Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Thinking about a buff hunt in 2016?

I just bought a new rifle (M70 Win Safari Express in .416 Rem Mag) and am now thinking about getting another buff. I have killed two; one in RSA and one in Zim.

Thinking it would be nice to kill one from a different country, I am thinking of Mozambique or Tanzania. I would like one around 40 in with a nice boss.

Any suggestions or advice based upon recent experiences?

Thanks,

BH

Where in RSA and Zim did you go and who with? that would help in determining who to recommend.

Tanz has plenty of buffalo. I took two 40"+ in Rungwa a few years ago. Beautiful, classic landscape. Tanz is pricey even for a 7 days buff hunt. Must figure in the charter flight. Very restricted license. 2 buff, impala, zebra when I went.

Zambia has some good buff with more on a license.

I hunted with Safaris de Mozambique in Aug. 2014. Lots of buffalo, nice camps, great food etc. I booked through Wendell Reich. (http://huntersquest.com/).
That's me and my buffalo on the Mozambique page of his site.

Wendell's outfit is top notch .

For big buffalo nothing beats Masailand Tanzania, but it is Very pricey now! You'll be looking at around $25,000.00 these days.

I'm hearing good things about Mozambique recently. They have gotten progressively better since they re-opened and revived sport hunting after the awful civil war.

Why not a Bantang/Buff hunt in Oz ? a fair bit safer, world class fishing and a cultural experience you wont forget !!

Plenty of other game to chase aswell.

What about the Caprivi?

The Caprivi can be feast or famine. Over a couple years I hunted about 18 days to get a bull, and then he was small...but he was the only one I had a shot at!

Best to go where there are a lot of resident buff!

I like the Selous...ten days gets you two buff and there are plenty of them there. And my second one was 42".

Thinking about the Luangwa Valley for next year. Neither Zambia nor Tan are cheap, but I can't afford to many more "cheap" hunts!

Something's fishy here....

Lot's of great advice.

I shot my first buff with Steyn Safaris, a mom and pop outfit located in Barberton, RSA. I don't think they are still in business currently. My Ph was Abie Steyn.

I hunted with Tshabezi Safaris out of West Nicholson in Zim (although is was setup by Steyn Safaris). My PH was Kirk Mason, who I understand moved to Oz.

I would love to hunt with either of those PHs, but I'm not sure they are still in business. I had read that Abie had joined with another group to form Caracal Safaris, but I understand that group had some problems a couple of years ago, so I'm not sure if they are still operating.

I've heard Tanz is pretty expensive, but it would be nice to hunt the fabled Selous. I have read one bad review about a buff hunt in Mozambique, where the client spent a week wading through swamps without ever getting a shot at a buff. I am too old for that.

I live in the Denver area and they have Sportsman's Show in January, so I will get a chance to check out what's available and some prices then.

I will also be following up on some of the links here.

Thanks and good hunting.

BH

To paraphrase Sheldon Cooper "In what universe is a Bantang/Buff hunt a Cape Buffalo hunt?"

To me the African Cape Buffalo is the meanest, toughest, badazz animal currently living today (that can be legally hunted- since hunting a tiger on foot is no longer an option).

But thanks for the idea.

I plan on visiting Oz, some day (although I don't think much of their gun control laws).

BH

Live long and prosper.



You damn right it is....and the only animal truly worthy of being called a Buffalo.

Buffalo hunting in RSA is about as expensive as it gets...

Sorry, don't agree Jorge. It's one of the most cost effective countries in Africa to hunt Buffalo.

It must have changed recently then. Because of the bug-free buffalo, trophy fees in RSA for buffalo used to be extremely high. When my friend hunted w Konrad a few years ago, the trophy fee was north of ten grand, then again Zim fees for buffalo are outrageous now as well.

You are correct, a lot of South African Buffalo are bug free. One of our areas in the Northern parts of South Africa, bordering a famous area, is all what they call "red-line" Buffalo, which means they could carry TB. Not just the buff, but all animals. No meat are allowed to cross this "line" and not to be consumed.
The Buff hunts there are generally cheaper and one of the reason we use the area to offer better value Buffalo hunts.
Not for marketing purposes but merely to prove my point, we are offering 3 Buff in the area for 2016 at $11K all in.

Jorge, maybe if you know of any other Buff deals from our neighboring countries, you could share them here. It would be interesting to see what the rest of the countries are doing, and will also add value to the OP's question and might very well help him in a direction.

11K "al in" for a buff hunt is certainly reasonable, in fact, it is a great deal. I believe my friend's trophy fee alone was 10k a few years ago. How many days is the 11K cover, what other animals can one take and what are their trophy fees. Zim currently right now (but I suspect you know this) runs about 1300/day on the Daily Rate (I don't know if the even have a say, seven day package), plus a 5K trophy fee, which to me is outrageous. One should look at Mozambique, that's where I would look for a buffalo these days.

I love the title of this thread - "I'm thinkg of a buffalo hunt.." I think about one every single day. Need to make it happen again.

It's a 8 night, 7 day hunt. The last 3 buff we took there, took us 3 days each to get, so by no means a walk over. It is a self sustaining herd. There are plains game there, but to tell you the truth, we've taken the odd animal there, and always relocated to the Eastern Cape for the plains game portion of the trip. ( by aeroplane) It would be easier to answer if you asked me about specific plains game, then I could check if they are available. ( Plus, as a non-advertising member, I don't feel I should post them here, as it could be seen as marketing.)
The nice thing is you never know what you run into. We come across Leopard tracks quite often, Hyena tracks daily, and you sometimes run into Lions that come through from the park. Always gets the heart pumping when you run into the unexpected.