Back in the saddle

[Blr243]

Previous hunting trips here I have had good winds and just swagged it on rhe edge of the paddocks, moving into the paddocks for stalking as needed. But this time the winds have been giving me grief and I have had to up and move a few times during the night .. I had my pushbike on top of the Ute last night and twice I used it to good effect , jumping on it for 2 or 3 hundred metres on the tracks to get me into a more down wind position very quickly and with minimum effort , it’s no good in the cultivation. Too soft. I would just sink and steering would be impossible but on the perimeter vehicle tracks it’s fine I have filled the tyres with slime and have pre purchased thorn resistant tubes, So far no flats. Not that many pigs in the paddocks last night, I got 5 , unreliable winds. Early this morning pre dawn I thought I might have to go do a bit of a daylight hunt today to help keep my tallies up but I’m shagged and going nowhere. I will do some thinking today about how I can constantly improve results even if it’s only a little.

[Die Judicii]

With the ever shifting winds, sooner or later your tally of corpses are gonna catch up with you as well.

We don't seem to have any emoticons for stinking rotten pig flesh. XXX

[Blr243]

I’m totally ok with the smell of dead pigs everywhere and with the heat lately decomposition is going to be faster .....if I managed to get hold of some scales to weigh that big boar I got the other night I don’t think it would be very pleasant now trying to hoist him up of the ground ......I’m not religious but I feel like praying for firm consistent winds for the rest of my trip

[Blr243]

It was blowing a gale today but now has settled down to just a nice firm wind in a consistent direction and coming from a location that suits me setting up where I usually prefer to. The new quad set up worked a treat getting here and I saw a small mob within ten mins of my arrival. On the walk out to them I could smell a dead pig that I had shot previously. Took the sow with no dramas. Nothing else about for the moment so back to the quad and snacking in between pigs

[Blr243]

Immediately after I got back to the quad the small mob I had just shot at returned but they were real nervous and running everywhere very erratically....I thought they had calmed after a while so I ventured into the paddock to c what I could do. All was well. Wind was good. I was making no noise and there was no way they could smell my quad and dog either so I was very suprrised when they just up and bolted. I can only assume that because just earlier I shot one from their mob so they were quiet nervous and maybe they caught a whiff of dead pig and that tipped them over the edge. Anyway. Back to the quad..... as soon as I got back I scanned again and there was a good mob way out in the open. They were relaxed and it took me a very big walk but I got the boar from the mob and walked back to the quad. Now that I’m here scanning there’s bugger all left in the northern end of paddock one so we are going to move and get into a better position because scanning has revealed activity in paddock two and we can get there unannounced with the wind the way it is. My legs are tired I need a rest but really haven’t got time at the moment.

[Blr243]

So , I have arrived at padd 2. Seen a small mob about 600 m away and a ton of Roos scattered about. Went out. Picked a pig. Shot it. Made it back to the quad and my ever patient dog. Uped and moved south. Now at a junction between one and two. Not much going on so will rest up for a bit in the swag and see if something turns up

[Blr243]

I was awoken by my alarm after moving to a new spot ( every time my alarm rang I thought GO TO HELL but ever time I still got out of bed and scanned my surroundings This time was no different ) I was a bit dopey from napping but only a hundred metres away either a fox or cat was sitting next to a pig carcass ....I knew in my post nap state of semi awareness that I must not stuff up here and accidentally shoot my dog that may have somehow escaped his collar and wandered over to chew on the pig ... so I checked under the blankets and there he was still enjoying the warmth of the swag and very much secured ..... game this close was new for me I usually have to walk 300 to 1200 from the quad to take a shot. I lay the rifle on the ground , turned on the scope and adjusted the focus .. I love it when a fox is sitting down but upright facing me give ing me some leeway for elevation and making me concentrate mainly on windage but this fox was not so cooperative. He was sitting down on his bum but upright looking my way but his chest facing off to the left thus giving me a 45 degree target. Haveing only just woken up and still trying to assemble my brain cells in some sort of order I had the scope set on high power and centred the reticle on his chest. I touched off and was rewarded with the view of the fox now laying flat and perfectly still not kicking or wriggling . So I walked over feeling quite good because I’m usually a dumb pig hunter that can probably only shoot big things ..... I took a photo and walked back to the quad ....at some stage before or after the fox I can’t remember I shot another pig. Making it four pigs and a fox for the night

[Wm.Traynor]

Good shooting BLR and thanks for posting

[Blr243]

Glad to hear you are enjoying the read. Haveing access to this site out here is helpful to me too. It gives me some sort of human contact that I would otherwise be without ... no people just Roos pigs and pigeons out here ( and the pigs definitely aren’t talking to me , I recon it’s the 243 I carry with me everywhere) ..the other night when I woke up in the middle of the night to my alarm I found myself talking to my dog for nearly ten seconds before I remembered he does not speak English. I had to duck into town quickly for some basic supplies today and it’s surprising how just a few days in the bush can turn off your city skills eg remember to indicate, placing stuff on the counter at the shops, remembering your PIN number, neatly parking , talking to people. I’m a bit out of practice .....

I now have some better insect repellent, a bottle type fly trap. And some flypaper dangling sticky traps. I was not enjoying a loosing battle with them before but now I’m armed and welcoming their attack. “Get in the ring “you bas#######ds

[Stix]

Good stuff BLR...i both love reading about the hunting, & hate you at the same time...

Pics man...bloody hell...pics...

Where's the fox...?..!!

I like those shots when fox is sitting facing you but on an angle...because i want to keep the skins, & depending on the angle its sitting on, it makes me concentrate more on the shot as to whether i sneak the bullet just past the front of the near shoulder bone deep into the chest to liquify the contents, or smack the shoulder blade to splinter it a little through the chest cavity with the aim of not getting an exit wound either way...but they're pretty soft little creatures though, & pretty tough in a way too, so even with little bullets in the 204 exits often happen...

At 100 yds/metres, you were never gonna miss it...poor widdL foxie...but congratulations all the same...

[Sergeant Hartman]

Hmm i think you need someone to help you mate... two people aiming together at same mob mean 2 puffs go down. I am sure you would have a few people like stix etc jumping up at the opportunity. The side benefit you keep your practice of English up.

Haha

[Blr243]

I take photos of everything I shoot to help me keep a tally because if I have a very exciting night it all sort of blurs into one , and as I get tired about two am I’m battling to function ( except when it comes to rifle safety I’m super aware of muzzle direction and chamber empty or not, place ing the rifle down somewhere that the dog or I can’t walk in front of it in the dark / trigger finger outside the guard etc ) I’m super switched on with all that ..... so my photography record is my memory back up and I carry my ph on me because it’s easier than carrying my iPad.....I also use google earth on my phone to confirm my exact position if I have been focused on pigs moving around after 30 mins I could end up anywhere. ( incidentally does everyone here know that in some parts of Australia and roughly springtime the SOUTHERN CROSS is not visible ?) Because Vodaphone DONT work real good out here I have purchased temporary SIM cards / data plan etc from Telstra.... my iPad is still going strong but my phone I think has run out of credit. So not easy to post pics at the moment. But just to keep stix happy I have used my iPad to take a photo of my phone for the fox photo. 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

[Blr243]

I don’t have PHOTO COMPRESS. On my iPad , this might not work

[Blr243]

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

[Blr243]

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

[Blr243]

Bloody hell. Suns getting low I gotta go to work

[Stix]

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...

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......

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...
if its in good nik its a shame to not knock his clothes orf...

[Blr243]

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

[Die Judicii]

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)

[xDom]

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

[Blr243]

I have wanted to take piano and guitar to this place all along But there was never enough space, Glad I did this time.

[Blr243]

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

[Stix]

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...

[Blr243]

Excellent stix. Thanks for taking the time. I will take a screenshot of your post

[Blr243]

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.

[Blr243]

No more finches and budgies for this cat

[Blr243]

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

[duncan61]

good work

[Blr243]

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

[Blr243]

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.