Just interested in knowing from you experiences which african game animals be it plains game or dangerous game are the toughest to bring down or which ones have surprised you with their stamina and will even when badly wounded

The animals that often get described as tough are buff, sable, zebra and sometimes lions have amazed me with their tenacity but then again i want to hear your opinions

Manuel, welcome to AR. Many of the African animals are tenacious of life. I remember shooting a Duiker with a 300 RUM on my first safari, and it wouldn't give up, despite most of its entrails dragging behind it. But it would be difficult to find a harder animal to kill than a Cape Buffalo. They can absorb many large-caliber rounds and act like nothing has happened. If you think you carry a big, powerful caliber, just use it on a Cape Buff hunt...it is humbling :-)

That's an easy one for me--- the Cape Buffalo.
They just don't die easy.

Buffalo. Jeez, I can't believe how tough some of them can be. Usually, if shot poorly on the first shot, they can be tough as hell to kill.

Plainsgame: Wildebeest, Sable and Zebra are tough.

quote:

Originally posted by BEGNO:
... They just don't die easy.

Neither does a coon-ass in Africa.

For plains game I would have to say zebra. The last one I shot fell down, got up then fell down again got up, walked in a circle and finally fell over dead it was shot in the heart).
For DG I would have to say Buff, especially when wounded. They can really soak up some lead.

Buff for sure on the DG side. For plains game, my vote goes to a big Gemsbok bull.

Toughness is relative. The size of a buff makes them difficult to bring down unless you do damage to the CNS or vitals but consider you are shooting a 1500lb animal with a 500 grain bullet. Well maybe a whitetail which is 1/10 the weight would be hard to drop if you only had 50 grain bullets. Also they are chased by lions from the time they are born and your typical NA game does not suffer nearly as much depredation.
That being said I have seen a bushbuck hit in the right rear by a 175gr 7x57 bullet that traversed its entire body and took out most of the vital organs lead us on a merry chase.

quote:

Originally posted by ManuelM:
Just interested in knowing from you experiences which african[s] . . . are the toughest to bring down or which ones have surprised you with their stamina and will . . . . that . . . have amazed me with their tenacity . . . .

Zimbos in the hunting industry.

Honey badger!

Once saw a lioness take 45 minutes to kill a honey badger ... all of that time the younger males were biting ratel's arse (and getting the results in their mouths!) The honey badger also had the lioness by the throat.

There were 5 badgers together - very unusual.

When BEGNO is in Africa it is BEGNO.

quote:

Originally posted by bobgrow:
Buff for sure on the DG side. For plains game, my vote goes to a big Gemsbok bull.

Ah, yes! I forgot about the Gemsbuck. I'll put him on my list as well.

Begno...Buffalo fear him :-)

Based purely on my own hunting experiences, i would definately say buffalo. I have averaged close to 5 rounds per buff vs two for elephant. Those include finishing shots.

465H&H

My experience is limited to plains game. However, gemsbok have been amazingly tenacious animals....and with good shots through the lungs. They just keep going and going and going.

I've only been on two safaris in Zim so have limited experience but the sable I shot was pretty tough - 1st shot he was standing at a quarter-angle looking back over his shoulder (150+/- yards) and he stumbled at the hit and took off at a gallop - 2nd shot went in the hip and traveled the length of his body but didn't quite exit - knocked him head over heels like a cowpony in a western movie - up and running - 3rd shot was a miss - 4th shot took him in the other him and traversed forward where it too stopped just short of exiting. Knocked him down and got up staggering. He was getting close to the concession boundary and as the PH had a good angle and, with a stiff knee I wasn't up to running up to put him down, I told him to take the shot. I was shooting a 300gr Nosler Partition at 2525 fps out of my .375.

Used the same load on a running zebra stallion at 100+ yards on a high lung shot and it knocked him down briefly and as he got up he staggered a little a went down.

Used the same load for a frontal shot at 40" buff at less than 50 yards - hit in the crease where the neck joins the body and he hit the ground hard enough to kick up dust. Nothing is very tough with a broken neck.

quote:

Originally posted by 465H&H:
Based purely on my own hunting experiences, i would definately say buffalo. I have averaged close to 5 rounds per buff vs two for elephant. Those include finishing shots.

465H&H

Careful now Walt. 5 rounds per buff! Saeed will be jumping in here any moment telling you how that's a failed hunt for a buff to take more than one shot!

I'm averaging about 4 rounds per buff myself. Lots of failed buff hunts on my part!!

Toughest? The one you hit wrong with the 1st shot.....


Mad Dog

I just got back from my first ever African Plains Game hunt in Namibia, so I'm a "Newbie".
The first animal I encountered was a Blue Wildebeest. First shot from a .300 Weatherby was well placed in the shoulder. Down he went and up he got. After three more hits, he was down for good. One tough animal.
My PH said the Blue Wildebeest is one tough trophy and he wanted to check him off the list first.
My second toughest was the Zebra.

Mauser

For what I have heard cape buffalo are pound per pound the toughest of the big five but i have often been curious on how lions can take punishment being so relatively small and thin skinned, i mean they are hunted with the same calibers than cape buff after all.

The only game animal I have found that really took some killing was a Black Wildebeest. I have shot a total of 4 but 2 of them took quite a bit of killing due to poor initial shots. No excuses for the shots ,just poor placement and range estimation on my part. They are tough critters. One thing about them is they taste awfully good too.

I haven’t shot a very large amount of plains game in Africa, but have seen a lot of it shot. I’d say the sable is one of the hardest to put right down, but zebra is a close second.

On the DG game, I’d have to agree with most here, and call the Cape buffalo a tough S.O.B. who can soak up a lot of bullets if not hit properly with the first shot.

IMO, any animal, once wounded, can be a real problem to stop, and after they are wounded, only a CNS direct hit will stop them in their tracks.

No matter what you run into in Africa, make the first shot count, or you may be in for a fight! A little bush buck will gladly give you a free vasectomy, given the chance.
...................................................................

quote:

Originally posted by ManuelM:
Just interested in knowing from you experiences which african game animals be it plains game or dangerous game are the toughest to bring down or which ones have surprised you with their stamina and will even when badly wounded

The animals that often get described as tough are buff, sable, zebra and sometimes lions have amazed me with their tenacity but then again i want to hear your opinions

The one you don't hit properly the first time.

Buff for sure damn those things are simply like as terminators
No matter what you throw at them they seem to give you attitude

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
The one you don't hit properly the first time.

+1

Tetse fly.

You can't kill them. They have caused me more personal pain than all the buff, elephant, lion, etc. put together.

quote:

Originally posted by Todd Williams:

quote:

Originally posted by 465H&H:
Based purely on my own hunting experiences, i would definately say buffalo. I have averaged close to 5 rounds per buff vs two for elephant. Those include finishing shots.

465H&H

Careful now Walt. 5 rounds per buff! Saeed will be jumping in here any moment telling you how that's a failed hunt for a buff to take more than one shot!

I'm averaging about 4 rounds per buff myself. Lots of failed buff hunts on my part!!

You both must be using doubles.

Only shot two so the overall "average sample" may be too small for comparison but mine averaged 1 shot from a bolt.

I think one time we tried to work out the average shots per buffalo, and found that about 80% are killed with one shot.

One PH I know and trust told me he had two clients hunting together, and they fired a total of 27 shots at one bull!

Bloody good value for their money if you ask me.

Not like us, one bang and normally everything is over

With their vitals sitting forward in the chest cavity, Giraffe can soak up some serious copper. ( Not lead, don't think it would penetrate far enough)

quote:

Originally posted by KMG Hunting Safaris:
With their vitals sitting forward in the chest cavity, Giraffe can soak up some serious copper. ( Not lead, don't think it would penetrate far enough)

I have never shot a giraffe, but was with a friend who was shooting one.

WE were in Matetsi in Zimbabwe, and my friend had a 500 Jeffery he wanted to use on the giraffe.

We found an old bull, and we tried to stress to our friend to be careful of his shot.

He fired at the giraffe, and the bull took off, with us trying to get another shot in.

The giraffe was whizzing between trees, and my friend had a few goes at shooting it in the head.

The giraffe was making a beeline to the boundary, and my friend wasn't in the best of condition to run.

He was on a pacemaker.

I had my rifle with me, and managed to put a shot in the root of his tail, dropping him right on the road that separates the two concessions.

quote:

Originally posted by zimbabwe:
The only game animal I have found that really took some killing was a Black Wildebeest. I have shot a total of 4 but 2 of them took quite a bit of killing due to poor initial shots. No excuses for the shots ,just poor placement and range estimation on my part. They are tough critters. One thing about them is they taste awfully good too.

Oh yeah! Just have a look at your tracker's face as the bloody animal disappears into the hazy distance. The damn things came with self-sealing lungs long before self sealing tyres were invented.

Saeed, with the angle and description of the shot, I have no doubt that you spined him from the rear.
One of my PH's hit a Giraffe that was running away with the .375, basically in the tricep , if that gives you a good indication of the shot placement . The bullet did not break the bone as it did not penetrate far enough.
They can soak bullets. If you shoot a head shot, its over very quickly.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

One PH I know and trust told me he had two clients hunting together, and they fired a total of 27 shots at one bull!

..Not like us, one bang and normally everything is over..

One well placed arrow = one dead Buff.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVX9J4f0Nfk ..

certainly makes a mockery of some rifle shooters.

was is not one PH [MS?]..who said that rifle carrying clients are [typically] poor/lousy shots?

quote:

Originally posted by Trax:

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

One PH I know and trust told me he had two clients hunting together, and they fired a total of 27 shots at one bull!

..Not like us, one bang and normally everything is over..

One well placed arrow = one dead Buff.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVX9J4f0Nfk ..

certainly makes a mockery of some rifle shooters.

was is not one PH [MS?]..who said that rifle carrying clients are [typically] poor/lousy shots?

MS must be talking about his own clients.

May be that is why they hunt wit h him

I agree with Saeed et al.

If you pooch the first shot, ANYTHING will lead you on a merry chase.

The furthest I have had anything run with a good hit in it was an eland that ran for the better part of 500 yards with a hole in the heart and great vessels, and eland are supposedly relatively soft.

quote:

Originally posted by crbutler:
I agree with Saeed et al.

If you pooch the first shot, ANYTHING will lead you on a merry chase.

The furthest I have had anything run with a good hit in it was an eland that ran for the better part of 500 yards with a hole in the heart and great vessels, and eland are supposedly relatively soft.

A hole in the heart, as you say, can hardly be referred to as a pooched first shot. It just went a bit further than expected.

Had you gutted it, the walk and the distance would have been a lot longer!

Any animal shot poorly is usually considered tough. Shot right and they all go down in a hurry. The animals that I screwed up on that seemed to have the greatest will to live we're springbok and Wildebeast.

As for plains game,I would say Blue wildebeast,waterbuck and zebra.
As for DG Cape buffalo.
And as many have said, any animal not hit properly with the first shot.

African animals just have a will to live.

quote:

Originally posted by Mad Dog:
Toughest? The one you hit wrong with the 1st shot.....


Mad Dog

Damn, Maddog. You beat me to it.

I guess it would be no fun to mention the elephant. I've heard they can go a long way even with a correctly placed body shot.

John Taylor said waterbuck were hard to put down.