I had an email from my friend Darryl in South Africa regarding the guinea fowl situation this year.
"I have acquired a guinea area where there are thousands upon thousands of birds. I hunt the whole of South Africa and I believe that these are the biggest flocks I have seen....ever. We have seventeen farms to hunt on and all flocks are deep in their hundreds. This is in the Dendron area and You can fly to Pietersburg and we can pick you up there. The accommodation is great and the food even better. None of the farms are more than twenty minutes from the lodge. We can easily accommodate twenty guns and we will just work guineas for the days you are there. The season closes at the end of September and so I thought I would give you a taste of guinea hunting the it should be.....lots and lots of birds. Six guns can easily take off three hundred birds in two days. A group of six however is too small we need like twelve guns to get around these big flocks."
And confirmed by Pete Millan
"Hi Russell,

Oh yes, it is very believable. Due to the heavy rains, the birds bred 3 – 4 times. The flocks are enormous. I was up at Limpopo 2 weeks ago and got myself into a 600+ flock. And only bagged one!Total mindscramble.

If you are doing this, include me if Darryl needs the guns. I have found with guineas you need numbers to develop tactics."

This is a Thurs nite to Sunday morning affair, either weekend of 8th or 15th Sept. The cost is SAR 1855 (approx USD 265) plus airfare, airport transfer, ammo, alcohol, tips.

We can arrange plains game hunting in SA for before or after. Or dangerous game in either Mozambique or Zimbabwe.

russ@canby.com

Ross,
Are the birds driven by beaters? Also what is the price of ammo down there and I assume that price you quoted is the daily price.

thank you.

No sir, that's the price for 3 nights and two full days of hunting. (This is a "local" deal that my friend Darryl is organizing). Includes accommo, meals and hunting.

We will surround the birds and tighten the noose according to the local practice "the Natal Surround". When they flush, you take them overhead. There may also be some driving but I am not sure about that.

I have no idea what ammo costs these days in RSA. Look on the internet is your best bet. I think about $8 per box.

For guineas like that, I would fly from Europe just for that weekend.

Lead me not into temptation.

Russ:

How do you get them to fly? My single experience with guinea fowl was in Zimbabwe -and me running at high port with my PH's borrowed shotgun at very near dark and losing the bird in the scrub (and who ran like a road runner). I came back to the truck panting and had my PH (and the trackers) looking at me with appalled looks. I got my first introduction to bird shooting rules in Africa. I had explained that I couldn't get him to fly and so I chased him. I was told that we wanted him for the pot and I was supposed to shoot the bird on the ground -and that was why I had been put outside the truck -with instructions to do so! As the PH put it: " There are some beasts that don't play by your rules. A lion in there would have found you a tasty way to start out his night hunt". My defense is that it was only my third day in the bush.

There are 3 methods. First is the Natal Surround. Need about 15 plus guns for that. Second is beaters with guns along a road or fence. Third is push them into thick stuff, then use dogs (or walk-up) to get them to flush. Actually, there is a 4th method, but we don't talk about that.

Our Toyota herded hundreds of guinea each day down the rode in Zimbabwe while hunting buffalo / plains game. I would imagine we saw more than five hundred a day. They seemed to have unlimited endurance. I can't imagine chasing them. I would use the blue quail tactic, shoot'um-where-they-be. Thirteen on one shot was my best. The guinea would be a little trickier. My outfitter charged $5.00 per bird. I passed on the deal.

The dates have now been set: ex Pietersburg Airport (Polokwane), mid afternoon departure by road for Dendron on Thur Sept 7. Hunt Fri and Sat, depart Sun am. There is a possibility of a second hunt on the weekend of 23rd, but depends on demand.

quote:

Originally posted by Russ Gould:
The dates have now been set: ex Pietersburg Airport (Polokwane), mid afternoon departure by road for Dendron on Thur Sept 7. Hunt Fri and Sat, depart Sun am. There is a possibility of a second hunt on the weekend of 23rd, but depends on demand.

So how did the shooting go today?

I'll reply on his behalf, seeing as he is still up there and I am back at work.

Ok, we gathered on the Thursday and seeing Russ got up ther a little sooner than me he got some shooting in but apparently none too successful.

Next day Friday it was off to the first farm and we ran into a flock in a fallow land numbering I would guess 600 +. We quickly retreated and snuck a line into the bush about 600m away. Darryl's beaters went the other way and when we were ready they started moving in towards us, the birds being the meat in the sandwich.

Well, the birds came over in droves and we laid waste to them. They had taken flight and already set their wings to land right on top of us when they quickly sussed the jig was up and they scrambled to get height again. I took 5 in quick succession, including a Swainson's. Russ got a couple. All good driven shots.

Next beat was not so spectacular, but still managed to down a couple.

Then we got into the Francolin and MAN what a blast!!! The things were popping up all over the place and with 14 shots in an area the size of a soccer field we took out 20 odd. I was pleased to pick 2 high fliers going like bullets.

I finished off shooting 20 birds that day.

Saturday was a bit less successful we never really hooked into big flocks as our tactics were a bit off, but in total we shot 239 birds in the two days of which I think 60 odd were francolin.

You got to do this - these flocks are BIG, and if there are enough guns you can surround them effectively.

Cheers

pete

This is a fantastic area to hunt. Tons of birds, easy to get to/from, plenty of plains game in the area both free range and also high fenced.

We are going to do this hunt next season with a few twists. First, we are going to stay at a more upscale lodge than we used this trip (which was fine for the mostly local crowd but more of a self-catered setup with shared bathrooms for the most part). Second, we are going to do six day hunts, with each hunter (at his option) being able to hunt two of the six days for plains game 2x1. We'll rotate the hunters out so we always have a group hunting birds and a couple of guys off chasing plains game. Third, we will have GSPs to improve our success on Francolin, which often sit very tight allowing the hunters to walk right past them. On this hunt we only had a couple of labs to pick up birds. Dogs are pretty much unnecessary/useless on those huge flocks of guineas. But they are a big plus on Francolin, esp with smaller groups of hunters who can't work the fields that thoroughly.

The cost of the hunt will be $1800 for 6 days/7 nights, excluding PG trophy fees, ammo, alcohol, tips and taxidermy. This covers the 2 days of PG hunting as well, 3 meals a day, refreshments in the field, accommo, dogs, guides, vehicles, trespass fees.

Our PG trophy fees will be "local" prices...we don't see why visitors, who have to pay $thousands on airfare, should have to pay inflated trophy fees for plains game. Example: Warthog $100, Impala $150, BWB $500. Ssshhh!

The catch will be we need at least 6 guns to be able to offer these hunts for this price. You can organize your own group, or join one of our made-up groups. We will start running groups in the early part of May. Season runs through Sept.

And BTW Pete, we had a GREAT hunt on Thursday afternoon, got round two big flocks and knocked the crap out of them. Just didn't want you to feel bad for arriving late.

Anyone interested in a DVD featuring some clips on Guinea Fowl hunting (in Namibia), also a short clip on Sand Grouse same area, and then Francolin in South Africa, email me and I will send you a copy free of charge. This DVD also has a 40 minute movie on mixed bag hunting in Argentina....it's a video version of my article in Shooting Sportsman from last Sept entitled "A Matched Pair in Argentina".

We are doing group hunts next season (starting may) in both Argentina and South Africa. You can put your own group together (4-8 for Argentina and 6-10 for S Africa) or join one of our groups. The group rate for the Argentina hunt is just $1100 for 4 days of hunting (2 days doves/pigeons, 2 days ducks/partridge); the rate for South Africa is $1800 for six days (four days francolin/guinea fowl/doves and two days plains game).

Russ

I would love a copy of your wingshooting DVD.

We hunted guinea successfully several mornings while in Namibia and I will be shooting with Hector this July.

Thanks.

Ron Liljedahl
1000 Ransier Drive
Hendersonville, NC 28739

Would love a DVD as I am trying to put together an Argentia hunt-Bob Clark, Box 2477, Vanderhoof, BC, V0J 3A0---thanks in advance

Just recieved my copy. Will be watching it shortly. Thankyou very much.

Just finished watching the video. What a great hunt. While watching I realized that I read the article about that pair of Greener shotguns. Now I am looking for that magazine, so I can reread the article. I will find it soon because, much to my wife's disdain, I never through any gun or hunting mag's away.

Thanks again,

riverman

Yes, same hunt as with the pair of Greeners. It took me about 18 months to get around to editing the video footage down. Argentina is one of the few places you can really put a pair of guns through their paces. Using those guns really made the hunt special for me. Needless to say, you get down the learning curve quite well as you do a lifetime's shooting in one day.

I think you are too kind though, the video was my first attempt at editing and a little on the amateur side. The "cameraman" was my lady translator Monica. We never got very good footage of the perdiz unfortunately. And not enough of the pigeons, as my battery conked out! We also shot plenty of doves in other locations, but that roost area is just something else.

Still have some copies of the video...but pls email me, as I don't check this thread very often.