Punch in "Muskoka Outdoors" and take a look at the new record Uganda buffalo.

It looks like it might be wider than anything from Tanzania in recent years except for a buffalo killed by a lion in Tarangire Park and a buffalo pen raised in Zimbabwe and then shot in RSA.

Brian Herne, in his book "Uganda Safari" says he got one 48 inches wide in the same area but this modern bull is even larger.

Here is a link to the Webpage with a photo of the buffalo.

http://muskokaoutdoors.ca/blog/2010/01/15/largest-uganda-cape-buffalo-in-35-years/

Wait until the Ugandan true wilderness areas they've just allocated start operating properly..... they're gonna rewrite the record books.

How crazy. I just received a copy of UGANDA SAFARIS in the mail today that i ordered a week ago. There is a monster of a buff pictured in there. It looks wider than the one above but it is probably just different horn formation.

FYI - the big buff in the book is on page 81 or so. Beautiful bull.

The best area for big buffalo in Uganda is Lake Mburo and that will not change as far as cape buffalo go regardless of new areas opening.

The buffalo in most of the new areas are to the north and they are Nile buffalo which are small. The buffalo to the south near Queen Elizabeth park are also small.

The Lake Mburo buffalo have Masailand genetics and plenty of food and water. Its ideal buffalo habitat. Much greener country than Tanzania and no lions to stress them out.

Three lions showed up at Lake Mburo National Park last year. They came from Tanzania but the locals say the cattle herders have already poisoned them.

Brian Herne writes that he saw a hard bossed buffalo over 60 inches at Lake Mburo.

Kaka Matama has also just acquired Sango Bay on Lake Victoria and that area too has very large buffalo. Kaka has seen them to 47 inches so far on game surveys.

The triangle between southern Uganda, Ruanda and Masailand are where all of Africa's very largest buffalo have come from there.

Wow!, a 60 inch buff would be something to just see much less shoot..

I hope Steve has a hand in the Uganda hunting concession, I'll make him take me hunting!

Ray,

Kinda....... but the newly issued true wilderness areas, which incidentally are many times larger than the Selous areas, rather than the smaller areas that have been running for a while.

email me at [email protected] if you want to chat about it..... believe me when I say the new areas are gonna literally rewrite the record books.

Dear Ray,

There was a 63 inch buffalo killed by a lion in Tarangire Park a few years ago. I saw the original horns and all kinds of duplicates have been made and scrabbled together with new capes to make very impressive mounts.

Someone on your block likely has one. Herne did not say he shot this buffalo. He just said he saw it. There is a fantastic photo of an African buffalo in James Mellon's book African Hunter and it is from Uganda. Its about the best buffalo I have ever seen. It makes the Ngorongoro Crater buffs look like wimps.

I think its the water and the good grass. The Ankole cows are three times as big as the Masai cows and there are 17 lakes ner lake mburo so there is always plenty of lions. There are no lions and no tetse flies. Great place to be a buff.

Correction - there is always plenty of grass. Not there is always plenty of lions.

Dear Ray,

I am not yet familiar with northern Uganda but I talked to Christian Weth about his areas at his restaurant in Kampala.

A German count has Karomojo.

Christian Weth has other northern areas with a minister in the Uganda government. Christian says game is increasing rapdily because the Lord's Resistance Army, a terrorist group led by Joseph Koney, has kept people in their villages in northern Uganda for many years so there was little or no poaching.

Now the LRA have left.

The LRA was driven into Congo by a Uganda general who is president Museveni's son. He also attacked them in Garamba Park in Congo, with DRC president Kabilia's permission, and they left Garamba.

They moved north in the Congo and crossed the Uele River where they killed 400 people and recouped their losses by taking 1,000 child soldiers. They were between the Uele and the CAR/Sudan border. They seem to be concerned about meeting the French Foreign Legion if they go into CAR.

General Bemba, who is now in prison for war crimes, had previously allowed Bororo cattle herders from Chad to enter and live in the Azande country north of the Uele river but the LRA foced both the Bororos and the original Azande inhabitants, who the Bororos had replaced, to move south as refugees.

They are flooding into Isiro now.

The LRA is the loose card in that whole region. No ones knows where they are at the moment and what they will do next. They are the Luao tribe from Kenya, President Barrack Obama's tribe.

Will they be defeated? Will they go into CAR? Will they return to northern Uganda? Will they return to Garamba Park? Will they run for office in the USA?

They are highly flexible guerrillas who seem to need little resupply. They move like willow the wisps in the vast forests for months on end and then suddenly re-appear and wreck havoc.

I have friends who just went there last week to see what is going on. When I know where they are I will post it here.

Jburner and Steve,
I have seen the pictures of that Lion killed Park bull many times, and I have talked to some that knew of Uganda and its bulls and knew sometime back that plans were being made to hunt there, but nothing was finalized..One therefore must wonder what kinf of elephants they might have or has poaching played a hand in that.

Dear Ray,

Hunting in Uganda is not new. It has been ongoing since december od 2,000. It was opened up at the Uganda end by Kaka Matama and at the booking end by German booking agent Astrid Gorsline. What is new is that many new areas are being opened in 2010. How they will pan out I cannot say.

According to Christian Weth these new areas have lots of game because the presence of the terrorist organization LRA in northern Uganda kept people in the towns so there was no poaching. The Uganda army has kicked the LRA out and hopefully they will not return.

The LRA have variously raided southern Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and DR Congo. They are higly mobile predators who rapdily re-equip their loses with cruelty and child soldiers.

They are led by a religious nutbar named Joseph Koney from the Luao tribe which is president Obama's tribe. Look them up on Wikipedia.

But ten years ago the German taxidermist Wolfgang Shenk drove through all these areas and he said they were empty of game. However, game can increase very quickly in ten years so if what Christain Wweth is correct Joseph Koney perhaps ought to get the conservationist of the decade award. This terorist seems to have done a better job in Uganda than the IFAW and other animal rights groups have in Kenya when it comes to conserving wildlife.

Astrid Gorsline booked safaris for Kaka long before Idi Amin ever came to power. She has sent more safaris to Uganda than any other agent both before and after the rise and fall of Idi Amin. (And possibly more than everyone else combined).

Kaka Matama is a very resilient guy and has alot of experience hunting in all parts of Uganda and the hunting community owes him a huge debt because he single handedly opened hunting in Uganda against great opposition. He ought to get a medal.

The areas opening in 2010 are only opening because Kaka did a good job with the local people in his area. His project was the pilot project for Uganda.

To give you some examples of the problems he has faced single handedly - Amin put Kaka in jail planning to kill him - he failed. A number of British and European based photo safari companies and people from Kenya linked to the anti-hunting IFAW, but using other names, to try to create the pretence they are local people, have already tried to stop the hunting. They have failed

Kaka Matama got around them all by signing a deal with 50 private ranches south of Lake Mburo National Park although the game department sets the quotas. He did this alone. There were no groups like John L. Jackson or SCI behind him.

Astrid Gorsline, who is based in Germany, got Kaka his first client in December of 2,000 and hunting has been going on there steadily since then.

Astrid and Kaka's first client was Dr. Thomas Weritz and he shot buffalo and great variety of other game. He wrote his story in a January, 2001 issue of the German hunting magazine Jagen Weltweit.

Safari Club International did not seem to know hunting was going on in Uganda until about 2005, five years after the fact. Since then a number of agents have jumped on the bandwagon and have announced they are going to set the world on fire even flying hunting dogs in from South Africa which is a no no.

This almost smells like a rehash of the South African wonder boys who set the safari industry on fire in Tanzania. We shall see.

However, there is an ongoing shakedown of the industry, and a settling of the dust. For example one white PH from Southern Africa just shot a cabinet minister's cow on a buffalo hunt and has already got the ejection seat. To his credit it has to be said it was a very fine trophy cow. Ankole cows are magnificent animals.

Most agents get their data off the net and have never even been there. A few have shown up for photo ops.

The impression has been created that there is no law. This is not true. Uganda's Game laws were set up by the British and are similar to the laws that existed in other Briitsh colonies like Tanzania and Kenya. They have been in places for decades and have been gazetted but its difficult to get copies these days. the best source of information are the old hunters who have the law memorized. People like Nicky Blunt, Kaka Matama and John Northcote if he is still alive.

In British colonies it was generally illegal (1) to hunt with dogs (because poachers use dogs and because for some species dogs are unsporting - For example I am told, but have not seen, that if you run sitatunga onto hard ground with dogs they cannot walk because they have highly specialized feet made for walking in papyrus. I am told that its like shooting a deer with four broken legs. (2)to hunt with muzzle loaders (because there were lots of poachers with Arab trade muskets in that part of the world in British days), to hunt with handguns ( because in British days all that existed were .455 Webleys and 38 Specials) and to hunt with a boy and arrow (because every African can make a bow with poisoned arrows and poach). These laws made law enforcement possible and did not interfere with the sport hunting market as it was practised in Btitish days.

These laws are still on the books and they are the laws Kaka has been hunting under. But the game department recognizes the market has changed. In British days there was no bow hunting but now it is popular. In British days there was no handgun hunting but now it is popular. In British days there was no muzzle loader hunting but now it is popular. I am told the game department has appointed an old British judge to update the regulations and I see people have been potting game with bows and muzzle loaders so the game department may have given them letters of permision but hunting with dogs is a big can of worms and will most likely remain banned.

In the mean time a great many people are trying to grab Kaka's area. They include civil servants who want to expand Lake Mburo National Park, lodge owners who want to make Kaka's area a photo safari area (he protected it - they didn't), wildife researchers who want to stop him from hunting leopard (there are many) so they can get work strudying them, hunting safari companies who want to grab his area, hunting safari companies who want to split his area and grab half and so forth. The list in endless.

But Kaka is a pretty tough guy. Idi Amin wanted to kill him but wasn't able to so we will see how it goes.

In the mean time all kinds of BS is being posted on the AR forum. One poster says Kaka is fully booked for 2010 and infers he is the reason for the bookings but he hasn't sent Kaka any clients and Kaka won't take clients from him.

Another posters says the trophy fee for hippo is cheap $3,500 when in fact Kaka's trophy fee for hippo is very cheap - only $US 600 and buffalo US$ 900. Kaka does not add on to the trophy fees like some others I could name and he gives the money to the landowners right after the animal is shot. The agents bumping the trophy fee are the same ones who will sell you a Mexican Rigby.

Kaka has buffalo with Masailand genetics for less than Zimbawe prices and he still has openings for 2010 so if you speak to the right agent you can go. He does not deal with internet flash in the pans.

Having said that about the genetics, the buffalo average the same size as Tanzania buffalo. I have seen hundreds of them.

They are mostly 33 to 40 inches depending on age and horn wear But every once in a while a big boy pops up. Kaka has also shot some 44 and 45 inchers along with the big 481/2 incher. It took ten years to get the big boy and the buffalo herd is now increasing very rapidly because there is no poaching (thanks to Kaka) and there are no lions. But clients can only expect normal buffalo with the posibilty that a really good buff will pop up from time to time.

Elephants are increasing rapidly in parts of Uganda and in the old days it produced monsters so we will see?.

I mention that taxidermist Wolfgang Schenk toured most of Uganda ten years ago looking for the best place to see game in Uganda. He finally settled on Lake Mburo. You can stand on a hill there and see six different speceis at one time. The country is high and cool and there are no testse flies. Both animals and people thrive there.

Wolfgang's son Ralph Schenk and Nicky Blunt's sister built Mihingo Lodge and now live there. Its located adjacent to Kaka Matama's hunting block which more correctly should be called the Lake Kacheer Hunting block because it is wrapped around lake Kacheera. Kaka's camp is about 30 minutes drive from Mihingo lodge.

I don't know about the northern areas but hope to visit them. I do know that Kaka Matama's hunting area is full of game. Its not large, only 165,000 acres in size but there are at least 10,000 big game animals there and no game fences. Everything is wild. Lovely rolling green hills. For sure The Green Hills of Africa.

Any Buff hunting to be had around Kidepo Nat Park, Karamoja?

Probably. A German count has been allocated a Karamojo block and has some Zimbabwe hunters working for him so its very likely they will be hunting the area right right now but I do not have a map to know the boundaries of the hunting area.

However, most of the Uganda blocks have been created at the edge of National Parks to control problem animals that drift out into agricultural areas so its highly likely.

Addenda,

Having Uganda outfitters like Kaka Matama do problem animal work for the Game Deparment saves the UWA money.

And it sometimes has advantages for visitng hunters. A call often comes in sayiny a buffalo has just gored a farmer or a hippo is chasing kids out of their maize fields.

No one can guarantee a client that this will happen when he is there but sometimes it does and then unexpected opportunities can arise such as being leagally able to hunt crop raiding hippos at night.

For example, shooting hippos in the water is not interesting. Shooting them on land is. Shooting them on land at night is both interesting and legal with crop raiders.

For those who are interested in Uganda Kaka Matama has just acquired the Sango Bay Hunting block. Sango Bay is located on the south east coast of Lake Victoria. If you want to know what the coast looks like watch Humphrey Bogart's film "The African Queen." Bogart and Catherin Hepburn end their river journey in a papyrus swamp on Lake Victoria and Bogart gets out of the boat to pull it and is covered with leeches. That is what the Lake Victoria coast looks like and the film may well have been made at Sango Bay.

The coast is ringed with papyrus but inland the papysrus swamp is broken up by grass swamp and swamp forest. The buffalo live on hummocks and grassy plains within the papyrus. It is not easy country to walk around in but in the old days it had huge buffalo and many buffalo are still there.

Kaka says the largest he has seen so far on a game survey was about 47 inches but it is a vast area and he has only looked at a small part of it. It has not been hunted for many years but it has been poacehd by Hutu refugees from Runada.

Accoridng the locals they do not hunt buffalo because they only have spears with small heads. They concentrate on hunting the bushbuck with dogs and bushbuck have been hammered. I have no idea how Kaka will hunt this area. Its flat country.

This is great info burner, thanks! jorge

I talked to Adler tours on the weekend. Christian Weth used to work for them but is now married to a Uganda girl and living in Kampala. He has a game meat restaurant. Adler says it will take a few years to wind up Cristian Weth's northern Uganda areas because at the moment the quota is very low. They said he has only 5 buffalo for example but this will increase with time.

Karomojo is in the hands of a German count and I have no idea what his quota is or what game is still there. It seems John Tolmay and Nigel Thiessen are there so they are likely his hunters unless there is a second areas in Karomojo. I only heard there was one.

This news is an hour old. You didn't hear it on CNN who isn't there.

Northern Uganda should be safe at the moment because the LRA is still north of the Uele River in north-eastern DR Congo and they are currently being pursued by combined armies from Uganda and the DR Congo.

This by no means should be taken to mean that they are boxed in but if there are any security problems in Uganda at the moment they would only come from Karamojong thieves and not from the LRA.

Southern Uganda is perfectly safe.

Hmm...

The word "small" does not spring to mind for buffalos from the North of Uganda. These are all from Northern Karamoja...

Our safari operator in Uganda has been taking buff at the smallest 38" up to 43" on average. There are definitely some huge buff walking around up there. These newly opened areas like Uganda, and,(we are trusting), Angola next season, make you wonder what new records are walking around out there.
I was in Africa this past september when a hunter in Mozambique came into camp with a 49" buff!

I'd shoot this guy all day and on into the evening! What a specimen!

Looks at you like you owe him money... and a bath..

Somebody needs ask which areas of Uganda are pacified, and which still have bands of rogues running around with AK 47's? That may be old news, finished and done with, but I hope someone in the know (Steve?) will chime in.

I let my friend and PH read and respond to your question. He hunts Uganda and happens to be her in the States with me at this time.

"Basically the country is at peace,however this is Africa not Maine.

The place I hunt is in the north,on the bounday of the Kidepo park,on the border with Sudan.

Will you see pleople with guns, AK'S...YES.

There is a military presence in the area.

However none of my collegues,or myself, up to this point have been harassed in any way."

I SO want one of those big, ugly bastids...

I also hunt in the north and would bet I know Tim's friend.

The Karamoja is very wild indeed..... far wilder even than places like the Selous Reserve Tanzania.... but over recent years the locals have been rigorously disarmed and about the only AKs you're liable to see are the ones in the hands of army and game dept.

There is always the slight risk of a cattle raiding party coming across from Sudan but they're becoming increasingly rare due to that same rigorous policy of applying rule 303 to any non military or game dept staff seen in posession of any firearm.

You also need to take into account the sheer immensity of the Karamoja and the chances of you're being in the same place at the same time as these people are extremely remote.

The areas lack the game densities of places such as the SGR but nevertheless there are huntable population and good trophy quality there.

Don't expect an easy hunt though..... it ain't for cissies and the industry still needs a degree of improvement.

This one is NICE.