From Ron Spomer Outdoors
A cape buffalo safari can lead to an expensive addiction. Thomas Wolfe famously wrote “You Can’t Go Home Again.” But he didn’t say you couldn’t go on a cape buffalo safari again. And after the first, you’ll want another. And another… But it starts with a dream that builds to a desire that leads to action… So start dreaming…
Our Cape Buffalo Safari Dream Came True
This hunt took place in the vast Zambezi Delta of Mozambique where Professional Hunter and safari outfitter Mark Haldane has been funding restoration of native wildlife with hunters’ dollars for nearly two decades. An extended lawless period during Mozambique’s civil war in the 1980s resulted in extensive poaching. By the time the war was over, the Delta’s once mighty herds of 40,000 buffalo had dwindled to perhaps 1,000. Sable, eland, bushbuck, nyala, hippos, elephants and more were nearly wiped out. Lions were extirpated.
Betsy and I discovered there was much more to a Zambezi Delta Cape buffalo safari than just buffalo. Blaser’s R8 with a variety of barrels worked beautifully on all game. Betsy took this long-toothed warthog with her 375 H&H barrel and Vor-TX ammo.
Sport Hunting Cape Buffalo Safaris Restore Delta Wildlife
Through carefully controlled, sustainable hunter harvest coupled with aggressive anti-poaching patrols and species reintroductions, Haldane and other PHs in the region have helped Nature blossom again. Buffalo now number more than 20,000. There are reportedly more sable per square mile than in any other wilderness area in all of Africa. Hunters just helped fund and reintroduce a pride of lions into the area.
During our hunt in 2011 we saw bushbuck, suni, red duiker, oribi, reedbuck, warthogs, eland, nyala, elephants, zebra, hartebeest, and local villagers happy to be employed managing camps, cooking, scouting, cleaning, tracking, skinning game, distributing meat to family and friends, and patrolling against poachers. Anti-poaching officers roamed the wilds, wrapping up deadly snares, confiscating illegal gin traps and in general keeping poachers from indiscriminately killing “bush meat.”
Blaser R8 in 7mm Rem. Mag. might seem a bit much for bushbuck, but there is such a variety of game in Mozambique’s Zambezi Delta that one must be prepared for anything. The 7mm handled everything short of buffalo for Ron, but Betsy did just as well with her 308 Win. barrel. This bushbuck was hobbling from a recent and severe injury from a snare when we spotted it.
Gear Used On Our Cape Buffalo Safari
Betsy and I hunted with Blaser R8 rifles because we could swap barrels, stocks, and even scopes quickly, reducing the numbers of rifles we had to ship to safari. We had barrels chambered 458 Lott, 375 H&H, 308 Win., and 7mm Rem. Mag. They all shot sub-MOA and were within an inch of original zero after swapping out barrels and even quick detach scopes. Zeiss Victory scopes and binoculars illuminated the hunt, and Barnes Vor-TX ammunition did the heavy lifting with impressive results. Only one animal, a sable I hit a touch too far back, required a second shot. We now dream of going back.
Ron Spomer has been privileged to hunt in many far flung places and share some great adventures with his determined, long-suffering bride who wades with the best of them and wields her Blaser R8 375 H&H with authority.