Buffalo or hippo on land

[IvW]

Also consider that most solitory bulls found on land during the day although mature will be smaller weaker bulls that have been pushed out of the main pods by the bigger older dominant bulls. In rare cases this could be the older bull that was pushed out by a new stronger bull. Not easy to judge. I have shot many hippo at night under pac senarios and although this is very exciting and dangerous there is no way of selecting a trophy unless the said animal is a known loner and a big bull...

 

[Hunter-Habib]

I’ve hunted both.

I’ll have to say that Hippo on land are far more thrilling than Cape buffalo (which are of course, plenty thrilling as is). This is just my personal opinion.

 

[Fatback]

I was able to hunt my first buffalo earlier this year and it was one of if not the most exciting hunts I’ve ever had. We had a great stalk, got close and closed the deal on a nice Buffalo. I enjoyed it so much I have already started working on getting buffalo hunts scheduled for 2024 and 2025. All that being said, I plan on trying to hunt a hippo, on land if possible, in 2023. The more I’ve looked into the hippo hunt, the more excited I get. I don’t think you could go wrong either way. Whatever you decide, best of luck to you and we’d all love to hear all about it and see the pictures. Thanks

 

[Tanks]

As an aside, if you are going to hunt buffalo, then do it in free range buffalo countries and not at a game farm. You can shoot livestock in Texas without traveling to Africa.

 

[KWALATA SAFARIS]

Spot on, apart from the fact that more often than not the solitary bulls will be alone or with another.

I have a simple way of deciding what to follow (let’s disregard track characteristics for now) I tend to follow 1 - 3 bulls. Encountering groups of 5 - 15 bulls together is not uncommon in our area but these groups are made up of various age groups.
More often than not the 1 - 3 bulls together will be what we want, that is what I concentrate on.

On hippo I usually do extensive scouting and isolate big bulls these bulls we then stalk in their beds, more often than not we will find these solitary bulls grazing early morning.
Bedding mid-day and starting to move just before dark again.
A completely different hunt and while there is some tracking involved more often than not it is not the process followed when buff hunting.
Once again bachelor groups are the way to go, I do not find it fun to shoot a bull out of a herd of 600 animals or a herd of any size for that matter.

My very best.

Correction: Solitary bulls of 1 - 3 together will in my experience be older.

 

[TOBY458]

I hunted Hippo on land this past August. The Hippo would come out to dry land during the "cooler" parts of the day, but would go into the water when it heated up. We never saw a decent bull on land. Only smaller bulls and cows. I think if you hunted them in small pools of water in the woods it may be a fun hunt. But hunting them on the edge of a big lake is not much of an exciting hunt. I think even if I had gotten a shot at a bull on land, it would've probably been kind of non eventful. As the bull would've either dropped in his tracks, or dove into the water. GO BUFFALO HUNTING!

 

[Pheroze]

I hunted mine at night, in Mpumalanga.

I have a video in MP4 format, no idea about how to insert it.

That would be great go see. Maybe Jerome or @BRICKBURN can help

 

[michael458]

One day we are slipping around about 80-100 yards off the edge of the water looking for a decent crocodile. This is when we noticed a big bull hippo about 15 steps off to our right, and above us, taking a nap........ we were now between him and the water....... we slipped up a little closer when he woke up suddenly. Wondering if he was a trophy or not did not matter at that point...............

 

[AZDAVE]

I would hunt proper buffalo over and over again, it is one of the most rewarding hunts you can do. I enjoyed my hippo hunt but it didn't compare to experience of a buffalo.

 

[AfricaHunting.com]

That would be great go see. Maybe Jerome or @BRICKBURN can help

That would be great go see. Maybe Jerome or @BRICKBURN can help

@Pheroze, The best option for @Nyati is to upload his video to YouTube or a similar service and then embed it here.

 

[thi9elsp]

I can't provide any input on hippo. However, after two buffalo hunts which both included days and days of tracking, stalking through grasses above your head, circling around dense bamboo, finding where they bedded, busted by wind, listening to them bang their horns against trees as they depart, having one stop on the far hill 300 yards away looking back then swaggering off over the ridge, etc. finally ending in success. I look to hunt buffalo again, and hopefully again, and again... '-)

 

[Nevada Mike]

...It sounds like getting on a bachelor group of old buffalo is the hunt to consider. I welcome what others have experienced with these situations.

On my hunt in Lukwati North this past fall, my PH did not want to pursue herds of buffalo. He felt that the bachelor groups held more challenge and better chances at a good bull. So that is primarily what we did. Plenty of buffalo and lots of 'dugga boys'. It was exciting.

 

[Nyati]

On Jerome´s advice, I uploaded my hippo video on Youtube

Hippo was 23 meters away.

 

[neckdeep]

I am fairly confident that shooting a hippo on land would be very exciting and challenging hunt, but you don't read about this type of hunt over and over and over again like you do a real tracking buff hunt in a big wild area!! I hope to shoot a hippo on land someday but meanwhile I will go Buffalo hunting on every trip to Africa I make as long as I am able.