Craig Boddington is today’s best-known writer on hunting in Africa, and of all the animals he has pursued over the last forty-odd years, it is the African buffalo that has called him back to that great continent again and again. No hunter alive today has accomplished all that Craig has in his pursuit of the African buffalo. He has successfully hunted and shot all varieties of African buffaloes—Cape, Nile, Central African, West African, and dwarf forest buffalo. Craig’s dedicated nature is such that it took him five hunts to get a dwarf forest buffalo, and several of these were single-species dedicated hunts. Yes, a dwarf forest buffalo can be that hard to get!
Not only is his experience with African buffalo varieties incomparable, but he has also used more calibers, bullets, and various types of firearms and sights in his pursuit of buffaloes than any other person alive. Period! As for numbers shot, suffice to say that unless you are a professional hunter with multiple decades of hunting buffalo under your belt, you will not have shot as many. Do not go into the field without reading what happens when a buffalo gets a bee in his bonnet and comes looking for you.
Buffalo hunting in modern Africa has evolved tremendously in the last twenty years, and the changes have only accelerated in the last ten years. It was not that long ago that Mozambique had almost no huntable buffaloes and Uganda was closed to hunting. Nowadays Mozambique is possibly the largest buffalo destination in Africa, and as for Uganda, it has a vibrant program with high-quality Nile buffaloes shot each year. South Africa twenty years ago had very few buffaloes, so hunting for them was restricted; today this country is on its way to becoming a serious buffalo destination. Boddington has hunted in all these places and many more since he wrote Buffalo!, and since much has changed, both in terms of destinations, firearms, and ballistics, an update was urgently needed. Buffalo II! is the answer.
In his new book, Craig gives great information on hunting “swamp buffalo” from Mozambique, and he discusses the importance of buffalo sustainability for generations to come—the how, where, and why of looking for an aged buffalo bull with hard bosses. He also shares his experience with a true, full-blown, pressing-it-home, you-or-him buffalo charge, which is—thankfully—actually very rare. Until recently Craig had never experienced one, so his recollection is firsthand and vivid. The buffalo charge Craig faced was unprovoked, quick, and nearly lethal.
In other chapters Craig discusses where to look today to find that optimum buffalo hunt. Besides chapters on tracking, rifles, and calibers, there are great anecdotes and stories in Buffalo II! Want to hunt buffalo? Be prepared before you go by learning about buffalo hunting in every nook and cranny in twenty-first-century Africa. Buffalo II! is simply the best resource available for planning your first, second, or next buffalo safari.
