I've been on a couple of higher-dollar buffalo hunts, one in 2002 and one in 2011. The first was a 10-day hunt in Botswana's Okavango Delta (which is no longer possible) and included 5 head of plains game (kudu, tsessebe, warthog, impala, red lechwe). The cost of the hunt at that time was around $30,000.
The second was in the Selous Reserve in Tanzania in 2011. Could have taken more than one buffalo but didn't, as the one I killed was the biggest I saw. Also took impala, zebra, Lichtenstein's hartebeest and blue wildebeest. The price was in the same ballpark at the Botswana hunt.
From what I understand the prices for northern Tanzania buffalo hunts are higher, as the buffalo there are along the biggest on the continent.
In both instances, there were cheaper places to hunt buffalo, but from what I've been told by the PH's involved (most of whom were from Zimbabwe) Botswana and Tanzania are considered the "wildest" parts of wild Africa available for guided safari hunts--and all said they would rather guide in those countries than anywhere else.
It's too bad the Okavango (and other public portions of Botswana) are now off-limits to hunters, as it was indeed a magnificent experience. When I hunt in Africa I usually also spend some time at one of the great game parks, to see and photograph the wide variety of big game, smaller mammals and birds, but the Okavango was as magnificent as any park I've visited.
With that much money a guy could do two Alaskan hunts with me [for example; a Dall sheep hunt and then an Alaska/Yukon moose hunt] and would have some money left over to put toward a substantial down payment on a brown bear hunt or a mountain grizzly hunt or mountain goat hunt.
Thirty grand is a lot of money. Those present-day hunts in Tanzania are supposedly the "truest" form, in the sense of what Africa once was. I used to date a linguistics major who, afterward, was stationed in Tanzania. She befriended the daughter of a professional hunter [I've long since forgotten what is name was, though] and according to the tales she used to recite in letters and photographs sent, it seemed to me that Tanzania remained relatively wild.
Yes, it's too bad about Botswana, and Kenya, too. Back in the day, those two countries and Tanzania were the Valhalla of African hunting expedition destinations. Politics ......
