Bushbuck?

I think so..Sable too and gemsbok, so I've heard...

A warthog killed a poacher on Humani when I was working there. Didn't mean to I don't think though I didn't get a chance to ask it. It was trapped by poachers and dogs in a hole, and came boiling out right between a poacher's legs, tusking him in the femoral on the way past...

I've got some pictures of me rescuing a bushbuck from a snare, including one of a minor wound I sustained to the left buttock during the struggle, will dig them out. All I can say is that I am very lucky that buck was weakened otherwise it could have been much worse. I have heard a story of a guy (PH?) who was killed by a bushbuck but don't know if it's true.

Bushbuck!

Very dangerous indeed... lucky it was so weak and that I turned at the last second and handed it off at the same time, avoiding a frontal and not allowing the horn tip to penetrate much.




Ungrateful bastard

IMHO .... plains game DG what ever the most dangerous thing in Africa is



African Drivers...!!!! period end of story. My experience is that they laugh at seat belts, stop signs (when there are any) and red lights. A horn is a perfect substitute for brakes. A dirt road full of washed out area's and huge holes is perfectly good for hi speed cruising and whipping around a donkey cart at 50 miles/hour on a blind curve on said dirt road is well, just the way ya drive round here.

Most of the time they go into curves with a land cruiser with with a half ton of people and a buffalo in the back like they are driving a damn Ferrari.

quote:

Originally posted by els:
IMHO .... plains game DG what ever the most dangerous thing in Africa is



African Drivers...!!!! period end of story. My experience is that they laugh at seat belts, stop signs (when there are any) and red lights. A horn is a perfect substitute for brakes. A dirt road full of washed out area's and huge holes is perfectly good for hi speed cruising and whipping around a donkey cart at 50 miles/hour on a blind curve on said dirt road is well, just the way ya drive round here.

Most of the time they go into curves with a land cruiser with with a half ton of people and a buffalo in the back like they are driving a damn Ferrari.

Do any of these animals bite?

In India some animals bite - like the Muntjack which is a small deer about the size of a diker 20kg max. If cornered the anumal will bite. The males have canine tusks popping down from the upper jaw.

As a Tea Planter we used to see them all the time. In spring the females with fawn will often be disturbed by workers and the fawn is caught. I raised 3 of them. Another estate manager's wife had a bad experience with one such adult buck which just attacked her and bit her wrist like a cracker and he never gained the use of the hand. Otherwise they are such beautiful animals.

One of the PHs in our camp last year had been gored by a bushbuck. The cliff note version:

Bushbuck was wounded by the client and went in the thick stuff. PH sends in little Jack Russell. PH crawls in after the dog. The dog encounters the bushbuck which turns and runs right back down the path the PH is heading down. The dog runs between PH's legs and the bushbuck gores the PH. One horn into one leg, the other into his testicles. He falls down now with a bushbuck stuck in him. He pulls the horns out of his body while lying on his back then doesn't know what to do. So, he is lying on his back with a bushbuck standing over him holding onto his horns. Finally, either the client or the tracker, I don't remember which one, gets to the PH and shoots the bushbuck while standing over him.

I agree with els. Garry Kelly has scared the devil out of me many times while running his 4 banger Toyota right on the mat all over RSA.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
I agree with els. Garry Kelly has scared the devil out of me many times while running his 4 banger Toyota right on the mat all over RSA.

Mark

The drive at night back to camp in the Selous with Leon "Turbo" Kachelhoffer at the wheel still is the scariest African experience Mrs Blacktailer and I have ever had.
Note the blurred scenery in the background, and imagine this scenario at nite.

Wait a minute. I've never been hunting in Africa( insert emoticon of me slitting my wrist), but shouldn't an animal not be dangerous after you've shot it?

I just do not consider any plains game dangerous...

But consider the fact that whitetail deer kill and injure more hunters, in the USA every year than Bears...

And even Craig Boddington has written that in all the hunting he has done, all over the World, the two closest calls he has had, involved wild pigs.

For me personally.... Well once upon a time there was this Gorilla...

It was a Bongo that came very close to sticking me in the guts.

They say the Bongo is in the bushbuck family.

My vote goes to the Gemsbok!

quote:

Originally posted by David Hulme:
I have heard a story of a guy (PH?) who was killed by a bushbuck but don't know if it's true.

I recall reading about a hunter who was a member of the British Royal family, who carelessly walked up to a bushbuck which he had wounded. According to the story, the animal lunged at him and got a horn into his femoral artery, and he quickly bled out before anything could be done.

Dreadfully embarrassing, that.

John

Trackers won't go near a bushbuck till they are stone dead...

Mike

I'm with the Bushbuck crowd. There have been numerous men speared by this smallish spiral horn. Amongst the lesser African antelopes, they stand giant with aggression. Brave man David Hulme, just think if that ram had his strength and wits about him. I know of others who weren't so lucky. Great photo's as always.

quote:

African Drivers...!!!! period end of story.

I think I can attest to that one!

I have been hunting in Africa for quite a few years now, and have never got close to being hurt by any animal.

We were hunting in Chete, and were driving across a dry river bed covered in large rocks. It is quite wide, and one can hardly drive at more than about 1 KM an hour to cross it.

Walter was in the back of the truck, and as we got out of the river bed, he started banging on the truck's roof.

"WHAT NOW?" Asked Roy, stopping.

"You missed a few rocks! Can you go back and drive over them again?" Answered Walter.

I was sitting in the front with Roy, and said to him "He think you were driving too slow back there"

"He does, does he? I am going to show him now"

Roy hit the gas! The road is relatively smooth by then, and there are a few good straight stretches, with a few sharp corners.

We were going a t a good clip by then. Suddenly, we rounded a corner, and saw another truck with other hunters from the fly camp coming our way. Luckily, there was enough time for both drivers to stand on the brakes. And a disaster was narrowly avoided.

Walter and his friends on the back were having a hard time staying aboard, and screaming insults!

I was laughing so much tears were pouring down my face! At the same time my legs were getting stiff from braking!

Just imagine, two trucks on the whole of Chete, and they manage to have a head on collision!

Most dangerous plains game? The wife of my hunting partner (along on the trip as an observer) when she found out the total cost of the safari, including taxidermy, shipping, etc.

How about African drivers who don't bother to fill up their vehicle (petrol) and when they are just about out of gas, stop next to your truck (diesel) when you've pulled over to the side of the road for a coffee break and ask if they can have some fuel for their vehicle.

quote:

Originally posted by prof242:
Most dangerous plains game? The wife of my hunting partner (along on the trip as an observer) when she found out the total cost of the safari, including taxidermy, shipping, etc.

plain jane instantaneously transforming into insane jane

I’ve heard that the Bushbuck is the most aggressive African antelope by far, but I did have one incident with an African driver that I’ll never forget.

This was my first day driving in Africa and I was still getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road, steering wheel on the wrong side, etc. I was driving along one of those endlessly long, arrow-straight, hard-packed gravel roads looking for the entrance to a preserve where I would be spending the night. I had no idea where I was and wasn’t even sure I was on the right road. I hadn’t seen another vehicle for at least an hour. The sun was setting and I didn’t want to spend the night in a little rental car in the bush, so I just kept driving faster and faster down the center of the road.

Suddenly I passed what looked like the guarded entrance gate to a preserve and slammed on the brakes.

What I didn’t know was that somewhere along the line a huge semi tractor trailer had crept up behind me and was tail-gating me at about 90 mph when I hit the brakes. He missed me by about an inch and came screeching alongside amidst a cloud of dust. It scared the hell out of me.

The truck driver was a hard-bitten little Afrikaner who came charging at me with his fists raised, pissed-off and ready to rumble. I can’t say that I blame him. It was a dumb-ass move by me not knowing that he was behind me; but you’ve got to wonder what the hell he was doing riding my ass like that. It took quite a bit of talking to calm him down.

Whew!

I will give the Bushbuck my vote. I have all most lost my legs with a wounded one. I wounded the Bushbuck and went after into the thick stuff where he was waiting. He tried to hit me but luckely he was out of breath, I grabbed him by the horns,twisted his neck and forced him to the ground,when my tracker arrived we finished him with his little pocket knife, mine went missing with the slide into the valey.Fortunately nobody got injured.
Pictures of clients with Bushbuck






www.ferdiventerhunting.com

Dangerous plainsgame? ROFL... man we are stretching for topics now, from buffalo are pussycats on one thread to man-killing bushbuck on another!

I am more apt to agree with wives and African drivers, particularly those buses and 18 wheelers that careen down the roads between Bully and the Omay, overloaded with people and cargo, swerving in and out of their lane! Good call Ernie!

quote:

Originally posted by bwanamrm:
Dangerous plainsgame? ROFL... man we are stretching for topics now, from buffalo are pussycats on one thread to man-killing bushbuck on another!

I am more apt to agree with wives and African drivers, particularly those buses and 18 wheelers that careen down the roads between Bully and the Omay, overloaded with people and cargo, swerving in and out of their lane! Good call Ernie!

He who laughs last...

Please note the guys who never agreed with the buffalo are pussies crowd...

But I agree - the buses and women are far more dangerous than any buffalo or bushbuck that ever lived.

Having said that, a word of caution, if any of you do happen to wound a bushbuck and it heads into cover, be very careful. Imagine that Omay express hurtling down the road towards you as you try and keep your insides in on the way to the Bullies hospital....Add to that your wife bleating about the cost of the hunt and it's a nightmare that could happen to any fellow, but more likely to happen to the chap who underestimates wounded bushbuck!

Just a delicious irony, don't you think?

I don't underestimate much when it is wounded... I guess what one thinks dangerous is the last animal that almost skewered him/her. But I happen to be one who thinks much of the danger in African game is exaggerated... now cow elephants in a badgered herd? That is dangerous!

quote:

Originally posted by bwanamrm:
But I happen to be one who thinks much of the danger in African game is exaggerated... now cow elephants in a badgered herd? That is dangerous!

Agreed 100%. in both instances. And yes, it is ironic that one has a greater chance of journeying to the afterlife through butting bumpers with the Omay express than by cracking cranium when mown down by nyati. And there is about 17 million times more chance one gets splattered by the Omay express (10 minutes out from the shebeen and picking up pace) than there is of one being gutted/castrated by a bushbuck, even if one is a dedicated bushbuck hunter. Oh how I used to laugh at the bushbuck tales! Actually, I still do, and how I laughed when one actually did spike me! Imagine your claim to fame was your luck finally ran out in an encounter with a bushbuck! It could be worse, like a stingray or something, but a bushbuck would be rather sad...Damn, I remember the time my mother's duiker decided it was time to beat its mother...Nasty little horns a duiker has but fortunately for mother not as nasty as my right boot. And then there was the time ma's eland bull decided it was time to mate with its mother...But now I am talking about hand-raised, unwounded wild animals as a pose to totally wild, wounded, vicious little bushbucks with revenge in their stout hearts, and incestuous behavior instead of intrepid bushbuck hunters, with hearts equally as stout as their cunning adversaries, and I don't want to detract from the serious subject in question, and so I will end off here and maybe start a thread of my own....

Elephant cow is by far the single most dangerous critter on earth (other than HIV virus).

As for plainsgame, I'd have to say Bushbuck based on what I've heard over the years - and those accidents were mostly cases of stupid people tricks, not the Bushbuck being a "dangerous" animal - all wounded animals are dangerous!

same fo White tails...get cocky with a fairly gamey buck and you will be going to see the ER doc post haste!

Honey Badger is the one that scares me the most - I hear when spooked they go for the crotch! YIKES!!!

JW

quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Wemmer:


Honey Badger is the one that scares me the most - I hear when spooked they go for the crotch! YIKES!!!

JW

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR


Jeff, I have to disagree, the mosquito is by far the most dangerous critter!!

quote:

Jeff, I have to disagree, the mosquito is by far the most dangerous critter!!

Yes, most likely, but that "HIV bug" is a clooooose second!

AND, I still say that l'il badger is the most fierce!!! Nice pic - thanks for posting!

JW

Didn't Ruark describe a Zebra almost doing in Harry Selby while changing a flat tire toward the end of "Horn of the Hunter"? If I remember correctly, his description of that "Damned ugly Punda with its barred teeth trying to take a bite out of Selby's face" would have been a most undignified ending to such a great Safari.

Most dangerous wouyld be the species directly responsible for most human deaths? The answer is easy, KUDU!

I'm quite sure that a very thorough study of statistics will reveal that more humans are injured or killed as a direct result of kudu and (night driven) motor vehicles' interactions than all injuries or deaths caused by all other species combined. Or am I wrong?

Andrew McLaren

My mother and Anne Whittall have both raised hundreds of animals, every Zim species you could think of. The only animal that both of them have failed to successfully rehabilitate to the wild is a male zebra. From otters, to serval/civet/genet cats, every plainsgame animal out there,hogs and pigs galore, buffalos, lions, leopards, rhinos and so on and so forth, the only animal that ever had to be shot was a male zebra, and not once either. It was the only animal which ever truly endangered human life. I tried to turn their executions into decent hunts but not so easy when you are tracking down a beserk 'billy' the zebra at the workshops...

Andrew, I hear you with the kudu/road deaths. Quite a few people have been killed in Zim by Giraffes and a childhood friend of mine spent 25 years in a coma as a result of an impala through a windscreen...

Ostrich. Now there's a potentially nasty bastard. I shot one once on a farm where i was working. It shattered the mudguard of my then boss' motorbike with a kick, whilst he was puttering along, and brought man and bike down. Fortunately the ostrich spent a few seconds beating the bike, giving the boss time to escape and shimmy up a tree. I was notified by some workers who were keeping a safe distance, and not long after sniped the crazed bird from as safe a distance, allowing my boss to go home for lunch.

A Bushbuck for sure.

My dad will tell you Kudu. A bull gored him in 1986. He ended up with 157 stiches in his mouth!

I will tell you Duiker. A good male put and inch of his 5 inch horns into my heel in 1998. Careless of me not to check if the animal was dead properly.

All of the PG are potentialy dangerous. Bushbuck, Gemsbok, and Waterbuck are the only ones I have witnessed to have hostile intend when wounded and cornered!

The most dangerous is the one right in front of you.

Always take care.

I was careless enough to get in a fight with a wolverine once. I ended up choking it to death. It was not a pretty sight.

quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Wemmer:
Honey Badger is the one that scares me the most - I hear when spooked they go for the crotch! YIKES!!!JW

Nah ! They go for the central nervous system via any part they can enclose with their jaws.

I had an unfortunate encounter with a bushbuck several years ago . Wounded and on his last legs he gave me a good going over before he died. Three deep puncture wounds and a nasty gash were the end result.

I have seen Kudu, Waterbuck,and warthog try and fight their way out of bad situations, so all of them are potentially dangerous.

I had a pet honey badger, Tsimbi, many years ago. My Rottweiler learned very quickly that the little fellow was not something to mess with...heart of a lion

I think something that very few hunters pay much attention to is Baboon. They are quite simply vicious and if in a group will actually plan an attack . I shot one with a bow two years ago and the whole troop reacted very angrily and began circling the tree stand. They meant business and were not going to back off. A hasty radio call brought the vehicle in but even then they did not back off very far. Plenty of PHs will have stories about baboons and will tell you about confrontations with Dogs and leopards where the baboons have literally torn their opponents to peices.

Moral of the story is simply that anything can be dangerous in Africa !!!!

By the way....hopefully Begno will post a hunt report soon and his description of the exploding african toilet should add a new element of danger to future safaris!!!!!!!