Hunting Hyena - How many have hunted one?

[35bore]

I have not hunted one, but, the more I read on these beast the more I want to kill one or 100. These are some nasty little things. My ignorance on the matter, but, I just learned this tonight that the little shits won't kill you before they eat you..... They just take a bite and chew, then call for buddies then they come take a bite and chew while your bleeding to death... I never knew. When I come back the little shit's better be prepared, I want one.

 

[fhm3006]

Heard a story from a farmer in the Kalahari of a hunter sleeping in the dunes one night, and and a Hyena came calling around the camp and took a bite out of his hand while he was sleeping - lost 3 fingers! He managed to chase the Hyena away with a couple of shots in all directions. Luckily the farmer came around to check out what the nigh shooting was all about and assisted the guy to get medical treatment for his mauled hand. The guy can be lucky old chomps did not take a chunk of his face.

Not the way i wanna wake up in the veld.:nailbiter: They first laugh at you, then bite you or eat you and then laugh about it.....:laughing:

 

[Buff-Buster]

Your all right about these "devils". Anything that will take on a full grown lion just for the hell of it is pretty badass. In some areas of Zim (and am sure other areas of Africa) the local custom is to "bury" the dead above ground. The body is ceramonially, placed up on a wooden platform so the soul will rise to the heavens unimpeadeed. In these areas the hyena develop an aquired taste for human flesh from dining on the bodies. Where this tradition is practiced, the locals will visit the neighbors in the next village, travel back at night in a somewhat drunken state from too much homemade beer, and pass out on the way. Some wake to the hyena snacking on various body parts, most notably, the victims face as it must be particulary "tender" to the hyena. Rarely does the hyena kill it's meal before consuming it. If they do, it's more of an accident. Nasty creatures but at the same time, a marvel of nature.

 

[spike.t]

I have not hunted one, but, the more I read on these beast the more I want to kill one or 100. These are some nasty little things. My ignorance on the matter, but, I just learned this tonight that the little shits won't kill you before they eat you..... They just take a bite and chew, then call for buddies then they come take a bite and chew while your bleeding to death... I never knew. When I come back the little shit's better be prepared, I want one.

but it wouldnt be the same at night without hearing them calling. talking about scared wives and hyaenas... before we were married i took mine to zambia to see how she coped. we were on the lower zambezi at a fishing lodge that was starting to be built, and we were sleeping in a flimsy grass hut with a door that sort of shut . the walls you could push your hand through. my friend had to go back to lusaka for 4 or 5 days, so apart from a few staff we were alone. there were 3 bull elephants that hung around and had come into camp, and were eating from a tree about 30 yards away. they decided to stay for the night and we went to bed. the bed was 4 small tree trunks for the legs and some branches with a mattress on them, (we threw her in at the deep end on her first trip i promise you!!), about 30 mins after going to bed we heard hyaenas calling down river, but from the way the calls grew rapidly louder they were either chasing something down, or on some other mission as they were motoring. kate now starts getting very edgy and keeps asking why they are heading straight for us, i say they arent coming for us and please go to sleep. the closer they get i realize the more she is slowly wedging herself further under my back (she was not going to be eaten first she told me afterwards), the more i told her to please let me go to sleep the more pissed off she got and the further she disappeared under me. just before they got to camp they detected the elephants and it went very quiet . kate wasnt happy as now she didnt know where they were, but they had detoured just round behind camp ,and unfortunately they had become spread out with some still coming up river and others running behind while the first ones were now past us up river. they all started calling and this was too much for kate who totally disappeared under my back, whilst shouting at me that they now had us surrounded. the next thing she said in a very quiet voice from somewhere between me and the mattress , was "have you got a gun?", to which i said "yes i have my .357 revolver by the bed", the next question was "how many bullets does it have?" i replied "6 bullets". by now she was getting a little bit irate at my seeming lack of interest in our soon to be demise, so screamed in my ear "is that fucking enough!!!". i was glad for 2 things at this time..... 1. the hyaenas were now calling way in the distance, and 2 it was dark so she couldnt see my face and the fact i was trying not to crack up laughing.!! this was in about 1993 i think , and she has been back plenty of times , but she laughs at how she was on that first trip. there were a few more hiccups on that trip for her but she ended up loving it.

 

[Buff-Buster]

Kinda hijacking the thread with this rhino story. Hope you guys don't mind. So, here goes....

I had purchased a Nyala hunt with Ally Robbins Safaris at he Gulf Coast Chapter of SCI fundraiser in 2006 after I had already started planning a buffalo hunt in Zim for July/Aug of 2007. You guys know how it is, too good of a deal to pass up. Not to mention, I have always wanted to hunt Nyala! We planned a buffalo/Sable/Plainsgame hunt in Zim that would span 15 days and three different areas. At the conclusion of the Zim hunt, we (My wife and I) would fly back to Joberg then on to Durban for a five day hunt with Ally. After a fantastic 15 days with Scott Bailey and Matupula Safaris we landed in Durban and was meet by Ally for the next leg of our adventure. After a three hour drive northeast of Durban we arrived at Ally's 5000h preserve and settled in. After getting all our gear stored, we checked our rifles and took a tour of the preserve. Much different than where we hunted in Zim. Steep hills, heavy bush and the weather was alot colder.(I know, on to the rhino part)... Ally actual owned 12 different rhinos. He had a breeding bull and a cow here at this preserve that had full range of the preserve. So they could keep better track of them, they started feeding them alphalfa close to the lodge. Not such a great idea as rhinos, even though they seem docile, are very unpredictable. As a good example, when I took my Nyala, we brought it back to the lodge for picture taking. Both rhinos were close by when we got there. As we were taking pictures they smelled the blood and got extremely agitated and "pissed off". One of the house boys barely made it to a tree before they "shiskabobbed" him.


I'm digressing, but I'm just trying to set up the rest of the story. LOL. The point is that even those these seemed some what "tame", even Ally was very nervous around them and did not trust them in the least.


Now, on to the story. On the second day, I took my Nyala. This was the only animal on the purchased package. Four days left, a wife with a itchy trigger finger, we all know where that leads too.....a larger than anticipated final bill!!! Oh well, it could be worse. Sandy really wanted a Kudu (of course larger than mine), so the hunt was on. One morning while glassing the hill sides, I spotted a big bull with four or five cows feeding on a hillside about 1/2 mile away. I knew we could never get her to climb up where they were to get a shot,(she gets vertigo in steep country and will "freeze up" and panic) so we planned a route that would allow us to drive way around then come down from the top to where we might get a cross canyon shot. I knew I could convince her to work our way down, I would worry about getting her back up later! Fourty five minutes later found us working our way down the steep hillside covered with low brush (important to note!). As luck would have it the Kudu were still feeding on the opposite hill side. As Ally got Sandy ready on the sticks, I ranged the bull at 192yds. As he feed into a small openning, Sandy sqeezed off the shot. The bull's head went down, he hunched up, took one step and fell and started rolling down the steep slope. After rolling about twenty yds, his horns caught a sapling and his rear end swug downhill as he came to a abrupt halt laying on his side. Ally yelled "Great shot". I grabbed the rifle as Sandy gave Ally a hug and said "I'm going to put another in him as insurance because it will take us a good while to get over to were he is".

At that time, before I could even set up on the sticks, Ally and Sandy took off running uphill as Ally was saying "We must go, we must go NOW!" I'm standing on this hillside with Sandy's rifle in one hand and the sticks in the other wondering what the hell is going on as I watch Ally half dragging my wife up this steep hill headed to the nearest large tree which is 100yds straight up. Then all I heard was the word rhino. That's when I turned and looked down the hill and saw these two grey masses coming towards us at a dead run. I got to the tree seconds after Ally and Sandy. All of us were huffing and puffing from the hundred yard dash uphill at 6000ft elevation. Now, Ally is a big guy, as most South Africans are, I'm 6ft, 200lbs and in decent shape. My wife is 5'-7" and not large at all. It was all we could do to shove her up that tree! She was exhausted and so were we. I'd like to say that we were macho and faced down the charging rhino to save Sandy, but the truth is, we couldn't get past her in the tree so we had no choice but to face them! As they came within 20 yds before we peppered them with sticks, rocks and profanity, Sandy was hugging that limb like it was Brad Pitt. It took about fifteen minutes of circling the tree and throwing whatever we could get our hands on, before they finally calmed down and gradually moved off.

The rest of the story wasn't so funny as when we made it to where the Kudu stopped rolling, he was nowhere to be found. Three days of looking and he never was found. Ally and I played the scene over and over in our minds and never will figure out exactly where he was hit to cause that.

In ending this story one observation: This is something the PETA freaks will never get. It's not necessarily the kill why we do what we do. It's the adventure. You'll never get memories like these sitting in a Starbucks drinking latte's!!!!

 

[BRICKBURN]

You have to get J to put this tale in its own thread. Not enough folks are going to see this in a Hyena thread.
Hilarious.
I have seen some fast moving bodies around Rhino's too. Mine included. Docile until....

 

[Buff-Buster]

Thanks Brickburn. Nothing is better than reliving past adventures with people that can really appreciate it. Whether it your adventure or someone else's, that's what make this site so special!

 

[Ole Bally]

Yes depending on where you're gonna hunt. If it's in a nat park area...like the matetsi units, then if you're out very early morning you may get to see one or they may come to baits like Ele carcasses left from a hunt. But they'll find fresh baits pretty quick! They drink regularly so near water works well!
In some old ranching areas, they can be called in with a recording...I used one very often on Sentinel and Nottingham Ranches to good effect. In other ranches they were hammered by the farmers for killing calves and have become extremely wary of humans.

 

[timbear]

Kinda hijacking the thread with this rhino story. Hope you guys don't mind. So, here goes....

I had purchased a Nyala hunt with Ally Robbins Safaris at he Gulf Coast Chapter of SCI fundraiser in 2006 after I had already started planning a buffalo hunt in Zim for July/Aug of 2007. You guys know how it is, too good of a deal to pass up. Not to mention, I have always wanted to hunt Nyala! We planned a buffalo/Sable/Plainsgame hunt in Zim that would span 15 days and three different areas. At the conclusion of the Zim hunt, we (My wife and I) would fly back to Joberg then on to Durban for a five day hunt with Ally. After a fantastic 15 days with Scott Bailey and Matupula Safaris we landed in Durban and was meet by Ally for the next leg of our adventure. After a three hour drive northeast of Durban we arrived at Ally's 5000h preserve and settled in. After getting all our gear stored, we checked our rifles and took a tour of the preserve. Much different than where we hunted in Zim. Steep hills, heavy bush and the weather was alot colder.(I know, on to the rhino part)... Ally actual owned 12 different rhinos. He had a breeding bull and a cow here at this preserve that had full range of the preserve. So they could keep better track of them, they started feeding them alphalfa close to the lodge. Not such a great idea as rhinos, even though they seem docile, are very unpredictable. As a good example, when I took my Nyala, we brought it back to the lodge for picture taking. Both rhinos were close by when we got there. As we were taking pictures they smelled the blood and got extremely agitated and "pissed off". One of the house boys barely made it to a tree before they "shiskabobbed" him.
View attachment 11939View attachment 11940View attachment 11941

I'm digressing, but I'm just trying to set up the rest of the story. LOL. The point is that even those these seemed some what "tame", even Ally was very nervous around them and did not trust them in the least.
View attachment 11942

Now, on to the story. On the second day, I took my Nyala. This was the only animal on the purchased package. Four days left, a wife with a itchy trigger finger, we all know where that leads too.....a larger than anticipated final bill!!! Oh well, it could be worse. Sandy really wanted a Kudu (of course larger than mine), so the hunt was on. One morning while glassing the hill sides, I spotted a big bull with four or five cows feeding on a hillside about 1/2 mile away. I knew we could never get her to climb up where they were to get a shot,(she gets vertigo in steep country and will "freeze up" and panic) so we planned a route that would allow us to drive way around then come down from the top to where we might get a cross canyon shot. I knew I could convince her to work our way down, I would worry about getting her back up later! Fourty five minutes later found us working our way down the steep hillside covered with low brush (important to note!). As luck would have it the Kudu were still feeding on the opposite hill side. As Ally got Sandy ready on the sticks, I ranged the bull at 192yds. As he feed into a small openning, Sandy sqeezed off the shot. The bull's head went down, he hunched up, took one step and fell and started rolling down the steep slope. After rolling about twenty yds, his horns caught a sapling and his rear end swug downhill as he came to a abrupt halt laying on his side. Ally yelled "Great shot". I grabbed the rifle as Sandy gave Ally a hug and said "I'm going to put another in him as insurance because it will take us a good while to get over to were he is".
View attachment 11943
At that time, before I could even set up on the sticks, Ally and Sandy took off running uphill as Ally was saying "We must go, we must go NOW!" I'm standing on this hillside with Sandy's rifle in one hand and the sticks in the other wondering what the hell is going on as I watch Ally half dragging my wife up this steep hill headed to the nearest large tree which is 100yds straight up. Then all I heard was the word rhino. That's when I turned and looked down the hill and saw these two grey masses coming towards us at a dead run. I got to the tree seconds after Ally and Sandy. All of us were huffing and puffing from the hundred yard dash uphill at 6000ft elevation. Now, Ally is a big guy, as most South Africans are, I'm 6ft, 200lbs and in decent shape. My wife is 5'-7" and not large at all. It was all we could do to shove her up that tree! She was exhausted and so were we. I'd like to say that we were macho and faced down the charging rhino to save Sandy, but the truth is, we couldn't get past her in the tree so we had no choice but to face them! As they came within 20 yds before we peppered them with sticks, rocks and profanity, Sandy was hugging that limb like it was Brad Pitt. It took about fifteen minutes of circling the tree and throwing whatever we could get our hands on, before they finally calmed down and gradually moved off.

The rest of the story wasn't so funny as when we made it to where the Kudu stopped rolling, he was nowhere to be found. Three days of looking and he never was found. Ally and I played the scene over and over in our minds and never will figure out exactly where he was hit to cause that.

In ending this story one observation: This is something the PETA freaks will never get. It's not necessarily the kill why we do what we do. It's the adventure. You'll never get memories like these sitting in a Starbucks drinking latte's!!!!

Thanks, Buff-Buster, that was a great story. I'm sorry about your wife's Kudu, but you are right, it is not necessarily the kill that makes a hunt memorable.

 

[Buff-Buster]

Thanks Timbear....After reading thru the story again, I realized that I forgot one important part.......That was the only time in 19 years of marrige that I was "Ok" with another guys hands on my wife's ass! I needed all the help I could get trying to get her up that tree! (My wife reminded me of this when she read this story this past weekend!)

 

[daggaboyblog]

We had a great hunt and collected a very nice hyena on a cattle property along the Matlabas River in 2009. It was a brilliant hunt and there are photos of the big dog earlier in this post.

We're heading over again in August of this year for three weeks with three species on the list for the duration - elephant, brown hyena and spotted hyena. As a dedicated hunt I think they are an excellent game animal, as an animal of opportunity in the right country, I guess it's like shooting a dassie! Should be a great trip.

 

[35bore]

but it wouldnt be the same at night without hearing them calling. talking about scared wives and hyaenas... before we were married i took mine to zambia to see how she coped. we were on the lower zambezi at a fishing lodge that was starting to be built, and we were sleeping in a flimsy grass hut with a door that sort of shut . the walls you could push your hand through. my friend had to go back to lusaka for 4 or 5 days, so apart from a few staff we were alone. there were 3 bull elephants that hung around and had come into camp, and were eating from a tree about 30 yards away. they decided to stay for the night and we went to bed. the bed was 4 small tree trunks for the legs and some branches with a mattress on them, (we threw her in at the deep end on her first trip i promise you!!), about 30 mins after going to bed we heard hyaenas calling down river, but from the way the calls grew rapidly louder they were either chasing something down, or on some other mission as they were motoring. kate now starts getting very edgy and keeps asking why they are heading straight for us, i say they arent coming for us and please go to sleep. the closer they get i realize the more she is slowly wedging herself further under my back (she was not going to be eaten first she told me afterwards), the more i told her to please let me go to sleep the more pissed off she got and the further she disappeared under me. just before they got to camp they detected the elephants and it went very quiet . kate wasnt happy as now she didnt know where they were, but they had detoured just round behind camp ,and unfortunately they had become spread out with some still coming up river and others running behind while the first ones were now past us up river. they all started calling and this was too much for kate who totally disappeared under my back, whilst shouting at me that they now had us surrounded. the next thing she said in a very quiet voice from somewhere between me and the mattress , was "have you got a gun?", to which i said "yes i have my .357 revolver by the bed", the next question was "how many bullets does it have?" i replied "6 bullets". by now she was getting a little bit irate at my seeming lack of interest in our soon to be demise, so screamed in my ear "is that fucking enough!!!". i was glad for 2 things at this time..... 1. the hyaenas were now calling way in the distance, and 2 it was dark so she couldnt see my face and the fact i was trying not to crack up laughing.!! this was in about 1993 i think , and she has been back plenty of times , but she laughs at how she was on that first trip. there were a few more hiccups on that trip for her but she ended up loving it.

That's a great story... 6 shot's from a 357 would have been enough to put some blood on the ground and give the buggers something to eat before they got to you...:thumb:

 

[Chris Ciemniewski]

spotted hyenas

My doublet to spotted hyenas

 

[BRICKBURN]

My doublet to spotted hyenas
View attachment 20061
View attachment 20062

Ok, what's the story behind a double on Hyena???

 

[Svar]

I can't believe that you have to pay for hyena and baboon though. Those things are varmints and shouldn't animals that are varmints be free atleast?

 

[shakari]

I can't believe that you have to pay for hyena and baboon though. Those things are varmints and shouldn't animals that are varmints be free atleast?

If they were free, there would be none left.

More generally:

A lot of people struggle to take hyena but the trick is to be crafty....... If you do it right, it's usually a doddle.

I find the easiest way is to make a point of visiting the vulture restaurant where all the old unwanted carcasses etc are dumped every night on the way back to camp OR have the skinner leave bones etc in a set location not too far from the skinning shed & old fisi soon gets into the habit of dropping by on a regular basis....... Then all you have to do is shoot 'em at a convenient time.

This works so well, I've had several clients shoot their hyena after main course & before pudding is served........ it's not only real easy but it also saves having to ride for hours in a hunting truck with a dead hyena stinking up the truck.

Nothing but nothing stinks more than a dead hyena.

 

[BRICKBURN]

............
Nothing but nothing stinks more than a dead hyena.

Thanks for that heads up. I'll remember that.

 

[shakari]

I'm perfectly comfortable with the stink of rotten leopard baits and they don't cause me a problem at all but a dead hyena has me gagging within a couple of minutes.......... To give you an idea how bad they are, I once put a leather belt around the neck of a dead hyena to carry it about 200 yards down a very steep mountain (the tracker took the back end) and no matter what I did to that belt afterwards (including putting it through the washing machine several times) it stank so mucking fuch, I eventually burned the damn thing!

 

[classicsafari]

I can't believe that you have to pay for hyena and baboon though. Those things are varmints and shouldn't animals that are varmints be free atleast?

I for one don't mind paying for them or think of them as varmits. To me they are a great Trophy animal of which I hold with high esteem. A classic African game animal.

 

[Svar]

I guess you're right Classicsafari. After all, what farmers think and what hunters think are not the same thing. I see wolves, pigs, mountain lion as game, while the ranchers and farmers see them as varmints. I guess even lions and leopards are considered vermin even though they are the greatest of game.