Back in the saddle

Game hunting and large prey. Deer stalking, hunting with hounds. Boar, pigs etc., large prey, culling, hunting large feral animals.

Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 29 Sep 2019, 5:21 pm

I don’t have PHOTO COMPRESS. On my iPad , this might not work
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 29 Sep 2019, 5:23 pm

Well bugger me. Just because I did it once does not mean I can do it again. If I shoot something ok size wise or a feral cat I will make the effort
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 29 Sep 2019, 5:51 pm

I had a slightly interesting incident 2 nights ago after I shot the largest pig from the mob the rest got confused and ran full boar right at me , I heard one or two rushing past me in the dry stubble beside me and my scope screen became full of out of focus pigs tightly packed together running right at me. There were lots but they were all quite small so I wasn’t too worried I remember saying out loud to myself oh oh , as I lay prone with no time to move I left my elbows in the dirt and fanned out my fingers on both hands as much as possible to provide some sort of protective basket in an effort to protect my eyes and face and braced myself hoping for the best ....but the sound of pigs running past me subsided and with no collision I took my hands away and checked the scope to see all their backsides again tightly packed but this time running away from me so somewhere in there they did about face and headed away from me ......got my adrenaline up for a bit to spur me along and keep me awake for a bit longer .......regarding hunting with others if pigs are on the move I’m mindful when prepping for the shot of making sure the biggest boar is not protected my another in front and also no pig behind him to cop some wounding scrapnel... and if I have to wait for my boar to be still and broadside for an ethical shot I sometimes have to slither around and adjust my bipod around to a new position. In the daylight two hunters who have their act together can do this well with shot placement and still be watching out for their mates out the corner of their eyes .... but in the pitch black and one target stationary and the other one moving fast from left to right and sometimes with the wind a bit fickle or in stressful situations I see the potential for my bullet to take away half of my mates head......so flying solo for the moment ...... there’s a few extra safety things I have to do in the dark ......if we do this sport correctly we can do it forever
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 29 Sep 2019, 5:52 pm

Bloody hell. Suns getting low I gotta go to work
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Stix » 29 Sep 2019, 6:31 pm

Blr243 wrote:incidentally does everyone here know that in some parts of Australia and roughly springtime the SOUTHERN CROSS is not visible ?)

.Im not sure if everyone here knows, but if everyone here answers you, itll be a very very long thread...lol...

And Yes BLR thats correct...even if its above the horizon it still might be too low to see some times of the year, like now..., particularly if in hilly or undulating country..
Thats where its handy to know another star constellation for this time of year...(which i always forget)...or just learn to recognise the pointers (those other 2 stars used as a reference to finding south), usually atleast one of them is visible & relatively easily to see given how bright they are...so if you know how the constellation tracks (almost rolls) over the sky, you can tell which way is south with just one pointer visible... :thumbsup:

Blr243 wrote: But just to keep stix happy I have used my iPad to take a photo of my phone for the fox photo.

Im surew im not the only one who likes to see pics mate...

And lets be very clear...while im in the burbs frantically pulling 17 tonne of weeds, doing laundry etc & wondering when im supposed to get time to do some quotes, let alone make some bloody ammo...seeing pics of your foxes & pigs doesnt make me happy--rather it eases my resentment of the capitalist society that dictates i cant be out doing the same as you right now...
So those pics are like a little broken peice off a Valium tablet to calm my frustration...... :lol:

Blr243 wrote: Looking at him now he looks a bit dull. Bearing in Mind southern Qld location do our foxes lack the beautiful full vibrant orange we see with Victorian foxes ? Or does my bloke look dull because we are past our mid winter ? Skin looked intact everywhere and he looked healthy

Its too hard to tell its colour when looking at a digital picture on a screen, of a picture taken of a digital picture on a screen, with another digital device...

I cant believe you hit that at 100 with a 243 & its intact... :crazy:
if its in good nik its a shame to not knock his clothes orf...
:drinks:
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 29 Sep 2019, 7:31 pm

Too scared of skinning a fox. Mange. Might transfer it to my dog , I don’t know if I’m over cautious or not. Regarding the 243 and the vmax and the intact dog , maybe if I turned him over it might look different. But there was no splatter on the ground. Stix if u do remember that other south finding constallation please let us know. I have googled it but not had much luck. I have rechargeable solar powered garden lights on my quad , a gps tracker , a compass and google earth on my phone but sometimes for whatever reason something goes wrong with a few of my nav meathods and I have to resort to another I also use my thermal binos to find my quad quite often. Nav is so much more important to me now when I’m operating at night in the darkest part of each month
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Die Judicii » 29 Sep 2019, 8:01 pm

Blr243 wrote:Too scared of skinning a fox. Mange. Might transfer it to my dog ,


Two things that I always pack when hunting well away from home,,,,,
1) rubber gloves (saves worrying about stuff like mange)

2) boners gloves (saves having to break camp and head for nearest hospital if I slip badly)
I do not fear death itself... Only its inopportune timing!
I've come to realize that,,,,, the two most loving, loyal, and trustworthy females in my entire life were both canines.
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by xDom » 29 Sep 2019, 9:05 pm

So, I’m not the only shooter that takes a piano keyboard on a trip!? Ha! I knew it!
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 29 Sep 2019, 9:13 pm

I have wanted to take piano and guitar to this place all along But there was never enough space, Glad I did this time.
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 29 Sep 2019, 9:20 pm

Forgot to say about 830 pm a mob of pigs about twenty turned up cruise ing across the paddock faster than normal. Wind was great. I knew I had one in the bag. Took the shot and they all scampered. I could not find the pig at first But was one of those that don’t glow a lot for some reason and he was laying flat. Right where I shot him. He glowed so little during the Preshot that I had trouble focusing on him. I expected him to have a ton of mud on him but he was clean as a whistle. Beats me. Tried to get a fox on carcass on the way back but I’m sure their night vision is so much better than pigs. He wanted to live and was not having a bar of me
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Stix » 29 Sep 2019, 9:43 pm

Blr243 wrote: Stix if u do remember that other south finding constallation please let us know. I have googled it but not had much luck.


I cant remember...

What i usually do when i enter a property (or hopefully before i get lost...lol...), &/or when i know for sure which direction is which, is pick a constellation i recognise in either south east or Nth East of the sky .

I like something between approx 20 - 40 degrees up from the horizon, & dont pick anything higher than 40/45 degrees up from the horizon in the north/nth east sky (north of the east/west line), because later in the night it could be close to being overhead, & if thats the case its very hard to tell which direction its tracking in the sky, & so you can easily think you're facing Nth when you could be facing West...(I hope you understand what i mean by that)...

...take note of where it is in the sky in relation to the southern cross (or where you know the southern cross is if its just below your horizon..(again, this is early on in the night when you know your directions for sure).
So if you pick one in the north east at 10pm for example, & you know (should know) which way the sky tracks during the night, you'll be able to figure out which direction you're facing...so at 3 or 4am that constellation will likely be in the north west, & the southern cross should be (a hypothetical random wild guess for the sake of this explanation) 90-100 degrees around to your left in the south south west...

The only constellation i can bet my life on is the Southern Cross, so thats why i always use this method of picking another constellation when im actually out on that night/(that trip)..but still to be honest, when i drive in a property the last thing on my mind is the stars...im too pumped to look for other things bright & sparkly things in the paddocks, so i usuallly get lost after working on a fox...& having said that, im in a car & not on foot like you are...

Im lucky where i hunt (well shoot bunnys n foxes)--mostly close to the city (usually always within 3 hours of Adelaide)...with this, if the sky is covered from clouds & no moon, the city lights are a dead giveaway...so if im in the south east, the glow in the clouds will give away N/NW...if im 3 hrs East of Adelaide in the Mallee over near the Vic border & cant see my feet, again the glow in the clouds tells me where west is...

Im not sure how far from the nearest reasonable sized city you are hunting, but id have thought if you can get mobile signal, you'd be able to see the electricity (reflected glow of city lights) in the sky so to speak (if cloudy).

Hope that helps...& hope ive explained myself well enough to understand...
:drinks:
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 30 Sep 2019, 6:56 am

Excellent stix. Thanks for taking the time. I will take a screenshot of your post
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 30 Sep 2019, 7:27 am

I ended up getting another three pigs last night. They are becoming very nervous if they turn up at all on my paddocks. Even two hund metres away with no noise from me and no chance of scent they are spooking almost as if they are jumping at shadows .....at about 2 am I decided to chance a big loop and head back to the quad hoping to deal with the wind as best I could along the way. It’s been quite erratic. No pigs for the walk but I saw a sitting cat quite close to me so after looking intently and ensuring it was not a crouched hare I laid the bipod and myself down in the soil, A bit of a focus and bingo. The cat instantly laid back flat without a skerrick of movement. I’m glad I found that cat in that long long walk.
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 30 Sep 2019, 7:31 am

No more finches and budgies for this cat
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 30 Sep 2019, 7:36 pm

My second last night has just begun. After checking the wind I pulled up on my quad in my usual spot and scanned, nothing as I expected. Checked rifle and filled magazine , scanned , two small pigs arrived early. Because of their numbers, size behaviour and which part of the bush they come from I often get the idea of which ones I’m dealing with. Good to c them so early. I did not even have time to get the dog from his cage walked 200 to the north to improve my wind direction then I cut across to them. Early in the night the winds are great and I’m confident the stalk is just a formality I shot the first and then quickly reloaded o n the slim chance that his brother might run then prop briefly but he reacted startled to the shot walked 2 or three steps then head down with snout in the soil and commenced vigorously feeding again. So I shot him and then had to pinch myself to see if that was real. Thirty something years I been doin this and never seen that before. He can’t have been deaf because I saw him react to the sound ( no 22 subs here This was a factory 243 at 50 metres. ,,, On two other occasions I have tried to get these two and both times they have evaded me with there suspicious nature and cunning. Ocassioally if I soot one the mob might run 2oo yards then start feeding again nervously and I have sneaked in to get more of them but usually they are all just gone from the paddock like lightning ......Nice to have a coupl on the ground so early. A good start to the night. I need to scan again
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by duncan61 » 30 Sep 2019, 9:21 pm

good work
.22 winchester .22hornet .222 .243 7mm rem mag cbc 12g
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 30 Sep 2019, 10:28 pm

Thanks dunc. Unfortunately I fell asleep after those last two and woke about ten to find a nice fat sow at 400 m and in good wind position so off I went. She went down with no fuss. Good things come to those who wait ( or fall asleep) ....In the process of laying my binos across her body for a steady scan of some long distance objects further out I got a fair bit of herb scent on me , so hoping Deisel does not firmly attach himself to my ear when I lay down beside him. It’s a quiet night here but I’m still getting a few
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 01 Oct 2019, 6:17 am

My scent and tithe sound s from My rifle had scared game away from paddock one so I packed up the swag and drove slowly on the top edge of number two looking for some pigs or a better camp spot and I found a couple maybe 25o from the edge but they were slightly spooked by the sound of my quad. I cut the engine asap and watched them with binos hoping for them to stop an relax . Even though they were still moving I was hopefull they would stop and feed so I gather d my gear and walked the edge of the paddock until I could catch up with them and enterd the paddock in a more favourable wind position , they had by now relaxed and were feeding well , But most nights here some of the surrounding properties have shooters driving them for most of the night. I can see.the glows and hear the pops of their rifleshots ,,,unfortunately this time they were closer nd the shots sounded a little louder than pops My pigs were propped alert and listening to determine the location......I could not quite get the bipod on the ground quick enough before they started to run in the opposite direction of the gunfire. Bugger it. But I used my left hand to drag one leg of the bipod around to the left as they continued to motor. I was waiting for a STOP. AND CHECK and I took the shot when one did that. He went down and I continued to prep for a shot on the second. He propped too so I did not muck around and I got him ,, feeling stoked to be able to get a second I waked back to my quad.
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 01 Oct 2019, 6:31 am

After that episode I found a good location to camp , scan and snooze for the remainder of the evening. As I set up I was getting food and water ready for my dog but he was intently sniffing the ground and air. At first I thought , just dead pigs but realised I should probably check. A quick scan revealed a broadside standing fox near a carcass. Deisel was on a long lead and I did not want him wandering in front of my bipod as I was about to shoot so I franticly But silently secured him closer to my quad. I had the rifle ready turned on focused and I think vid cam on as well ,,, initially he was watching me but then he turned away and looked fwd as if he was going to start walking off. That’s when I used a whistle to temporarily distract him so I would have enough time to make a good shot It worked ,, I touched the trigger. Heard the bullet singing through the air and was rewarded by the sound of a solid hit he lay still. I think I had the video turned on too,,,',,a good way to end the night. On inspection his back end was mangy so I kept my distance. I counted out 130 metres on my walk back to the quad. I camped and set alarms and scanned but there was no more action for the next 1 1/2 hours pre dawn. ......back to my accommodation for some coffee and bacon and eggs
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 01 Oct 2019, 6:54 am

Check out the beautiful coat on this fox the rump condition has nothing to do with mr hornady. This is mange. There are different types of mange Sarcoptic mange is a Seroius contagious skin infection caused my burrowing mites. It can be caught by horses pigs dogs etc. BEWARE !
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Sergeant Hartman » 01 Oct 2019, 8:36 am

As usual nice reading your stories mate
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Sergeant Hartman » 01 Oct 2019, 8:39 am

As usual nice reading your stories mate
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 01 Oct 2019, 8:54 am

tonight will be my last nights hunting after that there will be no more stories for a while unlesss I start makeing them up but I’m not that pathetic. So somebody from here is going to have to take over
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Wm.Traynor » 01 Oct 2019, 2:00 pm

It's been a pleasure to hear from you, BLR :D :thumbsup:
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 01 Oct 2019, 8:39 pm

Good to hear you are enjoying the adventure , Despite the winds giving me a hard time in the middle of the night I have always enjoyed great strong consistent winds from the south west for about the first 3 hrs of the night. The internet said otherwise for tonight and it was right I had to start my hunt from the southwest of the paddock s but it’s been working for me I have seen a couple of mobs, shot two from a mob and then shot a fox. And it’s only 830 pm. My goal was 36 pigs for the trip and have 35 pigs I think three foxes and a cat. I have tried very hard under difficult circumstances sometimes and done well considering the pigs aren’t in the numbers they were here a month ago and they are so much more nervous this time. .....just planning for the moment if I stay temp camped here or if I gradually and quietly work my quad into the wind across towards my usual numb 1 paddock
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 03 Oct 2019, 12:01 pm

I ended up shooting another pig and two mote foxes that night , I sort of lost my mojo when I reached my goal of 36 pigs. It seemed that I no longer needed or cared to try. Viscious cold winds assaulted me after midnight despite several layers and enough jackets to start my own clothing store I simply could not stand up in the wind to scan with binos without cringing and shaking ....it did not feel like October in Qld. ...I felt like I was stuck in a murderous blizzard on the South Pole.... I lay down on my mattress and covered us in a sleeping bag to try to protect us from the wind I curled my body around my dog to shield him. He was in heaven getting all this attention but it did not stop him from farting I ignored all further alarms and woke to full daylight and no more wind. 36 pigs , five foxes and one cat , And we both hade it home to bris in one piece, Now we continue on with a boring lack lustre city existence
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Wm.Traynor » 03 Oct 2019, 1:44 pm

Ah but you've done some excellent shooting mate and you will have some great memories.

ps where in heck in Qld was that? Musta bin right out west eh? not looking forward to that weather coming here :thumbsdown:
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Blr243 » 03 Oct 2019, 2:58 pm

Good ol Gundy Weather wise I will be able to handle the nights from now on surely in a months time the cold will be gone. During the day s I will have my small portable air con and hunting during the nights the temps will b perfection. With a bit of luck my pta will come soon and I can have my new shotgun on my next adventure
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Re: Back in the saddle

Post by Wm.Traynor » 03 Oct 2019, 7:10 pm

Blr243 wrote:Good ol Gundy Weather wise I will be able to handle the nights from now on surely in a months time the cold will be gone. During the day s I will have my small portable air con and hunting during the nights the temps will b perfection. With a bit of luck my pta will come soon and I can have my new shotgun on my next adventure


Makes sense. It was 7C in Ipswich last night. :)
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