Bushbuck thoughts

Sitting at a campground on this damp morning, I'm killing time by poking around my favorite website (yes, this one!) and dreaming of going back to Africa, I got thinking. It seems to me that bushbuck kind of got the short end of the stick. I mean we have greater and lesser kudu, eland and LDE, Nyala and mountain nyala, so doesn't it seem like there should be a giant bushbuck, or something like that hidden in some small isolated area of the continent? Is there and I have missed it somehow? Or would we just consider the Sitatunga to be it's bigger cousin- not much different than nyala and mountain nyala I suppose. Just random thoughts occupying a mind afflicted with the Africa bug on a boring morning, lol.

Bushbuck went the other way and just adapted their pelage to be distinct.

It was bushbuck which got me on my spiral horned quest. You have to love these little guys - half to a third the size of a kudu but with 4 times the heart. They don't know how small they are, and their toughness more than makes up for what they lack in size. While you should always approach any downed animal carefully, bushbuck are in the same league as sable - an extra dose of caution is called for. They don't give up easily.

There are a number of different subspecies, which makes hunting bushbuck even more fun. Carton-Barber in African Game Species suggests there are 9 subspecies, ranging from West Africa to Ethiopia and from south of the Sahara to the Cape. You could spend many years chasing all of these . . . and hunt some great countries doing so. I've taken one or more in every country I've visited except Cameroon and Ethiopia. Missing Cameroon was no great loss since only the harnessed bushbuck is found there, and I have a very nice one from Benin. Ethiopia though is a different matter. The Abyssinian and Menelik's bushbuck are found pretty much only there (and into Somalia, but even if you could hunt there . . .). So I'm probably going to have to make do with the harnessed, Chobe, Limpopo and Cape subspecies. I still have a chance of adding the Nile (Uganda) and Masai (Tanzania) if I ever make it to those countries. . .

As @BRICKBURN stated, they change their colouration (though he uses bigger words than I do) depending on where they are. The harnessed bushbuck of West Africa is the prettiest as far as I'm concerned, but the dark colouration of the more southern sub=species have their own beauty.

@Albert GRANT, you could do a lot worse than spend your time thinking about bushbuck!

I do love bushbuck. Saw a beauty when sightseeing on my trip, only thing I wish I had done differently on that trip was to go after one!

Damn nice one there, Marius!

I love bushbuck. They are stealthy and darn fast when they decide to go!

Bushbuck hunting is one of the most underrated hunts in the world! They are elusive and cunning but very beautiful at the same time. A very affordable and exciting animal to hunt!

I could not agree more with enysse. If available, I will hunt bushbuck every time I head back to Africa.

Bushbuck, buffalo and bush pig - that's all I need. Have shot a lot of bushbuck, all in the province of Limpopo, then called Northern Transvaal. Bushbuck caused damage to our afforestations, that's why we also culled young rams and females.

Bushpig4Ever said:

Bushbuck, buffalo and bush pig - that's all I need. Have shot a lot of bushbuck, all in the province of Limpopo, then called Northern Transvaal. Bushbuck caused damage to our afforestations, that's why we also culled young rams and females.

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Boy I'd love to see one like the second from the left! Love it when the tips turn out like that

I love hunting them as well. And when you think of all the different subspecies you could spend a whole career of hunting across Africa just targeting Bushbuck.

And with that being said, I know Ethiopia is terribly expensive, but do you think outfitters would put a package together just for Bushbuck? The trophy fees there are high enough, but usually those safaris focus on Mnt Nyala or Lesser Kudu.

@Hank221:
Have you hunted bushbuck in Namibia? And where? Caprivi?

Well camouflaged, stealthy and as quick as lightning - they really make a beautiful trophy! I constantly admire the lovely spotted coat of mine.

Bushbuck are supercool... would do it again, and again, and again!

Timbo said:

Well camouflaged, stealthy and as quick as lightning - they really make a beautiful trophy! I constantly admire the lovely spotted coat of mine.

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How did you have him mounted?

JPbowhunter said:

How did you have him mounted?

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He has 14" horns and I had him euro mounted - as I didn't want to lose preserving his entire skin. Backed on black velvet, it's a very pleasing trophy.

But next year I want to take a couple of hyaena. The mounted head with the full pelt, as a floor rug, also makes for a very striking trophy too

Bushbuck rock! I was in awe when my PH had me knee crawl to the edge of a bluff overlooking a sand river bed in the Selous. He told me just be patient and then like a wadded up sawbuck materializing in your pants pocket, there he was. Such an awesome sight I forgot I was hunting. PH asked if I was hunting or not. Whoops. Bam. Magnificent trophy! Full mount just to remind me.

Got mine this year, eventually. We hunted bushbuck for several days with no luck. The day we found him it was raining and he and a couple females were feeding in a clearing. It was a sneak and belly crawl to get as close as we could, about 150 yards without being seen. I got onto the sticks partially behind a tree limb and took the shot. He flinched and took a couple steps, turned around and disappeared into the bush. We searched the whole area but found nothing. Brian called the landowner and he brought his dogs. A lengthy search and nothing found. We all thought it was a clean miss.

A week later Brian emailed me with a picture of my bushbuck. They were hunting the area and found him. He said it was a high shoulder shot, hence no blood in the rain. The picture showed a missing patch of hide on the off side about 3 inches in diameter. I was using Hornady ELD-X 143g in a Ruger 77 6.5 CR. I knew I hit him when he flinched at the shot and the red dot in my Leupold was on.

That gives me my spiral slam: kudu, nyala, eland and bushbuck. When we couldn't find him I figured it was great excuse, er, reason, to go back next year. Will post pics when I can get my daughter to help me upload them.

Everyone needs at least one. Here is my RSA buck taken in '09 Limpopo.