DRIVEN
SHOOTING

Day Two

Mafikeng/Mareetsane/Setlagole District
Driven Shooting/Lunch Afield
In 1989, encouraged and led by Gamebirds with the participation of the Schulze family, several local farmers were persuaded to become the first commercial agricultural area in Africa to make available sustainable, challenging, multi-day, all-day all wild bird driven shooting for paying guests.

The programme has progressed to the point where, today, the Gamebirds portfolio now has 5 different sporting estates in this district alone, and such a marked increase in the number of guineafowl, francolin and dove available for driven shooting that no two shooting days are over the same ground. The style and method of the driven shoot sporting traditions of England and Europe have come of age in Africa.

The Train will be in the Northwest Province, and standing at Mareetsane Siding, in time for an early breakfast for the shooting party between 7 and 8am. We will be collected at 8am, by Rod Schulze and his team, after which it will be about a forty minute drive to Nonen Ranch for our first full day of driven sport in Africa’s best area for all wild bird driven guineafowl shooting. Today it will be over the Nonen Driven Shoot beats that we will have the privilege of shooting. As with each day of shooting in this excellent sporting locality we can look forward to having between 4 and 6 drives, through the acacia bushveld of this part of the Kalahari, before we are joined by the non-shooting members of our party to break for a delicious lunch, with our hostess Marian Schulze at her home on the ranch. Then a further 3 to 5 drives after lunch.

Drinks at sunset, after the last drive, accompanied by the beaters traditional song and dance, before we return by road to the Train. Dinner & overnight Train standing in Mareetsane.

Day Three

Kameel/Stella District
Driven Shooting/Madikwe Game Reserve
A second full day of driven shooting for the guns who can expect to be collected before 8am by Neil Hobson for the 50 minute drive to the Papiesvlakte Driven Guineafowl Shoot. On this large Gamebirds estate, the agricultural and wild game producing conserved property of the Hobson family, we will have between 8 and 12 drives through the acacia savannah bushveld of this Kalahari area during the day, with a rather special lunch served by Zoe Hobson in the family’s homestead, or perhaps at a bush camp in the field.

This full day of all wild bird driven shooting will present the guns with massed flocks of Helmeted Guineafowl, (we are still in the most prolific, best, driven guineafowl areas of anywhere in Africa) francolin (Swainson’s and Orange River) and dove (Cape Turtle, Laughing and Redeyed). We can expect 4 – 6 drives before lunch and 4 or 5 after lunch (depending on season) with an anticipation of a bag of 200 for the day. After the last drive we gather with the seTswana beaters (120 of them plus the 25 “picker-up” field assistants) to be entertained by their traditional songs and dance as dusk falls. Then return to the train in time to change for dinner.

The non-shooters will be collected from the Train after breakfast and driven to the nearby landing strip. From there they will be flown in our corporate propjet to the Madikwe Game Reserve where they will enjoy the day game-viewing, with an excellent chance of seeing the “big 5” (lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhino) from open 4x4 safari vehicles. Lunch will be at the impressive Tau (means “lion” in the local seTswana tongue) Lodge, followed by further game drives in the afternoon. Return to the Train in the late afternoon. Drinks, dinner and overnight on Train.

During cocktails and dinner, and after dinner brandies or port, the Train will move south to Jan Kempdorp, which we will reach at about midnight and then stand there for the rest of the night.