Hunt Reports

[RoginaJack]

O Gee, Thanks OB, that's the nicest thing i've had said about me all month..

[Oldbloke]

O Gee, Thanks OB, that's the nicest thing i've had said about me all month..

Same goes for cat and fox shooters.

[FlyingStick]

Hi All - think this is my first post in this thread, as a new hunter I have not had much to post.

I have been having some luck with my property search near the family beach house in South Gippsland. It's convenient as I can take the family up for a weekend mini-holiday but can sneak out early in the morning for a quick hunt/scout. My latest success was whilst driving to the beach with the family I spotted a sneaky fox gunning it across the road into a large farm. I thought - what the hell and drove up into the drive way and was met by a beautiful GSP and a really nice lady that owned the property. After a quick chat I got the nod of approval and a phone number, with the last bit of information being the place is approx 1500 acres (!!! Biggest property yet for me!). Next trip sorted! She tells me the place is riddled with bunnies and foxes, and plenty deer (!!!) from an old deer farm that was shut down and deer left to go wild (I'm not sure I can wing another gun/bigger call this year with wifey lol). The place is only a 10 minute drive to the beach - could get some fishing in too!

Anyhow - I headed out Sunday morning to one of the other properties I've been able to get onto to see if I can snag a fox that I missed out on a few weeks ago. I'm yet to bag a fox, and really keen to do so - so I was pretty dedicated to calling one in. After calling for a good hour into a solid headwind, after ignoring the many white flashes of bunny asses bouncing along the fences of the property, the pressure of going home empty handed won and I thought I would have a crack at a bunny at decent range with the 223. I could see an area where they kept popping in and out of and settled into the mud and probable cow s**t to get a nice steady supported position. He kept coming out of cover however was not comfortable with the shot presented so patiently waited a while till he showed me a good shot. In hindsight - I should have went with the headshot (we eat bunnies!) however I've been a little worried about the Howa, particularly thee scope as I have missed a few easy shots (I now know it's likely me!) so aimed at centre of mass.

Boom - thwack, bunny down. He didn't move. .Was a decent shot at a good distance (by my standards). Bunny looked in decent condition when I got to him - after cleaning him up at home I realised I was wrong and he was mush on the inside. Pity - felt like a waste of meat however one less pest for the farmer to deal with.

Anyhow - sorry, long post, however I love this stuff and can talk about it for hours, and unfortunately for me, I'm in IT and work in an office and this topic is a spiky one where I work, so I have no one to tell my stories

Anyhow, posted a few pictures, one of the beautiful hills I get to stare at as the sun rises. Next trip is to visit that 1500 acre property and see if I can bring that GSP along

[Pythonkeeper]

Looks like a nice spot FlyingStick....

I got out again on Friday, searched all morning for pigs and didn't see a thing for hours. Stopped for a bite to eat on top of a dirt mound up the end of the paddock, looked like pigs had been up there very recently. I was standing there munching away on a muesli bar (shotgun still in hand) minding my own business and I look down and around 15 metres away two pigs were leisurely walking up the hill towards me, they noticed me just as I noticed them, for a moment we looked at each other in shock/surprise and as we realised what was going on up came the shottie as the pigs turn to leg it into the thick tall grass, I pull the trigger and get a solid hit on a broadside boar, this didn't stop him though, he took off at full noise into the thick stuff, a quick follow up shot into pig number two's back end and he was off like a shot too, I ran after them in hot pursuit and came across a medium sized black and white pig off to my right quartering away, got a shot into that one too it let out a squeal and kept going. Came up on pig number two again and got another shot into him but still he didn't go down, in the meantime there were a few more pigs taking off in all directions but I couldn't get a visual to take another shot, it all died down after that so I set upon the task of finding the ones I'd shot as I was confident at least 2 of them would be piled up close by.
I search for 30-40 mins and couldn't find a thing, not even a blood trail, I was positive I got a couple of good shots in but started to second guess myself and gave up looking.
Anyway, fast forward to the afternoon and I came up to the same area and had another look while I was there, after 5 mins I found boar number one lying there in the grass only 20-30 metres from where I shot him, this set my mind at ease a bit, I had a look around for the others but it's so thick in there that you pretty much have to trip over them to find them, even when you see where they drop.
On the hike back to camp, I had a big black and white boar run past across the paddock around 100 metres away, needed the rifle for this guy, to far for the shottie, I watched him run down into the creek, and up the other side joined by his mob of 10 or so that must have been down in the creek bed foraging, I ran after them and tracked them through the scrub for a bit, got within 70-80 metres before I lost them, apart from a little mob of piglets that was the last of the action for the weekend...
I've attached a pic of pig number one, he's a little bloated from sitting out the the sun all day.

[YoungBuck]

Anyhow - sorry, long post, however I love this stuff and can talk about it for hours, and unfortunately for me, I'm in IT and work in an office and this topic is a spiky one where I work, so I have no one to tell my stories

Nice one, I'm in the same boat working in IT and I think I might be about the only shooter in the whole organisation so I don't get to share a lot of stories.
You are fortunate to have access to good land like that, make sure you keep up the good relations with the owner!

I got out again on Friday, searched all morning for pigs and didn't see a thing for hours.

This is one thing I don't like about Vic, the pigs that are around here are very very scarce. I'm hanging to hunt some pigs, I still need to plan that pig hunting trip.

[YoungBuck]

Where have all the bunnies and foxes gone? Went to my usual property, spotlighted on foot all round the property, not a single eye twinkle in sight (apart from 6 possums).
Then the next day, hit up another forest not far away for nearly 5 hours on foot calling all throughout... not a fox/bunny/hare in sight (but about 30 friggin wallabies)

[Oldbloke]

Youngbuck.
I think the last release of the calci virus has hit the rabbits pretty hard. It's winter and the strain was designed to work better in higher rain fall areas. Released about 5 months ago. Hardly any in my region.

[bigfellascott]

Well done boys keep the stories coming. I was out the other week shooting a few foxes with my mate who was operating the spotlight whilst I was on the gun, we saw 3 and got to shoot at 2 with both those hitting the deck which was great, longest shot was just over 300m and the other around 200m resulting in a sore head for the fox LOL, the other shot resulted in a hole in the boiler room which was a great result too, they sure are flighty at this time of year, some are happy to sit for a few seconds and others are gone as soon as the light hits em.

[duncan61]

Great yarn both.been there I know how hard it is to stop shaking after the action.Did you have solids or SG

[Oldbloke]

"not to many pests though." I thought you had a really big pest you would like to eliminate.

[Bent Arrow]

Got away to one of my very favourite blocks last week. Got onto a couple of young nannies and filled part of the freezer. These photos tell the best part of the story.......

_20170815_194811.JPG (665.33 KiB) Viewed 5697 times

_20170815_194744.JPG (427.44 KiB) Viewed 5697 times

[bigfellascott]

Love eating Goat! well done mate.

[YoungBuck]

HAHA! That blood spatter is awesome!

[Pythonkeeper]

Great yarn both.been there I know how hard it is to stop shaking after the action.Did you have solids or
SG

Duncan, if that question was directed at me, I only had 21 pellet buck on me, haven't tried solids, the oldman (dad) reckons that's all he used to use on pigs and goats back in the day.......solids will have to wait for a while though, got the new 30-30 yesterday so that will be the tool of choice for the next few trips....

[duncan61]

30/30 is perfect for pigs.Good luck

[juststarting]

I thought I'd share my latest adventure... I've been stalking a lot. For the last two+ years, at least couple of days per month, in the colder months... Anyhow, learning to sift bulls**t and myths from reality, ultimaltely trying to sneak up on a Sambar, as close as I can with the animal being completely unaware is the ultimate goal. Probably a better outcome to compared to shooting one on the run, when speed overrides cautiousness.

Last trip, I am sitting on top of a hill, surveying this organic fridge I am sitting in and there's bambi (though, by the colour I am thinking it may have been her brother), completely oblivious walking about 80m at the bottom of the gully, towards me, at its cruising speed (which is not exactly slow). Rifle up and all I see is bum, tree, bum, tree, gut, tree, tree, bum, bush and it's gone. Completely unaware that I am there. I didn't have a good shot and I wasn't going to shoot unless I at least had the back of the lungs in crosshair, so I let it pass and thought I'd drop down and follow. Check wind, nope, didn't even bother dropping down. I am fairly certain that it would have sniffed me out anyway, due to wind, the moment it crossed me.

Next morning, I am countouring along, sneaking around like a bogan ninja and think to myself, that's a funny looking log a bit below me. And as most of you have experienced, the mind plays tricks on you, everything starts looking like a deer, so I was in a neutral state at that stage, being fully aware that there's a high likelyhood it's my brain looking for patterns.

Checked it out through my 'view finder', thought I'd scan what's around while at it... Nope, not a log, a reasonable size doe standing there, eating, about 40m. scanned a little more, thinking maybe I'll see its boyfriend, nope... Safety off, crosshair on the shoulder and my arms start to shake. I am thinking, get your s**t together spazz, you've done this before. I wasn't tired, I wasn't out of breath or rythm, but a huge adrenaline spike. That thing is so close and none the wiser. By now crosshair is floating everywhere, I am thinking, I have time, maybe if I just lean against this tree, VERY slowly. I start leaning - it picks up movement in its periphery and looks straight at me. Wind is in my favour, I am blending in to the side of a hill, it's still trying to figure out what I am, ears and eyes are now dead on me. At this stage, I am trying to do my best jedi mind trick on her, I am a tree, I am a tree, ffs just keep eating... Aaaaaand she's off. I am thinking, well, that was interesting, a second later another one sprints out from behind whatever it was standing behind and all I see is its bum flying up and down getting out of there and rightfully so.

On a positive note, parts of bambi did eventually come home with me, as it ran straight past another shooter, positioned for an event like this, sitting on another side of the hill.

On a conflicted note, I have mixed emotions about this one. Obviously I would have liked to be the shooter, but then I think getting so close to two mature (i.e. mature = alive = not retarded) unaware animals, probably better than shooting a spooked one on the run (for me anyway). Sort of conflicted.

The end.

[Oldbloke]

I've had those experiences too. You get used to it eventually.

It's called stiff s**t.

[bigfellascott]

Thanks for sharing that JS, it was a good read and brought back plenty of memories of my early days hunting.

[Member-Deleted]

Well there ya go anti gun people say that guns do nothing for them but you have proven otherwise to us
Good story and what a buzz it must have been for you shakes and all
I think most of us have had an episode similar to that at some stage of our shooting life i think thats what keeps us doing it

Cheers

[marksman]

often a bark or a cough will pull them up just long enough to take the shot,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFkLE4JFGfA
these shooting sticks are very affordable as well as easy to have with you for these times
I have perfected the drop to the knee and take the shot with these, I rate them very highly

[sungazer]

Did you know the other hunter was there?

[Oldbloke]

Those sticks do look good till you see the price. Seen them at the shot show.

[juststarting]

I do a lot of uphill, sticks are just not practical and an unnecessary weight. Different shooting position is of course always an option, but that's all benifits of hindsight.

[juststarting]

Did you know the other hunter was there?

Yes, I did.

[YoungBuck]

Couldn't help but laugh at the first comment of those sticks:
"Damn things sound like a skeleton having a wank in a biscuit tin, rattle your knuckles when trying to set them up, fill the ferrules full of crud, and would be generally more use for buttering hedgehogs than a shooting aid . . ."

[marksman]

I bought 2 sets delivered from the US for $100 a couple of years ago, at the moment you can get them off ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BIPOD-Shooting- ... 0543462465
if you bought 2 pairs like I did $136 delivered
they do rattle when assembling them just like the comment says LOL but in use they don't make any noise
how I use them is to pull the legs back and hold them on the stock, then let the legs go as I am getting on my knee for the shot
they are pretty handy for bush stalking quick shots and no shake, they weigh the same as two bits of fark all
since having them I have made myself a set with 1 piece legs out of 1 meter long 10mm carbon fibre rod

[Rikta]

Last time i went out for a shot I nailed a couple foxes and the old boy gave a cat a texas heartshot... was a good night

[YoungBuck]

Went out again yesterday (had RDO) to one of my usual forests to try and bag a fox or two. Was in there for about 5 hours total, saw nothing...
Could smell fox at about three different locations and found plenty of scat but nothing came to the call all day. Is this a bad time of year for calling?

[Oldbloke]

BFscott will know better than me but, I think yes. Generally winter is slow. Should pick up about December.
I don't worry about it, still see the odd one. Foxes are more interested in mating/breeding during winter.

[bigfellascott]

Went out again yesterday (had RDO) to one of my usual forests to try and bag a fox or two. Was in there for about 5 hours total, saw nothing...
Could smell fox at about three different locations and found plenty of scat but nothing came to the call all day. Is this a bad time of year for calling?

yes it is