Your best hunts/trips?

Folks, what would you consider to be the best hunts you’ve done? From an average hunter perspective, I’m weighing up a return trip in the future. Now that may be in five years of savings for another PG hunt. Or maybe hold off 10, save a little more, and do a DG / Cape buffalo?

What trips or species did you think were the best? I thoroughly enjoyed my one trip for plains game. Would I get significantly more experiences from a Cape buffalo trip over a second PG trip? There’s so many PG that you just scratch the surface on one trip.

The main thing that appeals to me with the DG is the remoteness. I’m more interested in the hunt itself than ticking a box so to speak.

And with Cape buffalo in particular, are there better locations? I’ve been looking at Zimbabwe due to costs but half the time the buffalo seem almost obscured by brush - maybe that’s the excitement but I’m just thinking from a clean shot perspective.

Really interested to know what you’ve done / enjoyed / wouldn’t do again? Be it a hippo on land or a hyena on bait.

Cheers!

Anyone who has the discipline/ability to save up enough money to go to Africa should be proud of themselves. I've taken many trips, over half were for buffalo, elephant, LDE and bongo, the other hunts have been for plains game. All of my trips have been very enjoyable and I have made many wonderful memories. Is there great sport and excitement in hunting for a wildebeest or zebra, yes, is there a higher level of adrenaline when hunting buffalo or elephant, definitely yes.

Hunting buffalo in Zimbabwe will be the best value you can find compared to Mozambique, Uganda or Tanzania. And don't discount hunting buffalo in South Africa, there are some really legitimate outfitters offering great buffalo hunts.

Be proud of any hunt you take, wherever you take it!! Those of us who have been able to go to Africa are very blessed!!

My best overall hunts have been the hunts where I’ve got to see the most wild areas. I’ve had several that are tied for different reasons but I think my third Namibia trip stands out. I started in NW Namibia hunting community conservancies and finished in Caprivi. I think combination of areas, PH, trophies, unplanned option to go to Caprivi make it the best for me. My favorite individual hunts have always been eland and bushbuck. I put a higher value on a free range eland than a buffalo.

For your other questions
I’ve hunted buffalo in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, South Africa, and Cameroon. Zimbabwe has been my favorite. The pricing is reasonable and they have some of top PHs and tracking teams in Africa. It’s a very different experience than a PG hunt elsewhere. It’s a tracking hunt. You find tracks and follow. You probably won’t see a lot of game or take a huge bag, but you’ll see things you wouldn’t see otherwise like hidden springs, how herds and lone bulls mix and separate again, maybe a poacher’s snare, maybe a cow elephant herd or mamba makes you go around the track and have to find it again, it’s a very different experience than a spot and stalk hunt. You likely are going to shoot through some brush. Take a scoped rifle, quality bullets, and do your best to shoot through the small openings. You really need to research concession areas though. There is generally always going to be game on farms in South Africa. There is a much wider range of concession areas from poached hard to well protected. I see some negative comments here time to time about people everywhere in Zimbabwe, it’s because they chose a low cost area over a quality area. You get what you pay for and research.
I don’t find hunting hippo on land appealing except maybe in the selous if I ever get opportunity. Most places it’s finding any suitable bull on land instead of the best bull. Hunting hippo in water you look over a number of bulls to find a good trophy. The experience is the recovery if you decide to take part in it. I’ll shoot more hyenas but they don’t rank as that memorable of trophies to me. I wouldn’t plan a hunt around one, but an interesting add on if opportunity.

wildfowler.250 said:

Folks, what would you consider to be the best hunts you’ve done? From an average hunter perspective, I’m weighing up a return trip in the future. Now that may be in five years of savings for another PG hunt. Or maybe hold off 10, save a little more, and do a DG / Cape buffalo?

What trips or species did you think were the best? I thoroughly enjoyed my one trip for plains game. Would I get significantly more experiences from a Cape buffalo trip over a second PG trip? There’s so many PG that you just scratch the surface on one trip.

The main thing that appeals to me with the DG is the remoteness. I’m more interested in the hunt itself than ticking a box so to speak.

And with Cape buffalo in particular, are there better locations? I’ve been looking at Zimbabwe due to costs but half the time the buffalo seem almost obscured by brush - maybe that’s the excitement but I’m just thinking from a clean shot perspective.

Really interested to know what you’ve done / enjoyed / wouldn’t do again? Be it a hippo on land or a hyena on bait.

Cheers!

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I think you are referring primarily to hunting in Africa. It is difficult to answer because the fun lies for me mainly in hunting DG in Africa, but not in a particular country, and if you have hunted there several times, there is not really a "best" hunt anymore, just trips that went better than others. The fun of having hunted on the continent remains and motivates one to do it again.

Best hunt?? The next one... Have only had a couple of average hunts but all of them have been good in many ways.

Best buff hunts? Zimbabwe in the Zambezi Valley.
Most exciting? Leopard with dogs in Zimbabwe
Most unique? Ethiopia, Mt. Nyala and all of the species there
Most interesting? Cameroon with pygmies for bongo and seeing Mountain Gorillas up close in Uganda
Most game seen? Uganda and Ethiopia, rarely out of sight of game
Place I will not go back to? Zambia and CAR - corruption and hassles beyond measure.
Place I would like to hunt but have not? Mozambique with Mokore
Place I really love the hunting? Cameroon for Lord Derby Eland. I have done this twice and it is a blast.

My main focus is on hunting dangerous game, buffalo and elephants, and I can only do that in Africa. I have hunted a few times in Southeast Asia, but the opportunities were extremely limited. If I could have done the same hunts there as in Africa, I probably would never have hunted in Africa, but much also depends on opportunities that arise and that you then take. That is how I ended in Africa via Southeast Asia for hunting DG.

This is probably odd but some of my best African hunting memories have been coming home empty handed…. I am fortunate to work in Africa so go back and forth many times a year and am blessed with the opportunity to hunt often. I am all about the experience and time in the bush, so whether or not I score or not is not an issue.

So I don’t go in stressed with bringing rifles, or paying taxidermist, or shipping things home, or stressing about filling a quota or bag. It all about the experience and taking what comes as it comes.

I know I am fortunate and not everyone has the opportunity to be picky

Ross, Difficult to follow you, but I will try ...

Best buff hunt - CMS in the valley shot my buff at 25 m after 7 hours of tracking !!
Most exciting - bushpig over hounds, shot a boar at 3 meters on a bay
Most unique - for me I am going to say lechwe on the Flats
Most interesting - probably my first hunt in RSA a long time ago
Most game seen - Josini Dam RSA 100s of warthog on the banks !
Place I will not go back to - don`t know / have not been there yet
Place I would like to hunt - West Africa
Place I really love hunting - Springbok in the Karoo with friends & family

Happy days !

For the past 20 years I hunted regularly in Burkina Faso every year, until the political situation in the country and the terrorism made hunting impossible a few years ago. I lost a lot of good hunting opportunities there, but that did not stop me from hunting in southern Africa a few times afterward, and my next hunt in southern Africa is already planned for the next months. Nevertheless, I miss the hunting grounds of West Africa.

Last year 2025 I went to Namibia with two guys who had never hunted in Africa before. The good rains of the last couple of years have led to an abundance of game on farms. I was able to arrange a management package with a PH/outfit/farmer I had hunted with a few times prior to Covid.

One of them had a blue wildebeest on the first day and the look of joy on his face was something else! Over the week we were there I came to realise that the best trip you can have to Africa is your first one. The sights, smells, food, beer, animals are all different.The guys had a blast, I enjoyed myself also.

We finished off with a day in Windhoek, visited the independence museum, visited the Himba market and picked up a few souvenirs. Dinner in Joe’s Beerhouse is a rite of passage and the food is marvellous.

In June I went to South Africa to hunt buffalo cows with @BAYLY SIPPEL SAFARIS . This was on a Government reserve in Limpopo. The buffalo were introduced years ago and left to breed. There is now a management plan in place. I got the buffalo bug in 2024 with Game 4 Africa Safaris in the Eastern Cape. 3 buffalo cows in 5 days close hunting in the bush was a great challenge. We got busted, more than once. To see the bush mere yards away from us shaking and the clatter of dislodged stones as the herd exited stage left was pretty damn exciting.

2 of my shots were close, 26 and 23 yards, off my hunkers, the third one at an easy, rather uninspiring 50-60 yards. Not the challenge of the other 2 but we had an interesting follow up as there was no death bellow in this case. This put us all on high alert. Someone raised the question once. Why do PH’s that smoke have a cigarette, or two, before a follow up on DG ? In the hope the animal will bleed out and die before the final encounter.

grand veneur said:

For the past 20 years I hunted regularly in Burkina Faso every year, until the political situation in the country and the terrorism made hunting impossible a few years ago. I lost a lot of good hunting opportunities there, but that did not stop me from hunting in southern Africa a few times afterward, and my next hunt in southern Africa is already planned for the next months. Nevertheless, I miss the hunting grounds of West Africa.

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I’ve been wanting to hunt in Gabon, Keep planning but never have pulled the trigger

I enjoy buffalo and kudu the most and equally. The element of danger really doesn't add much to the equation. They are both crafty and know how to use the environment to their advantage.

I have been to Africa four times and it was great but nothing compares to returning home to Montana every year for six weeks hunting uplands with my dogs. I'm free to wander all day alone, day after day. This past season was perhaps the most memorable. Weather was good, birds were plentiful, dogs had a blast, and I rarely missed a shot. I'm fairly certain it was the last season for my last two dogs. Coral/"Puppy" goes to the vet tomorrow and I suspect the outcome will not be good. But she's 14 and a cancer survivor living on the edge the last four years. Today I learned I'm heading to Africa for the fifth time at the end of August. Hopefully the dogs can hang in there till I get back.

I have hunted east cape and Namibia. The kudu and springbok are just way bigger in Namibia in comparison. I also liked the style of hunt in Namibia better.
I want to go kill a Cape buffalo but I just don’t see me spending that for one animal when I can hunt 10 or more plains game for that same price. There are some animals I want that east cape has that Namibia doesnt.
I enjoyed both my trips and hunted low fence vast areas.
Who knows maybe my next trip I can go to both places. Just wish shipping and taxidermy costs weren’t out of this world expensive…..

wildfowler.250 said:

What trips or species did you think were the best? I thoroughly enjoyed my one trip for plains game. Would I get significantly more experiences from a Cape buffalo trip over a second PG trip? There’s so many PG that you just scratch the surface on one trip.

The main thing that appeals to me with the DG is the remoteness. I’m more interested in the hunt itself than ticking a box so to speak.

And with Cape buffalo in particular, are there better locations? I’ve been looking at Zimbabwe due to costs but half the time the buffalo seem almost obscured by brush - maybe that’s the excitement but I’m just thinking from a clean shot perspective.

Really interested to know what you’ve done / enjoyed / wouldn’t do again? Be it a hippo on land or a hyena on bait.

Cheers!

Click to expand...

I made 5 trips so far. 3 on plains game two on DG (plus PG)
Each trip was better then previous one, and the first one was already awesome.

What I try to include every time is a side trip after the hunt, if possible.
The side trip to Etosha (or any other national park), is Vic falls, is the dressing to entire itinerary.

If you dont like buffalo in the bush, brush, and ticket, consider Mozambique Zambezi delta hunting areas - shots are often at loger distance. Or Caprivi, flood plains. Good chance for clear shot. (as was in my case)

Now we come to DG. In my case ele, and buffalo, 2 hunts.

When facing them, I am intimidated, and appalled, and deeply respectful to them.
Mighty animals.
And I feel very small and modest when looking them.
And my rifle always seam too small, on final approach.
John Sharps wrote a book "facing down fear", I think this is good description.

There is always option, something will go wrong on DG hunt, and this raises the tension.

These are high value hunts, win or lose hunt situation, or get gored in a case of animal charge if something goes wrong.

If you dont see or get your animal, day rate is gone.
If you wound your animal, and loose it, day rate and trophy fee is gone. And your hopes with it.

The time pressure on such safari is without mercy.
Generally it is one animal hunt, and you are focused just on that.

First day you are without worry. In the middle of the hunt, and if you don't get your animal you are worried, and by last day of the hunt, you might be desperate if you dont get your animal.

If you dont get it now, how long it will take to save money, and get time for next attempt?

This psychological pressure on hunter is high from every aspect, financial as day rate cost, fear of failure (wounding or missing), the element of danger in case of charge or wounding and time pressure as the days are passing.
This keeps you in focus and total dedication, you will push yourself to the limit.

This all will get you totally involved, like in no other activity. And the more you invest yourself, the more rewarding it will be.

Trust me.

Jason Miller said:

I’ve been wanting to hunt in Gabon, Keep planning but never have pulled the trigger

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They had a lot of elephants in the past, don't know about now. Please write it up if you go!

Best hunts? Cape buffalo--first in Dande South, Zimbabwe and later in Kilombero, Tanzania. What memories....

Best Hunt: the one I haven't done yet.
Worst hunt / experience: even offered some good memories.

If you are not hunting you will never have a best hunt experience.

Don't compare your hunts. Even for the same animal. Doing so only lessens your previous hunting experiences.

I have hunted with a variety of outfitters. Almost all were great hunting experiences. However, only one of all these outfitters only was abnoxiously the worst outfitter, one to totally avoid.

My tip: pick a reputable outfitter and enjoy your hunts.

steve white said:

They had a lot of elephants in the past, don't know about now. Please write it up if you go!

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Gabon has allegedly allowed elephant hunting again and that also for foreigners. Even if you speak perfect French, you need a more reliable intermediary in your country to organize a hunt in countries like Gabon, otherwise the risk of doing something illegal is too high. So far I am not aware of any in France, where one would most likely expect to find one. In the South of Gabon, in Congo/Brazzaville, buffalo hunting is an option, but the areas where this type of hunting is possible are very limited. I am looking for this for years, fortunately there are plenty of agents for organize hunting in Congo, but above all for Bongo and not only for buffalo. Elephant hunting is not allowed in Congo/Brazzaville.

Ontario Hunter said:

I enjoy buffalo and kudu the most and equally. The element of danger really doesn't add much to the equation. They are both crafty and know how to use the environment to their advantage.

I have been to Africa four times and it was great but nothing compares to returning home to Montana every year for six weeks hunting uplands with my dogs. I'm free to wander all day alone, day after day. This past season was perhaps the most memorable. Weather was good, birds were plentiful, dogs had a blast, and I rarely missed a shot. I'm fairly certain it was the last season for my last two dogs. Coral/"Puppy" goes to the vet tomorrow and I suspect the outcome will not be good. But she's 14 and a cancer survivor living on the edge the last four years. Today I learned I'm heading to Africa for the fifth time at the end of August. Hopefully the dogs can hang in there till I get back.
View attachment 743627View attachment 743628

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Cancer is back. Sounds like she's not going be as lucky this time.

Ontario Hunter said:

Cancer is back. Sounds like she's not going be as lucky this time.

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So sorry. You were lucky to have each other, remember that.