The only baboon I ever shot was running away from us at about 180 yards, as lasered with a Leica.

This was in 2023 in Cameroon.

I was shooting offhand with my Blaser R93 in .375 H&H Mag. using Hirtenberger ammo with 272 grain ABC bullets.

The baboon slamming double whammy weapon, as it turned out.

The bullet hit him at the base of his spine and peeled him like an orange but did not kill him.

It tore the skin right off his back and up to the nape of his neck but only paralyzed him.

Two of our trackers ran up to him and killed him with multiple hacks from their machetes.

He was as big as a German Shepherd dog and drenched in blood.

I will never shoot another baboon as long as I live.

Totally true story.

I could tell you more stories like this one but you would not believe them, either.

But still 100% true.

I stopped shooting baboons.

Whenever I look at one I keep thinking I am looking into a mirror!

The first one I shot was with an arrow.

It was 30 some yards on the other side of a waterhole and pretty much facing the blind but at a slight angle. It was bent down to drink. Unlike other game, when it heard the arrow coming it just looked up instead of bolting away. The arrow pierced it right through the area between the shoulder blade and clavicle and angled through the heart lungs. It never moved from that spot. I too was a bit taken back at how close to us they look due to their build and size.

I have shot several others but with a rifle.

We were hunting in Tanzania.

Lunchtime at camp, we saw a bunch of baboons drinking opposite our cam on the other side.

One of our party said “look at the one on the left. She so so pretty!”

Someone else said “Jesus Christ! Take him home. He just saw his wife!”

Baboon's liked to pelt one of the tents at lunch time.

It was 4 tents way from mine. the videographer would play loud music after lunch and the baboon's would pelt his tent.

it was fun to watch.

I have had the opportunity to shoot a few baboon's over the years, I have turned them down each time I was asked if I wanted to shoot one.

Remember, baboons have 94% of our DNA!

Good stories.

MR, good shot on the baboon. If you told more baboon stories I would believe them.

There is a scientist, whose name I forget, who studied baboons in the wild for years. One thing that he reported is that he came to dislike them. He said that they are very nasty, especially to each other.

I have been around a few in the bush and I dislike them. They are fascinating but very devilish as far as I am concerned. They raid the goats of a farmer near where I hunt. They will tear a hind leg off of a live kid and eat it on the spot with one hand while holding the bleating kid with the other hand.

I got a thing about baboons! The blacks have a witch craft connection with them. They will curse a baboon scull and hang it up as some sort of warning. ( No one would ever be very specific about it with me. The blacks don't seem to want to discuss baboons, at least not with me. I take that in the best possible way.)

I have been told that a mature baboon can slice up a bunch of hounds with out breaking a sweat.

Last year my son killed three baboons with his bow. He had a bait out for bush pig and at dawn three baboon came galloping into the bait.
The first arrow got one baboon. the two others came back right away, no gun shot- no problem and he killed them too. The local farmers were very pleased.

I saw three baboons climb over a tall electric fence. They had learned, no doubt through trial and error, which wires not to touch. Clever buggers. Brian

We as humans were probably like them before we got civilized
Maybe we are still like them and why we dislike them

I was with the late, great PH, Wayne Clark, many years ago, watching a troop of baboons feeding in the Selous. I asked if many clients wanted to shoot one. "A few do", he replied, "But I try to discourage them. They don't do any harm out here and it sickens me. It's like shooting people."
I've never shot one.

I would shoot every last baboon if I could

We were hunting in Luke Samaras' old fly camp in Simanjiro. That camp had an outdoor kitchen under a tent up against a huge rock. The shelves for the vegetables, pots, pans etc. were up against the rock. We usually ate lunch in the field, but that day, we happened to be close to camp about lunchtime, so we decided to stop by camp for a hot lunch instead.

In the middle of lunch, we heard a huge uproar coming from the kitchen. Screeching, yelling, clattering of pans, a whole lot of profanity -- you get the picture. After a few minutes of this din, the camp manager came running to the dining tent all out of breath and asked: "Do ... you ... want ... to shoot ... a baboon?"

I said, "Hapana, Bhati mzuri."

Still funny, but guess you had to be there.

Lavaco, Yes, funny!
Sorry for the dumb question, what does "Hapana, Bhati mzuri" mean? Thanks, Brian

No. Good Luck!

I've never shot a baboon, but if I ever shot one, I didn't want to say it was in a kitchen.

We were hunting in Westwood, Zimbabwe.

They had a very nice camp on the banks of the river.

Stone huts, and an open at the front main hall.

We arrived back for lunch, and found some baboons are having a great time messing up that place.

Roy had a 22 pistol he used to finish animals with.

He got mad and started shooting at the baboons with it.

They ran up the trees!

I thought I would give him a hand.

I had a 270 Ackley, and dropped a few of them!

It was quite funny.

Roy screaming obscenities and a shots being fired!

Took my wife to Tanzania for the first time in 2017. She'd go out with us about every other day and otherwise sit around camp drinking coffee. She quickly earned the nickname Mamma Campi. Our camp was on the banks of the Panini river and it had a huge fig tree right in front of the mess hut, which doesn't give that stone structure justice. There were cliffs on the other side of the river and the babo0ns started rolling rocks around 1:00 a.m. every night.

Halfway into the hunt, I found out that the baboons were coming to the fig tree every day, not surprising, where my wife was drinking coffee, but she was FEEDING THEM. Well we put a stop to that.

She also made friends with the goats in Masailand that were destined for leopard bait.

But she went back in 2023, a little wiser.

Well, this a MONKEY story, not baboons.

And it happened in Dubai, not Africa.

I was driving home from the beach one day after having spent all morning water skiing.

It was the time when we had car phones, no mobiles.

A friend called “Saeed, where are you?”

“On the way home from DOSC - that was our sailing club name”

“Can you come to my house please?”

“Sure. What is going on?”

“There is a monkey sitting on my car!”

Sounds interesting, so I drove to his house.

Right there, sitting on the bonnet of his car - a BMW estate - was this big Indian monkey.

About the size a baboon.

“Can you come out and we will catch it”

“I am NOT coming out! He is VICIOUS! Look at his TEETH”

“Alright, give me some to give him then!”

I get passed a lemon - really, can you imagine - through a slightly open door then he closes it.

I had a big towel in my car, so decided to catch the monkey.

I got the towel, and slowly approached it.

As I got close, I threw the towel over its head, and grabbed it by the back of the neck!

All hell broke loose!

The monkey started screaming, he grabbed my leg with both his hands and feet, was trying to bite me.

I was strong keep his teeth away from my leg.

“Come out and help me! Or I will smash the glass and throw him into the house!”

He comes out, and I tell him to open the back of his car.

He did.

I throw the monkey in, and we close the door.

Remember, this was an estate car.

First thing he did was shit all over the place!

The stink was incredible!

Then he proceeded to bite chunks of the seats and inside plastic if the doors!

I called Horst - some of might remember him, he was the curator of our zoo.

He came with a cage and took the monkey away.

My friend said he was going to be in trouble, as he would be late for work.

Told him to call his boss and let him know what happened.

“I am going to be late this afternoon”

“Why? What is wrong?”

“There is a monkey in my car! Saeed put him there!”

Apparently that answers all questions!

Good one!

back a few winters when airlines were r8n by humans we'd pack some fireworks rockets wait for their 2 o clock drink at a waterhole and when the whole troop got tgere we'd launch a rocket or 2 in their direction then pandemonium

The best baboon story I have is from my first safari.

I was hunting with Mokore safaris and Neil Duckworth had this rubber black mamba snake. He tied it to an orange and threw it out near camp where the baboons were visiting the water. Anyhow this baboon picked up the orange and started to eat it. Another stole the orange and started to run- and the snake followed…

Pandemonium in the troop!

The one that has the orange isn’t willing to drop it and goes into overdrive… and runs head on into a tree- knocking him out.

He lays there for about 15 minutes then staggers off… and the snake is retrieved for other pranks.

This just keeps getting better and better!

Thank you CRButler. I'm off to Zambia next week so tomorrow I'm going shopping for a rubber snake. I doubt I will ever get a reaction that good but it's worth trying!

quote:

aboons have 94% of our DNA!

not hard to remember jusat go to the political forum
since the fireworks are a no no now i use a slingshot just zap onr with a marula nut then watch the fight start
fun with crocs too never seen move so fast until hit with a rock

When my daughter was at elementary school, I used to take her to school in the morning.

We normally arrive before the gates open.

Many of the other students were brought by their mothers, and a few fathers.

We have lots of different animals in our house, and we get school kids come over to enjoy a day at the zoo.

One day one of the mothers asked what animals we had.

I told her crocodiles, cheetahs, ostriches, snakes, turtles and many gazelles and oryx.

And one monkey.

Her daughter asked "You REALLY have a MONKEY?'

My daughter, very proudly, screamed "ME! ME! ME!"

I've shot a good number of baboons for cat bait but the best story I have ever heard came from one of CMS's profession hunters at the time. He said there was a big cheeky dog stealing women's purses off their shoulders in a local park, so he dressed up like a woman and carried a purse to the park. A big baboon came running over and jerked the purse off his shoulder not knowing that Rich was holding a 44mag tucked inside the purse... Boom!

I look forward to bringing a coffee into my office in the morning and reading the baboon stories. Fun.