No, this is not a MS post.

I was looking through some pictures of the buffalo I've shot in the Save the last couple of years. To me, they look particularly big in the bodies. So, is it just me or are they some of the largest bodied buff in Africa? Post some pics for comparison and show us your buff body.

refreshing to see a topic about actual hunters hunting in Africa, great buffs nice job

They seemed big to me.

I mount a lot of Buffalo and the biggest bodied ones seem to always come from Masailand.

Nice buffalo---I thought we were going to have guys flexing up and posing on this tread as there does seem to be a bit of chest beating going on these days

My second buffalo, taken in Dande in 2008:



My third buffalo same place:



My first buffalo, Matetsi 2006:



Don't reckon they are as big in the body as that first one in your post Will, he's a giant.

Nice party boy post, Will.

That bush looks thick enough to make a double with irons the ideal weapon of choice. A pleasant thought to start the day in shitty Shanghai.

Good looking bulls. With trophy picture-taking what it is now it is hard to judge body scale. Some guys like to sit a football field behind the animal which says more about them than it does about the "trophy".

Chris:

Those are TANKS. Was George Patton your PH?

psmith, your "3rd buffalo same place" is a nasty looking old bastard.

Walter's got yall all beat.

Will, while I'm not sure how much YOU will like my buff body, I'm sure Ms. safari-lawyer would give me the nod of approval!!

quote:

Originally posted by Scottyboy:
Will, while I'm not sure how much YOU will like my buff body, I'm sure Ms. safari-lawyer would give me the nod of approval!!

She says anything would be an improvement over me.

quote:

Originally posted by jeff h:
Walter's got yall all beat.

I hope I have a big buff to share with all of ya'll come late Oct when I return from Zim.. round 2 with them over there..

Great pics, guys.

quote:

Originally posted by 505 gibbs:
psmith, your "3rd buffalo same place" is a nasty looking old bastard.

Agreed, Brad.. now THAT'S what a buff should look like!!

The below buffalo was the first to break the pully on my Land Cruiser, so he must have been the heaaviest!



Then this one broke it 2 months later, so It might be metal fatigue...!



(Both from Caprivi)

ddrhook's buff---Uganda with Shakari

Here's a big "scrum cap" taken in Chirisa, Zim. He was much bigger in body
than any other buff I've taken.
JB

Took this old boy in Matetsi 2 a few years ago.

Exactly what I was looking for--an old warrior. Didn't realize how big bodied he was until trying to load him out.

thanks for posting the picture for me Doc,
Steve said that old scum cap I got was one of the biggest bodied buffalo he had seen in a long time

Well, Marc Watts is very buff...

Buffalo body size can vary quite a lot in the same area.

I have shot relative small bodied old bulls, as well as very large bodied ones, in both Zimbabwe and Tanzania, in more than one area.

So I think to make a blanket statement that one area produces larger bodied animals than others might not be correct.

Sometimes when we see a herd, one can notice that a certain bull, and sometimes a certain cow, seems to have a relatively larger body than the rest.

Again, I have seen this in different countries.

Just to prove I am still reading these wild and crazy forums, struck speechless, mostly ... best entertainment on the web!

42" Botswana bull under the mopane bush, Ernest and Motsoomee in the foreground.
I estimate only 1200 pounds for the buffalo:





Ernest and Motsoomee skinning.
All the guts, rumens and intestines included, were emptied of their contents, thereby becoming a local delicacy:



A single solid through the left shoulder bone (humerus) and heart resulted in 50 yard dash through the mopane thicket, then death bellow.
Insurance was also paid to spine between shoulders, with same GSC FN solid .416/380-grainer at 2509 fps MV.

quote:

Originally posted by 505 gibbs:
psmith, your "3rd buffalo same place" is a nasty looking old bastard.

Yes sir! He was a 'wounded' PAC buffalo supposedly giving some villages near the Angwe River some trouble.

Turns out he wasn't wounded, poor old devil just wanted to be left alone in his really thick jesse area. The local 'spirit medium' just wanted him for the barbeque so madeup the story about him being wounded.

He gave us almost five hours of fun, before my PH shot him in the nose at about five yards. His crappy Hornady FMJ .458 ammo did not penetrate at all. Basically just pissed him off. Dirk is a great, hardworking PH, but he's no marksman.

We caught up with him and I put four .470 NE Barnes solids into him from about ten and then 15 yards. That did the trick. He wasn't wide, maybe 36", but he had great horns and gave us a great hunt. Feel sorry for the old bastard though.

It was great buffalo hunting and I thank Chifuti Safaris for letting me hunt him for free.

Generally speaking the average Massailand buffalo genetics is definitely superior in both body size and horns.

The Buffalo on the left is an average body 38" mature buffalo, the buffalo on the right absolutely dwarf him in both body size and horns.


Another big bodied and big horn Buffalo from massailand.

They confisticated my rifles before I could pop a cap on the biggest bodied buffaloes I have ever seen....something about Park Officials at Norongoro Crater wanting other guests to get to see them....alive...same story in Tarangire....damn rules....I would have gone nuts trying to pick out which one to shoot anyway....It was actually quite hard to judge horns as the bodies were so huge.

Those are all very nice Cape buffalo, but let us not forget the other sub species of African buffalo; these are two different varieties of the Western Savanna buffalo I shot on two safaris to Burkina Faso.









Aziz

Walter says he used to have a "buff body":



Walterhog's more recent impersonation of Burt Reynolds:
Nudity is Walter's method of birth control.

Here is an old Masailand buffalo from 2003. Sorry for the picture quality but we obviously shot him late afternoon.



South African buff from a property next to Kruger Park. Taken in 2002.



Like Aziz, wanted to show the West African Savannah buff for comparison.


My Chewore North buff taken in 2007...



Last but not least, last years buff from the Omay...


The smallest body of any buffalo I have shot of the Syncerus Caffer species was in Zambia. He was a nice 40" buff just short-coupled... obviously it wasn't the area because several days later I shot a big-bodied 39" kakuli about 20 clicks from the first bull.

quote:

So I think to make a blanket statement that one area produces larger bodied animals than others might not be correct.

I agree with Saeed, the East African buff are usually the biggest, but you will find outsized buff across the continent if you get lucky.

Ahmed that last/bottom photo you posted is a classic image. Really nice buffalo and I like the dirt on him. It has "Masailand" written all over him. Well done.

quote:

Originally posted by SableTrail:
Ahmed that last/bottom photo you posted is a classic image. Really nice buffalo and I like the dirt on him. It has "Masailand" written all over him. Well done.

Moja, thanks but let me be clear, my contribution in that picture is (unfortunately) only that I posted it. The picture was forwarded to me by my PH Piet Fouri who can be seen in the pic. Piet shot this buffalo with his client in Massailand and it went 48".

This is a less than ideal photo, but this buff was a bit of a heavyweight. This was a buff from Makuti in 2009.

Now that is a hefty fellow...

Maybe Walter was a Shedu?

quote:

Originally posted by RIP:
Walter says he used to have a "buff body":



Walterhog's more recent impersonation of Burt Reynolds:
Nudity is Walter's method of birth control.

This "buff" enough for you?

Russell,
dang, that Omay buff has just about everything--a Beaut!
---
I'm beginning to wonder about Walter and his buddies.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SGraves155:
Russell,
dang, that Omay buff has just about everything--a Beaut!
---
I agree, that one is just awesome.

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Lozano:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by SGraves155:
Russell,
dang, that Omay buff has just about everything--a Beaut!
---
I agree, that one is just awesome.

Chris,
Although it is difficult to be sure with the different photos/angles/distance/etc., your two buffalo look just huge in body, perhaps the largest we've seen pictured.

Old Ugly, Kitiangare, Maasailand, August 2009...

How is this for a big boy. The largest wild bovine in the world I believe - Gaur or Indian Bison! Photographed in the wild in India recently. www.facebook.com/huntersnetworks