2023 Hunting Adventures Recap

[Hawk Tuah]

The Vaal rhebok are now my favorite African plains game species to hunt. It is a somewhat specialized deal because their distribution is such that typically you don't just run into them like many other species. They are spooky as hell, run like a Greyhound and are just neat and unique.

Two interesting facts: they're fur is the same as a rabbits, and Reebok shoes are named after the species.

The mountains also held mountain reedbuck. These are an unappreciated species, in my opinion. Not as skittish as the Vaalies, but a worthy quarry I'd hunted before and was happy to pursue again.

 

[Nick87]

@deskpop wgat are you shooting those smaller antelope sized animals with? Just curious.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

@deskpop wgat are you shooting those smaller antelope sized animals with? Just curious.

So, on this hunt my buddy and I decided to use rifles my PH had. Traveling internationally with firearms has taken the same turn as drawing hunting tags in the past 20 years: it just gets more and more difficult. It used to be you just showed up with your gun and 4457 and got on the plane...now it is more complicated. Our fear was losing hunting days with the hassle, and the route to take firearms was more expensive because when you fly with a gun, you have to rule out quite a few layover connection countries.

Anyway, we used .300 win mags for most everything, because that's what he had. For the vaal rhebok, they are a good round because they do ok in high wind and they are tough little animals. Anything you'd use on a sheep hunt would be good. I was worried using someone else's rifle for a mountain hunt, but once I got there and we shot his rifles we knew they shot plenty straight. I used a 12-gauge for the blue duiker, which is driven by beagles and like shooting a running jackrabbit (8-pound antelope).

Some of the pygmy antelope I've shot with 30-06. One of the best rounds for some of the brush dwelling pygmy antelope is a .375 with a solid in the chamber....slow moving round that just punches a pencil sized hole. But for Vaalies and klipspringer, the shots are long and often in wind so you need more precision.

 

[Nick87]

So, on this hunt my buddy and I decided to use rifles my PH had. Traveling internationally with firearms has taken the same turn as drawing hunting tags in the past 20 years: it just gets more and more difficult. It used to be you just showed up with your gun and 4457 and got on the plane...now it is more complicated. Our fear was losing hunting days with the hassle, and the route to take firearms was more expensive because when you fly with a gun, you have to rule out quite a few layover connection countries.

Anyway, we used .300 win mags for most everything, because that's what he had. For the vaal rhebok, they are a good round because they do ok in high wind and they are tough little animals. Anything you'd use on a sheep hunt would be good. I was worried using someone else's rifle for a mountain hunt, but once I got there and we shot his rifles we knew they shot plenty straight. I used a 12-gauge for the blue duiker, which is driven by beagles and like shooting a running jackrabbit (8-pound antelope).

Some of the pygmy antelope I've shot with 30-06. One of the best rounds for some of the brush dwelling pygmy antelope is a .375 with a solid in the chamber....slow moving round that just punches a pencil sized hole. But for Vaalies and klipspringer, the shots are long and often in wind so you need more precision.

That's very interesting stuff.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

That's very interesting stuff.

I've been surprised that shooting things like grey duiker and steenbok that a .30 cal doesn't make it explode.

Behind the shoulder the damage isn't too crazy.

 

[Nick87]

I've been surprised that shooting things like grey duiker and steenbok that a .30 cal doesn't make it explode.

Behind the shoulder the damage isn't too crazy.

All in the bullet if you can stay off bone ime.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

That's very interesting stuff.

I took this steenbok in Namibia on my first safari in 2005 with a 30-06 150 grain Core-lok at 200 yards behind the shoulder. I was shocked that it didn't just explode. They are tiny.

 

[Nick87]

I took this steenbok in Namibia on my first safari in 2005 with a 30-06 150 grain Core-lok at 200 yards behind the shoulder. I was shocked that it didn't just explode. They are tiny.View attachment 321997

7-08 and I definitely hit bone. 140 gr. SST

 

[Hawk Tuah]

7-08 and I definitely hit bone. 140 gr. SST

View attachment 321998

Jeez. Looks like you used a belt-fed full auto..

 

[Nick87]

Jeez. Looks like you used a belt-fed full auto..

I was suprised and disappointed all at the same time. Not sure exactly what happened. I've taken that quartering to several times in the past. Will do it again probably not with that bullet again though.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

The Vaal rhebok story just dropped in Sporting Classics if you happen to be a subscriber. I also have an axis deer hunt story in there.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

I was interested in a zebra rug, and my buddy was wanting a blesbok...an old stallion was hanging with a herd of blesbok, so that worked out nicely.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

We ended up with all sunny days and beautiful weather in the mountains, but happened to hit a string of windy days. For those of you who have hunted warthogs, you know wind is not your friend. We saw pigs regularly and in decent numbers as it is a good warthog area, but saw only a fraction of what we would have with no wind.

That being said, here is a healthy cull boar we stalked up on. My buddy got him at about eight yards.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

I have a fascination and obsession with hunting behind dogs. I run a bird dog kennel and also have a pack of hounds at home. One of the reasons I booked this hunt was to be able to hunt behind hounds.

I hunted blue duiker behind dogs. It was a unique experience and I really enjoyed it. We did five stands and the hounds (and one terrier) pushed out two duikers. I missed the first at about ten feet, but was able to kill the second, a mature female I was very happy to get. They weigh like 8 pounds.

Both males and females have horns, and both are legal and export/import, although they do require a CITES permit. They can be sexed when hunting them in blinds over water or bait, but not when they are running a million miles per hour behind hounds.

There are other ways to hunt blue duikers, but being a houndsman, I would never pass up an opportunity to do it with dogs. We could see the ocean from where we hunted, which was cool.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

Blue duiker dogs. We used three beagles crosses and a terrier.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

Oribi male in blue duiker area.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

Here is an ancient one-horned bushbuck. It appeared his second horn had been long-gone.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

We hunted caracal as well. While I did not kill one, it was not for lack of effort. We had three packs of hounds going the morning we tried (one on my PH's property, and two with another houndsman on a different farm). While the two packs on the other farm were out (I was there with my PHs wife...also a PH) the houndsman got a call from a farmer who had heard a bushbuck barking. He said about 70% of the caracal they tree are from getting one of these calls. He had feelers out with the farmers he knew, so their staff were listening. We gather up and grabbed one pack and a dog handler and she and I drove to that farm. The bushbuck was still barking. We casted the dogs through there, and eventually one picked up the trail. We actually think we had him treed after some pretty spectacular cold trailing, but the cat jumped the tree when another pack was let loose to support, and by that point it was mid-day and hot. Having already had a caracal, I was excited to hunt them because of the dog aspect, but not super concerned whether I pulled the trigger or not.

I’ve been in similar situations on deciding whether or not to release fresh hounds onto a track that is in progress. It can go one of two ways: good or bad. When it goes well, the fresher hounds offer fresh legs and put more pressure on the animal, often resulting in a treed animal. When it goes poorly, the fresher dogs can mess things up, especially on an animal like a bobcat (basically a caracal), where there is not much scent. They can flood a track. Also, the dogs running the track do not like others being dumped in if they are track-minded hounds with lead-dog mentalities. This may seem weird, but it is a lot like a pointing bird dog stealing a point from another bird dog. The dog who found the bird gets ticked off.

I think the timing was just barely off. I think the cat was jumped and just about to tree, or treed right when the other were turned loose. This just happened to end poorly, but it could have just as easily went the other way. It was getting late in the morning, the dogs were hot, and if it had been a situation where the cat was putting more space between itself and the hounds, the other pack could have saved the day. Hunting with hounds adds nuances and extra considerations, but that is what makes it so damn fun.

With more time, I’m confident we could have killed one with the multi-pack approach, I wanted to focus on bushpig with the remaining days.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

Bushpig hunting was wild.
We killed several small ones before lining out on a big boar. We chased the boar through 9-10 properties while my PH called getting permission on each property as we chased them. The big pig almost crossed into a wildlife preserve where the wives were doing a photo safari with the big five. We actually called ahead to let them know the dogs might end up there. The boar veered another direction and eventually crossed some other pig tracks which ended up with another bay up of a small one.
Two great days hunting them.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

Capped the trip off with a solid nyala bull.