Big Five or Else?

[camlo]

I have one Safari under my belt that I have posted about on this page and during that Safari I was able to successfully harvest a great Cape Buffalo. I spent the rest of the Safari enjoying some world class wing shooting and enough Brandy to float a battleship around. To speak less I left Africa completely fulfilled yet aching to return.

I would like to pursue the tiny ten at some point but I have a dream of completing the Big Five or even the Dangerous Seven before I shoot the first Impala, Zebra, etc. I cannot be the only one who feels this way. To be clear my goal is to complete the list with budget in mind as a silver spoon is something I am not familiar with. I do not need a 100 pound elephant or a lion with a mane that drags the ground. I do however want to be able to look someone in the face and say I harvested the aforementioned list before anything else. Who is with me?

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

You're going to have a tough time (not impossible) completing your Big 5 without shooting any Impala or Zebra. Both Leopard and Lion require bait (a lot of bait). You can certainly only use buffalo and hippo for bait if you're in areas with populations of them, but it'll take longer if you're looking for trophy species. Last year when I hunted Leopard, first bait sized animal we saw I was shooting regardless of what it was or what we were hunting. It's imperative you get those bait sites started quick and get several of them going.

 

[375Fox]

I think going to Africa with a specific list will partially ruin the experience. My primary goal generally is to hunt new areas. There are always a few species there I’d really like to take, but if I have the opportunity I take almost everything I can. I learn something new each trip because the PHs, camps, land, hunting methods, etc are really different. Africa is a big place. Passing an impala or zebra wouldn’t make completing the big 5 or tiny 10 any more rewarding to me. It just means I passed good opportunities that were presented I might regret later on.

 

[camlo]

You're going to have a tough time (not impossible) completing your Big 5 without shooting any Impala or Zebra. Both Leopard and Lion require bait (a lot of bait). You can certainly only use buffalo and hippo for bait if you're in areas with populations of them, but it'll take longer if you're looking for trophy species. Last year when I hunted Leopard, first bait sized animal we saw I was shooting regardless of what it was or what we were hunting. It's imperative you get those bait sites started quick and get several of them going.

I did take that into consideration. Not sure how I would approach that yet but I wouldn’t be beyond letting the PH or someone else take care of the PG in an attempt to cleanly achieve my goal.

 

[Tokoloshe Safaris]

Depending on where you are hunting your cats and croc domestic baits may be used, possibly at a lower price.

The areas that I am referring to are either cattle fenced or no fence at all.

Lon

 

[camlo]

Depending on where you are hunting your cats and croc domestic baits may be used, possibly at a lower price.

The areas that I am referring to are either cattle fenced or no fence at all.

Lon

I would love the leopard fraction of my 5 to be with hounds in a perfect world. Otherwise, I wouldn’t mind if they hung up goats purchased from a local farmer.

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

I did take that into consideration. Not sure how I would approach that yet but I wouldn’t be beyond letting the PH or someone else take care of the PG in an attempt to cleanly achieve my goal.

As Lon mentioned, in some areas you can buy cattle or livestock. Even with hounds, you're likely going to have some baits up. One of the challenges with using livestock, is it sometimes means you're hunting ranches/farms and if the cat gets run off the property you might not get to keep chasing him.

I think completing the Big 5 or Dangerous 7 without shooting anything else in Africa is actually a pretty cool goal. Personally I agree with @375Fox passing on PG to achieve that goal would make me feel like I'm missing some of the experience BUT it's your experience to have how you want. I think getting my bait animals and putting meat in the pot is part of the experience. Not sure I'd want to pay trophy fees for someone else like the PH to shoot them. Maybe an accompanying hunter.

Having hunted multiple species of dangerous game now, I can't imagine going to Africa without one of them being my primary focus, barring some specialized hunts for very specific Plains Game animals (LDE, Bongo, Sititunga, Mtn Nyala, etc). That said, I'll always take a good plains game animal while targeting my primary dangerous game species if offered the chance and it won't ruin the hunt. I made that mistake on a giant Blue Wildebeest because of how close we thought we were to the buffalo .... none seen that night and 5 Days later I finally shot the Buffalo.

 

[Tokoloshe Safaris]

On cats, there is no better bait than the cats own kill be it game or livestock. Although each comes with its own problem. We once had a leopard kill a large bush pig about 30 meters from our camp, campfire. We hung it in a nearby tree. He would hit the tree about 1/2 before dark and fed and or laid close by for an hour after light then go up and lay by our donkey boilers, of course this kept our tender from feeding the boilers. Of course we had a buffalo hunter only in camp. That when you take out a loan and take the very good cranky old leopard.

Lon