I would like to hunt hippo as they return to water but many areas are not conducive to that. Who has done a hunt like this and what areas are recommended?

Yukon,

I haven't done it, but I would figure the Selous in the dryer months would be about as likely a place as any. Probably not as cheap a place as any, but likely none the less. I'm sure Shakari could chime in on this one.

Brett

I know TZ will come up a lot in this topic. I'm hoping to find an alternative location. Some guys won't hunt Zim and I feel the same about TZ.

What I would like to find is a dry land hunt in Moz...or stalking them in the reeds. That should be sufficient to elevate the heart rate.

I've got Duane Wiebe's old 500 Jeffery and he took cape buff with it. It will take bull ele next year in the Caprivi and I would like to shoot a hippo with it too.

Did you talk to Vaughan or Wendell? Before I decided to do the tuskless hunt I was looking pretty hard at the Caprivi and the thought was you might be able to do it there at the right time of year.

Myles and I talked about it as well but I cannot recall if he suggested Tanzania or Mozambique. One thing they do sometimes is chase them in mokoros in thick reeds where it is not the standard brain shot from the bank hunt.

Good luck. That is the way I would want to hunt hippo.

Yes, that was my first thought as well (to get one in Caprivi). I am holding out on that as a slight possibility. Most of them are shot in the water there. I know a few guys have gone into the reeds after them and I would do that. I just don't want to snipe one that has the top of his head sticking up.

This may not be an a country that springs to mind immediately but you may want to check into Benin for Hippo. Somewhat of a departure from Southern and Eastern Africa in terms of vegetation and the Pendjari River/Konkombri region is, basically, dense forest. Hunting Hippo there, in the early morning as they returned to water, would provide a defibrilator-type jolt.

zambia - w/ john duploy - that river is full of hippos and they move out frequently during the day

Thanks for the Benin suggestion. That kind of odd hunt interests me. I'm just warped that way. I will look into it. Any more info?

I like DuPloy's operation. I will consider that as well. Thanks.

quote:

what areas are recommended?

Selous K2 or Kilombero Valley


Seloushunter

Don't know how accurate this is, but I am told that in the Chewore North area of the Zambezi Valley Chifuti shoots most of their hippo on dry land. I was told by Tim Danklef that this is becuase the river current there is so swift that a bull shot in the river might be recovered 5 miles downstream.

In any case, I'll let you know when I return, as I'm booked for a hippo there starting at the end of June (just after I cast my ballot in the run off election )

I've told them, I too, wanted to shoot one on dry land if at all possible. I guess they leave the river at night to feed in the jess, and the trick is to catch one on the way back.

I would love a hunt like this--maybe a combo buff or leopard with a hippo would be awesome

Zambia with Duploy might be the place----I recently emailed him for pricing for cat(spotted)
Zambia prices will be higher than Zim by a large amount

I'll be hunting in the Caprivi for Hippo (among other things) in Vaughan's area the first couple of weeks in July this year. It will be in the Zambezi flood plain, which I know has lots of islands, etc. I'll let you know if the possibility of the kind of hunt you want for Hippo looks likely.

Thanks. I'll be there end of July in '09. I'm booked in the Salambala conservancy and as I understand it, the hippo quota are in the Kasika area. Not that I can't move but that's just my understanding of the setup.

I'll be hunting in both Salambala and Kasika in July for Hippo, Buff, and Elephant. I will let you know on the Hippo when we return in August.

Thanks. It sounds like a number of us have the same ideas for the same area. Who are you guys using for PH in the Caprivi...Vaughan, Fred or someone else?

with duploy spotted pussycrats cost. you can take hippo with a 7 or 10 day buff hunt pretty reasonable, but when you add cat to it the hunt goes to 14 days, trophy fee 3900, plus the concession fee goes from 1000 for 7 days 2000 for 10 days to 6000 for the 14 day. on the 7 or 10 day you can also take a bunch of plains game plus croc, which there are lots of in the river too

The fee structure in Zambia is irritating but every place seems to have versions of it. I'll look closer at DuPloy's pricing. He is in my list of PHs I would like to hunt with.

quote:

Originally posted by butchloc:
with duploy spotted pussycrats cost. you can take hippo with a 7 or 10 day buff hunt pretty reasonable, but when you add cat to it the hunt goes to 14 days, trophy fee 3900, plus the concession fee goes from 1000 for 7 days 2000 for 10 days to 6000 for the 14 day. on the 7 or 10 day you can also take a bunch of plains game plus croc, which there are lots of in the river too

I was looking that over last week---costs add up fast--------it seems Zambia on costs are very high----painfully high

Martin Pieters up around Lake Kariba in Zim has told me dry land hippo is a strong option. I can see that from having hunted near there last year.

Benin is much less confusing and annoying in terms of pricing. For example, you could do a 10-day safari there, for > $13,000 (+ Trophy Fees), and everything, except Lion, is on the menu. (Lion requires some additional arrangements in Benin.) In other words, you're not limited to species in Group X for X number of days. Anyway, you could add some pretty unique species - Western Savannah Buff, Sing-Sing Waterbuck, Western Roan, Western Kob, Western Hartebeest, etc. The Trophy Fees are quite reasonable as well - for instance, Buff and Roan at less than $1K. That's tough to find elsewhere in Africa.

I'm traveling and don't have access to my usual info sources. Who is hunting in Benin...Club Faune?

I looked on the hunting report:

Club Faune has a bunch of reports and Afric Safari 2 reports in 2003. Hope this helps.

Roan sounds pretty tempting to me!

Brett

quote:

Originally posted by butchloc:
zambia - w/ john duploy - that river is full of hippos and they move out frequently during the day

That's what we told Laura to relay to Alister and Dale that we would like to try in September while we're there. She said it would be tough to catch them on land but that we can give it a try.

Cheers,
Andy

Wendell, who books for Caprivi and Du Ploy, tells me that dry land hippo in either place is not likely. Someone will get one occasionally out of the water but I guess it's not high odds.

quote:

Originally posted by yukon delta:
Wendell, who books for Caprivi and Du Ploy, tells me that dry land hippo in either place is not likely. Someone will get one occasionally out of the water but I guess it's not high odds.

That's exactly what we were told but time permitting we're going to have a crack a it and see if we can get lucky.

Cheers,
Andy

I'll be hunting with Vaughan. Hunting them on dry land was not a requirment of mine so I haven't spoken with Wendell or Vaughan about the possibilities.

quote:

Benin is much less confusing and annoying in terms of pricing. For example, you could do a 10-day safari there, for > $13,000 (+ Trophy Fees), and everything, except Lion, is on the menu. (Lion requires some additional arrangements in Benin.) In other words, you're not limited to species in Group X for X number of days. Anyway, you could add some pretty unique species - Western Savannah Buff, Sing-Sing Waterbuck, Western Roan, Western Kob, Western Hartebeest, etc. The Trophy Fees are quite reasonable as well - for instance, Buff and Roan at less than $1K. That's tough to find elsewhere in Africa.

Don't want to make a point of refuting your post, however I hunted Benin with Club Faune in January of this year and the quota of hippo is very small and usually requires a 20 day rather than 13 day hunt. Also, most costs have gone up primarily because of the weak dollar/euro exchange rate. My trophy fees for roan and buff were over $1000 apiece but still reasonable in comparison to trophy fees for the same species in Tanzania or Zambia. It is an option but I would consider doing your homework before deciding on Benin for hippo. A great place to start is Olivia Angelloz at San Miguel Outdoors. Good luck in your quest.

We almost forgot the the one and only----
MARK SULLIVAN!!!!

seriously,

At SCI Reno, I was talking to Buzz about a future PAC or tuskless hunt and mentioned a desire to take a hippo someday.

Buzz mentioned he hunts hippos in Moz and does try to catch them on the banks out of water.
So Buzz maybe an option. He may hunt them in Zim too---he just mentioned Moz

PS. please excuse me for mentioning Buzz in the same posting as Mark Sullivan ---no similarity intended

Thanks Russell. I just finished reading your Benin report again. Interesting hunt for sure.

I planned on talking to Buzz again but from past conversations, I think that most of them are taken in the water. I still think I could talk Buzz into chasing them in the reeds.

As much as it pains me to admit, it was old video of hippos charging "him whose name cannot be spoken" that got me interested in hippos years ago. I always thought hippo hunts in water were mostly exercises in accuracy and little else until I saw what a hippo could do on dry land. They're much more impressive out of water.

Since you mentioned Buzz, ask him sometime about the hippo that ate his canoe while he was still in it. He gets a little worked up about that.

quote:

Originally posted by yukon delta:
As much as it pains me to admit, it was old video of hippos charging "him whose name cannot be spoken" that got me interested in hippos years ago. I always thought hippo hunts in water were mostly exercises in accuracy and little else until I saw what a hippo could do on dry land. They're much more impressive out of water.

Since you mentioned Buzz, ask him sometime about the hippo that ate his canoe while he was still in it. He gets a little worked up about that.

I am with you on hunting them out of the water. That would be way cool.
Buzz did mention that it is difficult to catch one out of the water.

I hopefully will someday get the chance to hunt a hippo on dry land
if you get something set up ---drop me a line

good hunting

quote:

Originally posted by bwanamrm:
Don't want to make a point of refuting your post, however I hunted Benin with Club Faune in January of this year and the quota of hippo is very small and usually requires a 20 day rather than 13 day hunt. Also, most costs have gone up primarily because of the weak dollar/euro exchange rate. My trophy fees for roan and buff were over $1000 apiece but still reasonable in comparison to trophy fees for the same species in Tanzania or Zambia. It is an option but I would consider doing your homework before deciding on Benin for hippo. A great place to start is Olivia Angelloz at San Miguel Outdoors. Good luck in your quest.

bwanamrm,

No refutation at all - in fact, your report is what got me interested and looking into Benin more seriously. The outfitter I referenced above was Afric Safari and their '09 programs are 7 and 10 day hunts with Hippo available on either one. (They do a longer one for Lion.)

I have seen hippo on land in Martin Peters Kariba block and hippo can be taken on land further down the Valley but its best to try for them early in the season before they get gun shy and nocturnal.

You hunted with Martin? He's an interesting guy and gets some nice ele and big lion...shoot, he's just got a good DG area in general.

As hippo live in water and feed on land, it's not impossible to shoot one on land anywhere where there's hippo. - The problems are that usually the light isn't so good and so it's not so easy to sex them and you might need a second set of eyes in your ass to make sure one doesn't come up behind you. - But it's not imppossible. Shooring them on land also means you don't have the risk or the hassle of recovering them from the water. - In the good oooooold days, when everything was in black and white we used to lamp 'em for culling, and although it's not for the faint hearted, I do remember it was also a lot of fun....... That must have been a quarter of a century ago!

If you want a hippo at a reasonable price, then Mozambique would be a good bet. Try contacting Johan/Bahati who has an excellent operation up there and if he can't help you, there's a few others as well. If you do go to Mozambique for a hippo, you should also consider taking a flatdog as well because they're also a good size and a good price up there.

If Johan can't help you, there's a few other guys post here that also run other decent operations up there. - Walter Enslin and Freidreich amongst 'em. - Although I'm not sure if their areas are Coutadas or not. Johan's area is definately a Coutada.

quote:

No refutation at all - in fact, your report is what got me interested and looking into Benin more seriously. The outfitter I referenced above was Afric Safari and their '09 programs are 7 and 10 day hunts with Hippo available on either one. (They do a longer one for Lion.)

Pinto... great I hope you hunt Benin in the future. It's a very interesting hunting destination and off the beaten hunting track! Good luck and if you ever have any questions, pm me.