spewing

[jindydiver]

I went out today for a hunt on the goats. I had a ball and nailed a nice billy. I thought it had gone under him it made so much noise on the rocks, but while I was waiting to see what the rest would do I saw him wander up over the hill and a minute later there was that noise we have all heard when they go down. I went over to collect my arrow and it was all bloody and smelt like meat. YEAH.
I took off my ASAT suit and put it into my backpack and slung my bow so I could get down to the business of tracking my billy. I found some big pools of blood and the trail was looking good when it started to rain. (pics later) :x
I searched the dogwood and fire regrowth from 4pm till 6.30pm and didnÃ*t find my billy. I was absolutely shattered from all the hard searching up and down the big hills and gullies, and I still didnÃ*t have my billy. :cry:

I got home at 7.30 and grabbed my bag out of the car to get my suit out to air it on the line and my ASAT top isnÃ*t in there. The top had come undone a bit, from the bow rubbing it I suppose, and the bushes had snagged the suit out.

Looks like more hard work tomorrow morning. :roll:
Maybe I will get lucky and find my billy

[macka]

Hey gooduck in the morning and badluck about not finding him and loosing your shirt :cry: Hope ya find both.

Macka

[Piggy]

proberly an omen jindy you will find both tomorrow

[chris]

have the 160gr arived yet? if so did you use one.

Chris

[jindydiver]

Chris
they haven't arrived yet, I was using woody's outbacks out of my compound. Clean pass through at 25 metres and into a rock and still good to go :wink:

I am sure not looking forward to the job of finding the shirt. The ASAT works so well and I covered an area of about 50 acres of dogwood looking for a bright white goat, and I couldn't find him, what hope have I got of finding a camo shirt :(

I will be really ****ty if I don't find it. That ASAT gear is pretty amazing stuff. I had 5 good stalks on these goats this arvo and drew and let down my bow a good 1/2 doz times and in the end they moved off without having any idea I was there at all. Better get off to bed and rest up for my big morning tomorrow :roll:

[HOOD]

Best of luck finding your top Jindy you'll be wanting it for the VHCH.
And here's to you finding the billy as well

[Sc(+)pE]

Yeah beast of luck dude hopefully tomorrow you post a topic with the subjet line as YEAH!!

[adam]

Hope you find the billy mostly mate, the shirt can be replaced but you can't replace a downed animal as they are all different and it sounds like this goat put up a good hunt.

best of luck mate, please keep us informed.

Adam

[jindydiver]

I regret to say I found my shirt, but not the goat. This goat was very special (more on that later) and I have been watching him on and off for 5 years now. I spoke to the farmer out there and he is also keen to find so he is going to keep an eye out for when the crows (and the resident eagles) start hanging around so we can go find him.

Because he was special I was going to write up a story all about his hunt and so I took some pics of the blood trail. Here are the pics and you can see that this guy is very likely to be dead in the bottom of the gully somewhere, but that Leptospermum forest down there could swallow an elephant and you would have to trip over it to find it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/blood_01.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/blood_02.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/blood_03.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/blood_04.jpg
A close up. You can see the blood is full of bubbles, a definate lung hit..
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/blood_05.jpg

When the rain arrived at 4.30 yesterday the blood trail became very hard to find, I canÃ*t count how many times I bent over to feel the wet red coloured bark to check for blood. :roll:

The reason this guy was so special?
Back before the ban on aerial shooting it was common practice to put radio collars onto goats so that when you went out looking for them you would find the mobs of goats. The shooters could then target all the goats without a collar and the judas goat would then find another mob to give away to the shooters. This billy wears one of those collars and has since he was first seen in the area 5 years ago. I assume (as does the land owner where the goat now lives) that the collar is long past itÃ*s use-by after 5 years but I might try and dig up a directional scanner sometime soon and go and see?
There is a newer judas goat out there now, a nanny, and while I havenÃ*t seen her myself the farmer tells me she has only been in the area for a couple of years. Maybe I will find her one day.



Adam
the parcel arrived yesterday, thanks :) .

[adam]

Thats a crying shame mate, he's down no dout. Do you think it was one lung or two(there's plenty of bubble there).

I thought they banned the use of collars because they killed the goats slowly when left too long, or they have to target the judus goats after a certain amount of time because of wearing into the goats skin or strangling them :?:

Would have made for a great trophy :cry:

Adam

[jindydiver]

I am sure it was two lungs, it was perfectly broadside and a clean pass thru. He didn't even react when it hit him and I could have sworn I missed under him when I heard the arrow hit the rocks. When the mob moved off I couldn't see him with them, but then they were all standing around where the blood trail is and I couldn't see him then either :roll: But I heard him go down and I was sure it was just over the rise, but it looks like he managed to wobble down to the thick stuff at the bottom and so he is lost. I am sure you know the sort of scrub I am talking about, I shot him near the river downstream from the deer farm on the park side. We have spoken about the area before. And Mozza would know where it is also.
Maybe I will head out there monday morning and have another quick look for him and maybe a hunt.

The collar was really getting swamped in his fur and even at 30 mtrs I needed the bino's to see it. Even in the last 2 years I have seen a marked difference, he was definatly growing into the collar at a great rate. I am sure that he would have had some trouble with it in the future.

There was another billy in the group that is going to be a real trophy if he is given another couple of years. He has only been with them a couple of years so I don't know how old he is, but he already would go 36 inches and he seems to be in quite good nick so maybe I will have something to aim for in future years. As long as he doesn't wander down into Mozza's hunting grounds :wink: , or a poacher doesn't get him.

[rory]

I baggs the 36 incher!!!

Mate, you gotta take me back there, at least to find your billy.

(And so I can at least see a goat out there!) :lol:

[adam]

I know that dense scrub Jindy, pretty hard to track a t-rex in there.

I lost a good boar there near cotters place to that thick stuff. You seriously couldn't get a good look in there.

Sounds like you may have done that billy a favour anyway mate.
Hope monday brings better results.

Adam