What did you do today?

[Wapiti]

Something not seen very often, thought i'd share to get the hunters thinking about the stags.
These two old red stags have dropped their antlers as they do around this time, but that doesn't stop them fighting. They know their antlers are gone, so they flog the hell out of one another by boxing.

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There was this younger stag, who got involved too, that still had his antlers, and one of the big boys knocked one of his antlers off and it went cartwheeling over our heads.

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Unreal to watch, especially right next to you. I wish we could post a video here, my wife got a great one of the stags just walking around in circles on their hind legs like humans, knocking the hell out of one another.

[Damo300]

Maybe they've been watching the roos, and perhaps had a few roos shape up, so they've adopted the stance...
Love the tongue out the side of the mouth.

[Wapiti]

Deer use their hooves just as much as antlers. They rear up and box at 1000mph, slash or stomp. The front of their hooves can lay you open like a Stanley knife would.
The tongue thing is interesting, when they are coming at you and aggressive, they often hang their tongue out the side in between grinding their teeth.
Good pick-up, Damo.
Old mate's gone, I'm out of here.

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Enjoy your weekend fellas.

[perentie]

Thanks for the pics. Never seen that before

[Wapiti]

Most people haven't Keith, most hunters spot the animal, get into a stalk and shoot it. Or it smells/spots them and is off.

Stags will do this as much as use their antlers, in fact from what I see a bit they will come up from behind and rear up and take another stag by surprise when it is courting a hind, stomp it and when it drops then as it rolls over it's exposed to being speared by the attackers antlers.
They know that a head-head fight results in lost eyes, noses and broken skulls. I would say to people, if they do sit and watch stags a bit they will agree that most antler-fights look like just half-hearted sparring.
I've seen this as much as antler-fights, I've actually been stomped and antlered a few times and even had to have my bicep screwed back on after one deer attack. No better addition to a pile of evidence when getting a farm handgun license renewed than an included zip folder of a surgeon's letter, a doctors letter and some injury photos and xrays.
Or iphone video of wild dogs running at you from behind dozer windrows and you use your handgun to turn them around.

[Wapiti]

I think a homing pigeon has made a stopover here.
One pigeon has just appeared, it has coloured bands around each ankle and isn't scared of us at all.
It's made a temporary home in the little feed shed where the chook feed, bird seed and cow nuts etc is stashed in wheeli bins, we've put seed and water out for it and it's just hanging around.
I expect it's just taking an R&R and will just be on its way soon enough. 5 days now though.

[bladeracer]

Got the car all loaded ready to leave for Qld tomorrow morning. Decided at the last minute that I really want a backup rifle so I pulled out the .38 Special 1866 and stripped it. It was failing to extract and giving light strikes when I swapped to the .44-40. I pulled the extractor off the bolt and tweaked it, and polished the chamber. Ran some rounds through it just fine so I'll take it with me and shoot some stages with it. Threw in 400rds of black and smokeless .38 ammo for it.

Bought $90 worth of grub to see me through until I get home on October 6 or 7, but I expect to bring half of it home as usual. Also got $50 of lollies, chips and biscuits to stop the kids wanting crap at every fuel stop on the way home.

And decided to take 40L of extra fuel just to be safe. Gives me about 1300km range so I don't have to fret about making fuel stops. The phone tells me it's 2062km and 23 hours of driving. Planning to stop for a sleep around Dubbo tomorrow night, and try to make The Barn at Oakey Thursday afternoon or Friday morning to pick up ammo for a mate. Millmerran Friday night gives me Saturday to recover from the trip, then shooting over 1000rds from Sunday to Sunday.

Pick up the grandkids and try to be back home the evening of the 6th. On Friday the 9th I'm helping set up for The OK Corral then shooting Saturday and Sunday. Then load another pile of ammo and head to Adelaide on Saturday the 17th for the nationals from the 19th to the 25th, seven days of shooting another 1000rds. Get home from Adelaide on the Monday, load ammo again and head to Mildura on Wednesday for the Border Shootout the following weekend - 31st to Nov 2nd.

Then I get a bit of a break to load ammo for Rawhide at Little River November 13-15. Two weeks later should be the Tasmanian states, but I still haven't seen it advertised.

When I get home from Tassie I'm hoping to finally have time for a sit down

[Wapiti]

Hopefully they still have some of those Little River primers for you when you get there.
They had LR, LRM, SR, SP etc all for $95/1000. That's pre-covid prices.
Tomorrow I'm going down to Toowoomba for another reason, so have an internet purchase of them ready to pick up.

Been using them for all my handloading for a few months, and after a hitch with some very tight fits in new unused cases, have grown to really like using them.
And $9.50/100, wow compared to a minimum of $22-26 a pack in country towns here, is a nice bit of relief.

They also have some unreal prices on 200-boxes of the excellent softpoint PMC 223 and 308 ammo right now.

[bigrich]

what did i do today ? sitting around in my jocks loading ammo and listening to Dr hook singing "sylvias mother" on the radio

happy sunday fellas

[Fester]

Could have been in jocks yesterday,felt like mid Janurary. Today is like winter temps again, anb drizzle rain. Lost the internet in fridays storm, looks like the NBN box rather than the providers modem. Shows it is an addiction, as I really missed the laptop browsing at first. The phone is just crap, compared to a decent screen. Getting better at using it.

An indian should fix it tomorrow but bad timing, as I got an ssaa farmer assist call.

Sounds like a funny one or greeny type woman but beggars can't be choosers, and a few hundred hectares about 2 and a bit hrs from home can't be missed. Just grasshopper pest control, and she felt bad as a one nighter, they may be there, but maybe not.

Google showed good cleared flat country and safe shooting down where the roos come from the bush. They are in full drought, hanging for rain.

A half hour closser to the coast is high rainfall fertile country. They have predicted rain for them today, so hope they get some, and more than a sprinkle.

Should be interesting if they are half normal, and don't expect me to hand dig graves, will take a tow rope incase lol

[bigrich]

Could have been in jocks yesterday,felt like mid Janurary. Today is like winter temps again, anb drizzle rain. Lost the internet in fridays storm, looks like the NBN box rather than the providers modem. Shows it is an addiction, as I really missed the laptop browsing at first. The phone is just crap, compared to a decent screen. Getting better at using it.

An indian should fix it tomorrow but bad timing, as I got an ssaa farmer assist call.

Sounds like a funny one or greeny type woman but beggars can't be choosers, and a few hundred hectares about 2 and a bit hrs from home can't be missed. Just grasshopper pest control, and she felt bad as a one nighter, they may be there, but maybe not.

Google showed good cleared flat country and safe shooting down where the roos come from the bush. They are in full drought, hanging for rain.

A half hour closser to the coast is high rainfall fertile country. They have predicted rain for them today, so hope they get some, and more than a sprinkle.

Should be interesting if they are half normal, and don't expect me to hand dig graves, will take a tow rope incase lol

you actually got a call from farmer assist i registered for that and never heard boo . hopefully they get some rain , it's bloody dry west of the range up here in QLD . piles of paddock rats make good pig bait , stuff putting them in the ground hope it goes well for you mate . cheers

[bladeracer]

They had all but Large Pistol, so I grabbed some Large Rifle to try in the pistols. I'll test them when I get home. I went to The Open Range on Friday chasing #9 12 gauge shells for a mate for quail but nobody has them. I'll have to load some and bring them up next time for him. Then I went to Helidon for blackpowder before coming to the range.

Hopefully they still have some of those Little River primers for you when you get there.
They had LR, LRM, SR, SP etc all for $95/1000. That's pre-covid prices.
Tomorrow I'm going down to Toowoomba for another reason, so have an internet purchase of them ready to pick up.

Been using them for all my handloading for a few months, and after a hitch with some very tight fits in new unused cases, have grown to really like using them.
And $9.50/100, wow compared to a minimum of $22-26 a pack in country towns here, is a nice bit of relief.

They also have some unreal prices on 200-boxes of the excellent softpoint PMC 223 and 308 ammo right now.

[Wapiti]

Could have been in jocks yesterday,felt like mid Janurary. Today is like winter temps again, anb drizzle rain. Lost the internet in fridays storm, looks like the NBN box rather than the providers modem. Shows it is an addiction, as I really missed the laptop browsing at first. The phone is just crap, compared to a decent screen. Getting better at using it.

An indian should fix it tomorrow but bad timing, as I got an ssaa farmer assist call.

Sounds like a funny one or greeny type woman but beggars can't be choosers, and a few hundred hectares about 2 and a bit hrs from home can't be missed. Just grasshopper pest control, and she felt bad as a one nighter, they may be there, but maybe not.

Google showed good cleared flat country and safe shooting down where the roos come from the bush. They are in full drought, hanging for rain.

A half hour closser to the coast is high rainfall fertile country. They have predicted rain for them today, so hope they get some, and more than a sprinkle.

Should be interesting if they are half normal, and don't expect me to hand dig graves, will take a tow rope incase lol

you actually got a call from farmer assist i registered for that and never heard boo . hopefully they get some rain , it's bloody dry west of the range up here in QLD . piles of paddock rats make good pig bait , stuff putting them in the ground hope it goes well for you mate . cheers

Yea, that's what I thought!
We enquired, thinking we could get some responsible, insured and organised shooters to get some pests down, but no return correspondence at all!
IHP at least took 3 weeks to reply each time, and still haven't gotten back to us properly.
Maybe I have a chinaman wedged in the bullbar.

[Wapiti]

They had all but Large Pistol, so I grabbed some Large Rifle to try in the pistols. I'll test them when I get home. I went to The Open Range on Friday chasing #9 12 gauge shells for a mate for quail but nobody has them. I'll have to load some and bring them up next time for him. Then I went to Helidon for blackpowder before coming to the range.

Hopefully they still have some of those Little River primers for you when you get there.
They had LR, LRM, SR, SP etc all for $95/1000. That's pre-covid prices.
Tomorrow I'm going down to Toowoomba for another reason, so have an internet purchase of them ready to pick up.

Been using them for all my handloading for a few months, and after a hitch with some very tight fits in new unused cases, have grown to really like using them.
And $9.50/100, wow compared to a minimum of $22-26 a pack in country towns here, is a nice bit of relief.

They also have some unreal prices on 200-boxes of the excellent softpoint PMC 223 and 308 ammo right now.

You must tell me where this blackpowder joint is mate. You say Helidon? Just down the range from Toowoomba?
I have to go down to the Gatton Tafe a bit via the Gatton/Clifton Ma-Ma Creek alternative range crossing. A fun drive.

[bladeracer]

Made good time Wednesday. Left home at 0550, stopped for a quick lunch near Forbes, a can of shrimp and a can of beans'n'snags, pulled up just past Coonabarabran for a sleep at 2000. Back on the road at 0545 for Oakey, then to Kilcoy to see the kids. Spent the night there in the car and headed for Toowoomba and back down to Millmerran. 2300km so far.

Spent seven hours yesterday painting walls on the range. This morning we shot three Cowboy stages just as a warm-up, to get rid of any nerves and make sure our firearms are running fine. Some shooters chose to spend the whole day practicing on the 600m to 1000m buffalos instead.

Tomorrow is the long-range shoots in the morning, single-shot rifles out to 1009m, which I'm not doing. Then the arvo will be the long-range lever-action shoots, which I will be doing. Tuesday is Wild Bunch (1911 pistols) in the morning and Plainsman (cap and ball revolvers) in the arvo. Wednesday is Pat Garrett and Cowboy Clays. The main Cowboy match starts Thursday, four stages each day until Saturday. Then Sunday is the shoot-offs followed by presentations when I can head for home about 1300 I hope. Saturday I have to dash to Kilkoy to pick up the grandkids that I'm taking back home.

[bladeracer]

They had all but Large Pistol, so I grabbed some Large Rifle to try in the pistols. I'll test them when I get home. I went to The Open Range on Friday chasing #9 12 gauge shells for a mate for quail but nobody has them. I'll have to load some and bring them up next time for him. Then I went to Helidon for blackpowder before coming to the range.

Hopefully they still have some of those Little River primers for you when you get there.
They had LR, LRM, SR, SP etc all for $95/1000. That's pre-covid prices.
Tomorrow I'm going down to Toowoomba for another reason, so have an internet purchase of them ready to pick up.

Been using them for all my handloading for a few months, and after a hitch with some very tight fits in new unused cases, have grown to really like using them.
And $9.50/100, wow compared to a minimum of $22-26 a pack in country towns here, is a nice bit of relief.

They also have some unreal prices on 200-boxes of the excellent softpoint PMC 223 and 308 ammo right now.

You must tell me where this blackpowder joint is mate. You say Helidon? Just down the range from Toowoomba?
I have to go down to the Gatton Tafe a bit via the Gatton/Clifton Ma-Ma Creek alternative range crossing. A fun drive.

Call Combat Simulations - 07 4697 7910 to order. They need an hour notice (to get it from the magazine I think). They're on Air Force Rd. It's way cheaper up here than what we pay down my way.

[Wapiti]

Thanks Sir.

[Wapiti]

The Mrs and I spent the day cleaning up the hunters cabin down at the campsite for the blokes coming down soon. Nobody's been there for ages except some Engineer mates and their families and they really only use fancy 4wd camper trailers anyway and just use the building to sit out rain or use the kitchen. Or get out of the flies, but with this drought they are absent.
A big bloody tree bough from a rough-barked apple fell and made a helluva mess, so now there is a pile of firewood there deadset the size of a camper trailer. At least now I don't have to worry about a chainsaw accident.
Binned all the stashes of canned stews and other crap that's too old to be safe, old vege oil etc and the damn gecko crap that the little buggers leave everywhere. Cleared the 100m range and the benchrest , painted the steel targets and checked the target frames are good.
The more noise they make, the better I reckon. Way more fun sighting in rifles band plinking as practice before a hunt than at a rifle range - no damn range pests
"what do you have that big green $10k tactical rifle for, all my life I've used a 1943 Longbranch fullwood to bounce a tennis ball out past 500 yards every shot with open sights with ammo made during Korea"
Anyway, we like people to come to a clean equipped place to stay.

[Fester]

The Mrs and I spent the day cleaning up the hunters cabin down at the campsite for the blokes coming down soon. Nobody's been there for ages except some Engineer mates and their families and they really only use fancy 4wd camper trailers anyway and just use the building to sit out rain or use the kitchen. Or get out of the flies, but with this drought they are absent.
A big bloody tree bough from a rough-barked apple fell and made a helluva mess, so now there is a pile of firewood there deadset the size of a camper trailer. At least now I don't have to worry about a chainsaw accident.
Binned all the stashes of canned stews and other crap that's too old to be safe, old vege oil etc and the damn gecko crap that the little buggers leave everywhere. Cleared the 100m range and the benchrest , painted the steel targets and checked the target frames are good.
The more noise they make, the better I reckon. Way more fun sighting in rifles band plinking as practice before a hunt than at a rifle range - no damn range pests
"what do you have that big green $10k tactical rifle for, all my life I've used a 1943 Longbranch fullwood to bounce a tennis ball out past 500 yards every shot with open sights with ammo made during Korea"
Anyway, we like people to come to a clean equipped place to stay.

How big is your piece of Aus Wapiti?
I tried to find the thread that had photos of the campsite cabin, but failed.
More work and bush maint, but it must feel worth it to sit back and just look, and enjoy a sunset.
No flies; drought does have a benefit, still no good, but.

Just last week I found that feeling of peace and freedom, like with bikes, or in my boat in a pristine place away from city stuff.
Just a camp chair and tripod with the .22, smacking the little spinner targets, or a game of 22lr golf if the grass is short, or dirt.
I asked permission, in case, and she answered, "of course you can", so nice.

I did it to verify my new cheap night vision scope on the sluggie.
A closer distance I had saved as a user profile at 30m was on song, but there were issues at 50 m.
I couldn't be assed with technical stuff, and just pulled the CZ out as it always does what it's told.
I wasn't on the bush bench, as I just put my clothes bag on the ute hardtop, like my roo shooting possie; standing seems as good as sitting with that highish platform. A short ass may not find it so good.

I said I would go back in about 3 weeks, depending on weather and life, as it seems to fly by now.
I may make it 2 weeks to keep sweet, and work out a way to get one from near the house where a big mob of flighty hoppers go.
It is what they want, and a shooting lane is there, just a steepish dry creek crossing and an on-foot approach.

I much prefer shooting up in the quiet bush end, but the cleared property needs a different approach for productivity.
Will get to know it better with another daytime 2-dayer.

[Wapiti]

No flies; drought does have a benefit, still no good, but.

Rather have the flies mate, but as usual we have to look at the bright side. Although there isn't one. People's dreams are falling over all around us here.
And now that human parasite Albanese's credit card fee clusterf*ck con means that most farmers can't afford to use credit for their quarterly ATO rape payments as the ATO has banned small businesses from paying with credit whilst they wait for the invoices to come in from customers... because they now have to pay the surcharge.
Dead set, that c**t is human scum and when he's screaming in agony with pancreatic cancer we will throw the biggest party ever seen. I want to see the live feed on YouTube of the pig screaming for morphine that just will not work. WAY better than watching any grand final. I've got the voodoo doll out.
EVERY WEEK those human sh*t stains bring on another killer tax or punch in the face for anyone that actually moves off their arses.

Think that's going too far?
In our business we see the poor everyday folk crying their eyes out in the practice, not enough food, toes poking from holes in their Aldi sneakers, some with power turned off to their homes and the dirty pricks in the council threatening to sell their modest homes out from under them because they just cannot pay their rates. Summer's coming, and we will again see the elderly poor being loaded into the ambulances with heat stroke/organ failure from having no electricity to keep cool.
When is this going to stop?

[Fester]

Yeah, it was the last drought whe when I spent a few days in the shearers' quarters, old house at St George, up your way.
The first rule was never waste water, as it's like gold.

Doing a driving tour of the property last week, she would chip me if my wheels didn't stay in the wheel tracks.
Every blade of grass is precious.
They also flood bad; they were pumping floodplain swamp water into their big dam before it dries out.
I said you may as well make use of it.

My local hunting forests were about the least drought-affected areas in the recent dry years, but they are looking very dry now.
It looks like a lot of the country will cop it this time. The roos will be on the roadsides on the lowlands around here soon, looking for the greener pick.

While the pathetic weasle is over talking climate change on the sinking islands that Australia must take the lead in paying for, the other retard Charmers anounced to not be expecting any more cost of living crisis hand-outs as they have a problem paying the counties dept. No talk about cutting govt, or it's disgusting waste.

Watch for their BS figures come election time, little wonder the whole country is getting behind One Nation.
Lets hope they romp in and boot the uniparty.