Tara's first Goat hunt with bow in hand. (Pic Heavy)

[macka]

I got back from the trophy takers weekend and a few days hunting with Peter Morphet the same night i went and got Tara off the buss. She was staying down here at my place for the weekend and was keen to try for her first goat. We went up north on a station in the flinders that i have access to and here are the results.

First day in about the first hour she nailed this billy from 30m! shot placement was spot on, man was i proud :D. And the video footage looks awsome. Not a bad billy for het first goat.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1000792.jpg

We chased a heap of other goats around but never got in a good position again for a shot. I did however find a Peregrine Falcon nest way up on a cliff. i was able to get to and get some video of the nest and the bird swooping me. Here are a few photo's of the experiance. I have a strong intrest in birds and never pass up a challange of climbing a cliff or a tree to get to the nest.

Nearly there
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1000795.jpg

Long way down
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1000797.jpg

Here is what was in the nest. A couple of chicks
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/Picture030.jpg

And a pic of the Bird when it finally stoped swooping me for a sec.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1000801.jpg

When we got back to camp i looked up in the gum tree and saw a brown goshawk sitting on a nest way up in a gum tree so i did my best to scale the tree and made it to the nest. This is the first set of goshawk eggs i have ever seen so it was a new experiance. I took my video camera up with me and got a pic of the eggs and tara took some pics of me climbing the tree from the ground. here are the pics.

The first bit was the trickiest because there were no branches but it got easier after that, just higher!
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1000805.jpg

Made it, getting some pics and footage of the eggs.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1000814.jpg

And one taken with me at the nest zoomed out.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1000815.jpg

Here are the eggs
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/Picture027-1.jpg

Sorry about all the pics but i thought some might be interested.

Right back to the hunting!
Day two saw another calm hot day for hunting and we spotted goats straight away. It was my shot this time and i stalked in with my trusty old samick recurve and shot a young billy in the arse from 30m. The billy sat under a bush and i quickly stalked in and righted my mistake from 5m. The first shot must have hit the femoral artery because he was nearly dead when i got to him 15 secconds after he was first hit.

Not the best shot but a goat with the recurve all the same.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1000819.jpg

After the pics we headed out the other side of the track and got onto a massive mob of billies with a couple beauties in there around the 34 or 35 inch mark. Tara made a great shot on the closest billy which was 20m and put it down within 150m. The shot was caught on camera once again and looks great. Her second goat with the bow, making it look easy babe!
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1000823.jpg

I followed the mob up to try for one of the big boys but got winded and the game was up. I let them be and we headed back along the creek to the ute. we came across a billy i had seen a few times before. He's an old white bugger who is all crippled up in the front shoulders. It was my shot again and i stalked in to try and put him out of his misery. I stalked in to about 40m and couldnt get any closer duu to a big red bank i had to try and shoot over. I took the shot anyway because i figured i'd be able to run him down if it was bad and sent the arrow on its way. The shot was bad again and went low and too far back and as the poor old bugger hobbled away from us i ran over and smashed one through his boiler room from 20m. His coat was thin and his teeth were worn, his days were just about up anyway i think i just sped up the process a bit. He was very old but he just didn't have the genetics for a good set of horns.

No thats not a good tan, its just dirt all over my face haha
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1000826.jpg

On the drive out the property we came across an Emu with some chicks and Tara took a couple good photo's.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1000829.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1000832.jpg

It was a great couple of days and we got some really good video footage as well as some awsome photo's. Tara has a goat under her belt now and its only going to get easier for her. I think i need to hit the practice butt a bit more with my curve and i'll be laughing too.

thanks for viewing let me know your thoughts on our hunt.

Macka

P.S. Big thanks To Peter M for the great couple days hunting he took me on over near Camberra after the TT weekend. Your a Ledge dude!

[Antarcher]

Top going once again Macka and a big congrats to Tara for smacking her first two goats. You are a maniac mate climbing that tree. I would have been crapping myself let alone videoing from way up there. By the way, any tales from hunting with Pete?

[macka]

Cheers Ant. Yeah pete and myself chased a heap of fallow around for a couple days and i missed a shot on a doe. Most the stalks were blown by bloody roo's! And we had an afternoon whistling foxes but only had one come in and he was too quick for me. Also had a few long shots at rabbits and hit a couple.

Here's one of the rabbits.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/Picture034.jpg

That about sums it up mate. We already have hunting plans for early next year on some thumper billies which will be awsome!

Macka

[Neix]

Beutiful Story Macka =] You always inspire me with your pictures and stories and personality thoughts.

Good to see you have someone to share your hunting with mate =]

[Rob H]

Firstly congratulations to Tara for securing her first 2 billies (many more to come by the looks) and secondly congrats to you macka for taking a couple of nice billies with the curve. Your a crazy man for climbing that tree, i dont think you would find me up that high in a tree like that... But i have climbed cliffs similar to those (was nearly crappin myself when i looked down though) how was the view from up there??

Nice bunny as well mate...

Cheers,

Rob

[jindydiver]

Great post Macca :)

Good to see Tara getting into it :)

[timbo]

Excellent photo's Macka.

Congratulations Tara. Great to see you stepping up to something bigger.

Cheers Tim

[hunt or be hunted]

that's the stuff macka, well done to tara for her first goats and well done to you for taking some billy's with the recurve.

good work both of you.

dan.

[will]

Well done Macka/Tara. Awesome photos, great hunting country, so jealous!! Top story as well. :)

[adam]

Your both on fire, good on yas and great pictures. Macka its pretty hard to pick you up in that first cliff picture.

Adam

[woodstoka]

good read macka

and well done tara you are on fire

jesse

[PeterM]

Well done to Tara, and good on you Macka on the Billies with the curve!:D

Good to see you made it home ok, and its a pity the very windy conditions didn’t lend it self to some better hunting, maybe we should have stuck to the fishing hey!;)

[Arra Slinger]

well done to the both of you, great pics as usual mate

[XTfreak]

Congratulations to you both.
Great pictures and story as always...
Bill

[rohan]

well done tara and macka some fine goats there.
rohan

[stevenn]

Well done guys,top first goat for Tara,really well done,steve

[batesy]

Nice work guys. Love the pic of you up the tree..

[Mozza]

well done on the goats Tara:)
as for your climbing Macka :o **** your keen;)

[macka]

cheers for all the comments guys, Yeah it was blowing its guts out Pete But it was still a great couple of days out hunting. And very different for me with the fallow someone went and painted all your fallow brown, makes them very hard to spot on my behalf anyway. The trophy takers weekend was a blast and it was awsome to meet a few of you blokes on the site.

Mozza, always loved my climbing and bird nesting.. And its a good way to scare Tara when i make out to slip up on the cliff or tree, oh i know i'm a bastard haha ;).

Macka

[NormGunston]

There are some fine products that have come out of SA... Coopers comes to mind- and then there's MACKara (Macka + Tara) the Legends!
When will all this become a fair dinkum Fritz-flavoured-flick? Critters both alive and dead, we want to see them here on the small screen.

[Bowdy]

Great read Macka,
Congrats on your first goats Tara, great job.:)

Makca, did you take any pictures at the Trophy Takers meeting, if so any chance of throwing a few up please???
Grant.

[howie]

SWEET hunting trip and pics. A big congrats all round... Howie

[macka]

Grant, sorry mate i was having too much fun all weekend and forgot to get the camera out. Cashy got a heap of pics aparently and maxy took a couple i know of.

Norm, getting there mate but really how many goats can you watch slayed in one video. I dont really have any good footage of much else besides a few bunnies and some carp. I might look at putting something together soon though.

Macka

[Scott]

Onya Tara, new it was only a matter of time. Great pics as well, as usual!

[Tara Louise]

Thanks for the comments hopefully i can get some more goats when i go back up to visit Casey but for the next month i will be busy studying for exams...

[DavidJHardy]

that camo does the job... i couldn't pick you out until adam pointed you out
good work

dave

[Shano]

I really enjoy your posts Macka, always interesting. Congratulation Tara, top effort. Macka, you could get a job putting up everyones tree stands!

[Tali]

Yeahhhhh! Nice climbing macka! And congratulations for the goats.

One question, how much weigth is Tara shooting with? My girlfriend is starting and dont know at what weigh could she use with a bit of effort.

Thanks for sharing, and keep going like that men! And when are you gonna show us some footage???!!!

[Tali]

There where 3 pages! I didnt notice! we wait your "poor" videos, sure they are awesome.

[macka]

this thread is from october last year lol.

Tali, my girlfriend is shooting about 40 - 45lb it doesnt sound much but it seems to do the job and she has got a couple pass throughs with it now.

Macka

[troy]

You part monkey Macca? Obviously not afraid of heights there mate. Congrats to Tara may there be many more.

[WesT]

Mate didn't see the post when you first put it up... awesome stuff with the raptors. I love birds too... got the black breasted button quail on my last hunt - and had a white colour phase grey goshawk come in close to check me out in the camo.

[Darren S]

Way to go Tara and Macka.
Same as always, good yarn and pics.
thanks for sharing.
Darren.

[Sagitarius]

Great pics Macka, really like the falcons and hawks. Congrats to Tara.

[Alex E]

Nice work to both of you and well done

[HyperSquirrel]

You are crazy.