Rubberhead
AH fanatic
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2021
- Messages
- 596
- Reaction score
- 2,434
- Location
- South Carolina
- Website
- www.flickr.com
- Media
- 41
- Articles
- 6
- Hunted
- South Carolina, South Africa
My deer club is on the coast but my house is in a piedmont neighborhood. The advantage of the coast is that its gun season for whitetail opens on August 15th and runs through January 1st. The advantage of the neighborhood is my wife has people around even if I stay on the coast for a few days during the deer or duck seasons.
Our coastal plain lacks topologic diversity but our thousand-acre deer club has a few uncommon features that keep it interesting for me and the whitetail. A ditch with water runs nearly parallel to a usually dry ditch. Both run the length of the property. Between the ditches, there are blocks of timberland in various stages of growth patchworked with eight small peach orchards and three water-holding clay pits.
I’m disappointed, though, by the alligator living rent-free in the big clay pit because he lets a family of beavers swim the water ditch and use the other two clay pits as staging grounds for their woody destruction. I didn’t get a recreational alligator tag this year so I might have to apply for a gator depredation permit to upgrade the current freeloading pacifist with a lion-hearted alligator with a taste for beaver. That’s for later, though. Deer season is in full swing and I've got empty spaces in the freezer.
I have hunted the coast of ducks and deer since the late 1970’s. I never felt the need to "adventure" hunt because our deer and duck were enough to keep me interested but, all that time, I read everything I could find on hunting Africa. It was kind of like reading space-based science fiction but never really wanting to leave Earth. Yet, through a series of events, I ended up in Africa full of expectations that had grown out of my reading. Africa easily met those expectations but surprised me with a thought that I didn’t expect.
I had a mental checklist of the things I wanted to see and do and, more importantly, the things I wanted to photograph including, of course, the animals I hunted. Being a birder in addition to a hunter, there were a dozen iconic bird species that I wanted to see, too. I wanted more than a photograph. I wanted to enjoy being in the presence of these birds while on the ground in Africa. These included the Gray Lourie (Go-Away-Bird), the critically endangered griffon vultures and whatever hornbill species I could find. I saw three hornbill species and many dozens of individual of each species. I never once ignored any of them. Paying attention to every single individual hornbill, vulture or lourie was a promise I made and kept during my time in Africa but I can certainly understand why locals seem to almost see right through them – they’re literally everywhere. The emotion that surprised me hit when I was watching a pair of Southern Red-billed hornbills and a single Yellow-billed Hornbill gleaning insects from the maintained lawn around the salt shed.
Maybe it’s an imperialist notion but I wasn’t just going to be happy enjoying them just while I was there. I wanted to take them home with me. I want to look out from my window at my house every morning and see that same sight – Hornbills in my yard. I know exactly the same emotion was what drove previous generations to kidnap the flora and fauna from faraway places and introduce them into their homes. Texas is full of such imports. Without the protection of current laws in the country I was visiting, and the one I would return to, I could have easily followed through with my Hornbill abduction plan. Then, my mind wandered to the big animals. What if I was allowed one species, just one, to take back home and introduce at the deer club. What would I choose?
I first thought about the blue wildebeest – the animal I most wanted to get while in Africa. They were fun to hunt and the best eating game meat I had ever had. They could take the coastal heat and, since they are grazers, won’t compete with my beloved whitetail. But, they are big.
I love impala but they browse and would complete with the deer. They are about the same size and similar color too. They’re just too redundant to the resident whitetail.
Zebra, hmm…who wouldn't enjoy the sounds of zebra while in a whitetail stand? And, they would probably keep the grassy areas on the club cropped close saving me a bunch of work cutting before the season. But, they, too, are big and noticeable. Half of the folks that live around the deer club would be trying to poach my zebra and the other half would be picketing my club because we might shoot a “horse”. I scratched zebra off of my list.
Warthogs? They wouldn’t be happy without aardvarks around to dig holes for them and I’m limiting myself to only one imported animal species. Wait…what about armadillo holes…nah, they are probably too small…never mind.
I would consider Buffalo. I like the idea of taking an annual buffalo hunt without having to fly for 32 hours. And, it would give me a reason to get that .375 H&H that I’ve always wanted. But, they can be grumpy and would be hard to get out of the country.
Steenbok? Yeah, I like that idea. They would love the thick cover of my deer club. They’d pretty much go unnoticed by the locals. If a local “Karen” saw one from the road, she would just think they saw a baby deer. They would compete some with the whitetail but they’re small so not much. I have a small family so I could take a fresh steenbok or two each year for a family cookout without having to put any meat in the freezer. Yep, I think that's it.
So, if any of you meet a guy on the plane back from Africa with a double handful of “emotional support” steenbok fawns, please say hi but don’t stare too much…you might give me away.
Our coastal plain lacks topologic diversity but our thousand-acre deer club has a few uncommon features that keep it interesting for me and the whitetail. A ditch with water runs nearly parallel to a usually dry ditch. Both run the length of the property. Between the ditches, there are blocks of timberland in various stages of growth patchworked with eight small peach orchards and three water-holding clay pits.
I’m disappointed, though, by the alligator living rent-free in the big clay pit because he lets a family of beavers swim the water ditch and use the other two clay pits as staging grounds for their woody destruction. I didn’t get a recreational alligator tag this year so I might have to apply for a gator depredation permit to upgrade the current freeloading pacifist with a lion-hearted alligator with a taste for beaver. That’s for later, though. Deer season is in full swing and I've got empty spaces in the freezer.
I have hunted the coast of ducks and deer since the late 1970’s. I never felt the need to "adventure" hunt because our deer and duck were enough to keep me interested but, all that time, I read everything I could find on hunting Africa. It was kind of like reading space-based science fiction but never really wanting to leave Earth. Yet, through a series of events, I ended up in Africa full of expectations that had grown out of my reading. Africa easily met those expectations but surprised me with a thought that I didn’t expect.
I had a mental checklist of the things I wanted to see and do and, more importantly, the things I wanted to photograph including, of course, the animals I hunted. Being a birder in addition to a hunter, there were a dozen iconic bird species that I wanted to see, too. I wanted more than a photograph. I wanted to enjoy being in the presence of these birds while on the ground in Africa. These included the Gray Lourie (Go-Away-Bird), the critically endangered griffon vultures and whatever hornbill species I could find. I saw three hornbill species and many dozens of individual of each species. I never once ignored any of them. Paying attention to every single individual hornbill, vulture or lourie was a promise I made and kept during my time in Africa but I can certainly understand why locals seem to almost see right through them – they’re literally everywhere. The emotion that surprised me hit when I was watching a pair of Southern Red-billed hornbills and a single Yellow-billed Hornbill gleaning insects from the maintained lawn around the salt shed.
Maybe it’s an imperialist notion but I wasn’t just going to be happy enjoying them just while I was there. I wanted to take them home with me. I want to look out from my window at my house every morning and see that same sight – Hornbills in my yard. I know exactly the same emotion was what drove previous generations to kidnap the flora and fauna from faraway places and introduce them into their homes. Texas is full of such imports. Without the protection of current laws in the country I was visiting, and the one I would return to, I could have easily followed through with my Hornbill abduction plan. Then, my mind wandered to the big animals. What if I was allowed one species, just one, to take back home and introduce at the deer club. What would I choose?
I first thought about the blue wildebeest – the animal I most wanted to get while in Africa. They were fun to hunt and the best eating game meat I had ever had. They could take the coastal heat and, since they are grazers, won’t compete with my beloved whitetail. But, they are big.
I love impala but they browse and would complete with the deer. They are about the same size and similar color too. They’re just too redundant to the resident whitetail.
Zebra, hmm…who wouldn't enjoy the sounds of zebra while in a whitetail stand? And, they would probably keep the grassy areas on the club cropped close saving me a bunch of work cutting before the season. But, they, too, are big and noticeable. Half of the folks that live around the deer club would be trying to poach my zebra and the other half would be picketing my club because we might shoot a “horse”. I scratched zebra off of my list.
Warthogs? They wouldn’t be happy without aardvarks around to dig holes for them and I’m limiting myself to only one imported animal species. Wait…what about armadillo holes…nah, they are probably too small…never mind.
I would consider Buffalo. I like the idea of taking an annual buffalo hunt without having to fly for 32 hours. And, it would give me a reason to get that .375 H&H that I’ve always wanted. But, they can be grumpy and would be hard to get out of the country.
Steenbok? Yeah, I like that idea. They would love the thick cover of my deer club. They’d pretty much go unnoticed by the locals. If a local “Karen” saw one from the road, she would just think they saw a baby deer. They would compete some with the whitetail but they’re small so not much. I have a small family so I could take a fresh steenbok or two each year for a family cookout without having to put any meat in the freezer. Yep, I think that's it.
So, if any of you meet a guy on the plane back from Africa with a double handful of “emotional support” steenbok fawns, please say hi but don’t stare too much…you might give me away.
