SOUTH AFRICA: My Buffalo Hunt South Africa 2026

Pheroze said:

4. For a bit of fun I am rocking a pith helmet this hunt. I have to say, it is actually a great hat for this! It is light, keeps the blazing heat off of my head, the shape gives it good sun blocking ability, and it doesn’t snag on all those thorns we crouch under. I am taking the utility of this pith helmet seriously now!

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My grandfather wore a pith helmet for as long as I could remember during the summer, while working on the farm. When he wore it made me think of hunting in Africa.

Never seen the Northern Cape. Please post some photos with the Northern Cape landscape when you have a chance.
Good luck with your hunt.

Good luck....

Thanks everyone!

Our plan was to catch a flight to PE. You leave Hoedspruit and connect in Cape Town to PE. But, we still have the morning! We left camp at 6am with a plan to hunt until 10

The night had been cool and the Buffalo were up and wondering all over the place. The tracker had to make sense of it all and that took some time. Rex’s displayed incredible skills, evening aging the tracks relative to others. Eventually we got on a trail. After a few hours we were obviously closing in. You could smell him. We were poking around thickets incredibly quietly, trying to find the bull before he found us. We moved out of one thicket into a small clearing, with an approach to the next clump when I became aware of a large, dark shape emerging from my 5 o’clock and moving parallel to us about 20 yards away. I quickly turned to face…..a god dam wildebeest! SNORT he stared at us SNORT. And off he trotted back into the trees and shrubs. He quickly disappeared into that dense foliage, but his disgust for us remained clear as day. The area resounded with multiple “Snorts” as he tracked in a counter clockwise route around us.

The tracker indicated he heard the buffalo leave with those warnings.

On the plus side, we had more time to shower and eat before the flight!

Now for the flight. It’s not a hunting trip for yours truly unless he finds himself sprinting through the airport, desperately holding up my pants as I carry belt, wallet, and sundry other items to make the plane after last call

On the flight to PE you can check your bags through from Hoedspruit. But your guns have to be cleared in Capetown. A 50 minute layover makes that a challenge. It’s even more challenging when you are lugging a bag full of Amarula fruit in you backpack, that Marius had foraged from the camp You see @KMG Hunting Safaris collected a large bag of fruit to bring home. But my carryon had more space so I offered to carry it. I didn’t realize I would be running through the airport with a backpack full of fruit!

The staff and security personnel in Capetown were really great. Everyone worked together to get the guns and ammo unloaded, to security, serial numbers verified. We then had to get new tags from the check-in counter, return to security and finally clear them through. We then had to dash, with an Airlink escort, through the entire airport, through security and return to the plane we arrived in.

We were last on, but no one booed us, thankfully! My son and I are now in PE, enjoying a meal down near the beachfront. Tomorrow Marius will take us to the Northern Cape.

V.Veritas said:

Never seen the Northern Cape. Please post some photos with the Northern Cape landscape when you have a chance.
Good luck with your hunt.

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I certainly will. I have not been there before either, and that was one reason I agreed. I think if this was my second or third Buffalo, I may have stayed in Limpopo just to see the challenge through. But, this way we change the terrain and the chances. @KMG Hunting Safaris is such an excellent PH because he always has a plan, and the means, to address obstacles. His concern was that we were getting within less than 20 yards and not getting a shot because of the foliage, not our ability to approach quietly.

My son recorded the stalks on his fitness tracker:

I don’t know why that screenshot loaded but I can’t get photos up I will keep trying, sorry about that.

Hunting the Karoo is an entirely different experience. There is a lot of climbing involved! We spent yesterday hunting, but the right bull proved to be elusive. We did find a group but none of the bulls were appropriate for hunting. By the evening we were all pretty dejected. As we drove back to camp, we discussed the possibility of being skunked. We only have one more full day. Then, in the fading light Marius saw a lone bull in a valley. We stopped. It ticked a lot of the boxes, but Marius wasn’t sure. He needed to see that the front of the boss wasn’t still soft, despite all the other signs of an old bull. It was too late to stalk this guy. A plan was made to get out at first light and try to locate this bull. Hopefully it would stay in this valley.

I don’t sleep much

We got out with the light and no bull. Ugh. We spent a frustrating few hours not finding this bull.

Marius spotted three other bulls in a valley a few kms away. So we got in the truck and made our way. The one on the right looked promising, but we had to go a very circuitous route to get a better view. This is where fate intervened. As we were driving around the height of a mountain, Marius, somehow, saw the bull we originally wanted on the far side of the valley. Incredible.

We got out of the truck and climbed way farther than I have the ability to do. We made it. From the height, we glassed the bull and saw him lay down under a tree. My son and Stephan, a PH in training who knows the property, stayed on the top of the mountain. Marius and I climbed down into the valley and across the other side. Up we went on the far side to approach the bull from above. On the way Marius gave me a pep talk. We have hunted plains game twice before. He said to me that he may not have a chance to discuss the shot, but I have done my research and I will know where to shoot it. I have always found his coaching to be very timely, and this was no exception.

When we finally got to position I could really feel how tired my legs were getting!

The bull was under a canopy. @KMG Hunting Safaris spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to do, but there was no shot and no approach. He was bedded under a tree, amongst a bunch of bushes. Déjà vu.

We sat to see what he would do. After a short sit, I heard crunching and we saw he had risen to eat. He was feeding right towards us. We had to stay behind bushes, and Marius was trying to find a way to set up the sticks without being seen. The bull turned away from us. Marius said pick your shot and take it. My first shot was at 35 yards. Autopsy shows the 400 grain @North Fork Bullets went through both shoulders and punched the heart. The bull bucked and turned towards us. We were moving to our right, anticipating he was going to continue going the way he was originally facing. When he turned Marius instructed another shot. Offhand and about 50 yards I hit him between the shoulder and the neck. He stiffens and just fell forward, to my great relief. The belief is that this @North Fork Bullets went through the chest into the stomach. The skinners will let us know if they find it.

There was no death bellow. He just fell over.

With the Buffalo down we approached. I was instructed to make two insurance shots, one through the spine, which exited the brisket, and one up into the chest.

Unfortunately, so far we have not recovered any bullets. I find this interesting. I am glad it wasn’t a herd situation. The @North Fork Bullets gave me the best group at 2400 fps. The swift AFrames was about 2350 fps. The Swifts did not exit the neck of a walrus. These @North Fork Bullets have apparently zipped through this large bull. I think that says something about both the bullet and the enormous density of a walrus.

I am told the bull measures 41.5”.

Even before I shot this bull, this had been the best hunt of my life. Now it is even better. And, I love that I shared it with my son. He had a ringside seat to the entire approach. I am going to charge him admission to the show, because it was a good one!

Congratz!!!! to you and Marius.

You smile says it all.

Well deserved hard hunt

AZDAVE said:

Congratz!!!! to you and Marius.

You smile says it all.

Well deserved hard hunt

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Thank you. Marius is great. This hunt was awesome.

And, yes, it was up hill both ways, into the wind.

Congratulations! Fantastic bull! Thanks for taking us along on your adventure!

BJH65 said:

Congratulations! Fantastic bull! Thanks for taking us along on your adventure!

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Absolutely! Thanks for reading it!

rumination

I load for accuracy, not speed. It just worked out that the best accuracy is also a very fast velocity for the 400 H&H. I think I want to slow down this cartridge. I don’t really want my bullets going through a buffalo and injuring another in the bush. The bullets themselves obviously imparted a lot of the energy because the bull reacted like a boxer who has his feet frozen at the punch. So, the bullet design is great. I used H4350. Maybe a different powder?

Congratulations! Fantastic Bull, hard-earned - thank you for sharing

DmacD said:

This is what a 400gr North Fork looks like at 2200fps after being recovered from a Buffalo. They will serve you well.
Take notes, keep us all informed.
Enjoy your adventure!

View attachment 745867

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I think that’s a good velocity for buffalo hunting. I need to work on that

458JCE said:

Congratulations! Fantastic Bull, hard-earned - thank you for sharing

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Thank you!

Congratulations on a fantastic hunt and great Buffalo!

Spartan5 said:

Congratulations on a fantastic hunt and great Buffalo!

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Thank you!

great story and fine write up. Beautiful Buffalo. It will be interesting on what the bush will be like in Sept in Limpopo when I get there for Cow Buff and plains game with Henry Griffiths

Congratulations on a down the wire bull!