Bushpig fever

[Dimitri]

A strange thing happened to me on Saturday.

BACKGROUND

I don't get buck fever any more. I haven't had it since primary school. Yes, I get excited but when its time to shoot I am thinking clearly and I am steady.

I have shot 1 bushpig in my life. In over 4 decades of stomping around the bush I have only seen 2 bushpigs in the day - one near Pongola many years ago and one near Harrismith last year. I think they are amazing animals. Great survivors even near human settlements. Clever, alert and almost impossible to hunt in the day without dogs. Not to mention dangerous.

THE SETTING

On Saturday I was hunting an hour from JHB. I had seen steenbok, duiker, jackal, and kudu. How wonderful to have stalked so close to the kudu and have a kudu cow pop up 15m in front of me from behind an old stone wall.

I had one cartridge in the chamber and 4 in the magazine. As I neared the top of the koppie I was walking along the stone wall. On the other side was thick, high grass amongst loose rocks. The old wall had crumbled in many places and, where I was walking, it was only about a metre high.

THE FEVER

I was hunting alone and was walking very quietly. Suddenly, I heard a pig grunt barely 2m away from me on the other side of the wall. Instinctively, I knew it was a bushpig. The next second I saw the long grass parting. What happened next was not planned nor was I thinking. It just happened. I found myself on top of the wall in time to see the long ears and black, red and white hairs on the backs of 5 bushpigs running through the long grass. The fever makes you climb quickly because they were only about 12m from me when I reached the top of the wall. Then .... while trying to pick up a pig in the scope .... without thinking ...... I flicked off the safety with my thumb ..... and then promptly worked the bolt ..... ejecting a perfectly good live cartridge for no good reason ..... and chambered an identical live cartridge in it's place!!!

That has never happened to me before. I can't explain why I did that??? I can only think that it was bushpig fever and the excitement of having 5 bushpigs flush from right next to me.

The pigs disappeared into the long grass without giving me the opportunity of a shot.

[DWB]

Hahahahaha welcome to the life of a pig hunter!