UGANDA: Uganda Wildlife Systems Buffalo Hunt Report 2024

Andrew62

AH elite
Joined
Oct 12, 2010
Messages
1,104
Reaction score
2,617
Media
23
Hunting reports
Africa
9
Member of
SCI
Hunted
Cameroon, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Uganda
I just returned from a 7-Day group buffalo hunt with Uganda Wildlife Systems. My flight from the US started at Dulles Airport, I flew through Doha, Qatar on Qatar Airlines. All aspects of my flights went great. I will say that checking a rifle in with Qatar Airlines will take upwards of 30 minutes, it is not difficult, it just takes time. In the US they had me open my gun case and weighed my ammo separately. On the return they only asked how many rounds of ammo I had, they did not look inside my case.

Upon arrival into Entebbe, Uganda, I was met by Levi, he is a representative of UWS. I was taken to a nearby hotel, Palm Hotel, the room was serviceable, there was a very nice restaurant behind the motel. My steak was excellent.

After an overnight in Entebbe, I boarded a charter flight to the Karamoja area of Uganda. The charter flight was 1 hour 40 minutes. This was a group hunt, meaning there would be six of us hunters with three guides, so a 2x1 hunt. While I have never done a 2x1 hunt, I did not feel this would be a problem as from the videos I had seen there were thousands of buffaloes. What I found astonishing was that for 3 of the 6 hunters, this was their first ever African safari.

Our camp was very nice, traditional tented camp. All tents had a concrete floor with a thatched roof. Of all of my safaris I have to give credit to UWS for providing so many pieces of furniture and chairs in the room to spread my things out on. This camp does not have AC, I took along a battery operated fan, and wow, was that ever a game changer when it came to afternoon rest times. There was always plenty of hot water, they had electric 24/7. Wifi is ok if you have WhatsApp, other messaging services did not work so well.

I never did go over and eat breakfast, our lunches and dinners were just ok so far as the food quality went. My biggest frustration was that dinner was not served until at least 9pm. That’s a bit late when everyone was back in camp by 7:15.

As to the buffalo hunting, you just have to see it to believe it. There were days when we saw few buffalo, then there was the day I saw at least 500 buffalo by 9am, and probably 1500-1700 buffalo the one day.

On the very first morning my hunting partner took a really old dugga boy, that afternoon right before dark I took a nice dugga boy. During the hunt I added a Jackson’s hartebeest and a 2nd dugga boy.

I used my Kimber Talkeetna .375H&H with Swift Aframe 300 grain bullets. My hunting partner used his Ruger .375 with 300 grain Hornady DGX. Both bullets worked great. My Kimber has a 2x10 Leupold, and I suggest if you hunt in this area that you consider using an 8 or 10 power scope. My first buffalo was shot at about 50 yards, my second buffalo probably closer to 100 yards. I mentioned the 8 and 10 power scopes, that would be for antelopes at longer distances. It is extremely wide open in this hunting area.

Tsetse flies were abundant, little bastards. The trackers kept a paint can on the back of the hunting vehicle to burn elephant dung in. Every time we hunted I wore a neck gaiter that I pulled up over my ears to help ward off the tsetse's.

In this area there were at least a billion oribi, lol, seriously, those little guys were everywhere. Saw waterbuck and a few kob, I do not believe they have permits there for those. There were reedbuck, some duikers. The main animal to hunt was buffalo. The widest buffalo taken was 43 1/2, mine were 34” and 38”, the size really did not matter to me as I was hunting the oldest buffalo I could find.

I have been on a number of safaris and I can say that Uganda Wildlife System does a great job, very organized. In the area I hunted they have a ridiculous amount of buffalo. Hunting was mainly riding around, locating a buffalo, then get off and shoot it or put on a bit of a stock then shoot it.

Because of the remoteness of this area I did buy evacuation and medical insurance, and I am glad I did. A charter flight out of this area is expensive, and you would definitely have to be evacuated as there are no medical facilities around. This was the first time in my life I bought this type of insurance.

I truly cannot think of anything negative I could say about Uganda Wildlife Systems. The group hunt option saves a lot of money and for me, the highlight of my trip was meeting a new hunting partner that I really enjoyed getting to know and watch him experience his first ever African safari.

I booked this hunt with Tim Herald of WTA. I used Hannah from Gracy Travel, she did a great job.

If anyone has questions about this hunt please feel free to message me.

Andrew

thumbnail_IMG_2669.jpg
thumbnail_IMG_2815.jpg
thumbnail_IMG_3010.jpg
thumbnail_IMG_2771.jpg
thumbnail_IMG_2585.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks for the report, I’ve been watching for it. Glad you had a good trip, that old bull is very cool-congratulations!
 
Awesome hunt and awesome Trophies! Karamoja seems like a special place for buffalo. Did you hunt with Christian Weth of Uganda Wildlife Safaris?
 
Awesome hunt and awesome Trophies! Karamoja seems like a special place for buffalo. Did you hunt with Christian Weth of Uganda Wildlife Safaris?

Yes, that is the company I hunted with. Christian was not in camp during my hunt.
 
Great report thanks for the details. That would be a heck of a destination for a first time Safari goer! Congrats on the bulls and the Jacksons. Uganda is on my short list.
 
I really want to do this hunt some day- looks like a lot of fun
 
Congrats and thanks for sharing!
 
Glad y'all had a great time, those duggas had some age on them for sure. Thanks for the share.
 
Great hunt …did you see many elephants?

Yes, I saw 2 elephants at dark one night then a herd of 15 or so one afternoon. While that’s all I saw, the trackers always had elephant dung to burn to help ward off the tsetse flies so there must be more around than any of us saw.
 
I really want to do this hunt some day- looks like a lot of fun

If you do get the chance to do this hunt, consider doing their ‘group hunt’ option. That occurs in March. If I recall the numbers correctly, by doing the group hunt, I saved 12k over going alone and having my own guide. Most of that is the cost savings of splitting the air charter 6 ways.
 
Good to see your report. I came close to going on this hunt. I wanted the opportunity for a bit more of the plains game and decided not to go. Looking at the buffalo and reading your report tells me I should of gone. Sounds like a wonderful hunt. Congrats
Bruce
 
thanks for the report. Well done.
 
Nr. 2 is the epitome of a trophy Cape Buffalo....a true warrior probabky pushing 15 years.....well done
 
Well done! Were your buffalo of the Cape or Nile variety?
 
Good to see your report. I came close to going on this hunt. I wanted the opportunity for a bit more of the plains game and decided not to go. Looking at the buffalo and reading your report tells me I should of gone. Sounds like a wonderful hunt. Congrats
Bruce
Hey Bruce, good to hear from you. Here is the list of animals that were available for us to take on this hunt, buffalo, reedbuck, hartebeest, warthog, oribi. There were a number of common duikers, not sure if they had quota. I saw waterbuck, no quota. Two of the six hunters were doing a 4 day hunt extension that was going to allow them to take kob and eland. How they were doing this is that they would take a 5 hour drive to a new area, hunt there, then do another 5 day drive back to Entebbe. For the most part, this was pretty much a buffalo and hartebeest hunt. In the 7 days I was there I saw 2 shooter warthogs.
 
Well done! Were your buffalo of the Cape or Nile variety?
Great question, and I do not have that answer. The 3 guides in camp said they called them cape buffalo. And from all of the buffalo I saw, I would say there was no difference in the other cape buffalo I have taken. If I understand it correctly, Nile buffalo have less drop and a more squarish top.....these were more of the classic cape buffalo I've taken in Zimbabwe.
 
Oh my that second buff! What a beauty! Waidmannsheil to you sir, and thanks for sharing your experience.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
57,528
Messages
1,233,044
Members
101,251
Latest member
BurtonJohn
 

 

 

Latest posts

Latest profile posts

Grz63 wrote on Doug Hamilton's profile.
Hello Doug,
I am Philippe from France and plan to go hunting Caprivi in 2026, Oct.
I have read on AH you had some time in Vic Falls after hunting. May I ask you with whom you have planned / organized the Chobe NP tour and the different visits. (with my GF we will have 4 days and 3 nights there)
Thank in advance, I will appreciate your response.
Merci
Philippe
Grz63 wrote on Moe324's profile.
Hello Moe324
I am Philippe from France and plan to go hunting Caprivi in 2026, Oct.
I have read on AH you had some time in Vic Falls after hunting. May I ask you with whom you have planned / organized the Chobe NP tour and the different visits. (with my GF we will have 4 days and 3 nights there)
Thank in advance, I will appreciate your response.
Merci
Philippe
rafter3 wrote on Manny R's profile.
Hey there could I have that jewelers email you mentioned in the thread?
VIGILAIRE wrote on wesheltonj's profile.
Hi Walden. Good morning from England, Chris here (The Englishman!) from Croatia. Firstly it was a pleasure to meet you and Michelle - a fellow Sanderson! I have finally joined AH as I enjoy it very much. Glad you enjoyed the hunt and your write up which I read on AR was very good indeed. I am sending on WhatsApp pics from Bojan of some of the animals hunted recently. Take care and best regards. CS.
 
Top