Joint effort (success)

[Die Judicii]

So, at 8-30am on Monday 11th May I get a phone call from a landowner saying that he'd been hit overnight by a feral dog, and one of his
pregnant ewes had been killed.

I get a bit of sleep late that afternoon, and head out to his property at 6pm and set up ready and waiting.
The owner believed that the dog had attacked at about 8pm the previous night.

Almost unbelievable, but the dog showed up at 7-10pm
There was no stealthy creep in towards the flock, or sitting back watching by this dog.
A big bugger,,,, and the moment it appeared, it just charged straight in and pushed through the then madly running sheep.
It split the mob into two, and I had the cross hairs on its shoulder as it ran through, but couldn't fire till it was clear of the mob.
As it broke through to the front it dipped its head and I expected it to accelerate further ahead,,, I squeezed the trigger, and at that split second
it hit the brakes real hard and almost turned inside out as it doubled back into the mob of sheep, and then turned and ran out the far side and didn't stop
till it got in among some trees way off in the distance.

F@ck, F@ck, F@ck, I thought,,,,,,,, I have just clean missed a broadside shot at about 90 meters.
I watched as way off in the distance it slowly disappeared from sight.

I stayed for another two hours in the hopes it may return, seeing as it hadn't managed to get a meal.
I went home feeling disbelief in what had transpired.

Tuesday the 12th I headed out again at 6pm and set up in hopes of success.
I sat freezing my butt off all night until 7am the next morning, and saw absolutely nothing apart from the sheep that now appeared to be at ease
and camped in one spot for the entire night.
At 7-30am I spoke with the owner and then headed home.

I had only been home for approx 1 hour, and I get a phone call from owner saying he got a large dog in a trap.
He said that it looked like it had been sliced across the top of the shoulders by a bullet.
He sent me this pic saying that the fresh blood lower down the shoulder was where he shot it in the trap,,,,, but above that it is clearly seen the slice across
from my bullet which had ceased bleeding.
An inch lower and it would have taken out the spine.

It had traveled nearly 2 kilometers before stepping into the trap.

So a joint effort,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, but its killing days are over now.

IMG_0414.JPG (178.55 KiB) Viewed 1821 times

[Blr243]

A veery good read. Your description has us perfectly understanding your feelings as the shot was fired. A sudden quick movement from a dog is exactly what stuffed me last time I had a dog in my sights thinking it was in the bag ......( I don’t think I’ll ever get over it) Another time Something went drastically wrong with an arrow I fired at a little pig in Goondiwindi beside a dam many years ago ... I thought I clean missed but my mate found the pig next day ..one edge of the two blade head slit its throat like a barbers razor as the arrow passed under its throat while feeding

[Blr243]

Another time at st george on the Maranoa I think it was I misjudged the distance and I saw the tip of the broad head kick up dust as it fell short and I’m briefly feeling like Australia’s biggest dummy ... but the arrow bounced up off Australia and snuck in under the armpit and into the heart and he was on his back with legs flailing about wildly and I knew he was mine

[Blr243]

And while I’m rattling on about my mistakes here’s another .....I’m pushing my motorcycle thru a gate I just opened at Cecil plains and I see a young dog on the edge of the track maybe 40 metres away ...so I’m grabbing my mini14 out of the scabbard and laying it across the handlebars for a rest and all the time I’m as anxious as hell thinking oh god please don’t move .... because the open gate was now behind me and I was so excited about shooting the dog I just rode up , collected the dog and kept riding forgetting that I had accidentally left the gate open ... ( it was up the back in the garbage Stoney pine Forrest country where no stock graze anyway so no big deal ) after five mins of riding along that boundary fence I remembered that I had forgotten to close the gate so I quickly turned the bike around and headed back ...and there very close to the fallen dog site was another so I shot him too ( 2 dogs within ten mins all in feral country and because I had forgotten to close the gate ) ....what sort of random skill do u call that

[Blr243]

Must be very frustrating when finally a dog shows up but he’s running and your trying to get a clear shot with all the sheep around

[Ziege]

Good work, damn so close, if it made a decent wound it would likely have died anyway due to infection, but better it got a swift death albeit in a trap later on.