Going Small: East Texan targets unusual tiny antelope on African safari

Published 4:25 pm Thursday, September 16, 2021

For many hunters, an African safari remains the pinnacle bucket list item. On a recent return trip to South Africa, Mark Parsons was not only successful in his quest but was reminded that hunting is so much more than the trigger pull that leads to an animal’s death.

“On previous trips, I have been fortunate enough to harvest a lot of the plains game as well as a Cape buffalo. On this trip, we decided to concentrate on the Tiny 10, a group of pigmy antelope. They can be difficult to hunt as they are very elusive, sometimes require long shots, and present very small targets,” said Parsons, who along with his wife, Sharon, was on his third safari.

While he took 12 head in all, the Whitehouse hunter’s list of diminutive antelope included the blue duiker, a 14-inch tall antelope hunted in thick brush in a driven hunt, a Cape grysbuck, a species hunted at night, an oribi, a 24-inch antelope hunted by spot and stalk, and a klipspringer, also about 20-24 inches that is found in the mountains and often requires a shot of more than 200 yards. Parsons had already taken a common duiker and steenbuck, giving him six of the 10.

“The hunt was eight days. I kind of wish we had planned a couple of more days as we had to really work hard to get a few of the animals on our list. The first four days of hunting were in the Eastern Cape,” Parsons said.

Hunting with Somerby Safaris in August, it was winter in South Africa and Parsons faced temperatures in the 40s along with rain. Snow-covered peaks sat in the distance.

Although the smallest game, the blue duiker was the most difficult to hunt.

“It lives in very thick underbrush and seldom emerges from that. When hunting them, we looked for a long, relatively thin patch of brush along a small creek or ditch. We set up in a particularly thin area or choke point where we might be able to see 20-25 feet ahead,” Parsons said.

While the traditional image of Africa is large caliber rifles, Parsons carried a 12-gauge shotgun with No. 4 shot for the duiker. The technique is usually a drive using dogs to push the antelope toward the hunter, but it was so rainy trackers led the push.

“Typically, the hunter has just a couple of seconds to react as it emerges from the thicket. If you are spotted, it will start to dart back and forth. In my case, it took 13 drives before I finally had one come out. I also got a little fortunate as my duiker was in a creek bed about 6 feet down and never really reacted like he saw me. I got a relatively easy shot opportunity and hit it from about 8-10 yards,” Parsons recalled.

The hunter took a Cape grysbuck and Cape bushbuck and other game with a .30-06 before moving to mountainous terrain where he hunted with a .243 fitted with a suppressor and turret scope.

“The ranch manager would dial up the distance and direct me where to aim. I got my first real lesson in shooting very long distances at small targets. After having me shoot the gun at a paper target at 150 yards, he had me shoot at a rock further up the hill. They dialed up the scope and I promptly hit it at 400 yards. This gave me a lot less apprehension about taking shots that were a lot longer than I was used to,” Parsons said.

With his newfound confidence, Parsons took his klipspringer at 330 yards and a Vaal rhebok, another small antelope that stands 24 inches at the shoulder, at 485, a record length for him.

Among others his list on this trip also included a Cape kudu, lechwe and mountain reedbuck.

“I have had easier hunts in South Africa in previous trips. Most of these hunts weren’t necessarily very strenuous, but they took a lot of time and a lot of concentration,” Parsons said.

Realizing his trophies are just personal memories to him, Parsons left Africa with a renewed appreciation with how important hunting is there, especially a year after it was almost totally curtailed by COVID-19.

“Hunting in South Africa is a big part of its economy and is also instrumental in preserving species that are close to becoming endangered. I spent a lot of time talking about hunting’s impact on South Africa as well as listening to opinions on how things could be improved,” he said.

On its simplest level all the meat is utilized either in camp, by employees or shared among local villages, reducing the urge for locals to poach. More importantly, it creates jobs in the field, but also at hotels, airlines, taxidermists, landowners, food industry and more. Unlike in the U.S., there was no unemployment for those people in 2020.

“Having an economic reason to care for and save these animals helps to preserve these animals. The lion import ban six years ago taught us that once the animals were not worth keeping around, the ranchers merely killed them to preserve the animals the lions were eating. Since lions were now worthless to hunters, they were worthless to the landowners,” Parsons said.

In comparison, black wildebeest went from nearly extinct to abundant because of hunter interest and dollars leading to breeding programs. Outfitters believe the same would happen with other species like mountain zebra and bontebok if red tape for transporting trophies into the U.S. were eased.

Using a model based around hunting revenue, he said outfitters and landowners have ideas to protect and increase a number of species, including rhinos, were it not for international intervention.