I thought this would be a good place to share some of our hunting experiences. I have been shooting one way or another for a little over 30 years but I have to admit that I am very inexperienced when it comes to hunting, I grew up shooting with my dad but he was pretty much a vegetarian so we only ever really shot targets, tin cans and stuff.
Over the last few years I have become more interested in hunting, I’ve tried my hand at fox whistling with mixed results, I’ve shot stacks of bunny’s both walking with a shottie and sitting on warrens with a .22 or air rifle.
I’ve had one good trip away to hunt goats in a state forest (Wombat SF, yup there’s stacks of game in there… Not!) and I’m heading back there this weekend for another look around.
I’ve tried a couple of times, so far unsuccessfully to hunt deer, I’ve found good sign and fresh scat, but so far they have out smarted me.
Rabbits are easy enough to find, if calisi and mitso haven’t wiped them out in your area, same with foxes which seem to be every bloody where, at least around here and hunting them I think comes more down to learning the correct techniques. YouTube has been a great resource there.
For the goats and deer research seems to be the key to success, Google maps https://www.google.com.au/maps/ and for me here in Victoria the Forest Explorer Maps http://mapshare.maps.vic.gov.au/MapShareVic/index.html?viewer=MapShareVic.PublicSite&locale=en-AU have been a great guide to where I can hunt and the two maps used in conjunction give you a good insight into an area before needing to drive out there. I also get my Google-Fu on, searching for pest management plans and any other info I can find on a potential site or place near by it and so far its been a good plan.
Hopefully I’ll have some more goat in the freezer come monday.
Got some more tips, hunting stories or just some brag shots? post them up here for us all.
A few weeks ago… So I am sitting, chilling, looking for things to eat… I am motionless at that stage. rifle is on my lap. Just sitting and looking.
I have a Rino650 in my chest pocket. It’s an all in one, GPS, radio and a tracker. It makes a little beep noise when someone checks in their location. Mine is set to quiet, very faint…
So I am sitting there, it goes, beep, beep, beep and then someone says something over the radio. Out of nowhere, a fucking fox jumps over my rifle barrel and bolts like there is no tomorrow.
Rhino650 whistled a fox in and I am sitting there, completely motionless, it must have been right behind me trying to figure things out, until a voice came on, I could have literally grabbed it, it was that close. Didn’t hear it at all.
Funny hunting experience. A little later I saw a dog and it became a little less funny and a little more intense.
JS and I headed out on Friday after some goats up in the mallee.
We got up there about 4 in the arvo and thought we’d go for a little scout, not wanting to leave our guns unattended I’m the car we chucked them over our shoulders and wandered off up onto a ridge to do a bit of glassing. Having had no intention of hunting we had no knives or packs with us so of course as soon as we got to the top of the ridge we heard bloody goats bleating just down in the valley on the other side.
I hung back and JS went down to have a closer look after a while I heard a gun shot and followed down, he shot a nice billy but we didn’t have any bloody knives to take the head off so we carried it slowly back up the hill and back to where the car was before he could pull the head off.
It was dark by the time we got to our campsite, but we put the kettle on and got set up for the night, had an early night coz it was bloody cold, it was -3 in the morning so we his like girls in the car with the heater on for a bit before heading out to hunt.
I shot a nice nanny for the freezer and when I got over to her she had a kid with her so I had to take it too as it was still on the tit and to young to make it by itself.
JS got 3 more latter in the day but I’ll let him tell you about those.
Yeah, perhaps your right. Shot a nanny years ago head on in the chest with a 180gr out of the 30-06. Made a huge mess. Good to here it went well. Sounds like its crawling with goats.
Uh, I just got some time to breath. Absolutely under the pump at work. I’ll try to post something tonight or tomorrow.
As an appetizer, yes, 223 is plenty gun on large goats. Good shot placement drops them where they stand.
Used, Sierra TMK 77gr from a 1:8 22" barrel. Very accurate at 100m. But shoots a little high at 20 lol.
Lesson learned, if you’re shooting a kid (goat, not human, but I guess same, same) with intent to roast it whole, as you see @GUN-DMC doing above, head shot is a necessity. At 20m, maybe 25m, with a hot’ish 77gr Sierra TMK pills, broadside shoulder shot (as I’ve said, I’ve been classically trained LOL) you’ll be looking at an exit hole the size of both of your fists and picking shrapnel out of it, until the cows come home.
there are not as many Bunny’s as there used to be around here but there were still quite a few about even at half past two in the arvo. Anyway I got 3 and lost 1 back down the hole, also found a fox den that I’ll have to spend some time watching through a scope.
Cheers
Now that’s my kind of traffic jam. 