7 Useful Tips for the Traveling Hunter Make Your Hunting Trip

Going another country on a hunting trip is a life that is a cherished dream of many avid hunters. Hunting new game animals in a new geographical location with different natural settings and weather is an exciting experience that no seasoned hunter should miss in his lifetime. A successful hunting trip depends on your preparation. I am a North American hunter. Deer is my favorite hunting game. I gunned down many deer’s in several hunting ranges in the USA.

But a few years ago, I decided to embark on an international hunting trip or safari. I want to see how it feels to hunt wild animals in Africa since the continent is renowned for big game hunting. My hunting destination was South Africa and my hunting game animal was Antelope. I left out other big games like rhinos or buffaloes from my last since I don’t have any experience of hunting these animals in the USA. Long story short, Based on my hunting experience in South Africa, below I have compiled 7 useful tips for traveling hunters. I expect that these tips will be pretty useful for them.

Get to Know Your Destination
Before going to your destination, make a thorough research on the country. What hunting places are available there, what animals are legal to hunt there, and hunting laws that the hunters need to abide by. These are the questions that you must know before heading to your destination. For my case, as I told you at the beginning of the post that my destination was South Africa. So, I studied the country and try to gather as much information as possible before arriving at my destination.

Find a Tour Operator
After selecting your country, the next thing is finding a tour operator. A touring agency is an immense help for hunters. They arrange the tour and provide useful information like what to bring during a hunting trip, how to stay safe there, and most importantly help to select a place where you will find your intended game animal. A tour operator will also do the paperwork for you like getting a hunting license to avoid legal complexities. If you want to do all of these things alone, then it will be a big hassle. I know many seasoned hunters retreat from their abroad hunting trip after seeing so many prior difficulties.

Pack carefully
Travelers need to make sure that they are bringing the right clothing with them. In this case, the weather of the country you want to go takes into account seriously. Choose clothing based on the season of the place you are heading. If it is winter, bring necessary warm clothing. For summer hunting, no special clothing required. If your foreign hunting place is in deep forest, bring clothing that will cover you from neck to feet so that insects or bug can’t bite or sting you. So, bring clothing based on your hunting ground as well

If Possible Try to Travel in the Hunting Season
You know hunting season varies from country to country. So what is the hunting season of North America will not match for example with the hunting season of Africa. So, try to arrange your hunting trip according to the hunting season of the country.

Gather Necessary Hunting Gear
Collect necessary hunting gear like a weapon, site, and ammo based on the game you want to hunt. Choose your hunting gear carefully because your success in hunting depends on the bring the right hunting tools there. Choose your rifle scope based on the hunting ground. If your hunting place is bush or forest, you will likely shoot at your target from less than 100 meters. So, you don’t need to use scopes with high magnification. But if your hunting place would be in open terrain, a sniper scope will be the ideal gun accessory for you. A sniper scope will help you gun down your target at a long distance. Caliber is another important factor. Don’t use hard bullets. Bullets with moderate caliber are quite effective because it hits the animal with sufficient impact that leads the game to drop nearby the shooting spot.

Stay Healthy
Hunting travelers who are traveling to a developing country need to prepare for living under poor conditions. So, don’t be surprised if you see the hotel you booked is in bad condition. After your accommodation, the next two things are food and beverage. Consume food and drink carefully there. If unhygienic food or drinks cause your illness on a hunting trip abroad, it will be a real disaster.

Treat the trophy properly
It means what you need to do with the animal after killing it. It is likely that meat and hide of the game you gunned down will be shipped to your home country. So you must have a prior plan which includes how you would skin the animal, how you butchered it, and how its hide will be salted for preservation. These are the things you need to do after killing the animal. Keep in mind that hunting is not all about killing an animal. Hunting is also about handling the animal after killing.