How challenging are the various species of plains game?

MJ75

Well-Known Member
A question for all the more experienced hunters of african plains game this...

If you were to list in order of difficulty the following animals, which would you rate at the most challenging, the least challenging? And where would you rate those inbetween? Feel free to add any I've missedd off if you've hunted them yourself.

I appreciate there will be many variables that need to be included (Please detail them) and it's almost certain that not everyone will agree. But if you could have a go, I'd be very interested to read everyones views..

Black Wildebeest
Blue Wildebeest**
Blesbok
Gemsbok
Mountain Reedbok
Red Hartebeest

**Not 100% sure if blue wildebeest are classed as plains game?

Cheers
Jared
Springbok
 
Hmm you have missed a fair few off the list, such as Greater Kudu, Nyala and Eland. But having hunted and taken all of those on your list, I would say the Gemsbok is the hardest, if hunted on a fair chase basis.

I have taken both bull and cow, north and south of the Kalahari Desert, and one of the most difficult things with these wonderful animals is judging the sex. Both male and female carry horns, although the bulls are thicker at the base and shorter as a rule, but not always. The only sure way is to look for the penal button, but thats not always easy to see. They are also tough, and can carry a shot, even when well placed.

Black Wildebeest can also be a problem to take down, as are the Blue. They are very tough, and bullet placement is important, but that applies to anything you hunt.

I have to say though that one of my most enjoyable hunts was for my Nyala. They are the most beautiful animals, and I got lucky in 1996 and took a very large bull in Zululand.

If you go with the right PH and outfit you can hunt some very large areas, even in South Africa, where most are fenced. If you are considering going dont go for the bottom end cheap package deals if you want a real African experience. They can be very good and there are some good deals about, but make sure its not a small ranch where you are going to see the fence in the first hour of being in the truck.

ATB

Sikamalc
 
Thanks for the reply. :)

The ommisions are deliberate as I won't be going for kudu etc this time around. I am off to SA on my first ever big game experience. It won't be fenced in, the first question I asked was "is this canned hunting"? It's something I'd not choose t do as I know in my heart, any animals hunted idn't have a fair chance in my humble opinion anyway.

You raise an interesting point about gemsbok. I didn't realise that they were hard to sex! They're a great looking animal. As is the Nyala, sadly the latter is not available where I'm going. Saying that, I very much doubt this will be the only trip I make out there! :)

How would you rate springbok and blesbok in terms of difficulty?

ATB

Jared
 
Springbuck are again a most intruiging animal, and you need to take your time picking out a nice Ram. Not to tell you how to suck eggs but the ewes also have horns. Springbuck can be flighty and depending where you are some fairly long shots can be taken in excess of 250yds. Look for a ram with nice thick bases, and nice turned in horns at the top.

If you are in the northern part of SA you will find that Springies are larger bodied and carry bigger heads than their slightly smaller cousins in the Cape. Both the same animal, its just they do not get as big. I have taken them in Botswana, N South Africa and the Cape.

Blesbuck and Bontebok look the same and herds in SA must be registered and not mixed so as to ensure the integrity of the two species. I found them both rather easy, and not hard at all to stalk.

One piece of advice if I may-------- some PH's ask you to shoot from the hunting vehicle, which is not ethical to me. Best to ask them to drive to a spot and then walk, you will cover less ground but you will find that whatever trophy you take it will mean far more to you than taking it from a vehicle. I am sure you know that anyway, so please excuse me, I do not want to appear to be telling you what to do.

Have a great time. I am out on Safari in SA as well at the end of this month, only this time with a camera, I have no desire to shoot any more, although another Cape Buff would not go amiss;)
 
A question for all the more experienced hunters of african plains game this...

If you were to list in order of difficulty the following animals, which would you rate at the most challenging, the least challenging? And where would you rate those inbetween? Feel free to add any I've missedd off if you've hunted them yourself.

I appreciate there will be many variables that need to be included (Please detail them) and it's almost certain that not everyone will agree. But if you could have a go, I'd be very interested to read everyones views..

Black Wildebeest
Blue Wildebeest**
Blesbok
Gemsbok
Mountain Reedbok
Red Hartebeest

**Not 100% sure if blue wildebeest are classed as plains game?

Cheers
Jared
Springbok
They all can be challenging mate the reason being we (the british hunter that is) dont really know what where looking for,well at least for the first few days untill you get used to the surrounding.
the few times Ive been was to Namiba,Ive shot most plains games inc Giraffe,zebra,kudo and elan,the most challenging I would say is zebra,
I intend to hunt south africa next year as i have had a deal offered which cannot be beat,
you dont have to pay a fortune to hunt Africa and using the right people you will experience the "real africa" without breaking the bank,the last trip I went on for example,we paid £2100 plus flight which inc all animals taken with no limit,if you shot a trophy which some did if you didnt want it you didnt pay for it,now thats value for money
 
Springbuck are again a most intruiging animal, and you need to take your time picking out a nice Ram. Not to tell you how to suck eggs but the ewes also have horns. Springbuck can be flighty and depending where you are some fairly long shots can be taken in excess of 250yds. Look for a ram with nice thick bases, and nice turned in horns at the top.
If you are in the northern part of SA you will find that Springies are larger bodied and carry bigger heads than their slightly smaller cousins in the Cape. Both the same animal, its just they do not get as big. I have taken them in Botswana, N South Africa and the Cape.
Blesbuck and Bontebok look the same and herds in SA must be registered and not mixed so as to ensure the integrity of the two species. I found them both rather easy, and not hard at all to stalk.
One piece of advice if I may-------- some PH's ask you to shoot from the hunting vehicle, which is not ethical to me. Best to ask them to drive to a spot and then walk, you will cover less ground but you will find that whatever trophy you take it will mean far more to you than taking it from a vehicle. I am sure you know that anyway, so please excuse me, I do not want to appear to be telling you what to do.
Have a great time. I am out on Safari in SA as well at the end of this month, only this time with a camera, I have no desire to shoot any more, although another Cape Buff would not go amiss;)


This will be my first trip and so I'm trying to learn as much as I can before I arrive so I welcome every scrap of info I can get hold of right now! So snippets like the springboks horns are very useful. I completely agree about only going on an ethical hunt. I posted about canned hunts in the UK, but thats purely out of interest and I have no intention of doing it. I wouldn't really want a shoulder mounted trophy, shot in a canned hunt, or from a hunt where the vehicle was abused in any way. After all, the trophy, mounted in my home would be a daily reminder that I've not really achieved very much! I can relate to this to an extent with my angling experience. I can catch many freshly stocked rainbow trout in a put and take lake, which for all intents and purposes is "canned fishing", whereas, one wild brown, taken on a traditional dry fly in a river is worth 20 + "stockie" rainbow trout.

I'll take pics and try a bit of write up about the whole experience later on in the year. Cape buff.... Maybe one day. After much more experience I think!
 
Sika Malc mentioned how difficult it can be to determine the sex of a gemsbok, siting the penile button as a method of determination, as well as the information he gives on the horns. In 2007, I was out looking for a gemsbok bull in the North part of the Eastern Cape. Hunting in some really hilly area, around 1600hrs my PH (an excellent fellow) led me into a group of gemsbok on the side of a fairly steep hill, at a distance of 215 yards. We watched them for around fifteen minutes before the PH instructed me to shoot a specific animal. He had identified it as a bull by the penile button. It certainly looked like a bull, penile button and all. Shot taken, gemsbok moves down the slope about fifteen yards and collapses. PH (being younger than I) gets to the gemsbok first. "Oh F**k" I hear him cry. "It's a f*****g cow". Closer examination determined it was indeed a cow. She had been in a fight and had been poked by another gemsbok. She had two stab wounds in her gut, one right where the penile sheath would have been. This wound was infected and swollen into an abcess, for all the world looking like a penis sheath at 215 yards. The other poke wound nearer the front end was not so obvious. Now I could have demanded another bull, as it was really the PH's mistake. However, I had also decided that the gemsbok was male so I was happy to accept the fine stalk, shot and result. An injured animal off the hill. The farmer was pleased too. The PH was embarrassed, but only until the second bottle of wine. Like Malc, I abhor the notion of a canned hunt. However, all game farms have, by law, to have an external fence. That is one of the things that makes it expensive for an outfitter taking out International guests to "set up".

Again, like Malc, my enduring memory is my nyala hunt. It was really special for me.

Back at the original question, kudu is a challenging stalk. Every PH I know (there are a few) will change mode when stalking kudu. They may not realise it, but they do. I have asked this question of all PHs I have met. "What is your favourite animal to stalk". All but the dedicated dangerous game guys have answered, "kudu".

MJ75. You are in Derbyshire, I am in East Staffordshire. You are welcome to come and see my trophy room and the bits and bobs therein. Send me a PM or visit my stand at the CLA JO737. Have a great time in RSA.
 
Mountain Reedbuck. The hint is in the name....

A whole day on the hill with only 500ml of water. When they see you they run and don't stop. Moved onto a few females but only saw a buck at last light. Sprint over large boulders and a "when there's lead in the air there's hope" shot. Back gut shot. I was not going through that day again.

Stan
 
BUSH BUCK!

my next target when I return to africa!

gona try with my bow!

I could of shot a real nice bush buck on my last safari,but I was hunting warthog and didnt want to end the stalk prematurly,dumb idea!
 
Given that you are on a fair chase basis they are all difficult, some more than others I’m not that experienced, The one that gave me the most satisfaction was Bushbuck it took 4 days on foot to get and it was worth every minute.
I did manage to get a good Red Hartebeest bull which provided different challenges, like cutting my legs and arms to bits crawling through rough grass and staying still for in difficult positions for some time until in close and the shot was on.
The hunting we did was to set off in the morning or at evening on foot once we reached the area following tracks and the whole experience is so forfilling.
But you need to be fit we covered a lot of ground and some is very difficult.
We did come across most of the specis mentioned in the thread and more besides, but I have to say Nyala are stunning so much so almost to stunning to shoot. ALMOST!
Good luck with your trip

Smithy
 
I have taken two species of Bushbuck. Limpopo and Cape.They can be very much like Roe I think in their habits. The one thing that sets them apart from Roe, is if you wound one, DO NOT go charging in after it. Busbuck WILL charge, and although you may think they are docile looking, believe me they can be dangerous in certain situations.

On my last trip to the Cape area I took 3 other guys, one of whom gut shot a nice Bushbuck with his 30.06. Next day with a small pack of dogs, both he and the PH went after it along a very dense thicket area near a river. That thing came down the path chasing the dog, before it then went on to have a go at the two of them. Needless to say they dispatched it. Also when they cape the animal, make sure they pay particular attention to the neck area. Bushbuck have a very hard skin, and the hair slips quite easily if decent salt is not used.

They canbe difficult to find at times, and a good buck makes a very fine trophy.

ATB

Sikamalc
 
I also have likened bushbuck to roe deer, there are many similarities in habits. As Malc says, roe deer with attitude, wounded, they will have a go. Bushbuck are always on my species list, though I have only hunted the cape bushbuck. Wounded bushbucks kill dogs every year and there have been human fatalities. When a bushbuck lowers its head, those two nice twisted spikes are right on groin height and a hit on the femoral artery is a distinct possibility.
 
Thanks again for the info.

Schwarzwild. Expect a PM in due course. :) No bushbuck were I'm going,but they do look very interesting! Maybe next time...
 
Mountain Reedbuck
as the name suggests done right, it's one hell of a hunt
in proper Reed buck territory, I think it went a bit like this
"You say you want to walk and stalk, well off you go then"
ontop of the world or is it the Winterberg
looking down a waterfall
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In search of Reedbuck
Photo001.jpg

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As is the carry out as I don't remember any roads
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I found Springbox and Blesbox about the same to hunt
pretty easy , just the open terrain made it difficult to get in close so long shots out 300 yards were not uncommon and you could get a vehicle in close for extraction
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Kudu were quite challenging as they just blended into the background , but once i got accustomed to spotting them they were actually easy to stalk as they seemed to think they could hide from you in the bush ,
defo well worth the hunt
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the hardest part was the drag out, I was glad of the help
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I enjoyed my trip, hunting the same way as the locals on a meat hunters package
fantastic experience in a beautiful game rich country
one you will never forget, but take a camera just incase
so you can relive it at your leisure over a glass or 2

ATB
 
Nice pic of Martha and Mary in your pictures Stone, I spent 3 mnths in the Winterburg a few yrs ago.
Vaal/Mountain Rhebok,Bush Buck,
Personally I found Waterbuck stupid and quite easy to hunt, just find water/wet spot and they will be somewhere near, after I found a nice Water Buck male, I decided not to shoot it, PH thought I was round the twist `til I told him what I felt like, then he said, yep they can be quite stupid sometimes and he understood me.
Kudu, I will never hunt another Kudu bull, I got one nice one, and was probably the most emotional (?) hunt I`ve done ,such a stunning animal and just an animal I got the utmost respect and feeling for? dunno if I explained that right,but I hope you understand what i`m trying to say.I am a such emotional/sensitive bloke realy :lol:
I do tend to go for genuine cull animals, not just females or youngsters, when I go out with P.H I make sure the animal is cull, i.e, lame, broken horn, going back, generally the sick,the lame or the lazy.
When I go back to Africa next I`m going to go for the small 5, the small antelopes, they can be real tricky little sods.
(and 2 more of the big 5, same here tho, genuine rogue animals not trophies) oh and babboons by the truckload, they just got to have it on sight:lol::lol:
 
So you been planning that next trip out for sometime then by the sounds of it John :D roll on that lotto and I wil be out there like a shot :D
 
Yes John
Martha & Mary, saw that sight a few times during my stay
aswell as my bonus species
I was lucky to be offered my Vaal rhebox as a freebie
so i took it
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but what a beautifull place to spend time hunting in
who did you hunt with if you don't mind me asking and where ???
I plan to go back one day when I'm a little flusher , as i hav an Eland bull waiting there for me as a present
but i hav to pay for the Gemsbox and kudu bull as part of the same deal, like you I'm not a trophy hunter and like to work with cull animals in natural surroundings and I'm also fortunate to hav some very good hunting friends over there who think and hunt the same way
ATB
 
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Of your original list I would suggest that Blesbok are the least smart and easiest to fool while Red Hartebeest are the nost difficult to get close to with Mountain Reedbuck a close second - but it's all about personal experience and like Smithy above, I've had tremendous sport with Springbok Hunting, more that you'd otherwise expect, but fun is where you find it!. We had a Gemsbok that took a 180gr 30-06 in the lungs this year and it still ran 15kms, another took 12 shots from a .375 and an 8x68 respectively before it was felled.
Zebra too are tough but like most things, they aren't bullet proof and as such you should only really expect a drama if your shot placement isn't bang on - so practise makes perfect and it certainly makes a difference in the field when it comes to personal confidence too.
Hope this helps, best regards,

Roo
 
Well I've just returned and have to say that after taking three Blesbok they do indeed seem to be amongst the easiest species of antelope to hunt. Though to be fair I was blessed with perfect conditions on the days when these were taken. The other species were without doubt more challenging. Ironically we did come across a family of mountain reedbuck feeding, heads down, less than 100 yards away when chasing sprindbok. I'm certain that if we'd have been after them they would have been much harder to hunt. But I should have a much better idea next year, as there an animal I now want to try for. And just to contradict myself a little, I met an experienced canadian hunter who believes blesbok are amongst the hardest species of antelope to take..........

I did see some bontebok also, in another reserve. Fantastic looking animals, but with cull fees at around eight times that of the humble blesbok, and with a very similar looking head I'll pass for now. I think that if I ever do hunt a bontebok I'd want a full mount for sure. They don't strike me as any harder than blesbok though after watching their behaviour etc. But their colouration makes them look like a great animal.

Connibear, bushbuck are now my number one target. I had the chance of an animal with horns measuring at least 14" after visiting an area we didn't plan to, but it spooked (not our error) and ran for the trees before we could close on him. I also got to watch five females going about their business. The bucks strike me as roe like, but also, roe on steroids like if that makes sense?
 
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