Ridgerunner
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Just curious if anyone had any animals on their safaris that they might not have planned to have hunted for but ended up doing so and really enjoyed it. If so what was the species and why?
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Favorite surprise animal to hunt
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Spooksar
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My management Giraffe 9 hr hunt on the last day of a safari, a lot harder hunt then I thought it would be.
PHOENIX PHIL
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Red Hartebeest. Had no intention of hunting one, then I saw them in person.
cpr0312
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I dont know if mine qualifies as a surprise as I'm referring to my third safari here, but opportunity and trophy quality led me to take a blesbok and warthog which I previously hadn't considered.
Upton O. Good
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Eland. Hard hunt, great hunt, brute of an animal. Great eating, too!
IdaRam
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I had the very same experience Phil. Not only are they pretty dang cool on the hoof, but a fabulous game animal as well. I was impressed with how challenging they can be to hunt when my buddy's son was after one. Still on my list...
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For me it was "Bushpig" - had absolutely no desire to shoot one - PH was upset when I passed a late evening shot on one, then on the last day while we were working on Bushbuck (9AM in the morning), we spotted one in a thickly brushed little stream bottom. We were able to get in and seal the deal, nice mature boar and turned into a fun hunt - the PH was way more excited than me or my daughter - he kept saying over and over -"9 o'clock big bushpig boar, no one is going to believe this!"
Nyati
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Red hartebeest, had no intention of shooting one, seemed too ugly, but... it just happened !
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These guys were totally unexpected and fun. There is a great story for me to tell around the fire about these guys!
cls
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Got to be the bushbuck. On my first safari to South Africa I had Eland, Kudu and Nyala on my list and I was lucky enough to take them all within the first week of a 14 day hunt. I had no idea what a Limpopo spiral horn slam was but after taking the Kudu my PH said I had to go for the slam. I soon found out that those little guys inhabit some of the thickest and nastiest terrain there is and they are also one tough animal. The first time I heard them bark in the early morning mist along a tangled river bank I was hooked. It took me 3 days of hard hunting to finally connect on an tough old ram.
cpr0312
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Actually I should make an addition to my earlier comment. This past May when I was in Zim I had no intention of hunting eland. I had take a cow (cape) eland in 2016 so I had the eland bug shaken for a while. However, while hunting this past May, we saw this bull a few times and I asked my outfitter to confirm that these were cape eland. Once he told me they were Livingstone the decision was made to pursue, and I'm glad we did!!
mdwest
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Waterbuck...
Had no intention of hunting one at all on our recent safari.. but saw a really nice bull in the field and made an immediate decision to give chase.. Im very glad I did.. It ended up being my favorite animal of the trip..
Had no intention of hunting one at all on our recent safari.. but saw a really nice bull in the field and made an immediate decision to give chase.. Im very glad I did.. It ended up being my favorite animal of the trip..
Just got back 2 days ago from my first safari. Waterbuck wasn't on the list and it was an awesome add to the hunt.
Till the last day buffalo was added. Buffalo was a mind blowing addition to the hunt. You have never hunted until you have been 10 yards away from a buffalo.
Till the last day buffalo was added. Buffalo was a mind blowing addition to the hunt. You have never hunted until you have been 10 yards away from a buffalo.
In hindsight I feel a little goofy saying this but when I left home for my first trip I had no intention of taking a Nyala. After I saw the first one in the wild my mind was made up that I had to have one. I'm a little biased but I think KZN gave up a fine specimen for me.
thriller
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I shot a 16.5 in bushbuck i had not planned to hunt I was very excited about that!
Velo Dog
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Rock pigeon.
Ran low on money toward the end of a safari (as usual) in The Limpopo and Mpumalanga Districts so, had to do something less expensive on next to last day, before going home.
I think the cost was $350.us dollars, including shotgun, ammunition, blinds built, box lunch and decoys set out.
These birds (something like a huge dove) live up in the Drakenberg Escarpment / cliffs and fly down in huge numbers to the foothills, to raid Farmer's grain fields (sunflower seeds), each afternoon.
A photo from that specific shoot is on the Hannes Swanepoel Safaris web site, select "Gallery" and then "Bird Hunting".
In a couple of the pics, I'm the goofy looking person, sitting on the ground to your left, with short sleeve shirt and out of style mustache.
My old hunting pal, Andy Gordon is the "normal" looking one to your right.
Not sure if the price has gone up since then (from a few years ago) but regardless, if I can get back over to hunt with Hannes again one of these years, I plan to do another pigeon hunt for sure.
Hannes is the chap shown here in my avatar, nearest the buffalo's hind quarter and a very fine PH I might ad (knows some splendid fishing holes as well).
I have encouraged him to advertise within the world's greatest forum here but, for whatever reason he has not yet chosen to do so.
I know he stays booked up most of the time so, perhaps it is just that reason, not sure, he is good fellow at any rate.
Ran low on money toward the end of a safari (as usual) in The Limpopo and Mpumalanga Districts so, had to do something less expensive on next to last day, before going home.
I think the cost was $350.us dollars, including shotgun, ammunition, blinds built, box lunch and decoys set out.
These birds (something like a huge dove) live up in the Drakenberg Escarpment / cliffs and fly down in huge numbers to the foothills, to raid Farmer's grain fields (sunflower seeds), each afternoon.
A photo from that specific shoot is on the Hannes Swanepoel Safaris web site, select "Gallery" and then "Bird Hunting".
In a couple of the pics, I'm the goofy looking person, sitting on the ground to your left, with short sleeve shirt and out of style mustache.
My old hunting pal, Andy Gordon is the "normal" looking one to your right.
Not sure if the price has gone up since then (from a few years ago) but regardless, if I can get back over to hunt with Hannes again one of these years, I plan to do another pigeon hunt for sure.
Hannes is the chap shown here in my avatar, nearest the buffalo's hind quarter and a very fine PH I might ad (knows some splendid fishing holes as well).
I have encouraged him to advertise within the world's greatest forum here but, for whatever reason he has not yet chosen to do so.
I know he stays booked up most of the time so, perhaps it is just that reason, not sure, he is good fellow at any rate.
sheephunterab
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Red hartebeest for sure. Kilipsringer was surprising where they lived and how agile they were. Mountain reedbuck were another pleasant surprise and Barbary sheep more than exceeded our expectations. Giraffe in the Namib Desert was over the top and I think zebra shock every first timer. The definitely aren't like shooting a horse.
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