If you are little flexible on your list (like the gemsbok), I'll second the comment about Zimbabwe. You'll get a much more "Africa" experience and it's worth looking into if you haven't.

My recommendations, as others have stated, is to bring a lot of extra cash to shoot extra animals. Two reasons, your cost per animal decreases as the number of animals you shoot increases. What I mean by this is that since you are already in Africa and shooting animals, you have already paid for airfare, paid (or are paying) the daily rates, and you will be paying dip and pack and freight to get the animals home. What I've found is that the increase in fees for dip and pack and freight and such doesn't increase too much with extra animals when compared to making another trip back to shoot the animals you didn't get on a prior trip.

Second, if you haven't considered using a booking agent, I would highly recommend at least looking into it. It doesn't cost anything extra (they are paid through the PH not you) and they will handle all the details and do the "stressing" for you. Especially helpful when you have never been the the continent, and the person your are dealing with is 6 time zones ahead of you and working out of a bush camp.

My last recommendation, stay at least 10 days. It takes a long time to get there and it's one of the greatest places on earth ... you really don't want to leave there that quick because the hunt will go by too fast anyway.

I agree with this. I hunted for 7 days my first trip and it wasn't near long enough. I hunted for 10 days the 2nd time and while it was a good trip I really wish it had been 14 days and if I could have managed it, 21 days would be even better!

Some great advice so far. Only thing I would add is double your budget if you can. Its not a matter of if, but when most of the continent will shut down. That is already happening. Go now and indulge while you can. I went over my first time planing to shoot 7 animals and left with 30.

Africa is going to mess with your head the moment you get on the plane to return home. I am dying to get back. Nyati is calling me. Hoping to get back next year for lion and leopard.

I forgot to add that. Ten days will allow you to not feel rushed. It is a Looooong flight. I will only do 21+ after our last trip.

being a taxidermist, the most consist trophy animals on bow only hunts seem to come from Dries Visser. He has several concessions in South Africa and Nambia. As others have said, SA is mostly high fence but lots of opportunies. I've been twice with Adansonia.
TIP: buy several packs of cheap cigarettes at first gas station you stop by- use them to bribe the trackers and PHs

Went on my first African safari last year in the Limpopo Province in South Africa. It was a fantastic experience. We were in similar situation trying to decide where to go and which We decided on the Kawalata Wilderness with Jaco Strauss. Well my wife really made the decision. She was the most conforable talking with Jaco. My wife and I spent three weeks total in Africa, 9 hunting with Jaco. I don't have any regrets, exept ideally I think 14 days of hunting would have been perfect. I plan on going back next year for buffalo and Sable. Good luck and have fun. It is a surreal experience.

Cape Province just outside of East London, I can hook you up with a phenominal outfit & if you want to do any bowhunting I'll give you a PH that does both but even designs his own broadheads! Prices are outstanding, accomodations are outstanding, as are animals and PH's. If I'm not mistaken 1,000,000 hectare ranch, yes it might be high fence but takes four plus hours to drive side to side, so much country you'll never know about fence. PM me for prices & details if you'd like.
thx

Getting along with the PH is a huge plus. If you are hunting with someone who enjoys the same type of hunting experience, and you can carry a good conversation with by the fire, it'll make many of the other details less important. If you get serious about an outfit that does the show circuit, invite them to your house for dinner or ranch/lease for a hog hunt - definately worth it. PHs are normal people to, (a great, well recommended PH may rub a hunter the wrong way or vice versa) and if you get along well with them, you'll hunt harder and without a doubt get a better experience and a chance at better trophies. I've been on both sides of it, and if he's having fun, you'll have more fun too.

I agree completely that the personality of the PH is essential. I didn't care much for my initial PH on my hunt. He suffered an unfortunate (and quite severe) injury on the 2nd day and I preferred his replacement greatly, even though I felt bad for the injured fellow.

While I liked my PH in S. Africa perfectly fine, there wasn't a lot of interaction per se. We were sitting blinds over waterholes for long hours and mostly we were very quiet, didn't talk much, read our books, glancing up often. When animals came in he would quietly whisper which animal to target and he ran the video camera. We whispered a few conversations but we were pretty quiet most of the time.

He was very knowledgeable, nice, worked hard, tracked well (although my tracking jobs were pretty easy) but for an archery only concession, there wasn't a lot to it. Like I said, no complaints at all, and maybe it was just because of the type of hunting we were doing but there just wasn't that much interaction.

On the other hand, when I went to New Zealand, where it was all spot and stalk, and trekking up and down mountains and lots of walking, climbing, sneaking, crawling, etc. I interacted with the PH a lot. He was a young kiwi guy (half my age) and he was fine, but his patience when things didn't go as planned left something to be desired. He would stomp around and grouch when a stalk didn't work out or something went wrong. I didn't care for that much. He worked plenty hard and seemed plenty knowledgeable, but his propensity to get angry was not something I cared for.

Disappointment is one thing, anger is another.

We just returned from our hunt with Hartzview Safaris in South Africa about 2 weeks ago. We went for 10 days and would have liked an extra 5. Great place and people. Looking at going back next Apr/May for cat & buff.

(Bad advice; sorry)

Good luck; some great advice on here.

Really bad advice. Attempting a bribe to SAPD will get you thrown in jail real fast.

Actually, there should be little interaction with the police. Upon arrival, they will check your gun paperwork. Best have all of it in order well ahead of your trip. I would NOT recommend you do this all by yourself the first time. It is WELL worth the $200 or so to use a service. They will meet you at the airport and walk you through the check-in and process. THEY will deal with the police and you should have very little interaction.

For us, we went to the check-in with our rep and just sat around for about 20 minutes. Then they asked, "Are these your guns? Please unlock the cases". They spent 5 minutes to check/match the serial numbers, and then we were on our way. Same thing when we exited, in reverse.

We saw LOTS of folks that tried to do all the paperwork themselves that were delayed and had issues dealing with the police on their own.

I would make extra copies of your gun paperwork, just in case.

Using the service, we had all the paperwork filed with the SAPD 3 weeks before our arrival. Really speeded things up.

OOPS! Disregard it then. Sorry. I read it somewhere(wikitravel or maybe on here).

Also plan on getting an insurance policy for your guns through SIAI/SCI to cover your weapons while you are there.

And a short-term policy with Global Rescue is cheap insurance, in case you do need to be evacuated for ANY reason.

I can only speak about RSA, it may be different in other countries.

For RSA, while corruption and crime are not uncommon, it is not something to be OVERLY concerned with. Jo'berg is a big city with lots of bad areas, but most folks don't linger in the city proper. Your outfitter will wisk you away to a guesthouse for the night or take your directly to ranch.

For us, once we at the private ranch, we had no concerns and felt completely safe. Heck, we left the doors to our chalet unlocked most of the time - just the owner and his family there, and anything of value we had with us hunting.

I sure John has recommended a good company but when it come to buying travel insurance read the fine print. A lot of travel medical insurance providers exclude hunting and action sports.

Good advice here. The language is tricky and they will do everything they can NOT to pay.

Global Rescue specializes in hunting and extreme sport adventures, such as mountain climbing. They are well known and have an excellent reputation and history with doctors in their network - and helicopters - in just about every country.

They will evacuate you from the field for medical or insurgent issues. Low altitude medical jets and the whole works.

You can read stories on their website about plucking people off mountains and out of "hot zones".

So far as SIAI gun insurance, they will cover the full value even if guns are confiscated and their policy is so good, I have added ALL my guns, even those that never leave home. It's better - and price competitive - than most "at home" policies or "regular" coverage. You have to be a SCI member to get it, but it is WELL worth it. Especially for your optics which are often excluded from most policies.

I did 8 months of research and these were the two best companies I found.

John who do you use for those countries that require a liability policy? I know it's an issue in Europe and parts of Australia.

Haven't been hunting to any of those countries yet. Just Mexico, Africa, and Canada hunting. All over for fishing though.

hunter30 is writing a report of his hunt, check it out in the Open hunting discussion thread. Eastern cape hunt

watching that thread also Ferdi thanks, I have came close to 100% sure who I want to book with just waiting on the other guys to pick something. I really like the fact that any questions I have are a text or call away and they have been answered within a very short period of time. Im not looking for the best deal in the world just a very trustable outfitter that will be there from point A to Z on this trip. I dang sure dont want anything to go wrong or I mess up somewhere along the way and forget something important is my only fears of this trip and ofcourse the normal dangers. I ahve told the wife and she has read all your reponses on this thread and she laughed at me when I told her see babe, Im going to need triple the cash when I leave incase I get a chance at any of the big 5. Im pumped and I ahvent even booked yet, I have a feeling this is going to be a very very long year wait to get on that plane.

Whoever you choose just make sure Barry Burchell of Frontier Safaris is NOT involved. That is unless you want to make your first trip your last to Africa because you have such a horrible experience. Just google his name along with Cabelas and Scott Anglin. You'll see. Now as many people as I can I tell to stay away and hopefully one day he will be out of business.

Just curious, have you made a decision?