HuntingAdventures.net

General Hunt Information

About Our Operation

We have always tried to cater to the average working class people wanting a true hunting experience for wild-born, naturally occurring game. We also like to make it as easy as possible for families wishing to have a great experience touring the world famous parks in South Africa. Our properties are in excess of 100,000 huntable acres of land with 28 species of game and plenty of birds to hunt. This is also a malaria free area. From May through August insects and snakes are very few. These are the winter months in South Africa with the temperature getting into the low 90‘s for a high and down to the upper 30‘s for the low each night. The majority of rain is over but the odd downpour can occur anytime.

We also have lots of big game species not normally hunted but with some availability to harvest a surplus animal depending upon the populations at any given time. We have many white rhino, giraffe, sable, tsessabe, leopard, hyena, Cape Buffalo, and plenty of common species like the wildebeest, kudu, warthog and impala. We fly over the concession on a regular basis for population analysis to determine huntable amounts of game. We don‘t stock game for hunting purposes, although some introductions occur from time to time for improved bloodlines and genetics. Our game is wild born and live their entire life on the property. This is not a put and take style of hunt or a "canned hunt", these are wild, free roaming animals with more property than the natural home range they would use for most of the species. All of our animals are naturally occurring and indigenous to the area as well. Nothing from outside the natural habitat of the Northern Province is stocked for hunting.

Our Lodge

Our lodge just keeps getting better. When this new lodge building was complete in 1997, I thought it was magnificent. Since then it has improved each year with newer kitchen equipment and better and more comfortable rooms. We have five guest rooms each with private bath. We can now house 10 people in the main lodge comfortably. We have a full time cook, maids, and a lodge staff that will spoil you in every possible way. The guest rooms are made up every day, laundry is also done every day, and the meals are so good that most visitors complain of over-eating several times during the week. Nobody goes home weighing less then when they arrived!

The bar is fully stocked for your convenience, at no additional charge. We often have an outdoor barbecue for the evening meal. These are known as a "braai" in Afrikaans, and will include sausages, game meat, local fish, or wild fowl on the "braai" several times during your stay. These meals are also served with a full selection of salads, vegetables, and breads.

Sitting outside by the big fire most evenings and talking about the days adventures, is usually the highlight of my trip. I‘m always anxious to hear the delight in my hunters voices and the satisfaction they have had hunting with us for the time they are here. The time we spend around the fire in the evening usually gives us time to plan the next days events as well. The evening visits around the fire really tops-off the perfect hunting day.

Our Lodge is certainly on one of the best sections of property in Southern Africa. It is well known as one of the premier hunting operations in all of southern Africa, for plains game and some dangerous game hunting. Our property is the oldest managed game concession in the Northern Province. It has been game managed for almost 80 years now, longer than the famous Kruger Park! Our management shows right away, you will see more and bigger kudu, on average, than any place else I know of. Even other safari companies speak highly of our kudu population and the size of the kudu we take.

In 2002 we had one particular group of 7 hunters take 9 kudu in 10 days. The smallest was 48" the biggest was 58" and only one was under 50"! That is a lot of big kudu. We had days afield where we were seeing 5-6 shootable bulls in an evening, per hunter! These may have been shootable in size but may have been difficult to take a shot at. These kudu are a very wild animals and don‘t give you a lot of time to decide. They rarely give you a second chance if you hesitate in your decision.

What We Include

Our hunting packages are the best, most affordable way to have a first time safari in Africa. As an American, I have a very good idea what Americans want in a first time safari. For starters, they don‘t want surprises with additional costs. They want to know up front what they are getting for the hard earned money they are spending. I‘m proud to say we include everything you need on this trip, and I mean everything! What is not included will be no surprise to anyone. We do not include tips, personal spending money, or the shipment of your trophies to you after the hunt. We cannot possibly include a cost for something we don’t know. Many hunters do not bring any trophies back with them. Many only bring back a couple. The destinations are all different. So the trophy handling is done by others and at a cost that we have nothing to do with. I have a recommended "pack and dip" business to handle this for you. The email contact is listed in the links section of this site. The pack and dip we use has been doing my trophies for many years. They are very dependable, quick, and as affordable as anyone I have found to do this work.

We handle all costs from the moment you’re picked up at the airport and taken to the beautiful Lodge until the hunt is over and you’re returned to the airport on the last day. All transportation, meals, drinks, skinners, maids, cook, Professional Hunters and every normal service you can think of we provide for you while you’re staying with us.

Our Hunting Styles

Our hunting is done in several ways depending upon the abilities of the hunter and the species of game they are after. However first we need to talk about how you will be hunting. 1x1 or 2x1 what does that mean? 1x1 means one hunter and one Professional Hunter. This is the ultimate experience for the guy who wants to have the trip to himself. He and his "PH" will be able to go off and do what they like every day, anyway they choose! The hunter can be quite picky about the trophies and never has to worry about long tracking days or blowing a day long stalk. This is the ultimate safari hunting experience.

The 2x1 is much more affordable and can be as productive as 1x1, if both hunters are good shots and work as a team. It also allows one person to run a video camera while the other is shooting. Something you cannot do in a 1x1 hunt. The Professional Hunter will not be running a video camera when the hunter is shooting. The down side to 2x1 is that many times a stalk will be very noisy and the additional hunter is just too loud to have on a stalk. Many times one of the hunters will wait near the road or on the truck while the PH and the hunting client head into the bush for an attempt at getting the game.

You need to decide for yourself which type of hunt you prefer. Remember that the decision needs to be made when you book the hunt, NOT when you arrive on site. There may not be enough PH’s on site to have an additional 1x1 available. Deciding this when you book the hunt also allows us the time to arrange for the best freelance PH’s in the business to take you out. We have access to the best PH’s in South Africa when you book early enough. The most sought after PH’s will be booked for the season by the late fall or winter of the previous year. We must book them to work for us as early as possible. This requires some risk on our part to have them paid for before we have the season fully booked.

Hunting 2x1 is always a good idea when you are hunting with a friend, wife, or child who is also hunting. This allows you to share your African hunting experience with someone you‘re close to. I prefer hunting with friends for many species, yet I also prefer hunting alone for many as well. Our hunt packages are based on full camps and group rates. When we do this we often times have an extra PH in the camp to assist with anyone who is falling behind and needs an extra day of 1x1 hunting to get caught up with his trophy‘s This is not to be expected, but it’s a service we provide when possible at no extra charge. Odds are that if your struggling to get the game you want we will dedicate a PH to you for a day or two of hunting. In most cases you will be hunting 2x1 for the whole trip, or 1x1 depending upon how you originally booked the trip.

Non-hunters

Non-hunters are welcome. We have observers on nearly every group safari we do. The thing to remember is that as an observer you will be with the hunter at all times. This observer rate is not for shopping or individual sight seeing trips with other staff members while the hunter is out hunting. The observer rate covers your stay and your travel with the hunter only. Our lodge and hunting concession is too far from shopping and towns to make a trip just for sight seeing and tourist activities outside the hunting area. We can easily make sight seeing arrangements for you ahead of time, that way you can go off with a tour and return later in the week again as the observer.

Best Season

We take a maximum of 24 hunters during the peak season. It’s our limit for the available wild game we have and for the best part of the hunting season. We can make special arrangements for off season hunts but the May and June seasons are the best time of year to gun hunt. The impala and kudu are in the rut during parts of May and June. We prefer to do all our archery hunts in mid August to September. The conditions are far better for archery later in the year. The very dry winter months reduce the available water and concentrate game near our high hides, which are located by small ponds or lakes where archery hunters can get within range of most species.