I've only been to Africa once but have gained some kind of insight, I think.

There may be a shoestring outfit somewhere that would do what you want - but be careful. I was in touch with one that was supposedly engaged in problem-lion management and would let me hunt with them from their fly-tent operation for a reasonable price. Trouble was, even had I got a lion, it seems they had no right to export the trophy. The same people had a block near us in Mozambique and offered cut-price hunts there, too. While I got four animals on my safari by fair-chase methods, I know that one hunter who went with this other lot got nothing.

The whole thing in Africa is so bound up with the economics of game management that there doesn't seem the same opportunities for harvesting the bounty of nature the way we do in Australia, NZ or America. If a South African wants to hunt big game he has to pay up, too.

The safari thing is dude camping, all right, but that is the tradition and it keeps the families of many locals from the depths of poverty, I believe. The Indian-file method of tracking game seems a bit ridiculous but it works.

I went with Jason van Aarde of Tomkinsons and he is a good, straight operator. His tracker Estevao Banassi could follow critters over bare rocks and through dried leaves on hard ground. We followed buffalo for four days, eight hours a day before we caught up with some good ones, so it's not always easy. I think the client usually carries his own rifle, though someone may carry another one if needed.

How PHs deals with wounded DG varies but they probably have a legal duty to safeguard the client. Jason couldn't even send his apprentice with his rifle to get our car one evening unless I lent him my 'big' rifle so he could protect me against DG. I am not against the Mark Sullivan outlook of giving buffalo a sporting chance but it helps to have a PH with nerves of steel, a .600NE and no particular worry about seeing his wife and children again. Celebrity PHs probably charge more, though.

Yes, you'll probably have to let someone else do the skinning but that is the system and these guys should have more experience, anyway.

Looking back I think the experience I had was probably about as good as it gets over there, unless you can hunt elephant and big cats, which I could not.

Cheers
- Paul