Who has hunted for the small cats of Africa?

[Green Chile]

I'm thinking of the serval and caracal primarily, although there is a smaller wild cat. Did you take it by chance or did you target it with dogs or what was your approach to it? They are taken randomly of course but I would like to target them more specifically.

Share some photos and taxidermy of what you have taken.

 

[mdwest]

Calling @AZDAVE …

 

[BRICKBURN]

Chased multiple Caracal with dogs. Being in on the chase is much more fun than just showing up at the tree and shooting one.
I bow hunted mine and that made the dog handler nervous. I think his dogs had taken a licking from a wounded cat because of poor shot placement.
When mine dropped from the tree dead from a heart shot the handlers relieved smile was going to break his face.
(Can't find the photos at the moment) I made a nice rug mount.

Serval certainly look like an interesting and entertaining hunt.

Wild Cat, not so much.

Good luck.

 

[slam8031]

I hunted caracal by night calling and driving from spot to spot in the Limpopo. I hunted a serval in the free state by setting up and calling along fence lines at night. Also while in Namibia saw a huge caracal stalking a steenbok in the daytime which was happenstance. In both of the night trips we were targeting cats in cat areas and I was willing to shoot either animal.

 

[slam8031]

The free state hunt had low cattle fences that reminded me of quail hunting habitat in South Carolina. I think that greatly increased our opportunity.

 

[Green Chile]

Thanks for the responses. The little wild cat doesn't interest me as much from a taxidermy perspective. It looks like someone's pet although they are little ninja killers. The serval and caracal are world class athletes.

 

[Sarg]

I would love a Big Tom Serval, seem to have had bad luck on them in a couple of countries, we don’t have many in the part of Limpopo I was in & missed a big one spotlighting in Zimbabwe & with clients in Zim we had two Germans who wouldn’t shoot a big Tom Serval while we were hunting Reed Buck, broke my heart.

Had better luck in seeing & shooting Caracal, one of our neighbors got this Monster & the tracker is not a midget !

Looks like a short tailed Mt Lion ?

My biggest one & unfortunately still in the freezer waiting, would love to see some photos of rugs please ?

 

[Green Chile]

I would love to see any taxidermy of the small cats but particularly any with activity or jumping.

 

[Betterinthebush]

I would love to see any taxidermy of the small cats but particularly any with activity or jumping.

I seems you and I are on similar paths. If I catch my leopard in May, Im continuing the hunt south into SA with Adrian to run another pack of dogs for caracal and serval.

 

[Green Chile]

My next attempt on leopard is in ‘27 but I might make a late season run this year for the little cats and more T10 I don’t have yet.

 

[AZDAVE]

Cats are one of my favorite hunts.
My first caracal was hunted with dogs in the eastern cape. It was specifically hunted, we had just hunted my blue diker and received a call from the hounds man that they were running a cat. We loaded up and headed that direction and we were able to catch up with the dogs as they treed the cat. Big Tom. Daylight hunt Harvested with 12 ga shotgun.

My second carcal was a random chance while trying for a african wildcat it was in the underbrush and was able to finally get a open shot through a small window in the brush. Good sized female. Night hunt
Harvested with 6.5 Creedmoore in Limpopo)

My serval was a dedicate night hunt in an area that we has seen sign in during the day. It was spotted on a hillside going up my shot on that one was long (242M). I missed the first shot low and readjusted the second hit with a loud slap and it jumped 10 ft up in the air and landed dead. It was in the free state as a night time hunt. Harvested with 9.3x62.

The small spotted genet as spotted running up the tree by the PH about 15 minutes before dark. Had to walk around the tree several times to get a spot to take a shot. Daylight hunt of opportunity. Harvested with a 30/06.

The large spotted genet was a dedicated night hunt, we were driving around looking for genet in the trees, Spotted this guy hunkered down under some brush he took off and was able to anchor him with a 12ga shtgun. Harvested in the eastern cape.

My civit was a dedicate night hunt over bait. He came into the shooting lane between the blind and the bait very cautiously. when he made it to the bait he was harvested with a 9.3x62 in limpopo.

Tried last year for a wildcat but no luck so far. My second caracal is still at bullseye taxidermy. I just upgraded the operating system on my computer so once I get all the backup data back on my machine I will post some picts.

The big cats are also special hunts.

 

[Green Chile]

Thanks Dave for your replies. I knew you had some experiences with them. I've had a few random encounters but might get more specific/intentional to experience that side of it. My civet/genet/honey badger is coming back to me soon. Each are different and interesting in their own ways.

By the way, scouting and trail cams are happening for your grysbok hunt. Looking forward to that. I'm considering going out after your hunt for the little cats to end the season.

 

[Muskox]

I killed n African wildcat about 25 years ago. Spotlighting.