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What’s your pleasure? Doves, pigeon, ducks, geese, guinea fowl, francolin, sand grouse, grey wing partridge? All these can be yours with the outfitter I recently hunted with in South Africa. This was a wonderful, exciting, culturally invigorating, wild and challenging wingshooting experience. The outfitter, the staff, the food, the accommodations, the vehicles and the wingshooting were absolutely top of the line. Words could never adequately describe the experience I had during this 10 day adventure. I thoroughly enjoyed myself in the company of five guests of our outfitter and Detail Company Adventures on this trip to South Africa. If you want to be challenged with several different types of shooting in one day, a trip to South Africa is the trip for you.
On a full hunting day, we would start with driven guinea fowl in the morning. One dog handler said, “We’re using logic to hunt an illogical bird.” What a rush as you stand and hear the beaters as they get closer with their chanting and singing and drum beating. Then you see a few guinea appear in the tall grass. Suddenly, the guinea flush just a few yards from you, and you try to connect on very quick shots as they beat their wings hastily to make a retreat away from the beaters and shooters. It’s quite a sight to see 50-75 guinea fowl take to the air within 40 yards of the shooting line. After 3 hours of guinea drives and 4-5 shoots, it would be off to brunch which was fit for a king. As soon as we were finished, it was off to shoot rock pigeon. If you’ve never shot rock pigeons, you WILL BE CHALLENGED. Our group leader, Myron, said the rock pigeon is the most challenging bird he has every shot, and Myron has hunted Europe, North America and Argentina. All the other shooters agreed the rock pigeon was a worthy flying adversary. We would shoot doves and rock pigeon for 2-3 hours and then break for a light snack. As the day was winding down, we would shoot at passing ducks or geese as they went to afternoon feeding spots or evening roosts. Finally, after an incredible day of shooting, we would retire to camp for a round of drinks around the roaring fire and were treated to kudu steaks, lamb chops, pumpkin fritters, garden fresh salads and lovely South African wines. The night would end as we sat around the warm, inviting fire and recounted the memories of the day’s shoots and discovered the mysteries of the Southern Cross. As we retired to our comfortable and warm beds, we would listen to impala rutting and grunting in the bush as well as jackals as they howled in the clear, cool, crisp night.
We had the privilege to hunt sand grouse on this trip. If you have never had that opportunity, you are missing out. Sand grouse are a noisy bird, announcing their presence with a high shrilled call - “keel-kee-wee”. I heard them every time they came by before I saw them. They were a very challenging bird to shoot and captivating to watch fly to the water hole once the shoot was complete.
Even though we didn’t hunt any antelope species, we saw a significant number of plains game species including cape kudu, gemsbok, black and blue wildebeest, zebra, red hartebeest, blesbok, springbok, giraffe as well as cape buffalo and rhino. What a thrill to see these magnificent creatures in their environment. It was a never ending “Look at that” trip as we saw one amazing species after another.
If you are a serious wingshooter and have never treated yourself to a wingshooting trip to South Africa, please give me a call. This is an incredible adventure and can be made even more tantalizing with a trip to the wine country near Cape Town and a trip to Camps Bay or Table Mountain to see the many wonders of South Africa. I’m counting the days until I can get back on that big jet and ride back over to paradise, pick up a shotgun and enjoy wingshooting African style. Won’t you join me next time?
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