Before hunting any game for the first time I like to find out as much as I can about game behavior.

When watching videos of buffalo hunts I´m more interested in how the buffalo reacts more than anything else. The focus is on the hunter and the prey. I´m curious what is going on outside camera range.

My thoughts are I may have time for a quick follow-up shot before the buffalo gets untracked after the first hit. My thought is to have the first two shots soft-points, the following two solids.

Is there anything that can be said relative to other buffalo in the vicinity when the first shot is fired? You hear about unprovoked charges, but what is the reality? After a shot does every buffalo in the vicinity bail-out for parts unknown? Are some buffalo curious? While gutting or skinning your buffalo have you had other buffalo approach? Are they curious by nature?

Does a hard-hit bull that runs off usually lay down or stay on his feet when you get back to him?

Have you watched any other behavior, or tics, that seem more than just random?

Any experiences from experienced cape buffalo hunters would be appreciated.

Kensco,
I loaded my rifle with a Barnes X up the shout and 4 solids flat nose ones..They do a lot of chopping and cutting massive destruction..
How many buf are in the herd???Are they totally unaware of your presence..No adreneline yet...If theysuspect something they will be charged up with excitement...The first shot placed in the shoulder is to take out the heart and major blood vessels and lungs..That way cannot get supercharged.. One must stay focused as to the rest of buf near and especially behind buf for follup shot..If you know where yur first shot hit now shoot for bone structure break him down...or hip him...
If he is a herd bull they may run off like 40 yds and stand and glare at you..It is surreal, you wonder if they will come at you or turn and run off..This happened to me and then they ran off but the Ph said stand right next to me and the stand off lasted around 2 to three minutes...

Mike

In most of the terain where I hunt a back up shot is unlikely and I wouldn't plan on it. I don't even try and back a client up unless he has asked me to since, unless I am hanging on the trigger waiting for his shot, mine will be through brush, so I don't plan on shooting at all unless the buff charges.

Theory- Ideally we would be hunting dagga boys and not shooting out of a herd. Reality- shooting out of a herd happens more often than not, depending on the area. Often I have managed to get a client into possition for a good shot at a bull, but had a cow comming over to see what we are. Every time (so far) the cow has run away at the clients shot - even when they have been very close. Still, in many instances, I am more interested in watching who is going to come towards us that watching the clients shot. I'll work that out from the blood spoor later.

Put the first bullet in right and don't plan on a second. If you get one, it will almost certainly be at a fast disapearing rump. Better not to fire and wait. After one shot, if nobody moves, the buff will often only run a hundred yards or so - including the hit one. Rather wait, let them settle and then sneak in again. If the wounded one isn't fatally hit, you should get another stationary target again for a second shot. Much better plan than shooting at a running animal through thick brush.

On two different occasions, when shooting a buffalo that was in a group of daga boys, I have had one of the other daga boys come back and see what happened to his mate. On the first occasion, he never got closer than 100 yards then quickly ran off. On the most recent occasion, the other buffalo was only 50 yards from his downed friend and just happened to be about 15 yards from where I was. He too decided to retreat. On both occasions, we would have never noticed the other buffalo had it not been for the specific circumstances. On the first occasion, my wife and another PH had stayed behind while I and the PH approached the buffalo and made the shot. As we were approaching the downed buffalo (he went down on my second shot) my wife and the other PH observed the other daga boy coming back to see what happened. On the second occasion, I stayed in place to cover the downed buffalo while the PH approached it. It just happened that the other buffalo circled around and ended up just a few yards from me. So on both occasions, under normal circumstances I probably would have never seen the other buffalo come back to check on his friend.

When shooting buffalo out of a herd, I have never seen any other buffalo come back to check to see what was happening.

My preferred load is two softs followed by solids from my .416. If I were shooting a .375, I would consider one soft followed by solids.

Of the six buffalo I have shot, two went down and stayed down from the first shot. All the rest remained on their feet and one had serious thoughts about charging but decided retreat was the better option. After the first shot, I have always pursued the buffalo, choosing not to loose contact with him. Some may give him time to bleed out from the first shot before following up, but all the PHs I have hunted with preferred to stay in immediate contact with buffalo.

Just some personal observations, I seriously doubt if there is a universal pattern to buffalo behavior. Probably best to plan for the worst and hope for the best when it comes to buffalo hunting.

Regards,

Terry

P.S.
Just a side note. When hunting zebra, after you shoot a mare the stallion will usually stop a short distance away to see what happened. So it is pretty easy to get a double on zebra. I have done that twice, shot a mare then shot the stallion.

Kensco,
Buffalo are not always predictable. Too many factors involved:
hunting pressure
size of herd
poaching
natural predator pressure
which bull in the herd you shoot
location of the bull

Plan on one shot and make it count. Backup between soft and all solids is usually dictated by your PH or your previous experience. In herd conditions one shot is the rule. If lone Dugga boy or smll groups you may get two if conditions and terrain permits.

Just remember that after the first shot Buff go where they want to go and you could be in the way!!! You and your PH will hopefully have worked out your strategy before it unfolds.
Running is permitted in an organized fashion.
Most BG rifle solids will go through side profile shots on Buff so Soft or premium partitions are a good first shot. Second shots usually can be solids because the shot profile has changed and you usually have one Buff to focux on. Remember nothing is predictable!!
It is the exception that a Buff lays dowm after the first shot unless you spine him. After the first shot adrenalin begins to take over the docile animal that you have watched feeding and chewing his cud. They can absorb a remarkable amount of lead when pumped up.
Robert

Read "Nyati" a book by African Hunter it discusses buffalo behavior, bullets, calibers rifles etc. You'll find out that, like this Forum, there is a great difference of opinion on all of the above. Probably the only real agreement is that you should shoot a rifle and bullet that will mortally wound a buff and kill him in a short time with the first shot. Everyone agrees that a wounded buff in heavy cover is one of the most dangerous situations in African hunting.

As others have said, There are two different kinds of Buffalo! By that I mean, Buffalo, taken in a herd sittuation, or from a DAGGA-BOY group of two to seven bachelor bulls. bulls in each group will usually act differently when stalked, and shot!

At the shot on a bull in a herd, the whole herd will usually run, as a group, including your bull,if you haven't put him down. In fairly open bush, one needs to try to stay in contact with the herd. This is the place where you will find out if you are in shape. If you can keep the herd in sight, then you forgo surprises that may come from any dirrectiom if your bull veers off, with out you seeing him do so. The herd will usually run no more than 300 yds, then turn to see what may be following.
By this time your bull will usually be getting sick, and staggering, if your shot was good. If the herd runs again the sick bull may try to follow, but at a walk,most often. Now is the time to pop him good!

In a bachelor group,however is a different story! Many times a second bull will run to the downed bull,much like the Askari ele bulls, and bristle with hackels up, with snappy head movements, looking this way and that, with quick snaps of the head. Unless you want another bull, you need to simply keep your eyes on this bull, and wait. If you advance now, you will most likely get a charge from this guard bull. Wait, a moment, and he will leave, but may make two or three short trots, then stop and look back again. Once he breaks into a real fast trot, then he is leaving for good. Now your worry is the one that is down. Approch him from behind, and put a shot in the spine if you can, before walking up to him!

If another bull comes to a downed bull, he will have the body luangue already mentioned. There is one thing I know for sure, if he looks dirrectly at you, and dips his head, then immidiately at the bottom of that dip, he points his nose in an upward dirrection while imitting a grunt, as he brings his back head up, you are in for a conforntation, because he is comming! Now your shooting better be up to snuff! If he is within 10 yds, and you are shooting a bolt rifle you better make the first one count, if shooting a double, the same, only in this case you MIGHT get off a second shot, as well.

Cape Buffalo, are the greatest animal on the planet, that is affordable to the average guy! In my mind only the elephant in heavy bush is a more desirable hunt! Sadly, I can't afford to hunt Elephant, so Buffalo it is for me!

I noticed on one video hunt the bull stood staring at the hunter, then dropped his ears, and that seemed to be the trigger for the charge, he popped the clutch and came on.

From my experience it's never worth running after any wounded animal - ever. They have more legs than us humans and they use them a whole lot more. Running after them only makes them run faster and further and makes them angrier when you do catch up with them. I personally prefer to just sit and wait for a while after the shot -and have found that by doing so the wounded animal will run a short distance after the shot then turn to look back to see what it was that hurt him and then they usually lie down. All the while it's down, it's bleeding out, getting weaker and stiffening up.......then a nice slow, quiet tracking job with a good trusted tracker will usually get the animal in the salt fairly quickly. - And it's a lot easier than chasing after the thing for miles as even if you can catch it you're usually breathing so hard you can't get a good shot anyway.- Of course this is also dependant on having the rest of the hunting team educated to the same way of thinking.

Over the years I've formed the opinion that whoever coined the phrase "hunt with your feet" was a bloody fool. I've found that hunting with your head is a much better and much more successful way of getting good results.......

I've only ever had one experience of a totally unprovoked charge from a fit and healthy Buffalo and that was this year in Masailand. Fortunately I saw it coming and as the client still had one on his licence I let him take it and just covered him in case of a stuff up.

Judge G

Glad you liked the Lion story - if I can find a way of posting pictures so they can't be hijacked I'll post the story and pictures. If I can't then I'll just be content with putting the pics on my website. - If I posted the story without the pictures I'd probably have a few doubters!

I have shot a lot of Buffalo for an American and as far as behavior they are cattle and behave just like cattle, and being raised around cattle all my life, I can pretty well predict buffalo hehavior...Buff like cattle do several things you can depend on, they water, they feed, chew a cud and rest in the cool shade usually where the flys are the least; and go to water later in the evening, The old bulls usually seperate from the herd for some time during the day and come back to the herd in late evenings but only if they smell a cow in estrus, and I am just generalizing, anything that interrrupts that cycle can perturb them to one extent or another..

They contain great amounts of adrenaline in their bodies according to Doctari, who is a PH and vet, and I certainly believe that and if wounded can be a formidable opponent, when that 55 gallons of adrenaline gets pumped in they, on ocassion can be near impossible to kill, short of a brain or spine shot....I have an interresting film wherein several of my clients shot one bull 9 times and another 13 times before the bulls expired and most of those shots were lethal or close to it it appears...what calibers? a .470 and a 500 N.E using all softs....This has not been my experience with the .470 however.

Depending on the terrain you hunt as to how many shots you get..Zimbabwe is much different for the most part than Tanzania at least some times it is....In the high grass you may only get one shot, it may be 1 yard or a 100 yards or more...If yo can get two shots in him, all the better IMO, so I mostly have uses a soft then the rest solids, or just solids have suited me fine, but nowdays with the advanced technowlogy out hter I just use Northforks cup points, they do it all for me.....

Study the habits of the wilder cattle in this country and your will know a lot about buffalo before you hunt them, maybe more than soem PHs...