African Hunting Gazette – July 2019

http://www.africanhuntinggazette.com 29

Movementin andoutof thereservedepends
onrainsandgrassbutaftera normalrainy
seasonbiggerherdsstarttoappearlaterinthe
season,SeptemberandonthroughOctober.
“Average” herds are intothe fewhundreds.
Most herds will
hold mature bulls,
butinherdsit’svery
difficulttoseeallthe
bulls. Typically, the
swampsdryouta bit
laterintheseason—
butthechannelshold
water throughout,
andit verymuchdependsontheyear.When
HaldaneandI gotintothatbigherd,it was
theveryrare(andlong-remembered)“foot-
dry” buffalo hunt...but don’t be counting
onthat!Inrecentyearswe’vegottenrainin
September and October, and the short-grass

savannaswerecoveredwithaninchofwater!

As with most hunting, you don’t really

knowexactlywhatyoumightruninto.Except

...theswampsarebuffalocountry,andthere

isn’t muchelseoutthere!Oncein a while,

warthogsorbushpigs

willruina stalk,and

everyyeartherearea

few more waterbuck

and reedbuck ‘way

out there, but

mostly buffalo...and

mostly inbig herds.

A while back, with

Swift Bullets’ Bill Hober, we almost drove

overa coupleofoldbachelorbullsinthick

sawgrass—onewasirritatedenoughtocharge

theBV,impactingrightwhereBillwassitting.

Anothertime,huntingwithmyfriendZack

Aultman from Georgia, we crawled through

muddysawgrassfora couplehundredyards

andwerelookingovera herdwhena lone(and

very nice) bull detachedfrom the sawgrass

we’djustcrawledthrough,andsaunteredinto

theherd.Zackshothim,andI washappywe

hadn’tblunderedintohimwhenwewereon

handsandknees!Severaltimes,sittingonthe

BV while other hunters stalked herds, I’ve

seenlone bullscruising.Sodagga bullsare

outthere...but without luck, I don’t know

howyoucouldreliablyhuntthem.Wecan

findthebigherds,andtheherdscontain good

bulls...sowehunttheherds.

SORTINGTHEHERDS

Ten years ago, I would have said coastal

Mozambique was a great place to hunt

buffalo...butnotnecessarilya greatplaceto

lookfora bigbull.Therehasalwaysbeenthe

occasional outsized bull, but most buffaloes

The papyrus swamps

and sawgrass flats are

a different world