SOUTH AFRICA: Weekend Warthogs

[IvW]

The freezer is running low on game meat, so we decide to replenish it with some warthog meat. Salami, russians, cheese grillers and cabanossi is on order.

This will be an "exploratory" hunt as we have never been to this farm. It is a open farm(not high fenced all around and is mixed game and cattle farm. Owned by two elderly people(in their 70's) who take care of everything on their own.

We pack and leave around 5 in the morning on Friday for the 4 hour journey. My brother in law(not a hunter) and his young son are going with us(my son and me). Along the way we meet up with our friend and his two sons.

All goes well until we hit the last section of tar road. There seems to be more potholes and gravel than tar. After about 20 km of this I apply brakes and the pedal goes all the way to the floor board!!

We stop the old Land Cruiser get out and check what is wrong. Brake fluid is running out of the left front pipe. We grab the tool box, clamp the hose with a vise grip and then remove the wheel. The brake caliper has come off completely and the pipe is damaged. No other option but to take it out and block the fitting with the bleeding niple. 15 minutes later we hit the road again albeit with only three wheels having brakes.

We arrive without further incident and are about 40 km(25 miles) from the Botswana border. Camp consists of a tap with running water next to a old what use to be a building and a fire pit.

We unpack and set up camp by pitching our tents.

We have a quick brunch, check the rifles and have a few shots on a target set up in the bush.

Our host is using a 30-06 loaded, my son is using a 7x57mm and I have brought a 375 H&H.

The three young boys stay at the camp house with the owner and his wife, our friends friends wife is looking after them.

Our host, my son, my brother in law and myself head off on foot in search of warthogs. We are not far out of camp when we spot our first one. A big bodied warthog grazing, so we start a stalk. The grass is not making it easy and we lose sight of the warthog as we try and keep the wind in our favour. We get to within about 50 yards when the wind shifts and the hog's tail shoots up and he is out of there. We continue and then see a herd of impala, we give them a wide berth as they are not on the menu. We enter some thick stuff and suddenly bump a warthog. We have been moving very slowly and the warthog is not sure what happened. He stops 25 yards away. I put the sticks up, my son gets on them and is ready. He sports some respectable tusks and has a very long body. His vitals are nicely covered by a tree that he conveniently stopped behind. No shot, my son patiently waits but it is not to be, the warthog takes off.

We continue and about 30 minutes later we spot another warthog, also a nice one walking straight at us through the brush. Same drill sticks go up, my son gets on him and waits for a shot. The pig is coming through some thick brush and no shot is offered. The pig gets almost too close and then bolts as he gets the fright of his life.

We continue down towards the river, we have covered about a mile and have seen numerous impala with some exceptional rams going into the 26 inch class. Another time, we are hunting warthogs.

We eventually turn parallel to the river, and come onto a area which although dry would be a vlei(swampy area) in summer. Good place for pigs. We slowly procede and not long after spot a couple of warthogs snouting around on the edge of the vlei. We slowly stalk forward to check them out. Both are younger pigs and not what we are after.

We are still glassing as the area is a bit more open when my brother in law taps me on the shoulder and points backwards!! A nice warthog is trotting in our direction from the river side to the vlei! We turn around, set the sticks up and my son gets on them and gets ready. I whisper in his ear to wait for the warthog to clear the brush into an opening. As the warthog enters the opening I give a soft blow on my critter caller and the warthog slams on the brakes. Unfortunately he spins in our direction and is standing facing us. He is about 60 yards away. With the warthog facing us I am not sure what is going through my sons mind and I am a bit worried he may try a full frontal or headshot against his better judgement, especially as we have had a few opportunities which did not pan out. It is now also late afternoon. I have slowly raised my own rifle and am looking at the warthog through the scope. I am hoping my son will wait for the shot. He does but it comes unexpectedly fast and almost surprises me. As the warthog turns to take off, he fires and I momentarily lose the warthog in the scope but hear a solid hit. Surprisingly the warthog does not take off in the normal mad dash that accompanies a high heart/lung shot but does accelerate straight for the vlei and long grass. I follow the warthog in my scope and have about a second to decide to shoot or not before he disappears into the tall grass. I take the shot and hear no sound of a hit.

I keep my eye on the moving tall vlei grass indicating the direction of the warthog and at one point about 70 yards into the grass see the direction change. My son and me head straight into the grass to try for a shot if needed when the warthog comes out the other side. With a good view of the other side we wait but the warthog does not come out.

We go to the place where the warthog was standing and pick up the track. We soon find blood which indicates the bullets has exited. I remove the scope from my rifle and with my son on my left side we together enter the tall vlei grass slowly following the trail. The blood is getting better and we soon find some frothy lung blood. Without speaking I give him the thumbs up and indicate we should slowly procede. We get to the spot where the grass movement had indicated that the warthog had turned and about 10 yards further on we find one dead warthog!!

Guns safe, we high five and the smiles are all around! Upon inspection we find that his shot had actually been perfect, hitting the turning pig just behind the shoulder and exiting on the last rib on the opposite side. My shot, although not needed, had hit the rear leg just above the trotters and entered the warthog on the back of the belly and ended up in the chest cavity. It was a bit of joking around between him and me, with regards to his perfect shot and mine with me eventually conceding that hell at least his old man could still hit a running warthog!!

These smiles take a while to subside!!

Precious moments.

To be continued....

 

[stug]

Nice! Good times with the kids, not much better than that.

 

[IvW]

Two of us head back to camp 2 miles off to collect the Land Cruiser. On the way we see many Impala with some impressive rams, waterbuck bulls as well as some Kudu.

We arrive back at the warthog load it have a sundowner and head back to camp. We skin and slaughter the warthog and hang it up.

Back to camp for more cold ones and a very scrumptious meal prepared over the open fire and off to bed.

Up at the crack of dawn, we have a quick bite to eat and head out from camp again on foot in a different direction. Our host wants an impala and we decide if a warthog comes up I will be on the sticks if an impala comes up he will take the shot.

We hear some impala rams rutting after a short walk and decide to make a stalk. We find a big group of impala on the way but the two rams we are interested in are not with them. We move around and continue stalking. We end up close to open track and spot one impala in the track. Our host gets set up the two rams continue their antics. I dont see when the shot goes off but definitely do not hear the impact of the bullet. Our host is not happy and apparently just as he shot the impala took evasive action from his buddies onslaught and he thinks he missed completely. We go to the spot where he was standing and and pick up the track. We painstakingly stay on the track for about 300 yards. This takes us the best part of an hour and not having found any blood or seeing any other sight that the impala may be wounded we conclude that it indeed was a clean mis.

We continue slowly stalking through the bush and find another large herd of impala. Their is another monster ram in the group but our host declines the shot as it is a trophy class ram and we are meat hunting. We continue and bump into a second group of impala. As we are checking them out through the binos our host suddenly puts out his sticks to the left. Assuming he has spotted a shootable ram I casually look in the direction he has put the sticks up and have a Holy Crap! moment!! The 375 comes up and onto the sticks in an instinctive movement and I settle the crosshairs on a massive old boar with huge warts and an impressive set of thick worn tusks as the safety comes off.

One problem, he is quartering to us, having just emerged from a burrow. His eyesight not being what it should he knows something is not right but he is not sure. His ears are flicking forward and back. I try to sneak the crosshairs in below his massive left tusk and into the centre of the chest. There is just not enough space. The angle for the shoulder shot is too acute and I run the risk of shooting the tusk off or further back having a gut shot pig.

Now after my sons warthog and us joking around after I managed to shoot his pigs weaner off(was a good shot in the end although totally not necessary), I had mentioned(jokingly) if he could shoot at and hit my warthog while it is running away after I shot it, I would pay for the biggest impala ram he could find on the property. Well well out of the corner of my eye, while still focusing on the warthog in my crosshairs, I see him slowly lift his rifle and take aim! He was going to take me on on my challenge the little bugger!

With the warthog only 30 yards off and seemingly getting uneasy, I settle the crosshair on his head for a brain shot. I aim compensating for the distance to hit him just above the left eye as he has his head up and that would angle the bullet through the brain and out the back.

I squeeze the trigger and the warthog drops dead in his tracks, legs kicking up dust as he speeds his way to pig heaven. I sense the disappointment in my son and we have a chuckle as I let him know his trophy impala will have to wait.

High fives around as we get to the warthog and see that he is a true old warhorse with massive warts and thick long tusks. The right being more worn down than the left.

Huge warts on this old warrior!

More smiles and memories to cherish.

It is by now quite hot and the closest track is a half mile away. We start dragging the pig but it weighs about 200 pounds so that only last for about 30 feet and I decide that is far enough, into the deep shade he goes. We mark the spot and head off to camp to get the Land Cruiser.

We eventually arrive back after a lot of bundu bashing and load the big warthog and head off back to camp to skin him and hang the meat.

On the way back we spot a monster warthog, we just watch him as he trots off away from us, with his massive tusks sticking out on either side of his body as he goes. Next time, we will definately be back.

We head back to camp and have a relaxing afternoon driving around and looking at the rest of the property. We again see some monster impala rams and some real nice kudu.

Next morning we head out early as we hear some impala rams rutting and our host still needs one. Not to much later we find a suitable ram and he is dropped in his tracks at 35 yards. Same routine, back to camp, get the truck, skinning, back to camp for brunch and then pack up.

The meat impala.

A very memorable weekend and I could not think of a better way of spending it with family and friends hunting.

 

[BenKK]

That sounds like heaps of fun, IvW! Warthogs and impala are two of my favourite African animals to stalk. It’s so good hunting with family!

 

[CAustin]

Nice pigs!

 

[jacques smith]

Family first always. Excellent job with teaching patience for THE SHOT. Gotta ask// what is cabanossi? Jacques

 

[BRICKBURN]

Have to say if you threw that offer at me I'd have shot your Warthog while it was still kicking!

Great tale!

 

[IvW]

Cabanossi-smoked dried sausage made from pi, warthog, bushpig, zebra etc. very tasty!!

 

[IvW]

Have to say if you threw that offer at me I'd have shot your Warthog while it was still kicking!

Great tale!

I was thinking the whole time he was gonna do just that! I bet he had his finger right on the trigger.

 

[Art Lambart II]

Great hunt, what a way to spend a weekend with your son.

 

[cagkt3]

Great stuff, sounds like a fun weekend! Congrats to you both

 

[Nyati]

Congrats, warthogs are so much fun, I have a small collection of them

 

[IvW]

Need to get back to this soon.....we will be hunting jackals, meerkats etc. Next week....I miss the bush.....

 

[cls]

Great warthogs, always fun getting out hunting with family and friends. Congrats to all.

 

[Graham Hunter]

Need to get back to this soon.....we will be hunting jackals, meerkats etc. Next week....I miss the bush.....

What'sthe story on hunting Meercats. Just Sport or?