22 September 2025, 08:10
lavacaNext Destination
I'm torn on next hunt so thought I'd ask for thoughts from my colleagues on this forum. I love hunting buffalo and cats mostly, but do want another elephant before I hang it up and there are a couple of plains game species that I'd like. Roan in particular are my nemesis. I think God does not want me to shoot a roan. East African Greater Kudu is another species I would really like to take. I have a couple of Southern Greater Kudu, but not East African.
22 September 2025, 08:20
lavacaPosted before I asked the question. For your next hunt, would you hunt elephant in Botswana, or would you stick with the buffalo/cats plan or try to mix it up and increase odds on Roan and Kudu?
Here are my thoughts on options. Welcome other options.
1. Botswana elephant;
2. Muhesi for cats and I hear good on Roan and Kudu, but tough for buffalo;
3. Split between Muhesi and Lukwati, which is also good for cats and better for buffalo.
22 September 2025, 12:29
SaeedYou might wish to contact Corey Knowlton if you are interested in big elephants.
22 September 2025, 12:49
fulvioquote:
Originally posted by lavaca:
Posted before I asked the question. For your next hunt, would you hunt elephant in Botswana, or would you stick with the buffalo/cats plan or try to mix it up and increase odds on Roan and Kudu?
Here are my thoughts on options. Welcome other options.
1. Botswana elephant;
2. Muhesi for cats and I hear good on Roan and Kudu, but tough for buffalo;
3. Split between Muhesi and Lukwati, which is also good for cats and better for buffalo.
Am somewhat surprised you did not manage to score on Roan and E.A. Gr. kudu in Lukwati.
22 September 2025, 13:57
Saeedquote:
Originally posted by fulvio:
quote:
Originally posted by lavaca:
Posted before I asked the question. For your next hunt, would you hunt elephant in Botswana, or would you stick with the buffalo/cats plan or try to mix it up and increase odds on Roan and Kudu?
Here are my thoughts on options. Welcome other options.
1. Botswana elephant;
2. Muhesi for cats and I hear good on Roan and Kudu, but tough for buffalo;
3. Split between Muhesi and Lukwati, which is also good for cats and better for buffalo.
Am somewhat surprised you did not manage to score on Roan and E.A. Gr. kudu in Lukwati.
May be he went back to camp too early!
All the roan that I have shot were at sunset!
In fact, I was surprised I actually hit the last one I shot.
He was about 200 yards from us, looking into the sunset, which had already gone down.
Looking straight at us, and I had to be in a sort of kneeling down position to get a clear shot while resting my rifle on a tree truck.
Luckily I was using my NO MISS bullets!
22 September 2025, 20:42
Tim FerrallI hunted in Uganda in April with KOS Safaris, and saw more Roan than I knew existed.
22 September 2025, 21:30
BiebsBack when I hunted Burkina Faso, the trophy fee for a Roan was only $900!
22 September 2025, 22:19
crbutlerI am not entirely sold on Botswana elephant. I’ve been kicking it around, and they do shoot big ones, but multiple PH’s have said that it’s both a gamble time wise and they tend to make you leave as soon as you shoot the elephant. Unfortunately there isn’t much else to hunt in Botswana when hunting elephant.
I took East African roan pretty providentially.
If you want Roan, I’d do sable/roan in Zambia and you could add buffalo or cats without too much difficulty. I will say that when I shot my western roan in Cameroon, it was not a very difficult hunt (unlike the LDE). If you haven’t done a Cameroon savanna hunt it’s quite different flavor than the southern/East African hunts.
I love hunting Tanzania with the open license and 4 of the big 5 available, but I just can’t justify the money they want at this point for the good areas. If money is no object, getting an open bag at Maswa with Mike Fell would likely net you a very good elephant in addition to cats and buffalo, but I don’t recall seeing roan there. There were some greater kudu around though rare.
One of my greatest hunting memories was at Maswa and hitting the wildebeest migration… we literally couldn’t drive there were so many around.
23 September 2025, 04:07
Steve Ahrenbergquote:
Originally posted by crbutler:
I am not entirely sold on Botswana elephant. I’ve been kicking it around, and they do shoot big ones, but multiple PH’s have said that it’s both a gamble time wise and they tend to make you leave as soon as you shoot the elephant. Unfortunately there isn’t much else to hunt in Botswana when hunting elephant.
I took East African roan pretty providentially.
If you want Roan, I’d do sable/roan in Zambia and you could add buffalo or cats without too much difficulty. I will say that when I shot my western roan in Cameroon, it was not a very difficult hunt (unlike the LDE). If you haven’t done a Cameroon savanna hunt it’s quite different flavor than the southern/East African hunts.
I love hunting Tanzania with the open license and 4 of the big 5 available, but I just can’t justify the money they want at this point for the good areas. If money is no object, getting an open bag at Maswa with Mike Fell would likely net you a very good elephant in addition to cats and buffalo, but I don’t recall seeing roan there. There were some greater kudu around though rare.
One of my greatest hunting memories was at Maswa and hitting the wildebeest migration… we literally couldn’t drive there were so many around.
WHen I hunted Botswana for Jumbo, shooting a ~50# would have been possible about every hour. I hunted NG 41, which runs adjacent Chobe park. A 10 day hunt there could produce something special.
I shot a 60 at noon on day 2. The bull had a large nerve, it looked bigger, but I was satisfied. Had I known just how many large bulls we would see, I would have insisted on waiting.
I believe a 65-75 or bigger is possible on a 10 day hunt.