Who has hunted buffalo at one of the private reserves which are part of Greater Kruger? How was the hunt, is there a lot of infrastructure one can see during the hunt, i e fences, tarred roads, buildings etc? It’s not wild Africa anymore but still, does the hunting area look ‘civilized'?

Would you hunt there again?
Did you see quite a number of old bulls, at least 12-years +?
Who was your outfitter?
Who was your ph?

Looking forward to some reports.

I've hunted the Greater Kruger ecosystem several times, as have numerous clients of mine. The areas are pretty cool, the hunting is fabulous, the buff / game is wild, and the outfitters / PH's are good as well. I'm sure you'll experience a good hunt, but no...its not the wilds of western TZ for example!

quote:

Originally posted by Sunshine:
Who has hunted buffalo at one of the private reserves which are part of Greater Kruger? How was the hunt, is there a lot of infrastructure one can see during the hunt, i e fences, tarred roads, buildings etc? It’s not wild Africa anymore but still, does the hunting area look ‘civilized'?

Would you hunt there again?
Did you see quite a number of old bulls, at least 12-years +?
Who was your outfitter?
Who was your ph?

Looking forward to some reports.

What is your priority in a hunt?

What Aaron said! That's been my experience as well. I've hunted the Balule and it was great!

Sunshine I hunted there just before Covid with John Luyt. Great guy and super PH and very knowledgeable. He used to oversee conservation for both Timbavati and Klaserie. If you hunt with him for buffalo you have traversing rights over 60000 ha about 130,000 acres. The property units are about 2,500 ha with typically a small camp on the Western side along the Klaserie river. I wanted a authentic rustic tent camp experience and we camped on the banks of the Klaserie. Hiked the river bed and did not see anybody else but passed a few camps walking about 15 km a day. Bumped into leopards and elephants. Lions, elephants, leopar around camp and of course hyenas. 200 yards away on return with LC had wild dogs and white rhino. Took a day trip in Kruger Park and Timbavati Museum. John owns Duke Safaris and coming to DSC. Also does elephant hunt. Note Klaserie and Timbavati are completely open to Kruger Park so depending on rains and migration populations will vary. I v hunted Namibia, Zim, SA elsewhere and this is one of my favorite trips. I did both BVC in Zim and Klaserie on the trip and they are among the best in Southern Africa. Of course if you don’t want to tent and get close to nature at night, there are several luxury lodges away from the river on the mopani veld on the east side.

PS spent three days before we found a old bull. Tracked him for most of a day and eventually sneaked up on him while he was dozing and shot him at about 50-60 yds in the spine with a .577 and TSX , never flinched and just dropped his head.

quote:

Originally posted by LR3:
Sunshine I hunted there just before Covid with John Luyt. Great guy and super PH and very knowledgeable. He used to oversee conservation for both Timbavati and Klaserie. If you hunt with him for buffalo you have traversing rights over 60000 ha about 130,000 acres. The property units are about 2,500 ha with typically a small camp on the Western side along the Klaserie river. I wanted a authentic rustic tent camp experience and we camped on the banks of the Klaserie. Hiked the river bed and did not see anybody else but passed a few camps walking about 15 km a day. Bumped into leopards and elephants. Lions, elephants, leopar around camp and of course hyenas. 200 yards away on return with LC had wild dogs and white rhino. Took a day trip in Kruger Park and Timbavati Museum. John owns Duke Safaris and coming to DSC. Also does elephant hunt. Note Klaserie and Timbavati are completely open to Kruger Park so depending on rains and migration populations will vary. I v hunted Namibia, Zim, SA elsewhere and this is one of my favorite trips. I did both BVC in Zim and Klaserie on the trip and they are among the best in Southern Africa. Of course if you don’t want to tent and get close to nature at night, there are several luxury lodges away from the river on the mopani veld on the east side.

Sorry for my late reply and thank you so much for the highly valuable infos. I do know Kruger as good as my pocket, since decades I'm visiting that wonderful place several times a year. Obviously I'm quite familiar with Kruger's buffalo, have seen lots of old to very old ones, that's what I want to get.

However I wasn't sure regarding Timbavati and Klaserie but it sounds great and I gonna do the booking. Three years ago I had booked a buffalo hunt in Zimbabwe, the hunting area is just north of Kruger, on the other side of the Limpopo river, I didn't see a single buffalo during the entire time.

quote:

Originally posted by Sunshine:

quote:

Originally posted by LR3:
Sunshine I hunted there just before Covid with John Luyt. Great guy and super PH and very knowledgeable. He used to oversee conservation for both Timbavati and Klaserie. If you hunt with him for buffalo you have traversing rights over 60000 ha about 130,000 acres. The property units are about 2,500 ha with typically a small camp on the Western side along the Klaserie river. I wanted a authentic rustic tent camp experience and we camped on the banks of the Klaserie. Hiked the river bed and did not see anybody else but passed a few camps walking about 15 km a day. Bumped into leopards and elephants. Lions, elephants, leopar around camp and of course hyenas. 200 yards away on return with LC had wild dogs and white rhino. Took a day trip in Kruger Park and Timbavati Museum. John owns Duke Safaris and coming to DSC. Also does elephant hunt. Note Klaserie and Timbavati are completely open to Kruger Park so depending on rains and migration populations will vary. I v hunted Namibia, Zim, SA elsewhere and this is one of my favorite trips. I did both BVC in Zim and Klaserie on the trip and they are among the best in Southern Africa. Of course if you don’t want to tent and get close to nature at night, there are several luxury lodges away from the river on the mopani veld on the east side.

Sorry for my late reply and thank you so much for the highly valuable infos. I do know Kruger as good as my pocket, since decades I'm visiting that wonderful place several times a year. Obviously I'm quite familiar with Kruger's buffalo, have seen lots of old to very old ones, that's what I want to get.

However I wasn't sure regarding Timbavati and Klaserie but it sounds great and I gonna do the booking. Three years ago I had booked a buffalo hunt in Zimbabwe, the hunting area is just north of Kruger, on the other side of the Limpopo river, I didn't see a single buffalo during the entire time.

That is awful!

We just returned from hunting Mlele in Tanzania.

That place is over run with buffalo!

Our group shot 21.

Best of luck, I do hope you get your buffalo.

Hi,
I have hunted Balule Game Reserve. Area is great. Lots of buffalo and elephant. Plains game a bit limited.
We had a certain age and size restriction on the buffalo, which I enjoyed actually because you can't just shoot the first decent bull.

Regarding the wilderness aspect, I felt it's definetly less wild then , for example, the save valley.

Jan Dumon organized the hunt for us and Jan is a top guy.

Regards,
Dennis

quote:

Originally posted by Caracal:
Hi,
I have hunted Balule Game Reserve. Areas are great. Lots of buffalo and elephant. Plains game a bit limited.
We had a certain age and size restriction on the buffalo, which I enjoyed actually because you can't just shoot the first decent bull.

Regarding the wilderness aspect, I felt it's definetly less wild then , for example, the save valley.

Janu Dumon organized the hunt for us and Jan is a top guy.

Regards,
Dennis

As Dennis says here...you might check with Jan Dumon, he hunts the Balule alot. I've hunted with him and have more than a dozen of my friends / clients...good guy. He's a member here on AR too.

I get the opportunity to tender every year on the Klaserie quota and is one of the Outfitters on their panel.

The hunt is about as wild as you can get in South Africa, but there are some private "bush houses" dispersed over the area. You hunt wild animals though.

The one thing I HATE about the APNR hunts are the size restrictions. I am all for AGE restrictions but the SIZE restrictions takes away all the fun on the hunt. I know why they implemented the rules, I just cannot walk up to @ 41" 12 year old Duggaboy and tell my client he is an inch (or couple of inches) too long for what we can hunt (as the limit might be 38" or 40")I is also VERY tough on any professional to judge any animal to within an inch or a within a pound of a trophy size. No one should be punished for not getting it right that tight.....but then again, as the reserve rightly points out, you will always have those guides that will take a short cut and NOT conform to the rules.

My last hunt I conducted there was in 2017. Shot a fantastic old 40" Duggaboy after a helluva tracking day. Started at 6am on them, and killed him at 5PM, after eating a back pack lunch on his trail. He was clearly within the protocol and we were lucky. I spend 10 days hunting Elephant (limited to 33lbs) there and never saw a Buffalo bull like that again. The next year they changed the limit of the Buff to 38" and I moved my whole DG operation to Tanzania. Never looked back. And to be clear, my Buff hunts in Tanzania, ALL IN, are cheaper than an APNR hunt ALL IN.

If the APNR is something you badly WANT to do, and you are informed and happy with the size limits imposed by the reserve, then I would not even consider hunting with anyone else in the APNR than with John Luyt. His two PH's Andri and Roelof are top notch and great fun. It does not matter who you book with, one of these three gentleman will accompany you on the hunt as the reserve "reps". Unless drastically changed in the last year.

If you would like my company, then I would gladly Outfit the hunt for you! I would still go to Tanzania for the same money.......

quote:

Originally posted by infinito:
I get the opportunity to tender every year on the Klaserie quota and is one of the Outfitters on their panel.

The hunt is about as wild as you can get in South Africa, but there are some private "bush houses" dispersed over the area. You hunt wild animals though.

The one thing I HATE about the APNR hunts are the size restrictions. I am all for AGE restrictions but the SIZE restrictions takes away all the fun on the hunt. I know why they implemented the rules, I just cannot walk up to @ 41" 12 year old Duggaboy and tell my client he is an inch (or couple of inches) too long for what we can hunt (as the limit might be 38" or 40")I is also VERY tough on any professional to judge any animal to within an inch or a within a pound of a trophy size. No one should be punished for not getting it right that tight.....but then again, as the reserve rightly points out, you will always have those guides that will take a short cut and NOT conform to the rules.

I had booked a buffalo at the BVC, there the size was restricted to 33“ for a non-trophy bull. A big trophy would have been too expensive for a poor South African…

quote:

Originally posted by Sunshine:

quote:

Originally posted by infinito:
I get the opportunity to tender every year on the Klaserie quota and is one of the Outfitters on their panel.

The hunt is about as wild as you can get in South Africa, but there are some private "bush houses" dispersed over the area. You hunt wild animals though.

The one thing I HATE about the APNR hunts are the size restrictions. I am all for AGE restrictions but the SIZE restrictions takes away all the fun on the hunt. I know why they implemented the rules, I just cannot walk up to @ 41" 12 year old Duggaboy and tell my client he is an inch (or couple of inches) too long for what we can hunt (as the limit might be 38" or 40")I is also VERY tough on any professional to judge any animal to within an inch or a within a pound of a trophy size. No one should be punished for not getting it right that tight.....but then again, as the reserve rightly points out, you will always have those guides that will take a short cut and NOT conform to the rules.

I had booked a buffalo at the BVC, there the size was restricted to 33“ for a non-trophy bull. A big trophy would have been too expensive for a poor South African…

Interesting....so you know all about the APNR? Why the questions? Market research ?

quote:

Originally posted by infinito:

quote:

Originally posted by Sunshine:

quote:

Originally posted by infinito:
I get the opportunity to tender every year on the Klaserie quota and is one of the Outfitters on their panel.

The hunt is about as wild as you can get in South Africa, but there are some private "bush houses" dispersed over the area. You hunt wild animals though.

The one thing I HATE about the APNR hunts are the size restrictions. I am all for AGE restrictions but the SIZE restrictions takes away all the fun on the hunt. I know why they implemented the rules, I just cannot walk up to @ 41" 12 year old Duggaboy and tell my client he is an inch (or couple of inches) too long for what we can hunt (as the limit might be 38" or 40")I is also VERY tough on any professional to judge any animal to within an inch or a within a pound of a trophy size. No one should be punished for not getting it right that tight.....but then again, as the reserve rightly points out, you will always have those guides that will take a short cut and NOT conform to the rules.

I had booked a buffalo at the BVC, there the size was restricted to 33“ for a non-trophy bull. A big trophy would have been too expensive for a poor South African…

Interesting....so you know all about the APNR? Why the questions? Market research ?

I only had once the opportunity to Experience a hunt (?) for Elephant as an Observer in the famed Timbavati.
It was more like a Park hunt but definitely not a REAL hunt. You could drive up to the many different Elephants and Buffalos ( The Size of this Dagga Boys where very Impressive ! ) and the where not moving at All. The Animals there had the Impression that we where some Photo Tourists
During the search for Elephants by Car the Driver was in Radio contact with the Photo Tourist cars to not meet on the Roads
When the mandatory Timbavati Guide finally had given the OK to take a certain Elephant we had to wait in the Car for 40 Minutes until ALL Tourist Cars are far and away from the Spot to here not the Noise of a Rifle....
EACH HIS OWN but this is definitely not HUNTING what I understand !

Just a point of clarification since I did not mention width restrictions. I had asked Kevin Robertson for PH recommendation for Klaserie for an old buffalo. He recommended John. I have a mounted 47” buffalo from Namibia with swept back horns. Indeed, compared to the widest ever, the one from E Africa killed by lions of 68” ( I was offered a fiberglass model of them and to use a buffalo cape I had by Katharina Hecker of Nico van Rooyen Taxidermy. Her father found the 68” horns and had pictures of it before it got killed) mine is 4” shorter on either side in length (not width). So I was not looking for width and so I never had a discussion about that but rather age. And John delivered on a most memorable hunt! And same for BVC I asked Brent Hein for an old bull.