Our tip: buffalo hunting in Africa, Mozambique

Mozambique, deep in the Sambesi-delta. You won’t find any other place in Africa, where such large herds of cape-buffalo can be seen. Herds with a few hundred animals are a nearly daily view – thrilling hunting is guaranteed.

Mozambico buffalo hunting
This plane within one hour brought us from Beira to our camp. The hunt started there.

Destination airport in Mozambique is Beira – about two hours away from Johannesburg by plane that flies daily. The hunters will be received by the outfitter just after they’ve arrived. Together with the outfitter the way leads to the hunting camp – via single engine plane. The flight gives a first look of how infinite the delta looks and how great the game population is. Theres no hunter who’s not thrilled by that sight!

Safari-Feeling

Mozambico buffalo hunting
Comfortable tents, similar to huts, create an unforgettable safari flair.

The camp itself consists of tents with shower, restroom and lots of other comfort. But what makes the difference from a “normal” hotel are the voices of the bush at night. The sound of the African game captivates everybody.  The bush-concert, a few drinks by the camp fire, it’s these moments that make such a hunting trip a unique experience.

A trip that gets under one’s skin

Mozambico buffalo hunting
Who knows these Toyotas also knows: Nothing's impossible!

After an extensive breakfast under old trees the prove Toyota-pickups take one to the trail head of the stalk. With a professional hunter and a tracker one will try to find the latest scants of buffalo – this classic-style buffalo hunt is nothing for the weak as it requires lots of stamina. 

Mozambico buffalo hunting
Searching the cattle egret. Where he is, there's also the buffalo!

A great helper in finding the game  is the cattle egret, a little bird that “rides” the buffalo. When you finally found a good one and managed to stalk into gun range, the thrill rises to infinity: because now it’s up to the hunter to find the “right” buffalo without scaring off the others of the herd. When you finally found the right one, it’s definetly not the shooting range, that will make a good shot impossible: most shots are fired within 100 m, the chances for even shorter ranges are very good. 

The biggest difficulty is to calm down his own blood. The rifle lays on a three-legged rest and when you finally managed to get the crosshairs in the right place, you won’t feel the recoil, nor the sound: the tension disappears and the anticipation for your new trophy rises.

 

Hunting adventure for everybody

Hunters, whose stamina is not high enough for long walks in the unfamiliar climate,  can use all-wheel-driven vehicles to stalk the buffalo without losing the thrill of the hunt. 

No compromise with gun, optics and caliber

Mozambico buffalo hunting
One single round fired on 110 m with the R8 in .375 was sufficient.

Like everywhere it's good when you can use a well-known rifle. Thanks to changeable barrels you can turn your Blaser R8 foir example into a big-game rifle. .357 is a minimum but .416 is enough. 

Back in the days, full jacket bullets where the first choice but these days are gone since full jacket can fully penetrate the buffalo and wound other animals. Since modern composite rounds penetrate deep enough and also have a way better killing-performance, there is no reason to bring full jacket. 

Although the shooting ranges are limited, one should not forget about the right optics. 6xmagnification with red dot like the Ziess Variopoint is quite ideal. 

More than buffalo

But Mozambique offers even more than giant buffalo herdes and a vast number of serious buffalo. The combination of buffalo-hunting and the stalk of Sable, Nyala, Waterbuck, Hippo and crocodile make the difference for Mozhambique as hunting-trip-country. 

Mozambico buffalo hunting
Mozambiques richness in species is immense
Mozambico buffalo hunting
The country also has one of the greatest populations of waterbucks.

There are more than a few hunters that shot an old warthog during their stay in Sambesi delta. What else could be the climate and gorgeous end of a a hunt like this.

We want to thank the Passion journal for this interesting article.

More Informations about Passion: www.passion-magazin.de