Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Best Country For...

IF y'all will tolerate an inquiry from someone who has never been AND likely will not GET to hunt Africa. I COULD go next year BUT then would likely be on welfare for retirement.

So I would like to know Which Country is Best For: (not all in 1 Country.)

Kudu

Cape Buffalo

Elephant

Lion

Crocs

Second Question:
...Is there a season(s) or limits for wild dogs, hyena, & jackal?

Thanks for your consideration.

Kudu - I'd say Namibia, their recent drought notwithstanding. In most years, Namibia has healthy, plentiful populations of Kudu. Honorable mention - private property hunts in Botswana, especially in the Kalahari.

Cape Buffalo - Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania. Moz and Zim would probably be the most sensible due to hunt costs, populations, etc.

Elephant - Still Botswana but I'd hurry and book there if you are set on Ele. Trophy hunting on government concessions is going away in Bots. Namibia can produce some huge elephant though. 80+ pound elephant seem to be taken there every year.

Lion - If they get their Lion hunting situation figured out, Zambia would get my vote. Hunting Lion in Western Africa (Benin and Burkina Faso) would be an incredible experience, IMO. The way the laws make you hunt Lion there (tracking only - no baiting and no dogs) make up for the low annual quotas allowed and small to non-existent manes.

Crocs - Ethiopia has HUGE crocs. Big ones can be found all over the continent but the crocs around Lake Chammo are enormous.

The African Wild Dog is highly protected, no hunting them. Hyena hunting differs from location to location, as well as species. Spotted Hyena are fairly common across sub-Saharan Africa and are available in most countries. Brown Hyena are rare and protected. I believe they can be hunted but would require a lot of extra paperwork (CITES, USF&WS, etc). A lot (although not all) of outfitters/operators offer Jackals for free, regardless of how many are taken.

Best is a subjective term -- do you mean the best chance of getting a good trophy or the absolute best or the best on a budget?

If I wanted to shoot a big kudu I'd go to Namibia. There are lot's of them, there are so very big ones and the price is very reasonable.

If I wanted to shoot a big Cape Buffalo - 44" and up -it would be Tanzania but it's not a hunt for someone on a budget.

Big elephant - Estosha Park in Namibia - no question and while no trophy elephant is inexpensive these are big $$.

Lion - back to Tanzania but they've learned how to pull money out of visiting hunter's and a hunt that would allow you take a lion (as well as Cape Buffalo and Elephant) will set you back in excess of $100,000 and probably closer to $150K once you consider the cost of airfare, charter's, daily rate, government fees, hunting licenses, trophy fees, tips to the staff, shipping of trophy's, taxidermy it get's higher and higher.

With respect to season's -- I don't thing most of the countries have spefic seasons (except Tazania) but are rather limited due to the weather and other factors - but most places you hunt will have established annual quotas fir each area and the more desireable the game the less the quotas - usually.

If you really want to hunt Africa and can't afford to drop $50K I'd suggest a 10-14 day hunt in Namibia with a couple of days taking photos at Estosha - you can hunt big kudu, really big gemsbok, red hartebeest, mt zebra, eland and jackal for $15 thousand + airfare and taxidermy work.

"best" meant to me as in - #s and success ratio.

I 'could' drop 50K but prefer not to.

The 14 day hunt in Namibia sounds TOO tempting. I have no interest in hunting 'elephant', just curious.

I could get 'HIGH' hunting C Buff.

Lion is just another curious thing.
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Thnx for the responsES. Still interested from others.

The dogs, jackal, hyena thing is personal 'DISLIKE' of anything that begins EATING an animal while it's ALIVE. They aren't capable of killing 1 on 1, it takes a pack.

Same Same for Wolves in America.


WELL now I may be looking for a 375 HH!!

Guys Keep em coming.

Jerry

If you define "best" as the highest probability of taking all the animals you mention, the without a doubt Zimbabwe. You cannot shoot Wild Dogs, the other two are on quota and plentiful. Oh and 50K won't get you even close to that type of bag. Double it and you're still not there...

Yep. A great plains game hunt is really pretty affordable. For some reason it costs a bundle to hunt something that can squash you.....

I have little interest in killing volume as I have that behind me. Also, not many African species turn my head.

I do like however, the spiral horned antelope, bushbuck, Nyala, Kudu.

I may get a lot of flak for saying this but I think hunting Cape Buffalo is over-hyped and a lot more expensive than it needs to be.

Why? The target is large and your shot will normally be around 50 yards maximum and it's usually standing looking at you with that "look" everyone talks about. If you can hit a stationary 8" target at 50 yards shooting from a rest you're home free.

Of course an animal that large requires respect and the problem comes when the hunter, overly excited about the hype, makes a bad shot and then the rodeo begins.

I say this with the experience of shooting one buffalo but before I shot this one we had stalked into within single-digit yards of several others including one that stood up from his bed in some waist high grass that I could have spit on if my mouth hand's suddenly gone dry. He stood up - gave me the look and started to walk off - and just as I started to breath again his buddy stood up from his bed just about 10 feet further away - looked at us and walked away.

I don't know what might have happened if we hadn't stopped to look around before moving on.

The buffalo I did shoot was a bit closer than 50 yards facing me and I shot him in the crease where the neck joins the body with my 375 using a 300gr Nosler Partition. His head came up and his back feet came off the ground and without moving a step he dropped hard enough to raise some dust - and didn't move. Moments later we could hear the classic death bellow.

I am, however, very impressed by lions.

What Jorge said^^^^^

When you eliminate lions and elephants, you are really boiling it down to buffalo plus plains game. If you are not really loaded, you have now narrowed it down to Zim and Moz. Zim has political issues and there have been some reports of poaching having a great impact in some areas.

In my book you have narrowed it down to Moz. There are some excellent operators in the state managed Coutadas and in the Niassa reserve. I and better than a half dozen of my friends have hunted with the Haldane brothers of Zambezi Delta Safaris and had great experiences.

Take your time and enjoy doing some research!

Happy hunting,
405wcf

There are some animals. that cannot be exported to the U.S. from Mozambique, elephant being the first that comes to mind.

I took three of my Big Five in Zim. The leopard was killed in Namibia and the Rhino in South Africa.

Sure, Zim has it's problems. But it's still the best bang for the buck if you want to hunt DG.

Yes Moz elephants are out for US importation and new just added to the list are hippos! Thank a bureaucrat who has never been to the Zambezi.

Interesting , that's the conclusion I had come to AFTER starting this thread;
C B & plains game.

That said, I am also interested in WHERE the best hunting is NOW for the other game. As I said in the O P I'm curious per the countries.

I enjoy all the responses from you guys that have been & go there.

THNX to all y'all...(Ark lingo)

Jerry

I have to be partial to South Africa being a great hunting destination. However, for elephant we would certainly be as expensive as Tanzania and many times our F&W limit the size of the elephant to 60 lbs aside, depending on where the hunt is scheduled.

For leopard any other country than SA because of political reasons. For lions you can hunt any of the countries depending on your preferred hunting style, time and budget.

Rhino can only be hunted in SA and we have some monsters but these days they come at a price.

For Cape buffalo you have to decide what hunting style matters most to you. Any of the mentioned countries will do good and a high success rate is achieved at all places.

Mr. Kriel-

One more time. I've started this response 2Xs and was interrupted by calls.

Thanx for your info per S A. I count it MY privilege to talk with those of you who 'either' live in Africa OR who've hunted there enough to be informed.

This 'inanet' thing is something else.

It's fantastic to talk directly with GUYS in the hunting, gun, shooting biz. Not too many yrs ago we either HAD to use snail mail or the phone IF you could get hold of the address or ph # of whomever you wanted to contact.

I appreciate everyone who has indulged me.

THNX
Jerry

Kudu-South Africa, after rabbies has hammered them in Namibia
Cape Buffalo-Masailand in Northern Tanzania
Elephant-Namibia, after Botswana closes
Lion-Western Tanzania, after Zambia's close.
Croc-No idea.

In private properties there are no bag limits. When you hunt in Government land, yes, there are bag limits.

jwall, don't listen to these guys, i.e. Ingwe, Jorge, Hatari......it'll screw up your world.

It's only money...

Yep. Its only money...and they make more...you can get more....

Boy Howdy - it's so nice to have 'friends'. <G>