Looking To Book A Safari?

By Craig Boddington

My friend Gordon Appleby just returned from a great safari in Caprivi. And then he lamented that he didn’t have any hunts planned. But then I heard from him again and he said was looking at a moose hunt in northern Alberta with a good outfitter I know and like. 

I told him I’d join him. The western Canada moose is among the few animals I’d really like to improve upon.

Gordon came back within the hour. It won’t happen. The outfitter is booked up two years out.

For over 15 years, I’ve set an annual date with Mark Haldane of Zambeze Delta Safaris in his Coutada 11 in coastal Mozambique. Okay, it’s a silly extravagance: there is nothing I need there.

However, I like that area, the camp and the team and I love to hunt the big herds in this buffalo-rich area. There is plenty of camp space, a huge variety of game and adequate quotas because of the relatively short season between the rains. 

A last-minute attempt is never a good idea, but I’ve never worried too much about pinning down times. As has been common with many good outfitters, our annual SCI Convention has been a good time to compare schedules and lock up the dates.

Things have changed. There is not much left open for 2025 at Zambeze Delta Safaris. I finally got a date in November, which is near the last opening for next year. 

That’s okay by me. The swamps will be as dry as they get. It will be a great time for buffalo and plains game will swarm the pans out in the forest. But it’s late in the season and likely to be hot.

Our annual Convention in Nashville is the world’s best marketplace to shop for hunts, Bar none. 

There are outfitters large and small from all over the world. An outfitter’s job is to do a good job. In every sense, that means good areas and camps. Good experience, good game of decent quality. 

When they make hunters happy, more hunters will come. That’s a long-term and over-arching goal. 

A secondary and more immediate goal: Fill the dates for the next season. An outfitter’s ability to do this depends on the quality of his/her product and his/her ability to market it. The latter depends somewhat on factors beyond any outfitter’s control: economy and politics.

The pandemic is over. The world is open. Economies vary, not everyone is great, but people are traveling.

Despite the amazing shopping-center for hunters our Convention offers, by the time the ribbon is cut in Nashville on January 22, 2025, many outfitters will have filled their prime dates for next year and will be booking into 2026. 

There are lots of reasons for this. An outfitter’s popularity and reputation, limited seasons and limited quota. Or, even within a long season, favorable weather or conditions for prime species could also limit options. 

Ideally, you don’t want to hunt leopards late, after groundwater dries and key prey species drop their young. It is best to hunt kudu early during the rut, from late May to early July. Given a choice, you want to hunt elk or red stag when they’re bugling or roaring, perhaps a four-week window within a season that might run months.

For sure, go hunting when you can. The animals are there, and great things can happen whenever the season is open. However, it’s always best to do your research and put yourself in the best place at the best time. These days, more than in recent years, this means it’s wise to plan ahead.

Sure, you can get lucky. Ten years ago, after exhaustive deliberation and procrastination, my buddy John Stucker was “almost ready” to pull the trigger on his first African safari. He wasn’t in a hurry. 

I suggested he contact Dirk de Bod in Namibia, which is a great destination and outfitter. I soothed Stucker by assuring him that Dirk was “always” booked up a couple of years out.

“Just get something on the calendar,” I said.  

Wouldn’t you know it, Dirk had an opening six months later. Stucker was, well, stuck. 

He took the opening, and to this day, he suspects I gooned him. (He also blames me for the several safaris that have followed.)

Was that good luck or bad? 

Depends on how you look at it, but don’t expect to walk into our 2025 Convention and find that every outfitter has dates within the calendar year. Sure, they’re out there. Some areas have more competition, some hunts are tougher to sell and some outfitters have more slots to sell than others. 

All outfitters suffer occasional cancellations and then must scramble to fill them. For some hunters, cancellations are a plan. Sit back like scavengers, hoping to swoop in for a deal. 

Sometimes, it works, but it’s hard to count on. Others plan by purchasing hunts at auctions. There is nothing wrong with that. It’s good for everybody, and an auction hunt carries a specified date or period, meaning that opening is set aside.

The only problem with that plan is that the exact hunt you want may not be on the auction block at the exact time you want to go. It is still good to shop at our Convention. It’s the world’s best shopping mall for hunters, but absent luck, my sense is we need to plan further out. Maybe at this convention, look ahead to 2026, even 2027. 

I’ve never had a fixed vacation, and the uncertainty of all those years in the Marines made long-range plans risky. Planning hunts a couple of years out would be a sea change for me — especially these days when I’m reluctant to purchase green bananas. 

Having recently lost out on hunts I wanted because they were booked up, I’m convinced planning farther out is increasingly necessary. I’m working on it.

In 2019, I hunted caribou on the Alaskan Peninsula out of Dave Leonard’s brown bear camp. I decided I wanted to hunt the Alaskan brown bear one more time and committed to the October 2023 bear season. Pretty sure it’s the only hunt I ever booked four years out. Maybe I’m getting better, and I have help. 

My buddy Stucker, with limited vacation time and kids in school, is a long-range planner. He’s already got me roped into a hunt in 2026, trying to talk me into committing to another in 2027. Seems like a bright green banana, but maybe.

Features Editor Col. Craig Boddington is an author, hunter and longtime SCI member. He is past president of the Los Angeles Chapter, a decorated Marine and C.J. McElroy Award winner.