Stormberg Elangeni Safaris prides itself on a wide variety of the finest bird shooting in Southern Africa, offering the discerning hunter champagne shooting. Southern Africa is a haven for wild bird shooting and part of Stormberg Elangeni Safaris uniqueness is the multitude of bird shooting areas that we offer.
This gives the sport hunter a diversity of choice that is both exciting and varied, all taking place over a variety of habitats where no day is alike. This, together with specialist professional shooting guides and dog handlers makes for an experience of a lifetime for a bespoke bird shooting safari tailored to the individual’s needs.
On your safari you will experience unequalled bird shooting that may include walk up Greywing Partridge, Francolin and Spurfowl shooting over well-trained English Pointers, to the thrilling anticipation of driven Guineafowl, as well as flighted Duck and Geese and finally hot barrel Dove and Pigeon shooting.
Our Bird Guide Professional Hunters have a vast amount of experience and knowledge in guiding bird-hunts in South Africa. We pride ourselves on the high standard of our dogs, which include past and present Field Trial Champions. Upland game birds are hunted over well- trained English Pointers, while Labradors are used for retrieving downed birds. A true classic wing shooting adventure awaits you.
For those who enjoy a brisk walk in the morning, Francolin and Spurfowl offer some great sport. We use two English Pointers at a time which work the surrounds of harvested corn, peanuts and soya fields. Francolin and Spurfowl have increased dramatically in these agricultural areas as this habitat lends itself to perfect upland game bird conditions. This consists of adequate grass and thorn cover around the cultivated fields, offering the birds perfect breeding and roosting habitat with the adjacent cultivated fields giving an endless supply of food.
Swainson’s Spurfowl are the most abundant with the faster and more compact Natal Spurfowl in smaller numbers, as well as the rare Red Billed Spurfowl occurring in our Sandgrouse areas. Spurfowl and Francolin season is May, June, July and August.
South Africa boasts the largest goose in the world, the Spurwing, with ganders often exceeding the 20lb mark making them a remarkable bird to shoot. Together with the cunning smaller Egyptian Goose they are shot out of dry land pit blinds or standing blinds, over decoys, either first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening. Our Goose season is May, June, July and August.
Our duck shooting takes place in the evening from grass blinds at the edge of ponds and marshes. Decoys are used to attract the ducks in, normally ending with a wild flurry just before sunset. Yellow-bill Duck, Shell Duck, Cape Shoveler and Red-bill Teal are the main species downed and are retrieved by enthusiastic Labradors. Expect to shoot at least two boxes of cartridges per gun and have 150 odd duck decoy in with a bag of at least 20 birds.
Our Duck and Goose Shooting can take place from either Bloemhof Lodge or Tredenham Boutique Hotel and even Buffels Fontein Lodge. The shooting at each area is equally as thrilling however the methods can be different.
As a general rule, in the Free State (Bloemhof & Tredenham) we will flight the Ducks and shoot them on a ‘Flight Line’ around 150-200 yards away from the water. We will almost always decoy the Geese. Whereas on the Stormberg (Buffels Fontein Lodge) we will generally flight all our wildfowl into a ‘pond’ or ‘dam’ as they come into our decoys.
