The author with his prize

By Rean Steenkamp

As the guinea fowl takes off with a flutter of wings, the archer takes aim and releases the arrow. When the arrow and the bird collides in mid-air, the bird folds up its wings and tumbles to the ground. The archer gives a whoop and runs closer to retrieve his prize.

And a fair prize it is. Birds makes for good eating if prepared right, and hunting them can be a great challenge, especially if they are shot from the air.

It isn’t as easy as it sounds, though. Hitting a moving target in the air isn’t something everyone can do. With a fair amount of practise even an average archer like me will hit a bird on the wing at least once in every ten shots. In the world of predators this isn’t too bad – about the same success rate a lion has.

You can either hunt fowl by stalking them and shooting them on the ground or you can shoot them on the wing. Birds have very good eyesight, but their sense of smell is not well developed. This means you can wait for them if you know they visit an area at a certain time of the day. Since many fowl, such as guinea fowl are pretty set in their ways, this is not so hard to do. If the wind is blowing in the wrong direction while you are waiting for them, it is no problem.

I recently went on a hunt and had the opportunity to shoot a guinea fowl with my recurve. No, I did not shoot it on the wing, I unfortunately have to confess. To tell you the truth, I nearly missed it. The arrow passed just over its back and severed the neck.

I planned on frying the bird on the fire that night, but was stopped by Christiaan, one of my hunting partners. “No, no” he said, “Guinea fowl have tough meat, and needs special preparation. You have to cook it in the pot, like an ox tail.”

My guinea fowl recipe

Well, so I did. After skinning the bird and removing the innards, I cut it up in legs, wings and torso and placed it in a number three cast iron pot, adding water, a glass of wine and about half a cup of olive oil. I added salt and the barbecue herbs we had available. I would have added some cloves if we had any. Then I filled the pot with more water and placed it on the coals. I just adding extra coals before going to sleep. The coals probably cooled down pretty soon, since it was terribly cold at night during that weekend. The next morning I added some new coals as well as a cup of Coke and cooked it another hour, until only about a centimetre of sauce was left in the pot. Everyone tasted the bird and was much impressed.

This was one of the finest meals I had in a long time. From now on I am a guinea fowl hunter. I am sure to take a francolin if a big one crosses my path and I won’t say no to a duck.

I have taken a few francolin in the past. Unfortunately I did not prepare them the correct way, but just barbequed them on a coal fire. Next time I am sure to cook them in a pot as well, or I might marinate them for a day before I barbeque them.

Wingshooting birds with bow and arrow may still become a popular hunting activity, especially in the traditional ranks. This is one area compound hunters may not be able to compete. One can easily take a bird with a compound while it is on the ground, but taking a bird as it takes to the air isn’t something easily done when using an aiming device. One has to shoot instinctively and this is where the traditional archers have the advantage.

The South African Wingshooting Association has invited bowhunters to start a bow wingshooting chapter. The first steps have been taken. Local traditional bowhunters who are interested in wingshooting are invited to contact Africa’s Bowhunter & Archer in this regards.

The best way to practise shooting birds on the wing is probably by practical experience. You have to go look for them, shoot when they take off, miss, try again and miss again. Yup, this is hard work, but it is good exercise and certainly fair chase. We are traditional archers, we do thing the hard way.

I am practising by shooting at disks. I made myself two discs of eight inch diameter and got someone to throw it into the air while I tried to hit it. At first I could not hit it at all. Later I started hitting it once every now and then, until I started hitting it most of the time. Then I made the disc two inches smaller in diameter and started over again. At present I hit it about 60 percent of the time (on a good day and if thrown with care).

Whether practising this way will help me when I take a shot at a bird on the wing is still to be seen. It does impress my wife, though.