Any pointers on bushpig?

[IvW]

Tuli Circle

Very Historic area, you will be hunting in the footsteps of Frederick Courteney Selous!

The details of your hunt will have to make it a chance affair. If you have the time you could increase your chances though.
Depending on your exact location you could look for signs at local villages or any settlement. Being omnivorous they will also feed on dead animals, other place where you could look for signs of tracks. If they have a reasonable source of food they will normally bed up in thick vegetation not too far away. They need to drink water so especially in dry season isolated watering points could also be checked for signs. If you have a sharp tracker(most are) ask him to look out for bush pig signs while you are hunting.

Bush pigs get set in their ways especially the old boars. They will frequent certain trails and their dung accumulates along these tracks/trails. I have found in typical bush veldt areas they prefer to rest up on small koppies during the day. If the weather is hot they will sleep above ground, I have often found them sleeping under trees in the shade. If the weather is very cold they will take refuge in thick dense vegetation.

If you have the time and the weather is generally hot and your tracker can find signs of bush pig activity(scat) along a well used trail leading up to a Koppie, it may well be worth your while to follow this and investigate. This is a slow and tedious exercise but I have used it with success in the past and bagged a couple of big boars this way. The wind has to be right to start with and then the minimum number of people should be going on the stalk. You are looking for a pig sleeping under brush a bush or a tree, so adjust your focus to that. You normally see what appears to be an oblong mound. You may also see one ear and the white facial hair are things to look out for.(They tend to sleep on their sides). They have very poor eye sight during the day but their sense of smell is phenomenal and the hearing is good. You may also get a bit of an adrenalin rush if you botch the stalk as the bush pig(s), will crash away, sometimes from almost below your feet. The trick is to go as slow as possible, stop and check meticulously for likely sleeping spots, be quite.

I have found that my combination gun works best for this.12ga/9.3 x 74R or my leopard gun, 12ga SxS 24 inch barrels with ghost ring.(in the shotgun barrels I only use slugs). Any rifle with low magnification scope or open sights will work.

I love hunting pigs, bush pigs especially and I do so whenever the opportunity presents itself.

I wish you good luck and enjoy your hunt n Selous's foot steps!