OK, we are back! It was a great weekend......for me and the goats (You will see why the goats liked it as the story unfolds. I have earned a new title that will be revealed later also.).
I called ozy clint (a guy that I met on trad gang wholives in Australia) to get directions to his place and he said; "Hey mate, I do not have to work this afternoon so if you can come earlier we can get a hunt in this afternoon too". I was all over that and jumped in the car for the 3 hr ride from Brisbane to Eukey, where Clint lives. I arrived and we shook hands and Clint tells me that he has a place right down the road to go rabbit hunting. We changed into some camo clothes and off we went. These Aussie rabbits are a bit bigger than Texas rabbits and live in burrows in the ground. There will be 6 or 8 burrows all together. You find the burrows then sneak in and look through the binos to see if any rabbits are out. Here is a pic of Clint checking out a cluster of burrows:
Here is a few pics of me stalking one of those Aussie rabbits:
I thumped that rabbit right at the base of the head with a VPA small game head but it did not do much to him and he ran down into the burrow. So I decided to switch to my broadheads. We wandered around and right before dark we found a set of burrows with several rabbits out. I put the sneak on one and just barely clipped him and down the hole he went. I snuck in a little further and found another one. This time I was dead on the mark and I bagged my first critter in Australia! here is a pic of me and Clint with my rabbit:
After that we went to the house and had a great axis roast supper.
The next morning it was off to the goat hunting grounds. This was a ranch about an hour from Clint's place and we would be camping for the night. We arrived about noon and decided to hunt for the afternoon then come back and set up camp. We skirted the edge of the property to get the wind in our favor. After about an hour of walking we found our first goats. There was a "mob" of goats at a small pond. The pond was out in the open and we set up above the pond in the trees and just waited to see what they would do. Here is pic of the mob at the pond:
There was a big white billy in the group that we knicknamed "biggun". After quite a wait, the goats started to move away from the pond towards the woods to our left. We jumped into action and made our way through the bush to get the wind right and make an ambush. When we finally spotted them again they were in a wash just slowly feeding along. The stalk was on! We snuck in a ways and Clint told me to finish on my own and that he would stay back and watch. I snuck up to the edge of the wash and there they were.....with biggun in the lead. I got as close as I dared and then decided to wait on them to come closer to me. All was good for a while. Biggun had fell back to 2nd in line but the brown billy that had taken the lead would be a great one also. I waited and waited. Just as the brown billy was about to set himself up for a perfect shot, he decides to turn up into the woods......straight at me. He got to within 7 or 8 yds and then noticed me and Clint behind me, and stopped dead in his tracks. He stood there staring at us. He was so close I could see when he would change his focus from me to Clint and then back to me again. Now several other goats are working into the woods all around me. One even bedded down about 12 yds away. Here is a pic of me and the brown billy having the staredown (the goat is in the far left of the pic):
After what seemed like forever, the brown billy finally spooked which alerted all the goats. The one that had bedded down jumped up and started to run off but stopped at about 15ys. I drew back and let one fly. Oh, no! I was sitting on the ground and it all happened so fast that I did not realize my cant and when I let go my bottom limb slapped the ground and the arrow never made it to the goat. After they spooked, Clint got this pic of me at full draw:
Oh, well, I always say that a clean miss is better than a bad hit anyday. This stalk was a blast and I just had a bit of bum luck at the end. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking for more goats but never found any more. At about dark it was time to pack it in and go set up camp. We need some rest after all the walking and still had another day of hunting to go.
G'day mates,
Bisch
--------------------
TGMM Family of the Bow
I called ozy clint (a guy that I met on trad gang wholives in Australia) to get directions to his place and he said; "Hey mate, I do not have to work this afternoon so if you can come earlier we can get a hunt in this afternoon too". I was all over that and jumped in the car for the 3 hr ride from Brisbane to Eukey, where Clint lives. I arrived and we shook hands and Clint tells me that he has a place right down the road to go rabbit hunting. We changed into some camo clothes and off we went. These Aussie rabbits are a bit bigger than Texas rabbits and live in burrows in the ground. There will be 6 or 8 burrows all together. You find the burrows then sneak in and look through the binos to see if any rabbits are out. Here is a pic of Clint checking out a cluster of burrows:
Here is a few pics of me stalking one of those Aussie rabbits:
I thumped that rabbit right at the base of the head with a VPA small game head but it did not do much to him and he ran down into the burrow. So I decided to switch to my broadheads. We wandered around and right before dark we found a set of burrows with several rabbits out. I put the sneak on one and just barely clipped him and down the hole he went. I snuck in a little further and found another one. This time I was dead on the mark and I bagged my first critter in Australia! here is a pic of me and Clint with my rabbit:
After that we went to the house and had a great axis roast supper.
The next morning it was off to the goat hunting grounds. This was a ranch about an hour from Clint's place and we would be camping for the night. We arrived about noon and decided to hunt for the afternoon then come back and set up camp. We skirted the edge of the property to get the wind in our favor. After about an hour of walking we found our first goats. There was a "mob" of goats at a small pond. The pond was out in the open and we set up above the pond in the trees and just waited to see what they would do. Here is pic of the mob at the pond:
There was a big white billy in the group that we knicknamed "biggun". After quite a wait, the goats started to move away from the pond towards the woods to our left. We jumped into action and made our way through the bush to get the wind right and make an ambush. When we finally spotted them again they were in a wash just slowly feeding along. The stalk was on! We snuck in a ways and Clint told me to finish on my own and that he would stay back and watch. I snuck up to the edge of the wash and there they were.....with biggun in the lead. I got as close as I dared and then decided to wait on them to come closer to me. All was good for a while. Biggun had fell back to 2nd in line but the brown billy that had taken the lead would be a great one also. I waited and waited. Just as the brown billy was about to set himself up for a perfect shot, he decides to turn up into the woods......straight at me. He got to within 7 or 8 yds and then noticed me and Clint behind me, and stopped dead in his tracks. He stood there staring at us. He was so close I could see when he would change his focus from me to Clint and then back to me again. Now several other goats are working into the woods all around me. One even bedded down about 12 yds away. Here is a pic of me and the brown billy having the staredown (the goat is in the far left of the pic):
After what seemed like forever, the brown billy finally spooked which alerted all the goats. The one that had bedded down jumped up and started to run off but stopped at about 15ys. I drew back and let one fly. Oh, no! I was sitting on the ground and it all happened so fast that I did not realize my cant and when I let go my bottom limb slapped the ground and the arrow never made it to the goat. After they spooked, Clint got this pic of me at full draw:
Oh, well, I always say that a clean miss is better than a bad hit anyday. This stalk was a blast and I just had a bit of bum luck at the end. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking for more goats but never found any more. At about dark it was time to pack it in and go set up camp. We need some rest after all the walking and still had another day of hunting to go.
G'day mates,
Bisch
--------------------
TGMM Family of the Bow
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