Innehållsförteckning för Edition 68 från Australian Hunter

I’ve experienced three cycles of drought and flood in South West Queensland. This was the worst so far. Rob owns a property up the road from our usual hunting area and has spent his life in the region. He claims he’s never seen things as bad as the drought of 2018. Under the mulga, gidgee, eucalypts and woody weeds there was no ground cover, just red dust and stony gravel. What the kangaroos were nibbling, hunched over in the morning light, I had no idea. Goats are adaptable and can change their taste from the preferred to the essential to sustain life. Pigs can dig for roots under the remains of clumps of grass, forage for termites, seek out reptiles or chew on the carcasses of animals that have succumbed…

I suppose a better description for our deer rifle would probably be the medium game hunting rifle. This is because just about all hunters that I know use their favourite deer rifle to take other game when the opportunity arises. The deer species that we have here in Australia vary a great deal in size from quite small with the little hog deer to very large with the mighty sambar. However, by world standards, they all fall into the same category of medium-sized, thin-skinned game and are all hunted with a myriad of different calibres. Many years ago, before government restrictions were introduced in relation to calibres and bullet weights in some states, one of the favourite calibres for hunting sambars in the Victorian High Country was the .243 Winchester,…

If you’re an avid collector or a hunter who appreciates what a good knife is all about, you’re undoubtedly always on the lookout for vintage blades in fine condition. I’m one of them and I consider it a good day’s outing if I bag something attractive and out of the ordinary, particularly if it carries a respected brand name. We all accept that a bit of chance always comes into it, as it does in any hunt. Then of course there is that exceptionally productive lucky day, as you’re about to be told. For me, Puma is the target that tops the list of desirable, collectable and functional knife brands. It’s a name that has a cult following. I’ve been a passionate member of that faction from the day I…

A 30-second phone call was all it took to find out that almost two decades of hunting on a property had come to a close. The estate had undergone a change of owners who decided to conduct all feral pest control in-house. The gates were now shut to a couple of regular professional shooters and myself, a recreational hunter. I ended the phone call on good terms with one of the new owners, hoping for a change of heart. Disappointed, I respected his decision. Although great mates with the previous owner and despite him guaranteeing my privilege there, his word wasn’t final. Delightedly, I was invited by Greg, married to a relative of mine, to come hunting on his family’s cattle property in Western Queensland. A year and a bit…

When out in the field hunting, sometimes shooting free-hand is the only way you can engage your quarry. When a bipod doesn’t give you the right height or there isn’t a tree in sight, don’t despair - quad shooting sticks can be the answer. Quad sticks are basically two cross-sticks joined together and are designed to support both the fore-end and buttstock of the rifle when in the standing position. They are easy to carry and set up to give you a super-stable shooting platform. While there are a few manufacturers of fine quad shooting sticks, mainly in the United Kingdom, I recently discovered a video on YouTube in which renowned British chef and hunter Mark Gilchrist fabricates a set of quad sticks from a few bits and pieces you…

So your idea of campfire cast iron camp-oven cooking is hours and hours of low heat and slow preparation. Well, think again… Lynn Bain serves up this dinner quickly at a high heat in a maximum of 15 minutes. Anyone for wood fired pizza? The camp oven is perfect for pizza and it will only take about 10 minutes to cook - even as quickly as five minutes if you really crank up the heat. Good pizza requires high heat and plenty of it. Where the kitchen oven at home may struggle to attain a very high temperature, the camp oven is in its element. Pizza bases When either making your own bases or buying them from the shop, make sure you double-check which camp oven you have available to…

As a veteran hunter who prefers to hunt alone and do the extra yards, I have never lost my way in the bush - although I’ve come close and consider myself fortunate. However, having said that, I have always taken proper precautions to ensure a safe return to camp. Without a suitable respect for the bush, an adequate understanding of the terrain, preparation and aids to assist, it’s unwise venturing out into the scrub, especially if it’s for the first time. Even tourists, campers and hikers on well-marked trails have become disorientated and lost through a momentary distraction or by veering off the path to explore, often requiring the involvement of the Emergency Services in a search and rescue mission. Fences and waterways Some of the safest hunting can be…

It was January and I was hunting the diminutive Coues deer in the mountain desert of Sonora, Mexico. The Coues deer are about half the size of the northern whitetail, a mature buck weighing around 60kg (132lb). These were the favourite deer of esteemed writer Jack O’Connor, which he hunted in Arizona and Sonora. He wrote that they are cleverer and harder to hunt than their bigger, northern whitetail counterparts. From 1858 to 1886, the legendary Apache Indian war chief, Geronimo, led his warriors into battle against the Mexican Military in Sonora and Chihuahua, as well as fighting against the US Army in Arizona and New Mexico. In 1865, one of the US Army’s surgeons stationed in Arizona was a famous naturalist named Lieutenant Elliott Coues. Lieutenant Coues was more…

As I stepped from the 4x4 to open the gate to the property we were to hunt on, it was pretty obvious that the drought had a death grip on the land; it certainly looked devastated. As I peered around I smiled inwardly when I thought of the words old Alan had said to me some years back when I was discussing rain, or the serious lack of, with him. “You know,” he said, “all those years ago when it rained for 40 days and 40 nights we only got 10 points around here.” I had met Alan through a mutual mate. As luck would have it we were up at my drover aunt’s place, further out west, hunting pigs when her friend Margie rang up. The conversation eventually focused…

I’d like to take you back in time to the years after the World Wars when opportunity in this great land was abundant - but wages were not. Add to this a law introduced in NSW during the 1940s that banned the use of firearms chambered for the current military cartridge, the .303 British. This seemed counter-productive as, at the time, the Government was trying to offload as many surplus SMLEs as possible to the general public. So under contract these rifles were re-barrelled and sold in the sub-calibre versions. Among others, the major suppliers of these newly-chambered rifles were Sportco, a now defunct South Australian firm, and Sprinter Arms, and as these rifles were both cheap and legal, they grew in popularity. So much so that a number of…

THE NSW DEPARTMENT of Primary Industries has implemented a statewide suspension of certain regulations involving the hunting of wild deer, a step taken to minimise the impact of abundant wild deer herds across the state. The suspension applies to all areas across NSW and will be for a period of three years. Suspension of the normal rules for hunting deer will allow more control options to be available to hunters and minimise wild deer impact on landholders, the environment and communities. The new rules allow all wild deer species to be hunted year-round instead of only during open seasons and also permit the use of baits, lures and decoys to attract deer. Those on private land may now hunt deer at night, use spotlights or other electronic devices and hunt…

Two crows in the paddock were dancing in the afternoon heat. They were too far away for an offhand shot and too smart to let me come out into the open where I could take a clear shot from a prone position with my .17-222 varmint rifle. So I was waiting in a dilapidated wooden-planked shed with a corrugated iron roof for some crows to land in a gum tree around 130m away. The tree was a favourite of theirs - they had flown away from it several times when I showed myself. An hour passed before a crow landed on a branch. I slowly nudged the barrel out of a gap between the planks of the shed. The trigger on the CZ was pushed forward and the reticle centred…

Having lived in the Northern Territory in the late-80s and early-90s for some eight years, it continually draws me back for more Top End adventures. Under a hot Territorian sun, it boasts some of the world’s best barramundi fishing, along with great pig and buffalo hunting, representing an outdoorsman’s paradise. The allure of days under the NT sun while hunting the Asiatic water buffalo is our incentive when travelling in a vehicle for three long days. There’s hours of seemingly endless straight, flat bitumen roads with white lines flashing past, then bull dust almost everywhere on corrugated trucking roads of the north. Dodging sharp rocky extrusions and potholes, with providence on our side, we experienced only two punctures but this all became a distant memory as we reached our destination.…

Handy Hint 1: Use a potato masher to break up any lumps in your mince when browning the meat. Handy Hint 2: When opening the lids of the corn kernels and kidney beans, only open them a little way. Use the partially opened lids as a means of draining (and discarding) the liquid in the tins. Handy Hint 3: The spicy heat level in this recipe is up to you. If you like spicy, increase the amount of chilli powder used and you may also use a hot taco sauce. If you prefer a milder flavour, stick to the amount of chilli recommended in the ingredients. Alternatively, you may choose a mild taco sauce in order to tone down the heat quotient. Ingredients • 1 tablespoon cooking oil• 500g venison…

Ingredients Stew • 2 rabbits (divided in 8-10 pieces each)• 4 small-medium onions• 250g of mushrooms• 1 portion of speck• 2 sprigs of rosemary• 800ml chicken stock• 2 bottles of extra stout or porter• plain flour• knob of butter• olive oil• salt• pepper Dumplings • 400g self-raising flour• 200g butter (cubed)• 2 or 3 sprigs fresh oregano• milk In mid-July I had the pleasure of spotlighting rabbits on a farm in southern NSW. It had been more than a decade since I last enjoyed hunting for rabbits and even the sub-zero temperatures could not dampen my enthusiasm. There were not nearly as many rabbits as my hunting companion had encountered a month earlier, which we attributed to the bitter cold. Nevertheless we bagged around a dozen before we called it…

“The first thing I saw were his posts.” With those words, my Personal Hunter (PH), Arnold Claassen of Blaauwkrantz Safaris, introduced me both to an attribute of my first African trophy (a Vaal rhebok), and a method he used for judging whether or not a horned animal was mature, and therefore ready for harvest. My response: “I didn’t even see his horns, let alone your ‘posts’.” So, what were Arnold’s so-called posts? Well, as the accompanying photos indicate, they are located at the base of the horns of African antelopes. The difference between the morphology of these posts and the horn above them, can diverge greatly or only slightly (also referred to as ‘checks’ by some biologists). Furthermore, in some animals, like the grey duiker, the posts can be hidden…

My buddy Peter phoned and asked me to pay a visit to one of his hunting spots. He had just received an urgent call from a farmer which he could not respond to. The farmer had asked for help after a night raid by wild dogs on his breeding cows and new calves. I knew the farm from a visit with Peter when we assessed the best approach for chasing wild dogs there. The property is situated in the big, U-shaped bend of a flowing tropical river on the Atherton Tablelands of Far North Queensland. The area is in the wet tropics and the terrain is one of rolling hills and deep valleys cloaked in dense national park rainforests, interspaced with lush green dairy and beef pastures. The rainforests terminate…

Air rifles are capable of excellent accuracy and small game hunting effectiveness. To realise this potential, the aspiring air-gunner needs to be aware of a range of issues. The two stand-out items in that list are choice of pellet and scope. The topic of air rifle scopes is too big to delve into here. This article focuses on the test results for a selection of .22 calibre pellets and how to choose what is the most appropriate pellet for your needs. There are a broad range of pellets available for air rifles. I undertook an extensive program of shooting different .22 calibre pellets, measuring group size, muzzle velocity and terminal ballistic performance. I must thank the generous provision of pellets, and other assistance, from a number of Australian distributors, including…

More like an immersive outdoors adventure than a game really, Cabela’s The Hunt – Championship Edition has hit the Nintendo Switch with a hunting experience that is, thankfully, actually made for hunters. The Hunt is ready to play straight out of the box, with no downloads required. Enter a virtual Cabela Bass Pro Shop and select your character, undergo some basic shooting training and get started. Initially your inventory contains just a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, .30-06 bolt-action rifle, .357 Magnum revolver and Redhead Kronik compound bow. Progression through the game unlocks enhanced gear and customisation. The story mode of the game is a seasonal hunt where you traverse 10 famous North American locations as part of a tournament. You immediately become familiar with using your GPS tracker and ATV, along…