Bwanamich's post on the Tarangire buff reminded me to post the results of our '06 season in our areas bordering Tarangire.

Total buffalo taken..............37

Buffalo in excess of 47"..........7 or 19%

Buffalo in excess of 45".........13 or 35%

Buffalo 40"-45"..................14 or 38%

Buffalo under 40".................3 or 8%

Largest buffalo..................49"

Smallest buffalo................ 38"

Average for '06 season...........43.5"

If I had to have a really big buffalo I don't think I would look much further than Lobo/Lokisale.

Mark

'Scuze me Mark. But your numbers only add up to 23 buffalos. Does that mean the other 15 were between 40" and 45"?
If so, WOW!
Dave

Dave,

Exactly! Sorry if I didn't make myself clear. I edited the original post to include the 40"-45" buff.

Mark

If you publish numbers you can always expect someone to want more of them. Would be interested in additional numbers:

Percentage success rate on first buf per hunter
Average time to first buf
Percentage success rate on second buf per hunter
Average time to second buf
Buf by week from Mid August through last hunt

Would also like to see all of the numbers for the North Mahenge camp.

and you know this one is going to get asked, so I might as well get it over with for you... ...

Is taking 34 "40+ inch" cape buffalo a sustainable rate of harvest? In other words, is this typical for this concession based on its management to date?

Those are phenomenal numbers, and regardless I know where I'd book if I wanted a real "wallhanger".

Cheers,
Canuck

Ridge Taylor (God Bless his Soul) had this camp befor Adam. Ridge consistently took 40+ inch buffalo.

Mike,

Adam has only given me numbers for Masailand so I can't tell you how well it went in Mahenge or for LU5 accept the size of the buffalo were much smaller. Also I don't know if there is a compilation of the other data you asked about.

Canuck,

There isn't much worry about diluting the gene pool as we are intentionally not harvesting anywhere close to our quota in any of our areas. That in itself has probably contributed a great deal to the average trophy size in Masailand. Also we are not just hammering resident herds in the concessions but the big herds that move in and out of park at will. Adam told me in November this year after the first rains started that they saw 3000-4000 buffalo per day. With numbers like that it's not hard to imagine that our combined harvest of 37 buffalo from Lobo and Lokisale is of little or no signifigance.

Mark

Mark

Mark -- since you are sharing numbers and stats with us why don't you share the same information on Mehange and LU5 when you get them. I am sure people would like to know those stats also.

quote:

Bwanamich's post on the Tarangire buff reminded me to post the results of our '06 season in our areas bordering Tarangire.

Total buffalo taken..............37

Buffalo in excess of 47"..........7 or 19%

Buffalo in excess of 45".........13 or 35%

Buffalo 40"-45"..................14 or 38%

Buffalo under 40".................3 or 8%

Largest buffalo..................49"

Smallest buffalo................ 38"

Average for '06 season...........43.5"

If I had to have a really big buffalo I don't think I would look much further than Lobo/Lokisale.

Mark

Lolkisale in July we passed up many 43" plus young Bulls and the numbers of Buffalo we saw in the first week of July was in the hundreds per day.
The largest herd we saw was over 300 coming out of Tarangire Park. I do not think sustainability of over 40 inch Buff is an issue.
The largest Buff I saw is still there! I was seconds from shooting him when he went into the center of the herd in the savannah grass.
With Lolkisale and Lobo having over 1,000 square miles of territory some of the Dugga Boys have never been seen. Couple this with the permanent water that Bundu Safaris has established and what a Mecca for sustainable Trophy size Buffalo.

Robert

Mark,

It would be interesting if you could list all the concessions you hunt with the same details.

Also, it might be of interest to include the number of clients who wanted to shoot 1, 2 or 3 buffalo, and what each managed to get.

And just to make sure you have your hands full, how about those who hunted more than one buffalo. What is teh size of their first, second and may be third buffalo.

This will give us an idea if those who hold out foir a bigger trophy are actually successful.

I appreciate you giving us these details.

In fact, it might be a good idea for other booking agents to post the same results.

Hey Mark,
Outstanding work by the Bundu team!

I guess you won't mind if I pop around once a year to try my luck on a Lokisale monster

Mark H.Young

3000-40000 per day

small "typo" but still impressive numbers. The Maasai I spoke to from there said they do not recall ever seeing so many buffalo in simanjiro/Lokisale as this year. The rains have made them just pour out of the park like soldier ants. I wonder if you can "view" a herd 2,000 to 3,000 strong from google earth?

Yes, that is a VERY impressive year, congratulations to Adam and the team on the ground there in Tanz, including the PH's and the Chaca anti-poaching groups. Good rains didn't hurt either. With one company hunting it now, it is easy to see what the area is capable of producing.

As others have said, the buffalo range in from the Park, so depleting the big boys in the numbers taken will not be a problem. Unintentional plug here for Mark, but per my hunt report in Dec of last year, this is one area (and company) that I would not hesitate putting a deposit down years in advance.

And somewhere in those herds just may be the mystical 50-incher!

Regards, Bill

Mark,

These are great statistics but we really need more information:

For those buffalo shot several times we must know group sizes.

Furthermore for those that shot several buffalo, with multiple shots each, we’ll need to know those group sizes as well to compare if fatigue was setting in during the safari or if the rifles were not being cleaned properly after each animal.

I’ll also have trouble sleeping this week if I don’t get the standard deviation of the buffalo’s exact weight. Please don’t provide simply in pounds or kilos though. It will have to be in grains, multiplied by pi (3.14159) and divided by Avogadro's number ((6.0221415 ± 0.0000010)×1023).

In addition we’ll of course require an average number of neck hairs per sq. centimeter, average hoof size and if you could measure the spaces between bosses to provide some sort of predictor (including confidence interval) that would be great.

In your spare time we will obviously need a full list of the BC, SD, penetration distance, and exact impact velocity of EACH bullet fired during the entire season.



Seriously… great stats. Keep up the good work.

Kyler

Saeed,

I'll ask Adam if there is a compilation of the other info you asked about. My feeling though is that most of what you and Mike asked for does not exist.

Mark

Just talked with a buddy who hunted Luke Samara's area next to Tarangire earlier this month. lots of rain. But, between he, his brother and his dad, they killed a 42" a 43" and a 44". They saw bigger, but it was hard to pick one out when you are seeing herds of over 1,000 buffalo!

Does that concession present good opportunities for a bow hunter, or is it all 100 yard and/or open grassland shooting?

I'd need to get within 30 yards for a buff with a bow.

Don_G

Adam had a bowhunter in I believe Lobo in '05. He had a couple of opportunities at good buff anywhere else 37"-39" but held off for a monster. They were close a couple of times but couldn't close the deal. The guy left saying it was the best hunt he had ever been on. There is some real heavy cover there as well as the open plains. Both Adam and Brian Van Blerk have bowhunting experience as well as Sean Kelly. I can't speak for the other PH's.

Mark

Gentlemen,

Anyone want to bet that someone is going to book a hunt there, wanting one or two of thos 47 or 45 inch buffalos, comes back without shooting one, and starts complaining.

The other day I looked at the The Hunt Report, and as usual, there some pretty silly complaints on there just as we get on AR.

Apparently a man booked a lion hunt. The only time they saw one was as light was failing. He shot at it and missed.

They never saw another one.

He wrote to the Hunt Report to complain - he never mentioned that he had a chance at a lion and missed of course.

So we see here Mark giving us all these great results of one of their concession. Some oen is going with all his hopes set on getting nothing but one of those big buffalo. And if he comes up short, God help Mark.

quote:

Originally posted by Don_G:
Does that concession present good opportunities for a bow hunter, or is it all 100 yard and/or open grassland shooting?

I'd need to get within 30 yards for a buff with a bow.

I would think Lobo would be better for a bow hunter. Lokisale was pretty open except for a few spots. We did get within 35 yds of a group of dagga boys without alerting them but none bigger then 39.

Mark

Great results.

Got any photos of these big guys to post?

A question, generally are the clients shooting mature and hard bossed bulls? Or are people going for length of horn over boss?

An honest question, mate.

Thanks for the replies, Mark and Bulldog.

These buffalo range from 42"-48" and are from Lobo/Lokisale '05-/'06. If you'd like to see more Adam has put many on the website.


I added this old buff from Lobo '05 to show that what some folks might think is a soft boss could actually be a very worn down boss as is demonstrated by this old warrior.

Enjoy,

Mark

Just wonderful trophies, each and every one. Old, hard bossed bulls with great horns across the board.

Congrats, Adam, Mark and Co.!

Impressive buff, eh?

Wow, that truly got my heart racing!!!! Maybe someday...........

the chef

Don G.

I was in Lolkisale this year. I did not take a Buff but Sean Kelly got me to within 30 yards of a group of four.

Great animals...



Mike

Wow.....Lobo & Lokisale really produce some Slammer Buff!!!

I have got to get me some of those....

Regards,
Dave

Fantastic animals.