Visit to Hill Country Rifles and Big Daddy

On our current annual marketing road trip in Texas and the rest of the US, Francois and myself made a stop at Hill Country Rifles in New Braunfels near San Antonio,Texas.
Dave Fuqua and Matt Bettersworth ,who run the operation, have hunted with Blaauwkrantz Safaris on two previous occasions over the years.

On their last trip in 2008, they harvested some excellent trophies including two very old SCI Gold Medal East Cape kudu bulls.
Matt was also interested in a bushpig and I was aware of his wish before he arrived and was prepared for him when their group arrived.
I had a bait going that was being frequented by a monster bushpig. Many other hunters had attempted to hunt this bushpig that I had dubbed "Big Daddy". He had been missed a couple times and in true bushpig spirit,was a "no show" on numerous other occasions when we tediously staked the bait.

When the group arrived the moon phase was waxing perfectly and I picked an evening with no cloud cover and Matt and I  headed to the bait site.We hadn't been in position for more than two hours when we could see the silent,dark shapes of the bushpigs moving out of the heavy bush.They headed straight for the bait and we could clearly see the shape of the biggest pig amongst the other two.Matt took aim in the moonlight through the Swarovski scope mounted on Dave's 350 Hill Country Rifle.

Matt made a perfect shot and this elusive bushpig was finally down!

The excitement in camp was fantastic that evening especially since Matt's cousin , Drew Williams,also successfully hunted a bushpig at a different bait site that evening.

So for us to go and see this iconic full-mounted bushpig proudly displayed in their shop such a long way from the Eastern Cape was amazing.Had it not been for hunters like Matt and Drew who took interest in hunting and honouring species such as bushpigs, these animals would frankly just be marginalised in favour other more economically viable initiaves on private land.

Thank-you Matt and Drew for appreciating bushpigs and giving them an economic value that we as private landowners can recognise as sustainable utilisation and preservation of natural habitat.

Long live Big Daddy!