gbrownlee

I felt the same way about RSA and Namibia both. I'd love to live in either of those places if the politics weren't a little screwy. Namibia isn't nearly as bad, but the tax ramifications for moving to Namibia are a little harsh.

With regards to the original question, I honestly think it depends on where you're hunting, WHEN you're hunting and what you're after. I've hunted plainsgame in Namibia and South Africa, Buffalo in Zambia and Elephant in Botswana. From the experiences I had, elephant was the toughest to hunt, but others would argue that fact. I hunted early May when the bulls were in Musth (rut), so they were on the move. Some days we spent all day tracking a single bull without ever catching up with him (one day was 32 Km's according the the GPS). That's about 10 hours of walking with a few 10 minute rests here an there. It wasn't easy by any means! We got our bull on day 14 of a 14 day hunt after walking roughly 150 miles. That being said, we've had guys go over there in July and shoot them on day one, 1 kilometer from the cruiser after a short tracking job past a water hole.

It's not just the big game either. I still haven't killed a kudu after 5 safaris, but my brother just shot one on day 3 of his first safari in Namibia. Some of the shows don't show the degree of difficulty it took to get the animals, and others show just how easy it was to shoot the impala over a waterhole in a 500 hectare fenced pasture (A certain Bowhunting TV Duo comes to mind).

Most places in South Africa are fenced, but not all are the "put and take" type of hunting. I've hunted a fenced place, but it was 75,000 acres and the game was re-introduced in the early 80's, so the vast majority of the animals were born on the ranch and not brought it. I can assure you they are very wild and don't let you drive right up to them.