brian
24-01-06, 11:18 PM
real name: Mick Mason
nickname: Billy, Wildman, wild bill,
age: 41
height/weight: 187cm 125kg
Mug shot
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/rainbow.jpg
Give us the quick version of your life story:
I am a Canberra boy, I have lived here my whole life so far. My dad was born in Wagga and always loved the bush (his dad was a dairy farmer) and so I grew up spending all the time my dad could spare out in the bush. And Canberra offered plenty of opportunity for a young bloke to get out into the countryside too. While I was in High school I used to sling a bow over my back and ride my pushbike out to the outskirts of town and hunt rabbits. On school holidays a few of my school mates and I would be dropped off in the hills for a week or 10 days and we would camp and hunt ourselves stupid before the pickup day. It was a great time to be a kid. We had a lot of opportunities nearby to get out and about, something the present generations don’t get so easily. One place we used to go shooting and ferreting is now a shopping mall, and the houses go on for miles after it.
A fox I took with my first Darton (a 35gl). The place where this was shot is all now nature reserves and rural estates…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/dartonfox.jpg
I did a lot of climbing and caving as a young bloke too, and got to see some more interesting Aussie locations while I was out having fun doing it. Back when I was younger and fitter I did a lot of wilderness fishing. My mate Ross and I would load up our packs and disappear into the parks near home and fish our way along a river for a few days.
Deep in the limestone…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/dip.jpg
Out fishing…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/wilderness.jpg
Unfortunately for me that all changed back in 1996. I had an accident and suffered some nerve damage to my neck and some fractures to my lumbar spine. I spent the next 4 years looking at a future very different to my past, but in 2000 my wife and I were blessed with our first child and my outlook changed a lot. I started to spend a lot of time fighting against my disabilities and my wife encouraged me to dust off one of my bows and get out and have a go. It took 18 months of hard work before I could pull my old darton back but I have made great strides since then. I even went and bought a newer bow 2 years ago, another Darton (my 4th). In 2000 I couldn’t even hold my bow up so I could try and draw it and now I can shoot my 65lb compound and my 60 @ 28 recurve.
How did you get started in archery/bowhunting?
My father was into vintage cars and he bought home this old car one day that was full of all sorts of stuff. Us kids got stuck straight into pulling it all out and seeing what sort of treasure we could find, and I found an old fibreglass bow. This treasure meant that I didn’t have to wait till we went out to the bush to go hunting, I could get on my bike and disappear up to the back paddock and have some fun.
what was your first bowkill?
I started out with the humble rabbit.
what’s your favorite hunting setup and why?
I don’t think I really have a favourite, but lately I have been spending a fair bit of my time shooting my longbow. I am looking forward to taking something with it.
what’s your favorite hunting method?
Still hunting (spot and stalk, but slower). I like to cover a fair bit of ground and to have a look around at all the other things nature has to offer.
This is one of the things that people who don’t hunt don’t get to see. It is a long neck tortoise laying its eggs.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/2006/layingeggs.jpg
I am not really into ambushes that much but I do find it useful to let the animals walk into me as I am not the nimble, light on my feet ninja type I was in my youth.
what got you started in trad?
My lack of form since I started with the bow again has meant that I was only shooting out to 25 metres anyway, so I figured I would ditch all the bells and whistles and just make an effort to get to 15 metres instead. I have found I like the simplicity of it, and I can imagine for a while I am that little kid again, out hunting with my fibreglass bow.
where in australia is your favourite hunting location?
I don’t know if I really have a favorite, but I love the mountains, and in the past I have passed on “sure thing” hunts out west in favour of “maybe” hunts in the hills.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/nswhigh.jpg
whats the first thing you look for when hunting a new area?
A map from the owners showing where I can and can’t go. The owner of a property has no obligation to allow me access and so I do what I have to do to make sure that I only go where I am told I can go, and only hunt what I am told I can hunt. The farmer is also the only person to be able to tell you what has been going on at a farm, and it would be pointless to go off down the back blocks looking for game when the farmer has been feeding stock in the house paddock and that is where all the wildlife now hangs out too.
where would you like to hunt in the future in australia?
I think I would like to hunt the gulf country.
whats your favourite ausy game animal to hunt and why?
At the moment I would say the fallow of the high country. I have been chasing a good buck with the bow for only one rut so far (although I have seen him before when holding a rifle), but it has been the most exciting hunting I have had in many years, and I think that this rut will find me hiding in the bracken ferns again hoping for another chance at the big grey fella.
Have you hunted overseas?
I have hunted in NZ. I am in NZ a lot (my wife is a kiwi) and last trip the brother of one of our members took me to an amazing place and we got to see some fallow there, but even though Matt got a shot off neither of us got to grass any game. I am in NZ every 18 months or so and there is no way I am ever travelling there now with out my bow.
what is your dream overseas hunt?
I would love to hunt elk (wapati) in Canada. I got to see some from really close when I was there in ‘96 and I would love to try to down one.
What do you believe is the best promotion for bowhunting and why.
Hunters getting out and telling people about their pastime. Reasoned arguments on why bow hunting is a legitimate tool in the control of pest animals can only help to promote bow hunters in the eyes of the wider community. I don’t think that magazines and web pages have half the effect as personal promotion does, as the only people who buy the mags or view the web sites are people who are already becoming aware of bow hunting as a legitimate pastime. Sometimes of course anti hunting types buy the mags and check out the sites, but they are already steadfast in their views and no amount of argument will sway them from those views.
I also believe that putting a reasoned and sensible argument for hunting to people in person is also the best way to counter the negative publicity the anti-hunting zealots produce. The anti’s will always direct people to our sites when they see something they can twist into an anti-hunting argument, and the best way IMHO to counter that is to show good positive images so that we also can direct people to out websites so they can see what we do and the good that comes out of it.
whats the one peice of advice you'd give to new bowhunters?
If in doubt, don’t. I am not a big fan of cruelty to animals and the most important thing to me is that the animal have a good death. If a new guy comes hunting with me I expect him (or her) to be able to reign in any nerves and to get as close as they possibly could before then deciding if they can do the job or not.
I suppose this way of looking at the game I hunt has meant that I have passed up more chances than some blokes have even thought they would get, but I don’t regret not shooting half as much as I know I would regret a **** shot.
what are your other interests?
Climbing, diving (caves and wrecks) and making stuff with my hands.
Before my accident in ‘96 I was very much into climbing. I spent the first 3 months of ‘96 in Canada, climbing in the Rocky Mountains, and diving wherever I could. I also that year dived (with my wife) the wreck of the Mikhail Lermontov and the Riwaka Resurgence (a cave) in NZ.
What is the best moment of your hunting career?
My first pig.
I was 16 and some friends and I went out for some fishing up in the mountains near home. I was all keen to get out with the bow, and one of the guys knew the owner of the property next to the river and tee’d it up so I could go for a wander. I had never tried to get close to a pig before without it having a couple of our dogs hanging off it and I was looking forward to having a go.
I was checking out a stream bed and noticed in the distance a tree that looked to have 2 shadows under it. I snuck in closer and sure enough there was a small mob of pigs laying in the sun next to the tree. I couldn’t get anywhere in the open stream bed (and we all know how hard it is to be quiet on those river pebbles) and so I backed out and came in from the other side. There is a road there and the stream bed drops away right next to the road on the other side of the fence. Perfect. If I could get to the strainer post I would be above the pigs and I might have a chance. When I got there I found the pigs feeding towards me and I knew that this was the best setup I could have ever hoped for. I wonder sometimes how it is possible that I pulled off the shot with the amount of shaking I was doing. The pigs came in to only 15 metres or so away and I had to shoot through the link lock fence and the first shot went just under the pigs neck and stuck in the ground with a tremendous racket. The pig nearly jumped out of it’s skin and then, as if it was always going to be my day, the pig just propped there perfectly sideways like it was just waiting to be turned into sausages. I shot again and it was perfect right in the crease behind the elbow and the arrow passed through and drove into the ground. The pig just stood there for a moment and then fell on it’s side and had a kick and it was all over.
I ran back to the river to grab the guys and show them. I had never been as excited over a hunt, and I still haven’t to this day. That was in 1980.
Who has inspired you?
My grandmother, her uncle and my dad.
My grandmothers family arrived in the area where Yass would later be built on shortly after Hume and Hovell blazed a trail through there. They were squatters and they cleared and settled a lot of area along the Murrumbidgee river. As I was growing up my grandmother would tell me stories from her childhood and as a kid I spent many a holiday travelling around the area with my nan, being shown all the things that still made my old nan smile like a kid. My great uncle would show us kids how to catch bait for fishing and would show us how to wring a rabbits neck after we get it out of the trap, all the good things that would show me how to get on in the Aussie bush.
While I was in primary school my dad would organise our schoolwork for us and then take us on big holidays to see Australia. We saw a lot of country on these trips (most lasted 2 months or more) and we experienced things that helped me to see Australia and her people in a different light to most of my school mates.
Later on in life others showed me the importance of focusing on a goal. Climbers like Joe Simpson and Doug Scott have inspired me with their love of life and their ability to overcome incredible odds and still keep going.
I don’t really have hunting heroes, but this is the sort of thing that inspires me to go hunting…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/peter_loving_his_venison.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/charlie_loving_her_venison2.jpg
A pic of my dad, me and our old friend Bill. Unfortunately I am the only one left..
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/crows.jpg
what was your funniest moment in Archery/hunting?
Many years ago I was hunting up near Condo with my dad and a mate and a fellow from work who sort of edged his way into the trip. We were getting tired of this fellows constant stories about how he was a died in the wool bushy and how he “come from the land” and all the usual guff, but we were getting into the pigs and didn’t really care. We were headed across the station from the house we were staying in to go visit the owners of the property (25 km trip) and this bloke started giving us a running commentary about all the stock we passed and giving us his estimation of how many animals there were. He used this trick to count fast that is often used by old blokes. You hold out your hand and you count the number of animals between your thumb and little finger, and it works well if you count the first lot, and them multiply that by how many times you can fill that gap again. Problem was this guy wasn’t the full quid and always had a number he would use for a base, no matter how many sheep (or cows or whatever) he could see, or how far away they were.
We were getting sick of it as we pulled up to the station house and the owner came out to greet us. The station owner is an old friend of dads and we were having a cool drink on the veranda when the goose buts in and starts telling the owner that that was a great 1500 strong flock of weathers she had and she says “but you must be mistaken??” “we don’t have any weathers, what you saw was 3000 of our best ewes and lambs.”
My mate Zel just about fell off his chair and this guy looked like his world was crumbling in around him.
This is me and Zel reliving the tale that night…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/camplaugh.jpg
This guy also had a “foolproof” method for preventing himself getting lost. He was telling us that you just have to keep this hill we could see in the distance over his left shoulder and he could find his way back to camp from anywhere on the property.
Needless to say when he went out walking we were more than a little concerned he might not make it home.
I have enjoyed time spent with cocky’s too. I make an effort to get to know the people who own the properties I hunt on and a few beers and a feed with some of these guys can be way more entertaining than any night spent on the turps in town.
What aspect of bowhunting do you enjoy most.
The part I like most about bow hunting is the focus on the hunter. I enjoy shooting my rifles, but when you are in a camp with rifle shooters you always find the conversation turning to all the technical aspects of the gear and how much everything cost.
With bow hunting it is more about your connection with nature.
What's a few ethics that you strongly believe in while hunting.
The most important thing to me is respect for the animals. I am talking about making the best effort you can to give that animal a good death and not a death that is prolonged and full of pain. I don’t care too much about the concept of respect after the animal has died, unless we are talking about making use of the animal if you can. Some people will see it as disrespectful to take pictures of animals with arrows in them, or with their tongue hanging out or with pools of blood, but I see that as more of an aesthetics issue and if people want pics like that then it hurts no-one but them. (I am sure some will disagree with that and see any image as reflecting on all bow hunters, but I think the anti hunter groups as being anti, no matter what image we portray, and respect for the animal and respect for the sensibilities of others that may view your pics are two separate things)
I think there is a bit too much hand wringing over what is ethical and it is obvious that there must be rules set to level the playing field for guys that want to claim trophies, but for guys like me who hunt only for themselves I don’t see a need for any rules over and above the laws of the land. The only “ethic” that I can say I think is necessary (and that I hold myself to every single hunt) is that before a shot is taken everything that could be done to ensure a good death for the animal has been done.
If others want to shoot penned game or shoot under lights then that is their business and as long as they don’t lie about how an animal was shot I couldn’t care less how they did it.
Whats your ultimate hunting situation.
I don’t really know, but this last fallow rut I found myself in a few rippers.
On one morning I was waiting next to a fence for a buck I had seen passing there before and I could see deer running around everywhere below me in the valley (200mtrs away) and a big buck croaking like it was his last best chance of ever getting his end away.
The smaller buck came up to the fence and sensed something off and turned away before going under (and getting drilled) and so I decided to have a go at getting into where the big guy was going off. I ditched my sandals and started a slow stalk into his lek from about 100mtrs out. It was really hard going as the ground was covered in sticks and leaves from the big gums in the valley, but I just worked my way along any little pad I could find until I found my self at the edge of his lek. Not 50mtrs away he was giving it to a spiky, really hammering him in the side as the spiky tried to get to the does. I was in heaven. The big guy went the other way around his little race track (which saved him coming within about 3 metres of me) and dropped down behind a small rise. I up and ran to get behind a big tree and when I got there I found I was like 15 metres form the big guy and he was standing there with his neck extended and croaking so deep it sounded almost like a lions roar. I couldn’t get a shot as there was a big tree between me and his vitals so I just stood there waiting and hoping that the wind wouldn’t give me away in the end. I could see all the does milling around, and some sleeping, about 50 metres away and I thought that this was just going to be a matter of me being patient enough and I would have the big guy.
That was when the spiky came back and busted me. I got to watch the big guy move off without him ever knowing what was waiting behind the tree for him.
If the poachers don’t beat me to it I am going to be having another go at him this march.
nickname: Billy, Wildman, wild bill,
age: 41
height/weight: 187cm 125kg
Mug shot
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/rainbow.jpg
Give us the quick version of your life story:
I am a Canberra boy, I have lived here my whole life so far. My dad was born in Wagga and always loved the bush (his dad was a dairy farmer) and so I grew up spending all the time my dad could spare out in the bush. And Canberra offered plenty of opportunity for a young bloke to get out into the countryside too. While I was in High school I used to sling a bow over my back and ride my pushbike out to the outskirts of town and hunt rabbits. On school holidays a few of my school mates and I would be dropped off in the hills for a week or 10 days and we would camp and hunt ourselves stupid before the pickup day. It was a great time to be a kid. We had a lot of opportunities nearby to get out and about, something the present generations don’t get so easily. One place we used to go shooting and ferreting is now a shopping mall, and the houses go on for miles after it.
A fox I took with my first Darton (a 35gl). The place where this was shot is all now nature reserves and rural estates…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/dartonfox.jpg
I did a lot of climbing and caving as a young bloke too, and got to see some more interesting Aussie locations while I was out having fun doing it. Back when I was younger and fitter I did a lot of wilderness fishing. My mate Ross and I would load up our packs and disappear into the parks near home and fish our way along a river for a few days.
Deep in the limestone…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/dip.jpg
Out fishing…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/wilderness.jpg
Unfortunately for me that all changed back in 1996. I had an accident and suffered some nerve damage to my neck and some fractures to my lumbar spine. I spent the next 4 years looking at a future very different to my past, but in 2000 my wife and I were blessed with our first child and my outlook changed a lot. I started to spend a lot of time fighting against my disabilities and my wife encouraged me to dust off one of my bows and get out and have a go. It took 18 months of hard work before I could pull my old darton back but I have made great strides since then. I even went and bought a newer bow 2 years ago, another Darton (my 4th). In 2000 I couldn’t even hold my bow up so I could try and draw it and now I can shoot my 65lb compound and my 60 @ 28 recurve.
How did you get started in archery/bowhunting?
My father was into vintage cars and he bought home this old car one day that was full of all sorts of stuff. Us kids got stuck straight into pulling it all out and seeing what sort of treasure we could find, and I found an old fibreglass bow. This treasure meant that I didn’t have to wait till we went out to the bush to go hunting, I could get on my bike and disappear up to the back paddock and have some fun.
what was your first bowkill?
I started out with the humble rabbit.
what’s your favorite hunting setup and why?
I don’t think I really have a favourite, but lately I have been spending a fair bit of my time shooting my longbow. I am looking forward to taking something with it.
what’s your favorite hunting method?
Still hunting (spot and stalk, but slower). I like to cover a fair bit of ground and to have a look around at all the other things nature has to offer.
This is one of the things that people who don’t hunt don’t get to see. It is a long neck tortoise laying its eggs.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/2006/layingeggs.jpg
I am not really into ambushes that much but I do find it useful to let the animals walk into me as I am not the nimble, light on my feet ninja type I was in my youth.
what got you started in trad?
My lack of form since I started with the bow again has meant that I was only shooting out to 25 metres anyway, so I figured I would ditch all the bells and whistles and just make an effort to get to 15 metres instead. I have found I like the simplicity of it, and I can imagine for a while I am that little kid again, out hunting with my fibreglass bow.
where in australia is your favourite hunting location?
I don’t know if I really have a favorite, but I love the mountains, and in the past I have passed on “sure thing” hunts out west in favour of “maybe” hunts in the hills.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/nswhigh.jpg
whats the first thing you look for when hunting a new area?
A map from the owners showing where I can and can’t go. The owner of a property has no obligation to allow me access and so I do what I have to do to make sure that I only go where I am told I can go, and only hunt what I am told I can hunt. The farmer is also the only person to be able to tell you what has been going on at a farm, and it would be pointless to go off down the back blocks looking for game when the farmer has been feeding stock in the house paddock and that is where all the wildlife now hangs out too.
where would you like to hunt in the future in australia?
I think I would like to hunt the gulf country.
whats your favourite ausy game animal to hunt and why?
At the moment I would say the fallow of the high country. I have been chasing a good buck with the bow for only one rut so far (although I have seen him before when holding a rifle), but it has been the most exciting hunting I have had in many years, and I think that this rut will find me hiding in the bracken ferns again hoping for another chance at the big grey fella.
Have you hunted overseas?
I have hunted in NZ. I am in NZ a lot (my wife is a kiwi) and last trip the brother of one of our members took me to an amazing place and we got to see some fallow there, but even though Matt got a shot off neither of us got to grass any game. I am in NZ every 18 months or so and there is no way I am ever travelling there now with out my bow.
what is your dream overseas hunt?
I would love to hunt elk (wapati) in Canada. I got to see some from really close when I was there in ‘96 and I would love to try to down one.
What do you believe is the best promotion for bowhunting and why.
Hunters getting out and telling people about their pastime. Reasoned arguments on why bow hunting is a legitimate tool in the control of pest animals can only help to promote bow hunters in the eyes of the wider community. I don’t think that magazines and web pages have half the effect as personal promotion does, as the only people who buy the mags or view the web sites are people who are already becoming aware of bow hunting as a legitimate pastime. Sometimes of course anti hunting types buy the mags and check out the sites, but they are already steadfast in their views and no amount of argument will sway them from those views.
I also believe that putting a reasoned and sensible argument for hunting to people in person is also the best way to counter the negative publicity the anti-hunting zealots produce. The anti’s will always direct people to our sites when they see something they can twist into an anti-hunting argument, and the best way IMHO to counter that is to show good positive images so that we also can direct people to out websites so they can see what we do and the good that comes out of it.
whats the one peice of advice you'd give to new bowhunters?
If in doubt, don’t. I am not a big fan of cruelty to animals and the most important thing to me is that the animal have a good death. If a new guy comes hunting with me I expect him (or her) to be able to reign in any nerves and to get as close as they possibly could before then deciding if they can do the job or not.
I suppose this way of looking at the game I hunt has meant that I have passed up more chances than some blokes have even thought they would get, but I don’t regret not shooting half as much as I know I would regret a **** shot.
what are your other interests?
Climbing, diving (caves and wrecks) and making stuff with my hands.
Before my accident in ‘96 I was very much into climbing. I spent the first 3 months of ‘96 in Canada, climbing in the Rocky Mountains, and diving wherever I could. I also that year dived (with my wife) the wreck of the Mikhail Lermontov and the Riwaka Resurgence (a cave) in NZ.
What is the best moment of your hunting career?
My first pig.
I was 16 and some friends and I went out for some fishing up in the mountains near home. I was all keen to get out with the bow, and one of the guys knew the owner of the property next to the river and tee’d it up so I could go for a wander. I had never tried to get close to a pig before without it having a couple of our dogs hanging off it and I was looking forward to having a go.
I was checking out a stream bed and noticed in the distance a tree that looked to have 2 shadows under it. I snuck in closer and sure enough there was a small mob of pigs laying in the sun next to the tree. I couldn’t get anywhere in the open stream bed (and we all know how hard it is to be quiet on those river pebbles) and so I backed out and came in from the other side. There is a road there and the stream bed drops away right next to the road on the other side of the fence. Perfect. If I could get to the strainer post I would be above the pigs and I might have a chance. When I got there I found the pigs feeding towards me and I knew that this was the best setup I could have ever hoped for. I wonder sometimes how it is possible that I pulled off the shot with the amount of shaking I was doing. The pigs came in to only 15 metres or so away and I had to shoot through the link lock fence and the first shot went just under the pigs neck and stuck in the ground with a tremendous racket. The pig nearly jumped out of it’s skin and then, as if it was always going to be my day, the pig just propped there perfectly sideways like it was just waiting to be turned into sausages. I shot again and it was perfect right in the crease behind the elbow and the arrow passed through and drove into the ground. The pig just stood there for a moment and then fell on it’s side and had a kick and it was all over.
I ran back to the river to grab the guys and show them. I had never been as excited over a hunt, and I still haven’t to this day. That was in 1980.
Who has inspired you?
My grandmother, her uncle and my dad.
My grandmothers family arrived in the area where Yass would later be built on shortly after Hume and Hovell blazed a trail through there. They were squatters and they cleared and settled a lot of area along the Murrumbidgee river. As I was growing up my grandmother would tell me stories from her childhood and as a kid I spent many a holiday travelling around the area with my nan, being shown all the things that still made my old nan smile like a kid. My great uncle would show us kids how to catch bait for fishing and would show us how to wring a rabbits neck after we get it out of the trap, all the good things that would show me how to get on in the Aussie bush.
While I was in primary school my dad would organise our schoolwork for us and then take us on big holidays to see Australia. We saw a lot of country on these trips (most lasted 2 months or more) and we experienced things that helped me to see Australia and her people in a different light to most of my school mates.
Later on in life others showed me the importance of focusing on a goal. Climbers like Joe Simpson and Doug Scott have inspired me with their love of life and their ability to overcome incredible odds and still keep going.
I don’t really have hunting heroes, but this is the sort of thing that inspires me to go hunting…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/peter_loving_his_venison.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/charlie_loving_her_venison2.jpg
A pic of my dad, me and our old friend Bill. Unfortunately I am the only one left..
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/crows.jpg
what was your funniest moment in Archery/hunting?
Many years ago I was hunting up near Condo with my dad and a mate and a fellow from work who sort of edged his way into the trip. We were getting tired of this fellows constant stories about how he was a died in the wool bushy and how he “come from the land” and all the usual guff, but we were getting into the pigs and didn’t really care. We were headed across the station from the house we were staying in to go visit the owners of the property (25 km trip) and this bloke started giving us a running commentary about all the stock we passed and giving us his estimation of how many animals there were. He used this trick to count fast that is often used by old blokes. You hold out your hand and you count the number of animals between your thumb and little finger, and it works well if you count the first lot, and them multiply that by how many times you can fill that gap again. Problem was this guy wasn’t the full quid and always had a number he would use for a base, no matter how many sheep (or cows or whatever) he could see, or how far away they were.
We were getting sick of it as we pulled up to the station house and the owner came out to greet us. The station owner is an old friend of dads and we were having a cool drink on the veranda when the goose buts in and starts telling the owner that that was a great 1500 strong flock of weathers she had and she says “but you must be mistaken??” “we don’t have any weathers, what you saw was 3000 of our best ewes and lambs.”
My mate Zel just about fell off his chair and this guy looked like his world was crumbling in around him.
This is me and Zel reliving the tale that night…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/camplaugh.jpg
This guy also had a “foolproof” method for preventing himself getting lost. He was telling us that you just have to keep this hill we could see in the distance over his left shoulder and he could find his way back to camp from anywhere on the property.
Needless to say when he went out walking we were more than a little concerned he might not make it home.
I have enjoyed time spent with cocky’s too. I make an effort to get to know the people who own the properties I hunt on and a few beers and a feed with some of these guys can be way more entertaining than any night spent on the turps in town.
What aspect of bowhunting do you enjoy most.
The part I like most about bow hunting is the focus on the hunter. I enjoy shooting my rifles, but when you are in a camp with rifle shooters you always find the conversation turning to all the technical aspects of the gear and how much everything cost.
With bow hunting it is more about your connection with nature.
What's a few ethics that you strongly believe in while hunting.
The most important thing to me is respect for the animals. I am talking about making the best effort you can to give that animal a good death and not a death that is prolonged and full of pain. I don’t care too much about the concept of respect after the animal has died, unless we are talking about making use of the animal if you can. Some people will see it as disrespectful to take pictures of animals with arrows in them, or with their tongue hanging out or with pools of blood, but I see that as more of an aesthetics issue and if people want pics like that then it hurts no-one but them. (I am sure some will disagree with that and see any image as reflecting on all bow hunters, but I think the anti hunter groups as being anti, no matter what image we portray, and respect for the animal and respect for the sensibilities of others that may view your pics are two separate things)
I think there is a bit too much hand wringing over what is ethical and it is obvious that there must be rules set to level the playing field for guys that want to claim trophies, but for guys like me who hunt only for themselves I don’t see a need for any rules over and above the laws of the land. The only “ethic” that I can say I think is necessary (and that I hold myself to every single hunt) is that before a shot is taken everything that could be done to ensure a good death for the animal has been done.
If others want to shoot penned game or shoot under lights then that is their business and as long as they don’t lie about how an animal was shot I couldn’t care less how they did it.
Whats your ultimate hunting situation.
I don’t really know, but this last fallow rut I found myself in a few rippers.
On one morning I was waiting next to a fence for a buck I had seen passing there before and I could see deer running around everywhere below me in the valley (200mtrs away) and a big buck croaking like it was his last best chance of ever getting his end away.
The smaller buck came up to the fence and sensed something off and turned away before going under (and getting drilled) and so I decided to have a go at getting into where the big guy was going off. I ditched my sandals and started a slow stalk into his lek from about 100mtrs out. It was really hard going as the ground was covered in sticks and leaves from the big gums in the valley, but I just worked my way along any little pad I could find until I found my self at the edge of his lek. Not 50mtrs away he was giving it to a spiky, really hammering him in the side as the spiky tried to get to the does. I was in heaven. The big guy went the other way around his little race track (which saved him coming within about 3 metres of me) and dropped down behind a small rise. I up and ran to get behind a big tree and when I got there I found I was like 15 metres form the big guy and he was standing there with his neck extended and croaking so deep it sounded almost like a lions roar. I couldn’t get a shot as there was a big tree between me and his vitals so I just stood there waiting and hoping that the wind wouldn’t give me away in the end. I could see all the does milling around, and some sleeping, about 50 metres away and I thought that this was just going to be a matter of me being patient enough and I would have the big guy.
That was when the spiky came back and busted me. I got to watch the big guy move off without him ever knowing what was waiting behind the tree for him.
If the poachers don’t beat me to it I am going to be having another go at him this march.