Matt from Palo Alto

Hi Dave, I have bodyguarded 12 African safari, 220 days on foot in the bush with 0 casualties to my clients or staff. I've enjoyed 1.6 billion seconds of beauty and wonder and only had to shoot 4 different times, about 8 seconds total or else my clients or I would be dead. To go into the African bush on foot, unarmed is foolish...unless you hire a armed local who make or may not stick around when the threat appears. Photography is my art (Minox to 8x10 plus digital) but I carry a .460 Weatherby and a 12 gauge so my clients can carry their long lenses on their DSLRs (dust is an issue so don't change lenses in the field) and a bridge camera for wide angle and camp shots like a Fuji HS50, 16 MP, 24mm-1,000mm. I suggest Namibia (the safest country in Arica with 1/10 the crime rate of the US and you won't get "mugged by customs" like in most of the other African countries..."Your paperwork is not in order" so you have to go to a back room where your green papers satisfy their greed.) in June-August where the temperatures are 80 during the day and 50 at night so most of the 35 known poisonous snakes and most of the flies and mosquitoes are in hibernation. Etosha is the largest game reserve in the world, half the size of Switzerland. For hunting, Byseewah is close by. The plains game animals are wary of humans and you can only hunt the "over-the-hill males" - (you will be much more humane than the usual "natural" death for them by wild dogs, hyenas, lions, etc.) so you really have to hunt. I train my clients to use the largest caliber they can manage. My 3 sons could hit a 2" target at 100 yards consistantly off of a bean bag on shooting sticks with a .375 H&H when they were 11. They also had to practice "standing snap shots" at 25 yards on "scaled photos of dangerous game head shots at charging distances" and mastered Sporting Clays with 12 gauges. They took some of their best photos with me watching the same image through the scope of my big bore rifles. Namibia also has the dunes, the Skelaton Coast and parts of the Kalahari (Watch The Gods Must Be Crazy 1 and 2) Enjoy your safari by staying safe so you can return home safely.

BigRedRex

I am lucky enough to have been on photo safaris in several African countries. Botswana is definitely my favorite due to presence of game and government's control over number of people.

Matt from Palo Alto

I enjoyed Botswana too but they have now outlawed hunting.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Years ago I went on a hunting safari to Africa, Zimbabwe to be exact. I knew there were outfits offering just plains game hunts but I wanted to hunt at least cape buffalo with lion and leopard thrown in as well. It was a 21 day hunt so very pricey. The plains game hunts are usually quite inexpensive compared to the dangerous game hunts and are well worth the money. When I hunted I could shoot numerous animals in Africa for what I might have paid for a moose and grizzly bear hunt in Alaska.

I found the accommodations fantastic, the food great, the hunting excellent and the photography, even though this was not a photographic safari, to be wonderful. While there was another group of hunters in camp I hardly ever saw them except for breakfast or dinner. I specifically wanted to go by myself so the day was spent with just my guide, his tracker/skinners and two game wardens.

I can't recommend you going enough and wish I could go along too. You will have the time of your lives and should come home with great trophies and photos. Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

Dennis

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

I have hunted for many years but have never heard of a 0.910 bullet. Do you mean you used a 600 Nitro express with a 900 grain bullet, possibly a 500 Jeffrey using a 510 grain bullet? I am simply curious and not trying to demean your statement.

Dennis

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

From personal experience it is illegal to bring meat into the United States. Anti hunters or people who just don't know what the hell they are talking about often liken trophy hunters as being a different person than a meat hunter. In Africa all game is either given or sold to people in the area, whether it is a small antelope or an elephant. None of the meat goes to waste. Of course the wanton waste of meat is the anti hunter's claim of African hunters but it is a lie.

Every hunter I know is a sportsman first and does try to shoot the biggest trophy he/she can. Why you might ask; an animal that sports big horns/antlers has already spread his genes to the neighborhood females of the species many times over. Often the older animals are not in good physical shape and might die of starvation over the upcoming winter. So it is a humane thing to do to harvest them from the herd rather than a younger animal who still has a lot of passing his genes around. So when I go hunting deer and shoot the biggest buck I can find, yes I want large antlers for a trophy but I also do not want to shoot a young buck that will provide me with less meat and will still add to the gene pool. Please look at these situations from a point of common sense rather than what the Disney Channel or PETA tell you.

Dennis

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Please read some history on the American bison. The bison was not almost wiped out by meat hunters. They were almost wiped out by hide hunters who simply left the meat on the plains to rot. They were also hunted by men who were supported by the U.S. Government as an attempt to decimate the plains indians.

Whales are hunted not for meat but for oil which for the most part is no longer used.

Dennis

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Thank you for a common sense and well known answer.

Dennis

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

You really need to do some research because you are completely wrong on all counts. Many animals that were formerly not in good supply in Africa are now at not only manageable levels but shootable levels. Believe it or not this is due mainly to the African governments realizing there is big money in hunters coming to Africa to hunt these animals. While some animals were put on the no hunt list, other animals that were in good supply were hunted with hunters coming from all over the world paying a hefty fee. Those fees then provided game management departments which provided wardens to protect all of the game. I really don't know where people such as you get your information but you are totally wrong. While elephants were in short supply 50 years ago they are now culled because there are too many of them. The only animal I am personally aware of now that is in short supply is one of the rhino's and it is making a comeback thanks to dollars from sportsmen.

Please get a grip and some education on world wide hunting. You are simply wrong,

Dennis

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Surely if you work in the wildlife business you must know about shooting older animals that are considered trophies but are not necessarily able to pass their genes to the local ladies anymore. You must also know that in the past 50 years the African game departments have grown and prospered. They are now able to provide protection for animals that are endangered (very few now) as well as providing sport hunting for visitors from all over the world. It is game guide who generally picks out the trophy for the visiting hunter and he is licensed by the African country to not only provide protection to the younger non shootable animals but also to choose animals that are fit to be shot.

Dennis

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

While I support your right to do what you want with your life I will also strongly support my right to do what I want. My beliefs will never mingle with yours and yet as a hunter I feel my actions add much more to the animal pool whether here in the United States or in Africa where my dollars contributed more to the preservation of animals than your complaining about animals lost.

Dennis

Ralloh Loc: Ohio

Bison? That was way back in the 1800s when nothing was regulated. Hunting is now highly regulated. That is why you need a license and a tag to hunt. They estimate how many animals make a healthy population and issue enough tags to weed them out. If left to nature, they would overpopulate and become weak and sickly. Try researching a bit before opening your mouth. By the way, I'm a shooter but don't hunt. I have absolutely nothing against hunting though.

Don Fischer Loc: Antelope, Ore

Why don't you take the ten day hunt safari and then another photo safari? Sounds like you could afford that. Have a nephew that has made two photo safari's and going on his third soon. Each one he's been on has been in an open vehicle and the animals don't bother the people. In fact he told me ome time that a cat walked right along side the vehicle and he could have reached down and touched it.

LMM

This is a photography site.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Quite correct and the OP was asking about photo safaris in Africa. Go back and check out the first post.

Dennis