Piggy
11-03-07, 09:59 PM
Rising from the swag as the dawn of a new day slowly lights up the dark morning I had my usual bowl cereal and banana and headed off into the bush in search of the goats and hopefully the big Billy I have been trying to bag for the last few trips.
After checking out their usual haunts and not sighting them I travelled along the edge of a large dry swamp with the wind in my face when I suddenly got a whiff of a stinky Billy. I could clearly see a long way out in front of me and no goats were sighted so I reached for the wind puffer and after a few puffs a slight cross wind was shown coming from my right. I slowly walked up over the small rise and peered into the next
Swamp which was full of waist high grasses, sitting there looking in I noticed the rack of the big Billy I was after and as quick as I noticed him he sensed something was up.
He put his head down to feed again and I lost sight of him for about a minute when I saw him walking out on the far side of the swamp.
I got up and quickly made my way down to the edge of the swamp when the rest of the mob took off; unbeknown to me they were all in the tall grass.
Developing a bad headache ( not from dehydration) I retired for the day and had a late night around camp with the boys.
Having a sleep in and a lazy day around camp I thought I would go out for another hunt before heading home.
After spending several hours looking I found the goats again and managed to stalk to within about 50m where I took of my shoes and started to sneak in through the dry and dead bracken ferns and leaf litter. There was a strong wind and I waited for the wind to gust every time before moving forward to cover my noise through dry understorey eventually getting into about 22m.
The goats were now below me down the side of the rock hill bedded and after being unable to locate the big fella I picked the other Billy I had marked on my list because of his unusual horns. After about 20min he stood up quartering away and as I rose to take the shot I picked my spot and released.
The release felt good It looked good hitting him on the mark and the Billy walked 5m and dropped.
The other goats stood looked at the Billies on the ground and then went back to their midday nap.
30min later after taking some photos of the other billies who had gone back to their naps I started making noises and clapping to get them to move on and eventually after throwing some rocks at them they got up and slowly moved away.
Waiting to for these goats to move on
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/2piggy/11-3-06billy014.jpg
The unusual horned Billy
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/2piggy/11-3-06billy009.jpg
After checking out their usual haunts and not sighting them I travelled along the edge of a large dry swamp with the wind in my face when I suddenly got a whiff of a stinky Billy. I could clearly see a long way out in front of me and no goats were sighted so I reached for the wind puffer and after a few puffs a slight cross wind was shown coming from my right. I slowly walked up over the small rise and peered into the next
Swamp which was full of waist high grasses, sitting there looking in I noticed the rack of the big Billy I was after and as quick as I noticed him he sensed something was up.
He put his head down to feed again and I lost sight of him for about a minute when I saw him walking out on the far side of the swamp.
I got up and quickly made my way down to the edge of the swamp when the rest of the mob took off; unbeknown to me they were all in the tall grass.
Developing a bad headache ( not from dehydration) I retired for the day and had a late night around camp with the boys.
Having a sleep in and a lazy day around camp I thought I would go out for another hunt before heading home.
After spending several hours looking I found the goats again and managed to stalk to within about 50m where I took of my shoes and started to sneak in through the dry and dead bracken ferns and leaf litter. There was a strong wind and I waited for the wind to gust every time before moving forward to cover my noise through dry understorey eventually getting into about 22m.
The goats were now below me down the side of the rock hill bedded and after being unable to locate the big fella I picked the other Billy I had marked on my list because of his unusual horns. After about 20min he stood up quartering away and as I rose to take the shot I picked my spot and released.
The release felt good It looked good hitting him on the mark and the Billy walked 5m and dropped.
The other goats stood looked at the Billies on the ground and then went back to their midday nap.
30min later after taking some photos of the other billies who had gone back to their naps I started making noises and clapping to get them to move on and eventually after throwing some rocks at them they got up and slowly moved away.
Waiting to for these goats to move on
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/2piggy/11-3-06billy014.jpg
The unusual horned Billy
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/2piggy/11-3-06billy009.jpg