Any here that know some good plases to hunt Caracal in limpopo or freestate?

Limpopo offers good Caracal hunting. With dogs will increase your odds, but some may be taken by chance or bait. Your best bet will be to work with a PH that has a lot of experience hunting the Caracal. Bushbuck country is lynx country. LDK

We can offer a hunt in Limpopo for caracal. I have to say that they are difficult to get, unless you are lucky, by seeing one while hunting other animals.They do come into baits sometime, that we put out for Jackal, but will never come close if there is a Leopard around. Although the trophy fee is not expensive, a organisede lynx hunt can be very expensive, to the tune of $3000.00 for a pack of "trained" dogs. you are 90% garuanteed though over the dogs, but must be fit enough to keep up with them over difficult terrain.

www.infinito-safaris.com

quote:

Originally posted by L. David Keith:
........... Your best bet will be to work with a PH that has a lot of experience hunting the Caracal. Bushbuck country is lynx country. LDK

My knowledge of where caracal is likely to be found can be stated as: "Sheepfarming area is caracal area!" This is of course not scientifically correct, as sheep is certianly not a natural prey for caracal. But very few game farmers will welcom almost anyone to come drive around the game farm at night with a spotlight to search for and shoot caracal. Most sheepfarmers welcome experienced night varminters to try for caracal.

Here is a photo [If I followed the instructions well] of a 30.5 kg monster that was shot near Colesberg - sheepfarming area!.



Anyone interested, I live in sheepfarming area and have rights, and is indeed made very welcome to, hunt caracal and black backed jackall over many thousands of hectares in the area.

In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren

I hope you can find something that big for us in September Andrew. But don't feel pressured.....

Wow! Andrew, I didn't realize that caracal got to be so big. The one that I got in Namibia is only about half that size.

Hunting caracal, or even spotting them, is extremely difficult and probably they are gotten due more to luck than by specific intent. Because of their wariness and their nocturnal hunting habits, any caracal that is taken is a trophy a hunter can be very proud of.

Namibiahunter

Last October I went out one evening with Andrew and within an hour I got a Caracal. It was not quite that big but still it was a very nice one. I had a ball. I was also very lucky to get on a jackel within a half hour after the caracal. Besides the caracal and jackel I saw numerous Porcupines which you can shoot and other varmits. I spent a couple evenings shooting varmits. I had a ball. I will be meetin up with Andrew again this July for another fun hunt.

quote:

Originally posted by L. David Keith:
Limpopo offers good Caracal hunting. With dogs will increase your odds, but some may be taken by chance or bait. ........................... LDK

LDK, and all who cares to note, just a brotherly warning: Hunting caracal with dogs in Limpopo is illegal! The Limpopo Environmental Management Act, Act 7 of 2003, in Article 37 (1) (b) (iv) and read with the definition of a "wild animal" and the fact that caracal is listed in Schedule 4 specifically makes hunting caracal with dogs illegal.

In my earlier post it was stated that I may "hunt" caracal within a very large area. I think we must first make a clear distinction between “Hunting†and “Shootingâ€.

Within the first month of coming to live here at Mervilla I accidentally “hunted†a caracal. You can read the story here: http://andrewmclarensafarisblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/en...l-in-free-state.html

By “hunting†I mean to use ethical means to search for and pursue with the intent to kill. A successful hunt results in a find, not necessarily a kill. An example of a successful hunt that does not lead to a kill is where an elephant hunter wants a 100 pounder. He finds a set of enormous tracks and follows them for days on end. Finally he gets the see the elephant and finds that both tusks are broken down to little stumps. No kill, or even attempt to kill, but a successful hunt. No not a success at getting a 100 lb a side elephant, but a successful hunt in my book.

Shooting is what some Hunting Outfitters let their clients do from the back of a pickup truck. They search for a trophy, or meat animal, find one and shoots it, or shoots at it. Successful shoot results in a dead animal, finding one is not enough, no matter what the intent was, to make a successful search into a shoot. For a shoot to be successful there has to be a dead animal. Searching for an animal at night with a spotlight is part of a shoot, not a hunt.

Of course I can offer caracal hunting here in the Free State. Your chances are however not very good. Not good at all. Rather slim indeed. Very low, but better than winning a state lottery, chance of getting a cacarcal by hunting for one in the area where I live. Once you got to see one by hunting, you’ve still got to shoot it to actually make your total endeavor a success. Remember that at the end of a successful hunt, the successful hunter may decide to actually shoot the animal. Or, like the elephant example, he may pass up on the chance to shoot. Once he decides to actually kill the animal, ethics change: Now he MUST use all the means, including artificial ones like, a telescope, bipods, shooting sticks, set hair trigger, rangefinder, bullet drop tables and similar, to reduce the chance of wounding as far as possible. The shooting comes AFTER the successful hunt which just brings the hunter to within his own comfortable shooting range!

But I can offer a real good chance of shooting one! Here we first decide to kill a caracal. Then, we go out at night with a spotlight, calling equipment and a set-up shooting chair on the back of a bakkie. We then search and call at likely places. If we are lucky, and/or good, as Brooks and I were last year, a caracal may be seen within shooting range. We then shoot it. This is not “hunting†at all! It is shooting! Of course you may, and IMHO should, skin and preserve the trophy. But you may never boast that you “hunted†it. You merely shot it! Of course you can brag about how lucky you were to be able to shoot it, but please do not call it hunting!

Nothing guaranteed, but come and hunt other animals, including caracal, with me, lets go out a few nights and you have a real chance of getting one in sight with a spotlight that is about half to 2/3 the size of the one in the posted picture.

The chance of hunting here in the Western Free State and getting one as big as the one from Colesberg? Very, very slim indeed, much less chance to hunt and get to shoot such a monster than to winning a lottery! Chance of shooting such a big one. Very slim indeed, just about equal to winning a lottery! The photo that I posted is a “once in several lifetimes†sized caracal that was shot at night to protect sheep from such a formidable predator. Most regrettably and unfortunately it was not hunted!

Code4: I hope the explanation given above puts your expectation in a better perspective. But please keep on hoping that we actually see such a monster early one morning while stalking a steenbok! Man, we will instanty change our steenbok hunt into a caracal hunt. that would be just tremendously great!

donner,

I hope to hear from you soon!

In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren

Is now a bad time to point out that they need a CITES permit and also that PHASA has had a moratorium on all hunting with dogs (excepting using them for bird hunting) for some years.

Steve,

Yes!

Andrew

Hey, better now than later!

Leopard hunting is often done with dogs. Is this illegal?

Game laws vary from country to country and in some countries such as RSA from province to province.

The moratorium I mentioned is a PHASA moratorium which means although it's not legally enforceable, (in other words, the PH couldn't be prosecuted in a court of law for breaching the moratorium) PHASA members are open to disciplinary action including possible expulsion from the association if they so use dogs for the purposes of hunting. - Therefore, most PHASA members would respect the moratorium.

However, (from memory) and like Andrew also said, I believe some provinces in SA prohibit use of hunting with dogs with dogs by law.

Maybe it'd be OK if you did it with bitches only.

I killed two caracals on separate trips to South Africa in the late 1980s using the same mouth-blown injured jackrabbit and cottontail calls I used to use regularly in Arizona. They responded just like our bobcats do. One was shot just after sunup; the other was shot at night. Neither was anywhere near as large as the monster shown above.

Unlike coyotes and black-backed jackals that come in within the first ten minutes of calling (they frequently come running in), I found that caracals, African wildcats, and North American bobcats typically were slow to respond and were much more cautious than coyotes and jackals.

Bill Quimby

I have some experience with caracals. While in Namibia, I shot a jackal, went down to look it over, when I looked up a caracal was standing on top of the hill looking at me. It was just close to dark, but I sat down, took a careful squeeze of the trigger and shot right over his back. It was the only one I've seen when there was shooting light.

quote:

By “hunting†I mean to use ethical means to search for and pursue with the intent to kill. A successful hunt results in a find, not necessarily a kill. An example of a successful hunt that does not lead to a kill is where an elephant hunter wants a 100 pounder. He finds a set of enormous tracks and follows them for days on end. Finally he gets the see the elephant and finds that both tusks are broken down to little stumps. No kill, or even attempt to kill, but a successful hunt. No not a success at getting a 100 lb a side elephant, but a successful hunt in my book.

Andrew,

Very well put, and while I'll likley never chase ele, I agree totally with your definition!

KG

Walter Prociuk,

Some provincial regulations 'may' be different, but in Limpopo hunting caracal with dogs is most certainly illegal, unless you have a permit to do so.

South African hunting regulations allow for the Provincial Nature Conservation Departments to issue a permit to legalise doing just about anything that would be legal without a permit.

I have no first hand experience, but, given the "ban" by PHASA on all dog or hound hunting [except birds] I don't think that you are likely to be issued a permit to legalize caracal hunting in Limpopo with hounds/dogs. As to leopard, I think much the same will apply: Limpopo Nature Conservation has the authority to issue a permit to hunt a leopard with hounds. But this department also have to work closely with PHASA in all matters pertaining to hunting, including hunting by foreign clients. They are not likely to wantto "cross" PHASA by actually issuing a permit to legalise an action that PHASA is against!

Any feedback from HO's that have applied for such caracal or leopard hunting permits with dogs in various provinces?

Kamo,

In the many issues about ethics I've found that I detest practices that makes it easy for a hunter to get within his own comfortable shooting range from game. This includes vehicles, sitting in ambush at waterholes, baiting, calling and many others. But once a hunter has ethically and on foot approached an animal to the point where the hunter is really confident of making a one-shot instant kill, I endorse the use of any aid or gadget like bipods, telescopes, graduated recticles etc., that will help reduce the chances of wounding.

For me, ethics is about the methods used in search and approach, but has something to do with caliber choice, bullet selection and preparation for the actual shooting too. But once a decision was made to shoot, I grant you anything that will help reduce the chance of wounding!

In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren

What is a sensible gun for Caracal??

- mike

I don't think they carry guns, but if they did, it would probably be some kind of wilcat......

he he thanks folks for info i have now booked a caracal hunt im oktober!!

Good one Shakari!

Mike, usually, what ever you have in your hand, as Caracal are targets of opportunity for most Hunters. Many have been taken with shotguns, which I dislike, even though I've used one on Caracal before; it wasn't my personal choice. I prefer to use small calibers, especially the .222 or .223 with stout bullets. Don't care for rapid expanding "varmint" bullets. I guess I'm too respectful of game to want to see them "blown to bits and pieces." Tiny caliber's such as the .17, .204 ruger or 5mm would be fine under certain circumstances but may not be legal under local or Provincial regulations. They tend to change with the wind direction so you must be sure of them (reg's) at the time you plan/book your hunt. Then again a week before you leave (so you can change your 4457 form if necessary).
Good hunting,
David

Thanks David.

- mike

"In the many issues about ethics I've found that I detest practices that makes it easy for a hunter to get within his own comfortable shooting range from game. This includes vehicles, sitting in ambush at waterholes, baiting, calling and many others."

Mr. McLaren:

Ethics are in the eyes of the beholder. Despite what goes on in Texas and a few other places, if you were to conduct a survey you would find the vast majority of America's 15 million hunters who have not hunted in South Africa detest the mere thought of shooting animals on high-fenced game ranches.

Further, it would make no difference to them whether the "estate" was 5, 50, 5,000, or even 50,000 hectares, or whether the shooter walked to find the game or shot it from a Toyota.

Does this make nearly everyone who kills an animal on a South African game farm an unethical hunter? I think not.

Bill Quimby

Incidentally, I resent your saying I am an unethical hunter because I use calls.

quote:

Incidentally, I resent your saying I am an unethical hunter because I use calls.

Or baits.
Maybe you should try it sometime Andrew. When you have time, you are welcome to join me for a leopard hunt using both these "unethical" methods.

Andrew, Limpopo and Mpumalanga will give permits without asking questions to use dogs, IF the animals is a problem/damage causing animal. They only use reputable handlers. In Limpopo it is Theuns Botha who usualy do these hunts.

I use callers and bait for all predators. This is the way to hunt them, and I cannot see it to be unethical in any way what so ever. It takes a lot of skill to use a caller, and to convince the predator to come in range.

Still, without dogs, Caracal is very difficult to get.

quote:

Originally posted by billrquimby:
"In the many issues about ethics I've found that I detest practices that makes it easy for a hunter to get within his own comfortable shooting range from game. This includes vehicles, sitting in ambush at waterholes, baiting, calling and many others."

Mr. McLaren:

Ethics are in the eyes of the beholder. Despite what goes on in Texas and a few other places, if you were to conduct a survey you would find the vast majority of America's 15 million hunters who have not hunted in South Africa detest the mere thought of shooting animals on high-fenced game ranches.

Further, it would make no difference to them whether the "estate" was 5, 50, 5,000, or even 50,000 hectares, or whether the shooter walked to find the game or shot it from a Toyota.

Does this make nearly everyone who kills an animal on a South African game farm an unethical hunter? I think not.

Bill Quimby

Incidentally, I resent your saying I am an unethical hunter because I use calls.

Bill,

If I may call you Bill, rather than Mr. Quimby, in an attempt to show that I'm still very friendly and not upset at all?

You are quite correct in saying that: "Ethics are in the eye of the beholder." In my statement about ethics that you quoted it is very clear that my own personal view is given. It is my view: “…I detest…â€. Thats all! I do not say or imply that anyone who uses any of these methods is unethical. I merely say what I detest. Where do you find any justification for making a statement that I called you an unethical hunter for using calls? I simply made a statement about my own personal views, and nowhere do I infer that anyone who does not exactly agree with my views is an unethical hunter!

I very well realize the basic outcome of a survey about hunting on high fenced farms. What must be realized is that South Africans, and indeed hunters from all over the world, will share the same views. They, as I detest anything that makes it easy for the hunter. Hunters who do not know “high fenced estates†are inclined to think that any high fence surrounding a herd of animals makes it easy for a hunter to get to within shooting range. The detest shooting at such animals. But with actual hunting experience they will learn and eventually fully realize that unless an enclosed area is very small it is not easy to achieve hunting success. In fact you can add to the list of things that I "detest" the hunting on an enclosed area so small that it makes it easy for a hunter to get within his/her comfortable shooting distance.

Do I use bait? Yes, sure. I try to always discard entrails and legs of animals at a place where I can easily approach from behind cover to get a shot at a jackal. Is there some skill involved in placing the bait, or selecting a spot where to place the bait. You bet! Is there any skill required to select a good leopard bait tree, and tying the bait just right? You bet! There are many beginners out there that achieve nothing other than feed the blowflies in futile attempts to bait for leopard.

Do I use calls? Again the reply is yes! Reducing the resident caracal and black backed jackal population in a sheep farming area is just about impossible without calling at night and using a spotlight for shooting. Is there any skill and experience required to know just where to set up a calling station? How to call if you are after a specific animal? How and when to use the spotlight? Be sure that all these aspects don’t just come naturally, there is an amount of skill and knowledge required to do it properly.

Does my use of baits and calls and spotlights make me an unethical hunter? No, it just makes me better at helping the local farmers in their efforts at controlling varmint populations.

Karl,

I would love to join you on such a hunt. I will love to know more about leopard baiting and calling, even though I almost certainly will never do it as a Professional Hunter!

In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren

Andrew, I think what me and KArl are trying to say is that baiting and calling predators, for us (and most people in this industry) are perfectly exceptable methods of HUNTING these animals.

If it were Impala/Springbuck from the back of the bakkie with a spotlight, I will agree with shooting vs. hunting def. But the abovementioned is very much methods used to HUNT a very difficult, and clever quarry.....

www.infinito-safaris.com

"Bill, If I may call you Bill, rather than Mr. Quimby, in an attempt to show that I'm still very friendly and not upset at all? "


That's decent of you not to be upset, Andrew, especially when you consider that it was you who called what I and hundreds of thousands of other hunters consider to be an ethical and sporting HUNTING technique to be detestable, i.e. unethical.

I do thank you for recognizing that calling predators requires a degree of skill and knowledge.

By the way, calling at night in Arizona (where I live) is illegal, and most of the calling I've done on various trips to Africa has been done during the day.

Bill Quimby

quote:

Originally posted by infinito:
Andrew, I think what me and KArl are trying to say is that baiting and calling predators, for us (and most people in this industry) are perfectly exceptable methods of HUNTING these animals.

If it were Impala/Springbuck from the back of the bakkie with a spotlight, I will agree with shooting vs. hunting def. But the abovementioned is very much methods used to HUNT a very difficult, and clever quarry.....

www.infinito-safaris.com

As Bill Quimby said: "Ethics is in the eye of the beholder." If whatever method is under discussion is, for anyone an acceptable method of hunting, well then it is by that persons own definition quite ethical. I am the last person on earth that will try to convince someone that his views are wrong. Ethics are all in the eye of the beholder! I have had many a fierce argument, or 'word fight' with different religious leaders about the right of people to pray, or not to pray, to their God [or the Devil] without anyone like a missionary having the right to say that: "My religion is the only true road to eternal salvation!" What can I say for the "hunter" who argues that: "The lion is going to die in any case, why don't I just shoot him in the cage before you release him, and so make the canned hunt perfectly safe for everyone?" The only thing that I can say is, if it is OK by you, it really is OK by you. It does not make it OK by me. It does not make it OK by most hunters, but I will not force my view of the ethics unto him. We can, and often do, say that such a person has "no ethics at all". This is wrong, his ethics are not the same as ours, but there are those who really believe that shooting something that is going to die in any case in a cage is OK. I know it sounds terrible: but leave him be if he is acting legally. Yes, fight to have the laws changed, but each one to his own ethics.

The last sentence of the quote can be extended by adding “…..which I am not a good enough hunter to outsmart without using the methods than Andrew McLaren detest to get to within the comfortable shooting distance.†I’m not saying that Charl and Karl are wrong! Far from it! I also agree that using bait and calls are “generally†regarded by a majority of hunters [certainly on AR Forum] as valid and ethical methods of hunting leopard. Then, for all who really agree, it IS ethical to use those methods for a leopard hunt.

I have "hunted" leopard many times. I have never succeeded in actually shooting one. How did I attempt the hunt? By sitting very quietly under a bush on one side of a ravine where the spoor have been seen in the sand of the river bed. No calling. No bait. And, you gussed it, also no success! I have, just once, and only for a fleeting second, actually seen a leopard that I was hunting. One night, with only about a quarter moon, and no light at all, I crept up to about 15 yards from a feeding leopard. I stumbled on the kill earlier that day during a kudu hunt, got permission to try my luck on it and returned after moonrise. I followed the game path in darkness, with only my kudu-hunting rifle, a .270 win with a nice big Zeiss 8X56 telescope. From some distance off I could hear him tearing meat and could eventually even hear him swallowing! Eventually there was only one dense bush ["rosyntjiebos"] between us. Then all went eerily quiet, no more sound of meat being chewed off, just quiet. There was no change in the wind, I walked very softly, my rifle safety was taken off far away, but he sensed my presence, and he was gone! To this day I think he heard my hear beating!

I really hope to one day, have success on a leopard hunt, done my way! If I die or grow too old before accomplishing that, well then I go to my grave without having had a successful leopard hunt. I can live with that. I may even have to die with that. But I will not undo my own promise to myself by making the hunt for "my" leopard any easier for me. No ways! For me it will be me, my rifle and the leopard. One day my patience will pay dividends. Or not. Makes no difference to me at all. I may even shoot a leopard as part of a predator controlling exercise, but you can be sure that I will rather try to hunt him. Speaking about hunting vs shooting leopard makes me think of my experience with bushpigs.

I have hunted bushpig very often. I have shot one that was hunted. Incidentally I got this bushpig with the same .270 win and very near where I almost got my leopard. On a later occasion also shot an enormously big sow on an opportunistic chance encounter. [With a .22LR shooting subsonic hollow points.] My bushpig hunts were mostly in the early mornings near their thickets. Some bushpig hunts were undertaken at night. All without any artificial light and only relying on a Zeiss telescope to enable shooting with just starlight and a bit of moonlight. Sometimes I just carried a double barreled shotgun into the maize fields where they sometimes feed and rely on shotgun style shooting with slugs. My success ratio on these bushpig day and night hunts was low. Very low. Got a few warthogs that way. But no bushpigs. But how do you think I should rate my enjoyment of these hunts? Even the many ones where I returned home empty handed?

I also went on a bushpig shoot with a pack of trained hounds. No if anyone who has grown tired of buffalo or other DG hunting, and wants an adrenaline rush, that is very highly recommended! The baying of the hounds, the shouts of the runners following the hounds, the uncertainty if you have selected your ambush spot properly, the, well everything about such an event is thrilling and exciting. I don't think I was even nearly so excited on my honeymoon night as on that bushpig shoot! But, in my book, it was not hunting.

The fact that it is not hunting in my book is just that. I'm not saying anyone who disagrees is unethical. I'm not condemning anyone for enjoying running bushpigs with hounds – as said I joined in and enjoyed it very mush! I also don’t condemm anyone for sitting over a pile of maize or rotting flesh as bait for a bushpig with a rheostat controlled light to shoot by as an unethical hunter. I'm just saying, that if I sit over bait in wait for a bushpig, I don't call it hunting. Yet I will go and sit on the edge of a maize field and wait for them to come and feed. Is there a difference between putting out a pile of maize near a specific tree in which you build your hide, or sitting by the artificially planted maize field in wait for the bushpigs to come and feed? Yes, in "my" book one is allowed as hunting, and one I would just call shooting. Why? In reply I will merely say because those are "my" views. I do not need to defend them at all! I don't need to be able to explain to anyone, even to myself, why there is, in my book, a difference. It is my ethics in my book. I'm not forcing my ethics onto anyone, and will not allow anyone to force his or her ethics onto me. We can talk about it, even argue about it, we can even try to convince each other of the "correctness" of our respective views, but in the end it remains very personal views that are neither right nor wrong. Different maybe. But if you really deep down and honestly feel that it is OK to shoot a lion in a cage and claim that you have hunted it, well, those are your views! Quite different from my view, but not "wrong", just because it is different from mine. Even if this man is the only one on earth that thinks it is OK to shoot a lion in a cage, it may still be his own honest view, and for him, and him alone, it would be ethical to do so and claim that he has hunted a lion. There is no democracy in ethics: What the majority thinks is right and acceptable is not right for someone who disagrees. But by exactly the same token his minority view can also not be forced on the majority. So, if I disagree with the view that it is OK to call for or use bait on a leopard “huntâ€, let me be! I’m most definitely NOT saying that Charl and Karl are “wrongâ€. All of us are right, although our views are different. That sure sounds stupid! But it is how I feel about ethics: It is in the eye of the beholder!


In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren

Each to his own then Andrew. I just like to shoot stuff when I'm HUNTING....

So by the way, do you know the guys that shot that big Caracal? It made news big time in my circles.....

infinoto,

I do not know Brian Kenmuir personally. He is the guy who shot and is holding the big caracal on the photo. I have spoken to him by telephone a few times. He is in the "problem jackall and caracal control" business. His claim to fame is that where "beginners" have educated the jackall to beware of calling, he goes in and actually gets them! Brian gets paid for each jackall or caracal that he shoots on his clients'property. He is in the "business" of problem predator control, and his clients are the sheep farmers in the district. Does not make real money, but enough to cover his hobby expenses. He is widely regarded [by amongst other, a few Provincial Nature Conservation officers responsible for problem animal control]as one of South Africa's best predator callers. It was most definately not a case of beginners luck that got him that monster caracal that he is holding.

If you want to make contact with him please send PM, I have his telephone number and e-mail address.

In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren