Goat hunting Australia

[memo]

Hey everyone, it's been a while but thought I'd pop by and say G'day.
Work has kept me pretty busy the past few years, but I normally get out for one decent adventure each year. It's just that I've been unsuccessful those hunts though.

A couple of good mates (Jezza and Reithy) reached out and invited me on a hunt for Feral Goats up in our mountainous terrain here on the Great Dividing Range. All three of us hunting own Big Jim Thunderchilds, so we decided on a Big Jim Goat hunt.
Recently another mate started making self bows and gave one to me, so I took it along as well to try and get a Billy with that one. I made up a new batch of woods to go with the selfbow using some natural Turkey feathers, some creative painting and some Ribteks passed down to my from a good friend who passed away last year.



We rocked up to the property on Friday afternoon and set ourselves up in the cabin. Got the fire going, cooked up dinner, maybe a few sneaky beers and first light Saturday we were off.

It was cold and windy, and the Goats weren't keen on leaving the shelter of the thick bush.




Covering the ground with binoculars won out in the end with some spotted on a distant hill.
We set off and caught up with them in the thick tea tree. A young Nanny fed towards me and she became my first selfbow kill.




More Goats made their presence known, with a few handy Billies amongst them. A bit of cat and mouse ensured as they fed along, but we managed to get in front of the feeding mob.

Reithy was first up, and as a one horned fella walked past at 20, I witnessed one of  the most emphatic kills I've seen. The Billy dropped on the spot, his legs folding under him as the arrow took out both lungs.



The Billy had completely snapped one horn off fighting, but Reithy was pretty happy with himself, and rightly so.





We continued after the remainder, as they fed unaware of their companions demise. Another white Billy was preoccupied browsing and allowed me to get very close. I drew the Osage selfbow back and sent the Ribtek on its way, quickly downing a representative Billy.
I was happy to get a decent one with the selfbow, and looked up at the sky and let Tom know his broadheads were still going strong.



Past my bedtime now, so I'll continue tomorrow.

Cheers,
Memo.

[rainman]

Nice looking Osage bow.  How hard is Osage to get in Australia? 

[rastaman]

Great hunt so far!  Thanks for sharing it with us! Nice looking arrows and cool osage selfbow!

[trad_bowhunter1965]

Thanks for sharing     

[Pat B]

Congrats on your first 2 selfbow kills.  Looks like cool country to hunt in. Thanks for sharing. 

[johnnyk71]

AWESOME post! thank you for sharing your adventure!