DIY cape hunt

[Journey]

Been thinking about posting this for a while, knowing I am gonna get roasted and alot coments of "you have no idea what your getting into". Which is true!

I take emense satisfaction in learning about the animals I hunt and a "small" buffalo procured by my own skills would mean more to me than a giant by someone else's

Anyone else thought about this?
This legal in any African countries?

 

[Sarg]

Yes many times & done a few.

Unfortunately times, rules & countries have changed.

Once upon a time most of the France colonies offered “Chasse Libre”
C.A.R, Burkina Faso, Congo, Cameroon & I came very close to hunting in Rawanda just before the War & the opportunity never opened again.

Most if not all of those are closed or so difficult & dangerous to be off the menu.

I think Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) still has the auctions where you can bid on a camp but again expensive & difficult to really make happen in this day & age !

 

[grand veneur]

As far as DIY hunting in Africa is concerned, hunting buffalo alone is above all dreaming. It is simply not possible to do it completely alone, because who among us can perfectly assess and follow a buffalo track, and also perfectly identify the game? This means that in every case, you are dependent on a local guide and trackers. This is noticeable throughout the entire hunt and creates an atmosphere that not everyone, especially those who have not a prior experience with Africa and its peoples, can appreciate. This is not the same as what most people know from the camps in southern Africa, where they are most of the time among Europeans. Comes to this that there are very big differences between the countries that were under French administration and those under British administration.

 

[375Fox]

I’ll take it you’ve never been on a guided hunt? If you think about it as an opportunity to learn it might change your mindset. You hunt as a team with PH and trackers.

To your question, I know of no practical opportunities today. Africa isn’t the big place it was once. You might consider looking into a plains game hunt on farms where the PH is willing to take more of a backseat. Something more similar to a local biltong hunt. A PH must sign off and be present on your hunt to be legal.

 

[Journey]

I’ll take it you’ve never been on a guided hunt? If you think about it as an opportunity to learn it might change your mindset. You hunt as a team with PH and trackers.

To your question, I know of no practical opportunities today. Africa isn’t the big place it was once. You might consider looking into a plains game hunt on farms where the PH is willing to take more of a backseat. Something more similar to a local biltong hunt. A PH must sign off and be present on your hunt to be legal.

I have been to Africa once and did a mtn goat hunt last fall. The mtn goat guides were incredible and I learned a ton. For the mtn goat hunt i was able to find a route into an area the guide had never been, scouted a bunch of goats from the bottom and we ended up taking another of the clients up on the same trip and both got goats. Their experience in dangerous terrain and their physical prowess was very valuable. But the procress of learning/participating is incredibly important to me.

shameless photo share

 

[Journey]

Thanks everyone for your comments

 

[dchum]

I have been to Africa once and did a mtn goat hunt last fall. The mtn goat guides were incredible and I learned a ton. For the mtn goat hunt i was able to find a route into an area the guide had never been, scouted a bunch of goats from the bottom and we ended up taking another of the clients up on the same trip and both got goats. Their experience in dangerous terrain and their physical prowess was very valuable. But the procress of learning/participating is incredibly important to me.

shameless photo share
View attachment 756205

Where did you hunt in Africa?

Nice pic

 

[BryceM]

I think walking out of sight a few hundred yards away from your PH to hunt plains game on a private high-fence area would already be pushing it these days. Once in a while I hear of someone being left in an archery blind alone for a bit. Outfitters and PHs have become pretty risk-averse -- and for good reason. Get hurt or mess something up and they're on the hook for it. Reputation is everything and a hurt client invites bad press and plenty of government inquiries (which always come to fair and correct conclusions, of course. You never know when a puff adder or a grumpy black wildebeest or a wounded bushbuck shows up to ruin your day.

It would be immensely fun though. I've always said more memorable stuff happens in a day of hunting than in a month of regular living. Solo, it would be even more memorable.

Where there are buffalo, there are usually lions or other predators. Having someone to watch your back while you tend to the thing would be pretty important, to say nothing of a steady hand to save you from a charge, a skilled tracker to help sort out a wounded buff, or just having someone along to have better situational awareness. DG hunting usually works out fine...... until it doesn't.

 

[Philip Glass]

Where to start? First of all what would you do with a buffalo if you shot it by yourself? Anyway this type of question gets asked from time to time so don't feel like the Lone Ranger. It is not possible nor would it be practical in any way.
When you go in your first safari you will begin to understand the culture and the way they hunt and you will fall in love with all things safari just like the rest of us.
You could buy a bull in Texas and shoot it I by yourself I suppose. Of course you could shoot the Africa 29 from 5 Star camps and fly first class every time for what that would cost!

 

[Journey]

Where to start? First of all what would you do with a buffalo if you shot it by yourself? Anyway this type of question gets asked from time to time so don't feel like the Lone Ranger. It is not possible nor would it be practical in any way.
When you go in your first safari you will begin to understand the culture and the way they hunt and you will fall in love with all things safari just like the rest of us.
You could buy a bull in Texas and shoot it I by yourself I suppose. Of course you could shoot the Africa 29 from 5 Star camps and fly first class every time for what that would cost!

I wouldn't mind support post kill - it does bum me out i cant bring the meat back to the US, so I would def want the meat to go to someone.

Done quite a bit of hunting, free range and experiencing the hunt is what is important to me. Following people and not having any participation in the strategy is just not my thing. Learning from trackers and then trying hunting with a +1 (Ph or a fwllow hunter) would be fantastic.

I realize its not doable without the support of a camp. Excited to have conversations with the different outfitters on here

 

[grand veneur]

I wouldn't mind support post kill - it does bum me out i cant bring the meat back to the US, so I would def want the meat to go to someone.

Done quite a bit of hunting, free range and experiencing the hunt is what is important to me. Following people and not having any participation in the strategy is just not my thing. Learning from trackers and then trying hunting with a +1 (Ph or a fwllow hunter) would be fantastic.

I realize its not doable without the support of a camp. Excited to have conversations with the different outfitters on here

Go hunting to Africa, preferably a buffalo hunt combined with plain game hunting in a classic area like Zimbabwe, for example. This will give you a true impression of hunting in Africa and equip you to discuss afterward whether you like this kind of hunting or not. All other impressions you might gather from reading various reports in forums or magazines are very subjective and only reflect the opinions of those who wrote them. YouTube videos often depict an atmosphere that does not always reflect the reality, as there is a particular attitude of the clients behind them when they want to be filmed, and in all cases requires many more people than for a typical hunt.

You can be the best hunter in your country, but if you go abroad, you need to be retrained and gaining experience regarding local conditions in order to then operate more or less independently in a foreign location, better said to participate in the actions to some extent. In Africa, as in many other hunting areas worldwide, it is for many reasons impossible in the majority of the cases to hunt alone, and it was always this way, also in the past.

 

[Philip Glass]

I wouldn't mind support post kill - it does bum me out i cant bring the meat back to the US, so I would def want the meat to go to someone.

Done quite a bit of hunting, free range and experiencing the hunt is what is important to me. Following people and not having any participation in the strategy is just not my thing. Learning from trackers and then trying hunting with a +1 (Ph or a fwllow hunter) would be fantastic.

I realize its not doable without the support of a camp. Excited to have conversations with the different outfitters on here

Just go book a buffalo hunt in Zim. It will meet and exceed your expectations! Contact @DALTON & YORK SAFARIS for a great safari experience.

 

[Muskox]

You could hunt Benin on your own back in the late 1990's and early 2000s. There were some other African countries doing similar hunts in the 2010's. Burkina Faso I think.

I know several diplomats who have gotten resident hunting licenses and done hunts on their own for buffalo in Tanzania, Botswana, Zambia, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

They have something you do not have, a residency visa allowing them the same rights and privileges as residents of the country.

The only other people that regularly get to do this are Peace Corps Workers who can afford to make it work, and Missionaries who have built contacts.

Beyond that it is unheard of.

Buffalo hunts in South Africa on game ranches are $8000-25,000.

Buffalo hunts everywhere else are about $15,000-50,000.