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"Bushbuck Fever"

(apologies to Leif Wold on the African-Hunter forum for borrowing his thread's title but it was such a good title I could not resist)

I was lucky on my last safari to take a couple of bushbuck, one a Limpopo and the other a Chobe bushbuck.

The first hunt was in South Africa near Thabazimbi and near the Crocodile River. Another river fed into the Crocodile and along this was a large irrigated cereal farm with very large circular crops of wheat and other cereals irrigated by large spray booms which slowly worked their way around the crops from an anchored central point. The banks of the river were thick with scrub and game. Hunting in the scrub would be very difficult and probably unproductive.

The bushbuck hunting here was unusual and involved using a hide and waiting for the bushbuck to come out in the afternoon. This was quite a pleasant way to hunt and gave the opportunity to watch numerous guinea fowl, bamboon and some warthogs that ventured into the crop to feed. The edges of the crop were mown down butt only a few metres in as if by a lawnmower which was evidence of the bushbuck. A nice combination. Good revenues from cereal farming, and with the bushbuck only very minimally damaging the crop excellent hunting.

Note the wheat crop carefully cropped by the bushbuck along the edges

We had driven past the hide position so as to not alert any watchful animals to our intended position and parked the vehicle in the bush near a pumping station. Carrying some chairs, a camoflage net, a drinks box we setup the hide and Shorty the tracker returned to the vehicle. Dantri, my friend who is also a PH, Jan, the PH who managed this concession and I entered the hide.

After sitting quietly and patiently for some 40 minutes the bushbuck started to appear and over the next 3 hours at least a couple of dozen of bushbuck could be sighted some up to 800 metres away on the other side of the crop. At this point I regretted only bringing along a .375 H&H with 300 gr Woodleigh RNs (for buffalo) as I assumed all my shooting would be done in thicker bush and at closer ranges. Now I wished for a flat shooting rifle. If a really big one walked out several hundred metres out I would not have an opportunity as stalking was out of the question.

.375 H&H with 300 gr RN country? I think not!

The bushbuck were principally females and immature males. The larger males do not get old on this property by being incautious. Several males were spotted with lesser horns until a mature buck entered the field only about 80 metres away. His dark coat indicated an older animal but he was judged to be only around 13". As we had many days, we would wait for a larger one and see what else ventured out this evening.

Hearing some sounds in the scrub, perhaps another bushbuck or an approaching warthog, all the bushbuck nearby spooked. They had remained very alert and watchful, eating a mouthful and scanning regularly. Given a half-hour some returned but the larger buck remained hidden.

Darkness intervened and we discussed the mature bushbuck. Jan who had seen more bushbuck in the direction in ground hidden from us said the mature male was closer to 14 or 15 inches so it was defintely a shooter for me if he showed on subsequent nights. So far he was completely aware of our presence so his reappearance should not be a problem with a bit of luck of Dianna. Jan is a very experienced bushbuck hunter and also a keen man after leopard. The surrounding area being a leopard hotspot with some of the hills not hunted for many years and producing fine leopard which spill out into the neighbouring properties. A small herd of donkeys purchased by bait by him was being rapidly depleted. Jan had accompanied us for the first evening to introduce us to the owner and show us the property and that done we hunted from now on alone.

Jan's view of the target area. Note the thickets which separated the river from the fields. Bushbuck would lie up in these thickets during the day, venturing to feast in the fields at night

The next afternoon after hunting other plains game including chasing a very nice impala we returned and built our hide in the same place. The large irrigation booms in the meantime had passed our hide and were some distance further along the fields. This did not help our approach with the vehicle almost getting bogged but luck held out and we got through without making too much racket.

This is part of one of the large spray booms. I estimated each span to be around 50 metres long. This spray boom had eight of these making the radius of the field 400 metres deep and 800 metres across.

The flat ground of the crops was tricky in estimating distances. Depressions in the ground looked flat but often contained dead ground. What looked like a hundred metres could be over 200 metres. We tested this the previous evening. When the mature bushbuck had left the field it looked to be maybe 120 metres away. In fact the odometer on the 4WD showed it to be more like 190 metres.

Sitting there again was a pleasant experience. The sounds, odours and sights of an African afternoon. It was curious to note the behaviour of the guinea fowl in particular, and how they KNEW we were there. Large flocks would gather flying from the surrounding bushland onto the track which surrounded the crops. Gathering there they would walk purposely along the headland but metres from our hide, even though we remained strictly motionless would jump up and fly over us and land several metres to the other side. GREAT, they were telling everything else we were there too. The baboon were extremely cautious as would flee at the merest sound or sight of a human or vehicle. Not without reason as they were hated for the damage they did to the crops. Large steel traps were placed around the fencelines but after a baboon or two were captured their effectiveness diminished severely.

The buck coming out were slower that second evening but eventually they began to appear. Perhaps 30 minutes before dark, the mature boy arrived again, somewhat further out. I readied for the shot using my camera monopod and the camo net hide as a rest. However I was getting a lot of verticle movement up and down and had to try to pick the shot with the reticle. Fired! and the buck was down. But NO! He was up again and into the bush. The shot looked OK and the "whack" which sounded back to us was positive.

We approached the area and Shorty also appeared. By the way "Shorty" was the tallest of us all. Blood in the field and blood on the grass on the fenceline. But no bushbuck on the ground inside the bush as was expected.

Crossing through the fence Shorty began to track the spoor which led deeper into the bush and into some very thick scrub. The bushbuck barked so we knew the direction of his location.

We circled around the scrub looking for an entrance and found a tunnel running through on the other side. It was about 3 feet high and may 30 metres long. Making sure the .375 was loaded but on safe and pointed to the side of Dnatri, I followed him in. Dantri had drawn his 9mm CZ pistol. as the bushbuck was very close and rifles could not be used in the tunnel the pistol might have to be used. Shorty's eyes were very wide and white around the edges so he was more than nervous.

Crawling through the tunnel and entering under the canopy without incident we scanned the dark bush for any sign of the bushbuck. The bushbuck barked again to our left. Shorty took up the lead again with Dantri readying his CZ .243 and me my .375. While bushbuck are antelope they do have a reputation for agressiveness when wounded. Their short lyre shaped horns in your intestines would not be a pleasant experience so preparedness is a better option. Shorty found the tracks again. The bushbuck had passed in front of us and moved to our right, West through the strip of scrub. Here under the leafy canopy which thinned out a bit we could see better but was quite dark. Nightfall was also fast approaching. If we didn't come onto it soon we would need to exit and have Jan bring his dogs over to help recover the wounded animal.

Tracking again and suddenly, another bark, and the bushbuck was sighted moving away some 70 metres away through the tree trunks. We lost sight of him but then, there he was beside a tree trunk, stamping, snorting and shuffling away and now facing away from us.

Raising the .375 I quickly sent a 300 gr pill away to end the issue. The bullet striking the bushbuck in the rear and penetrating about a metre into the chest. It was down and out.

The first bullet was in line with just behind the shoulder but slightly above the spine. It had damaged the vertebrae but not snapped the spinal cord so while the animal was severely limited in movement it was not down and out. Bad shooting by me was the only answer I had.

Moving the fine animal into as lit as position as possible some photographs were taken with the flash pretty well necessary.

NitroX & BigFive - the end of a successful hunt through team effort

Into the car and some welcome cold drinks for all and off we were back to our main base happy with the result. Stopping off at the homestead to speak to the owner, Dantri admired the owner's pretty bare-foot and bare-legged blonde daughter when she answered the door (I of course am above these things

). Not bad and with a fantastic hunting property to boot. We also took time off from this to admire a splendid mounted bushbuck on the wall. It was a fine specimen and I knew one day I would return here to look for a true monster.

The follow-up was exciting. My future hunt would include cape buffalo. Would I do better when it came to shoot something much more serious? How exciting would following up a buffalo be in the shot went so far astray? Time would tell.

Dantri and Shorty - architects of a successful Limpopo Bushbuck hunt

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John aka NitroX

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