So for my birthday back in August my girlfriend surprised me by giving me a trip to Australia to hunt scrub bulls and boars in Cape York, North Queensland with Bowhunters Lodge. To say I was shocked would be an understatement!
The catch was that I had about 8 weeks to prepare!
I have hunted with a compound and in the last year or so have gone back to the recurve but I have not shot anything with one for around 20 years and back then it was just rabbits. But if I was going to do this I wanted it to be with a recurve.
What followed was a whirlwind of getting some heavier arrows set up, ordering broadheads, buying hot weather gear, and practice, practice, practice!
I am shooting a 62lb PSE Heritage Raven, and worked out that I could shoot Easton Powerflights at 30.5" with a 100 grain insert and 200 grain heads to give me a total arrow weight of a little over 600 grains.
I opted top go with VPA Penetrators which I ordered through Big Jims. Big Jims were great to deal with, as they always have been, but unfortunately the postal service and New Zealand Customs held things up a bit so that I only received my heads 10 days before I left... I was really getting worried! Luckily the heads flew great out of my set up.
When I was on, I was getting great groups out to 20 meters from bare shafts field points and broadheads.
Once I got to Cairns I met up with the other 3 hunters in our group all compound shooters, all Australians. Grant who I would team up with for hunting, and a father and son Team of Amos and his 16 year old son Ruben. Great people to go hunting with.
The following morning we were picked up by Pat from the Bowhunters Lodge and loaded into his 4WD for the 8 hour drive over a mix of sealed and gravel roads to the hunting property.
Along the way we got a flat tyre, these roads are sure hard on vehicles!
And man was it hot in that sun! The flat was soon fixed and we were back on the road.
We were told that we were to be the first group of bowhunters onto this property as the last property had been hit hard by people dogging the pigs and numbers were down.
On arrival we met Bob and his son Ethan who were to be our main guides for the trip. Bob was a wealth of information and a very knowledgeable guide. Ethan although only 20 has crammed a lifetime of hunting into those years and was a superb, hard working guide! This guy has a true love of hunting and his enthusiasm and ability to share his knowledge were great to see.
The first evening this little fella made an appearance and was quickly returned to the water after a quick photo shoot.
His big brothers are the reason you don't go too close to the water while fishing or hunting.
This one is a baby fresh water croc but it is always possible a big salt water croc might be around you don't want to make a close acquaintance with them!
The first day of hunting was disappointing as we hunted swamps but found that a couple of rifle shooters who were supposed to be keeping to the front of the property had been there before us.
No pigs were seen on the swamps but as we headed home we spotted a big mob feeding across burnt country beside the road.
Grant, Ethan, and I headed off to intercept them and things were looking good until the wind swirled when they were about 35 meters out and the ambush we had set up was blown :( None the less our spirits were raised by the sight of 30 odd adult pigs and a bunch of suckers on the property.
Day two we walked creeks one hunter on either side with the guide accompanying one hunter and all staying in touch via radios with ear pieces. A few pigs were seen but no shots taken as the treacherous wind sent them hurrying off before we were able to set up.
During our breaks for lunch I always tried to do a little shooting with a field tipped arrow I took along. I set out orange peels and shot from different distances, positions and angles. I was heartened to hear Ethan tell his father "At least the guy can shoot, not like most Kiwis we get over here" "Any pig within 20 is in trouble" Words that were to haunt me later!
Day three we did much the same on different creeks and Grant was able to down a boar and sow out of a sleeping mob with his compound and later that day down a dingo that appeared in front of him.
I got a chance on a big sleeping boar. Due to Ethans radio playing up he was unable to advise me on my stalk and I took a different route than he wanted me to, but 20 minutes saw me creeping to within 6 meters of a really big boar quartering on in deep shade under a tree. Unfortunately I misjudged his position in the shade and made a poor shot which saw him bolting out of there with a superficial wound. After tracking him for about 900 meters the blood dried up and Ethan called it quits :(
about 20 minutes later we got onto a mob of around 20 pigs of various sizes foraging in the creek. Ethan sent me in to stalk them I got within my range but every time I started to draw one of them would see me and I would freeze until they looked away. Eventually the wind swirled and they were gone.
Day four we set out to find some swamps but ended up unable to locate them and resorted to checking out some creeks with no luck.
Topic: Outback Boar & Bull (Read 612 times)
