I am facinated by the small African antelope - Duiker, Dik-Dik, Suni, Kilpspringer, ETC.

Show and tell time!

Hunting stories must accompany the photos.

LOOK! Out on the plains; it's a Mouse; it's a Grouse; no, it's Steenbok! And he's mad as hell-0!
Late one evening we were headed back to camp when we rode by an old stone fence. Springing out of the high grass that edged the rock wall was a nice Steenbok ram. "He's probably got a female around here somewhere, so we might see him again in the morning," said my PH. Early the next morning found us returning to the same ranch to hunt Kudu. The Sun was just beginning to climb over the distant ridges when I noticed the stone fence. I had no more than uttered the words "There's the fence" when out of the high grass pops a female Steenbok, immediately followed by her ram. We stopped the cruiser and I bail out to pull my .223 out of its case, chamber a round and extend the bipod. By the time I get into a shooting position, the ram has stopped at the top of the ridge on the skyline. I take careful aim as my PH advises "He's 131 yards." I settle the cross hairs just behind his shoulders at mid-body being careful to avoid hitting any shoulder bones and squeeze the trigger. SSSSSSisp; my bullet sails over his back, having a point of impact far beyond the 131 yard range. "Shoot again!" my PH whispers as the static figure silhouettes the morning skyline. I aim at the very bottom of his chest this time, actually about an inch under his chest. I squeeze the trigger and ssssssip...whop! The Steenbok crumples. My 60 grain Partition made a pencil sized hole without doing any damage to the pelt. "Life-size" I tell my skinner. This little guy will be life-size. One of my good friends took one earlier that should go within the top 30-40 SCI but he used his 7 mag. At least he has the skull and horns to admire. I resume my Tiny 10 quest in June. Good hunting, LDK

Oh, now I get it, this is about little antelope. I thought this was a thread my wife started.

Mike

Here are my steenbok, duiker and klipspringer. I never thought I would like hunting the small guys but after my first one I am hooked.

Here's steenbok, red duiker, suni and grey duiker: That's Bwanna with the other nearly identical grey duiker taken within 5 minutes of mine.

Mike...now that's funny UEG, your first and last pics aren't showing up. Even if I right click and click again on "show picture."

That's strange, because they're right there. I have seen them on two different computers. Let me know if anyone else can't see them and I'll repost.

Little guys? How about this trio?

A tip for those who've never shot francolin, be damned careful when picking them up by the leg. Check out these spurs.

This is a photo of my real little ones (counter clockwise): klipspringer, steinbok, Bush duiker, blue duiker w/ caracal, oribi and Cape Grysbok in the middle.



The following is my Damara Dik Dik taken in Namibia last year:



The following is my EA dik dik taken in Tanz in 2005:



This is a picture of my Mt. Reedbuck, Vaal Rehbok, and Springboks (White, black, Common and Kalahari).



I consider taking these as much of a challenge as any game I've hunted in Africa. I would recommend that any one try and take them since they are generally reasonably priced and don't take a lot of space to display. The biggest "problem" is folks who ask, "how could you shoot that poor little thing?"

While all kinds of smart answers pop into one's head, the best is that it is a fully mature, male and a very good trophy animal. Kudude

Awesom collection Kudude! Congratulations.

Sharpe's grysbok from the Zambezi Valley taken with a .416 Rigby... can't have too much gun, you know!

kudude: very nice collection and display, congrats. If I may ask, what gun did you use primarily, especially on the Dik-Dik's? As for an answer to "why did you kill those poor little things" just explain they all were part of a gang that went around killing baby kittens and puppies; sticking peoples tires and general mayhem. You had to volunteer your time, money and effort to fly over to Africa and help sort out the gang situation. Oh, the gang's name was the Pygmy Devil's. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Hunting the little antelope really gets into your blood. I'm looking for dik dik, sharpes grysbok and klipspringer this year, along with leopard and hartmann's zebra, among others.

Here is my two small ones so far not the biggest but I like them The smallest animals I have shot untill then was monkeys then in 2004 CChunter asks me what I would like to shoot impala or a warthog so I asked if I can shoot a duiker instead since I havent shot one before and voila ! Shot with his Varberger 35 Whelen. Frontal shot way overkill but I'm sure the duiker didnt feel a thing.



This steenbuck was from 2006 also not a big one. Shot with CChunter's Varberger 308 and 150gr rhino bit of an overkill but worked just great.

When asked how I can shoot such a cute duiker. My answer is simple. We were on a tag and release project. Tagging the duiker with a 30 -06 200 grain no problem but the animal just did not want to be release in fact it acted as if it was dead sure it wanted to go home with me.

BTW as far as i am concerned the best tasting meat is that of the grey duiker from my friends farm.

He farms with oranges and during the hunting season they eat the ripe oranges that fall to the floor.

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:
That's strange, because they're right there. I have seen them on two different computers. Let me know if anyone else can't see them and I'll repost.

I cannot see them either.

Following is a collection of my smaller trophies from a 2005 trip to RSA.

Here's my steenbok. I was told he was pretty decent, despite one broken horn.


Here's a mountain reedbuck, a well-earned trophy for sure. He was a fun hunt.


Here's a real little guy. A springhare.


Does a jackal count as a "little guy"?


How about dassies?

Steenbok -- northern Limpopo Province, South Africa -- 2002

The field measurement was about 3.75". Nothing spectacular; just a nice representative specimen. They are fun to hunt!

-Bob F.

These are all Fantastic!

Oupa: great Francolin photo, thanks for sharing.

Kudude: Thanks for posting those great photos - nice colection of Springbok.

DesertRam: SpringHare, Jackel, Dassies - Why not - it all adds to the African experience.
Please tell us about hunt for the SpringHare & Dassies.

My only "Little Guy", from RSA (Kwa Zulu Natal) in July, 2005. 7mm Rem Mag, 160 gr Accubond. I'll be looking for a Grysbuck in September.

My current collection of Pygmy Antelope are at the top of the Trophy Room section. I hope to add the final 3 in a about a month. Sharpes Grysbok, Suni and Natal Red Duiker.

Will try and repost a couple of my pics later today.

quote:

Originally posted by Safari-Hunt:
Here is my two small ones so far not the biggest but I like them.

Safari-Hunt, that is disgusting. Please wipe the blood off of your animals before photographing them.



BTW, here is my steenbok:





Damn, wrong photo!







Damn, wrong again!


Wait a minute:





Much better!

I like 'em, but they're kind of fragile, aren't they?

Not Mine, but taken with a handgun. New #1.

Uncle Meat, ah, er, I mean mrlexma, Where did you get those delicious looking Steen-burgers? Are you the guy that sold Ron Popiel the MR. Slaughter Grind-O-Rama "Gut, Shuck & Grill" mighty meat maker kit? I had some errands to run and missed ordering one off the TV info-mercial. I must have one! Where do we send money? By the way, the Barrett you used on the Steenbok did a good job. The Taxidermy man should be able to plug that hole in a jiffy....I'm still laughing at that post.

Had a blast hunting little guys in RSA last year!

Klipspringer



Steenbuck



Duiker



Vaal (okay, on the big end of "the little guys", but one of my favorite trophies)



Jeff

Desert Ram,

Your Spring hares look a little more presentabe than mine did after I hit them with the 308!!

FB

quote:

Originally posted by Riodot:
DesertRam: SpringHare, Jackel, Dassies - Why not - it all adds to the African experience.
Please tell us about hunt for the SpringHare & Dassies.

Believe it or not, when I went to SA in 2005, big game wasn't the priority. I was on a budget, and was particularly interested in experiencing Africa the way locals do. My first safari was the full-blown deal, with a PH that took care of our every need. On my second hunt, I wanted something different. Andrew McLaren set that up. We hunted a variety of critters, including those posted here. The springhares (there were several more) were taken incidental to calling predators at night. I found them quite fascinating actually, much like large kangaroo rats. The dassies were shot on some abandoned farm buildings near the farm where I hunted blesbok and guinea fowl. They're pretty sharp little critters, particularly where they've been hunted. We tried for the better part of a morning to get close enough to take one with Andrew's .22, but they got the better of me and I finally shot these two with my .223. I'll tell you, hunting varmints, predators and other small game in Africa is just as fun as hunting large game. I'm hoping to return next summer for another similar hunt.

Here are some other little critters from that trip.

Yellow billed ducks:


Porcupine


Crop-raiding pigeons (taken after the hunt with Andrew with a friend in Pretoria)


A cape fox


One of the several species of francolin

Mountain reed buck from the Eastern cape. We crawled up on this one while it was napping. Waited over half and hour for him to get up and stretch. 300WSM at 75 yards.



Not the most exciting hunt, but a really good work out, mile or more then took this caracal out of a tree. Eastern cape, RSA

Larry Sellers

Larry, that's a nice mountain reedbuck. I really like the pose you used in that photo as well. That's a great presentation for that trophy. I'll to keep that in mind if I get the chance to chase small to mid-sized critters again.

5 1/4 steenbok and 4" duiker. Northern Cape RSA, 2003

4" Steenbook, shot in Limpopo May 2006.
Approx. 140 meters over a grassy plain, M70 375 H&H, 270 gr Swift A-Frame ( use nough gun )
Actually my first African trophy and very much apreciated.

I really have not had excellent luck with the small antelope but the difficulty in hunitng them is what makes them a challenge. So far I've been severely outsmarted by Shap's grysbok, suni and red duiker which I've put some time into hunting.

Below are some that didn't give me the slip.


Vaal Rhebok. I think this is one of the most difficult trophies from RSA.

These common grey duikers have given me fits too but this one made a mistake last year.

This is a Kirk dik-dik from Tanzania and a very nice one if I can be allowed to brag a little.

This Tommie may not be one of the true little guys but they are very beautiful and everyone should have one if possibe. They also are the best eating of any African game in my opinion.

Mark

quote:

I like 'em, but they're kind of fragile, aren't they?

MR

I shot a steenbok in RSA in 2002 and wish I had a pic to show of it. I got a pretty good opportunity to shoot (was standing mostly still) so I had enough time before pulling the trigger for a thought about saving the cape etc for a little shoulder mount. So I held center of mass (diaphragm'ish) and the 375 I was shooting pretty much disemboweled him. No "trophy shot" as a result.

Cheers,
Canuck

Here's a Pie-Bald colored Duiker a buddy took in Namibia in 2004

This klipspringer was a target of opportunity taken while elephant hunting way back beyond the last road in Chewore in the Zambezi Valley. A 500gr solid did the trick with little damage, he'll be full mounted.



JPK

Here's a couple of more "smaller" antelope. A mountain reedbuck and a common reedbuck.

Mountain Reedbuck and Duiker