Dear hunting friends.

Pigeon shooting in South Africa is one of the sporting adventures that allows our city people, and others of course, to enjoy a Saturdy outing in the fileds with friends.

After five days of working in a noisy and polluted environment one can only enjoy a day's pigeon shooting in the open country side.

What makes these outings so special is that there are numourous role players benefitting form these adventures. Firstly the farmers in which crops (usually sunflower) we shoot the pigeons. These birds cause damage to the crops and one only realise the damage when you see the pecked sunflowers. Tonnes of seed are lost annually. Secondly we use local children on the farms to collect the shot pigeon and they really enjoy the outing. Of course they are paid and also get to take the pigeon home to add to their families diet. Thirdly our city dwellers are provided the opportunity to clear their minds and prepare themselves for the comming week (the weekly therapy).

What we usually do is to arrange a group of hunters and provide them with camping facilities, food and drinks.

Obviously one can only hunt when the sunflowers are vulnarable against pigeons and permits can be obtained from Nature Conservation. We mainly hunt from February to June each year.

Are there anyone abroad who can share their experinces in pigeon shooting with me.

Regards

Wilhelm Greeff

My PH told me about this and I believe he referred to them as a "Rock Pigeon" He said a shooter can shoot 1,000 shells a day and that they're about the size of a prairie chicken.

If it wasn't for that $2,000 17 hour flight (each way) over and back, I'd like to do that. When I shell out that cash I'm looking for something with horns.

I fully aggree with you.

What we usually do is to arrange a pigeon shooting day for international hunters during their safari in Africa. This way you can enjoy hunting something with horns, as well as those with feathers.

As I have mentioned, the main focus of these outings is to enetertain local city dwellers but we have presented pigeon shooting days to clients from the USA, Europe and even Russia. Of course they were on a hunting safari with a pigeon shooting day worked in for them. We even present these day for clients of other PHes.

Do you also have pigeon shooting days and how do you go about presenting it.

Kind regards,

Wilhelm Greeff

I joint such Pigeon hunting trips around Gauteng for the past few years and I really enjoy the hunt that is very cheep in comparison to hunting things with horns (which I do enjoy as well). Getting out into the country is also very nice and increased my hunting opportunities from 2-3 per year to about 10-15.

Besides not being the best shot I once took down about 60 pigeons while hunting with Wilhelm. Some of the local boys acted as pigeon retrievers and this provides these innovative youngsters of a happy family feast

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Happy in Africa

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I'm a bi-hunter, I can shoot horns or feathers, both make me happy.

I shot doves and pigeons for 3 days in late June near Blomfontein. The rock pigeons, called rockies locally, coming into a sunflower field with the wind were unquestionably the most challenging wing shots that I have ever had. And that wasn't my first rodeo to use a US expression. Wonderful shooting. I'd go back for it in a second. As soon as our local seasons start to wind down in late January.

I can highly recommend the experience. Not the volume of Argentina, but excellent and often challenging shooting.

I'm also a bi-hunter and enjoy every minute of any of the two hunting adventures. As Heinrich has stated, these "Rockies" provide the opportunity to increase your hunting outings per season drastically.

I found the following very helpful and want to share my experience with other shooters.

1. Birds and primates are not colour blind like other animals. It is therefore wise to wear camouflage clothing and NOT bright coloured clothing, especially caps. Some of my co-hunters usually opens a cammo net under which they hide.
2. Hide against a tree as not to provide a profile against the horizon as they will spot you and divert like a fighter aircraft from a missile site.
3. Stand still, they are able to spot movement in an instant and divert out of shooting range.
4. Arrange shot birds in the field, or on top of the sunflowers about 15 metres in front of you as decoys. It works like a charm.

I would appreciate any experiences from shooters abroad.

Regards

Wilhelm Greeff

The only pigeon shooting I get these days is in feed lots (cattle) where the pigeons can be pretty thick. These are not "wild" pigeons but the pigeons that are normally associated with sitting on the heads of statues.

The strangest pigeon shooting I was ever involved in took place in a very large aricraft hangar....the birds were a problem as they crapped all over the place and it isn't what you want when you have instrument panels open. The Base Commander ask me if I could do anything (I was USAF Clay Pigeon Team at the time) so I took a friend of mine with me after they closed everything up and we put a whippin' on them with our 28 guages. We got them all except 2 that we wound up shooting with air rifles.

Dear Bill,

It must have been an interesting experience with a specific "mission".

We also have these "Feral" pigeon that is decorating our statues with their trade marks. I have shot a pigeon that is a cross between these feral pigeon and a Rock Pigeon. A real ugly thing. As far as I know, these feral pigeon is family of the "Homer" specie used for racing. Some of them must have escaped many years ago and started breeding their own "specie". A real menace but also a remedy for the old aged feeding them in the parks.

Regards

Wilhelm Greeff

[ 10-24-2003, 12:20: Message edited by: Zingelani ]

Would someone be able to bring a Hawk/Falcon into the country and hunt these feilds with them? What are the South Africain Regs on Falconry?

We had a great time shooting doves and pigeons in the sunflower fields around Welkom in the Orange Free State of South Africa last year.

Click on this link to view the photos http://www.scilowcountry.org/south_african_bird_hunt.htm

We shot 3-4 cases of shells a day at the pigeons and doves. It was the best wingshooting I have ever seen, and quite inexpensive.

I am scheduling my pigeon shooting adventures for 2004. We are planning to present a shooting day almost every Saturday from March to July 2004.

You are welcome to contact me to join one of our shooting days while on safari in South Africa. A number of outfitters bring their clients to enjoy such a shooting day with us and you professional hunter and outfitter is welcome to contact me for more detail.

Wilhelm Greeff
+27 82 607 0202