I've been doing a lot of reading lately and I keep coming across very experienced hunters (Flack and Boddington for example) who love to hunt the small antelope in particular and also the small cats.

How many of you have booked hunts just for these species instead of hunting them incidentally? How many of you are considering it?

In my research to try and add a brief hunt while on a work trip in Africa next summer, I keep coming back to this option. In doing the research, I find many who seem to love the little species even in comparison to the larger and more "glamorous" game.

I must admit that calling duiker with a predator call or chasing the little cats sounds pretty exciting.

The small antelope and small cats are on my menu for safari #3. I've had a lot of fun chasing after Steenbok, Duiker, and Klipspringer already, and still need to get at least one each of the second two. My last hunt (May,2007) was frustrating because of the tall grass wherever we went in RSA and Namibia (it had been a wet season and the grass grew like crazy). Saw a lot of Steenbok and Duiker, but you had to get very close (often inside 20 yards) to see if it was male or female, and the girls seemed out to taunt us everyday! We hunted one site that was exceptionally frustrating, where we could see the grass waving, but not see the antelope, finally setting up like sendero hunts in Texas by using the jeep trails, still could not see the little critters because of the grass.

Have only seen two African Wildcats and one Caracal. Never seen a Serval, although I have been told that all three abound in the Bush, plenty of tracks anyway. Wish you the best of luck!

LLS

Bryan,

The small antelope as difficult as they are to hunt are nothing compared to hunting the caracal, serval and wilcat. Some dog hunts are offered for these litte felines but one should be careful as some of these end up being cats that were released just before the dogs. I think in most cases these animals are taken as targets of opportunity when hunting other animals. I have seen several servals, one wild cat but never a caracal although all 3 have been present in most places I have hunted.

Mark

I think that those who elect not to hunt these animals really miss a lot. They are tough to hunt; the methods of hunting are numerous and different and exciting; they make wonderful mounts and don't take up a lot of space. Finally, with some notable exceptions like klipspringers, the trophy fees are very reasonable. Kudude

Kudude,

The trophy fees on the klippie varies wildly and in Tanzania and RSA you may pay $1,000-$1400 for one and I'm afraid I don't know why as every kopje seems to have a pair. In Zim they are the same animal but can be hunted for $400-$500.

Mark

I've seen several caracal, usually in the late afternoon. This one was feeding on the carcass of a young wildebeest that was killed by a hunting pair of cheetahs. He saw me and started to slink away but I already had a bead on him. A Hornady Light Magnum .308 Win took out all his innards but he still managed to sprint 200 yards and hide in cluster of low bush acacia. We couldn't pull him out before dark so we left him and retrieved him the next morning.



My son, Nathan, on the left, and the PH's son, Sven on the right holding my caracal. BTW, measurements gave me a Gold Medal on him.

Namibiahunter

There's certainly an attraction to bringing down a mountain of flesh. Any Alaskan that's ever stood next to a moose that he's brought down knows that.

But, I think that successfully hunting the wee antelope simply takes more time, skill, and effort than hunting the larger stuff like eland and kudu. No doubt many will disagree, but I know that for myself, its taken me many more hours of hunting for each of the little guys than it has to to get the big ones. I go for the hunting experience, and I think hunting the little guys maximizes that.

Interesting comments all. Mark, I can certainly appreciate your advice and caution on the little cat hunts. I'm just a big fan of hunting cats for some reason although I don't care to have one for a pet. It sounds like many of them are caught with dogs like a bobcat hunt.

I was talking to a hunter with a good bit of elephant experience and he said the small antelope are his 2nd favorite African game after ele. That really made me think and I can see his point.

I have been forunate to take two caracal on my last two trips Both taken in night hunting and calling them in. I have also been forunate to take several of the small antelope. But, I stil have a few to go. My next trip will be for Red Duiker, Blue Duiker, Suni and Klipspringer. That will fill me out on the small antelope of S. Africa. I loved hunting the steenbok, duiker, sharpes grysbok and cape grysbok. The small antelope are of more of challenge. I do not know if you consider hunting the Val Rhebok or Oribi small antelope but they both were a challenge. I do not know how many hills I had to climb before I got my Val Rhebok. But, I know I earned it. All of my small antelope were free ranging and not behind high fences. Which it made it all the sweeter.

I've shot steenbok near Kimberley SA, gray duiker near Vaalwater SA, and orabi, bush duiker, and Sharpe grysbok in Zambia's Kafue region. Using varmint calls, I also called in and shot two caracals in Botswana, and a bunch of jackals and an African wildcat near the Limpopo in SA. Only the Sharpe grysbok was taken by chance encounter. It was in high grass when I came upon it, and I had only an instant to shoot. The others were taken after we purposely set off to take them.

Bill Quimby

I have taken most of the small antelopes (Tiny Ten) of southern Africa, missing only the suni and red duiker, which I hope will be on the menu of my next safari.
They have been hunted on purpose and not by incident, but as a part of a bigger menu of course..
Blue duiker with dogs/beaters, oribi along the EC shoreline, cape grysbok with flashlight at night, vaalie in the high snowcovered mountains.. For me tha small ones have made for some of the most memoirable hunts.

Haven`t taken any of the cats so far, but they are highly interesting indeed!

Anders, - do you plan to hunt the red duiker by calling them in? and where do you plan to go?

They are all greatfun....I would say Caracal is probably the most difficult to get. Unless you hunt them with dogs....you will struggle to be succesfull if you book for them. It is one of those lucky things when you get a good Caracal.

We have access to a great area for Serval, with almost 100% success rate. The problem is to get permits for them.

Tiny antelope is a great challenge, and I love to hunt them. Me and David Keith from this forum hunted Grey duiker for two days straight, and never got a bead on a big ram. And we have LOADS of them. We must have glassed at least 30 of these little antelopes.

The KAroo have the best Steenbuck. My one concession there delivered a 6" monster this year, but we passed many in the 5" class that will be a great trophy in any hunters books.....

All these animals are truly exciting to hunt...

The small cats are very difficult to hunt.

You will have to travel some long distances to get in to the best habitat for the cats.

Caracal I would say would be in the Northern Cape.

Serval in the Mpumalanga High Veld were I have called in some real big serval cats.

And for the African Wild Cat the best area I have found is the Limpopo Province where I have called in a bunch of them while calling for jackal.

The same goes for the small antelope as well.


Good luck.

Gerhard

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
Anders, - do you plan to hunt the red duiker by calling them in? and where do you plan to go?

Steve

He must come to the Suni & Red Duiker World HQ - Mozambique!

We call some of them. We usually call for Blue Duiker and some Red Duiker will respond. Most Red Duiker are stalked as the like to browse at the edge of the forest.

Thanks all for the info. Hopefully I can make a plan and catch some of them.

Steve,
I haven`t actually planned much for such a hunt yet.. I thought normal spot and stalk would do the trick. I haven`t decided were either. Probably Mozambique together with croc, buffalo and other PG. Or maybe Kwa-Zulu Natal.
Have you hunted them yourself? How`s it normally done?
Thanks!

Anders,

They're secretive SOBs and walk and stalk on them is usually very difficult. To give you an idea of how secretive they are, one area I've been hunting for the last 17 years had never featured them on the trophy list and one day I asked why..... the owner told me he'd been living there all his life (60 odd years) and had only ever seen a handful in all that time and as there were so few there, he didn't want to hunt them........ I took him out, sat him in a bush and started calling....... In about an hour, I'd shown him 3 or 4 and then I took him elsewhere on the property and did it again and then again...... so now they feature on the trophy list.... - From that story, I'm sure you'll know I call them. More specifically, I use a predator call..... don't know why they respond to that, but they do. Not only do they come into the call, they usually come RUNNING in.

I spent two weeks this last spring after the little guys; Steenbok, Common Duiker, Klipspringer, and Caracal. We never did get a shot at a Caracal, much less see one. We were successful on the antelopes though and I enjoyed that hunt very much. I also took a really nice Bushbuck while there.

The hunt report is posted in the reports section.

I'll be going back again next spring for Blue Duiker, Klipspringer, and possibly Grysbok. I'm hooked on them now.

This past spring I hunted Red Duiker and Suni for a week in Natal with no kill. Saw many female Red and one Suni. They are fun to hunt although we did not try to call. I am in the process of planning next years hunts and will probably go back to try again. I have 7 of the tiny ten and want to complete the quest. The other I need is the Sharpes Grysbok and hope to hunt him in Zim. again. Last year the hunt was in the spring just after a good rainy period and the brush was just too tough to see thru.

Try a predator call from a concealed position........ and I'll look forward to seeing the pics!

I got my first two small antelope, a Common Duiker and a Mountain Reedbok, on my second safari, just because they were there. They weren't "scheduled".

On my third safari, to the Northern and Eastern Cape of South Africa this past September, I specifically scheduled the hunt around several of the small antelope.

I got this Steenbok the first day of my hunt, while we were stalking some Black Springboks.


I scheduled two days in the mountains near Jamestown for Vaal Rhebuck. I got this ram the first afternoon.


We hunted two properties near East London for Cape Grysbuck before I got this one.


I was lucky enough to see 3 Carical cats at the Kat River Concession which was the third area that I hunted, but I couldn't get a shot.

Hunting the little antelope provide a chance to see more of Africa, and they make unique trophies.

Could not agree more that actually hunting for the tiny ten is rewarding. I hunt annually at a Namibian game farm and just this year got a representative common duiker there after four years of serious hunting (>5 days each year). The place already produced a nice 4" steenbok and a caracal that we happened upon. Have hunted red duiker in Natal with bad shooting last year, and two missed opportunities this year (one would have been a texas heart shot so its just as well I declined to shoot).

Regards


Master Hunting Guide Moses Kashonga with Duiker Aug 07

buffybr: What caliber and rifle were you shooting in the pic of the Vaal Rhebok? By the way, nice trophies, especially the Cape Grysbok.

Nice trophies all around. To get the Vaal on the first day is a good bit of luck. Well done.

A shooting buddy of mine took a Blue Duiker in Zululand, on what was my first trip to Africa hunting in 1995.........he took it from a blind overlooking a midden

I now have taken Vaal Rhebok, Klippie, Black and White Springbuck as well as a 6" Grey Duiker ( while hunting Common Reedbuck in the Waterberg Mountains) as well as a huge Steenbok on that first trip, while in the Northern Cape.

We both want Sunni and Red Duiker, so Moz might be the way to go..........and Cape Grysbok and Damaraland Dik Dik..........

YD,

You have PM in response to your inquiry about hunting vaal. In addition to the vaal, during my 5 days of hunting last year near Sutherland in RSA, I took klippie, steenbuck, and duiker. I also took a couple springbuck, although they don't get all that big in that particular area, and a baboon. There are apparently lots of caracal in the area, and we spent one night doing the predator call thing for them but didn't have anything come in. In brief, I would say I had more fun on that RSA hunt than my previous gig in Zimbabwe for the more "glamorous" species like kudu, eland and zebra.

Jeff

Use Enough Gun

Its ironic that you should ask that question. It's a Rem 700 in .375 Rem Ultra Mag. It was definately enough gun for these little guys. I put it together it a few years ago for a Buffalo hunt in Zimbabwe. My load was the 270 gr Barnes TSX at 3040 fps.

I borrowed a .308 with FMJ bullets for the Grysbok.

Interesting, and thank you. It looked like a Remington, but I wasn't sure when I saw the muzzle brake and stock. I thought that it might be a .257 Weatherby. I too, have shot most of my small antelope, which includes red duiker, suni, steenbok, grey duiker, klipspringer and sharpes grysbok, with a big gun, the .375 H&H in a Model 70 Winchester, with trophy bonded sledgehammer solids. Does anyone out there have experience with the .257 Weatherby and the small stuff? What else is included in the tiny ten? Is it vaal rhebok, blue duiker, oribi and cape grysbok?

I don't have my books handy but there are more than 10 critters that can apply. It's just Peter Flack's list and he has removed a few "overlapping" critters to come up with 10 distinct species. That's my understanding of it anyway and he might word it differently than I have.

As to the 257 Wby, I have seriously considered that myself as not only a good gun for these hunts but possibly a good sheep/ibex rifle as well as a dandy deer rifle. I'm still pondering all of that and find it interesting that you were on the same page.

Yes, you're right. I was just reviewing Peter Flack's book "Heart Of An African Hunter" here in my office and the Tiny Ten consists of: Klipspringer, Mountain Reedbuck, Steenbok, Cape Grysbok, Gray Duiker, Red Duiker, Oribi, Livingstone's Suni, Blue Duiker and Vaal Rhebok. He eliminates the Sharpes Grysbok, Damara dik-dik, Chanler Mountain Reedbuck, suni(neotragus moschatus moschatus) and Kirk dik-dik, although he states that the Sharpe's Grysbok could be substituted for the Oribi. His list actually comes up to 15 when he and his partner sat down and drew up the original list of all of the "littlies" in Southern Africa.

It's kind of funny because Flack states over and over that his a "lumper not a splitter" of groups. So this is just his list but it is certainly an interesting endeavor. Personally, the Damara is such a neat animal that I would like to try for. It's kind of like the various "circles" that people go for. They aren't exactly precise and there is room to substitute one animal for another.

I agree. I have shot Sharpe's Grysbok and it was a very difficult animal to get. I am sure that Cape Grysbok is just as difficult, and I would like to take it too, at some point in time, but I don't see the real difference in substituting either on the list.

I also came across several Bat-eared Foxes and a Black-footed Cat in Namibia but never got a shot at any of them. Has anyone on this forum ever taken either?

Namibiahunter

Subject to what the Namibians say, believe the bat-eared fox is protected.

Regards

quote:

Originally posted by Tim Carney
Subject to what the Namibians say, believe the bat-eared fox is protected.

Thanks for alerting me of this. Although I've been to place where the Bat-eared Fox and Black-footed Cat occured seemingly in sustainable numbers I'll confine my "hunting" of those two species to photo-hunting. Besides, my wife and kids would never forgive me for taking such cute animals.

I do enjoy hunting Black-backed Jackals though.

Namibiahunter

Hmm. Might have spoken too soon. I googled on Namibia and bat-eared fox and found a game farm that offers one for $500...

Regards

I do not profess to know it all, but IMHO the 'tiny number' should be restricted to those that are more prone to 'hide' and lie low when they hear or see approaching huntersthan running away. Size has something to do with being tiny, but for inclusion in a list of very special creatures it is the preferred manner of escaping that should be overriding in deciding to include any species in such a list or not. These are really difficult to hunt by ethical means! I have not hunted a great variety of these tiny ones, but have hunted some a number of times over and certainly enjoy it as much as bringing down a ton of meat.

In the Free State, try as I might and using letters from museums requesting pelts for taxidermy. I could simply not get a permit to allow a client hunt a bat eared fox. They are protected, and that is it! "Forget it, we will NOT issue you with a permit!" is how all of my arguments with a number of Free State Nature Conservation official ended!

In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren

We saw dozens of Bat Eared Fox last September in the Eastern Cape when we were hunting Cape Grysbok. I too was told that I couldn't shoot one. I don't recall if my PH said that was a South African rule or a USF&W rule.

We offer a 7 day hunt for Blue Duiker, Grey Duiker, Klipspringer, Cape Grysbuck & Steenbuck for $4,950.00 Red Duiker & Suni can be added for 4 additional days and trophy fees. Would be pleased to send further details if interested.

Thanks: Tom