* Leaving for Oz!

[Al Kidner]

Have a look at this thread Jo. Your already famous!

 http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=033602


  al

[Whip]

Looking forward to the tales!  There must be some good ones coming.......Let the story telling commence!

[Rick McGowan]

Joseph, I told you you would like it, made any plans to go back yet?  

[cjones]

Ok Joseph welcome back. Now where are the stories?

[Guru]

Looking forward to stories and pix,glad you had a great trip.

[JC]

Anxiously anticipating this one! Glad you're back safe Joseph.

[tradtusker]

this is killin me! come on.... plenty pics please

[Yance]

Yep. Joseph I hope to see a post that rivals the one when ya went to Africa.
hope lady luck is with ya.

[Joseph]

Okay, first of all I would like to thank everyone for their well wishes and also your patience in waiting for the story!  It is amazing how much stuff can pile up that needs one's attention when you get home.  Now down to the good stuff;
May 11th - Got on the plane in Billings, Mt. on the way to Los Angeles.  I have done a fair bit of traveling in my life and I have never been to an airport in my life that is as screwed up as LAX! Got on to Qantas and left out of LA on our way to Sydney.  Landed in Sydney May 13th, partly due to crossing the international date line, but also because it is a really long flight.  Total travel time from departure to arrival in Townsville with layovers and all was 40 hours!  Breezed through customs and had to more flights to get from Sydney to Townsville where Bill Baker and his wife Linda picked us up.
My traveling companion, Dominick Olivo, had been hunting with Bill 3 years before so it was time to get caught up on that last 3 years and to get to know me.  We loaded up and headed out to the ranch where we would be hunting, Toomba Station.  On the way there Bill told us that it had been raining alot in the month before we got there and the grass was unusally high which was going to make for some tough hunting.  This is usually the dry season down under and the cattle on the ranch would have been moved into the pastures where we would be hunting.  With all of the rain they had been having there had been know need to move the cattle so the best hunting areas were covered with grass that was anywhere from knee high at the best to well over my head making it hard to find and stalk animals.  I wasn't to worried because I wasn't at work so it was all good.  Toomba station is a 190 square mile ranch that runs 5000 head of cattle and is world famous for their Australian Stock Horses.  It is owned and looked after by Ernst and Robin Bassingthwaithte.  They are wonderful people and take great pride both in ranch and in being wonderful host.  Along with Bill and Linda they made the whole experience feel like going home after a long absence.  I slept in the next morning until 0900 then I got up and had a nice liesurely breakfast some coffee.  Dom was ready to go and Bill and him were after Chital first thing in the morning.  A few words here would be appropriet about Chital/Axis for those that have no experience with them.  Even in the peak of the rut they take caution and paranoia to a new level and posses reflexes that leave a whitetail looking slow and pathetic by comparisson!  I had heard the stories and thought I had seen some jumpy critters in Africa but these things have to be seen to be believed!  Break time.  Joseph

[TexMex]

Good to see you back.

[Whip]

Here we go!  That's what we've been waiting for  

[Joseph]

My friend Dominick chose to focus on the stags and my main interest was in the pigs.  These pigs are called Basalt Warriors and with good reason.  They are very aggressive and have attacked many people over the years when being followed after a shot.  Bill had a few scars from them and on some video he had taken several years ago was one hunter who got on the wrong side of an angry boar and had his calf muscle torn loose from his leg.  He came very close to dying and had to be evacuated by helicopter.  The deer hunting options were stalking and sitting in ground blinds/tree stands.  The first few pictures are of the "Honeymoon suite" wich was more a machan than a tree stand.  It was on a little finger of ground surrounded by a spring.  It was a platform made out of bamboo that is approximately 6x10 feet and about 14 feet up in a tree.  This was a good spot where animals would come throughout the day to drink.  It was also in a funnel on a travel route.

 

 

 
The last photo is of Bill when he took us in to the stand to show us how to get there and where the game would be approaching from.  Joseph

[Joseph]

There was another blind that I sat in several times and had my closest encounter in.  It was in a little point of Black Tee tree that was along the edge of a large plain that was partially flooded and had grass that was anywhere from 1 to 4 feet deep.  It took me a little while to appreciate the beauty of this set up.  As the deer approached the the edge of the trees there was a lot of natural movement from all of the birds and the sun was in there face.  Another thing a noticed about these deer is they trusted their eyes alot.  They quite often would walk with the wind at there backs.  Here is a self portrait of me in the blind
   
Every morning I went there the plain would be covered with fog and between that and the long grass the deer would just appear like wraiths.  One morning while I was sitting in there a herd of deer entered the tree line about 100 yards down from me.  They had ran past the front of the blind in hi gear and I heard Dingoes howling soon afterward.  I figured that would be the last of them for the morning but decided to sit for a while longer.  After about another 40 minutes of sitting I turned my head to my right and locked eyes with a Chital doe that was only 5 yards away.  They had worked down the edge of the trees after entering them up the way.  Well it didn't take her to long to decide that whatever I was it wasn't good and then she barks and there was deer everywhere.  No shots and it was quite obviously time for breakfast. All of this occured just over my left shoulder in the picture.  Joseph

[Joseph]

There had been a lot of rain in the month before we arrived and like Africa, rain during the hunting season is not a good thing.  This next picture is of a pasture called Long Pocket,  The fog over the pasture was there every morning due to the standing water in the pasture.  This picture was taken from atop of the Basalt wall that surrounds the pocket.  The light green grass you see at the bottom of the hill that angles up to the right varied from ankle to knee deep.  This was the road.  The darker green you see in the rest of the pasture was anywhere from 4-6 feet deep.
 

[Joseph]

Another really good blind that was set up over a hog wallow
   
You would sit on a folding stool underneath a tree.  The wallow had been in use for a long time, it was about 4 feet deep.  The shot from underneath the tree was 14 yards.
   
Pigs were seen by this wallow and we attempted to stalk them without success, we were on our way in to the blind when we came across them.

[Joseph]

It was the end of the first week before I was able to put everything together, doing my part and capitalizing on an opportunity.  We were walking back into an area that we had seen a lot sign in and where the grass was short enough to see.  It was about 4pm and there was a suspicious looking dark spot on the plain in front of us.  A quick look revealed that it was a lone pig so we took off at a fast walk to get in front of the pig as he was feeding.  We quickly moved up to within 60 yards of the pig and I started working in to shooting distance on my own.  At one point I was about 40 yards away and walking through some shallow water and mud when my cat like stealth     was almost my undoing.  I was watching the pig and moving very carefully in an effort to be quiet.  I was in the middle of taking a step when my one foot on the ground started sliding through the mud and I almost fell over.  It was pretty funny to see on the video.  Whe I had gotten to within 20 yards of the pig he suddenly started walking right at me.  I stood frozen thinking to myself "I'm a bush, I'm a bush, I'm a bush"  I had an arrow on the string and my bow up waiting to see what was going to happen.  The pig walked towards me until he was right at 5 yards then he looked up at me with a look like, I don't remember that tree there, my harmless thoughts must have worked because he turned broadside to me and started ambling away.  I got to full draw and he was right at 8 yards away when I shot and the arrow went right through the triangle in the shoulder
   
He didn't make it 60 yards and fell over dead.  I was very happy, 3 days before this I missed 3 shots at 2 different pigs in an hours time.  2 shots were at 10 yards at the same pig, 1 over and 1 under.  The other shot was just a little over 20 yards and was a clean miss also.  I was feeling a little less than confident about my shooting after that so this was a big shot of confidence.
 

 

I shot him with one of the new 4 blade Eclipse broadheads.  He had a thick coat of dried mud on both sides of him and the BH went through the mud, fighting shield, ribs, chest, ribs, the other shield, and out through the mud on the other side.  The arrow went through almost up to the fletch and the BH was still sharp after all of that.  Joseph

[Charlie Lamb]

Just love your hunts Joseph!     Very interested in the Eclipse w/bleeder.

[Rick McGowan]

Good Stuff!

[steve anderson]

That bow is almost as purty as you Joseph.  Welcome back.  Let's hear more  :eek:    

[RayMO]

Yep, this is just great Joseph!