Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Once in a lifetime hunt: Grizzly or Cape Buffalo?

Never "hunted" grizzly, but I killed one from about 15' or so (in a tree with grizzly below me) in 1960. All together, I'd go for the Cape Buffalo now. Less difficult to hunt, but the adrenalin level is high!

For me it would be one of the giant bears like those that Phil hangs around with

I choose the Buff. The outfitter would offer you many additional animals while you hunted the Buff. You could hunt 8-10 species in just a couple of weeks.
The cost would be pretty close to just the one bear.

Grizzly but it will be on horseback in NE BC. Have done grizzly in BC near Golden. Great trip. Buffalo will come later after I retire and after the BC bear hunt and other more rigorous hunts.

Both would be fantastic of course but I think that I would treaure the trip to Africa more. Ask me again in a couple of years and I might give you a different answer.

Of the two choices presented by the OP, I would choose Cape Buffalo.

However, there are multiple species that I would consider as more worthy of the "Once-In-A-Lifetime" title. Coincidentally, most of those are also found in Africa - Mountain Nyala, Lord Derby Eland, Bongo, and Roan make my list. Marco Polo Sheep and free-range Alpine Ibex would be in the running, as well.

Mr. Barsness hit it right on the noggin! I have done nine African hunts - all a month long - all after the peak hunting season. It was in a bush camp - no running water- no bathrooms - you eat what you shoot, as did the camp personnel - and it was the most unbelievable time I have lived. There were many days when my friend and PH, Terry Roach, and I never took the rifles out of the cases - we lived an entire day at waterholes, sitting on a mountainside - reading poetry out loud and watching elephant walk past us at ten feet. Amazing. My limited bear hunting was good, but not comparable to the time spent in the land where man was born.

Find a great PH, pay him what he is worth, listen, talk, shoot well. You will never remember it all, but twenty years later one moment will come back, a smell, the same feeling of the sun warming your back but now you are standing on a stream with a fly rod in your hand. Rats - now I gotta go look at the bank account. I might have one more trip left in me.

Terry


Terry

Hope you can muster up one more trip Terry ; you made me grin

Well having hunted both, I have no real interest for either anymore, now Sitka Black Tail Deer well that is a whole different ball of wax, to be able to retire to were those live and just hunt those and catch a few Salmon Halibut Ling Cod and rock fish would make for a joyful existence.

Yes?

4xbear,

Well done....

Whale

Hunting North America is way too expensive in comparison to Africa. Given that left leg would probably prelude me from easily traversing rocky beaches or hummocky muskeg, I would vote for buffalo. Pre-injury, I probably would have voted for Grizz.

I've hunted the big bears twice and both times were unforgettable experiences. I would do it again, although for a long time I said I would not.

They pull at you.

But I have not been to Africa and today would go there before another bear hunt,simply for the experience and something very different from North America.

Thank you Sir. How is the knee?

Having seen big bears from the inside numbering fairly well up in double digits, interior and coastal versions, the change to cape buffalo might be a good option...

But there was this time we stumbled into a mess of Sitkalidak Slow Elk (feral bovines) and saw some serious attitudes come to the surface... Thinking they might pass for a good substitute for CB for now.

Besides, I drew a tag for Uganik Bay, Kodiak Island, for this coming spring... Guess I will be forced to use the tag in my pocket before looking elsewhere.

Then again my buddy did kill what may have been the biggest bear in the unit two years ago.

If it was jut a hunt for one animal, it would be griz. If it was a full experience hut like Cape Buffalo and plains game, I would go for the African safari.

Grizzly Bear. For me, the hunting challenge of the terrain and weather are just as important as the trophy itself.

"There's a Grizzly!" Those three words tell it all for me....

Done the Cape Buffalo, haven't done the Griz so can't compare the two. Buffalo would be hard to beat though�.

That said Buffalo don't scare me.


Griz do�...

As others have stated, I have zero interest in bovines. I've always found bears fascinating so would rather have a trophy grizzly if limited to just those two choices.

However, I would take an African Safari just for the experience and photos. Matter of fact, I could be perfectly content with a photo safari without having to shoot a thing.