Well, I'm counting down the months 'til the monsoon season is over, and the dry season begins, with its opportunities to hunt pigs here, mainly, as well as a few others in the desert if we can get the chance. I've dug-up some live game photos to help me dream, and I thought I'd share them here.
Top-End brumby
(http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l164/b_kleinig/Australian%20Live%20Game/brumby.jpg)
Top-End buffalo
(http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l164/b_kleinig/Australian%20Live%20Game/buffalo.jpg)
Simpson camels
(http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l164/b_kleinig/Australian%20Live%20Game/camel.jpg)
Simpson dingo
(http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l164/b_kleinig/Australian%20Live%20Game/dingo.jpg)
Top-End donkeys
(http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l164/b_kleinig/Australian%20Live%20Game/donkey.jpg)
Gascoyne goats
(http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l164/b_kleinig/Australian%20Live%20Game/goat.jpg)
Top-End boar
(http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l164/b_kleinig/Australian%20Live%20Game/pig.jpg)
I love my sunburnt country...
Very Nice Pics!!
nice pics- wish I could hunt there myself. Do you hunt the brumby's/horses?
Wow Ben - you got me salivating 'big fella'! My bowhunting mate in Melbourne (yes another Phill) - he and I are going to a property in Byrock, NSW this year. Has big goats and pigs, foxes and rabbits, but not anything like you lads have up north.
A very good posting Ben and thanks for the great pics. Hey mate - I have nearly sold all my bows - waiting on the Bubinga B/L and the new Fox. The Fox will be here by april so will take her on that hunt.
Sutto
Beautiful pics,I especially like the goat pic and camel pic.
Do you hunt the camel and brumby??Is brumby a slang term or the actual name and basically a wild horse?
Not condemning or anything,so please don't take it that way,just curious since I've never had any experience in your part of the world.Do they eat well?Sure looks like a LOT of meat..........BTW,I know camels store water in the hump,but what's it made of,and is it edible,the hump that is,or is it just a big lump of gristle or fat??
Get your whip out and tame that brumby!, then use him to get around when you go hunt the other big stuff!
Not much point in me posting photos of squirrels, opossums, raccoons, rabbits and ground hogs now that our Aussie friend, Ben has trumped us with photos of brumpy, buffalo, camels, dingo and donkeys. Thanks for stealing our thunder, Ben.
:biglaugh:
By the way, in America, we have a law against referring to our horses as "Brumpy". My understanding is that this law was passed at the request of Lieutenant Colonel (and eventual President) Theodore Roosevelt. Apparently he and his fellow Spanish-American War, "Rough Riders" wouldn't be caught dead on a brumpy.
:biglaugh: :jumper:
And the rest is history...
p.s. Nice pictures!
Ben, I plan to see your beautiful country in '09 when Whip and I hope to do a do-it-yourself hunt/walkabout with Al Kidner. Your pics aren't making the wait any easier.
What about scrub bulls?
What would it cost us Yanks to come over and bowhunt pigs and buffs and maybe some of the others you posted?
Nala
Its time to save up and go down under. I was mist netting honey-eaters (pollinating birds)with the CSIRO in Western Australia 18 years ago. This was in patches of wooded areas around the wheatlands.
What struck me at the time was the uncanny similarity of red kangeroos to white tailed deer.
The kangeroos would enter the wheat fields at dusk, and hole up in brushy areas at day. They even matched the coloration of our deer when they glided by you in a wooded area. The real surprise was how silently they moved through the dry, crackly bush. Instead of hooves, the roos have padded feet that make them stealthier than a cat burglar.
The invasive species seen in Ben's pics have no natural predators except Ben and his mates. The only predator signs I saw were the grisly remains of sheep outside a European red fox's den.
Good hunting, and sorry about the cane toads!
Great photo's! :thumbsup:
I'm glad you like the photographs, fellows!
To answer some questions:
We certainly do hunt brumbies and camels. All are edible, but rarely do we utilise the meat due to the distance, heat, and the fact that we're hunting to eradicate introduced pests, not hunting to conserve native wildlife (as is done in Africa and the USA). Brumby is to us what a mustang is to you in the USA, except they're not protected here, as there are so many of them and they do enormous damage to station infrastructure and the environment (as do the other ferals in the pictures). The term brumby has two possible origins - the last name of a red-coat soldier who had some horses in the colony (late 1700s) which escaped, or an Aboriginal word from one of the Queensland tribes. Some brumbies are captured and broken-in, and while this is fantastic, it isn't feasible for the hundreds of thousands that we have roaming about the place, so hunting / culling is necessary.
I think it's a myth that camels store water in their humps. It's just fat or gristle. But the hump can get quite low if the animal loses condition.
Sutto, a Fox longbow? Congratulations! Is that the D-shape, or the deflex-reflex one? Good luck at Byrock - I don't even know where that is!
Tony, I've not seen deer, but from what I've read and seen in photographs, I've begun to refer to Skippy as the Aussie deer.
JC, I bet you'll have a blast with Kidner! How long are you here for, and when? Just wondering if it coincides with my holidays and a good time to hit the desert? Plot, scheme, plot... I haven't yet managed a photograph of a scrub bull.
Nala, if you go to the Dangerous Game section, and get in contact with Mick Baker, he'll give you the price for buffalo (and pigs and scrub bulls). To hunt the others, you'd have to go with a local, so just the cost of getting here and then food and diesel.
Here's a link to last year's efforts on some of these animals:
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=98;t=000014
And a link to this year's efforts on goats:
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=111;t=000017
Cheers,
Ben
Thanks for answering the questions,very interesting.
Man,you were a regular hog slaying machine last year!
Looks like this year is already well on it's way to being a great one......
Love the pics!
Ben - I just followed that link and saw all the critters you have stirred up. Wow - I am so hangin mate. Stuck down South here in Kalgoorlie we don't have any of those critters. There are a few rabbits but because the desert here is so vast and goes forever you have to walk miles to see them.
There are no pigs and a few goats. I did go for a walk late last year with the bow and nailed three goats in one afternoon. I really liked the big hogs that you hammered - that is what I am after.
I have to plan a hunt ahead like the USA lads - then travel ages to get there. You are so fortunate - all in your back yard.
Did it feel strange shootin that horse? I know they are feral but I haven't seen a photo like that before, just looks weird. We usually see pic's of horses as pets. However what you say is correct - they do a lot of damage to the native species.
Sutto
Nice pics Ben! Thanks fro sharing! I really enjoyed looking at your other threads! ;)
Thanks for the pics. It is a beautiful place.
Alan
WOW! How did I miss those previous threads?! Thanks for sharing the pics and bringing those threads back! Outstanding hunting oportunities you have down there!
Thanks, fellows; it's a pleasure to share these here - I love my country's wilderness.
Sutto! There's ____loads of goats within a couple of hours drive of Kal, and some real beauties too! You really should tee-up a hunt with my brother. There are reds and rabbits down at Esperance, but last time he was up past your way hunting goats, he also found horse, donkey, and scrub cattle tracks and dung. It warrants further endeavour. The emotions I experience when I kill a horse are exactly the same as when I kill a pig - that paradoxical mixture familiar to most bowhunters. The proverbial back yard is a bloody big one! To get to the goats, it's a 3500 km drive one way. To get to the desert, it's a 1600 km drive one way. Then there's a lot of miles on station tracks. But it's all worth it, just to be out there where the spinifex grows and the dingos howl! You really should come for a trip one day, even if it's to hunt pigs here.
Cheers,
Ben
Nice pictures,...Gotta love living in a country so full of game !!!
My dad lives in Townsville, and I've being trying to go visit for a wile now, I'm surely gonna love the hunting once I finally make it there.
.....And, horse is a wonderfull meat, trust me I ate it most of my life,...untill I got to the U.S.
Speechless.......
Todd
Ben, Joe and I will be there sometime next summer...whatever works into Al's schedule. Probably 2weeks minus the travel time, mostly for pigs or whatever crosses our path. I'm not sure my wife would let me back in the house after killing a brumby or donkey...but I certainly realize the terrible damage introduced species do to the local environment and native populations. I hear those camels are tough critters with big heavy bones. Probably wouldn't intentionally target a buff or scrub bull...but if one crossed my path while out in the bush I might feel differently!
I've been told there are spots that have so many pigs a fellow would get tired of hunting them. I hope I don't find one of those spots...I may have to start looking for a job down there :rolleyes:
On my trip down under in 06 with Andrew Mackay we hunted buffalo but also had time to kill a pig (or two) and a few feral donkeys. I had pictures of the donkeys with the rest of my photos from the trip but I eventually took them out of the album. Every time I got to the donkey photos my non-hunting friends (and most females) would say "Oh, you didn't shoot the donkeys did you?!". I would explain the whole feral/pest issue but after awhile it was just easier to take the donkey photos out. They are actually prety hard to get close to and a challenge to get with a stick bow.
Great pics, thanks for sharing! Certainly makes me want to visit. I love the word "brumby." So much the better if using it violates federal law. :jumper: The dang mustangs here are incredible pests, and they try to adopt 'em out, but there's no where near enough people who want them. Wish we could hunt them here.
Ben nice pics. I just spent one month at the Telfer gold mine. 2hr flight north from perth. Warmest place I've ever been 48c(118 f). When I saw the red dirt I could feel the heat and imagine the flys. Very cool place thou. I saw lots of dingos and some camels. How far are you from Darwin?
take care
G'day Mr. Yenney! Katherine is 314km from Darwin.
Look Guys. NO SNOW!!!!!!!! What's that like???
Do you keep the goat horns? Lots of uses for them.
No snow...seems pretty normal to me! I've never seen snow. Of course, "normal" is an objective term. I wonder if snow is like sand, except wet and cold instead of hot and dry?
We keep some of the goat horns for trophies, if they're really good or our personal bests.
Cheers,
Ben