Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Thinking of a Sand Grouse Hunt

Anyone ever had the pleasure? Might make my bucket list, would like to get anyone's ideas on it.
Thanks, Kid

Those things are fast! My wife took her Ithaca pump to Namibia in 2012 and shot a few at a waterhole one morning.

Our Own Mule deer and Eileen clowning around on a Sand Grouse shoot with me a few years ago!





My advice to to pair it with your Plains Game safari...the daily flight only lasts about 1/2 hour

yes, sounds like an add-on, vs the main event.

We shot a few Sand grouse one evening before dark while hunting buffalo in Zimbabwe. Beautiful birds! My partner and myself tried to shoot a few dove one day around a waterhole, too. I can remember we were given a WIDE variety of shot/shells for that...a good time! It was a nice break to take from the big game.

They humbled me in Masailand. I was using my Valmet/Tikka 512 in 12ga/9.3X74R. I swear I was shooting the rifle barrel by mistake. I made a lot of holes in the air. I did manage to have one fly into a shot string. They're a unique bird and are like shooting a cross between snipe and mourning doves.

Just did the sand grouse add on in Namibia and it was great.

you will have about 1 hour in the morning and 1/2 to 1 hour in the afternoon.

there is guinea fowl (different kinds) and francolin (different kinds), doves to go with the sand grouse.

Shot them in the Kalahari on both my Safaris in Botswana. Sporty wingshooting at a waterhole.

I did two mornings of hunting the Sand Grouse...was a nice little break from all the stalking, well worth it!

And yes, very sporting!

Don't just think about it... absolutely do it!
I planned it into a plains game hunt in Namibia years ago, and it was wonderful. We had two species coming to water holes on our farm... Burchells and Namaqua. Fast action twice a day, though you had to find them again after a few shoots because it being a wet year in the Kalahari they could shift holes easily. If you can hit Mourning Dove, you can hit Sand Grouse. I did just fine with a 20 ga.

Great sport well worth it but I would do it as an add on to plains game hunting. There is surprising variety around the water holes, I think I shot seven types of birds: sand grouse, dove, guinea, and waterfowl. I had a fish eagle retrieve an Egyptian goose for me. Landed in the water and I was reluctant to wade in and retrieve it as crocs and hippo's can show up even in small waterholes. The eagle grabbed the bird and I was surprised it could get airborne with it. I yelled at the eagle and it dropped the bird within 20 feet of me. I dressed some of the birds for a tip to the eagle.

My Namibian hunts were the same. We hunted birds while waiting for out capes to dry for several days at the end of our hunt. LOTS of birds and great shooting. The nuances were: we had a worker who hide in the bush and was called out to collect birds, the birds we shot went straight to the worker, we were told if we wanted to eat some we needed to ask the worker if we could have some of the birds. Damn turtles were faster than most labs getting to birds we dropped into the pond - guess they have to eat also. Staying after the doves and grouse leave is a worthy event seeing all sorts of different birds, plus who knows what might walk in but after all the shooting I never saw anything but birds. I shot birds 4 or 5 times. Shotgun shells are expensive in Namibia, our PH let us have them pretty much at cost but if I recall, it was $1 a round.

I found them easier to shoot than our doves. We sat near water and the birds pretty much used the same routes.