Things you see when you only take the .22LR

[MG5150]

Gday Gents

Ducked down to a spot where I had previously seen rabbits while chasing deer and only took the 22LR. I had to walk about 1.2km from the car to the farm fringe where I'd spotted rabbits and found some warrans.

There was a little triangle of public land that I hadn't been in previous and thought I'd walk through that to start with. Turns out there were some really defined game trails until the ti-tree got too thick.

One gully would be nothing but dead leaves and twigs, then the next would be moss and I could move silently. After some walking I could see the main track through the trees about 20m away, but if I kept straight I'd come out onto another track. I thought I'd give it another 50m and shortly after I heard a stick snap and something move. I crouched down, and could see a big brown silhouette between the ti-tree

I crawled to get an angle and could see a big stag staring back at me less than 15m away! I could only see one of his antlers and two legs (plus his eye peeking at me) but they were big enough to get me excited! We had a 2 minute standoff before he spooked and walked away with another hind nearby.

I made a break for the main track and sped up to make up for the time I'd stalked through the ti-tri, I went up over a hill and got a big waft of deer, I went another 20m up another short hill and as I got to the top huffing and puffing old mate here walks out onto the track.

I'm pretty sure it was the same one I'd seen 5 minutes earlier, 300m further down the track. He'd run across a farm paddock and done a big loop back into the forest and I was walking up the firebreak along the back of the farm. He stood where he was for 30 seconds, then crossed the road, walked 20m up the hill to my right and stood there for 2 minutes broadside and only took off when l I decided to keep walking.

He was a decently shaped 4-year-old, and would have been toast if I had my deer rifle, but alas he gets to live another day!

[Fester]

Good story and the only time I will carry a brushgun in the forest I hunt is if I leave the day pack in the car and take the deer rifle as well as the shotty or 30-30, they are all light weights.

I did it once, and had to put the shotty down to shoot a doe from the mob at around 200yds.

I reckon if I carried a brushgun, I would near guarantee seeing a deer at over 150m

[9.3x64]

I have had similar experiences like this, sometimes in reverse. I used to hunt a lot of fallow with my GSP, sometimes we just couldn’t get the right shot on a decent fallow. We would start the long walk back to camp and my GSP would start pointing quail or rabbits. It used to annoy me that we would get back into camp empty handed and a frustrated dog that was doing his bit, but I wasn’t doing mine.
So I bought a lightweight bock drilling. Only 3.2kg, with a 20 gauge on top for birds, 7x65R underneath for deer, and a 22 Hornet on the side for the small stuff.
Best thing I ever did. You never go back to camp empty handed, even if it’s only a hare or a duck.

[Wapiti]

A mate and I went for a run with a property manager and his mate. We rounded a corner and there was this whopping black and white boar, I mean he went 90kg dressed and had only half his ears, huge tusks and a 2 inch shoulder shield.
Anyway, before I could raise my 308, the property manager had unloaded a full 10-shot mag into the boars head at barely 4-5m away out of the window of the Cruiser.
We literally saw every bullet hitting its head as it went down, stone dead.
22LR wasn't a handicap with an experienced, lightning fast bush shooter with a $600 semi-auto and a mag full of 40gn Aussie PowerPoint's.

[MG5150]

A mate and I went for a run with a property manager and his mate. We rounded a corner and there was this whopping black and white boar, I mean he went 90kg dressed and had only half his ears, huge tusks and a 2 inch shoulder shield.
Anyway, before I could raise my 308, the property manager had unloaded a full 10-shot mag into the boars head at barely 4-5m away out of the window of the Cruiser.
We literally saw every bullet hitting its head as it went down, stone dead.
22LR wasn't a handicap with an experienced, lightning fast bush shooter with a $600 semi-auto and a mag full of 40gn Aussie PowerPoint's.

That would have been amazing to witness!

Down here in Vic I would have been breaking 3 laws:

minimum caliber for sambar is .270
shooting within 250m of a house
shooting within 100m of a road

Knowing my luck if I had of done the wrong thing there would have been a ranger doing his afternoon patrol right as I started gutting the fella

[womble]

You should change your username to deermagnet.

It’s like they follow you around every time you go out there.

They don’t seem to like me as much.

[MG5150]

You should change your username to deermagnet.

It’s like they follow you around every time you go out there.

They don’t seem to like me as much.

Changing my name tio Deermagnet sounds like the best way to never ever see another deer ever again

[Wapiti]

A mate and I went for a run with a property manager and his mate. We rounded a corner and there was this whopping black and white boar, I mean he went 90kg dressed and had only half his ears, huge tusks and a 2 inch shoulder shield.
Anyway, before I could raise my 308, the property manager had unloaded a full 10-shot mag into the boars head at barely 4-5m away out of the window of the Cruiser.
We literally saw every bullet hitting its head as it went down, stone dead.
22LR wasn't a handicap with an experienced, lightning fast bush shooter with a $600 semi-auto and a mag full of 40gn Aussie PowerPoint's.

That would have been amazing to witness!

Down here in Vic I would have been breaking 3 laws:

minimum caliber for sambar is .270
shooting within 250m of a house
shooting within 100m of a road

Knowing my luck if I had of done the wrong thing there would have been a ranger doing his afternoon patrol right as I started gutting the fella

Not sure what you mean about roads and houses? This was on a property track on a 50,000 acre property in Qld.
I'd been out there helping old mate to set himself up to weld up some broken machinery properly so he didnt keep harassing me, and we just went out on a bore run to take a break. And it was a pig. And Trevors ability meant he didn't need any law to select a suitable calibre for the circumstances.

But yeah, 22LR needs careful thought to match the circumstances that pop up, I'm the first to say its definitely not the best choice as an all-rounder. Far from it.

[MG5150]

A mate and I went for a run with a property manager and his mate. We rounded a corner and there was this whopping black and white boar, I mean he went 90kg dressed and had only half his ears, huge tusks and a 2 inch shoulder shield.
Anyway, before I could raise my 308, the property manager had unloaded a full 10-shot mag into the boars head at barely 4-5m away out of the window of the Cruiser.
We literally saw every bullet hitting its head as it went down, stone dead.
22LR wasn't a handicap with an experienced, lightning fast bush shooter with a $600 semi-auto and a mag full of 40gn Aussie PowerPoint's.

That would have been amazing to witness!

Down here in Vic I would have been breaking 3 laws:

minimum caliber for sambar is .270
shooting within 250m of a house
shooting within 100m of a road

Knowing my luck if I had of done the wrong thing there would have been a ranger doing his afternoon patrol right as I started gutting the fella

Not sure what you mean about roads and houses? This was on a property track on a 50,000 acre property in Qld.
I'd been out there helping old mate to set himself up to weld up some broken machinery properly so he didnt keep harassing me, and we just went out on a bore run to take a break. And it was a pig. And Trevors ability meant he didn't need any law to select a suitable calibre for the circumstances.

But yeah, 22LR needs careful thought to match the circumstances that pop up, I'm the first to say its definitely not the best choice as an all-rounder. Far from it.

I was referring to my encounter when I said 'down here in Vic',

[Wapiti]

I see. But if you took a government approved minimum 270 along, you'd have had a stag.
Hopefully you also took a big pack, knife, meat bags and your fave lightweight gambrel and pulley along as well.
Or a 10/22. 10 × 40gn bullets = 400gns of lead.

[MG5150]

I see. But if you took a government approved minimum 270 along, you'd have had a stag.
Hopefully you also took a big pack, knife, meat bags and your fave lightweight gambrel and pulley along as well.
Or a 10/22. 10 × 40gn bullets = 400gns of lead.

If I had my 30-06 I still would have been within 250m of a house, I'm not sure if a firebreak counts as a road when it comes to no shooting within 100m of a road (does anyone know?)

Maybe in my excitement (and not knowing I was still within the no-no zone due to house proximity) I would have pulled the trigger, but given the gun I had I didn't, and he got to live another day.

[Wapiti]

Being someone that doesn't have public lands to hunt on and in a state that doesn't allow it, I hadn't thought of the rules about proximity to other properties, roads or stuff like that. I also can't believe that a government mandates minimum calibres instead of education.
I've been part of a political group trying to lobby the Qld government, the previous communist scum that was in power here up until last year wasn't having a bar of it. We've had to start all over again and the way most shooters want someone else to do their politics and lobbying for them, don't like our chances.

But you're onto it and trying to do the right thing. Something more people should to keep what they got.

It could be like here, where 1000's of people who'd love to hunt and would treasure a place to go to get away from the pustule that are the leftist cities. Who'd want that?

[Fester]

We can't have fun things like a 10-22, so I got a 515 woody in 22mag and it is a nice handling light rim-fire that would take a meaty or pig as long as it's pretty close.

[Wapiti]

So you're not missing anything...
(edited, after second thoughts...)
And you can get a 22 mag and up the ante and chase mooses!