Getting lost in the bush

Varminting and vertebrate pest control. Small game, hunting feral goats, foxes, dogs, cats, rabbits etc.

Getting lost in the bush

Post by Blr243 » 21 Apr 2020, 7:36 pm

The Tasmanian tiger posted LOAD DEVELOPMENT/ GETTING LOST it reminded me about the possibility of getting lost in the scrub. Many years ago I’m hunting long grass between thallon and Dirranbandi tracking a mob of pigs because it had rained overnight and the soft red soil was making tracking easier. I don’t normally try this. This was probably the only time I have successfully managed to find a mob by following their fresh tracks. When I found warm pig poo with steam visibly rising from it I knew I was getting close ..... so I found them and used my bow to kill the biggest boar ( the others were to small to see in the long grass ) It was tons overcast and all the country and vegetation looked exactly the same About an hour after shooting the boar I was very tired and not looking fwd to the three kilometre walk back to my Ute .....so I started walking in what I thought was the correct direction and I turned on my gps. To my relief it said my Ute was only 80 m in front of me ... so somehow in that overcast weather I must have been wandering around in circles. So not exactly lost but temporarily bushed maybe .... another time I was on my quad in a massive paddock In Goondiwindi after the sun had gone down and I could not find any tracks . I was useing a new gps and for some reason could not get any sense out of it. Preferring a warm swag to a paddock full of mozzies I turned of the quad and lights and I looked up for the southern cross. With that I headed on back to the shearing shed for dinner. A good thing I think to never fully rely on your gadgets. If u can be aware of weather u are hunting N E S OR WEST of your camp site then u can use the stars to find your way home ( if it’s not super overcast ) and then u probably should have a compass in your pocket anyway .......I have probably been hunting 25 years without a compass but I do now that I’m mostly out all night ..... have you ever been lost ?
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Re: Getting lost in the bush

Post by marksman » 21 Apr 2020, 8:42 pm

what about getting lost in a paddock
l was lost for 3 hours trying to find the gate, l was spotlighting rabbits and just kept going in the same direction following the fence till 3 hours later found the gate
think we got around 50 rabbits in that paddock but it was getting scary :lol:
the farmer was wrapped with how many we got :drinks:
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Re: Getting lost in the bush

Post by Blr243 » 21 Apr 2020, 8:56 pm

Marksman do u mean u drove past the same gate several times in one big circle ?
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Re: Getting lost in the bush

Post by Blr243 » 21 Apr 2020, 8:57 pm

Marksman do u mean u drove past the same gate several times in one big circle ?
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Re: Getting lost in the bush

Post by TassieTiger » 21 Apr 2020, 9:01 pm

I got lost on Fraser islands main beach one night after a mate and I decided to drop a couple bottles of mezcal...we drove back and forth past our tent...20 times at least and drove several times from Indian head to the loading area at rainbow beach. Fug me. It was absolutely insane.
Another time, as I went to walk out of the shootin cabin in the Tas highlands by myself (aged about 14) - an old bushy yelled out to me - if you get lost, just come back to the shack...I yelled right back - no worries...in hindsight - he must have thought, what a Fuggen idiot.
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Re: Getting lost in the bush

Post by Jon79 » 22 Apr 2020, 12:05 am

years ago when I was only around 18 I got totally lost in a pine forest at night, this back 22yrs ago before everyman and his dog had a gps… I was out pig dogging in a private pine forest and the dogs had got a pig off in the distance and I bolted in there heading for the sound

Anyway when I got there and dispatched the pig I pointed its snout in the direction I had come from to give me a general idea which way to head back but I noticed one of the dogs was missing so I stopped to listen and nothing so I called out for a bit and he finally arrived back on the scene...now while I had been doing this the other dog had dragged the pig all over the place and I had lost my bearings while focusing on the missing dog

one thing about pines you cant see the stars and all the trees look the bloody same and no matter which way you look they're in a row, I headed off in what I thought (hoped) was roughly the right direction until I hit a fence I then followed the fence until I came to a track... as soon as I found the track I knew pretty much where I was and headed down the track and found the old man still sitting in the ute
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Re: Getting lost in the bush

Post by Stix » 22 Apr 2020, 12:18 am

Blr243 wrote:Marksman do u mean u drove past the same gate several times in one big circle ?


Ive been shooting on a property for 30 years...there is still a couple of paddocks i get lost in...that farmer has a laugh at me sometimes because im not game to do a particular large paddock at night...because i always get lost in it... :roll:

Ive driven around paddocks before & gone past the same gate a few times...
I went almost all they way around a paddock one night stopped just shy of the gate & decided to go back other way...no moon & thick cloud...i recognised the gate looked similar, & a small scrub patch looked similar to the one i was looking for, but not the same...
i was approaching them from the other direction which completely screwed my sense of direction up... :lol: ...was going north when i thought i was going SE... :roll:

I often get "lost" in a paddock chasing foxes at night...some of the paddocks i shoot are as big as hundreds of acres of low level rolling sand hills/stubble..when you see a set of eyes out there thats the priority...when you loose it somewhere in the middle of 300 acres of stubble...it all looks the same with nothing to reference where you are...
I usually start google maps before i go out of mobile service range these days as a last resort backup to avoid the paddock circling.

I too have been lost in the one paddock for nearly 3 hours...it was broken up by seeing foxes during that time, but i have once or twice been a little spooked by it when so far away by myself... :lol:

A mate once called me stupid saying its impossible to get lost in a paddock--300 yds & 2 turns in the first paddock & i asked him for directions to get back to the gate...well we drove around for 10 mins to his directions while i pissed myself laughing until i realised it was my fuel i was wasting... :lol:
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Re: Getting lost in the bush

Post by animalpest » 02 May 2020, 11:20 pm

You get LOST when someone needs to find you.
You get BUSHED when you are confused but find you own way out.

I have been bushed but never lost.
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Re: Getting lost in the bush

Post by womble » 03 May 2020, 3:03 am

I like that animalpest.
One should never admit that they are lost. I will borrow defeatist attitude from patriot dude.
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Re: Getting lost in the bush

Post by Blr243 » 03 May 2020, 7:36 am

At the moment I’d rather be lost in the bush instead of knowing where I am in the city
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Re: Getting lost in the bush

Post by Ferrisweil » 03 May 2020, 8:15 am

I’ve got a solar powered/battery watch that has a compass on it (haven’t changed the battery in ten years) and I’ll admit it’s def made a difference a few times. A bit like animalpest said, I’ve never been “lost” because I’m always in a fenced paddock and even some of the big ones (thousands of acres) worse case scenario you get to a fence. Disorientated would be a more appropriate word, especially after looking through the thermal in the thick stuff.
We went to a huge block years ago (west of Winton) and it was something like 500k acres. Without GPS you’d be fooked.
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Re: Getting lost in the bush

Post by 8x57 » 03 May 2020, 9:17 am

I’ve been bushed on a property at Quilpie, we jumped out of the truck to chase a dog that ran across the track, normally I would waypoint my location on my GPS but in the excitement I forgot.we went in about 100m realised the dog was long gone and retraced our steps to the track but couldn’t find it. Ended up marking trees as we went so had a centre point to search out from, was very relived to finally see the truck, my wife said I thought you might have been lost but didn’t want to use the horn in case it scared the dog off
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