I am sure this is a question that has been posed, debated, cursed, rehashed, etc. many times before. Of the animals you personally have hunted in Africa, which is your favorite to hunt and why?

Mike

Leopard -- the old fashioned way, of course, with bait and a well-built and placed blind. Every nerve-racking minute spent watching, listening and waiting for spots to appear becomes etched in your memory for eternity. Just thinking about the five days (and nights) I spent last May in pursuit of a cat still raises my respiration and heart rate.

Buffalo and Eland.


Hamdeni

#1 Buffalo #2 Kudu Tracked on foot.

I like buf..But ele in the jess is unbelievably intense...This summer lion and leopard...hair raising...

Mike
13 weeks till the Selous

No comparison. It's Elephant all the way. Nothing else I've hunted even comes close in any way. Buffalo is a drag (to me) and Leopard either from a blind or with dogs is close ( I've taken 2) but still distant from Elephant. I have sat in a blind for Lion but never been lucky and even had the lion set on me while in the blind. Didn't know it till the next day when we went back to see if he had in fact come to the cow he had killed and found he had in fact circled the blind and lay down about 50 ft behind it till we left around midnite. Makes the hair on your neck stand up but still doesn't equal standing in a herd of Elephant and actually shooting one.

ELEPHANTS either bulls or cows.
Both far far ahead of what ever is in second place.

Elephant. Extremely intense. Hair raising, heart stopping, heart pounding, dry mouth, sweat and perspiration, senses fully focused, adrenaline rush, fear, awe, sadness, jubilation . . . .You get the message?

Elephants once you have hunted them you cant take any other form of sport seriously. Not my quote just my feelings.

I'll be the fifth in line to go with elephants. Nothing else even comes close.

JPK

Let me be the sixth in a row then to to say elephants, although I love buffalo (tracking) nearly as much. A lot of other animals make it on the list before lion and leopard, most notably kudu and eland, also springbok in the vast Kalahari.

Elephant first. I believe it is the sheer size of the animal, AND the knowledge of just how bad things get if a mistake is made. A close second, IMHO is Buff.

Elephants are too much work for an old guy. Bushbuck are tops with me.

Elephant followed by Mountain Reedbuck.

Perry

Elephant.

Well folks, I've fired exactly two shots into the heart of a bull elephant, and he wasn't even my elephant. I was hunting with the ele client friend on the two 2 on 1 Elephant hunt, with my part only including buffalo, and plains game. A brain shot was a little off, and when he turned I dropped a quick right, and left from a 500/450 double in his heart, the PH did the same,with a 458 Win mag, but before the ele got lined out, the client hunter gave him a good quartering away, brain shot finishing him on the spot. I will never be able to afford to hunt Elephant, but that little happening hooked me on Elephant.

However, of the animals I CAN afford the old buff is hands down favorite! I could hunt him every day for the rest of my life without tireing of him.

1. Baboons (lots of them)
2. Warthogs
3. Buff
4. Everything else, especially Steenbok

Dogcat,

Interesting combination. You remind me of the fellow that I hunt with. He would rather put the hammer down on a passel of pigs than take one nice buck for example -- a sort of volume over quality type trade. I insist that it has something to do with the fact that he was dropped on his head as a child.

Mike

I enjoy hunting them all, but, buffalo is at the top of my list, followed closely by elephants.

Baboons ,Baboons, and Baboons

Leopard tops out the list for me when hunted the traditional way in daylight over bait. I'm trying for my 4th next year and am very much looking forward to it. Lions, elephant, buffalo are all a rush but MR. Spots turns my crank.

Mark

My first elephant (but not my last) was a super thrill as was lion and leopard, but I don't think I would even go on a safari that didn't include buffalo!!!!

D. Nelson

Of the animals I personally have hunted, I'd say eland. Will likely change this in 2008 after hunting buff.

1. Bushbuck (any variety) for their intelligence.
2. Sable antelope for their beauty.
.

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
Dogcat,

Interesting combination. You remind me of the fellow that I hunt with. He would rather put the hammer down on a passel of pigs than take one nice buck for example -- a sort of volume over quality type trade. I insist that it has something to do with the fact that he was dropped on his head as a child.

Mike

Mike,
Be careful, don't hurt my tender little feelings.

What hooked me on baboons was the first one I shot - he was sitting on a rock, scratching his rear and basically flipped me off when we stopped the truck, got out and set up the sticks. He stared at me like I was a mopane bee or something. I drilled him in the torso and he did not move, just looked at me. I shot again, same spot, same result except I saw his little monkey fingers tightening the grip on the rock. I shot a third time and he slowly, as in slow motion, tipped over - dead as a stick. Went up to him - all three shots with .375 solids just passed through his softer parts.

THe PH and trackers laughed at me on the "misses" but then saw what happened.

THe next one was with a bunch of ladies baboons and just climbed down from the trees. The ladies were trotting off and he was lagging behind looking me over. I drilled him as well after he flipped me off.

The next one was with a bunch of others playing in a sandy river bed. They saw us, ran and sat on a hillside hollering at us while we ate lunch. Too noisy to nap, so I went over to a rock, set up and waited until the loud mouth showed his hairy little head. After about 20 minutes, he did and he died. THe rest took off for the hills but a couple of young males ran by the dead one and punched him and bit him.

I love it, I like matching wits against them.

After that, I love warthogs. They are fun and look so startled when they realize they are being hunted. They remind me of ducks coming to decoys - startled as can be when they see you.

Buff are great but darned frustrating. So many eyes looking out for themselves and tough as heck to trick.

I have not hunted cats or elephants, so I reserve comment there.

Steenbok are great due to the quickness and speed. Like hunting rabbits but more fun.

I failed to mention francolin with a .22. THat is a blast as well.

Oh well...... They are all fun to hunt.

I guess I kind of like the oddities. My favorites are Vaal Rhebok and Roan for the following reasons.

Vaal Rhebok are one of the few mountain game animals available in Africa. They can not be raised on game ranches so the only way to get them is to climb for them. Incredible eyesight and if they even have a feeling a hunter is around, Off they go. They run like the wind!!! Strictly long range shooting at a very small antelope. They have hair unlike anything else and not a lot of people have them in their collection. Mine is mounted life size and is my most treasured trophy.

Roan are fairly rare. Lots more sable than roan available. Every year, there are less and less roan around since the species is in a natural decline. You need the be in fairly remote camps the get good roan. One of the few dangerous antelope. Bigger than either sable or kudu a big bull roan is simply incredible to behold. My bull tapes over 30 inches on each horn and something like that is simply special.

Mac

I've enjoyed some fine days afield chasing kudu...though I've yet to bag one.

I know I will never be able to hunt elephant and I believe they would be #1! I've only had experience with plains game and for some reason the warthogs were my favorite by far! There may be a day when I can experience leopard and buff, but if I don't, I will have to be content on the excitement all the Alaska animals I have kiled and get to kill!

Dogcat,

No insult intended. There is no one I would rather hunt with than my buddy, the guides do not have to worry about who gets the better trophy, since we are usually hunting different animals.

We tried to hunt baboons in South Africa several years ago. Baited them with oranges but could never get the bastards to come in. I think baboon mounts look pretty cool with their nasty teeth. I would love to shoot a baboon this fall but understand that importing them requires a ton of CDC paperwork.

Mike

Jackal
Blesbok
Black wildebeest
Gemsbok

Only because they were the animals I shot on my only trip [so far].

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
Dogcat,

No insult intended. There is no one I would rather hunt with than my buddy, the guides do not have to worry about who gets the better trophy, since we are usually hunting different animals.

We tried to hunt baboons in South Africa several years ago. Baited them with oranges but could never get the bastards to come in. I think baboon mounts look pretty cool with their nasty teeth. I would love to shoot a baboon this fall but understand that importing them requires a ton of CDC paperwork.

Mike

Mike,
We were actually hooked on baboons after hunting them in South Africa not doing any damage to them. We hunted Vervet monkeys instead.

If you get the chance to hunt in Zim or somewhere that holds a bus load of baboons - go. You will have a ball.

Buffalo!

Bull1