Eric with his Greater Kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros)
Eric with his Greater Kudu (Tragelaphus
strepsiceros)
All rates are subject to change, of course. Unlike some outfitters that quote different rates for 1:1, 2:1, and other ratios of hunters to guides, Schalk had a single flat rate of $250 per day per hunter for a party of four hunters (higher if fewer hunters, lower if more), and you end up hunting with or without other hunters, depending on what you are after and the logistics involved. We started out with all three of us in the truck, but peeled off with a guide for one-on-one walk-and-stalks from time to time.
The non-hunting observer rate is perhaps the best value of all. For $100 a day, not only does the observer get room, board, and all guest services, but also gets to ride along in the hunting car with the hunters and follow along when trackers are searching for wounded animals.
Trophy fees were very reasonable. At the low end, impala, blesbok, and warthog were $200, and kudu was the most expensive animal taken at $950. Zebra, blue wildebeest, and gemsbok each carried a trophy fee of $800. In South Africa, trophy fees are charged if blood is drawn, so you have to pay even if the animal is wounded but not found.
Taxidermy is substantially less expensive in South Africa, at least at the shop Schalk uses. Flat skins and skull mounts on a wooden shield (also called European mounts) for all seven animals I took totalled less than $1,000, plus shipping and customs when they're done. [My share of the air freight, customs, and other fees turned out to be $528 for six skull mounts and seven skins, which arrived on the first anniversary of our last hunting day.]
Greg and his Red Hartebeest (Alcelaphus
buselaphus)
The bushveld was very flat with knee-high brown grass and lots of thorn trees and bushes. There were rocky "mesas" with flat tops widely scattered about, with one straddling the border between the home ranch and their neighbor. For the most part, shots are taken from between 50-100 yards through breaks in the brush at parts of animals that are often in shadow. The longest shot taken on the trip was by Greg at a red hartebeest across a meadow at 218 meters.
In terms of number of animals taken in a given period of time, in a variety of hunting styles, for a given amount of money, I do not think one can beat African hunting. We used primarily two hunting styles: spot-and-stalk from a hunting car, and walk-and-stalk on foot. We did a little glassing from a high vantage point but with no results. As with all guided hunts, you must come to an understanding with your PH as to the protocols you wish to follow on your hunt beforehand (e.g., do you want him to take follow-up shots quickly to put the animal down, or let you do it, with the possible increased risk of the animal getting away or using hunting time tracking a wounded animal).
All of the gun hunters spent some time on the home property doing half-day walk-and-stalks, either heading out at dawn and returning for brunch, or during the hours before dark. Mostly, however, we hunted in the spot-and-stalk method, where we drove around slowly in one of the vehicles until game was spotted, then dismounted and continued on foot, sometimes for a few minutes, other times for a few hours. On the first few days, Schalk assigned an assistant to Bob, the bowhunter, for the entire day, but later let Bob sit alone in the blind. For the three of us who were gun hunters, he put on, besides himself, another PH, two guides/assistants, and two trackers, for a total of six on four.
Bob, our bow hunter, spent his time in several different blinds on the home property. There were elevated and ground level blinds available, situated along major game trails or next to waterholes, sometimes with salt licks strategically positioned.
There were three hunting cars available: a Land Rover, an Isuzu truck, and a Toyota Land Cruiser. All had hunting bench seats mounted in the truck bed behind the cab. The Land Rover top was removable, and the hunter sat in the left seat in front. The Toyota had a winch on the front bumper and a post with a pulley that mounted just behind the cab so that the cable could be strung backwards and used to haul heavy animals into the truck bed. The Isuzu had four doors and seating for five.
Over the course of the ten days we hunted on five properties: the home ranch, the ranch next door belonging to an uncle, a ranch belonging to his father a few kilometers away, a new concession about an hour and a half away (where the gemsbok were more plentiful), and another concession about an hour away (for zebra, red hartebeest, and blue wildebeest) that they have used before. This was the first time that Schalk had hunted on what we called "the gemsbok ranch," and Schalk said that he only needed to drive around a property a few times to memorize its layout, which certainly seemed to be the case. If we really wanted to hunt open plains game, like springbok or black wildebeest, Schalk has connections with ranches in those areas farther south around Pretoria. He also has arrangements with some ranches in South Africa and a concession in Zambia where Cape buffalo can be hunted.
Schalk preferred that we shoot over shooting sticks, which he said most professional hunters use in his area. The bushveld, with its thigh-high grass and numerous bushes and trees at all heights, pretty much precludes prone, sitting, and even kneeling, so most shots must be taken standing up, hence the value of the shooting sticks. They would not be efficient for the solo hunter, however, but work well when one has a guide or tracker to carry them. I did miss a couple of shooting opportunities due to the few seconds it takes to set up the sticks; height adjustment is the main problem with them. I discovered that they cannot be adjusted below a certain height, at which point the tips engage the ground at too shallow an angle to have sufficient purchase for support. One modification could be two points, one axial to the stick and another at 90 degrees to it, which would begin to engage as the other lost its purchase. Another might be putting a concave disk with a sharp edge around the spike.
Both Greg and I, as basically first-time hunters, noted a strong tendency to want to shoot to center of mass, i.e., further back or higher on the body than is proper. We speculated that this was due to our Gunsite training, which, even with rifles, emphasized center of mass aiming almost exclusively, and virtually all shooting was done on the human form. I know that I was fighting this training on most shots. My brain was saying "between the legs, one-third up the body" but my instincts were always trying to pull my sights to the center of mass. This suggests to me that a general rifle course should include equal time on animal targets as well as human ones.
On the other hand, the three-second rule on which we were drilled in our rifle classes I found to be absolutely legitimate in the field. You may not even have that much time. Seeing the animal usually took more time than shooting it, especially for someone with essentially no hunting experience. Snap shot training was also very useful in the bushveld. My first hit on the zebra was a two-second snap shot at a moving target at 120 yards from a seated position in the hunting car.
Hunting pretty much consumed the day from pre-dawn to post-sunset, and my last animal was taken on the last day, so there was little time or opportunity for uninterrupted photography. Most photos were of the animals taken and of the main camp. Even when not actively hunting, opportunities were limited to what was visible from the hunting car, and numerous shots of bushveld are not exactly exciting viewing.