MJ75
AH senior member
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2012
- Messages
- 99
- Reaction score
- 27
- Hunted
- England, Scotland, RSA and Namibia
It seems a long time ago that I posted on this thread. I've just returned from South Africa and bushpig was top of my list. We spent two nights over bait (a large gut and head pile) in the cold but nothing appeared, despite the land owner who just happens to be a taxidermist stating that his trail cams picked them up every night there.
We then drove down from near Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape to the coast where bushpig were feeding on a very large dairy farm. The pigs were coming in to feast on the cattle feed. Our PH knew we wanted pigs and so had visited previously to check the site. He had removed the hair stuck on fencing previously and showed us new hair when we arrived so we knew they were visiting regularly. We set up two positions and waited in the bitterly cold conditions until around midnight. Despite being surrounded by calling jackals, we again saw no pigs.
On our fourth night I set up on a chair on front of a large bush so as not to create a silhouette. The field bordered a mealy field and also had a large depression full of dead and rotting calves. Basically any young cattle that died on the farm were disposed there. Another PH had told us that they travelled along a game trail across the overgrown grassy field we were in and so we decided to wait there.
The sun had gone by 6pm and a north westerly wind greeted us with real vigour. I very quickly started to feel tired in the cold dark conditions and my eyes started to close despite it not being late. A large owl flew to the top of a nearby tree startling me, the PH shone a red light on it and it just sat there totally oblivious to the light. Then a few minutes later at around 7.30 pm we could hear pigs moving in front of us. The PH shone the red light in front of us and I followed it with my rifle scope, nothing.
It would be a few minutes later that we repeated the process, with my scope turned down to 3x I suddenly saw a pig in the red light. My PH whispered to "shoot it" as I was already gently pulling the trigger. My 180 grain round fired from my .30-06 hit him just behind the ear and he dropped instantly.
My boar weighed in at over 70 kilos making me a happy bunny. The four nights sitting outside paid off and I got the species I really wanted. My PH, Sheldon seemed more delighted than I jumping up and down screaming that was "******* brilliant"! It was great to see someone who's hunted Africa all his life showing such enthusiasm still.
We then drove down from near Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape to the coast where bushpig were feeding on a very large dairy farm. The pigs were coming in to feast on the cattle feed. Our PH knew we wanted pigs and so had visited previously to check the site. He had removed the hair stuck on fencing previously and showed us new hair when we arrived so we knew they were visiting regularly. We set up two positions and waited in the bitterly cold conditions until around midnight. Despite being surrounded by calling jackals, we again saw no pigs.
On our fourth night I set up on a chair on front of a large bush so as not to create a silhouette. The field bordered a mealy field and also had a large depression full of dead and rotting calves. Basically any young cattle that died on the farm were disposed there. Another PH had told us that they travelled along a game trail across the overgrown grassy field we were in and so we decided to wait there.
The sun had gone by 6pm and a north westerly wind greeted us with real vigour. I very quickly started to feel tired in the cold dark conditions and my eyes started to close despite it not being late. A large owl flew to the top of a nearby tree startling me, the PH shone a red light on it and it just sat there totally oblivious to the light. Then a few minutes later at around 7.30 pm we could hear pigs moving in front of us. The PH shone the red light in front of us and I followed it with my rifle scope, nothing.
It would be a few minutes later that we repeated the process, with my scope turned down to 3x I suddenly saw a pig in the red light. My PH whispered to "shoot it" as I was already gently pulling the trigger. My 180 grain round fired from my .30-06 hit him just behind the ear and he dropped instantly.
My boar weighed in at over 70 kilos making me a happy bunny. The four nights sitting outside paid off and I got the species I really wanted. My PH, Sheldon seemed more delighted than I jumping up and down screaming that was "******* brilliant"! It was great to see someone who's hunted Africa all his life showing such enthusiasm still.
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