Small Game and Varmint

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Eric and I got in a bit of water fowl; he has an Egyptian goose shot with his DAQ .22, an 80 yard head shot. I've got a pair of yellow billed ducks both shot at over 75 yards with the Prairie Falcon. These birds are very difficult to get into range on, when your dinner for so many other animals it makes you cautious (above left and right). This huge porcupine was nailed with the Dragonslayer .50 at 30 yards on a run. Unlike the North American species the African porcupines are fast. Our tracker was over the top with this one as it was destined as the main course for his dinner.

Shooting monkeys is counter-intuitive for most of us, however the vervet monkey is a real pest animal that causes a great deal of damage around the property, raiding crops and livestock feed. The eagles that prey on vervets are in decline, and populations in some areas are out of control. These animals are very wary and difficult to get into airgunning range, but can be shot from a blind or from deep camo such as a ghillie suit. I shot a couple of big males with the Career Dragonslayer which anchored them dead in place. The .50 caliber roundball dropped them on the spot. Randy shot a few of the beasties with the Evanix AR6, laying in headshots that were decisive. He told me that the rapid cycling of this gun made it ideal for the rapid shoot, and the high power worked well on these larger animals.

All of us took multiple Guinea Fowl; I used my Prairie Falcon, DAQ .457 and Dragonslayer .50 with good effect. I especially liked the Falcon for the game. A flock of birds moving through the brush offers some fast shooting. Eric is seen here with a brace of birds taken with hius DAQ .22 right before dusk fell.

We took a few of the strange little animals called dassie (or Hyrax). Here Eric poses with a dassie and the DAQ22 used to harvest them. Eric took the Falcon out to te blind and used it to tag a gray mongoose. These fast little animals do not give much in the way of a static target. This ine went down to a head shot. In this picture we the three of us show off some of the springhare we bagged. Populations were higher than I'd seen in a long time, they were everywhere this year and in large number.

Almost all of the small game was considered busk meat and given to the locals. They particularly liked the springhare, brush hare, pigeons, vervets and porcupines we shot.

Bird hunting was available everyhere you turned, it was fun to shoot pigeons as the birds swarmed in to raid the feeders. We left the "house crows" alone, the ones that hung out near the out buildings, but the ones outside of the protection zone were pest and fair game.

The five of us together at the end of the hunt, as stated during the intro, we had a great group to hunt with and a lot of fun. To my way of thinking, having the right guys together can make or break a trip. Saying our goodbyes on the last night before Eric and Randy left..

Next year I will bring two groups (of no more than four hunters each) for the airgun safari. It is not cheap, but a great price offered by Hounslow makes it viable. I'll be posting more info in coming months, contact me if you'd like to sign up or get more information at echochap@aol.com

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