Spiral Horn Safari — Limpopo

Length

7–10 days

Where

South Africa

Party size

1–6 hunters

Season

March to October

Built around the four spiral-horned species. Because the property has no internal fences, you can work the thick riverine cover for nyala and bushbuck and the more open ground for kudu and eland without moving camp. Ten days gives you time to hunt each properly rather than settling for the first legal bull.

Why seven to ten days

Because the four spiral-horned antelope do not live in the same country, and you cannot hunt them the same way. Seven days is the floor; ten gives each of them room.

Kudu and eland want open ground and distance, and you find them by glassing and covering country. Nyala and bushbuck want thick riverine cover, and you find them in the first and last half hour of the day by being in the right strip of bush and being still. Those are two different hunts, and trying to do both inside a week means doing neither properly.

The hard one

Bushbuck. Every time.

They are small, they are nocturnal in their habits, they live in exactly the cover you cannot see into, and a mature ram will let you walk past him at fifteen metres rather than move. Most of the clients who go home without a full set are missing the bushbuck.

If you want all four, build the week around him rather than leaving him to the last two days. We will tell you where they are and then ask you to sit still for longer than you want to.

Who it suits

A second or third African safari, or a first one for somebody who already knows they want specific animals rather than numbers. You will take fewer animals than on the plains game week and you will work harder for them.

It is not the trip for a hunter who wants to be busy every day. There will be mornings where you see nothing you can shoot.

What you would be hunting

Every animal below links to its own page, where the trophy judging, rifle and season are covered properly. The figures here are the same ones we would quote you in writing.

What is included

Your professional hunter, trackers and skinners, hunting vehicle and fuel, accommodation, all meals, laundry, standard drinks in camp, and field preparation of your trophies. We help arrange airport transfers, though the transport cost is for your account.

Not included: gratuities, trophy fees (including on any animal wounded but not recovered), dip and pack, shipping, taxidermy, charter flights, international flights and rifle rental. Each of these appears as its own line on your written proposal, so nothing arrives as a surprise. Full detail is on the what's included page.

On price

We do not publish prices. Trophy fees and government licence fees change annually, and a fourteen-day elephant hunt and a seven-day plains game safari are not comparable numbers. What we will do is send you a written proposal with the daily rate and every trophy fee itemised separately. Gratuities are never included and never expected; the tipping guide sets out sensible amounts if you would like to.

This is a starting point rather than a fixed menu. Most of our safaris end up as something between two of these.