2100 flight from Heathrow on Sunday meant I could sleep through much of the 11 hour flight to arrive only a little bleary eyed into the African morning in Johannesburg for the four hour layover before the flight to Bloemfontein. We had elected to rent guns in the country rather than carry our own so nothing much to do accept collect our luggage and check in for the next flight. For some reason this was cancelled and we were put on the later flight to arrive in Blom for around 1600 to be met at the airport by our hosts for the short trip to the cattle farm where our trip really began.
Arriving at the farm we were greeted by the resident lions. We were really in Africa.
The lions are bred for release into the wild and were kept behind a fence that looked better suited to a deer park rather than a lion enclosure. We had fun later running besides the fence to be stalked and chased was more than a bit scary.
Each was planned around what ever we wanted to do and mostly went along the lines of. Wake at 0430 to leave for 0515 for Geese back for breakfast for 1000 and back to the fields for 1100 for pigeons and shoot through till about 1600 break for dinner followed by ducks or other assorted quarry in the evening. Dark by 1800 most evenings were spent around the camp fire with a few drinks and bed by latest 2100.
Geese
Arriving in the fields of numerous farms within a 20 mile well before first light pit blinds were dug by our farm hands and furnished with a 1m hide screen which we supplemented with grass pulled from the frosty fence line.
Sitting in the hide waiting for the first geese gradually saw the landscaped revealed which up to now we had not seen.
Two types of goose were mostly on the menu Spur wing and Egyptian. I gad never shot geese before so you can imagine the excitement when the first flight is heading to my blind. Only using 32g no3 in the semi auto I was advised to wait , wait, wait take it now! I stood to shoot no more than 30m to bag my first Egyptian.
Later came the very large and aggressive Spur Wing. These are truly impressive birds Dropping like a sack of spuds from the sky to land with a thud.
Each is armed by some ugly wing tip spurs
We were told that not to approach them unless we were sure they were dead and if in any doubt finish them with a further shot.
Most days consisted of a bag of around 40 to 50 birds and these are an example,
Pigeons
First thing to say is these are African Speckled Pigeon b......s. A little smaller than the woody extremely fast and liable to jink at the smallest movement or noise.
The birds fly more like starlings than pigeons and arrive and leave in vast flocks.
Despte the choice of locations on offer to us the pigeon numbers were comparatively low at no more than 5000 on a field.
Shooting over Sun Flowers the tempreture quickly rose from around zero first thing to early twenties mid day.
To say the least I struggled with these bagging a mere 40 at a rate of 1 for 5 which would have been worse If i did not restrict shooting to approaching and crossing birds. Anything over head was for me a frustrating miss. Over the week I gradually improved to 3 to 1 and eventually 2 to 1 with a best bag of 208.
To do this I swapped tactics and started to shoot on the feeding stubble areas rather than over the standing crop and used dead birds as deeks with a rotary,
Pictures I have one taken of my best bag all neatly laid out as requested but I don't yet have it for up loading as I have to wait for it to be e mailed but I will post it when it arrives. Mostly the birds were near impossible to collect from the sunflower fields as they are vast, protected by spikey 'jacks' and no one seemed bothered to do it. With the exception of the locals that had to be dissuaded from collecting during the shooting.
Any collected birds either pigeons or ducks were dropped with locals for food.
Evening ducks and others.
This consisted of going to local lakes and large ponds just before sun set and trying to shoot birds against the fading sunset.
Bags of between 5 and 10 collected was the norm. I don't yet have pictures.
Other memorable shooting included clearing pest species off a large local pond where we cleared around 60 birds which drifted to the end of the lake the following day. The next evening for a change I borrowed a rifle a 22 and went down to get some more.
We also drove around the fields in the back of the toyotas after Guinea, rabbit hare and duck.
All in a very enjoyable trip probably the best hunting week of my life. Trip of a life time? I hope not ........ I want to go again next year and maybe add in some rifle shooting for Jackal, Warthog and small antelope.
