Grey Duiker Hunting in South Africa

• The common duiker will stand on its hind feet to reach high into fruiting bushes.

• There are eight different races of common duiker. This varied coloration may enable them to match the habitats specific to their location.

• Some African rock pythons have died when the horns of male duikers have pierced their stomachs after they have swallowed them whole.

• Duikers run with a very distinctive darting and diving style when they flee danger. And this gives rise to its common name, the Afrikaans for “diver.”

• Not a lot is known about the common duiker’s social life, so more research is needed before we can say whether they are monogamous and territorial.

• While duikers predominantly eat leaves, some unusual items have been found in their diet, including baby birds and small rodents.

• It’s not known whether these are eaten by accident or as a protein supplement.

• The common duiker uses a pair of glands under its eyes for scent marking.

• Grey Duiker hunting often occurs while glassing for other trophies and can make for a bonus while hunting larger trophies.

Duiker is a small to medium-sized brown antelope native to Sub-Saharan Africa.

Found in heavily wooded areas.

Duikers are shy, elusive creatures and live in dense cover; those that tend to live in more open areas, for example, quickly disappear into thickets for protection.

Duiker hunting is often underestimated mainly because of the size of the animal.

Since the common grey duiker lives in more open areas, like the savanna, it has longer legs and vertical horns, which allows it to run faster and for longer distances; only the males, who are more aggressive and territorial, exhibit horns.

Also, duikers have well-developed periorbital glands, which resemble slits under their eyes or, in the cases of blue duikers, pedal glands on their hooves.

Males use secretions from these glands to mark their territory.

Your Duiker trophy should have an average shoulder height of around 17 inches, weigh about 25 pounds, and have a Horn length of approximately 4 inches.

The minimum Safari Club International score for a Duiker is 11. They are measured by adding the length of each horn as well as the circumference of the bases.

Duikers are solitary animals and often shot opportunistically while glassing for other trophies.

They can make for a bonus while looking for your bigger game animals.

Duiker requires a stalk through thick terrain. As a result, shots will often be quite close when hunting the grey duiker.

Hunting these Duikers is usually done in the early morning, late afternoon, or by spotlight at night.

The Grey Duiker forms part of the Tiny 10, and hunting one is a must for any hunter wishing to complete their selection of the small antelope species.

The duiker is primarily a browser and is most active during the late afternoon and early evening.

This member of the pygmy antelope clan can survive close to man.

He is independent of water as he can get sufficient moisture from browsing.

Duiker hunting makes a cheap add-on to any of our seven animal hunting packages, including such trophies as kudu and blesbok as standard.

A more expensive addition would, say, be a common reedbuck.

We do not require a deposit; see our terms and conditions.

When hunting a duiker, trophy evaluation can be difficult, as only fleeting glances will be offered.

Horn tips that are level with the top of the ears are about 4 inches in length; if the horns extend beyond the ear tips by an inch or more, you are looking at a high-scoring trophy.

Duiker hunting can be challenging; this mini-antelope has extremely refined senses, small size, camouflaged coloring, and a habit of staying in or close to the long grass and thick brush.

Most hunting calibers are used to take the duiker as it is often opportunistic. However, if targeting a Duiker, we would recommend a 243.

For those hunters who do not wish to go through the red tape of bringing a rifle into South Africa, Nick Bowker has a Sako carbon light 243 fitted with a Swarovski Z8 tactical scope.

Also, we use Sako factory ammunition.

Shoot straight up for the leg as with all African mammals for the heart-lung shot.

The Grey Duiker or bush duiker makes for a very underrated plains game hunting. Duiker hunting is a favorite pastime amongst local South Africans during hunting season. Hunting methods amongst the locals mostly involve driven hunts.