Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters How many hunt able species are there in the world?

Say for a 223 and 308, only the Big 5 would be excluded..

How many more species are there to hunt?

I wouldn't exclude the "Big Five." John Kingsley-Heath, who may have been the most experienced professional leopard hunter in East Africa, considered the .243 Winchester ideal for baited leopards.

The African PH I know best, the now-retired PH I hunted with most and know best, killed 500 Cape buffalo including many big bulls, with the .30-06 and 180-grain Nosler Partitions, during "culling" drives on a big ranch in what was then Rhodesia. Never had a problem, and any ballistic difference between the .308 and .30-06 would be only vaguely theoretical.

Dunno how many "huntable species" there are in the world, but the Weatherby Award winners have generally killed around 200. Some weigh 20 pounds, or even less. Have seen and photographed one of the subspecies of dik-dik in Nambia, and they aren't any bigger than Montana white-tailed jackrabbits.

In his later years, W.D.M. Bell wrote something to the effect that if he were to do his African hunts over again, he'd use a 308.
So the Big 5 certainly ought to be in the huntable species in your total.
Plus, I suspect there have been a large number of the Big 5 killed with FN FALs and the like.

Answering your question is probably impossible. Countries open and close frequently as well as animals available to hunt. Also true scientific species is different than what hunters call a species (we more go by varieties and subspecies which increases options)

I would guess there are more than 200 species available at any given time and if your inclined to count subspecies (as very record book does) then over 300 would be my guess.


Not sure how you would ever completely iron this out