Next adventure - Hippo On Land & Croc

I very much enjoyed @Fatback 's hippo on land hunt and have repeatedly read about nighttime sugar cane hunts from @Hunter-Habib and others

I'm starting my planning for next year.

Would appreciate any recommendations on ph's and outfitters that guide on wild and naturally occurring regions.

Also , without starting an argument thread, would like to hear from those with Hippo experience on viability of going with 375 h&h. I have one and have mixed feelings about going up a caliber.

Thank you

You should reach out to sponsor outfitter @DALTON & YORK SAFARIS they have a few areas along the Zambezi valley and Lake Kariba...all with lots and lots and lots and lots of Hippo, lots of quota for same, and wonderful place to target them on land. I had a wonderful safari with them last October and again in April...and hoping mine this October proves as enjoyable...have to believe it will. Last october I took two hippo, one in the water but super close with my double and then the next one on dry land also close with my double. Wonderful time and cannot recommend more highly.

Will

Only shot one. On land about 40 yards just as he was going to enter the water. Bullet hit quartering, nearly broadside at the front corner of the right eye. Didn’t look for the bullet. It was a rental 375 h& h with a hodgepodge of various soft nosed bullets they had in camp. Hit the brain and hippo collapsed but reflexes kept trying to shove him
In the water so had to shoot a couple times more to make him quit flinchin’.

I shot both hippo and croc with a .375 in the Omay in Zim. The .375 worked perfectly, and I wouldn’t hesitate to use it again if I hunted either one a second time.

A brain shot on a croc will definitely get your blood flowing. It’s not an easy shot, and it takes a serious amount of practice to get comfortable with it.

I’d pair them with a buffalo hunt or another hunt where you’re doing a lot of tracking. Hippo on land can take some work to find, or it can happen pretty quickly if you’re in a good area. We saw one on land at about 6:30 the first morning we hunted hippo and made a stalk on him. We probably could’ve shot him a dozen times, but decided to back off and keep looking for something bigger. We saw hippo on land almost every day we were near the river.

Several areas of Tanzania have good odds of Hippo on land. I believe Game Trackers used to offer a Hippo/Buff Combo in the Selous.

Other options include parts of Zambia and and many areas of Zim. Often times just getting between the hippo and the water.

Both croc brain and hippo brain shots require precision, possibly the most precise shooting in Africa. The timeless .375 Holland & Holland works well for the brain shot with a higher power variable scope with sufficient critical eye relief. For hippo on land I would prefer a larger caliber than 375.

I killed my Hippo on land in the Selous and believe it to be a good area to find them dry.

Some great references already. This is a hunt I been thinking about for ten years almost.

If funds allowed, I'd be heading to the Selous.

Zambia can be good option, Duplooys can provide the opportunity early and late season. Upper lupande. I think Chris sells dryland hippo recent on YouTube is that area.

"Upper Lupande has two options for hippo on land - early in the season with lagoons and seeing what leaves the lagoons and later in the season when the bigger older bulls push the younger bulls on to dry land as the river dries up. A hippo on land is difficult and the likelihood of getting a big old bull hippo on land are even lower."

Many areas on the Zambezi can support a dryland hippo hunt. All along the river. Any pans inland could hold them. I was hunting impala way back off the river in Nyakasanga and came across bull in a pan.

I will be going next year to Gache Gache to hunt with CMS. They are hunting in there now. Corris Ferreira was always the outfitter. And I had talked to buzz about hunting dryland hippo in that area 8-10 years ago, and it's finally happening next September.

Datchew said:

I very much enjoyed @Fatback 's hippo on land hunt and have repeatedly read about nighttime sugar cane hunts from @Hunter-Habib and others

I'm starting my planning for next year.

Would appreciate any recommendations on ph's and outfitters that guide on wild and naturally occurring regions.

Also , without starting an argument thread, would like to hear from those with Hippo experience on viability of going with 375 h&h. I have one and have mixed feelings about going up a caliber.

Thank you

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I am currently in Zim and have one of my group members hunting hippo and croc. I highly recommend @DALTON & YORK SAFARIS for your hunt. They hunt areas that contain huge populations of aquatics due to the proximity to Lake Kariba and the Zambezi river.
For this combo hunt the ideal setup could be just a .375 or a larger caliber for hippo if you want to take two guns. This is the very scenario I mention in my dangerous game scopes video. The croc is the precision shot that requires good glass. You don't want a 1-5x with fat crosshairs! Keep that in mind.
Call Dalton and have a great safari!

revturbo9967 said:

I shot both hippo and croc with a .375 in the Omay in Zim. The .375 worked perfectly, and I wouldn’t hesitate to use it again if I hunted either one a second time.

A brain shot on a croc will definitely get your blood flowing. It’s not an easy shot, and it takes a serious amount of practice to get comfortable with it.

I’d pair them with a buffalo hunt or another hunt where you’re doing a lot of tracking. Hippo on land can take some work to find, or it can happen pretty quickly if you’re in a good area. We saw one on land at about 6:30 the first morning we hunted hippo and made a stalk on him. We probably could’ve shot him a dozen times, but decided to back off and keep looking for something bigger. We saw hippo on land almost every day we were near the river.

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I needed leopard bait on a recent hunt and found a hippo bull in the Omay on land in one day. I had one client shoot his buffalo on day one and could have had his hippo on land the same day. They are so plentiful the PH pulled him off and said "we have plefty of time for this". So they hunted it easily another day. There are better places for croc but I doubt there are better places for hippo than the Omay.

I did a dry land hippo hunt with PH Alan Vincent on his Selous concession, MA1/Madaba in 2023. It was an excellent hunt that was quite a way from Lake Nyerere, probably a couple kilometers from the lake. One peculiar thing about the Selous is that it’s pretty common to find hippos out in the forest away from the lake and major rivers. My son and I will be hunting with Alan again in September of 2028 and another dry land hippo, or two, will be very high on our list. I used my 416 but I’d be fine with a 375 and high quality bullet like a TSX, Cutting Edge or North Fork solid.

If you want an adrenaline packed hunt, I recommend a Selous dry land hippo hunt highly.

Datchew said:

I very much enjoyed @Fatback 's hippo on land hunt and have repeatedly read about nighttime sugar cane hunts from @Hunter-Habib and others

I'm starting my planning for next year.

Would appreciate any recommendations on ph's and outfitters that guide on wild and naturally occurring regions.

Also , without starting an argument thread, would like to hear from those with Hippo experience on viability of going with 375 h&h. I have one and have mixed feelings about going up a caliber.

Thank you

Click to expand...

Hello Sir

I can satisfy both those requirements in the Niassa Reserve of Mozambique. I have 170 miles of Lugenda river frontage and ample hippo and crocodile tags. To put the river frontage available to us into perspective, its the same length as Lake Kariba. It's a truly vast concession of 1.6 million acres. On top of good hippo and crocodile opportunities, I offer lion leopard buffalo sable and all manner of plains game aswell. Be sure to send me a DM and we can chat further.

Very best
Dave

I just returned from Charara hunting with @NYAMAZANA SAFARIS and took the below hippo and croc. Hippo was in the water but there are ample opportunities to take one on land. Croc measured 15'

I just got back from Dande with Charlton McCallum and they were all talking about the quality of hippo and croc in their brew concession in Mozambique. My PH said the last hint he did he set the croc hair and started building the blind and had to have someone guard the bait while they built the blind because of the croc activity.

It is on the headwaters of lake Cabora Bassa and evidently just a haven for big croc and hippo.

@Datchew
I’m so proud of you ! Once you start hunting hippopotamus on land (particularly in the sugarcane fields at night), you’ll never want to stop hunting them (if you happen to be crazy like I am). If you happen to be a rational man, however… you might probably be so traumatized that you’ll never want to hunt dangerous game again.

In regards to white hunters, @GAME Trackers AFRICA has always been my go-to guys. Their white hunter Clint Taylor guided me on several hunts in the Sealous Reserves.

In regards to caliber, I have (so far) shot most of mine with the .375 Holland & Holland Magnum.

Also one with a .404 Jeffery.

And one with a .600 Nitro Express (which is what I had the most fun using on them)

The only expanding bullet which I recommend for body shots on them, is the Barnes TSX. Either that or the strongest constructed solids you can get your hands on (be it monolithic or FMJ). Hippopotamus hide is extremely thick and strong. Even bonded Woodleigh soft points have a tough time going through (particularly on quartering away shots). The skull is rather thin and most soft points will be adequate for brain shots, though.

If you use a .375 caliber rifle on them, please use the Barnes TSX bullet. It creates a large enough wound channel on body shots which accelerates blood loss and causes the game to hemorrhage faster.

If you use solids only, then I recommend a minimum caliber of .423. While I have successfully bagged quite a few hippopotamus on land with body shots by using a .375 Holland & Holland Magnum (loaded with solids)… I have often found them to make it into the water before succumbing to their wounds.

All the best !

Datchew said:

I very much enjoyed @Fatback 's hippo on land hunt and have repeatedly read about nighttime sugar cane hunts from @Hunter-Habib and others

I'm starting my planning for next year.

Would appreciate any recommendations on ph's and outfitters that guide on wild and naturally occurring regions.

Also , without starting an argument thread, would like to hear from those with Hippo experience on viability of going with 375 h&h. I have one and have mixed feelings about going up a caliber.

Thank you

Click to expand...

D&Y in their Omay North has both in great abundance and size on lake karibe. I personally saw a 14+ foot croc on a sandbar and hippos every day when I hunted there

Our Liwale block in Selous Tanzania can certainly work.
Try us info@spearsafaris.com