According to Podraza, the big-game hunting in South Africa is a lot more exciting than in Namibia — and potentially more expensive — because of the "trophies of opportunity" that include lions. (A three-day hunt for a Lion Superior Male costs $35,000.)
"We're not going to take their money and say we're going to look for an elephant," Podraza said. "We know that there are no elephants."
Podraza said that for the money some people spend going to Saskatchewan to hunt whitetail, "they can come to Africa, with their wife, be wined-and-dined, there's a lot of pluses. Once these people come, we get them back again and again and again. It's more affordable than going to Alaska. And it's not all hunt, hunt, hunt. It's … hunt for three days and then go to Sun City to gamble."
Podraza said he has booked all types of clients, including a Mennonite family from Cleveland, as well as people with physical limitations like himself.
"It's a doable hunt," he said.
Terblanche recalled getting an email from a New York City police officer who had been hunting with him once and then went out to one of his upstate New York hunting grounds a few months later.
"It's about January and he said, 'You ruined my life,' " Terblanche said with a laugh. "He said, 'I got up this morning, sitting in the rain and the cold, and I thought back to you and packed up my stuff and went home."
NRA Great American Hunting & Outdoor Show
Today: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Site: E-ventplex at the Frederick Fairgrounds, 797 E. Patrick St., Frederick
Admission: $10 ($8 for NRA members and free for children 9 and under)
Information: nrahuntingshow.org
