African Outfitter is an independent international bimonthly publication promoting
fair hunting and ethical business practices within the hunting industry.
From a hunting perspective, the preservation of biodiversity on the
African continent is the first and foremost priority. The emphasis
is however also on the sustainable utilisation of wildlife.

African Outfitter Back Issues: CONTENTS - December 2007 / January 2008 - (Vol 3/1)

Bush repairs - Beyers de Klerk

During September 2007, I was in the Koedoeskop area near Thabazimbi. As a professional hunter I was guiding Mike Thompson and his wife for Namzaan Safaris. Mike was on a plains game safari and also showed a particular interest in a real trophy warthog.

One particular morning we spotted an impressive impala ram. A decision was made to really hunt this impala ram on foot. The ram was moving into the wind ahead of us. Although we did get into a few shooting positions Mike was unable to take a shot because of the ram constantly moving.

During the last one of these stalks I noticed a massive warthog boar walking straight towards our position.

The trophy quality of the warthog was quite obvious to everybody. I urged Mike to take a shot, which he did rather quickly. At the shot the pig dropped only to start kicking with all four legs.

In a moment he was again mobile, running straight towards us. Mike fired a second and a third shot, which turned the warthog away into a small clump of trees.

To our amazement he again reappeared from the trees and headed straight for us. At this stage the whole exercise become rather bewildering because of the dust and all the talking/shouting between Mike and me.

Mike took the last shot at around ten meters / 11 yards from the animal. The warthog finally turned and dropped around 20 meters / 22 yards from us. One thing became obvious then, namely that this warthog had somehow lost its tusks during the excursion.

The tusks appeared to have broken off quite cleanly and had not been lost because of a stray bullet. Following the spoor we found two broken-off tusks exactly three paces apart between some thorn trees.

The next hour was spent slowly recovering small pieces of tusk in the sand. A decision was made to hand over all the smaller pieces of tusk to the taxidermist for reconstruction. In the meantime, we used industrial tape to attach the broken-off tusks to the tusks stumps in such a way that a picture could be taken. We all agreed that the "reconstructed" facial should at least look acceptable. Mike was quite satisfied with the reconstruction. The final measurement was 15⅞" and 13⅝" - a trophy in any hunters book.