I have seen something written here about calling duikers and I've seen on one of the tv shows them calling duiker.

Will some of you reply to this thread with your experience at doing this?

Thanks
Steve

Steve,

I have called in Duiker on a number of occasions when I was hunting jackal.

They respond more to a mouth caller than a e caller.

But never tried specifically for Duiker.

Gerhard

I call 'em with an ordinary predator call and it works a treat........ They often run in rather than walk.

When using a call would it be better to hunt them with a shotgun?

Steve

We do it all the time. The trackers can all do the "animal in distress" duiker call (by mouth) - just some better than others! It works really well and as Shakari says, the come trotting in to see what's going on. It is a very sharp, nasal kind'a sound. We once had a leopard respond to the calling. Major surprise for him and the group in waiting, as you can imagine!

Here the guys are calling for Blue Duiker and as you can see, cocked & ready, as they are fast little devils!



And Ossi got a very nice one ...



This is a lot of fun and sometimes not as easy as it looks - despite using a shotgun!

It certainly works, but remember the downside: a distress call often calls in a female with dependent young. Not normally a problem, but with blue duiker you can definitely make a mistake.www.graaffreinetsafaris.co.za

I wish I could hear the sound of the call you make.

I've called them in with a regular predator (wounded rabbit) call. I have called in Red Duiker, Southern Grey Duiker, Livingstone's Suni, Sharpes Grysbok and Klipspringer with the call. Many other animals also react to the call as well, or come to investigate. In 2006 we had hippo react to the call, coming closer to investigate the sound. Before my last trip I stopped at Bass Pro Shops and picked up a number of different calls to take and try. Of course, Jackal, Hyena and many of the small cats react to them quite well too. I have a very good call that I purchased from an Arizona company. The call is called the T-Rex. I really like using it.

UEG, which ones have you taken with the call? I would be curious to hear more about that. Did any of them make it to a hunt report?

I have taken red duiker, livingstone's suni, sharpes grysbok and klipspringer. I didn't shoot the southern grey duiker as I had already taken one on an earlier hunt. I actually shot the hippo that was curious about the call later in the hunt in 2006. I shot a side striped jackal on that hunt as well, but we were not using the call at the time. It seems to me that someone told me that they could be used on bushpig as well. I posted the pics of the red duiker and the livingstone's suni on the hunt report in 2006. I believe that the hippo was also posted there as well. I didn't or haven't posted pics of the others as of yet. I actually called in one of the biggest red duikers that I have ever seen the first morning into my hunt in Kwa-Zulu-Natal while sitting on the veranda of our east african tent camp set-up at the Falaza Game Reserve. I couldn't shoot it though, because it was right in camp and we had photo tourists staying there as well. It came running out of the bush and right across the open and stopped about 20 yards from where I was sitting. Using predator calls in Africa is a lot of fun! All of these were shot with the .375 using Trophy Bonded Sledgehammer solids. Livingstone's Suni: Red Duiker: Klipspringer: Sharpes Grysbok:

Well, I'm a bit jealous about all of that UEG. Great stuff and congrats. I will definitely have to try that myself.

I find sound generally to be very effective. I've used predator calls on a wide range of species, everything from duiker to hyena and even wild dog (for photographic purposes) - I also use one of those flat plastic English sheepdog whistles that will make a lot of animals (everything from impala to Lion) stop on a sixpence and they'll usually stay stopped for more than enough time to get a shot. Another trick, although I'm not very good at it myself, is to call Buffalo. If it's done right, not only will it stop them, it'll often make them come towards you. I know 3 people that can do it really well, one is my buddy and fellow PH, Laurent Garcia, one is a game guard in the Selous and the other (luckily!) is my head tracker Eddie.

UEG, were you billetted up around units 10 or 11?

quote:

Originally posted by Karoo:
It certainly works, but remember the downside: a distress call often calls in a female with dependent young. Not normally a problem, but with blue duiker you can definitely make a mistake.

Karoo

You are absolutely correct. Fortunately, the little antelope typically have pound-for-pound the biggest scrotums in the animal kingdom. (Especially Suni!!) We try and avoid hunting them when the lambs started arriving, especially because it is so difficult to sex these antelope quickly.

They work for Menelik's bushbuck too. So I suspect they would work for the other subspecies of Bushbuck.
Rich Elliott

Add oribi to the list also.

Die Ou Jagter: Yes we were. Out at the very end of the camp in order to keep our "activities" less noticable to the eco and photo tourists.

UEG,

When we hunted Falaza they had us in a seperate house with a beautiful view of the water. Nice digs but they obviously wanted tokeep us seperate from the eco folks. Nice facility and lots of game there. They did serve a rare pork roast that we declined.

Mark

Yes, the separate house is very nice and my PH Brad Rolston and his wife Monica stayed there for part of the time. They had separate quarters there from the rest of the house which was occupied by Martin and his wife (the Falaza Game Reserve Manager). The house overlooked False Bay, if I am not mistaken. What a beautiful area with great game available. I would go back there again if there was something available for me to hunt that I had not previously taken. By the way, you were smart to decline the rare pork roast! If you had the opportunity to meet Peter John and his wife (the very young couple who own Falaza and many of the surrounding properties, as well as a number of businesses) you experienced a treat. I have subsequently been told by Brad that Peter John's wife became pregnant with twins after we left from our safari there.

Dang this calling sounds like it has a lot of possibilities.

A caracal or serval would be a big bonus.

Can some of you that use a caller recommend a brand and where to get them?

I have only called crows using my on voice and it works very good. I do a dying crow.

If you go to a Bass Pro Shop or Cabelas or Gander Mountain, etc. etc., they usually have quite a selection. When I picked up mine at Bass Pro Shops they had a specialist who actually did quite a bit of predator hunting and calling and he was very helpful in helping me choose the calls that I wanted to take to Africa to try. In fact, he had a whole bunch of calls around his neck and he even did some calling right there on the spot so I could hear what they sounded like. Some of them come with a CD or a DVD or VHS or a cassette tape, etc. and they all come with some instructions, some more detailed than others. You can even buy a packet that contains a selection of them. I wouldn't go to Africa without a predator call now.