A little zany, a lot charming and very unpredictable, the guinea fowl hunting fowl are the most distinctive of all African game birds. Taking their name from the Guinea region of West Africa, these feathered critters look like a cross between a wild turkey and a pheasant (they even sport a bright red moustache!) and are found all across southern Africa in open grassland, open savannah and semi-arid landscapes.
Guinea fowl are strong flyers and can fly for a considerable distance if hard-pressed by predators or grass fires, making them tricky to shoot. They are also adept at escaping by burrowing under the earth or exploding into the air in a desperate attempt to confuse predators. They can run surprisingly fast for their size and often use their polka dotted plumage to camouflage themselves from the sky.
“In Pursuit of the Guinea Fowl: A Guide to Hunting
The key to taming these escape artists is to appeal to their innate flocking instincts with a lure that will encourage them to stick close to home. Starting with a simple feed of warm, heavy-protein crumbles and progressively moving up to standard adult poultry food can be a potent and effective trapping strategy for these intelligent creatures.
The most common guinea fowl hunts are walk-up, allowing hunters to follow a beater or a group of beaters across the landscape in an effort to flush the birds towards waiting guns. However, if a walker or gun makes the wrong move and flushes a bird in flight, it’s not uncommon for that bird to fly straight back over the beaters – it will almost certainly be a dead wingshot.
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