November 2025

Tips to Book a Great Hunt 

Always an exciting month for African hunting. Hunters on the lookout, where to hunt, who to hunt with. Are there deals? Are there any great online auctions? Should I plan to attend one of the major hunting conventions? Planning flights. Should we use a travel agent?

542 words on what to look out for when booking:

1)      Do your research when considering who to hunt with. If you’re bidding on an online, or any fund-raiser auction, check them out first. The majority are fine, but you do not want to be a statistic or casualty. I know, personally, four guys THIS YEAR who have been stung and lost thousands. When the minefield of outfitter choice is well over a thousand, the African Dawn Outfitter group is a safe bet

2)      If you have the hunt lined up and now want to book flights, just remember, not all travel agents are neutral. We have had hunters having to convince their travel agent that they wish to stay at Afton. Many hunters are persuaded to stay with the travel agent’s recommended (airport) hotel or to arrange the gun permit through their flight booking service. It might all be fine – but please, do your homework there, too. Obviously, I am biased, but if you want to spend your first night in a non-airport hotel, and feel like you are on safari, you have African Sky, or our very own Afton Safari Lodge to set the tone. The Afton packages include everything from gun permits, VIP meet and greet and, of course, an unmatched hunter-friendly vibe.

3)      There is roughly a month left until the annual draw for the fabulous .416 Rigby. Life Life Members, this is your time and your chance. The odds are good, and you are paying nothing extra to be in the draw. The limited Life Membership offer comes with real value that includes TTS (taxidermy and/or Trophy Shipping) vouchers, and Afton VIP packages, all totaling more than double the $1250 Life Member sign-up fee. For those who have used the AHG Shipping service, or now our TTS service, you will know that the package included in the subscription drive makes it worth considering at any level. Have a look at the options to subscribe.

4)      If you are a subscriber, my appeal for stories from you should be no surprise. Now that the season is mostly behind you, perhaps this is the time to share your story, however unpolished and unprofessional you think it may be. This link will give you a guide. Please try it out. Recently a bereaved widow messaged me to say, please stop the AHG subscription to her late husband as he has passed. With Sara and I going back and forth, I suggested a way to process and cope with his passing and their 30 years together – a write-up of some of their times. She did it. And so, this is my shout out to say thank you as I share her personal and meaningful account of what it meant travelling to this continent: Sara’s story.

To coincide with what most of our audience share later this month, Thanksgiving, we will be launching something special. It gives me a few weeks and keeps you all in a bit of suspense. Until then, just you all have a wonderful month. 

Regards, 

Richard Lendrum

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Beyond the Pursuit

Why the Hound Hunt Model is Redefining modern Leopard Hunting

By Gavin Lipjes

There is a certain silence that overcomes men when the fresh track of a big cat is discovered – a silence heavy with anticipation, stitched together by the rhythm of ‘gearing up’ with the restrained whine of the keen hounds. In that moment, man, dog, and cat are bound in a contest older than language itself. For many, the notion of hunting a leopard with hounds still raises debate.

20 Years Tracking & Hunting in South Africa

By Alessandro Cabella

I remember it clearly: the light just before dawn in Kamala, near East Somerset. The sky – painted in tones of violet and grey – slowly gave way to soft streaks of pink, as if reluctant to reveal the secrets hidden in the bushveld.

The Most (?) Dangerous Game

By Terry Wieland

In 1924, Collier’s published one of the most famous short stories of all time. “The Most Dangerous Game,” by Richard Connell, told of a man marooned on an island who finds himself pitted against a big-game hunter who pursues humans for sport. Having become bored with hunting animals, he had turned to the “most dangerous” game for entertainment.

Connell’s plot has since been used for several movies, the theme has been adapted for television, and it has even inspired a few real-life crimes.

The idea that man is the most dangerous game is repeated frequently enough that it’s accepted as a truism. 

Hunting Memories

By Sara Haigh

In March 2025, I lost John, my husband and best friend of over 37 years.

John was first diagnosed with cancer 26 years ago at the age of 54. Despite this adversity John acquired a zest for life, rose to the challenge of seeing more of the world, and we had many wonderful adventures – but Africa became the beloved passion.

As a young boy in the 1950s, he was captivated by the wildlife films of Arnoud and Michaela Dennis, bewitched by the images, never thinking he would have the privilege of hunting in Africa. But that opportunity came when friends introduced us to Ian Harmer.

Ian recognized our interest and enthusiasm for Africa and told us he was embarking on another hunting safari to South Africa in October 2011. “Why don’t you come with me?”

Buffalo Are Different

By Ken Moody

There are many species and places on our planet to hunt. Sheep reside in the snow-capped mountains of British Columbia or the arid Mexican desert. The elusive bongo can be found in the rain forests of central Africa and the whitetail deer just about anywhere in North America. All present their own challenges, but nothing stirs the soul and induces a higher level of anxiety than the pursuit of Cape Buffalo in the thick jess of southern Africa.

The Common Zebra is an Uncommon Mammal

If you have ever tried to sex and age the Common or Plains Zebra, you will know it is hard work. Eagle-eyed driver-guides will tell you that the stallions have brighter, more contrasting stripes, but I find that method unreliable.

Wildlife researchers and managers tasked with telling the sexes apart can also pick out mature stallions from their more robust build, especially as reflected in their necks, which are thicker than those of mares. And it helps to know that herd stallions usually bring up the rear of a family unit.

But the most reliable way to ID the sex of both adults and young is from a full rear view. 

Crossroads for Adventure

By Roger Haag

The normal, routine patterns of daily life ended as we left Florida en route to Maun, to meet PH Clive Lennox for a 10-day elephant hunt on Kgori Safaris’ Kwatale NG 43 concession.

All my life I’d dreamed of a classic African elephant hunt. Now, the time had finally come. I’d spent several months convincing my wife, Denise, that she needed to experience the adventure with me, and she finally consented and became our photo- and videographer.

Time Spent in Reconnaissance

By Terry Wieland

Many and lurid are the tales told by professional hunters of clients who show up with rifles they can’t shoot, of rifles not sighted in, even of clients so afraid of their rifles they have never even fired them.

Some years ago, I was told of a client who arrived in Tanzania to hunt Cape buffalo with a new .505 Gibbs. He had not shot it even once, and wanted his PH to sight it in for him. With recoil so fearsome, the client figured he could steel himself to pull the trigger once and only once, and he wanted that one shot to be at a buffalo.

Chapter 9

Mauling at Shangani

By Wayne Grant

One of the safari booking agents we used to work with sent us a Spanish hunter who spends most of the year in Mexico. He is Venancio Ruis Corbella and he is a fine gentleman of the old school. I guided Venancio on his first safari and also on his second, when he brought his three children with him. It was an absolute pleasure initiating Venancio and his polite, well-behaved children into African hunting.

Venancio’s third safari was booked for leopard. I was already committed for the period that Venancio had allocated himself to try for the leopard, so I contracted my brother Sean to do the hunt.

Who are the African Dawn Outfitters?

The African Dawn Outfitter Program is about working with an exclusive group, to offer one critical thing, and that is peace of mind for you, the hunter.

With over 1000 outfitters to choose from, despite the majority being good and offering a great safari, it is a minefield out there when trying to decide with whom to hunt across the continent. And when it comes to your hunt, why risk anything? This group can deliver the goods.

Book directly with them, go to our website and sign up to receive the weekly posts, Fresh from the Veld. If you’re an agent looking for outfitters to represent or sell; you’ll be safe contacting any one of these Dawn Members.

www.africandawnoutfitters.com

Richard Lendrum - Publisher African Hunting Gazette

richard@africanhuntinggazette.com

2025 African Dawn Members