saberhunter
24-04-07, 04:12 PM
Gday guys n gals, I have just got back from a 3 day hunt and have just written and edited the story in Mrsft WORD so.........ENJOY 8)
Good Variety
By Tim DeGrey
Plans were made only a few days prior to what was expected to be an interesting trip up to my new hunting property with my new hunting mate.
The bags were packed, the swag was rolled up and all of my arrows were ready to be launched out of my 50lb Martin Saber.
I was dropped at my mate’s house on the Thursday afternoon and all the final packing and preparation was done. It was then time for a good night’s rest before waking up at 4.44am. (My mate’s lucky number!) The irritating alarm went off and we didn’t hesitate to get up as we were excited to see what the next three days would offer. We double checked everything and threw our cam on. We then walked through the house and to the car which took us on our one and a half hour drive or so in the Toyota Land Cruiser to the property.
We arrived at the property at around 8.00am and when we had everything unpacked and ready to go for the days hunt, we were off! We drove up the road to a section of the property that had a fairly large series of rabbit warrens. By the time that we had made it there it was about 9.30am and we didn’t see anything. So we drove back down to the homestead and had some tucker and a can of Pepsi max each to drink.
For the arvo hunt we would drive to another section of the property that was extremely well known to hold good boars and multiple 110dp plus billies. On the way out to the property we spotted a lone billy standing out in the open behind a big apple tree. I made the stalk and managed to get up behind the tree and slip an arrow in above his shoulder. The billy ran a few metres and stopped again so I slipped another razor sharp Blackstump broahead tight behind the shoulder as I thought the first shot could be slightly high. He had no hassles then in lying down and expiring quickly, with the second shot being a heart shot. A few photos were taken and the horns were quickly measured; the final horn measurement going 88 Douglas points.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h202/timdegrey/100_3510.jpg
Another few hundred metres up the hill we spotted another billy sitting yet again behind another big old tree which was the signal to us that we would close the gap no worries!
It was Ben’s shot so he got up behind the tree and shot the billy quartering away from ten yards and the billy slowly went down in about 3 steps! More pics were taken and the horns measured a sweet 95 DP’s.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h202/timdegrey/100_3522.jpg
We arrived at the bottom of the area we were going to hunt but we wanted to move up the large mountain range and up to a row of shelves. After driving about 300meters we spotted a mob of pigs which held one or two half decent hogs in it.
We hopped out of the car, threw the bags on, grabbed the bows to get a closer look and noticed that there were a few smaller pigs in some bracken fern slightly closer than the other pigs. The sun was quickly setting but nothing was in total reach of the vital shot that we were after so we made our way back to the car and then to the homestead to get a good nights rest for the next eventful day. The alarm was set for the same annoying time of 4.44am and then we hit the pillow.
BEEP, BEEP, SCREECH, SCREECH!!! The alarm sounded. With no time to waste we threw on our cam and boots and then made up a batch of pancakes. Brekkie was finished and the car was packed. We were off again!
We travelled to the same section of the property we were at the previous night.
We then made our way up the same track as the one we only got a little ways up the day before and made it to the green, dew covered series of shelves that we were looking for. We got our gear on, walked a few hundred metres and spotted a mob of pigs with one decent sized boar in it and also a few lesser boars. A fairly good stalk was made by Ben but the wind had the better of the pigs.
A lot of walking around the long shelf showed another three or so mobs of pigs and a heap of goats but we were after pigs and the odd good billy if he wasn’t out of our way.
The rest of the day was spent hoping to get onto a mob of pigs in an easy enough situation so that I could try and get my first ever pig.
For the rest of the day we just looked around and had a stalk in on a few bunnies. Bens dad managed to get two bunnies with his Bowtech Old Glory but nothing much else presented itself for the day so we headed back to the homestead again to have a nice meal of pies and chips and get another good nights rest. But just as we were heading of to bed I needed to go do number one’s and just decided that I would go in the side paddock next to the house. Just as I was making my way off the veranda I noticed a freaky looking shape about 15 metres in front of me and ran straight back inside to get Ben and the torch as I thought it was a fox and Ben had been wanting to shoot a fox for a while now.
I shone the torch out to where I thought the shape was and as luck would have it a good size fox had his eyes staring straight into the torch and WHACK… Ben had slipped an arrow through both lungs only letting the fox run about 20 paces before expiring.
A lengthy photo shoot was underway and also the fiddly skinning job because it was Bens first.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h202/timdegrey/100_3539.jpg
The well known sound woke us up again at the same time, the stomach was full and the gear was yet again ready. This morning we would be heading up to another part of the property that was also known for holding good hogs.
Opening the first gate and parking the car not far after that we were on our way up the creek and towards the top end of the valley. After about 500metres of walking Ben swung his hand out behind himself and mimed the words STOP…PIGS! I was about ten metres behind Ben and his dad and trying to work out what we would do. Michael (Bens dad) came over to me and helped me get down to the creek that the pigs were next to and get up nice and close so that I could get that vital shot in. We made it to about 12 yards and I then drew my Martin Saber back to full draw and slowly stood up and the pig presented a perfect quartering away shot and let fly. The Gold Tip Terminator carbon shaft tipped with a 115grain blackstump broadhead hit the pig next to the hip and into the opposite shoulder which saw the pig run only about 60 yards. As happy as a hunter could be I had my first pig on the ground which turned out to be a large sow approximately 60kgs live weight, give or take a few kilos.
Another lengthy photo session was finished and I then found out that the whole thing was caught on film! I could not have asked for much better for my first ever pig.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h202/timdegrey/100_3590.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h202/timdegrey/100_3591.jpg
We walked the rest of the gully up to the top of a shelf and spotted a boar feeding by himself at the edge of some blackberries and then we spotted a good Red stag about 300 metres away on an opposite ridge with a spiker. Ben set off to try and have a crack at the stag just after realising that there was a whole mob of pigs down in the gully that the stag was heading to. The solid red stag arrived at the head of the gully about 120 metres from Ben. The only problem was that the pigs were in between Ben and the stag and also the wind was swirling a fair bit too which didn’t help. The pigs finally bolted up towards the stag making a hell of a noise because maybe they smelled Ben or just something plainly went wrong. One of the decent boars in mob then came trotting past Michael and I at less than 8 yards. We were umming and areing between the bows or the camera at this point but the boar was off.
Walking around the next ridge while talking to Ben on the radio, we said to him that we’ll meet him on a flat on the other side of the ridge to where we saw the stag. We came over a small rise and spotted the flat and also a mob of three half grown pigs.
We got up a bit closer, the camera started rolling and I put a stalk into about 10 Yards on a sow and she then presented me with a quartering away shot so I slammed her through just next to the hip and into the opposite shoulder which allowed her to run no more than 30 yards! I had my first two pigs on the ground and all the action had been caught on film!
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h202/timdegrey/100_3635.jpg
Ben then met up with us and we started making our way back down the gully and towards the car. Not to long after starting the walk we spotted some more pigs and Ben had a stalk on another sow. He managed to make a good shot on her and she ran about 50 yards and expired. A very brief photo shoot was over and we were on our way…again.
All in all our trip was an interesting one as I had my first two pigs on the ground and Ben had his first fox on the ground.
I hope that my journeys from the past and also in the future are an inspiration to the junior bowhunters of today.
Cheers, Tim DeGrey
Good Variety
By Tim DeGrey
Plans were made only a few days prior to what was expected to be an interesting trip up to my new hunting property with my new hunting mate.
The bags were packed, the swag was rolled up and all of my arrows were ready to be launched out of my 50lb Martin Saber.
I was dropped at my mate’s house on the Thursday afternoon and all the final packing and preparation was done. It was then time for a good night’s rest before waking up at 4.44am. (My mate’s lucky number!) The irritating alarm went off and we didn’t hesitate to get up as we were excited to see what the next three days would offer. We double checked everything and threw our cam on. We then walked through the house and to the car which took us on our one and a half hour drive or so in the Toyota Land Cruiser to the property.
We arrived at the property at around 8.00am and when we had everything unpacked and ready to go for the days hunt, we were off! We drove up the road to a section of the property that had a fairly large series of rabbit warrens. By the time that we had made it there it was about 9.30am and we didn’t see anything. So we drove back down to the homestead and had some tucker and a can of Pepsi max each to drink.
For the arvo hunt we would drive to another section of the property that was extremely well known to hold good boars and multiple 110dp plus billies. On the way out to the property we spotted a lone billy standing out in the open behind a big apple tree. I made the stalk and managed to get up behind the tree and slip an arrow in above his shoulder. The billy ran a few metres and stopped again so I slipped another razor sharp Blackstump broahead tight behind the shoulder as I thought the first shot could be slightly high. He had no hassles then in lying down and expiring quickly, with the second shot being a heart shot. A few photos were taken and the horns were quickly measured; the final horn measurement going 88 Douglas points.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h202/timdegrey/100_3510.jpg
Another few hundred metres up the hill we spotted another billy sitting yet again behind another big old tree which was the signal to us that we would close the gap no worries!
It was Ben’s shot so he got up behind the tree and shot the billy quartering away from ten yards and the billy slowly went down in about 3 steps! More pics were taken and the horns measured a sweet 95 DP’s.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h202/timdegrey/100_3522.jpg
We arrived at the bottom of the area we were going to hunt but we wanted to move up the large mountain range and up to a row of shelves. After driving about 300meters we spotted a mob of pigs which held one or two half decent hogs in it.
We hopped out of the car, threw the bags on, grabbed the bows to get a closer look and noticed that there were a few smaller pigs in some bracken fern slightly closer than the other pigs. The sun was quickly setting but nothing was in total reach of the vital shot that we were after so we made our way back to the car and then to the homestead to get a good nights rest for the next eventful day. The alarm was set for the same annoying time of 4.44am and then we hit the pillow.
BEEP, BEEP, SCREECH, SCREECH!!! The alarm sounded. With no time to waste we threw on our cam and boots and then made up a batch of pancakes. Brekkie was finished and the car was packed. We were off again!
We travelled to the same section of the property we were at the previous night.
We then made our way up the same track as the one we only got a little ways up the day before and made it to the green, dew covered series of shelves that we were looking for. We got our gear on, walked a few hundred metres and spotted a mob of pigs with one decent sized boar in it and also a few lesser boars. A fairly good stalk was made by Ben but the wind had the better of the pigs.
A lot of walking around the long shelf showed another three or so mobs of pigs and a heap of goats but we were after pigs and the odd good billy if he wasn’t out of our way.
The rest of the day was spent hoping to get onto a mob of pigs in an easy enough situation so that I could try and get my first ever pig.
For the rest of the day we just looked around and had a stalk in on a few bunnies. Bens dad managed to get two bunnies with his Bowtech Old Glory but nothing much else presented itself for the day so we headed back to the homestead again to have a nice meal of pies and chips and get another good nights rest. But just as we were heading of to bed I needed to go do number one’s and just decided that I would go in the side paddock next to the house. Just as I was making my way off the veranda I noticed a freaky looking shape about 15 metres in front of me and ran straight back inside to get Ben and the torch as I thought it was a fox and Ben had been wanting to shoot a fox for a while now.
I shone the torch out to where I thought the shape was and as luck would have it a good size fox had his eyes staring straight into the torch and WHACK… Ben had slipped an arrow through both lungs only letting the fox run about 20 paces before expiring.
A lengthy photo shoot was underway and also the fiddly skinning job because it was Bens first.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h202/timdegrey/100_3539.jpg
The well known sound woke us up again at the same time, the stomach was full and the gear was yet again ready. This morning we would be heading up to another part of the property that was also known for holding good hogs.
Opening the first gate and parking the car not far after that we were on our way up the creek and towards the top end of the valley. After about 500metres of walking Ben swung his hand out behind himself and mimed the words STOP…PIGS! I was about ten metres behind Ben and his dad and trying to work out what we would do. Michael (Bens dad) came over to me and helped me get down to the creek that the pigs were next to and get up nice and close so that I could get that vital shot in. We made it to about 12 yards and I then drew my Martin Saber back to full draw and slowly stood up and the pig presented a perfect quartering away shot and let fly. The Gold Tip Terminator carbon shaft tipped with a 115grain blackstump broadhead hit the pig next to the hip and into the opposite shoulder which saw the pig run only about 60 yards. As happy as a hunter could be I had my first pig on the ground which turned out to be a large sow approximately 60kgs live weight, give or take a few kilos.
Another lengthy photo session was finished and I then found out that the whole thing was caught on film! I could not have asked for much better for my first ever pig.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h202/timdegrey/100_3590.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h202/timdegrey/100_3591.jpg
We walked the rest of the gully up to the top of a shelf and spotted a boar feeding by himself at the edge of some blackberries and then we spotted a good Red stag about 300 metres away on an opposite ridge with a spiker. Ben set off to try and have a crack at the stag just after realising that there was a whole mob of pigs down in the gully that the stag was heading to. The solid red stag arrived at the head of the gully about 120 metres from Ben. The only problem was that the pigs were in between Ben and the stag and also the wind was swirling a fair bit too which didn’t help. The pigs finally bolted up towards the stag making a hell of a noise because maybe they smelled Ben or just something plainly went wrong. One of the decent boars in mob then came trotting past Michael and I at less than 8 yards. We were umming and areing between the bows or the camera at this point but the boar was off.
Walking around the next ridge while talking to Ben on the radio, we said to him that we’ll meet him on a flat on the other side of the ridge to where we saw the stag. We came over a small rise and spotted the flat and also a mob of three half grown pigs.
We got up a bit closer, the camera started rolling and I put a stalk into about 10 Yards on a sow and she then presented me with a quartering away shot so I slammed her through just next to the hip and into the opposite shoulder which allowed her to run no more than 30 yards! I had my first two pigs on the ground and all the action had been caught on film!
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h202/timdegrey/100_3635.jpg
Ben then met up with us and we started making our way back down the gully and towards the car. Not to long after starting the walk we spotted some more pigs and Ben had a stalk on another sow. He managed to make a good shot on her and she ran about 50 yards and expired. A very brief photo shoot was over and we were on our way…again.
All in all our trip was an interesting one as I had my first two pigs on the ground and Ben had his first fox on the ground.
I hope that my journeys from the past and also in the future are an inspiration to the junior bowhunters of today.
Cheers, Tim DeGrey