It is currently about 6am and the bats have kept me awake so | I thought I would post an update on proceedings so far.

The wingshooting has been absolutely fabulous, and both Diggory and I have had permanent smiles on our faces, (apart from me when those bl!*?!!y guineas do what they do so well!! And catch me off guard…)

The flight in on Virgin was fairly standard in terms of film,food, sleep, followed by film, food , & land in Jo’burg. The guns cleared easily, although the saps guys forgot to bring up our ammo, so we waited for about half an hour to get that sorted. It gave us a chance to get some cash and I picked up a local sim for international communication…(It keeps mum happy, and no one wants to upset their mum do they!!)

Anyway we arrived in the free state at about 12-30 for lunch and to meet our guide for the wing shooting. Two german shorthairs were waiting (not so patiently) in the back of the backie for us to get ready to go straight out. By 3pm we were settled in, had lunch and off to the hunting grounds. Immediately after arriving into the gate we flushed a covey of Swainsons Francolin, which went on to settle in some long grass. We got down loaded up and headed in that direction. With the two dogs pulling out to my left I drifted over to be rewarded with my first flush of a swainsons, which neatly folded to my first barrel. At the shot a covey of 8 burst from 20 yds in front of me and I completed the left and right. We moved on through the long grass and both Dig and I had consecutive dogs on point and quickly had 9 francolin in the bag. What a start this was. As we approached a dam wall a bucket load of duck got up and came wide of Dig. One drifted into the realms of range and Dig folded it up nicely.

We moved round to another Dam wall where Andre pushed the ducks over us. A few minutes of frenzied shooting and we added another dozen ducks and a lone spurwing to the bag. As we were leaving we saw som ducks dropping into a pond so we decided to try flighting them for half an hour. Fifteen minutes and eleven ducks later we all agreed enough was enough and we picked up and went home grinning from ear to ear.

A great dinner followed and we made plans for our first full day.

We started out looking for guineas on another farm but the farmers had been out looking at the cattle and pushed the birds off. A plan was made to go elsewhere, and we went back to another part of the previous nights farm. A duck and a few francolin were added to the bag, but I was suffering from a very slow gun swing!! I just couldn’t get in front of these birds. I think that morning I am sad to say I lost 4-5 birds that I was just clipping. Dig had no such issues and his Tompson hammer gun was folding up most of what he shot at. We decided to haven early brunch and go and try for some doves to free up the swing a little. Well it seemed to do the trick and we fired about 100 shells each over a couple of hours and killed just under 80 doves, mainly down to Digs shooting I have to admit. This was an absolute blast but we packed up to go and try for our first guineas of the trip.

As soon as we came through the gate of the next farm a huge flock of guineas was waiting for us on the edge of some long grass.

I'm off to buy another 1000 cartridges now but I will add more and post some pics this evening after we have shot some doves and then we are going on a goose flight

I already have a couple of hundred pictures and I'm looking forward to getting some of the spurwing and egyptian geese tonight.

Rgds,
Kiri

Sounds like you are having a great trip.

Wish I was there.

Have a good one.

kiri

it sounds like you have a great time down there, keep it up and please remember to post a few pictures.

have fun and give my regards to dig

peter

Guys,

It is nine pm here now and we havehad a spectacular day. Dig and I spent the mrnign pushing guineas and francolininto the long grass an then walking them up over the pointers. I can't tell you how good the shooting is and we finishew for brunch with 25 head in the bag.

A quick break and then a warm up on the doves for half an hour before heading on a long drive out to shoot some geese and ducks. The upshot was one of the best duck flights either of us have experienced anywhere. Final tally for the evening was just over thirty ducks and geese of 5 or more species.

I'm really impressed with the amount of shooting the guides cram into the day as we asked to see a representation of whatis on offer.

I'll try and post some pics if I can upload them here. I think the speed may be a bit slow though.

The plains game hunters (Ghubert and Adam270) have taken springbuck, impala, blue and black wildebeeste and ostrich so far so there are smiles all round the camp.

Tomorrow is the last dayhere before we move to the next camp so I will be trying to shoot a few guineas in the morning and then roll over some plains game in the afternoon.

Rgs,
Kiri

Rgds,
Kiri

Aahhh, good to hear Kiri
Keep up the good work, and yes...looking forward to pictures.

sounds like you are having fun.
Without putting a damper on things, I can almost swear I saw a release from the OFS game dept at the beginning of the season indicating a specific limit this year per person per day on waterfowl and land game birds (including pricked birds)
Bags indicated might suggest that some hunters are possibly in excess of said limit.

Sounds like a great time. Looking forward to seeing pics!

500,

yes we had a limit of 15 wet and 15 dry birds each per day. I can assure you that this is a lot of shooting between two guys!! Doves were not included in that quota, but the bag limits were indeed the first thing I enquired about as we need to respect such things.

I just got back to London this mng and I will go through some of the pictures topost today. The upload speed in the OFS was too slow while out there, and t'internet was non existent anywhere else we went, as satphone was not delivered in time.

Rgds,
K

I've long fancied a wingshooting safari but it's a damned long way from the Left Coast just to shoot birds. However, good dog work and birds that sit tight are hard to resist. How did you go about arranging the trip?

The shotgun{s]?

This was a great trip. I enjoyed the bush hunting for plains game in the thick bush but those who know me know that bird shooting is my passion and this was spectacular. The dogs and Andre, the handler delivered perfect, exciting and full days in the field and we had good success on all species.

Hunting guineas and spurfowl in the mornings and evenings and doves in the afternoons, with a duck flight at dusk made brilliant, balanced and pleasurable days.

I have put a few photos on www.vintageguns.co.uk and on my facebook page as I don't know how to upload them here.

My old hammer gun did the business on her third trip to Africa and I found the Diana shells with 28g of 7 shot killed everything and were quite soft shooting. avoid the Imperial green cased shells - very rough and punchy!

quote:

Originally posted by Oldsarge:
I've long fancied a wingshooting safari but it's a damned long way from the Left Coast just to shoot birds. However, good dog work and birds that sit tight are hard to resist. How did you go about arranging the trip?

I've never understood why African wingshooting gets such a back seat. Most of it is truly spectacular and relatively inexpensive.

I took my John dickson & son 12 gauge along on my last trip and although we only used it in the downtime, I reckon we enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed the other hunting.

quote:

Originally posted by Oldsarge:
I've long fancied a wingshooting safari but it's a damned long way from the Left Coast just to shoot birds. However, good dog work and birds that sit tight are hard to resist. How did you go about arranging the trip?

Sarge,

I've been looking for a good outfit for a couple of years now for my clients and I think we have sorted that out now. The shooting was prolific and varied, and I think we took 14-15 species over 5 days. Like Dig says the 1oz of #7's did the job on everything.

We are going back out in May and August next year to film these hunts. May is high volume dove shooting and August will be the same as we did here. Last year one team of 6 fired 16,000 shells in a week on the doves so I'm looking forward to seeing some of that too!!

Steve,

Are you back now? I tried to hook up with Aubs but my phones were playing up out there for the whole trip more or less.

I spent the first week threatening to go and stack up some impala that needed shooting but everyday the wing shooting just pulled me back!! I managed a few impala on the last afternoon but was still jealous of the guys when they came back talking about all the guineas they had found!!

Rgds,
K

Kiri,

Yup. Got home the other day..... Sorry I missed you!

Steve
Most people have NO idea how good the birding is in some parts of Africa.I know a few guys who have been there and there clueless on birds.

Have a dig through this page which has information and also links to other pages with pictures http://www.countrysports.co.uk...ventures_safaris.htm

I had an agent from Argentina with two groups a couple of years back and he said our SA dove shooting is better than Argentina! (we don't load anything onto the cartridges).

Er, um....should we not be in the wingshooting section??