Even though we have seen a meteoric increase in shotgun shooting and wingshooting in South Africa over the last few decades, the upland gamebirds, especially doves and pigeons, are the most popular, followed by francolin – mostly Swainson’s spur-fowl and the ubiquitous guinea-fowl. Waterfowling – pursuing waterfowl as the primary target – doesn’t seem to have taken off to the same extent. There are various reasons for this, the primary one being that it requires substantially more planning to be successful, and many bird shooters and their families are not entirely sure what to do with them afterwards.
For convenience’s sake, in this article, I have divided South African waterfowling into two primary pursuits: geese, both spurwing and Egyptian, and the pursuit of numerous duck species, primarily yellow-billed duck and…