Are cape buffalo edible?

[Chadster]

I was just looking around in the Africa Hunting forum and began to wonder what happens to all the meat. Is buffalo edible? And if so, how do you manage it all? Wouldn't it be a lot to lug around ? What about elephant? Wouldn't shipping cost be prohibitive?

Chad

[mark65x55]

While I haven't hunted Elaphant or Buffalo, I have hunted Africa and the meat is not a problem. Someone will eat it!!!! After my wife had shot her gemsbok, our first african trophy, we were standing around watching the trackers field dress it. They took out the stomach and I asked the PH how long it would take for some animal to find and eat it. He said you don't understand "someone" will be eating it tonight, nothing is wasted!! In the area we hunted in Namibia there is people still living in huts covered with cow sh*t, fresh meat is not something they see often.

As to shipping cost? I'm 99% sure because of USDA rules you can't bring ANY meat back into the USA.

[M.T. Pockets]

I'm hoping to get to Africa someday, the meat issue was a concern of mine until I read one of Elmer Keith's books about his trips and how all the meat was utilized by the locals.

I grew up a "meat" hunter and I wouldn't feel right if I couldn't be absolutely certain the meat all got to people who could use it. Is it customary in Africa for the hunter to get a meal or two from the game harvested ?

[mark65x55]

Again I'm not sure about all of Africa. In Namibia we asked our PH if we could try some of the meat from the trophies we took, we eat at least one meal of, kudu, blue wildebeest, springbok and gemsbok. I though the gemsbok was the best, my wife liked the springbok. BTW at Joes Beerhouse in downtown Windhoek you could order game meat off the menu.

Were going to RSA in August where I hope to try zebra for the first time I've been told its very good.

Heres a link to our photos.
http://groups.msn.com/20012002Huntin...ox.msnw?Page=3

BTW, he did offer to cook up some of the lion for us, but I wasn't that hungry

[Wm Betts]

Cape Buff. are excellent! The tail is very good as well when cooked all day. The meat from African game stays in Africa.
Depending on the location it will go to local tribal people and/or stay with ranch owners to be sold to market. You can't bring any of it home but you can sample everything you kill while you are there. Trophies can be imported to the U.S. but not meat.

["yote"]

Traditionally the meat goes to the village, the guide gets the hide
and you fetch home the head.

[Andrew McLaren]

Cape buffalo is surely edible. The tongue, cooked all day is deliciuos, particularly if you've been very hard at work caping and preparing the head plus working th emeat all day.

I cannot speak for all, but with my operation the hunter(s) gets offered as much of the meat of trophies harvested. Remember that game is at least a bit like domestic animals: The older the tougher the meat. And we do try to only collect trophy males well past breeding age! So it's usually fillet for frying or another part as a very well cooked and cooked and cooked stew/goulash or similar.

Just by the way giraffe seems to get tougher the longer you cook it. At least that's the mpression I got when a German client wanted a stew made from fillet of an old bull he shot. We cooked and cooked and the consistence seemed to get no better than the knobs or bolcks cut off the knobby tyres af an ATV!.

There is absolutely no way that you can take any, and I mean ANY piece of meat from Africa back to the USA. They even have sniffer dogs going through all passengers landing at Atlanta on the flights from South Africa. Foot & Mouth disease and a few other nasties is the main reason for these precautions. Please don't cheat and put the whole American meat industry at risk!

Be assured the meat is never, [Oops, never say never about Africa] well hardly ever wasted. In South Africa meat will normally be eaten by people. But in more remote hunting grounds in wilder areas, even an old buffalo carcass left unrecovered for the scavengers may be eaten by lions and hyenas, so satisfying their meat need for a day or two, and preventing them from preying on some of his younger and still breeding offspring! So meat is not "wasted".

Old Pro.

[safari007]

Much of the meat from older trophy animals is used to make biltong (like our beef jerky). The natives eat the intestines( like our chitterlings) the liver, heart, etc. The meat is used by the ranch owner, the trackers and the local community.

The rancher I hunted with in May in Namibia was a member of a Rancher's Co-Op. Each farmer is responsible for providing meat to the local old folks home each month. Fortunately, it was his month for providing the meat, so I donated the meat from the 2 springbok I shot to the home.

The hunter gets the hide and horns and the rancher gets the meat to dispose of at his discretion. You can have any of the meat to eat while you are there. We had it at every meal. I liked the gemsbok and springbok the most.

[pomoxis]

As soon as the buffalo was down the Government Game scout started a fire so we could cook some on the spot. The only thing that we didn't have was a little salt and pepper. In Zimbabwe I hunted in the Campfire program area and all the meat went to the local villages. We had got some help to pack the meat out and the only thing left at the site was the lower jaw, lower intestine and the lungs. The lungs were a bloody pulp after multiple hits from my .375 H&H.

In the ranch country they had their own buctchering operation and had steaks from my impala and sable.

[Rbeasley]

i hate to admit it but last year I had the testicles of the bull I shot with cheeze and crackers. they were quite tasty until I realized what they were We also had tenderloin stakes which were surprizingly tender.

[MacD37]

I've been reading and smileing a lot! No matter where you hunt in Africa, the meat is utilized, by someone, or something!

The only thing I have found in Africa that the locals will not eat is a Hyena! Some tribes don't even want to touch it, some sort of Ju Ju, I guess.
Every animal I've taken in Africa has been either loaded whole, and transported to the skining camp, or quartered to be used for bait in the field! Biltong is dried, and in some cases smoked, and it includes everything other than the hide, and horns. Intestines are kept, as well, because nothing is wasted in Africa. I've never hunted on ranches in Africa, like RSA, and they may do things differently, but not by much, I'd bet!

I've always had meals from almost everything I've ever shot! Cape Buffalo, is tough when used as steak, but is fine as stew, over Sadza, Hippo, is much like lean pork, and surprizingly, very little fat on them at all, but the hide is 5 or 6 inches thick. Zebra tastes like Elk to me, and does contain a good deal of fat., Impala is fine as meat, but the best is liver and onions cooked on the Brai, over mopani coals. Cookson's Wildebiest is about like Muledeer, and needs the fat removed to rid it of the gamey taste! Wart hog is very fine tender meat, and is my favorite! Eland is not only big, in size but is some of the best meat any place!

Gentlemen, you have not seen anything till you watch the African locals go through an Elephant. 14 thousand pounds of animal is ganged by 20 or so locals, and in about 5 hours there is nothing left but the large bones, that don't contain marrow, and a reddish wet spot on the ground 20 feet in diameter. There will be blood every place, and all of it is not elephant blood, as these guys cut each other nearly as much as they do the ele! Five minutes after the butchering is started, there will be several fires started by the women, and as soon as a pound or two of meat comes out of the hide, it will be tossed dirrectly on the coals.

Game animals that are taken on Safari are utilized fully, and the hide, head feet, and anything else the client hunter wants is his, all else, not used in the camp, for food, is processed, and given to the locals, in some places, and in others is Biltonged and sold by the outfitter.

I would say the game taken in this country, is wasted far more than anything in Africa! So don't let you conscience get the best of you because African safari hunting, is called "TROPHY HUNTING" by the media, and ignorant antis! Even animals shot for bait is eaten by the target, or after he is collected, by the scavengers! NOTHING IN AFRICA THAT IS EDIBLE IS WASTED! Be assured of that. I personally put 8000 lbs of mixed meat into a little Zambian Luangwa Valley, mud village of about 900 people, and it was consumed in a week! Some was likely traded to other villages, for needed items, but most was eaten on the spot!

[Skyline]

I would say the game taken in this country, is wasted far more than anything in Africa! So don't let you conscience get the best of you because African safari hunting, is called "TROPHY HUNTING" by the media, and ignorant antis! Even animals shot for bait is eaten by the target, or after he is collected, by the scavengers! NOTHING IN AFRICA THAT IS EDIBLE IS WASTED! Be assured of that. I personally put 8000 lbs of mixed meat into a little Zambian Luangwa Valley, mud village of about 900 people, and it was consumed in a week! Some was likely traded to other villages, for needed items, but most was eaten on the spot!

Truer words wre never spoken! We tend to be a bit to hollier than thow......many hunters could take a bit of a lesson from how things are done over in Africas trophy hunting areas.

Why 'trophy' hunting has such a negative over here I have never been quite able to figure out.......unless it means that not being able to shoot the first damn thing you see is a bad thing. I have heard stories, but never seen a hunter take the 'head' and leave the meat. Oh and that is after 40 years of hunting and 30 years of guiding.