Airgun Hunting in South Africa with Richard Leonard - Unseen Footage

We join Air Arms ambassador, Richard Leonard out on the Eastern Coast of South Africa as he reveals all of the unseen moments throughout season 1.

In this episode, Richard is out in the Eastern Cape taking you through a journey of unseen hunts filmed through out the past 12 months filming Season 1. Most of these hunts are a product of unfinished hunts that didn't make an episode.

The first hunt of the day is on a horse farm on the coastal belt of the eastern cape of South Africa on the look out for birds. The farm is always full of life and it's one of Richards favorite spots as it always produces. He spots a Turtle Dove on a wire and moves into position. One shot and the bird twists straight down, falling off the wire. These birds are beautiful and make a good meal.

For the next hunt, Richard teams up with Nico in the Fort Beauford area to tackle a Dassie problem. Dassie usually populate the cliff faces so they cant be very difficult to take down and often involves a lot of climbing. Luckily Richard spots a a lone dassie sunbathing on a rock and he makes his slow approach into the bushes. With a small window of opportunity, Richard takes the dassie with a head shot through a small shooting hole. Unfortunately, it roles off the rock and into the vegetation below, meaning Richard must crawl down the rocks and climb back up towards the point where the dassie disappeared.

This hunt reminds Richard of the time he was on the hunt for Ground Squirrels in the Northern Cape in the mid day heat. Even though most of the squirrels were taking cover from the scorching 44 degree heat, Richard was lucky to find a few poking their heads out. These clever animals are hard to catch. With exceptional eye sight and danger sense, Richard needs to be quick on the mark. But with one quick head shot, the squirrels didn't see him coming. The population of ground squirrels in this area is clear from the many holes dotted about the open space.
However, what was thought to be ground squirrels turned out to be Meerkats and Richard spends a few moments marveling over these fascinating creatures.

Unfortunately, meetkats are extremely territorial and Richard is forced to move on. The further away from the meerkats he walks, the more ground squirrels reveal themselves and Richard finds himself with another opportunity. Rocks are usually great cover for these pests but Richard is too fast for this squirrel and he takes it down just before it climbs back into the hole.

Throughout the season, Richard has used many different Air Arms rifles. He began with the S410 TDR which blew his expectations away while hunting Dassie. After this, Air Arms sent over the Galahad which Richard found to be incredibly accurate and gave him a whole lot of really successful hunts. The success of the Galahad brought along the Air Rifle of the Year: Air Arms Ultimate Sporter XS and with the new regulator in place Richard found further successes and more reason to love the brand. Finally, Richard was sent the latest Air Arms in the form of the S510 TDR. Lightweight and pinpoint accuracy is perfect for Richards 'run and gun' approach to pest control and really helps when putting in those hard miles.

The final hunt took Richard to a run down building in Port Elizabeth. It was a vast contrast to hunting pigeons in beautiful open fields that Richard is used to. But with the infestation of rats harming the local residents, Richard needed to take them out. Unfortunately only one or two showed their faces and he vowed to come back and solve the problem.

Richard is lucky to have such a wonderful area to hunt and has taken many different species over the season. Thanks to the online support, Richard is able to bring you excellent content and he cannot thank the viewers enough.