Fri night basic field report

[Blr243]

Pre dusk I started on a hole that was not too far from where the big mob was seen but wind was random and nothing showed up. Traveled and glassed on the way to my remote waterhole I think 3 or 4 separate visits from pigs keen for a drink and a wallow ( there’s a ton of roo ticks areound here lately ). All pigs smallish couldn’t bring myself to shoot any I reckon I’m getting old and soft. But, on the way to to remote hole I found something interesting. Wherever I c a pig pad crossing a road it’s always a single file track. But not tonight .... it was mostly 6 or eight feet wide and looked like a mob of cattle had moved through there. It must have been last night late because I went thru there last night and did not see the crossing. I can’t finish this because I’m sitting glassing with a good firm wind in my face and a mob is headed my way , gotta get prepped. Looks too small to be the massive mob but I not fussy .

[Wm.Traynor]

"A mob headed your way"?! Good hunting mate

[Blr243]

Pig I shot here half hour ago was ok but I forgot to turn the video on. Shame because it wood have been good footage. , anyway this mob is taking its time to get here. I’m anxious... I would roll a smoke while I wait if I was a smoker

[Blr243]

It’s almost as if they have found a dead roo along the way. Really taking their time. There must be a sow on heat amongst them. Every now and then I see high spot in the mob that is usually long horizontal shape Anyway these tracks I found they are not in an area I frequent. I only pass through here every night usually twice. It’s big open boring paddock. Clear cultivation moonscape type. But I think I will just have to stake it out all night in the hope that the big mob comes thru again. I just looked up and that randy boar is at it again. I tried to shoot one shagging about three months ago but it did not work out ..... the tracks from the big mob were between bedding bush and high protein feed paddock so it’s not likely to be random event for the big mob .... Deisel is sniffing the air more than he was 10 mins ago

[Blr243]

Boar I shot roughly half hour ago. He was in a mob of roughly ten headed my way. The main mob I’m watching now I thought wood be making a beeline for me but they are super casual I reckon I gonna just go walk to them

[Blr243]

Well that was a bit of an anticlimax.... mob ended up being smaller. And as I got closer I realised why thy had taken so long to travel towards me. They were haveing a camp out in the open in the middle of the night. In the drought I wood expect them to b feeding all night .. perhaps the recent rain has forced some grubs and worms closer to the surface so they have been getting a bit more tasty tucker than usual. I got pics of the sleeping mob with my binos , But I forgot or buggered up with the wrong button when it came to filming the action. With my scope. Can’t believe I done that twice in one hour. Will post pics tomorrow. Now I wait for more hopefully they are not all camped in the scrub upwind a kilometre away

[Die Judicii]

BLR,
As I told you, I was going on my quad to see where the ones from here have vanished to.
I went up and over the mountain, an incredibly rough area (rocks, boulders, logs, washaways, and undergrowth,, in an attempt to find
them or at least sign.
Never sighted a single one.
And,, the only sign I found was about half a dozen small to medium size sets of tracks around a puddle no deeper than 2" and about 6 foot across.
They'd tried to wallow but the ground was to hard for them to get any depth.
However those prints were no more than two or three hours old

I checked all other known water spots but with no activity for at least a week.

It's got me fooked where they've all gone to.

[Blr243]

Dj. Still better to be out looking than being at home Your track description reminds me of the sandstone gorge country I used to hunt at Injune. The roughest hardest wildest country I have ever seeen It shakes 4 wheelers and 5o year old pig hunters to bits .. now I’m settled in the soft black soil country ,,,, air con tents in mid summer are the best for the dog and I .... tonight I’m going to take my mattress and camp on the open stake out Most of it will b very boring hopefully I will get as many as 5 mobs try to walk thru my trap ,,, I just heard they are doin a chopper shoot approximately two days after I leav so it looks like I timed my trip right

[Blr243]

Thurs nite waterhole

[Blr243]

Fri night mob camped in the open

[Blr243]

Wed night I shot this fox as he was doing a number 2

[Die Judicii]

Ha Ha Mate,,,,,,,
If your sleeping on the ground during the hot stuff your quite likely to have a big Brown join you in the swag.
During the stinking hot weather Browns are very active throughout the nights.
My partner does a lot of shift work,, and says there is hardly a night travelling to and from work that she doesn't see 4 or 5 cross the road
in the driving lights.

Sleep tight Mate,,,,,, and don't let the bed bugs (errrr, browns) bite.

[Blr243]

Thanks for the tip about the Browns , A team of doggers that hunts this place tells me they avoid here in summer one because it’s too hot for them and their dogs and secondly because of the amount of snakes. And now coming from you too I really need to be super careful as I walk around with my red headlight might not see them to well. I have leather shoes and gaiters but my dog has none I already had a centipede in my swag bite me I don’t want a bloody brown snake in there too .... I remember once looking thru my thermal scope indoors at a gecko and I could only see his head not body ( cold blooded) so there’s a chance I may not see snakes in my equipment...... I remember leaving the paddock last night 12 or 1 pm can’t remember but it was because I was tired and could not be comfortable sitting on the 4 wheeler so if I can make myself comfy tonight there’s a good chance I can stay out longer and maximise my chance of getting onto the big mob

[Wm.Traynor]

That air conned tent sounds like a great invention. Mankind really has come a long way
Good luck with the porkers BLR

[Die Judicii]

BLR,,,,,,,
So wheres your trail cam?, that'll tell you what time they came through last.

Speaking of not picking up reptiles with the thermal,,,,
I had an interesting night the last time out there when I saw the dog.
Firstly,,,,, I'd only just finished setting up for the night, and was sitting back relaxing when suddenly I heard a loud creak and then the
ground shook.
A big old termite infested iron bark tree fell over in the darkness less than 20 meters from the ute.
Being that close, and hearing the creak my instant thought was,,,,, sh!t,, which way is it coming.

Mental note to oneself,,,,, don't park near big old trees.

At 3 am I spotted a field mouse out foraging.
I watched it for quite a while,,, and was amazed how bright he lit up in the thermal.

I guess life aint all about shooting.

[Blr243]

Thanks wynum trainer , ( how grand is my spelling) I actually have three trail cams at the moment but have been too lazy to set any of them up. Ok. Bugger it.... I’ll do it this arv I just hope the big mobs are operating to a pattern .. my fav action paddocks usually have pigs accessing them from the super thick scrub directly to the north but now I’m seeing Mobs turn up from the east and they have to cross at least a k of open cultivation to get there ( pigs camped photo was in the mid of the cultivation). If the big mob travel to and from the fav paddocks and the cross the cultivation every time and return to their original bedding area the. I have a half reasonable chance of intercepting them. But after thei first visit to the fav paddock if they decided to camp to the north in the thick then I have to start over again to work them out. I just realised as I typed that they are unlikely to go north because most of the water there has dried up. And the pigs coming from the east have a great big fantastic supply of clean water in the east. I will still set up my cams anyway ...... often chaseing pigs on motorbikes and quads when I was younger pigs would always run to the thick and often run under fences. But this big cult paddock has no fences. I have couple of times thought how exciting it would be to have three or four blokes on bikes all chaseing a big mob across the flat ( with GoPro of course )

[Blr243]

I found today while downloading video from my binos, two short vids of the dingo I nearly shot a month ago. Was good to see that footage again and reconfirm my thoughts

[Die Judicii]

I found today while downloading video from my binos, two short vids of the dingo I nearly shot a month ago. Was good to see that footage again and reconfirm my thoughts

Hey,,, I reckon I've worked out where most of our pigs have disappeared to Mate.

They've packed their bags and gone to Ferris's place,,, and no bloody wonder.
Check out the grass in his pic.

[Blr243]

Yes that was lush green. Back before power tools rifles and guitars damaged my ears I once remember locating a mob of pigs because I heard them breaking blades of grass as they were eating it

[Ferrisweil]

Hey,,, I reckon I've worked out where most of our pigs have disappeared to Mate.

They've packed their bags and gone to Ferris's place,,, and no bloody wonder.
Check out the grass in his pic. [/quote]

2 weeks ago, that property owner was having a water emergency like most other places. What a difference two can make!! Shows you how quickly the land bounces back!

[Wm.Traynor]

Thank you BLR
Your spelling is excellent but isn't it strange how the lonely human mind works sometimes. This time it's very creative

[Blr243]

Been battling the rain mud and wind. Shot a couple of pigs. Got some cool pics and vid for tomorrow morning down load from the scope ... there’s a fox in the paddock cruising along out of range and not interested in the whistle Wind is strongly in my favour he just does not want to be shot tonight.

[Blr243]

Been battling the rain mud and wind. Shot a couple of pigs. Got some cool pics and vid for tomorrow morning down load from the scope ... there’s a fox in the paddock cruising along out of range and not interested in the whistle Wind is strongly in my favour he just does not want to be shot tonight.

[Blr243]

For years we see that pigs start feeding out away from their beds late arv and we see them in the morning feeding too before it gets to hot so we assume they are feeding all night and in a lot of places perhaps that are. But on my stake out last l found the mobs coming across the open paddocks to get to the tucker paddocks all before midnight. So I reckon here that’s mostly what they are doing here atm And maybe they are doing a bit of random browsing in the safe scrub after their major feed. I noticed this mostly also in my fav paddock s a few months ago. So I know now to make sure I’m at the intercept ambush point from dark till midnight. After that it’s just goin to be hours of looking at blackness and I can do that in my sleep with my feet up and eyes closed. Was quite physically demanding trying to walk in mud wanting to accumulate under my boots last night

[Blr243]

Last mob I saw

[Ferrisweil]

What magnification you on for that pic BLR? Looks like you’re only 30-40m away?
What’s that black line in the pic on the right hand side?

[Blr243]

Ambush situation allowed me to film close and shoot close. ( but the more I hunt in the dark the more I realise how good a pigs night vision is ) and the more I do it and if my eyes are adjusted I realise on a moonless night even with cloud cover last night I can just about see in the dark enough to walk with no light as long as I’m on a clean ploughed paddock ..... I’m going to make a little cover of some sort to stop th light from my scope from shining back towards me and on the ground and on my white face .... I’ve been busted by that a few times when less than 50 m from pigs or maybe they are seeing my upright body. Not sure. 30 m max was the shot. 1.6 magnification... ( u can see the mag on screen of my pic) Regardingthe black line ......sometimes I take a screen shot from my stream vision app videos. And when I do this some random photo editing thing appears allowing me to draw lines with my finger on the photo. And if I forget it and try to swipe it puts a black line there so just me. Teething probs

[Blr243]

Ambush situation allowed me to film close and shoot close. ( but the more I hunt in the dark the more I realise how good a pigs night vision is ) and the more I do it and if my eyes are adjusted I realise on a moonless night even with cloud cover last night I can just about see in the dark enough to walk with no light as long as I’m on a clean ploughed paddock ..... I’m going to make a little cover of some sort to stop th light from my scope from shining back towards me and on the ground and on my white face .... I’ve been busted by that a few times when less than 50 m from pigs or maybe they are seeing my upright body. Not sure. 30 m max was the shot. 1.6 magnification... ( u can see the mag on screen of my pic) Regardingthe black line ......sometimes I take a screen shot from my stream vision app videos. And when I do this some random photo editing thing appears allowing me to draw lines with my finger on the photo. And if I forget it and try to swipe it puts a black line there so just me. Teething probs

[Ferrisweil]

Yeah, I get what you’re saying about the screen making a “light” that you have to cover. I’m very conscious of this and have a little pouch on my belt that stores the monocle (when I swap to scope), and the scope I keep in standby mode, so it turns on quickly and there’s no light.
I also load the gun (bolt up) when I first see the pigs, so I’m not making any noise as I approach them.