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18 Articles

An underrated African icon – the impala.

The little critters, as they are referred to, hold litle appeal to some hunters, yet others will be obsessed in pursuit of the Tiny Ten. Whether it’s great marketing, the Record Book, or just that collector’s itch that many hunters have, doesn’t matter. There are many more small animals that could fall into this group besides the original ten. My suggestion: find a great outfitter, book your flight - and just start with any one of them. But for now - take a moment to look at our cover animal, the impala, as ubiquitous to Africa as is the white tail to North America. I am not sure if impala is on every hunter’s wish list, but it certainly ends up on many first timers’ hit list. In East Africa,…

An underrated African icon – the impala.

South Africa Plans to Grow BIODIVERSITY ECONOMY

In the Government Gazette No 50279 of 8 March 2024 the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment invited public comment on the Draft National Biodiversity Economy Strategy (NBES). The lengthy (60 pages) original notice may be accessed at: https://www.dffe.gov.za/sites/default/files/legislations/nemba_draftbiodiversityeconomystrategy_g50279gon4492.pdf This document contains many proposals that will resonate with the hunting community and demonstrate a welcome shift in government policy that seemed in recent years to have drifted more towards the animal rightist philosophy rather than the pragmatic sustainable wildlife management practices of South Africa’s neighbours such as Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. On the other hand, many of the proposals seem ill-considered and based on wishful thinking rather than careful analysis based on facts and figures. Given the very broad scope of the NBES, it is rather difficult to provide…

South Africa Plans to Grow BIODIVERSITY ECONOMY

The Art of HUNTING BUFFALO in Namibia’s Famous Caprivi

On the hunt Before Namibia became a German protectorate the area was known as Itenge, and for a long time was ruled by Lozi kings, later forming part of British Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana). It was agreed at the Berlin Conference (1890) that the strip of land would be added to German South West Africa as an extension, allowing the German colony to gain access to the Zambezi River, Lake Tanganyika and the Indian Ocean via another German colony: Tanzania (German East Africa). The region was named after chief German negotiator at the conference, Count von Caprivi (Count Georg Leo von Caprivi di Caprara di Montecuccoli). Like many countries in Africa, a number of disputes about the precise position of Caprivi’s borders arose over the years. After World War 1…

The Art of HUNTING BUFFALO in Namibia’s Famous Caprivi

Age Doesn’t MATTER

On the hunt I had started planning for this safari many months beforehand. In Canada it is very difficult to secure travel insurance for our age group, especially with pre-existing health issues. Initially I couldn’t find anyone to accompany me, and finally thought of a couple of longtime friends that I hoped might be interested. To my surprise and relief, they both agreed to come, and were enthusiastic about going to Africa. They did not intend to hunt but wanted to experience the adventure of a sight-seeing safari. My wife Lois and I had already experienced a wonderful hunting and sight-seeing safari in Namibia in 2016 with Etosha Heights Game Safaris where I took a Hartmann’s mountain zebra, a black-faced impala, a red hartebeest, a gemsbuck and a magnificent kudu.…

Age Doesn’t MATTER

How Badly do you want a LORD DERBY ELAND?

On the hunt From the moment we arrived in Cameroon, I felt my inner Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz saying, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” I have been to Africa many times, but this trip was quite different. Thankfully, my long-time hunting partner is fluent in French and our Zambian outfitter and friend, Peter Chipman, was chaperoning. While all the travel was annoying and the extreme temperatures unbearable, both were less stressful than the ever-present threat of poaching on the concession and neighboring National Park. We had government vehicles in our camp four of the seven days, including one visit to collect a poacher apprehended by my partner’s crew while out hunting. If not for the anti-poaching efforts by the camp and government, the animals…

How Badly do you want a LORD DERBY ELAND?

A BUFFALO HUNT and Murphy’s Law

On the hunt With so many details to consider, most international hunts amazingly unfold without hitches. Yet, despite one’s best efforts, a large host of unplanned events may cause minor to major trainwrecks. Sometimes, attacks by dangerous animals stop the parade. My first Cape buffalo safari was beset with a cavalcade of human errors and frightening events that could have exploded into unmitigated disaster. Instead, the adventure instilled an even greater resolve to return. My first dose of Africa’s indescribably addictive enchantments had caught me in 2000 in Namibia, where I shot a superb kudu and a nice gemsbok. Five years later, I shot more plains game in South Africa. By then, I was thoroughly enchanted, and it was time to go for the big stuff. So, during the SCI…

A BUFFALO HUNT and Murphy’s Law

Not a Good Day FOR A BABOON

Several days prior to my arrival, a group of baboons had thoroughly demolished a wind turbine used to power a water irrigation pump, so that within the course of one night there was nothing left but strewnabout bits and pieces rendering the power generator totally useless. This may not seem like such a big deal for someone from a western country, but for the Namibian farmer it is essential to his existence, because an inoperable water pump can lead to disastrous consequences during the yearly drought from March to November. It is therefore easy to understand that farmers aren’t especially fond of baboons and hunt them whenever the opportunity presents itself, which is not too often. A story told by the farm workers that a group of baboons were responsible…

Not a Good Day FOR A BABOON

RED HARTEBEEST among White Rhinos Kareekloof, Great Karoo Desert, South Africa

At five hundred meters it stopped, looked back in our direction, and apparently unalarmed, settled down to bed for the evening. Charl and I used that short window of its inattention to crouch forward another 120 meters to come to a large rock surmounted by a small shepherd’s tree stump. This might be as good as it gets before sunset in Kareekloof. The rock and stump constituted a rifle rest, and the scope highlighted the reddish tint reflected from the hartebeest’s forequarters. This might be the magic moment in the Kareekloof desert twilight. Kareekloof is in the heart of the Great Karoo Desert. It is a weigh station between Cape Town and Kimberly in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa and served as a supply post for the British…

RED HARTEBEEST among White Rhinos Kareekloof, Great Karoo Desert, South Africa

BUSHPIG with Bow and Arrow

Highly strung Luckily, the boar and sow came to the corn plot again and I was able to take the male under the rheostat red light. Unfortunately, we could not find it during the night and the next day I had to leave. My PH at that time promised me he would search for it, and I was more than happy when I received his call two weeks later telling me the good news that he had found it. It was mostly eaten by the jackals, but luckily the skull and tusks were still fine. This time, end of August 2023, it was with Carlo Engelbrecht Safaris, near Paulpietersburg in the KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. Having learnt my lesson, I was better prepared, with a glow-in-the-dark peep and lots…

BUSHPIG with Bow and Arrow

BEST FRIENDS, Indeed!

It seemed few safari camps in South Africa or Namibia were without one breed or the other (in some cases both) and I came to expect one of them to come trotting up, tail wagging, whenever I arrived at a lodge. Over the week or two I’d spend in camp, these dog would become a constant and meaningful part of the experience that I enjoyed immensely. What I didn’t see, however, were any dedicated bird dogs, and my impression was that African safari lodges and PHs just weren’t dedicated “hunting dog” people. As it turns out, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Over time I began to make wingshooting an increasingly greater part of my safari experience. At first it was just a day or two of bird shooting as…

BEST FRIENDS, Indeed!

Awesome or Awful?

The history of sporting arms made in Britain and intended for travel, mostly to serve the needs of colonial ex-patriots, adventurers or settlers, is interesting because the expansion of European interest in Stanley’s ‘Darkest Africa’ coincided with some seismic shifts in firearms development. In 1890, the Cape Colony was busy building railways, Cecil Rhodes was its Prime Minister and Paul Kruger was President of the South African Republic. However, much of the interior was still relatively untamed. European sportsmen hunting in the 1850s and 60s, like Sir Samuel White Baker, favored smooth-bore 4-bore percussion guns firing solid ball for dangerous game. Henry Morton Stanley also carried a single 4-bore when searching for Dr. Livingstone in 1871. However, with the advent of ‘smokeless’ powders, and rifled breechloaders beginning to dominate the…

Awesome or Awful?

John Rigby & Co. Shines a spotlight on the challenges and triumphs of rhino conservation

Rifles In Africa Rhinos are synonymous with African safaris, yet wherever the animals are found–both in Africa and around the world–another presence is all but guaranteed. Adult rhinos possess two horns on their nose giving them their iconic silhouette, and which are used for defence against predators and to establish dominance over rivals at mating time. But those horns also ensure rhino are stalked by a dark and destructive presence. Poachers, drawn by the extraordinary price tag of up to $250,000 USD for rhino horn in parts of Asia, prowl the African landscapes in search of this endangered prey. They kill the animals just to harvest their horn, which is then illegally shipped to some Asian countries where is used in traditional medicines. Without concerted action, the outlook for white…

John Rigby & Co. Shines a spotlight on the challenges and triumphs of rhino conservation

In Pursuit of the Ghost

I doubt if I have walked more miles in pursuit of any other species than the kudu. Where I grew up in a small town in what is now Limpopo Province in South Africa, the kudu was the standard “big” antelope on the farms surrounding the town. Sure, the odd farmer had zebra or blue wildebeest as well and, if you were willing to spend the time and effort to travel some distance, eland and even gemsbuck could be had. By and large, however, the kudu was the preferred and available large antelope in that part of the world back then. My first kudu was hunted on a ranch in Zimbabwe, not far from the dusty little town and railway siding named Rutenga. This was way before the troubles of…

In Pursuit of the Ghost

Good for Europe, but… Switching barrels is, well, questionable

The .416 Taylor’s big advantage was that it delivered .416 Rigby ballistics (well, almost) in a standard Mauser action. Finn, being almost pathologically frugal, saved on freight charges to Africa by having just the one rifle. In those days, switch-barrel bolt-action rifles were possible only through rather complex custom gunsmithing that wasn’t cheap, but I assume Finn, then writing for the NRA, got a deal on it. Anyway, that was my first real exposure to such mechanisms, and we spent a good deal of time around the campfire discussing the pros and cons. The pros are rather obvious: Easier to pack, lighter to carry, no difference in trigger pull. The cons? Well, the first, biggest, and most significant is that you have all your eggs in one basket. Break a…

Good for Europe, but… Switching barrels is, well, questionable

The poachers were hunting with harpoons. The heavy two-meter spears had detachable barbed tips fastened to home-made ropes the diameter of a 4-bore cartridge. The ropes ran to four thigh-thick balsa-like logs. Those floats were cutting water toward Brian’s boat, a small armada of canoes in their wake, crews paddling furiously. He throttled up, out of their path. The canoes shot past. A short distance on, the logs bobbed to a halt. The men braked their dugouts. Expertly they lashed three together. Then they eased the makeshift raft toward the logs. In an explosion of bloody foam and water, a hippo burst upon the raft, jaws agape. They closed, splintering a dugout. Five men spilled, grasping at the remnants of their craft. With axes, spears and pangas, the hunters on…

Guides Against Poaching (GAP) Fish and Meat Poaching, Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe

From the Desk of Hunter Proud Foundation Kapenta (Limnothrissa miodon) was introduced to Lake Kariba in the 1960s from Lake Tanganyika to utilize the lake’s potential for fisheries and provide a sustainable source of food and income for local communities. Kapenta fishing takes place at night from rigs using powerful lights that attract the fish to the surface, where they are caught with fine-meshed nets. The fish are typically dried in the sun or smoked before being sold. Kapenta is a crucial source of protein for many communities in the region and is also exported to neighbouring countries. The industry faces several challenges, including overfishing, which threatens the sustainability of kapenta stocks. Fish poaching in Lake Kariba has escalated dramatically over the past decade. Unsustainable fishing practices, driven by economic…

Guides Against Poaching (GAP) Fish and Meat Poaching, Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe

Hunt with an exclusive group of African Dawn Outfitters

Adroda Safaris provides clients with the opportunity to hunt across southern Africa in large, diverse habitats and freerange concessions offering true fair-chase hunting. Dangerous game, plains game and speciality species are hunted, often in exclusive areas, harvesting trophies of significant quality. Adroda Safaris also offers the exciting option of hunting over hounds. Our pack of biggame hounds is renowned for its leopard-hunting ability. www.adroda.com Aru Game Lodges: The Very Best of Namibia. We see a world full of undiscovered trails and expeditions. We’re happiest when we’re deep in the bush, waking at dawn to catch first light and surrounding ourselves with wild animals. Losing yourself in the wild connects us to the natural world and brings us closer together. It reminds us of when we were kids, spending crisp summer…

Hunt with an exclusive group of African Dawn Outfitters

Dreaming, Remembering, Reliving Three levels of fantasy

The key, he told the Maestro– “Mice,” for short, a young man who’d traveled to Key West to seek advice from the master–is to relive the event, isolate the specific thing that caused your emotion and, if you then describe it truly enough, you will evoke the same emotion in your reader. Hemingway’s example was watching the fishing line strip as a big fish ran, and the line rising into the air and squeezing out the water so it hung in drops, refracting the sunlight. I read that first in 1977–I can remember exactly where and when, but I won’t belabor it–and took it to heart as I attempted to write serious literature in the years that followed. First, I learned that reliving, and simply remembering, are two different things.…

Dreaming, Remembering, Reliving Three levels of fantasy

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