South Africa 2023
I remember well my first bowhunt on bushpig in South Africa in 2016. It was a new experience and a challenge for me to hunt a nocturnal animal. During the first night I was a bit nervous when a boar and a sow came to the feeding ground, and I fiddled with my peep and sight to place it on the correct vital spot of the pig. In the end, I missed, and the pigs dashed off. The reason was that I had looked beside the peep and not through it. Bad preparation. The next night I put some glowing liquid on it from a fluorescent stick that I used for fishing.
Luckily, the boar and sow came to the corn plot again and I was able to take the male under the rheostat red light. Unfortunately, we could not find it during the night and the next day I had to leave. My PH at that time promised me he would search for it, and I was more than happy when I received his call two weeks later telling me the good news that he had found it. It was mostly eaten by the jackals, but luckily the skull and tusks were still fine.
This time, end of August 2023, it was with Carlo Engelbrecht Safaris, near Paulpietersburg in the KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. Having learnt my lesson, I was better prepared, with a glow-in-the-dark peep and lots of training sessions at home shooting in the dark. Also, the red light to slowly illuminate the feeding area was more modern and brighter.
Carlo had already set up the food plot two months earlier and installed a camera to figure out if bushpigs were coming in. He had built a blind covered with nets uphill 30 meters from the feeding area.
The first evening we sat there enjoying the beautiful scenery in the fading light until it became dark. Suddenly, we heard some underbrush rustling coming up the hill to our right. Was it the bushpigs? Because of the darkness we could not figure out what it was, but when it was about 15 meters from us, we heard a grunt, and then the sound of an animal running away. Bad luck, did it get our wind?
However, we stayed for another hour till we realized heavy rain clouds, lightning and thunder were coming close very quickly. We decided it was better to leave the blind, and as we arrived at the Land Cruiser, rain started bucketing down accompanied by thunderbolts. Luckily, we had left our ambush right in time.
Fortunately, the rain was over the next day, and we found ourselves back in our hill blind at sunset. Quite some time passed when, suddenly, Carlo raised his hand and indicated to the left, whispering: “I can hear them coming in. Make yourself ready.” His hearing is amazing. I quietly lifted my bow to an upright position and slowly put an arrow on the arrow rest. Then a couple of minutes later I could hear the pigs coming closer to the corn. It was almost pitch black, but if I focused my eyes long enough on the feeding spot, I could at least see some outlines or silhouettes. Then I spotted three shadows of bushpigs sniffing around the corn and beginning to eat. Slowly we switched on and brightened the red light to illuminate the whole food place without spooking the animals.
Now the three pigs were visible, and the boar was standing to the right. The two sows were on the left. It was up to me to control my already rising heartbeat and to draw my bow silently. The sight settled on 30 meters and slowly I was at full draw and aimed on the vitals of the bushpig male. Once I released the arrow on its mission, you could see that in a second it hit the pig hard. It squealed before it ran in the direction it came from. The two sows took flight as well and within a couple of seconds, all was quiet again.
Carlo nodded and showed a thumbs up. We waited for about twenty minutes, which was good to bring my heartbeat back to normal again, before we left the blind and moved downhill to where I had shot the pig. We switched on our lights and followed the tracks. I found my arrow full of blood as well as a slight blood trail, and roughly 60 meters on, Carlo took off his cap.
“There is your bushpig, congrats!” he said. Wow, no long searching, what a challenge and what an experience. I was more than happy. We radioed one of his farm workers to pick us up and the bushpig, and it was taken to the abattoir to gut and store in the cooling room.
The South African Lager beers tasted excellent afterwards. The next morning, we took some special photos to honor the bushpig in this beautiful part of KwaZulu-Natal.
I can only thank Carlo and his family for the great hospitality, accommodation and organization, his awesome hunting experience and company, and all the nice people I had the opportunity to meet during this fantastic time and safari.
Always good hunting, shoot straight, Waidmannsheil and “Alles van die beste.”
Frank Berbuir
Equipment:
Bow: Mathews VXR28 @ 74 lbs
Arrow: Carbon Express Maxima Hunter 350
Broadhead: Annihilator XL 125 grain
Optics: Zeiss Victory Binocular & Nikon Rangefinder
Release: Scott
Camo: Sniper Africa Shadows
Bio:
German hunter Frank Berbuir is passionate about the outdoors and hunting – especially bowhunting, which he has practised for more than 25 years. Although he has bowhunted in several countries, he has become addicted to hunting in Africa since his first safari in 2004. Frank is a mechanical engineer and quality manager in the automotive industry.