Make mine a double - now with hair of the dog

[Flyonline]

We're officially over the vintage period, but with some fruit still in tank I smashed out an extra early start and burnt the candle at both ends and in the middle to ensure that we didn't have to come in for the weekend. After handing over to the arvo shift, I raced home and ate a quick lunch before loading up the car with the usual gear and heading out. I'd picked up my camera yesterday afternoon and had photos of a number of goat mobs moving through on the top of the ridge, so I decided that I'd contour across up high in another spot with the hopes of finding the goats climbing back up to their beds in the late afternoon.

As usual, I stopped and glassed the opposite face in a spot I can see from the road on the way in. Almost immediately I picked up a lone goat low down on the face - change of plan! Scooting around the parking spot, I quickly loaded up and dropped into the top of the tight and steep gully. This is the spot I shot a double last year after a long time between drinks here. As I made my way in, a funnel of blackberries and steep side made a few game trails narrow down to one and I looked at it and thought 'good place for a game cam!'. Then I looked at the tree next to me and thought it would make a good place to catch any animals moving in/out. Looks like I'm not the only one.....

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Skirting around it, I made my way in through the very dry leaf litter and loose rocks. My usual approach with goats is when in doubt, go high, but I was sure this one was lower so I slowly dropped as I contoured down the gully. The running water below gave some auditory cover and in one warm updraft I got a face full of goat - couldn't be too far now. Slowly easing my way down a rocky outcrop, I picked up white below and saw a mature but poll billy about 80m below. He was below a couple of fallen trees, and I couldn't get a safe bead on him so I slowly slid down the steep face to lean on a rock that gave me a clearer shot. As I was moving down, I heard a couple of bleats in the next little fold further down hill. Hmm, stinky ol' billy or go chase something else? A goat on the ground is worth two on the slope, so I kept on towards the billy I could see. Reaching the rock, I fed a round into the chamber and slowly lined up and squeezed off the shot, at which he jumped forward a step staggered and fell over and rolled down into the blackberries before twitching a couple of times and becoming still. Glassing him quickly to confirm he was out, I decided to make a move towards the other goats in the hope they hadn't been scared off by the shot. It was cold, and the flies seemed to have been knocked on the head by the week or so of very cold nights and cool days.

Cresting the next little ripple in the slope, I could see what looked like a young billy about 100 odd meters ahead in the next little gut. As I had a nice fallen tree in front of me for cover and a rest which would give me about a 40m shot, I sat down and prepped myself in the hope that it/they would keep feeding up the hill towards me and over the small crest between us. After about 10min nothing showed, so I decided to push the issue in case they were climbing up the gut to where I suspect they're bedding at night in a little hanging gully at the top of the slope. Crossing the slippery and steep slope wasn't easy and the cover of the creek was slowly waning as it dropped sharply in the gully bottom below. Slowly poking my nose over the top of the ridge, I could see anything so I kept moving towards the next gut ahead. As I climbed the face towards the top, I saw a pair of billies up above me, and then as I slowly crept the last few meters to the top of the ridge goats showed up everywhere.

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Reaching a little ledge, I sat down and set the rifle on the top before feeding in another round. The two billies above me were an easy shot, but they were both perilously close to being skylined and as I could see a nice young nanny on the steep rocks further down I waited in the hope that she would move into a better position. The billies slowly moved down into the base of the gut and the nanny slowly crossed back towards me before doubling back and stopping to feed broadside about 35m away. Again I lined up the shot and slowly squeezed it off. At the shot the nanny jumped forward a step two before disappearing into the gut behind the rocks between us. The other goats jumped up and slowly milled around in confusion, and as I quickly cycled another round in for a possible follow up shot, I heard a clatter of loose rocks and suddenly the nanny I'd shot was sailing clean through the air down the mini cliff where the little dry creek empties into the top of the steep slope. Cartwheeling down the slope, she crashed into the top of a tree and came to a stop without moving. The other goats began to move off without offering another safe shot, so as the disappeared through the tops of the trees on the opposite face, I slowly made my way down to the nanny.

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As I reached her I could see the mob on the opposite face, so decided to go for a treble (and hopefully fill the freezer with tender nanny rather than stinky billy), slowly followed after them and was able to catch them as they stopped on the other side of a small rise about 15m away.

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I had a safe shot, but they were all milling around in a mob and I couldn't get a clear shot of a goat I wanted to shoot without another interfering in some way. Eventually another young nanny offered up a safe shot, so I slowly stood behind a pair of young stringy barks which gave me a rest and chambered another round. Centering the cross hairs on the middle of her chest, I took the shot at which the whole mob turned and bolted as one, while the young nanny took a few steps, obviously in an unhealthy condition before bolting off behind some saplings and vanishing. I slowly followed and could see a white shape 40 meters away on the ground. Phew! But as I approached, she stood and bolted off downhill. Try as I might, I couldn't catch up and get a finishing shot into her, so as she dropped down into the creek below me and vanished through the thick undergrowth I cursed myself. This is the first time I've not been able to recover an animal I've shot, I knew it would happen some time but I learnt a lesson today to fully check animal is down before approaching so a finishing shot could be added if needed.

Slowly returning uphill to the nanny I quickly whipped off the back-legs (the front were mush), I loaded up, grabbed a quick drink and headed back uphill for the billy. Crossing the slope I couldn't help but think that my time traversing this kind of terrain is only get shorter as I get older, especially as I've had a couple of run ins with snakes on this very slope

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Reaching the billy I dragged him out of the blackberries for a photo and again quickly took the back legs.



Loading up the pack again, I was glad that this time I was substantially closer to the car and higher up the slope than last time I had to carry two goats out!!

That's lifted some pressure, the other half as been on my case for a lack of goat meat (she prefers it over venison for the most part), so that should bank some browny points when they get back from the big smoke in a few days

[bigpete]

Very nice

[Oldbloke]

Gee, your doing ok. Must be a top spot.

[deye243]

Very well done

[Bugman]

Yep. A good, interesting post

[Flyonline]

Thanks all!

OB, it's nothing special - just public land anyone can access, I just happen to be lucky to live 15min away from it.

With the girls still away, I loaded up the car after an easy start and some chores completed and headed off for a bit of an explore and see if I could get my city car into a few places that looked good on the map. The first place I stopped at I threw my gear on the ground while I readied myself on the side of the road but when I went to pick up my 1pc earplugs, they had a leech crawling on it. I HATE leeches/ticks and other bush bities. Spiders, snakes etc. don't bother me, it's just stuff that can crawl up your pant legs without you knowing that bothers me, and as this was just the dry edge of the road, bushbashing up through some thick scrub in the wettest part of the valley to get to a likely clearing didn't sound like fun, so I headed off again to check out another area. This had been burnt recently so it was just a scout to have a look at the land and access. After a quick look see, I headed back to the usual area with the idea of checking out more access at the bottom of the slope I often hunt, both to see car access and if I could walk down the bush track and then hunt all the way back up the gully to the top of the ridge to the main road.

Dropping down to the creek, I crossed one patch of very old pig diggings (which was the only pig sign I saw), but therewas a heap of sambar sign and when I crossed the creek and was climbing up the hill to get out of the really thick stuff, I was honked a couple of times. Moving back up the gully parallel with the creek there was heaps of deer sign, but it would be very difficult to hunt and then get anything out if successful so I mentally marked it off as somewhere I didn't want to return to in a hurry. Reaching the road I returned to the car and considered my options for the last couple of hours left of daylight. I could head back to the couple of wallows where I'd recently seen a few deer, hit the high ridge for goats or go somewhere else entirely.

Deciding that there wasn't really enough time to go anywhere else, I backed a hunch and hit the top of the ridge for goats returning from the valley below. I'd marked a spot I'd been through that looked like they were bedding in, so I parked the car on the top of the ridge and walked back along the road a few hundred meters with the plan to drop down 100mm or so and then parallel the ridge top across into the area and possibly redeploy the trail camera. Slowly pushing through the dry leaves, grass trees and scrub wasn't easy to do quietly and I bumped a couple of wallabies on the way. As I began to crest over a little rise, I heard shuffling in the leaf litter on the other side, maybe 80m or so ahead of me. Very slowly I crept forward, scanning intently and finally picked up movement and glassed what looked like a young billy and en a few minutes of trying to locate all the animals from the sound, movement and colour. Eventually I was able to see 4 animals, 1 mature billy plus 3 younger animals. They were moving towards me, but a stand of saplings and other brush made it difficult to find a shooting lane so I slowly slid down to a fallen tree that might give me a shot if they kept on the same path. Reaching the log took some time, and after I set up and waited, the goats kept feeding in the general direction towards me. The lead goat disappeared behind some brush next to the log, while the others had vanished behind other vegetation on the side of the hill. I could keep track of them from the sound, and 2 eventually turned and headed back uphill and away from me. The slight depression about 25m away was fairly clear of brush so I decided to move uphill and cross the slope to try and get directly above them, but as I did I saw that they had come together and I might have a shot off the stump of a small tree that had broken off at a good height for a rest. The mature billy and another younger one moved up in front of a large eucalypt, but the young billy only offered a full frontal shot which I wasn't confident taking in those conditions. As I watched, the other two animals were feeding up the depression and looked to step into a clearing, so I quickly broke off a few twigs and leaves to give me a bigger window and set up and waited. The leading goat stepped into the clearing, and turned towards me, so I only had a top down spinal shot as I was somewhat above them. The younger animal with it pushed past and turned facing uphill giving me a nice broadside shot, so I lined up the shoulder, breathed out and relaxed. The shot broke (really liking the lighter trigger spring I installed a while ago!), and the mob turned as one and bolted across the hill towards me before diving down the face through the brush. The nanny I'd shot ran 10 steps, before stopping and standing, swaying back and forth. After 20sec or so she collapsed and kicked a few times. It's not often you get the chance to put into practice a lesson learnt, so I unloaded the rifle, sat down and took a drink of water, watching as she kicked a couple of times. After maybe a minute, she somehow managed to kick enough to roll over, tumbling a few meters before coming to rest up against some sticks completely inverted, legs in the air without moving. Phew!!

In the couple of minutes that passed, I heard a couple of sniffs and shuffling in the leaves, so I quickly put in another stalk with maybe the option of taking a double double, but they were alert and soon busted me before taking off.

Dropping down to the nanny I dropped my gear for a photo, a quick drink and grabbed my knife to start processing. I'd not accounted enough for the steep down angle, and the bullet had entered the back of the nearside shoulder, taking out one lung, liver and guts before exiting low on the offside. The road and car were only about 100m above me and I contemplated doing a full carry out, but the mush of stomach contents spread everywhere dissuaded me so I ended up just taking the 4 legs. I also had a go at something I'd seen Profty do in using my garden shears to take off the ribs to inspect the organs forward of the diaphragm.

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Climbing out in the setting sun,I thought that this was a very Australian sight - smokey haze through the dry schlerophyll forest!

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Looking forward to some pulled goat shoulder for tea soon

Thanks for reading

[wrenchman]

nice hunt

[bigpete]

You're on fire mate!

[Flyonline]

nice hunt

Thanks

You're on fire mate!

Making up for all those donuts