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The Art Of Hunting Buffalo In Namibia's Famous Caprivi
By Divan Labuschagne
The Caprivi Region has an interesting history. The inclusion of the strange-shaped strip of land into Namibia (German South West Africa) was the result of negotiations between Germany and other colonial governments at the end of the 19th century.
Before Namibia became a German protectorate the area was known as Itenge and for a long time was ruled by Lozi kings, later forming part of the British Bechuanaland Protectorate (Botswana at the present).
It was agreed at the Berlin Conference (1890) that the strip of land would be added to German South West Africa as an extension, allowing the German colony to gain access to the Zambezi River, Lake Tanganyika, and the Indian Ocean via another German colony, Tanzania (German East Africa).
The region was named after the chief German negotiator at the conference, Count von Caprivi (Count Georg Leo von Caprivi di Caprara di Montecuccoli).
Like many countries in Africa, several disputes about the precise position of Caprivi's borders arose over the years. After World War 1 it was again placed under British rule and administered up to 1929 as a part of the British Bechuanaland Protectorate.
From 1940 to 1981 the administration was run by South Africa from Pretoria, from 1981 to 1990 it was ruled under the Administration for Caprivians as part of the South West Africa Administration. 1990 to 1992 marked the transitional period following the Namibian Independence. In 1992 Caprivi became one of the 13 political regions in Namibia with its regional governor and six councillors.
Caprivi has seen a multitude of administrative changes during the last 100 years. It has been subject to three colonial governments (Germany, Britain, and South Africa) and was administrated by three separate countries before 1992: Botswana, South Africa and the former South West Africa.
There are three game parks in the Caprivi region: Caprivi Game Reserve, Known as Bwabwata National Park, Mamili National Park, and Mudumu National Park.
Having said that, the Caprivi stretches east along the top of Botswana and just south of Angola and is quite unlike the rest of the country. It receives a high rainfall and has lush vegetation and rich, diverse wildlife. The Okavango and Kwando Rivers snake across the strip giving rise to waterfalls, rapids, and swamps.
Wildlife in abundance with herds of elephant and buffalo numbering in the hundreds. The river is home to many species like Hippo, Croc, Sitatunga, and Red Lechwe. Bird life like you have never seen before. Making Namibia's famous Caprivi one of the very best big game destinations Africa has to offer.
It is here, in Namibia's famous Caprivi that we are going to track buffalo in thick bush, following the herds into the swamps, wading through waist-deep channels hunting buffalo the way it's meant to be, on foot and up close.
Tracking buffalo is the classic way of hunting them and it's the preferred way for many hunters all over the globe. In most areas in the Caprivi you can track buffalo but there are some blocks, especially in and around the swamps and floodplains that are huge open areas, and hunting these areas involves a lot of driving and glassing the floodplains for big herds of buffalo.
Speaking for myself, I like to track a dagga boy or group of bulls. Following the tracks sometimes for several hours before finally catching up where they are bedded down in thick bush. The trick is to get close. Slowly following an old bull into thick bush is as challenging as it gets. Many things come into consideration like wind, terrain, and visibility.
I remember the early season buffalo hunts in Bwabwata National Park. This was by far the most exciting hunt I have guided hunters on. Grass towering 6 to 8 feet tall in some places, and thick green bushes with visibility of mere meters make for some of the most exciting and rewarding buffalo hunts.
We hunt these bulls by tracking and if I say tracking I mean following the tracks of a single bull (group of bulls) for several hours. Try getting as close as possible and see if there is a shooter or not. ( A dagga boy as they are called). Sometimes tracking Buffalo for days before finding the right bull that meets the criteria.
When I say a shooter I mean a really old bull. A true dagga boy! This in my humble opinion is a bull of 12 years and older. A bull that has passed on his genes and are no longer breeding.
I have for the past 5 years aged almost every Buffalo bull I have hunted with clients with the help and guidance of Dr Kevin Robertson. (Author of the book “THE PERFECT SHOT’)
The method that we use works as follows. You take the third molar from the back of the Lowe jaw. If you look at the molar (see picture) you will see that you need to take 4 measurements per molar. You will measure only the white enamel part of the molar thus giving you 8 measurements on both molars. You then total the 8 measurements together and average them by 8 measurements to give you a number which you then plot on a graph and it will give you the age of that specific bull. (See pictures). When you look at the graph you will see the crown height on the left and the age on the bottom.
I have photographed and studied buffalo in Bwabwata closely for the past 5 years and have come to the following conclusions. Bulls in the Caprivi are breeding from the ages of 8 to 11 years after which they will leave the herd and live by themselves or in small groups. You can divide them into the following classes. 1. Sexually mature bulls (pre-breeding) age 5-7 years. 2. Breeding bulls ages 8-11 years and lastly, true Dagga boy ages 12 years and older.
Nothing irritates me more than when I read online that a hunter has shot a dagga boy out of a group of dagga boys when the bull is clearly way too young. Because a buffalo bull is by himself or in a group of bulls does not make him a true dagga boy. Just because you shot a young bull out of a herd of bulls doesn’t make him a Dagga boy whatsoever. So this raises the next question! What does a 7 or 9-year-old bull do in a group of bulls when he is in his prime and should be breeding?
When a prime bull gets ready to fight for breeding rights he will start thickening his neck by play fighting with bushes and trees. This is vital for the bull's neck development thus making him strong to fight off other breeding bulls. When breeding, the herd bull will spend most of his time fending off other bulls and mating, leaving him with very little time to feed sufficiently and keep his bulk, allowing other stronger bulls to fight and drive out the current breeding bull. The losing bull will then go for what we call R&R (rest and recover). This will take some time as the bull will have to regain his strength and go back to once again fighting for the right to breed. That is why you will find younger bulls in a group of (so-called Dagga boys).
Another question often asked is, what do you look for to make sure the bull that you are about to shoot is indeed a past breeding bull?? There are a few things I look for before taking a bull.
I like to get in as close as possible as this helps a great deal when judging a bull. The horn tips on older bulls are rounded and blunt and in most cases lower than the boss. When the chin lap (a piece of skin hanging under the bull's chin) is prominent, it's a good sign as only the older bulls get a prominent chin lap. Old past-breeding bulls have solid bosses, blunt, worn down horn tips, and tatty ears and in most cases covered in mud thus being called dagga boys. (Dagga means mud in Shona) Hairless patches on the hides are very common in older bulls.
When hunting in the famous Caprivi strip of Namibia you have so many options and terrain to choose from. You have national parks and conservancies stretching from the west of Bwabwata to the floodplains of the Chobe on the far east. Huge floodplains along the banks of the Chobe river where buffalo numbering in their hundreds. The Linyanti swamps where you spend most of the day wading through shallow water from island to island, but my favourite of all is Bwabwata National Park.
Bwabwata National Park is a huge area situated north of Botswana and south of Angola with many buffalo roaming this beautiful and wild wilderness area. You will spend most of the day driving and finding tracks of bulls from the previous night and following them until you find the bull resting in some thick bush.
I remember one such hunt, it was in late July 2022. We left camp around 6 am that morning looking for buffalo. We drove a road called Upper Horseshoe Road heading south towards the Botswana cutline. We saw many bulls that morning but nothing of interest. We slowly continued our way south in the hopes of cutting the tracks of some dagga boys to follow. It wasn’t long before my tracker Johnny Kambinda tapped on the roof. About 8 bulls crossed here last night and by the looks of things, there might be some good bulls amongst them. We parked the cruiser and got all our things ready. With rifles over our shoulders, we slowly start tracking the 8 bulls now feeding in a westerly direction.
It was almost the end of winter and most of the leaves were down. This is a good thing as we could actually see but also made a lot of noise when walking so we needed to be very careful not to spook the bulls. We were zig-zagging our way forward as the bulls were feeding leisurely into a huge cluster leaf thicket. We knew the bulls were close, so now and then we would come to a halt and listen.
We slowly snaked our way forward looking and listening for any sign of the bulls ahead. Suddenly, “as in most cases,” we saw a few Ox-peckers diving down about 40 yards in front of us. Oxpeckers are birds that feed on ticks and always follow buffalo around. We knew the buffalo were bedded down just ahead. Slowly we moved forward. I got my client following closely behind me as this is going to be close. Suddenly we could make out two bulls bedded down and we stopped. I glassed to make sure we didn’t miss any other bulls to the left and right. Bush was thick and visibility wasn’t great at all. We crouched down and were moving forward on all fours.
We hadn’t gone 5 yards when we suddenly saw a big old bull slowly feeding straight onto us from our left. I got my client ready as we waited for the bull that would pass about 12 years in front of us. As the bull stepped into a small open clearing I gave the go-ahead and my client sent the 300g Swift of his 375 H&H down range hitting the bull a bit too far back. There was no time for a follow-up shot as the bull was crashing through the cluster leave thicket. We stood still for a few minutes listening. Nothing. We walked to where the bull was standing and gave it another ten minutes for the shot to take effect unaware of what was about to happen next.
Usually, when following a wounded buffalo you will track the bull for several hundred meters bumping the bull now and then. The bull will then retreat into tickets and will stop and look back on his followers. This can go on for some time until the bull has had enough and will eventually charge. Not this bull.
We had just started following the track of the bull and all hell broke loose. The bull came charging through the cluster leaving thicket like a freak train. His head already dropped for impact as I threw my 470 NE to my shoulder searching for the red dot of my Aimpoint. As I was trying to get out of the way I pulled the trigger and hit the bull right on top of his boss knocking him down. ( I must say the Aimpoint makes it so much better to aim in difficult situations and I highly recommend them)As I was down on the ground about 3 yards from the struggling bull my client took another shot. The bull was struggling and just before he could gain his feet again I pulled off my second barrel hitting the bull under his left ear and putting him down. When hunting dangerous game one can never be too careful.
The danger factor and follow-up!!!!
Following a wounded cape buffalo is never fun. It's probably one of the most dangerous when wounded and once he gets a hold of you he is going to try and kill you. Very few people have walked away from a buffalo attack and lived to tell the tale. Whenever you ask ten different professional hunters across Africa what they think is the most dangerous you would probably get many different answers. In my personal experience, it is very difficult to stop a charging buffalo in thick cover as you would have to hit the brain, neck, or spine to stop such a bull before he gets a hold of you, you're client, or trackers.
Following up on any buffalo after the first shot all depends on the situation. In really thick bush it's difficult to get off a second shot. Having said that I normally give the buffalo about 10 or so minutes for the shot to take effect, and only then would I slowly follow together with my main tracker and client slightly to my left or right unless I can see the departing wounded bull, I quickly try and move to get into a better possession for a second shot before he disappears into thick bush.
The reason I always have my main tracker in front and my client slightly to my left or right is that in a tight situation, you don’t want to be thinking about two trackers and your client’s rifle behind you, you have to focus on what’s happening in front of you and having your client slightly to the left or right eliminates him from trying to shoot at the charging bull from behind you, especially in a dangerous situation.
As many of you know I have a very special bond with my tracker Johnny Kambinda. We have been hunting together for many years and we know what to do in such situations. The worst thing that can happen is if you have an inexperienced tracker obstructing your line of fire. This can happen in a dicey situation. It is very important to be able to trust each other in such situations and I can happily say that I have this understanding with my tracker Johnny, after many years of hunting together.
Different calibers for Buffalo. Most counties where you can hunt dangerous game have a minimum of .375 and for good reason.
When hunting thick-skinned animals, you firstly need a rifle capable of killing such an animal, secondly, you need a very well-constructed bullet that can penetrate deep enough to create a wound channel.
There are so many different calibers to choose from when it comes to hunting Africa’s Black Death. The most important is to choose the rifle you are most comfortable with inside the regal requirements for hunting dangerous game. I am no expert in ballistics whatsoever - all my knowledge comes from years of hunting dangerous game in the field and seeing first-hand how many different caliber and bullets perform.
The 375 H&H is probably the most widely used big game cartridge in Africa and thousands of buffalo, elephants and many more have succumbed to this great cartridge. The 375 H&H is very mild in recoil and has excellent penetration. The 300g bullet does the job on even the biggest of elephants.
Stepping up to your 416 Rigby, 404 Jeffery, and 416 Rem Mag you now shooting a 400g at about 2350-2400 fps that packs a much harder punch than the 375 H&H but with much more recoil.
The 416 Rigby in my opinion is one of the greatest cartridges ever designed and many highly experienced professional hunters used a 416 Rigby for years as their preferred backup rifle. The 416 Rigby or Rem Mag has excellent penetration and can easily out-penetrate any other big game cartridge.
Moving on to the true big bore or stoppers as they are called. The 458 Win mag, 450 Rigby, 470 NE, 500 NE, 500 JEFFERY, and the big 577 NE, just to name a few. Most of these true big bores shoot a 500g bullet at about 2150fps. There are so many good calibres and it comes down to personal preference at the end.
The 458 Wing mag, is one of the most widely used big bores and preferred cartridges for national park rangers and professional hunters across Africa. Famous professional hunter, Richard Harland has used a 458 Win mag to cull herds of elephants in the tsetse fly corridors with great success and many other true elephant hunters.
I use a custom .500 Jeffery shooting 570g Woodleigh Hydros at 2300fps as my caliber of choice for the past 10 years. This is a true stopper and I just love this caliber. Another classic I recently got is an H.Mahillon .475 NO2 shooting 480g at 2180fps. This is a classic double rifle and once you have used a double it's hard to use something else again.
As a client coming to Africa to hunt Buffalo, I would bring the rifle I'm most comfortable with and can shoot the straightest, be it a 375 H&H or a 577 NE. The first shot is the most important and when you place the bullet in the right place you will have no problems.
The most important factor is to enjoy the time spent in pursuit of Africa's Black Death. Choose your Outfitter with extra care as there is so many different areas to choose from. Some will be more expensive than others and some areas will be better than others. Just make sure whenever you invest your time and money you go to the best possible area.
By Divan Labuschagne
The Caprivi Region has an interesting history. The inclusion of the strange-shaped strip of land into Namibia (German South West Africa) was the result of negotiations between Germany and other colonial governments at the end of the 19th century.
Before Namibia became a German protectorate the area was known as Itenge and for a long time was ruled by Lozi kings, later forming part of the British Bechuanaland Protectorate (Botswana at the present).
It was agreed at the Berlin Conference (1890) that the strip of land would be added to German South West Africa as an extension, allowing the German colony to gain access to the Zambezi River, Lake Tanganyika, and the Indian Ocean via another German colony, Tanzania (German East Africa).
The region was named after the chief German negotiator at the conference, Count von Caprivi (Count Georg Leo von Caprivi di Caprara di Montecuccoli).
Like many countries in Africa, several disputes about the precise position of Caprivi's borders arose over the years. After World War 1 it was again placed under British rule and administered up to 1929 as a part of the British Bechuanaland Protectorate.
From 1940 to 1981 the administration was run by South Africa from Pretoria, from 1981 to 1990 it was ruled under the Administration for Caprivians as part of the South West Africa Administration. 1990 to 1992 marked the transitional period following the Namibian Independence. In 1992 Caprivi became one of the 13 political regions in Namibia with its regional governor and six councillors.
Caprivi has seen a multitude of administrative changes during the last 100 years. It has been subject to three colonial governments (Germany, Britain, and South Africa) and was administrated by three separate countries before 1992: Botswana, South Africa and the former South West Africa.
There are three game parks in the Caprivi region: Caprivi Game Reserve, Known as Bwabwata National Park, Mamili National Park, and Mudumu National Park.
Having said that, the Caprivi stretches east along the top of Botswana and just south of Angola and is quite unlike the rest of the country. It receives a high rainfall and has lush vegetation and rich, diverse wildlife. The Okavango and Kwando Rivers snake across the strip giving rise to waterfalls, rapids, and swamps.
Wildlife in abundance with herds of elephant and buffalo numbering in the hundreds. The river is home to many species like Hippo, Croc, Sitatunga, and Red Lechwe. Bird life like you have never seen before. Making Namibia's famous Caprivi one of the very best big game destinations Africa has to offer.
It is here, in Namibia's famous Caprivi that we are going to track buffalo in thick bush, following the herds into the swamps, wading through waist-deep channels hunting buffalo the way it's meant to be, on foot and up close.
Tracking buffalo is the classic way of hunting them and it's the preferred way for many hunters all over the globe. In most areas in the Caprivi you can track buffalo but there are some blocks, especially in and around the swamps and floodplains that are huge open areas, and hunting these areas involves a lot of driving and glassing the floodplains for big herds of buffalo.
Speaking for myself, I like to track a dagga boy or group of bulls. Following the tracks sometimes for several hours before finally catching up where they are bedded down in thick bush. The trick is to get close. Slowly following an old bull into thick bush is as challenging as it gets. Many things come into consideration like wind, terrain, and visibility.
I remember the early season buffalo hunts in Bwabwata National Park. This was by far the most exciting hunt I have guided hunters on. Grass towering 6 to 8 feet tall in some places, and thick green bushes with visibility of mere meters make for some of the most exciting and rewarding buffalo hunts.
We hunt these bulls by tracking and if I say tracking I mean following the tracks of a single bull (group of bulls) for several hours. Try getting as close as possible and see if there is a shooter or not. ( A dagga boy as they are called). Sometimes tracking Buffalo for days before finding the right bull that meets the criteria.
When I say a shooter I mean a really old bull. A true dagga boy! This in my humble opinion is a bull of 12 years and older. A bull that has passed on his genes and are no longer breeding.
I have for the past 5 years aged almost every Buffalo bull I have hunted with clients with the help and guidance of Dr Kevin Robertson. (Author of the book “THE PERFECT SHOT’)
The method that we use works as follows. You take the third molar from the back of the Lowe jaw. If you look at the molar (see picture) you will see that you need to take 4 measurements per molar. You will measure only the white enamel part of the molar thus giving you 8 measurements on both molars. You then total the 8 measurements together and average them by 8 measurements to give you a number which you then plot on a graph and it will give you the age of that specific bull. (See pictures). When you look at the graph you will see the crown height on the left and the age on the bottom.
I have photographed and studied buffalo in Bwabwata closely for the past 5 years and have come to the following conclusions. Bulls in the Caprivi are breeding from the ages of 8 to 11 years after which they will leave the herd and live by themselves or in small groups. You can divide them into the following classes. 1. Sexually mature bulls (pre-breeding) age 5-7 years. 2. Breeding bulls ages 8-11 years and lastly, true Dagga boy ages 12 years and older.
Nothing irritates me more than when I read online that a hunter has shot a dagga boy out of a group of dagga boys when the bull is clearly way too young. Because a buffalo bull is by himself or in a group of bulls does not make him a true dagga boy. Just because you shot a young bull out of a herd of bulls doesn’t make him a Dagga boy whatsoever. So this raises the next question! What does a 7 or 9-year-old bull do in a group of bulls when he is in his prime and should be breeding?
When a prime bull gets ready to fight for breeding rights he will start thickening his neck by play fighting with bushes and trees. This is vital for the bull's neck development thus making him strong to fight off other breeding bulls. When breeding, the herd bull will spend most of his time fending off other bulls and mating, leaving him with very little time to feed sufficiently and keep his bulk, allowing other stronger bulls to fight and drive out the current breeding bull. The losing bull will then go for what we call R&R (rest and recover). This will take some time as the bull will have to regain his strength and go back to once again fighting for the right to breed. That is why you will find younger bulls in a group of (so-called Dagga boys).
Another question often asked is, what do you look for to make sure the bull that you are about to shoot is indeed a past breeding bull?? There are a few things I look for before taking a bull.
I like to get in as close as possible as this helps a great deal when judging a bull. The horn tips on older bulls are rounded and blunt and in most cases lower than the boss. When the chin lap (a piece of skin hanging under the bull's chin) is prominent, it's a good sign as only the older bulls get a prominent chin lap. Old past-breeding bulls have solid bosses, blunt, worn down horn tips, and tatty ears and in most cases covered in mud thus being called dagga boys. (Dagga means mud in Shona) Hairless patches on the hides are very common in older bulls.
When hunting in the famous Caprivi strip of Namibia you have so many options and terrain to choose from. You have national parks and conservancies stretching from the west of Bwabwata to the floodplains of the Chobe on the far east. Huge floodplains along the banks of the Chobe river where buffalo numbering in their hundreds. The Linyanti swamps where you spend most of the day wading through shallow water from island to island, but my favourite of all is Bwabwata National Park.
Bwabwata National Park is a huge area situated north of Botswana and south of Angola with many buffalo roaming this beautiful and wild wilderness area. You will spend most of the day driving and finding tracks of bulls from the previous night and following them until you find the bull resting in some thick bush.
I remember one such hunt, it was in late July 2022. We left camp around 6 am that morning looking for buffalo. We drove a road called Upper Horseshoe Road heading south towards the Botswana cutline. We saw many bulls that morning but nothing of interest. We slowly continued our way south in the hopes of cutting the tracks of some dagga boys to follow. It wasn’t long before my tracker Johnny Kambinda tapped on the roof. About 8 bulls crossed here last night and by the looks of things, there might be some good bulls amongst them. We parked the cruiser and got all our things ready. With rifles over our shoulders, we slowly start tracking the 8 bulls now feeding in a westerly direction.
It was almost the end of winter and most of the leaves were down. This is a good thing as we could actually see but also made a lot of noise when walking so we needed to be very careful not to spook the bulls. We were zig-zagging our way forward as the bulls were feeding leisurely into a huge cluster leaf thicket. We knew the bulls were close, so now and then we would come to a halt and listen.
We slowly snaked our way forward looking and listening for any sign of the bulls ahead. Suddenly, “as in most cases,” we saw a few Ox-peckers diving down about 40 yards in front of us. Oxpeckers are birds that feed on ticks and always follow buffalo around. We knew the buffalo were bedded down just ahead. Slowly we moved forward. I got my client following closely behind me as this is going to be close. Suddenly we could make out two bulls bedded down and we stopped. I glassed to make sure we didn’t miss any other bulls to the left and right. Bush was thick and visibility wasn’t great at all. We crouched down and were moving forward on all fours.
We hadn’t gone 5 yards when we suddenly saw a big old bull slowly feeding straight onto us from our left. I got my client ready as we waited for the bull that would pass about 12 years in front of us. As the bull stepped into a small open clearing I gave the go-ahead and my client sent the 300g Swift of his 375 H&H down range hitting the bull a bit too far back. There was no time for a follow-up shot as the bull was crashing through the cluster leave thicket. We stood still for a few minutes listening. Nothing. We walked to where the bull was standing and gave it another ten minutes for the shot to take effect unaware of what was about to happen next.
Usually, when following a wounded buffalo you will track the bull for several hundred meters bumping the bull now and then. The bull will then retreat into tickets and will stop and look back on his followers. This can go on for some time until the bull has had enough and will eventually charge. Not this bull.
We had just started following the track of the bull and all hell broke loose. The bull came charging through the cluster leaving thicket like a freak train. His head already dropped for impact as I threw my 470 NE to my shoulder searching for the red dot of my Aimpoint. As I was trying to get out of the way I pulled the trigger and hit the bull right on top of his boss knocking him down. ( I must say the Aimpoint makes it so much better to aim in difficult situations and I highly recommend them)As I was down on the ground about 3 yards from the struggling bull my client took another shot. The bull was struggling and just before he could gain his feet again I pulled off my second barrel hitting the bull under his left ear and putting him down. When hunting dangerous game one can never be too careful.
The danger factor and follow-up!!!!
Following a wounded cape buffalo is never fun. It's probably one of the most dangerous when wounded and once he gets a hold of you he is going to try and kill you. Very few people have walked away from a buffalo attack and lived to tell the tale. Whenever you ask ten different professional hunters across Africa what they think is the most dangerous you would probably get many different answers. In my personal experience, it is very difficult to stop a charging buffalo in thick cover as you would have to hit the brain, neck, or spine to stop such a bull before he gets a hold of you, you're client, or trackers.
Following up on any buffalo after the first shot all depends on the situation. In really thick bush it's difficult to get off a second shot. Having said that I normally give the buffalo about 10 or so minutes for the shot to take effect, and only then would I slowly follow together with my main tracker and client slightly to my left or right unless I can see the departing wounded bull, I quickly try and move to get into a better possession for a second shot before he disappears into thick bush.
The reason I always have my main tracker in front and my client slightly to my left or right is that in a tight situation, you don’t want to be thinking about two trackers and your client’s rifle behind you, you have to focus on what’s happening in front of you and having your client slightly to the left or right eliminates him from trying to shoot at the charging bull from behind you, especially in a dangerous situation.
As many of you know I have a very special bond with my tracker Johnny Kambinda. We have been hunting together for many years and we know what to do in such situations. The worst thing that can happen is if you have an inexperienced tracker obstructing your line of fire. This can happen in a dicey situation. It is very important to be able to trust each other in such situations and I can happily say that I have this understanding with my tracker Johnny, after many years of hunting together.
Different calibers for Buffalo. Most counties where you can hunt dangerous game have a minimum of .375 and for good reason.
When hunting thick-skinned animals, you firstly need a rifle capable of killing such an animal, secondly, you need a very well-constructed bullet that can penetrate deep enough to create a wound channel.
There are so many different calibers to choose from when it comes to hunting Africa’s Black Death. The most important is to choose the rifle you are most comfortable with inside the regal requirements for hunting dangerous game. I am no expert in ballistics whatsoever - all my knowledge comes from years of hunting dangerous game in the field and seeing first-hand how many different caliber and bullets perform.
The 375 H&H is probably the most widely used big game cartridge in Africa and thousands of buffalo, elephants and many more have succumbed to this great cartridge. The 375 H&H is very mild in recoil and has excellent penetration. The 300g bullet does the job on even the biggest of elephants.
Stepping up to your 416 Rigby, 404 Jeffery, and 416 Rem Mag you now shooting a 400g at about 2350-2400 fps that packs a much harder punch than the 375 H&H but with much more recoil.
The 416 Rigby in my opinion is one of the greatest cartridges ever designed and many highly experienced professional hunters used a 416 Rigby for years as their preferred backup rifle. The 416 Rigby or Rem Mag has excellent penetration and can easily out-penetrate any other big game cartridge.
Moving on to the true big bore or stoppers as they are called. The 458 Win mag, 450 Rigby, 470 NE, 500 NE, 500 JEFFERY, and the big 577 NE, just to name a few. Most of these true big bores shoot a 500g bullet at about 2150fps. There are so many good calibres and it comes down to personal preference at the end.
The 458 Wing mag, is one of the most widely used big bores and preferred cartridges for national park rangers and professional hunters across Africa. Famous professional hunter, Richard Harland has used a 458 Win mag to cull herds of elephants in the tsetse fly corridors with great success and many other true elephant hunters.
I use a custom .500 Jeffery shooting 570g Woodleigh Hydros at 2300fps as my caliber of choice for the past 10 years. This is a true stopper and I just love this caliber. Another classic I recently got is an H.Mahillon .475 NO2 shooting 480g at 2180fps. This is a classic double rifle and once you have used a double it's hard to use something else again.
As a client coming to Africa to hunt Buffalo, I would bring the rifle I'm most comfortable with and can shoot the straightest, be it a 375 H&H or a 577 NE. The first shot is the most important and when you place the bullet in the right place you will have no problems.
The most important factor is to enjoy the time spent in pursuit of Africa's Black Death. Choose your Outfitter with extra care as there is so many different areas to choose from. Some will be more expensive than others and some areas will be better than others. Just make sure whenever you invest your time and money you go to the best possible area.
