Being versatile whilst out hunting

 Being versatile whilst out hunting

Here's a true story:

Travel over 650km in the car to remote wild property west of Tamworth NSW. It's a sheep station (as of the time of writing this article it is to my knowledge no longer run as such but as a sort of family get away into the wilderness!) which had plenty of wild goats and pigs competing for the scarce food with the farmer's sheep. He took on responsible bowhunters (and used to take "piggers" but no longer when we went as he said there were too many "lost dogs" killing his sheep; and he even offered us money for every dead dog we produced!

We were to hunt several times there over the coming years.

Steep rugged country with pristine creeks laden with rainbow trout, man what a great place.

We had planned for ages to get to this place and had been practicing everyday for weeks. Everything was set! off we went.

Arrive at the place and meet the landowner. He had a chat with me and my mate and decided that we seemed like a couple of decent guys and even invited us if we got anything that we could used his deep freezer to store our game (it was summer). That was the first hurdle and things were going well. He told us where to drive to a remote campsite some distance away from the homestead, where we could set up our camp.

Upon arrival at the camp site, it was perfect, a flat grassy area right next to a great creek! Plenty of fire wood and water! Now let's unpack and get the bows and the rest of the gear out!

OH NO! My mate has forgotten his hunting knife! In fact he has forgotten even a SAK!! The next day I got a really nice goat and after processing it where I shot it, bagged it up and off for the long walk back to camp. My mate was not impressed LOL but I BBQed some leg and what i didn't eat i took with me for lunch the next day! Well during lunch the next day I managed to cut myself very nicely on my left hand (luckily, I'm a right handed bow shooter) index finger second knuckle joint! ouch! I had to make a makeshift splint and of course bandage the finger. My first thought was damn! No more hunting for me this week! But my second action was to see if I could still hold my bow properly! LOL! No problems!! After all my index finger doesn't rest upon the grip. I then radioed him and told him of my (stupid) accident and his reply was that I was out of the league now LOL! Not so, another goat was bagged with an index finger in a crude but effect wooden splint. Boy was my mate shitty (in a good way though) when he saw me walking into camp with another goat! 

Now the next day my mate got lucky and with nothing but a spare broadhead, he gutted and skinned his prize billy and it only took him 30 minutes! We had such a good laugh about this and remarked how one has to be versatile!

The following day we watched with amazement how 2 big roos out ran and then out swam two wild dogs chasing them off the side of a mountain and then into a creek. The roos left the dogs behind once they got into the water! Later my mate caught a huge trout and then came face to face with a nice black snake (luckily for him!) all before the day was out. That was it, a successful bowhunting trip and plenty of meat to take back to the big smoke!

BCT

the following day my mate got one too but we were hunting alone and were communicating by walkie talkies. We both had first aid with us as well, maps etc.