Game scoting camera's in Africa

I brought along two home made digital trail cameras this year. What a great source of entertainment and education. The ability to scout areas while I was in another location became a fantastic means to make tough decisions on where to concentrate my hunting each day.

These digital cameras are an ideal tool to verify activity and quality of game in the areas we considered hunting. Some locations we discarded right away due to lack of potential and others we hammered hard because we knew the game was in the area.

Some may think this is an unfair advantage. I expect the usual line of BS from those folks. On the other hand this is a real hunting area with tough conditions and hunters who have come a long way to hunt for good trophies. It's nice to be able to know from the scouting photos that game we want is at least within the area we have chosen to hunt. 10 day hunts have about 20 hunting periods, of which the 10 evenings are the primary peak times. Make a poor choice a couple evenings and you start having a bit of pressure to find game the reamining days. The scouting cameras really help to confirm whatthe quality is and what is active in each area. The time and date stamp is also a nice feature.

This year there was record rainfall. The bush was lush and green even in the middle of winter. Hunting was as difficult as I have ever seen it this year. There were countless waterholes making the game spread over huge tracts of bush. There was fewer animals per area then in a more normal season. With the cameras I was able to make some very well thought out decisions on where to hunt each day.

Here are a few photos, I have 288 saved in the two cameras memory.

impala sparing


some kudu


cape buffalo which have not been seen in this area for th last four years!




A nice bull Rhino



What a lucky photo this was to capture!


A very nice bull


big female warthog


ostrich coming by for a drink


Giraffe coming to drink in the middle of the night

I have way too many photos(nearly 300) to post of every kind of African Animal you can imagine, monkeys, badgers, hyena, lynx, porcupine, dozens of different birds etc. The scouting cameras are a wealth of great information. They will certainly have a lot of importance in my future hunting and scouting in my African hunting camps.

I was told that all hunting is South Africa was High Fence, you make it sound as if your in a area that holds wild free ranging game.

If wild how big of an area are you hunting, in acres or equal. Kilometer by kilometer

Great pics


One day...one day

All of South Africa is not fenced. Some of the properties are, many with top level management have to be. Many properties are larger then the islands of SE Alaska. If the hunting on those islands if "free range" then the hunting of game on a larger piece should also be.........right? One is fenced by the sea and another by a fence. I see no functional difference. Once a property gets to the 30 square mile size and it's only contained species are natural and indiginous you're hunting free roaming game.

The Fences in RSA for the most part do not contain all the species. Kudu and Eland easily jump 7 foot fences. Gemsbok, warthogs, impala, etc. go right under them. They work well on Rhino, waterbuck, buffalo, zebra, wildebeast, hartebeest, giraffe. However buffalo rhino and giraffe just push them down at thier liesure. If the property is large enough that is a very rare situation.

Far too much negativity is placed on the game fences in RSA. The properties are so large you would not hunt one on foot in your whole life and even using a vehicle you would be there many years to see it all. I have worked the Landelani property for 9 years now and each year I find new water holes, game trails and areas I never knew had such lush green habitat. We also see game we never knew was in the area. I worked there 7 years before I saw the first Bushbuck on that property. Everyone was surprised I saw one. I killed the second one to show them I had seen one there. It was 16" and nobody had ever seen one there but me. We always have new Rhino babies and Buffalo we don't even know were there. Huge kudu are killed each year that nobody see's during the year. Nothing is stocked to be shot, or imported for hunting. It's 50 square miles of pure wilderness that would contain the same game whether the fence was there or not.

The legal requirements for the fence are mandatory to get an Exemption for out of season hunting in this province. We are an Exempt property so we can hunt whenever we want to but we are also responsible for all game management here. Just as a side note, I have seen more game jump the fence to get in, then I have seen jump out.

I would be the last guy to hunt a contained property with game that was stocked and higher then normal populations just to be shot. Most if not all of the Northern Province of RSA is not in that business. Most if not all is huge areas of well managed game that is free roaming within areas that far exceed their normal home range. I would challange anyone to try and corner any animal to shoot it on my consessions! Even with aircraft and trucks it ain't gonna happen! It's just too big and thick to think for even one second that it's like shooting "fenced game"!

Very good post JJ & great photos

I agree JJHACK, the same folks who view high fencing in a negative way, do not have a problem in going to Kodiak Island and Brown bear hunting, on a piece of land surrounded by ocean. Go figure

OK I guess the size of the Ranch is everything, when considering if your hunting a animal in an ethical way or if it's just shooting livestock.

Kodiak Island itself is 3600 sq miles, 120 times bigger than the 30 JJHACK claims is fair chase.

If you put a herd of elk, say 100 inside a 6 miles by 5 miles fenced inclosure, with one nice 7 x 7 say 350 score, I could honestly bet you, without a dout, that I would kill him within a week of huniting. Not a huge area considering a average day in Montana we might cover that every day during season looking for elk. You jump the wild ones (without fences I mean), and there in the next county you may never get another crack at him.

I know alot of fellow sportsman that have been to South Africa, and everyone of them tell me that the area they have hunted were in the 4,000 acre size, some more, some less. Some animals where released priar to the hunt.

FLIPPER people that view high fence hunting with distane,rarily are comparing 3600 square mile ranches with hunting Kokiak. Most game farms are much smaller. Were talking acre's not miles.

Hell the other night on the Sportsman Channel these fellas where just impressed with how tough it was to kill cow elk on this game farm. They still managed to kill 6 cows with archery eq., one with a pistol, in a couple of days. The tame elk just stood there and took it in the begining, then after chasing the elk back and forth accross this pasture, the elk tried to put some distance from the shooter.The shooter finally went to putting on drives to move the elk past each other. They also cornered them acouple of times in the fence and shot. One elk was gut shot, back behind the ribs, the whole time with cameras running, the host of the show comes on and says that "These elk are tough but we get this elk after 3 hrs of chasing her around the pasture. Great PR for all hunting. Associating hunting with this type of venture is bad for out sport.

People that hunt this type of game farm don't understand what hunting is all about.

If in fact JJHACK your ranch is as big a 30 sq. miles that would not be near as bad as the show I watched on TV.

Free ranging game is the only game I'll hunt.

One friend that went to RSA, did enjoy the Baboons, they are free ranging and I understand a pain in the arse. He worked on one big old boy for a couple of days before the Baboon finally came in to some corn.. Shot him with a long bow. Taped it from a blind, looked like alot of fun.

I do understand now why you fence you properties, to get the exemption to hunt out of season. In the U S the states own the game animals and manage them wether on private property or not. They are managed for the good of all residence of the state. If a property is High Fenced then the state has the right to remove the existing wild animals from the property. They are owned by the people of that state.

So in essence every game farm that crops up here, less opportunity exists for the people. Less habitat for the wild animals as well. It shuts wild migration routes down, spreads desease. Most in Montana were located on lower elevations, winter range was reduced. One such game farm displaced a mule deer herd of 500, the F & G had to kill them off to keep the aniamals withinn range capacity. Personal property rights exeeded the the rights of the masses by the loss of the 500 mules deer that called that ranch their home before that rancher went into game farming. Go Figure :BLEEP:

The interpretation of hunting is like religion and politics...it means something different to all who participate in it.

Just differences of opinion.

Shoot-Straight

Would you consider antelope hunting on a sheep ranch that has new page wire fence a 'fenced' hunt?

What about if a whole heard of antelope were lined up to go under one of only a handful of fence crossings on a huge cattle ranch? Would you hold off on the trigger if there was a monster buck in the bunch?

Shoots straight, I'm not here to debate this, you hunt what you like no argument from me. I would like to clear up a couple issues in the text though to be certain you understand a couple differences.

I used 30 square miles as an easily found RSA northern province farm. That's only 20,000 acres. Ours is 36,500 which is actually over 50 square miles. I beleive if I convert the dimensions to miles it's approx 8X6.5 miles or around that. There are plenty much bigger then this too!

Using the narrow description of South Africa for a generic term regarding hunting is not at all fair for your thought process. I'm going from Memory but I think RSA is slighly smaller then Alaska. There are vastly different habitats and laws in each province. We have 10,000 foot snow capped mountains, the kalahari desert, the Jungles and rainforest of Natal, the rolling grasslands of the free state, the bush of the northern province with more natural wild big game species then anyplace else on earth.

So just to put a few things into perspective comparing all of RSA would be like comparing all the USA. You will not likely find exotic ranch species to hunt in Alasaka on a game ranch, but you can in many of the lower 48 states Texas being the top of the heap. This is very much like RSA where the Eastern Cape is the "texas" of the country. The Northern Province is more like Alaska with plenty of wild indiginous natural wild game. It would not be fair for somebody in another country to say they would not hunt Dall sheep in Alaska's mountains after watching a "texas dall" hunt on the 777 ranch........would it?

In the Eastern cape the ranches are quite often in the 100,000 acre range for size. But they are all rolling grassland for the most part. Many claim to have 100,000 acres in size which they can be. However when you arrive you will find 90,000 acres are livestock or agricultural and only 5-10K are fenced for stocked game. That is the plain truth of the matter. ( not all, but many)

As far as finding an elk in your analogy. It would be possible in Montana I suppose, to do that in a week. Not in the northern Province though. You would likely never see that one elk in his entire life and he would more likely die of old age first. You see,...... the bush is so thick that you cannot see 50 yards on average over the whole of the land. There are also many miles between roads leaving the vast majority of land as foot travel only. A regular occurance with my hunters is to take off on foot for 3-5 hours at a time and get picked up at the otherside of a roadless area. Or to walk a 6-7 mile loop and return back to the truck.

I'm afraid that the shows on the tele are showing you the more open Eastern cape and free state operations which are all put and take for general bag hunts. You can finish hunting there in a couple days if you can shot 400 yards. In the northern Province you actually have to hunt and know something about game to be successful as these animals are born wild actually belong in the habitat they live in and grow up using game trails that have been in use for nealry 100 years now on this land.

It's a much different hunt when game is offloaded from a trailer a few days before you arrive! So please don't confuse what real hunting is in the Natal Province and the Northern Provionce with that put and take stocked game farm operations you have seen on the tele.

It would be exactly the same as somebody confusing a Texas Dall hunt with a Alsakan Dall hunt!

JJHACK,

I appreciate your clarification of RSA,nice to know that not all hunting in South Africa is Stocked hunts. Mostly game farms but sounds like more of a hunting experince than I imagined. With that said, migration routs are still cut off because of the high fences, genitic pollution can still occur. I know you can restock with new blood. Mother nature has a way of keeping populations of wildlife strong without man's interference. I don't like man's manipulations, and they usually backfire......

Bambistew,

Your analogy is absurd, how does hunting a game farm and shooting a antelope out in a fenced field full of sheep relate, As long as the fence is standard hight, say 4' antelope will jump in and out even though they prefer to go under. As well as your analogy that shooting antelope trying to get under a fence lined up to get out. Those are stupid scenerios.

If your trying to find a single scenerio where sportsmanship is the same on a wild hunt vs a canned hunt you'll have to try harder. The antelope in the field and scenerio in question would have been free to not be in that field in the first place. In a game farm they always are there. After those alleged antelope get shot at if crossing the fence in a row, I doubt theyd get caught doing it again. Free will, somthing that fenced animals don't have. It's just like shooting caribou swimming across the Yukon, wouldn't be sporting would it. The eskimo's don't care about sporting, their looking for food. I guess it's more a question of what are you looking for? I want the animal to have a fair chance, I want him to be wild. It's makes the trophy worth more than if your guaranteed one.

Not to mention the threat to records, Boone and Crocket, and Pope and Young.
4 or 5 years after a game farm steriod ridden bull is killed his antlers show up at a scorers house. "Wow, man look 454 inches new world record been sitting in a garage". You can see how it belittles the animals that where taken in fair chase. Waters down the records.

If all we hunted were game farms, nobody would care if Joe Blow shot a 454 bull elk, we wouldn't even have a Hunt Talk Forum. You would lose what hunting is all about. If you need that explained you probably will never know what I'm talking about, thats sad.

Your analogy is absurd, how does hunting a game farm and shooting a antelope out in a fenced field full of sheep relate, As long as the fence is standard hight, say 4' antelope will jump in and out even though they prefer to go under. As well as your analogy that shooting antelope trying to get under a fence lined up to get out. Those are stupid scenerios.

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So since you don't agree you have 1. done one or both, or 2. not smart enough to see that they are infact FENCED IN!!! I also take it you aren't quite the bad azz hunter you make yourself out to be if you've never encountered antelope using the same fence crossings time and time again. There are only so many places they can get out of a fenced pasture that has well taken care of fences... You need to get out more if you can't see how it coorelates... I've seen it a hundred or more times, and if those lope happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when that rancher puts up his new fence, they're going to be fenced for a while until they figure out a way to get out... (see single file fence crossing)

How is my anology any diffrent that what JJ was talking about?

I've only seen a handful of antelope jump a fence even when pressured, I'd bet you 99% of the time they will run right along side of it even if it means coming that much closer to the agressor/hunter.

Did you miss the part where JJ pointed out that most all the game animals in Africa will either jump the game fence or go under it?

I might have missed it, but where in this thread (other than in your posts) did anyone talk about game farming in the US?

If you put a herd of elk, say 100 inside a 6 miles by 5 miles fenced inclosure, with one nice 7 x 7 say 350 score, I could honestly bet you, without a dout, that I would kill him within a week of huniting. Not a huge area considering a average day in Montana we might cover that every day during season looking for elk. You jump the wild ones (without fences I mean), and there in the next county you may never get another crack at him.

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Man, where's my waders. You cover 30 square miles in an average day. I sure hope Greenhorn doesn't read this. He just got bumped from Superman to Wonder Woman...

How about some pictures of all the critters you've killed on your 'average' day hunts in MT? I'm sure you must have a pile of monster bulls and mule deer if you cover that much ground in an "average" day of hunting... Chit you probably pass up 350" bulls on an average day. Didn't you say it would take you a week to kill one that big in a fenced enclosure? Now I'm confused...

Sorry for hijacking your thread JJ

Those are some great pictures! I can't wait to get back over there.

Where do you hunt? What town is it close to?

I use many places in the Northern Province from Elisrass to Thabazimbi and down to Vaalwater are near Kruger park and across to Zulu Land. How heavily booked I am and what species are wanted determines the locations used.

Now I'm confused...

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The only thing in your idiotic post that you got right.

Would you consider antelope hunting on a sheep ranch that has new page wire fence a 'fenced' hunt?

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Since, you didn't state in your stupic scenerio that the fence was 7' high it would be fair to say that the antelope could get in and out on their own.
Therefore with that said there's no way that your debate has any relavance.

The Parts of your what if scenerio that are ignorant, somone that does get out knows unlike yourself, are

1). you wouldn't find antelope in a pasture that has sheep or that had been grazed by sheep, anyone that hunted in areas grazed heavily by sheep, know game animals don't hang around sheep ranches very often.

2). I don't hunt private property very often, and never for Antelope. If a rancher fenced in a herd of Antelope, that would be quite an accoplishment.At that point if Fish and game knew about it, and the fence was indeed game proof, they would remove them. State law in Montana, So I won't worry myself with your ignorant suggestion.



Now as far as hunting, elk in a 30 sq. mile pen goes. I assume you can read sign, smell, see and understand where and how a elk travels and lives,(things they don't teach on TV where you get your hunting experience) Anyway I said withinn a week I would be able to locate and kill that bull. You don't have to physically cover the whole 30 sq. mi. to find where the elk are living, feeding,sleeping ect. So after a bit of work one could safely say you've covered the area without actually having to physical cover it. You wouldn't rehunt areas where the elk didn't hang out in.. Wild free ranging elk if spooked might run to the next county, never to be seen again. Elk don't even use the same winter ranges year after year, they migrate different depending on lots of circumstances.

FYI, Bambi on a average day 3 or 4 of us will pick a drainage where we hope to find elk, maybe an area 3 miles wide by 5 miles long, and hunt that hard for about 3 hrs, either going through in drive mode or still hunt, then off to the next drainage, same thing, then last hunt of the day,maybe new drainage if no elk where found, hunt to dark.



Don't fret though, I'm sure Tom can fix you up with a memerable hunt for the elusive watercow. Drop him a line.

Whatever Homer...

I figured it would be to much for a highschool dropout to grasp.

What about if a whole heard of antelope were lined up to go under one of only a handful of fence crossings on a huge cattle ranch? Would you hold off on the trigger if there was a monster buck in the bunch?

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I'm the Homer, anyone know how this is similar to hunting a game farm? This is your stab at trying to ligitimize hunting game farms to wild sceneriors. Wasn't even a good try. Yep way over my head! Duh........... I knew I should have shown pictures with the lesson.

Dude I get it... YOU ARE THE MAN!!!

What you fail to grasp is JJ pointed out that most of the game species in Africa are not hindered by the fences, they GO UNDER, THROUGH OR OVER THEM. No diffrent that lope here in the US. I figued with your hunting resume you would grasp the concept.

I'm not sticking up for game farms in the US I think they should be outlawed, and was pleased to see that MT voted the concept down, but you are the one that jumped all over JJ's chit and his hunting in Africa...

When you get done ponding your chest and hiking 10-20 miles a day why don't you post a picture or two... You must have killed a few nice bulls in all that hiking.

Also why would it take you a week to kill a fenced in bull if you could easily find out where they live in just one day?

After you come down off your Meth addiction and reread my posts you'll see I never said I could find the elk living on a inclosed game farme of around 30 squ. miles.in 1 day,maybe but not going to guarantee it.Your comprehension is that of a 4th grader and you prove that with every post you make.

You're threatened I know and it will be alright, but your more than likely going to stay a punk for ever. Your a legend in your own mind.

Thing cool about forums is you can be anything you want. Your the big bad engineer living on the east coast. Don't worry about that pounding sensation in your arse, it'l go away.