Wounded animals Survey

[Hogpatrol]

Culling with Nick Bowker, we were walking up a rocky road next to a ravine when a warthog appeared about 200m away. Nick set the sticks, I aimed for the lungs and it freezes, falls over and goes down with feet sticking straight up in the air. Nick turns around gives me the high five, says nice shot then we look and the warthog is gone. Hillside was loaded with holes he could have ran in to and never did find it.

 

[Mauser78]

Culling with Nick Bowker, we were walking up a rocky road next to a ravine when a warthog appeared about 200m away. Nick set the sticks, I aimed for the lungs and it freezes, falls over and goes down with feet sticking straight up in the air. Nick turns around gives me the high five, says nice shot then we look and the warthog is gone. Hillside was loaded with holes he could have ran in to and never did find it.

It is as if they get that extra strength if they holes is close by. They go for that whole with all they have left.

 

[JG26Irish_2]

My first trip to Africa was magic and the only animal that required a follow up shot was my Blue Wildebeest. But, I knew the feeling of thinking I had wounded and lost an animal when I shot a Gemsbok at 202y with my 308. The beast ran away as if it had never been hit and my PH was convinced that I had missed it. Later, I found the blood trail and we put some of the native trackers onto the trail and they found it dead only 60y away. What a relief!

My 2nd safari did not pan out quite so perfectly. On my second trip, everything required one or more followup shots. Despite loads of practice and preparation. My first animal was a Black WB at 314y. 1st shot dropped it but upon approach we found it struggling to get up and a 2nd shot was required. Second animal was a Springbok that I hit high and spined it. This required a shot by me with the PH's 9mm pistol to finish it. My Buffalo required 4 shots to kill plus a 5th for insurance. It was well hit but as long as it was standing, I was shooting. While hunting buffalo in Free State I smacked a Warthog at about 230y with my 7mm/08. It was hit hard but ran into a dense thorn thicket where the Buffalo were holed up. We searched but as far as we could tell it ducked into a burrow and could not be recovered. I later killed one at closer range with the same rifle.

A few days later in Limpopo I hit a Blesbok that while hit well took off on a dead run on 3 legs requiring a few fast off hand followups to down. My Kudu took two rounds of 375 to get down and one 9mm to finish. Sometimes the stars do not align.

Warthog 70y running quartering away. Entry wound visible in this photo - 7mm/08 Horn 139g CX

 

[Rafiki]

I was confused because there were only two choices for follow-up questions, which you can check simultaneously with the "yes." The only follow up choices were tracked the animal and finished it, and animal was wounded and never found. There were also follow-up questions for the species involved.

If there was a choice, "Animal needed a second shot to die where it stood," I'd have checked "yes." Anyway, I changed my vote, so I hope you're now happy.

I think I'll change my answer also.

 

[Twraska]

if you havent had the misfortune of a misplaced shot on an animal in Africa before.. chances are very high that you havent hunted Africa very much..

it sucks... but it happens..

in some cases its not even a bad shot issue.. its simply a will to live issue.. for example, my wife put a 7x57 bullet into a warthog at about 100 yards a few years back.. double lunged him (we found out later)..

he took off like someone had set him on fire.. thankfully leaving an ok (but not great) blood trail..

we followed him for the better part of an hour before it got too dark to continue on.. so we returned the next day with a couple of trackers and picked the trail back up.. another hour later, and a full kilometer from where he was shot (straight line distance, per the GPS.. which means he actually ran a lot longer than that), we found him.. he had scurried back to his hole..

while she never got a second shot in him (he was gone before the action could be cycled).. he definitely needed one.. even though the first shot was clearly a kill shot.. had it been a texas feral hog or a whitetail I am certain it would have gone 100 yards max (probably a whole lot less) and the hunt would have been done.

I don’t think of any feral hog in Texas as easy to kill. They often have dried clay mud (brick if you will) over 1.5-2” of armor that the bullet has to get through without exploding and yet make a lot of damage to the internals.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Probably safe to say the 11 people that answered "No" have not hunted in Africa

I'm not sure why a hunter would be more likely to make a poor shot hunting African game. Seems to me paying full trophy fee for anything that client draws blood would be an added incentive to not mess it up. Most places on this side of the pond the slob who takes a sloppy shot and loses a wounded animal still has a valid tag in his pocket he can use for another animal. Oh well.

 

[mark-hunter]

I'm not sure why a hunter would be more likely to make a poor shot hunting African game. Seems to me paying full trophy fee for anything that client draws blood would be an added incentive to not mess it up.

Shooting from sticks is a problem. And the distance can easily be 200 meters.

Most of the hunters in my vicinity have shot wild boars from a blind, rifle on rest, all their lives.
Then they go to Africa, and get a surprise. Shoot standing, from a stick. Ups!
And usually they dont shoot on paper. Bulits are expensive, and not for punching holes on paper, you know...

Booking agents like big numbers of hunters and do not advertise about skills required.
Pay and go.
But to be honest, I haven't seen an outfitter's web pages stating the importance of the client having a skill in shooting from a stick. And this is very specific way of hunting for Africa.

Yes, not to wound, and not to pay for wounding is an incentive. And moreover, springbok is one thing, but buffalo, lion, elephant or leopard is another level, and same rules apply, much higher trophy fees plus added risk of charge later.

But it does happen.

When I got more experience and was able to notice details by safari number 3, I was observing a group of hunters in the camp, and listening more carefully to small talk. I was hunting apart from them my list of animals, not being with them during daily outings, but bush TV tells a lot.

They had a roughly 20% wound-loss ratio. Including one sable.

 

[Mauser78]

Shooting from sticks is a problem. And the distance can easily be 200 meters.

Most of the hunters in my vicinity have shot wild boars from a blind, rifle on rest, all their lives.
Then they go to Africa, and get a surprise. Shoot standing, from a stick. Ups!
And usually they dont shoot on paper. Bulits are expensive, and not for punching holes on paper, you know...

Booking agents like big numbers of hunters and do not advertise about skills required.
Pay and go.
But to be honest, I haven't seen an outfitter's web pages stating the importance of the client having a skill in shooting from a stick. And this is very specific way of hunting for Africa.

Yes, not to wound, and not to pay for wounding is an incentive. And moreover, springbok is one thing, but buffalo, lion, elephant or leopard is another level, and same rules apply, much higher trophy fees plus added risk of charge later.

But it does happen.

When I got more experience and was able to notice details by safari number 3, I was observing a group of hunters in the camp, and listening more carefully to small talk. I was hunting apart from them my list of animals, not being with them during daily outings, but bush TV tells a lot.

They had a roughly 20% wound-loss ratio. Including one sable.

For me sticks is fine on its own, but put wobbly legs, out of breath, uneven footing and an actual animal in the mix, and it becomes a whole lot more difficult.