Hell West and Two Up
Written by Darren Amos
Awake early we were both eager to hit the road heading west again to my favourite Western property 4.5 hours away for a 3 day hunt.
Dane Mc Donald was accompanying me again for the second time to this excellent property and he was keen to try and better his personal best billy. The week prior the landholder had notified me they had 2” of rain that they desperately needed, “Darren that will definitely scatter what goats are still around and prior to the rain it was so dry they seemed to have moved on,” things are not good I thought!!! “On the bright side the creek has had water in it and I can show ya where ya might find a pig mate”! Ok sounds good mate thanks. With the ute loaded we bolted still with some expectations of getting something. The usual hunting talk and the discussion of Danes new position out at Longreach where he is relocating too with his wife and with the possibility of new hunting properties in mind seemed to make the miles easier to with stand as anticipation is the killer. A quick stop at St George for a new 2nd battery as I was having some troubles with refrigeration you might say, when you got to take two fridges to cope with food and drinks because the main fridge dies and you have to turn it into a $2000.00 esky. Now with new battery and one fridge ok and the mega expensive esky is on -2deg C full of drinks and ice we were off again like a fish milkshake.
Turning onto the red dirt road was exciting as always as you know your almost there with 80 kms to go and you start seeing Emus, Roos and Goats here and there. At the homestead now and a chat over coffee we were filled in on all the gossip and the purchase of the neighbours property another 40,000 acres of possible hunting turf (what a nice surprise). Down the creek we now head with the landholder leading the charge to show us a possible new camping spot on the creek with a small swamp opposite that the pigs frequent. Wow the creek looks real good with a lot of tea tree cover for the pigs but this is not where we will camp as scenting up the creek will ruin any chance of a porker. We then headed back to my old camp site towards the eastern boundary at a fenced off area with two dams and a trough for a tub. This is a great spot to roll out your swags as goats frequently come in for a drink and at this spot I have had my own camp fox (SWIPER) pay me several visits and try and steal my horns out of the tree 30 metres from my swag. Cruising past a dam 8 pigs were on the move into the box gum country, next two troughs in my usual hunting grounds had nothing evident around them. Two km’s to camp from here and with 1 km to go four Billies trotted off and stopped 50 metres away from us, a quick look at them had put huge smiles on our dials as they were racked and stacked with good horns. Poking into camp there were goats everywhere around camp drinking at the trough and all over the dam bank. “Crikey” Dane said “get a load of that white billy and the tan one and look at that black billy mate”, there were some good goats in a mob of 20 odd Billies milling around on the dam bank only 120 metres away from us. Yeah she’ll be right mate there are some goodin’s there, anyway lets set up camp first. These goats don’t take flight at the sound of a vehicle from hundreds of metres away like some others because they haven’t been flogged and chased around by people making this property a gem and one I want to come back to time after time.
Camp set up, hunting gear organised and a few quick practice shots we started our hunt at 3.00pm.
Dane and I were both using longbows this trip, Dane using wooden arrows tipped with 160grn ribbies and me trying out my new fangled carbon thingy arrows with close on 400grn up front. The goats that were on the dam had now moved away only 150 metres out on the edge of some open country and the wind was not in our favour so we scouted around north of them through the Mulga and Box Gum country. Stop Dane, straight ahead under that Mulga bush were 4 goats lying down and a decent billy, your first go mate away ya go!
Dane needed no encouragement and slowly made his way in to the quartering away billy but had to contend with the others all looking his way. Slowly Dane closed the gap to 15 metres whilst I was clicking away with the camera. I noticed how well Dane blended into the Mulga with only just his fletches visible at times in his back quiver. Smack an arrow was released from the longbow and billy was up and running straight at me! He stopped right beside me for a quick happy snap and then fell over. Dane was wrapped one on the ground and even though not big in the spread department he had unusual horns with a good curl. First goat and Dane’s PB has already been achieved, well done mate.
Off with his head mate and leave him beside the fence we will get him after as we were only 300 metres from camp still in the dam paddock. Sneaking around to find the bigger Billies through the Mulga we spotted them only 100 metres from Danes billy poking around some chewing away at the Mulga and some just travelling. One large white billy caught my eye stretched out standing on his back legs pulling away at the branches only 40 metres from me, steadily I made my way into range with minimal cover only to have him move and rejoin the others further into the Mulga stand. I watched as they were all regrouping and walking towards Danes billy and thought I will cut them off up further. Around the edge we go again and met them in the Box gums where they were going to walk past me hopefully. Here they come my white billy hopping along with a limp was up near the front of the small mob, cover was poor and they were weaving all over the place and finally came into range at 30 metres broadside. Crouched low I drew the longbow back as Old Whitey stepped clear of his mates and let loose a carbon thingy arrow only to watch it sail perfectly right behind his front leg and into the dirt behind him! Hell that musta been close one lucky goat. They were off back the other way now, back into the Mulga again, I picked up my arrow that had white hair stuck in the broad head ferrule and regathered my thoughts. Dane was laughing at me and I was not impressed with my shot.
TAKE TWO, follow them up and yep the buggers are in some not so great country with more Billies to contend with. A few photos taken and we will let them settle I thought.
Let’s go boy into the Mulga deeper up further and have a look. There were goats everywhere through there all feeding and we constantly had nannies, kids and smaller Billies within 5 metres or less of us unaware of our presence. As we worked our way back with the wind in our faces towards camp I lost Dane somehow and ended up in front of my Old Whitey mate from before and a few others feeding. Another large billy caught me out and curious to what I was, he started walking in my direction bringing Old Whitey with him. As the first billy caught my scent he bolted and Whitey did the same however poor Old Whitey stopped briefly only 15 metres away slightly quartering on and I sent an arrow straight through him. He managed to make it 30 metres before he bailed up and I was sure that the shot was good and waited for him to expire as the blood trail in the red dirt told a story of its own. Tough these goats I thought as he then laid down to make himself comfortable, I closed the gap on him again and put a swift end to his day, I had secured Old Whitey.
Dane arrived on the scene as dark was starting to set in and we made a v line for his billy and with both heads we made tracks for camp for a well deserved drink and feed. You certainly didn’t need a fire as the temps were high and it was just pleasant sitting back enjoying the stars that shine so bright in a Hell Western sky.
Stay Tuned for Part 2
Sneaky One
Topic: Another Aussie Hunting Story Part 1 (Read 298 times)
