Blacks, Mmmmmmm where to start.

I was going to use an analogy that buying a Hunt in Africa is akin to walking into a used car lot and buying a used car, but that would be unfair on used car salesmen.

I was also going to use an analogy of trying to get a fair deal from big business, but that would be too hard on corporate lawyers.

I'll make a few observations/statements in point form.

1) If I was planning my first hunting trip to Africa with what I know now, I would wait and save and then spend twice as much as I spent the first time and get three times the value. IMO no matter how hard you try the first time you will never get it quite right.

2) There is tremendous variety and value in cull or management hunts if you want to forgo trophy quality.

3) Never, ever pay the asking price.

4) Hunting/Shooting in managed fenced propertys with self sustaining populations is a lot harder than you may think. Anybody who says it isn't hard hasn't done it or has shot into cages. It's pretty easy to work out the natural range of your target species, multiply it a few times and then compare it to the size of the area you will hunt. There will always be some intervention. water points, supplementary feed blocks, anti-tick rubs, extra feeding during winter. The compromise will depend on what you are prepared to give up and then accept what is left.

5) If you hunt on foot and 'ethically' do not expect success. My two primary species of Kudu and Springbok were not taken on my first African hunt as we hunted in what qualifies ( for me ) as a fair chase environment. Ethical hunting does not guarantee success.

6) The Safari 'Industry' is just that, a business.

7) It is possible to hunt pockets of free range animals in South Africa and in fact any country if you look hard enough.

8) I love South Africa because of the added travel benefits. If you want wild Africa go to Zim or Moz or Zambia. I have been to Zim four times (once hunting) and visiting friends and you can still imagine you are scratching out a new life in the colonial Dark Continent. Zim has always been perfectly safe when I have been there and the locals are extremely helpful and friendly if you aren't racist or elitist. My wife and I had no hesitation taking my three children there in 2008 at it's economic worst and just after the elections.

9) The Limpopo area in Botswana or travelling to Namibia would be a good compromise but it takes longer to get there.

10) Jet lag will affect you when you land but you will want to get straight 'into it'. Allow 3-4 days to get over it all after the hunt before you head off sight seeing.

11) Vic Falls and Cape Town are 'musts' if you go South.

12) My dream hunt location would be the lowveldt areas as it 'looks' to me what Africa should look like.

13) You don't need a cannon to hunt Africa. Nothing is bullet proof.