upwards 400 yards and your missed shot. I've not fired big game rounds through a suppressor. Were you comfortable with suppressors prior to your trip or was that an adjustment at their range?
We're using their firearms as well. Curious, why suppressors? Allow more opportunity for follow-up shots or are there concession requirements?
I understand J-burg a person can convert USD to SA Rands. Did you find a need or stayed w/USD?

We're flying J-burg ---> Port Elizabeth to hunt a couple/few hours NE of PE, I believe.

Again, sounds as though all's well that ends well. Grats to both of you on an amazing experience!

 

[jt13]

Peppering you w/ questions:
Were the cull animals free, discounted?

Our package included a "management animal", so no additional charge for the cull gemsbuck. They did offer another hunter a discounted price of $700 (from $1800) to cull a different gemsbuck that seemed like he wasn't doing well but was still mobile.

Did you and your wife enter with specific trophy animals to hunt and your PH focused on those trophy animals with additional opportunities incidental to the hunt? i.e. cross an animal they sought to cull or another quality trophy species not on your intended list?

Yes, as a part of our package hunt we had specific animals included. They chose which animals we would be targeting and on which days from that list. Regarding additional opportunities, it depended on the property. Some animals had small populations and were off limits as breed stock but most had a price on their heads. Cull animals were kind of a stumble-on type thing.

When guides hopped aboard from concession areas, did you tip them that same day or are those specified tips at the end of your stay?

There was no suggested tipping for the concession workers. I threw Malcolm from our Blesbuck story $20/400ZAR at the end of the day for helping us out and he was very excited about it.

You mentioned range on trophy animals outside the high $ choices are much more skittish thus range is in/upwards 400 yards and your missed shot. I've not fired big game rounds through a suppressor. Were you comfortable with suppressors prior to your trip or was that an adjustment at their range?

I have suppressors at home so it wasn't foreign to me. Honestly though, there are zero adjustments that need to be made. They add some weight and barrel length but other than that you won't even know it's there. I missed because hitting a walking 85lb critter at 300+ yards from a standing position is hard and I'm not that good, lol.

If I were to make any suggestions relating to shooting, it'd be to spend some serious range time shooting while standing using shooting sticks.

We're using their firearms as well. Curious, why suppressors? Allow more opportunity for follow-up shots or are there concession requirements?

Yes, we rented a gun from our PH. Every single gun in camp was suppressed, they all use them and they aren't taboo there like they are here. It's solely a hearing protection thing, I don't think it has anything to do with animal behavior or other requirements.

I understand J-burg a person can convert USD to SA Rands. Did you find a need or stayed w/USD?

The outfitter gave us the option to tip in either USD or ZAR in cash, no credit cards. They preferred USD so that's what we gave. At the end of the safari I took out a few thousand rand to use for tipping waitresses and other small purchases in Cape Town and Franschhoek.

 

[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.
• 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.

 

[OntarioHunter]

Sounds Ike the blesbuck and springbuck were getting too much pressure. Should not have been that difficult. One can easily tell which properties let outfitters shoot from the trucks. Makes hunting very difficult. My outfitter won't allow it and tends to avoid properties where it is allowed. By contrast, I shot blesbuck, impala, blue wildebeest, and warthog before noon the first day hunting my first safari. Could have shot a fine eland and hartbeest if they'd been in my budget. And a rhino! She was the second animal I encountered in Africa. Of course, not shootable by anyone. That property was 167K acres and less than half accessible.

I'm rather surprised impala were not on the list. That's usually a given. Your wife's blesbuck is exceptional. And your cow gemsbuck. Did you get to keep her horns? Sometimes not allowed for management animals.

 

[noharleyyet]

Wonderful pics and play by...thanks for the comprehensive share

 

[jt13]

Sounds Ike the blesbuck and springbuck were getting too much pressure. Should not have been that difficult. One can easily tell which properties let outfitters shoot from the trucks. Makes hunting very difficult.

On the property attached to the lodge they're getting hunted every single day for 6+ months of the year. On the concessions, it seemed like a 2-3 times per week (at least at the ones we visited). I really didn't mind the raised difficulty level though, the added challenge made it a more gratifying experience. If everything was as tame as the sable, eland, and other big expensive critters it would've been pretty dull.

That property was 167K acres and less than half accessible.

Seems like a different kind of place than we were at. As I mentioned earlier, properties were 2000-4000 acres. I know there are larger concessions out there but we didn't hunt on them. There was not a day of hunting or a property where we did not encounter all 4 fences at some point or another.

I'm rather surprised impala were not on the list. That's usually a given. Your wife's blesbuck is exceptional. And your cow gemsbuck. Did you get to keep her horns? Sometimes not allowed for management animals.

There weren't many impala on the main property or the concessions we hunted. If someone wanted to harvest one, they had to pay extra. A few of the hunters in my group did just that and shot some medium size impala on a concession near the end of the week.

Thank you, her blesbuck was noticeably bigger than every other one killed during our week (12+ animals). Our PH Divan and tracker Sheppard were to thank for that one. It was our most fun day of hunting by far.

Yes, we got to keep the horns from both management gemsbuck. Super cool critters and excellent "trophies" but they weren't hunted by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[SaskHunter]

Africa is a magical place. Too bad a lot of the continent is riddled with pain and misery.

I look forward to going back one day!

Also, I sure hope you blasted "Africa" by Toto once you landed. If not, that's a hell of a missed opportunity.

 

[jt13]

Africa is a magical place. Too bad a lot of the continent is riddled with pain and misery.

I look forward to going back one day!

Also, I sure hope you blasted "Africa" by Toto once you landed. If not, that's a hell of a missed opportunity.

Ironically enough, I went out to dinner with my family when I got home. There was a live band playing. The first song I heard them play? Africa by Toto... can't make that stuff up, lol.

 

[WildWill]

I was really hoping for at least one short moment of rain while I was over there. Just so I could say "I bless the rains down in Africa". Alas not a drop the whole trip.

 

[CPAjeff]

Congrats on such a cool experience - thanks for sharing!

 

[jt13]

A couple animal encounters that didn't make it into the story.

Aardvark. Apparently seeing one in the daylight is extremely uncommon.



Bat-eared fox. He was hunting some partridges pecking gravel in the road on the way back from a concession at dusk.

I also came upon a newborn gemsbuck calf as well as a tortoise, but didn't get pictures of those two

 

[OntarioHunter]

I hope you go back. Lots of better and prettier places to hunt in the East Cape.
One afternoon on the last day of my safari last year we encountered 27 kudu hunting these hills and not one was seen twice.


And two years ago I shot my second gemsbuck in this country. Remind you of Eastern Montana?

Note the big prickly pear above the gemsbuck. I had to wait for him to step away from it for a shot. Prickly pear is actually a North American invasive species in South Africa.