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Sable are certainly a "target trophy." However, a safari is very, very rarely conducted for only one species (rhino and elephant being possible exceptions). The minimum safari length is 7 days usually, with 10 days being the norm for a Sable-type safari, if that makes any sense. Putting a price tag on a species is very, very difficult to do. First you must choose where you want to hunt. Do you want to hunt SA, where your odds of taking your target species are almost assured? Do you want to hunt Zimbabwe? Tanzania? Ethiopia? It depends on the experience you want.
The reason you saw so few sable in SA is because the ranches you hunted did not have great sable numbers. The next ranch over may have a great herd of sable. Unfortunately SA hunting is literally hunting in...well, cages. Yes, these cages are extremely large in many cases, but they have certain game on them. For example, if you tell your booking agent that you want a SA hunt for sable, nyala, blesbok, springbok, and eland, you will most likely be visiting several different ranches.
To answer your question, even if vaguely, the trophy fees on a sable range from $3,500 to $10,000 or so. Keep in mind your daily rate may be in the thousand dollar range. You will of course take additional animals, and pay additional trophy fees. Again, safari is not a poor man's sport. It is also worth noting that when going on a safari for a big-name animal such as sable, Lord Derby Eland, bongo, etc, that daily rates are often elevated. For example, if I am on a typical PG (plains game) safari, but choose to also go after sable, my daily rate may increase by $150 per day depending on the operator. They may also have a minimum number of days that I have to book for (again, 10 being common). One last consideration is that you may pay a sliding trophy fee, depending upon size of sable harvested. This is especially common in SA. For example, you may pay a trophy fee of $3,500 for a 36' sable, but a trophy fee of $12,000 for a 45' sable. This depends entirely upon where you hunt and with whom you book.
You could take the low and pathetic option, and take your sable here in the US, in Texas. A quick Google search found Texas Hunt Lodge, with trophy sable available for $14,900. I might argue that 39-42 inches isn't exactly a record sable, as they make it out to be. This also depends on the specific subspecies of Sable. Rowland Ward (the equivalent of Boone and Crockett here in the states) lists minimums as: Typical Sable: 41 7/8 inches (record 55 3/8), East African Sable 34 inches (record 44 3/8), and Royal Sable as 55 7/8 (record 64 7/8). I'm sure SCI (Safari Club International, another record book) lists minimums as lower. I can almost certainly assure you that the sable at Texas Hunt Lodge are Typical Sable. http://www.texashuntlodge.com/sable_hunt_package.asp This sounds very poor, but really, is it any different than hunting a sable in SA? SA ranches buy sable at auction, just as the game ranches in Texas do. The animals both roam freely in very large enclosures. The differences between the two hunts are not as great as you might think, and the Texas hill country does have a lot in common with SA. Sure, SA has tse-tse flies and Texas does not, and you will see different constellations in SA, but still...
I personally will most likely not hunt SA again, even though I had a fantastic experience doing so. SA fills a niche, a MAJOR niche. It is simply not for me. I have a very personal set of ethics concerning hunting. For example, if I lived in Louisiana, where baiting is legal, I would still not hunt over a feeder for deer. I believe in hunting an animal on its own terms, in its own natural free-ranging indiginous habitat. Of course I will make exceptions for invasive species, but for the most part I will stay true to my beliefs.
This wasn't meant to turn you away from the idea of a sable hunt. Sable is a noble, worthy trophy. It deserves to be hunted in a reasonable and real setting, on a true safari. Go to Zim or Mozambique or Tanzania and have the time of your life. Why not go to the Selous region of Tanzania and book a full-bag 21 day safari? This is perhaps one of the foremost goals in my life, but it may be quite a while until I have the six figures to drop on it. By then, it will probably have doubled or more in price. As safaris become more and more limited, such as the closing of Botswana to hunting next year (as Kenya closed many years ago), safari prices continue to soar. Tanzania, what many consider to be the purest, truest wild Africa hunt, is now the playground of only the very wealthy. But hey, what is life without goals and ambitions?
Thank you for the feedback. I'm glad I didn't write all of what I did in this thread simply for myself. :)
I am actually not very accomplished at all as a hunter. It has been several years since I have seriously hunted (working, traveling, graduate school). I have taken relatively few animals, and have only been on one safari. I tend to thoroughly and completely educate myself on things that are of interest to me. Hunting is such a varied pursuit, with a tremendous amount to learn about its many facets and history. As I stated before, I am more than happy to answer any questions pertaining to hunting, be it safari hunting, a brown bear hunt in the US, or a Marco Polo hunt in Asia. A few weeks ago I was able to get a devout vegan to agree that rhino hunting is a good thing. That was an excellent conversation, held in a public place, with a great many thoroughly amused onlookers.
