What did you do today?

[bigrich]

Made arrows. Got kit ready for 4 days away pig and goat hunting. Got windows measured up to be replaced. Took the missus to the layers. Got blood taken.

good luck on your hunting trip pete

[bigpete]

Made arrows. Got kit ready for 4 days away pig and goat hunting. Got windows measured up to be replaced. Took the missus to the layers. Got blood taken.

good luck on your hunting trip pete

Cheers

[Wapiti]

I came back on the tractor this morning and just had to smile, these two old Red stags are staring at a young 12-point stag in this birthing paddock and his mate, Ghost, one of the new Wapiti bulls we just brought in.

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The older ones lose their antlers before the younger ones. They are fun to look for to hang in the workshop shed, it makes for a great man cave.
These troublemakers are both 6 years old this Christmas, one was 14 points, one 16, but very large antlers. That's why I'm bringing in better blood to get the points up, these are from the old Bris valley stock, not that great.

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They make me laugh. During the rut, they fight, but when the antlers drop, they are mates.

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They are looking for Ghost, who is three years old this Chrissy. As a full-blood Montana Rocky Bull, he's already over a foot taller than the old red boys are. He will end up nearly twice their weight. He's away from the others because I'm trying to quieten him down.

[bladeracer]

I came back on the tractor this morning and just had to smile, these two old Red stags are staring at a young 12-point stag in this birthing paddock and his mate, Ghost, one of the new Wapiti bulls we just brought in.

Boys1.jpg

The older ones lose their antlers before the younger ones. They are fun to look for to hang in the workshop shed, it makes for a great man cave.
These troublemakers are both 6 years old this Christmas, one was 14 points, one 16, but very large antlers. That's why I'm bringing in better blood to get the points up, these are from the old Bris valley stock, not that great.

Boys2.jpg

They make me laugh. During the rut, they fight, but when the antlers drop, they are mates.

Ghost.jpg

They are looking for Ghost, who is three years old this Chrissy. As a full-blood Montana Rocky Bull, he's already over a foot taller than the old red boys are. He will end up nearly twice their weight. He's away from the others because I'm trying to quieten him down.

Photos really don't do justice to the beauty of those beasts in the flesh.

[bladeracer]

Finally got an application into WA Firearms for a temporary permit to take my toys to Perth for the Cowboy WA state titles in a couple weeks. Also got the entry form in.

Tonight I'm helping with a Scout group come-and-try day at a pistol club.

[Wapiti]

Are there still scouts? That's unreal mate, you helping them get into shooting. I have no idea how you do all that much stuff.

[bladeracer]

Are there still scouts? That's unreal mate, you helping them get into shooting. I have no idea how you do all that much stuff.

Rose's mum was a Guide leader for more than fifty years, and Rose's brother's kids are still involved with Scouts, Rovers and Venturers. This one is for a pistol club an hour from me. I'd like to get the local Scout groups, Guides, Rovers, Venturers, Army and Air Force Cadets coming in to try shooting as well.

I have no idea how it all seems to happen either I'm having my grandson drive me to his TAFE this morning to put another half-hour on his log, then I'm into the club to shoot a Standard Pistol match at 1200 with a mate. From there back to TAFE to pick him up so he can drive us to Pakenham to have a driving lesson with a Cowboy shooter. While he does that I'll go to another club to pick up ammo and targets for our club, then go back to collect him. Then back to the other club for the Scout thing, which starts at 1830. If they play for only two hours I won't be home before 2130 at best.

[Wapiti]

Yeah I was in the scouts too, because as a kid my best mate was in, and his dad was "Wiraki", a scout leader.
Actually it was his dad that gave me a Stirling model 20 semi-auto 22 for looking after their place at Easter once. That kind of thing was legal once.
They had camps at some graziers places in the Fassifern Valley and Flinders Peak, and as our family was pretty busted money-wise, that was like gold to me, camping and learning to make stuff. Playing Bedlam and real rough rugby-league.

I actually thought the scouts has dissolved, what with the wierdos that prey on kids who the law protects instead of executes. I think that might be because the judges are that way as well. Great to hear that you take the time to do what you do, those scouts must absolutely love it.

[bigpete]

Drove 5 hours,set up camp,walked 3km looking for goats,had a mob walk almost into camp just before dusk....

[bladeracer]

Yeah I was in the scouts too, because as a kid my best mate was in, and his dad was "Wiraki", a scout leader.
Actually it was his dad that gave me a Stirling model 20 semi-auto 22 for looking after their place at Easter once. That kind of thing was legal once.
They had camps at some graziers places in the Fassifern Valley and Flinders Peak, and as our family was pretty busted money-wise, that was like gold to me, camping and learning to make stuff. Playing Bedlam and real rough rugby-league.

I actually thought the scouts has dissolved, what with the wierdos that prey on kids who the law protects instead of executes. I think that might be because the judges are that way as well. Great to hear that you take the time to do what you do, those scouts must absolutely love it.

It was a fun night, very enjoyable. Younger than I expected, apparently Scouts are eleven to fifteen, but you need to be twelve here to handle firearms. We had seventeen kids, and about half a dozen leaders that also had a shot. The range luckily has eighteen target frames so we pushed all the kids through in one squad, with a shooter supervising each one. We supplied our own pistols, the club supplied the ammo. I don't know if there was any cost to the Scouts. I felt that the young bloke I had might enjoy a combat pistol over a match pistol so I had him use the 1911A1 with .22 conversion and I reckon he enjoyed himself. Some of the kids were very good and I hope they eventually get into pistol shooting. I got home right on 2130.

I did three years of Army Cadets, and I wish I could get my grandkids into it as well. We were discussing it at the club yesterday. You can often tell in just a few minutes when a kid has been through some sort of training - Scouts, Cadets and such, just by how they stand and how they address people. We need a lot more of it I think. I contacted the local unit about six weeks ago and got no response.

[Wapiti]

That's great to know there are people who go to the trouble you go to mate to keep shooting interest up.

Imagine if we had a country like the US, with their Civilian Marksmanship Program?
Where they actually refurbish M1 Garands, and actually new ones too, and make them available to shooters? And about now, all these (prior considered machine-guns), real original M14's, are being made available too as permanently-converted semi-autos?
And then I am reminded of the parasites we have destroying every right we have in this country, while the "little people" are desperately trying to keep things bearable.

[Wapiti]

The wife wanted to do an afternoon run looking for cast antlers from the big boys. She wants a few for her work for patients to check out the sizes and the weight and imagine what it would be like to have so much outrigger weight sticking out each side of your head for half the year.
The older ones, and the larger Reds drop theirs before the younger ones, I believe it's to get more time to form their much larger, nutrient-demanding fighting impliments to be ready for the mating season.
I had found these two off the same stag where I'd been feeding out for the cattle, it's unusual for two to drop from the same animal in one spot.
But all the others escaped us, she was disappointed. But there's heaps still out there. We hope to find them before the sun bleaches them too much.
And, I need more hanging in the shed, the boy zone.

Bullys.jpg (688.82 KiB) Viewed 1604 times

[Wapiti]

I was hunting around for a cast antler that wasn't too special, to put in Tawney's cage for something extra to hop about on and came across this unusual Fallow antler.

The extra tines up the beam are quite unusual, one even splits to two in a fork.
The palm has been severely worn down to bugger all by constant fighting, it would've been nice to see it on a Buck that didn't have other males that like to fight as much as he obviously did.
Probably doesn't look all that unusual, but to me who's picked up hundreds and hundreds of them and mixed with many male deer and see them at their prime, it is quite unusual.

WeirdFallowAntler.jpg (694.15 KiB) Viewed 442 times

[bladeracer]

Finally got an application into WA Firearms for a temporary permit to take my toys to Perth for the Cowboy WA state titles in a couple weeks. Also got the entry form in.

Finally got a response from WA Firearms about my temporary permit this morning...to tell me that I submitted the old form and that I need to resubmit it on the new form for him to process it

I called on August 24 to request an application, and they emailed me the form for it - dated June 29 this year, version 2.9. He has sent me the "current" form which is dated May 27 last year, version 3.0. Both ask for all the same information. The only difference is that the one I filled out includes an additional section for a "group" of shooters or "team". A club member told me last week that he was told that I should've applied as a group of one as apparently there is no fee for groups.

I've responded saying that if he can approve the permit for me today then I am happy to resubmit the application on the correct form with all the same information. If he can't approve it today then there is no point in continuing and I need to start preparing to go and shoot the Chisholm Trail at Millmerran, Qld the following week instead. The drive to Perth is 3500km, and I don't want to be shooting the day after I arrive, so I want be there by Wednesday evening at the latest to shoot Friday through Sunday. To do that comfortably, with a little room for contingencies, I want to leave Sunday morning - four nine-and-a-half-hour days of driving and Thursday in-hand for contingencies and to recover. I can leave midday Monday (if I give him a chance to approve the permit first thing Monday), but that does make it significantly tougher. I could do 1100km and be at Port Pirie by midnight Monday for a sleep. Madura is 1250km from Pirie, which is possible for Tuesday night. Perth is another 1150km so I could be at the club by Wednesday evening. Won't be much fun but it is doable, and I could back it off a bit to arrive midday Thursday if I feel I need to. But it doesn't leave much room for flat tyres or other issues en-route.

Without the permit, I'm left with going up to Millmerran, Qld again for the Chisholm Trail from September 27 to Oct 4, a terrific week of shooting. And only an 18 hour drive to get there.

[Fester]

Even as keen a shooter as you, bladeracer, I would just say GAGF to WA.
I always said I would shoot anywhere, but never take guns into WA.

I am so upset about us now going the same way, and I so hoped the next mass shooting would be in Perth.
As per usual, we had a few hints, authorities were warned, govts did nothing, apart from supporting and even attending those disgusting marches; then the climax happened in Sydney.
They are all now very quiet about those marches that they participated and supported.

How often do you shoot when at home, bladeracer?

I shot yesterday, but ranges have become less appealing now.
I shot weekly and at least once a fortnight for about 10 years.

I can still spread my disciplins and shoot something at least once a month or 3 weeks apart.
Luckily, never had an interest in comp shooting, just shooting.

[Wapiti]

For you blokes with a bit of interest in deer, here's a pic I took today from the tractor.
The red deer on the left has his 3rd head, his first was a spiker of course, then he was a 5/5, and his third is this small 6/6. Only a small thin 12-pointer, but he's young. Any day now he'll drop those antlers, judging by the older reds having dropped theirs already.
The wapiti bull on the right is the same age as the Red on the left, but he's already dropped his antlers and is punching out a new, much bigger set really fast.

RipAndGhostSept26.jpg (696.51 KiB) Viewed 68 times

This shows the difference in size between Reds and Wapiti (mistakenly called Elk) of the same age.

RipAndGhostSept26b.jpg (671.16 KiB) Viewed 68 times

You can also see why the American Indians called them wapiti, or "white deer" because of their winter coats being much lighter.
For you deer lovers.

[bladeracer]

Even as keen a shooter as you, bladeracer, I would just say GAGF to WA.
I always said I would shoot anywhere, but never take guns into WA.

I am so upset about us now going the same way, and I so hoped the next mass shooting would be in Perth.
As per usual, we had a few hints, authorities were warned, govts did nothing, apart from supporting and even attending those disgusting marches; then the climax happened in Sydney.
They are all now very quiet about those marches that they participated and supported.

How often do you shoot when at home, bladeracer?

I shot yesterday, but ranges have become less appealing now.
I shot weekly and at least once a fortnight for about 10 years.

I can still spread my disciplines and shoot something at least once a month or 3 weeks apart.
Luckily, never had an interest in comp shooting, just shooting.

I agree with you, I never recommend any shooter bother with WA

But I'm from there and have mates that I'd like to catch up with, so a competition shoot is a great excuse to make a trip over. When I rang last month they emailed me the form and told me it takes seven to ten days to process. To ensure there were no issues that might hold it up I rang again while filling it in to clarify some things that don't make sense. As it is two weeks spent away from the farm this is not something I could book up months ahead of time, we had to know that it would be okay to be away for the period. I was figuring that this was likely to be the last trip I make across there so I was looking forward to it. Now we'll see if it might be possible to make it across next year. It would be awesome if I can manage to do all the state title shoots next year

My focus has been on pistols since mid-2024. I generally shoot an ISSF practice match and an air pistol match every Monday. Our air pistol matches are our club social nights where members catch up with each other, and our committee meetings are on Mondays. I shoot a practice match and either a rimfire of centrefire pistol match every Wednesday. I shoot two rimfire and/or centrefire pistol matches every Saturday as well as a practice match in between the scheduled matches. Last year and earlier this year I was also fitting in an air pistol match on Wednesdays and Saturdays but mostly stopped doing those in July - I need to find time to get back to them as they're great practice. I shoot a Cowboy match every month locally, as well as the away matches (we do also shoot two practice Cowboy matches each month but I haven't been able to get to many of those this year - checked the log and I've only done two local Cowboy practice matches this year. For Cowboy so far this year I've shot the Victorian state titles (Little River), South Australian state titles (Virginia), NSW state titles (Bathurst), plus smaller two- or three-day matches - The Last Posse (Nowra), The Barney Mother's Day Bash (Barnewatha), and The Battle of Walker's Creek (Little River - all blackpowder). I'm still expecting to do The Chisholm Trail (Millmerran, Qld - eight days of shooting), The OK Corral (Warragul-Drouin), the nationals (Virginia, SA - Sept 27-Oct 4), The Border Shootout (Mildura), Rawhide (Little River), and hopefully the Tasmanian state titles (Glenorchy). I also shot the ANZAC (Little River) which is a great shoot hosted by Military Rifle Club. Last year I was also shooting three IPSC matches per month at two other clubs but haven't shot any IPSC this year. I've been shooting Service Pistol and WA matches at another club but they clash with my local club's Saturday matches. I try to shoot one of our Saturday matches either before of after I shoot a Service/WA match at the other club, with just over an hour's dash to get to the other club in time for the next match. I'm really hoping to fit in a trip to Alice Springs this year to fit in a Cowboy match and a shotgun shoot but I don't know if I'll manage it. All last year and earlier this year a mate was coming out once or twice a week for some lever-action rifle practice with me, but since my kids moved down to the farm we haven't managed to find time for that, something else I need to get happening again.

I'm with you on that as well, I just enjoy shooting, I don't care about scores or competition results

Rifle competition I haven't done since Army Cadets in '83, other than a Lee Enfield shoot in NSW in 2023, and the '25 and '26 ANZAC shoots at Little River. Other than those three I haven't shot at any rifle ranges in 43 years.

[Wapiti]

And here's some old stags laying up in the shade at one of their shelter sheds dotted around the place, for them in cold rainy winter weather if they want.
They've already dropped their antlers for this year, and will soon start growing new sets.
They are pretty quiet at the moment because they have only their hooves to push one another around with for now.

StagsCamping.jpg (680.51 KiB) Viewed 67 times

[Wapiti]

Even as keen a shooter as you, bladeracer, I would just say GAGF to WA.
I always said I would shoot anywhere, but never take guns into WA.
Luckily, never had an interest in comp shooting, just shooting.

I agree with you, I never recommend any shooter bother with WA

Mate that's f**ked.
Why couldn't the lazy mongrel just do it for you and not be such a dudley-do-right.
The next time some ill-advised person calls police and government employees, set them straight - calling them "public servants" is an oxymoron.
"Self-serving", without performance and productivity measures is more truthful.
Imagine those oxygen thieves in a private business - no that's also silly, they'd be sacked pretty soon.

[bladeracer]

Mate that's f**ked.
Why couldn't the lazy mongrel just do it for you and not be such a dudley-do-right.
The next time some ill-advised person calls police and government employees, set them straight - calling them "public servants" is an oxymoron.
"Self-serving", without performance and productivity measures is more truthful.
Imagine those oxygen thieves in a private business - no that's also silly, they'd be sacked pretty soon.

He is the only guy doing permits apparently. When I called yesterday he was at a staff lunch according to the girl I was talking with. In four phone calls and two emails I never found anybody that could confirm they had actually received my application. One girl the other day asked me to email it to her while we spoke so she could confirm that she actually had it. Not that it would've helped as only the one bloke doing the permits needs it, and he needed it last week to have any hope of me seeing it in time. I was told tonight that they did the same trick to another interstate shooter who is also out now.

The form I submitted is for a temporary permit to bring firearms to WA to use them. The new form that he wants is for the same thing. The only difference is that one form includes an additional page to list a group of shooters rather than an individual - both forms allow an individual to apply. I can see no other differences. All of the information I provided in my application is exactly the same stuff he wants on the new application - nothing additional. The "old" form dated June this year is "LSF17 Permit Application V2-9.pdf", the "new" form dated May last year is "LSF17 Permit Application V3.pdf". I don't think they have a clue what they're doing.

I was looking forward to catching up with my mates. I wasn't much looking forward to the 76 hours of driving though, and it is only three days of shooting, so I can live with missing it. Perhaps next year will be possible. The Chisholm is eight days of shooting, and I may well be able to drop in on you and DJ again, possibly with a grandkid or two as well. One of the kids is already booked to fly up next week for a visit. I may be able to fit another in the car on the way up. Coming home with two of them will be tougher so I'll see if I can pack everything into the car and leave two seats free. I don't mind taking the risk of driving through the night, but I won't with the kids, so that will slow me down. I'll probably have to stop at least once each way and spend a night in a donger or motel rather than sleeping in the car as I prefer.

It may also be an opportunity for a Cleaver run to help some club members here stock up.

https://www.southerndrifters.net/docs/Match_forms/Chisholm%20%20Flyer%2026.pdf
The round count for Chisholm is hefty, a good 1000rds if you shoot everything. The following weekend is the OK, only a two-day shoot, then the nationals, seven days of shooting and another 1000rds. The following weekend is three days shooting in Mildura. I need to load an awful lot of ammo.