Hunting kudu: I need help/hints/tips

[Ds J]

I have seen many farms where the farms workers walk every day, and they make noise of biblical proportions, the harder they can shout at each other walking right next to each other the better they feel.

hahaha, tis the truth I have seen this many times. Don't understand it though.

Within traditional black African culture there are a few reasons to talk loud. Firstly, it is considered very rude to speak ill of someone else. By speaking loud the speaker ensures that he /she cannot be suspected or accused of speaking ill about someone else. As long as everyone can hear them, no-one can doubt their intentions or the contents of the discussion. Secondly, it has to do with honesty. A secretive and sneaking person goes around silently. By being audible (making a noise according to western standards) the person is letting everyone know that they are under way without ill intentions. Thirdly, there is something about the spirit world and ancestors. I do not understand it well; it has something to do with not being mistaken for a ghost, or not surprising someone from the other world.

[Adoons]

I have and still are hunting decent amounts of Kudu in the Waterberg Bushveld. Just a few thoughts maybe relevant here:

1. Camo? Ha-Ha. Kudu see any movement and they see anything out of place. You can sit still under a bush or tree and they will note that something is not the same as yesterday and get skittish. I believe they have photographic memories.
2. Maybe walk and stalk less and take the time to determine their most probable walking areas in and out of the thick and more open spaces. Then be like really early (still dark) close to the route and wait there. Sit still and listen and observe. You might see them or hear them. 30 minutes after sun up you can start walking and stalking as by then they most probably have made their departure to the thicker areas and just have not passed you.
3. Kudu can be found at any time of the day. They are ghosts but cannot vanish from a farm to miraculously re appear late afternoon. In the thick bush walking really slow and stopping a lot to observe and listen is just more important than in the late afternoons and early mornings when they are in the more open spaces.
4. They are more easily found after the sun has dipped behind the horizon but it is still not dark. To shoot then? Well, it depends on the farm owner, yourself and limitations etc. I do shoot the large elusive bulls that we need to cull on the family farm if found this late. I use enough gun and am confident on shot placement and use enough gun. You must hit his heart (not lungs or liver) or nervous system otherwise the jackal might enjoy your biltong.
5. A lot of times hunters want to stalk kudu. Find them, sit down, put up your shooting sticks if any and observe the whole area. You might be surprised to find out after a while that actually there are kudu all around you. Wait for a clean shot and take it. (with this method just remember that if the wind is not playing its part and they get a whiff of you they like to disappear.)
6. Kudu are not tough to go down, until they are... Use enough gun. A .243 for instance will take them, but I prefer a .30 cal of some sort. .308, .30-06, .303 etc. I use my 30-06 for kudu.
7. It helps sometimes to not carry your rifle over your shoulder. Walk in front and with the rifle in your hands. The time and noise to get your rifle from your shoulder could be too long.
8. If it is really cold and windy, you will only find them in the thickets (did I mention they love the areas with pebbles all over at the foot of mountains in the Waterberg...) To stalk them their is difficult. What I do then is just walking, rifle at the ready, through the thick stuff. If they cannot hear or smell you because of the strong wind you might stumble onto them without them seeing you and take one. This happens more easily with the lone bulle that a cow herd.
9. If you hunt kudu, walk like a kudu. From bush to bush. Stop and observe. If you are tired of walking from a kudu hunt you are walking too much and too fast.

[Toxxyc]

1. I don't believe in camo per se. I believe I make a lot more noise and movement than what camo can hide. I still wear camo, because it's hunting and it's fun, and it does break up the shape a bit, but I don't rely on it. As I have it, kudu have bad eyesight, but exceptional hearing and smell.
2. I'm a walk and stalk person. I tried to sit at a hide and wait for them twice this weekend. I can't do it. I ended up propping my rifle up on the side and playing games on my phone for most of the time, taking breaks every minute or two to take a look around me to see if something approaches. I sat at the watering hole on Sat morning, pretty early. I was out of the camp when it was still dark out, I had to walk to the gate using my torch. Walking to the watering hole I had to walk really slowly so I could use moonlight to see where I'm going. I think I was still too late, because approaching the watering hole I could hear animals snorting in the bushes around me, sometimes pretty close, but due to the darkness and the thick bushes I simply could not stalk. I had to press on to the hide. While I sat there the sun came up, but no animals approached.
3. The two I saw were at mid morning, out in the open, strange enough. I heard them more than I saw them while I was tracking them.
4. I prefer not shooting after dark, even though my scope allows for it. It's pretty clear and when others mentioned "it's too dark" I took a look with my scope and could see very clearly for some distance. The time at the end of the day was not an issue for me.
5. Again, I can't do this "voorsitjag" thing. I've waited for animals before, at feeding spots, licks, watering holes, in river beds, etc. Strangely enough I can't recall ever seeing a kudu cross my viewpath. It's always been the other animals - Impala, BWB, Reedbuck, Warthog, etc. Never kudu. I have always "stumbled" upon kudu before.
6. I completely agree. I "use enough gun" anyways.
7. I never carry my rifle over my shoulder, unless I intend not to hunt. Otherwise it's in my hand or crossed over my chest. A lot quicker to get ready.
8. Yeah I've had this happen with my on that same farm I was this weekend actually, but also only with the lone, big bulls.
9. I'll have to keep this in mind :P

[Adoons]

2. Yes please, I am not talking about lengthy sits like in a hide. Just the 30 minutes after it is light enough to hunt. That is still before the sun is up. Myself cannot sit and wait endlessly. Except in the early morning wait (when the hunting buddies that had a late night is still in camp), I will sit and wait for 5-10 minutes before moving on. More than 10 minutes and I get bored and start thinking about work and stress of life and not enjoying the hunt anymore.
5. Is not voorsitjag. Walk till you find them and then first wait and observe. Don't start crawling around and stalking the one or two you see. There might be a lot more that you don't see initially.

[Messor]

9. If you hunt kudu, walk like a kudu. From bush to bush. Stop and observe. If you are tired of walking from a kudu hunt you are walking too much and too fast.

Regarding this statement

If you do this in the areas I normally hunt, then you will never, ever, shoot a kudu.
Kudu don’t just stand behind every second tree, they are only found in remote areas in the karoo, or are found in very small numbers in the kalahari terrain we normally hunt.

This might work on a gamefarm where they are fenced in and a certain amount is stocked in a certain area, which I don’t care for hunting anyways. But in some natural environments people MUST understand the whole world is not full of kudu, you can walk the whole day and not spot any, not because they are super secretive, simply because they are not there to begin with.

Some places hunting can be done slowly, and without effort, other place requires the hunter to walk or climb his ass off before having the opportunity to spot something.

Like you cushy comfy bushveld hunters, vs us real hunters

[Adoons]

Ja Messor. At least our cushy comfy bushveld hunters can shoot real far. I can easily pull of head shots out to 70 meters and decent heart/lung shots at 150 m.

The area and terrain certainly has an influence on hunting technique. Our bushes are what? 30 meters apart? You guys struggle to spot the next one on the horizon. Diversity in RSA hunting is really great. I think we don't appreciate it enough. Had a few hunting trips in Middelburg (Cape) over the years. A whole other scene and ball game, but I will return there again. Had luck with 1 kudu once in the hunting party.

[Messor]

Ja you know I am just messing with you :)

But I have seen people that read too many hunting magazines, aka they also read they must walk 200m in an hour, they get into ninja hunting mode all of a sudden without adapting to the environment, and I am like WTF are you doing?

Hunting is not what people think, hunting is getting the job done, and just like a job have a scope of work in a corporate environment hunting needs a clear plan according to the specific hunting environment.

Hunting is like combat, you don't shoot wildly into the sky and hope you hit something, first you must acquire a target, and then figure out how to engage that target. I wonder how many people in SA walk around each year hunting kudu, coming home empty, wondering where they went wrong.

[Adoons]

Have seen a hunter once with one of those smart watches macthingies whatshalicallit? Anyway, he checked every now and then if his steps per minute were still “in spec”. It was actually hilarious.

[Niekiepienaar]

But I have seen people that read too many hunting magazines, aka they also read they must walk 200m in an hour, they get into ninja hunting mode all of a sudden without adapting to the environment, and I am like WTF are you doing?

Yes. I have also seen people concentrate on their movement instead of their surround.

[Messor]

I have seen people that wanted to hunt springbok on foot being dropped off asking the driver "what now?".
No we did not tie them up in a specific place, figure it out.

Hunting is about using your brain, and wired into that brain is a lot of sensory organs.
It is often wise to take things slow, but NOT for the sake of taking things slow, the slower you move the more data is collected. You can move as slow as you want if there is no kudu to detect your movements then your actions is rather silly.

People think you teach a child to hunt, that is wrong, you teach him to think in a hunting scenario.