quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
Lion

LOL!! You must have been with somebody fun like Thor!

The small night critters in Zim: civet, genet, porcupine,white tailed mongoose...You
never know what's around the next bend!
Plus, shotgunning is always fun.

I'm waiting
to score on honey badger & serval...Calling hyena, I agree, is really fun - - ANY big predator might show up!

Lion Sneaking into blinds in the pitch dark and hearing lions crunching bone, walking up to males roaring, having the cruiser charged at baits regularly, planning where to set baits, etc. Never thought it would be so enjoyable and exciting.

Baboons and Mt zebra. I don't realize they would be that tough to hunt.

Several have mentioned eland. I guess I missed out on the challenge, both of mine just fell in my lap. Just rounded a bush & there they were.

I now have way more respect for Mt. Zebra after the one I took in Namibia. They soak up lots of bullet energy and make you walk through lots of thornbush before finding them expired.
He is beautiful on my den floor now.

Francolin. One of the things I really enjoy on a hunt is finding a covey of francolin in thick cover near the road. We drive past the covey, then get out of the cruiser and stalk them with air rifles. It is challenging and a lot of fun to boot. Plus, we always give the birds we shoot to the trackers, who are most appreciative of a game bird dinner.

Mountain Zebra

Zebra!

quote:

Hartmann's Zebra

The first day of the Cape Buff hunt my PH asked what I'd like to start with to get my legs under me. When I replied "Zebra" our tracker's eyes lit up, he smiled, and he whispered something to the PH. Turns out it's a tracking game and he loves tracking. That first couple days we saw glimpses only and they were warier than any whitetail, but man were they fun.

Elephant. My first bull was taken in 1998, two months after my return from a safari and exactly 7 days after I received the call that he was available and on the first day of the hunt. No time to get excited, but I dreamed of hunting Elephant for four nights afterwards. And it is one animal I never tire of hunting.

All of them! Africa in good company is where my mind goes in most moments of peace.

Zebra. Definitely Zebra.

I wasn't even interested in hunting zebra until the opportunity came up during a discussion at the lodge. I didn't think it would be that interesting or that challenging. Hah! We started looking for them and then chase began. They would run here, then run there, then run over there, then back to where we started, then over to another place…. We were stalking, then running, the riding, then tracking, then riding, then running, then…. 7.5 hours after we started, I finally got a shot… just after the sun set. I was with my dad and two of my sons. What a great time.

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
Spot and stalk crocodile.

absolutely!

I'd say zebra and bushbuck for me. I've hunted them both twice now and I'm 0 for 2!

Maybe the third time is the charm coming up in June!!

Zebra- long treks, get close, find target, spooked, herd gallops away, restart trek, get close, can't get a good shot, spooked etc. I'm 1 for 2 and intend to do again!

For me zebra off and on the sticks seemed like hours it was great. For her red hartabeest 2 1/2 days of tracking and one quick shot. Very exciting.

After a few zebra, I can say they are tough.

Blanked on eland and bushbuck so far; so they must be tough or I'm incompetant or unlucky.

quote:

Originally posted by AR79:
Spot and stalk Mountain zebra in their natural habitat. After taking a Plains zebra previously, was expecting the same ease of hunting. Was very surprised at level of difficulty. Took roughly 7-8 days to finally bag one on the last day. Drought and predator pressure had an effect also.

I hunted the same ranch as AR79 in Namibia (Sebra Hunting Safaris) and like him, I really enjoyed hunting the Mountain Zebra. A close second was shooting a HUGE red hartebeest on my second trip earlier this year. Here's a picture of the zebra:



and here's the red hartebeest:

Bushbuck!

I hunted 5 days for the same bushbuck, we had earlier got trail camera pictures of, before I was able to get an arrow in him.

Hyena in Chewore. Setting bait, building a blind and then sneaking into the blind in pitch darkness the next mornining with a pack of Hyenas already on the bait was damn exciting. I enjoyed it as much as Leopard hunting.

for me was Lesser Kudu, i though it would be a walk in the park but turned out to be a truly sly animal with both good sight and hearing,

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
Without question the Nile crocodile completely surprised me. They are by far one of the most switched on aniamls I've ever hunted anywhere. I've hunted them spot and stalk and on bait. In both cases it was a great hunt. They are a very underated trophy.

Mark

+1

Eland - proviso - tracked down
Bushbuck - locating specific individual and then hunt it - very personal
Bushpig - icing on the cake - anytime

Then there is Cape Buffalo...always better than expected IMO

quote:

Originally posted by David Culpepper:
The little guys. Duiker, klipspringer, steenbok, etc. But then again who can pass up the warthog.

I love warthogs, can`t see me going to africa wothout hunting the buggers

My first trip to Africa was for buffalo in Zimbabwe with Peter Bernard and Blake Muil. The package included a hyena, which I was not to excited about. After putting out a first bait of buffalo ribs and getting lions and hyena on it, we then baited with a hippo leg and built a blind. We walked into the bait in the dark and could hear lions on it. We watched 4 lions for about a half hour, then they started leaving and two hyenas came in. The one I got was a big female that my taxidermist says is really big. (It scored 17-6/8, so if anyone has a recent SCI book I would like to hear how it would rank. I have never entered anything, but would like to see how it compares.) There was a lot more to hunting a hyena than I expected.

The other thing was a Hartmann's mountain zebra with Jan du Plessis this year in Namibia. They are in rough country, and I got it the last morning. So far this is my only African animal that was not a one-shot kill, so they are tough also.

Zebra and bushbuck were fun but I always thought that they would be.

Surprisingly my Impala was a lot more fun than I thought as we spotted them on an open hillside and it took us an hour and a half to stalk the last 150 yards to get within range of my 375.

Blue wildebeast because they seem to be completely nuts and mountain zebra because chasing them over mountains was a lot of fun and then the target turned out to be a whole lot tougher than anticipated.

Crocodile, pure and simple. Spotted from a boat, with a long very intense stalk along the riverine jesse. Way under rated.

Putting a shuka on and hunting Thompsons
Gazelle in Tanzania. Previously I had hunted them without one and that can make for a long shot.

quote:

Originally posted by bwanajay:
Putting a shuka on and hunting Thompsons
Gazelle in Tanzania. Previously I had hunted them without one and that can make for a long shot.

Works pretty well for just about anything in Masailand - especially Oryx.

Definitely Warthog. I haven't had the opportunity to hunt DG yet, but this was the most fun single animal I've ever hunted. This one took around 45 minutes to get because we got to watch this old boy throw some dirt and fight with the young bucks in the group! Outstanding!

For me it is the little guys. Before my first trip I was very excited about hunting kudu and eland; now I am more excited to be hunting duikers and dik diks.

Lee,

I passed up common duiker, klipspringer and grysbok on my first safari. What a mistake. Once I understood the great value of these trophies it took me years to get them.

Mark

Giant Eland!!! Would love to do it again.

Baboons! I swear I can hear them cussing my mother.

Cheers, Steve

mountain zebra in Namibia was mine.

For me it was klipspringer, duiker and grysbok. On my first safari, I had little interest in them before I arrived. Once I realized what kind of hunt they offer, I really wanted to take them. Fortunately, I was able to take 3 excellent specimens on that first safari.

Baboon and mt zebra.

Both offer you a good chase.