Bushpig hunting is one of our favourites

Visiting hunters often ask what do we hunt as PH's around here.We certainly enjoy all forms of chase and feel that all the species are special and all have their own special appeal.Springbok and impala hunting or 'shooting' as I call it has its attraction in the distance shooting that thoroughly tests the hunters' marksmanship skills.The wary bushbuck and kudu are perennial exciters for all hunters too.But the specie that probably evokes the most excitement from us is the bushpig.We know that they are there but true to their elusive nature they are hardly ever seen,so when we actually get to see a "ghost" that extra excitement surfaces.

With most of our professional hunting over for 2010 by now we have managed to get some time to do some hunting ourselves.
In September we summonsed Gerrie with his pack of hounds to help us chase some pigs on a remote part of the property where there had been some domestic goat-kid killing by bushpigs.I have some reservations about hunting bushpigs with dogs especially if there is just one hunter(a client) that is meant to shoot a pig.It can be difficult and frustrating trying to get just the one gun to the place where the pig is being bayed.When there are multiple guns however,the effect of the guns being spread out and all jostling to get to the point of bay first is where the fun lies.Simply put it becomes a mad rush.Fitness is not something to be disregarded in this type of hunt either,not to mention safety either!We had a lot of excitement and managed to get some of those ghosts out of that thick impenetrable bush.My Brother,Francois, managed to get the first shot into a really big boar something that is not common with the dogs as they prefer to chase the smaller less aggressive pigs.It weighed over 80kgs(180lbs)!
In October I embarked on my 3 year quest to take out the specific old goat killing sow that was still at large after I had taken out the others over this period.I had taken a lot of pictures with my recon cams of this sow over the years and knew that it had a light coloured coat.These bushpigs would actually hack a living adult goat with their tusks and begin devouring the still living goat from the open wound in the gut!This sow was still the only one left from this original group of killers.
I had the bait set up and chose the night that I felt it was most likely to come in.My wait was very short and twenty minutes after I had settled into my bush blind at sundown two pigs appeared.I could clearly make out the "blond sow" in the moonlight and duly dispatched the 75kg (165lbs) beast.The boar that accompanied the sow took off into the night and hopefully it hadn't learnt how to run down and devour living goats yet!I monitor these specific bushpigs closely and so far the goats are safe.

The fact that we are noticing  bushpigs predating ,something that apparently hasn't been the case for a long time here, indicates that there is a healthy population of bushpigs (like all the other species) on Blaauwkrantz again, although one would never say so as these critters are basically invisible and damned hard to hunt.
We fully appreciate bushpigs for the challenge they pose and thus regard them highly!