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NitroXAdministrator
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How to hunt bushpig?
      #404 - 03/01/03 02:03 PM

Bushpig have always been high on my list when hunting in Africa.

But they appear to be animals of opportunity more than targets to be sought for.

My first safari was during a very bad drought and bushpig were non-existant and older warthog very scarce. During my second safari I was told they are usually taken by spotlight.

Is this so? What methods are used to hunt bushpig? Where is the best locations to find them ie near farmlands, thick forest ?

Thanks for any answers.


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cchunter
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: NitroX]
      #406 - 03/01/03 06:49 PM

I had the same answer with the Bushpig that they were taken with spotlight, and that was the fact with the smaller cats also.

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SafariHunt
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: NitroX]
      #408 - 03/01/03 07:58 PM

Bushpig is opportunistic that is it if you hunt the normal walk and stalk method.

In 2000 we were looking for kudu or impala with a client of mine when I spotted two large bushpig acroos the valley this was 4 pm. This was also the first time I have ever seen bushpig in daylight I asked him if he would like to have a go at them he said NO !!!! DUH Come to think of it I should have taken one.

On walk and stalk the best chance to bag one is in Kwa-Zulu Natal in RSA. YOu can bait them with veg and old fruit and wait for them over it or you can go down to the eastern Cape and get them bayed with dogs very exiting I hear the first to arrive at the bayed up pig shoots the pig before they harm the dogs. Next time you are coming over plan with your ph to get some bait out for the bushpig at a good spot a week or two in advance and keep refilling the bait if you'd like to have a go at one

--------------------
"Sleeping under the African sky I can see nothing wrong with this world!"


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NitroXAdministrator
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: SafariHunt]
      #413 - 04/01/03 12:47 AM

I read a story by Harold Wolf (of Hatari Times) where he hunted Bushpig with hounds plus a boar spear. I believe he almost came to trouble with the bushpig being quite aggressive. And the hunt required a lot of personal fitness which would count me out currently but hopefully not in the future.

A question - is it ethical to hunt bushpig with a spotlight?

Using spotlights is always a contentious issue, and some game I feel it is OK. Leopards over bait, I feel is fine. Bushbuck - I prefer to take them at dusk or dawn. Small cats? Not sure but I can see unless one is very lucky, then it may be the only way to plan to take one. They are fast and elusive during the day. All I saw in Zim in 2002 was a streak from a waterhole. I think it was a civet (?) What about Bushpigs - OK to spotlight or not?

And if hunting them with a spotlight is OK, how do you go about it? Drive or walk around spotlighting around or sit over a pile of "bait" to bring them to you? Do they stand still under the light or bolt fairly quickly?

Thanks for the replies and any new info.



--------------------
John aka NitroX

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Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
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SafariHunt
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: NitroX]
      #417 - 04/01/03 01:53 AM

Nitro,

Sorry if I left out a bit of detail but hunting pigs over bait you don't use a spotlight. They are not as bad as leopard so you can be closer and also setup your stand or bling so that they will give you a sillouette with the moonlight.

Otherwise I would say baiting them and still using a spotlight yes ethical hunting from the back of a truck with spotlight no not ethical. What we have tried one night is to walk next to a small river where we knew they are around with those lights the miners have on their heads. That is also ethical you walk in darkness only to switch on the light when you see or hear something. We managed to bag two big porcupines that way and alsmot had a shot at a bushbuck he was just too far and I couldn't see my crosshair in my scope on him.

I don't see nay other ways of hunting bushpig ethically even with dogs is that ethical ? It is exiting yes but is that ethical ? The bushpig is the one that is difficult to find just as a leopard so what do you do ? In my mind baiting them with or without spotlight would be the best and most ethical way to produce a bushpig.

--------------------
"Sleeping under the African sky I can see nothing wrong with this world!"


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NitroXAdministrator
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: SafariHunt]
      #426 - 04/01/03 02:29 AM

In reply to:

Safari-Hunt
couldn't see my crosshair in my scope on him.




Sounds like a good time to have a laser-sight. I have one from Laserex in South Aust but have yet to try it out properly. Useless in good light, but seems effective in low light and darkness.

Plan to try it on a .308 BLR with a low powered variable scope and laser on the barrel.


--------------------
John aka NitroX

...
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"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
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original500nitro
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: NitroX]
      #712 - 09/01/03 08:56 PM

I used to hunt bushpig with a gang of lads in the Greytown/New Hanover area in KZN a few years back. The one lad ran a pack of hounds and success rate in the sugar cane and tree plantations in that area was phenomenal.
If I recall they shot over 300 pigs in one year.
The guys could buy whatever was shot at a nominal per/kg cost, and the proceeds went towards feeding and maintaining the dogs, and of course vet bills!
You had to be fit!


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mdshunter
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: original500nitro]
      #869 - 13/01/03 01:24 PM

Most of the guys in the cape I have talked with use dogs.

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NitroXAdministrator
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: mdshunter]
      #30978 - 13/05/05 04:15 AM

BTT

Any suggestions from newer (more recent) members?



--------------------
John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
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DPhillips
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: NitroX]
      #30993 - 13/05/05 09:39 AM

Bushpig will definitely be a target of opportunity for me, if I get the chance in September.

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McLarenSafaris
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: NitroX]
      #31188 - 15/05/05 12:57 PM

How to hunt bushpig? Very difficult indeed! How to shoot bushpig? Still a challenge.

My own hunting career in areas where bushpig do occur spans some few score of years. In this time I've seen bushpig in daylight three times. Once in early morning while glassing a mountainside for kudu two mature bushpigs walked by. Bang! That was a very tasty animal indeed. Then, some years lated very eaarly one morning I had only a .22 LR with me on the way to go and ambush some vervet monkeys when two very big pigs came by. A subsonic between the eyes of the sow was all that was needed. Unbelievably tasty meat, the best of all meats I've ever eaten, by far! A third sighting was mid-morning, but it would have been illegal to shoot. All three sightings were "pure chance" happenings while hunting other animals.

I have also often deliberately hunted bushpig with ethical walk-in-search for method. Never managed to see one. Heard one run off was as close as I ever came. You think a kudu is difficult to outsmart? Try hunting a bushpig in the thick bush and scrub on a mountainside where the lie up during the day! It became a bit of an obsession to get a bushpig in it's natural environment by ethical hunting methods. It still is an obsession, and I'm not going to change my plans, one day I will walk quietly enough, with the wind in my favor and get to shoot one in broad daylight. One day I'll also win the sweepstakes. The chances for the latter happening seems slightly better than for the first mentioned to happen!

I have also had a lot of attempts at shooting – as opposed to hunting – bushpig at night. I have waited many night on the edge of maize fields where they feed with a high-magnification large objective diameter (Zeiss 8X56) scoped rifle. Wind, rain, noise and my possibly dozing off at a critical time has also prevented me from scoring by this method.

Another method that I’ve tried a few times is to walk right in the maize field where they feed with a double barrel slug-loaded shotgun. You hear them feeding from some distance and then creep closer against the wind. Knowing that these animals are really dangerous adds spice to the stalk. Even in good moonlight the visibility amongst the high growing (irrigated) maize is very limited. We are talking of seeing only a few dozen yards down the rows and much less across the rows. Shooting would be shotgun style at the center of where you are looking at. Wind eddies, or my noise or they simply always saw me – I don’t know which - have thus far prevented me from getting close enough! Had some frightening moments when they suddenly all break and run from very close. The little piglets get confused in the scramble and seem to run in mad circles looking for mom. The big ones – as judged by the sound of their running – seem to get away from you very quickly. They can and do also just disapper. Suddenly it is all quiet, no more feed crunching, no sound of running, nothing to be seen. Nothing! Stand sill and look and listen. Nothing. Just you in the middle of a maize field in the night. Very frustrating! I call this night hunting, and will be very happy to eventually get one by this method, which I personally regard as an ethical hunting method.

I have also had the exhilarating pleasure of seeing, and hearing the New Hannover/Greytown pack of hounds in action with the legendary Spyker in the lead. On this particular day the chased pig ran onto the next door property, where we did not have permission to enter. Keeping up with the pack and everything about the day was extremely demanding and much enjoyed. I would love to go back and do it again. As to the ethics of such methods? I regard it as a form of vermin control, not hunting. So I would never mount a trophy shot by this method, but man, this is really great fun! With the pig being chased for some time the taste of the meat would be, ? Well I don't know, yet.

There are some farmers that I know personally where you have a very good chance of getting a shot at a bushpig. You can pre-book a hunt a few months in advance. They then set up and use maize bait at a feeding station. This is positioned near a convenient tree in which a shooting platform is built. As soon the pigs come to feed regularly you will be phoned and the shooting episode is arranged. You will go to wait on the platform at dusk. The noise of the pigs feeding can be clearly heard. A rheostat controlled spotlight is then used to slowly increase the light until you can pick off one. In my personal book this is not regarded as an ethical hunting method, and I have not tried it yet. I do however know that the success rate is very high, and, if I could afford it, would not mind getting the lovely meat on the table by this method, but I don’t call it hunting!

So, as far as I’m concerned, bush pig are targets of opportunity. If you are in their area, with a rifle and a prepared mind, you may connect. Just as you may get to win a lottery if you actually buy a ticket and so enter. Just as you may increase your chances of winning by buying more tickets, so you can improve your chances of success on a bushpig by going hunting in areas where they are abundant. The nuts, avocados, pineapples, sugarcane and similar crops in KwaZulu-Natal and the Mpumulanga lowveldt are favorite foods, and these areas are better than the dry Limpopo and North West bushveldt where I have mostly hunted them.

"n Bosvark is 'n bliksem."






--------------------
Andrew McLaren

"A good hunt is worth whatever you pay for it. A bad hunt is not worth the time spent on it"

http://www.mclarensafaris.com


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Oldsarge
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: NitroX]
      #31190 - 15/05/05 02:16 PM

Even though most places list bushpig as nocturnal, if you really want to hunt one "fair chase" then go to Mozambique. In the Coutada 10 area of the Zambezi delta, they are as diurnal as warthog. Give www.bahati.co.za a buzz and tell them Walter sent you. We could have shot a 'Cruiser load if we'd wanted to.

BTW, they taste great in a Portuguese-style stew!

--------------------
Sarge

Holland's .375: One Planet, One Rifle!


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SAHUNT
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: Oldsarge]
      #31198 - 15/05/05 03:26 PM

Bushpig is very high on my list. I always look out for bushpig , but they are very cunning. I heard that bushpig feeding in cultivated lands always exit where they enter. I haven't tried it, but if it is true the best place will be to sit and wait for them to exit. It will not work for me, I cannot sit still at one place for to long., I end up falling asleep. I'll just keep on hoping they cross my path in daytime and give me an oppertunity.

Getting a bushpig will stay on top of my list.


--------------------
Life is how you pass the time between hunting trips.
Sometimes I do not express myself properly in the English language, please forgive me, I am just a boertjie.
Jaco Human
jacohu@mweb.co.za
SA Hunting Experience


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NitroXAdministrator
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: McLarenSafaris]
      #31204 - 15/05/05 04:05 PM

Andrew

I have started a new thread at:

Pig Meat

This was prompted by your comment:

In reply to:

Unbelievably tasty meat, the best of all meats I've ever eaten, by far!




For comments on the tastes, textures etc of thevarious porcine meats.


--------------------
John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"


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larcher
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: NitroX]
      #31207 - 15/05/05 06:35 PM


I am really amazed ????????????????

This year in the CAR, we all (3 hunting teams) saw bushpigs almost everyday. I am the only hunter among the four of us, not to have got a nice boar. The reason, I was bow hunting them. Shifty winds made me fail 4 approachs on bushpigs males. I succeeded in 3 approachs with females and piglets only. Twice I snapshot and missed running boars. Should I have had opted for my rifle, I would have had 4 males shooting opportunities in 12 days, at least.
In the CAR, the bushpig is not to be found in the small hills but in the flood plains and jungle.
About midday, like warthog they are wandering close to the water. So the best moments to get them is early in the morning when they are eating in the grass and around midday. In the afternoon they are lazing in the jungle about. In French we call them POTAMOchere, Potamon meaning river in ancient Greek. This to explain they are living about or even in rivers.
My cousin shot a big boar whence the guide was calling duiker and bushbuck. A herd of 12 surged out of the jungle in the lap of my cousin and around him. (A bowhunter dream) He shot the male at 10 yards. Funny, at the bang of the 146 Rigby, all the pigs lied down waiting. 5 seconds later my cousin jacked another round in and the troup flied away. Never seen this ducking reflex with boar and wart hog.
In the CAR, bushpig is as much diurnal as nocturnal. The same with the rare Giant Forest Hog.

Concerning the taste : I feel the meat is as tasty as warthog's. The trouble is that the cook mixed warthog, bushpig, lion, duiker, eland and BABOON meat to fabricate Kebabs. The most searched meat back there is the Baboon meat. The governor (prefect) was permanently asking for. Note a CAR Muslim refuses to touch or bear a shot Baboon but is ready to kill to have a baboon meat ration.

--------------------
"I don't want to create an encyclopedic atmosphere here when we might be having a beer instead" P H Capstick in "Safari the last adventure."


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larcher
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: larcher]
      #31249 - 16/05/05 06:03 PM

my cousin's diurnal(first)bushpig.
Later, he met other boars and 2 bigger




Even Mahometans are touching pork when they are sure to get a generous meat portion.


--------------------
"I don't want to create an encyclopedic atmosphere here when we might be having a beer instead" P H Capstick in "Safari the last adventure."


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470Nitro
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: NitroX]
      #31268 - 17/05/05 01:04 AM

I saw them in all my safaris, but I only took one last year (the first one I was able to shot). He was eating worms below a lion bait.

--------------------
-----
down by the river on a friday night
pyramid of cans in the pale moonlight
talkin' 'bout guns and dreamin 'bout women
never had a plan just a livin' for the minute


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cchunter
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: 470Nitro]
      #31275 - 17/05/05 01:23 AM

I took this little guy when he crossed the road between two fields last year. Frederik aka SafariHunt to the right.



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SafariHunt
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: cchunter]
      #31447 - 19/05/05 02:46 AM

I tried my luck on bushpig this last weekend but alas bushpig as won again. My brother heard from a farmer not even 2 km away from our plot in Ellisras about maurauding bushpig and so we asked if we could help. He had only shot two pigs thus far in the last 3 months not very succesfull but shall I say he didn't go and try every night.

There was only a little bit of mielies left (Corn) and what was left was the labourers corn and they don't belive in neat rows of corn but plant as many as you can in the spot you get. So the milies didn't have any rows so if the bushpig would enter it we could only hear it and not see it.

The fence was 20 meters from the mielies, 8 meter bush then a road and then the mielies. So the only shooting oppurtinity would have been before the milies in the road and maybe out again. The farmer told us that he shot the ones before just before they enter the mielies. So just before dark we got ourselves ready 20 meters from the road the wind just fine blowing into our faces and waited. I was armed with my trusty 375 H&H loaded with 270 gr rhino bullets going at 2500 fps I wanted the pigs to go down as quick as possible. Trough the fence and that would be reeds from a riverbed that has water for 4 months of the year.

About 50 minutes later we heard noise at the fence a minute later the rush of a pig running straight into the mielies. We waited for another half an hour for more pigs to come but looks like this one was, was a loner. All the time we could hear thye plants being pushed over with a crashing sound and then eating not further than 20 meters from us.

We decided to get closer my brother with the hand held spotlight and me with my 375. We were 5 metres from the mielies and still hearing the bushpig going at it but there was no way to see anything as it was a dark night and the moon went down early. I got onto my haunches and my brother as well and aimed at the noise. My brother swiched on the spotlight and we could see nothing but mielies the pig however did see the light and ran off deeper into the mielies. After a minute we could hear the mielie plants crashing again what cheek did this pig have but he knew we could'nt see him and so he won the game. The next day we were at the farm again during daylight and from the tracks he was the only bushpig that came for the night and a big one as well just goes to show then don't get that big for being stupid ! The next night the wetaher was bad and it was drizzling a bit and we decided not togo after the pigs again. But I enjoyed the hunt it was very exiting and quite an adrenaline rush hearing the pig carshing trough the mielies even though it was the opposite way.

--------------------
"Sleeping under the African sky I can see nothing wrong with this world!"


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butchloc
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: NitroX]
      #31550 - 20/05/05 05:38 AM

the 1st time I ran into bushpigs was in RSA just stumbling on them onto of a dead animal. The next couple times was in zim where they would raid the areas around camp. We tried to shoot one there but didn't have any success. The one I did shoot was just by accident. We were driving around checking leopard baits and saw one sleeping under a bush. We totally ruined its nap. The next time was in the ARDA in the lowveld where we would either have them come into a old leopard bait, or throw out some corn and they would come in usually about 2 hours after dark. The most unusual however was in zambia where my PH swore by throwing a couple of gallons of diesel onto of some old meat. He had found this out from some old guy, and tried it with great success. Only time I ever heard of it.

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NitroXAdministrator
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: butchloc]
      #31597 - 21/05/05 12:13 AM

European hunters do use diesel for baiting boar. A German hunter I had out here last year also mentioned it. As he spoke German and my German is very limited an indepth examination was not possible. I do not know what it is that attracts them, but it seems to work.

Anyone know of the intricacies of the "diesel" baiting method? Also why it works?

Thanks.



--------------------
John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"


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NitroXAdministrator
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: larcher]
      #31598 - 21/05/05 12:15 AM

Larcher

First time this photo has loaded for me. Wow I like this fellow.



--------------------
John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"


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larcher
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Re: How to hunt bushpig? [Re: NitroX]
      #31680 - 21/05/05 10:21 PM

Hi NitroX

A nice bush pig. In fact it was not shot. While my cousin was sleeping, this very hog drank his gourd of wine and was motherless drunk. A cinch to catch it a take a nice pic. LOL.

Hi Chris,

It’s amazing You didn’t tone your picture down. It’s gory but real hunting is so. A nice boar You shot. I think the incoming night impeded your “walt-disneying” trophy. In fact may be you are right in being genuine.

NitroX.

In Europe we are baiting boars in pouring diesel in their bathing pools or better : cresyl or creosote, the pungent desinfectant used in the past to desinfect the toilets. We can also mix granules with the mud. The granules contained pungent aromatic substances extracted from oil or pinewood distillation.
In fact wild boar love to rubb their coats against pine trunks to smear themselves with resin.
Too, we coat the trunks with tars obtained from distillation of pine wood (tars left after getting turpentine) the name in French is goudron de Norvege, Norway’s tar.
This products are meant to repell cutaneous parasites like ticks, lice, fleas, worms......NO need to say it fairly different from CHANEL N°5.


--------------------
"I don't want to create an encyclopedic atmosphere here when we might be having a beer instead" P H Capstick in "Safari the last adventure."


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