SOUTH AFRICA: Nick BOWKER HUNTING SOUTH AFRICA Hunting April 20 To May 1

Day 7: sunny 78F windy

I took a day off of hunting and watched my friend hunt zebra and warthog. I spent several hours with Mark, the neighbor landowner. I learned a lot about the behind the scenes of my hunt. Here are a few highlights:
  1. My exceptional luck was due to allot of intel provided by many of the landowners and their employees acting as scouts. Mark spends 7 hours a day counting his wild game on his land.
  2. Trophy hunting provides a huge economic benefit to the ranchers and they now treat all the local wildlife as a valuable resource and thus conserve and protect it.
  3. Only about 3% of the game animals are harvested as trophies each year.
  4. Some species reproduce at a rate of doubling every 2 years, thus requiring culling of around 30% a year (meat hunting).
  5. Each game animal has a score compared to a cow as to the amount of food needed, and the land only has a set amount of browse available dependent on rainfall and grazing pressure.
Day 8 morning hunt: sunny 65F.

This day we went after a gray duiker. We drove 10 minutes and then hiked 2 miles over about 2 hours. I must say, Nick puts in the same effort on this $200 add on tiny 10 game animal as the kudu. We sneaked around kudu, nyala, warthog, Steenbok, Guineafowls, and baboons, to get into position for a shot at a trophy duiker. I made a 140 yard shot on the 5th duiker we stalked up to.

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Really nice report. What kind of sticks did you use? The shots seemed quite long. Was it more open cover? Great shooting! Was your party the only one in camp? It is great to here from another hunter from WI. I am near Sheboygan. Your fellow badger, Brian
 
The shooting sticks used are Rudolph quad sticks. My buddy and I bought a pair of the exact model Nick uses. We practiced a half dozen times shooting a few hundred rounds of 22LR. After the first round of 50 shots I got very comfortable shooting, I could hit a quarter at 50 yards. I am not the most accurate shooter by any means, but using these sticks is like shooting off a bench. The hunting grounds varies a lot from wide open country to thick brush, my shots ranged from 100 to 400 yards. The longer shots were on big targets making it very doable. Yes my party was the only one in camp, that’s how Nick always does it, makes it very enjoyable for all. Brian, good to here from other WI residents.
 
Congrats on your hunt, and thanks for sharing !
 
sounds like a great trip. Congrats on everything and thanks for sharing.
 
Congrats on a successful hunt. That warthog is a beast! Hunted with Nick in '21. He runs a tight ship and his trackers and woo woos are a pleasure to have along on the hunting.
 
@MrCreedmoor , I enjoyed reading your hunt report, sounds like you had a thoroughly enjoyable trip. Very nice animals! Congratulations!
 

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Sighting in rifles before the hunt commences.
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patr wrote on M. Horst's profile.
Thanks for the awesome post my friend - much appreciated, when you coming back with Tiff.
NIGHTHAWK wrote on NZ Jack's profile.
Introduce yourself Buddy…
Hello
Can anyone please give some info about the kudu broomstick trophy judging method and any tips for any species for judging
Kind regards lucas
 
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