Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Most Difficult SA Plains Game

A lot of it depends on how abundant a particular animal is in that country--or that region of a certain country.

Kudu got their legendary reputation mostly due to Hemingway and Ruark, who both hunted in Kenya and Tanzania, where kudu aren't generally as abundant (or as large) as in Namibia or South Africa.

now this made me laugh ! Pete53

For me the most challenging Plainsgame has been Eland. In six trips to Namibia I’ve only shot two Eland bulls. Tracking all day following promising tracks is a challenge especially if you’re in your mid 70’s like me.

Zebra and Bushbuck

Nyala may be the animal I spent the most time looking for, and Hotfire is loaded with them. We passed up many bulls looking for a good one.

Zebra are very spooky. Even if you aren't hunting them, you best avoid them, because if you spook them, they will blow out any other game within sound or sight. I was told they are the "policemen of the plains".

In some areas, fallow deer can be hard to hunt. At least if you are looking for a good stag and no just a representative stag.

Eland for me. I have 9 stalks and never had a reasonable chance at a shot. Guinea fowl, impala, giraffe and even a leopard all spoiled our stalks. Out of all the plains game, they seem to be one of the wariest.

One of the “farms” we hunted had a pivot nearby that had been planted with corn and it always had baboons in it. There were several men employed there and the baboons payed them no attention. When a truck full of Bwanas pulled in the baboons all payed very close attention. When the bwanas got out and walked away from the truck the baboons would go back to their business. If a bwana went back to the truck the baboons would all pay very close attention again until the bwana again left the truck. If the bwana stepped away from the truck with a rifle in hand the baboons would run like mad to the trees. Obviously these baboons had seen this all unfold before. It was the damndest thing I’d ever seem “wild game” do! But fortunately a baboon can’t outrun a 200gr partition shot from a 300wby!

Zebra and Bushbuck for me. 2 trips over and got each both times, Had the second Bushbuck done full body and he's huge, 17 plus inches. Everybody at Highveld taxidermy came out to look at it. My very best trophy, truly Blessed.

Mountain zebra.

Landowner in SA wanted me to cull the largest zebra to break-up the herd. We stalked all day, but the zebra were near a herd of hartebeest who are very skittish & break at the slightest puff of wind. Hartebeest kept bolting, zebra right behind. Finally saw them calm at 175 yards grazing. Not a difficult shot at a large animal, but getting them to stand still was a challenge. That's the only animal I've harvested shooting from the back of a bakkie (pickup truck), which added to the experience.

Wish I could post photo. Waiting for return trip to pickup my zebraskin rug

That is kind of a hard question because there are so many variables. I have only been to Africa twice, but I would say that the hardest thing to hunt is the animal that you want the most and the easiest thing to hunt is any animal you don't want, can't afford or don't have on license .

On my first trip to Namibia, Mountain Zebra were the toughest to get but I was covered in Eland. We spent part of each day trying to find MZ in just about every way you can think of. I finally connected on my last day after we tracked a small herd for about 2 hours. The only MZ I ever saw that trip was the one in my scope just before I pulled the trigger.

My second trip was all about getting an eland. Again, we spent part of every day hunting them. They weren't hard to locate, but since they are browsers, finding a good bull in the brush and getting a clear shot was challenging. They are also spooky and lots of other animals feed with them. We had to constantly maneuver around springbuck, impala, warthogs, etc. I did finally connect on a good bull, but I think it was the 8th or 9th day and 4th location we hunted on that trip.

Good topic!