a right royal fustercluck
Didnt sleep well last night,shouldve taken that as a warning.
Terrano didnt want to start,till realised it had somehow been left in gear,shouldve taken that as 2nd warning.
had driver behind me with rather bright headlights so pulled over to let him pass. turned corner and there was said same ute stopped with hazard lights,a van sideways off road stuck in ditch..pulled up to offer help and buggamesideways the ute driver was my workmate also off for a hunt.
we got van pulled out of the ditch and headed off again...pulled off road to let mate past again..he gives me shit about being a nana driver lol.
got close to block and fallow bounded across road...years ago I wouldve bailed out and shot it..not anymore,I have been edumacated and stick to the rules now.
got out of wagon and my old dog went nuts,wouldnt shut up or settle.....she did as soon as we set off.I had decided to take both dogs as open country and could tie pup to me if was an issue...nah no worries she kept by my side and old gal happy to be in behind..perfect I thought....shouldve heard Murphy chuckling in the matagouri....
we spotted a further 8 fallow in out of bounds areas before reaching block,the nspotted 9 thar also in out of bounds,then as crested ridge 4 REDS....holy shit,get ready to shoot and old bitch decided to whinge,whine yap and generally stuff things up,deer bolted and didnt stop..as I was using .223 wasnt prepared to take a running,maybe shot....highly pissed off the old bitch n I had words,some of which may have been naughty ones,a little controlled violence was also employed,and some calm down drugs applied (possibly should have had some myself) with immediate area spooked we carried on up to ridge where we had decided to stop for lunch and view flats...cuppa was boiling and deer was spotted below,perfect,finish cuppa and start stalk...10-15 yards down hill a plurry fallow spiker erupted from under feet (plurry dogs SHOULD have told us it was there) up went rifle,ever tried shooting with neoprene cover on scope???? that sorted spiker stopped 60ish yards downhill with only obscured head visable (sound familiar?) shot was taken..new years resolution out window,clean miss,as was 2nd and 3rd and 4th by which time wee black weasel like streak was in warp factor 9 and heading for pastures elsewhere..... NOT MY DAY..... carried on down hill and outtowards wagon,stopping for another cuppa and glassing out of bounds animals....
a good walk,good company with bro in law along,stopped in at 257w home for cuppa and catchup then headed home with my tail between legs.


we had seen total of 16 reds,17 fallow and similar number of thar for the day,got back to wagon,looked up into farmers paddock,not deer fenced to see 12 reds grazing out in open at midday!!!!!!

Lol. Some days it's tough to remember that a bad day in the field beats the tar out of a good day at work regardless of what goes wrong.

I know mate, and I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh, but Murphy was working with everything to stuff up your hunt mate. Everything, from the very start, came together to work against you. What I can’t understand is how you missed all of those shots at the one fallow? You’re normally a much better shot than that mate.

Oh well…next time…tomorrow maybe?

it lept up from under my feet,was bouncing around like boobies on a bouncy castle going steeply downhill,I was flustered to begin with and more so after missing twice....and the little streak of weasel piss wasnt very big to begin with. fallow are my nemesis animal,always have been,dont know why,it just happens.

somewhat redeemed myself today....mind you though the fallow spiker co operated nicely by standing still at 40-50 yards for just long enough and the wee trebly took care of the rest... meat is safely in fridge,mate took hand quarter and back steak and I have found 2 homes for the rest...kept less than kilo for myself...primo fat fallow is awesome eating.

Yesterday Iwent back to scene of earlier fiasco....left home late...didnt get away till 3 in arvo after sleeping after nightshift... uneventful walk in,got up to glassing spot with little light left,had quick look then set up boars nest for the night..Poppy the only just still a puppy wasnt too impressed with the new kennel Dad had made then had audacity to get into himself then call her into....small army surplus fly over a couple of tussock bushes..but the deep moss mattress was bliss. it started to rain at 04;30 and kept going till 06;30...when it stopped I rolled out of bed and quickly rolled it up and poked everything into my pack then carefully moved hundy yards across to vantage spot.spent best part of hour glassing with nothing at all seen.could see cloud moving rapidly towards us so decended to fenceline we would use for walk out...just as well as whiteout soon followed,visibility between 10-40 yards at best.....then the rain arrived in earnest ......oh happy happy joy joy ...when we made it back to track proper I stopped and put the doggy backback/saddles back onto Poppy (who by this stage could be called popsicle,man it was cold) to help keep her a bit warmer,and we plodded back to wagon... my rain coat did well and I even had hood up and pulled tight,I hate hoods but it was stupidly wet.
so again the deerzies went unharmed LOL.

“Elvis” wrote:

…so again the deerzies went unharmed

Yeah, but at least you had an afternoon out in the oolloo mate, which is more than I’ve been able to do. The deer will wait until next time.

poked together some somewhat different to usual reloads today...for them pesky fallow or maybe Mr wallaby.....22-250 with 38.5grns of win 760 topped off with the rarely seen any more norinco 55grn fmj pill... you say what??? has Elvis finally lost the plot????
that particular pill is unique....dont know how it does it,or why it does it,but it behaves as Mr Stoner intended the 5.56 SHOULD behave....it tumbles on impact. given its speed will be 35-3600fps and rifle has 1;14 twist it will be on borderline stability to assist the yaw factor in starting. these pills are nasty enough at 223 speed with 1;10 twist so I have high hopes they will be even more so as Ive loaded them.
mate pulled couple of hundred rounds so I happily took projectiles off him.

Be interesting to see how they behave mate. I wonder if they will tumble early at 22.250 velocities?

Oh, I notice that the duck is still habitating your kitchen, sitting on the pot. Are ya gonna turn him into stew or Peking Duck or something else mate?

they should bore true till hit something,the extra speed will help stability ,Stoner who invented the 5.56/M16 called for 1;14 twist and 55 grn pill...... but was over ruled as some rifles started the tumble early and were no good at range..up close however....... dont think the men in green complained. the big issue was swapping of powders from stick to ball,the slower let of was what caused the issues with rifles jamming.
I used 100 rounds of factory norinco in .223 when bought rifle 26 years ago...it sure killed well,wallabies did not like it at all... the slower twist and added speed should cancel each other out stability wise.... time will tell.
that duck was released many moons ago LOL.... 6 weeks till duck harvest season.

Today was a bit of a black dog hunt in more ways than one.....
had a bit of a tiff on another forum so are sitting in naughty corner for a week,my mood wasnt flash because of this carry on....not depressed by any means but one must keep watch for that particular black dog creeping up on ya.
meg n poppy my big black bitch's have been sitting at home as of late and needed a walk..so I took them both and the 45/70 smoke pole for a walk.....the forecast was for 30degree C AND IT WASNT WRONG...... so left it till midday to leave home!!!! then did a two hour slow walk/stalk up a creek then up into bush,along a bit and back down parralel to creek,spooked a something..in chest high fern but no chance to see it let alone shoot it with 40mtrs being the best visibility I get up there. dogs mostly behaved and sure spent a LOT of time in creek,which is perfect and mostly why we even left home.
got back out to truck a bit after 2 feeling hot but no longer bothered....
the pooches slept all the way home.....
life is good.

That is an outstanding day in my books mate. Ok, so you didn’t bag anything, but that’s irrelevant…you were out there, enjoying the bush with your two mates who had a good swim (you shoulda joined them in ya jocks).

three weeks ago I went up to scene of first fiasco...just took poppy. lots of deer seen but as usual were outside boundaries..but two were in creek/boundary right on first light when I spooked them out(more on these later) did big loop walk and spotted a single fallow way up high under one of the few willow trees in area...about 600 yards away and about 400 verticle yards up...yip it was steep..wind was good so got tw ospurs over from it and started to climb,intending to make her height then sidle across....made good time for a fat truck driver but by time I was 2/3rds of way up hill the plurry wind had swung and was now blowing across face directly to deer..sure enough it was gone when got there.... carried on to end of ridge and headed back down in open tussocks for the track that was now waaay below...got just about back to track..and its a busy track,saw 7 trampers on it today,and buggamesideways another fallow took off from 50 yards in front of me...three of those spingbok prancing bounces down towards track..so I hoofed it down towards direction it was going (que Murfy chuckling in background) thinking I would have her stumped as open ground below her and to the right,where I had aimed for...got to hump of spur and surveyed area..nothing..the cunning hua had done her bounces down and to right,then scooted back into the more open country to the left..stumped again..so we headed home.
following week mate n i headed up there hour before daybreak but FIVE cars in carpark mid week so flagged that for another area...good walk,I ballsed up only chance of fallow,took long shot,went to the area it was in,poor poppy tried,it spooked under my feet,snap shot through scrub didnt connect,it headed down into some vine infested really steel crap with poppy following but there was also half dozen wallabies and a couple of possums in there who all decided to start moving around....no blood to be found and I called poppy back,she was getting awefully confused with all the other animals scooting off.
then last night after cooking wife dinner I chucked pack and both dogs in car and headed back to temptation valley again..both dogs in car,is that Murfy I can hear chuckling again???
got to road end with stuff all light left,saw tw ofallow on road in,could easily have shot one....nope dont do that sort of carry on anymore... walked into intended spot without issues although it was rather dark and very damp with light drizzle making pushing through waist high tussock grass a.....moist undertaking.
by 21;30 was far enough up creek to camp,tied up dogs,put there polarfleece coats on and grabbed billy....200yards down to creek,back again following my outward route by seeing the non wet grass in torchlight....made cuppa and rolled out bivy bag and slept like a log till Poppy told the world there was an intruder nearby in wee small hours...possibly a deer or wallaby feeding nearby ..shut her up and slept till alarm went off at 05;45 stuck head out of bivybag to see full moon ,bugga,the deer will have been feeding all night,I had hoped the cloud cover would have held....never mind,snoozed till first light then up and off for look..back down creek to see if my cunning plan to outwit those two fallow seen weeks ago worked....
well sort of.after fumbling around with dumbo n jumbo flapping their ears ever ten minutes to let everything know we were there,I had turned back towards camp and looked back to see the two smartypants deer WERE actually out in creek where I had been watching ,but had now seen us and scarpered off into private land and safety.........
back towards camp and off in other direction and spied another fallow this time well inside the block..problem was only open ground between us,I was out in the now bright sunlight,it was in shade at 600ish yards in waist high tussock with two noisy dogs..well I gave it a good go..got into about 350 yards before deer bolted up hill,I got forward another 10 yards to semi clear ground and laid down to attempt a shot..laying in swamp isnt pleasant and the awkward angle of sunlight plust deer now above me meant no surprise when shot missed completely..deer continued running up hill and over the top..definately a miss..so went back,packed up gear and walked out before the sun started to fry what is left of my brain...
oh well got some exercise.
our freezers are full anyway.
dogs enjoyed themselves LOL.

Sounds like you couldn’t win a king hit in a pub brawl mate…pretty much the same as me Oh well, keep at it mate, you will achieve.

Have you given any thought to washing your hunting togs in washing powder designed to wash out the man smell and not make you smell like someone from the gay Mardi Gras? Have a sniff around the net for some hunter friendly washing powder.

yeah....done that...the eucalyptus smelling stuff might work well on homesick wallabies too!!!!
pretty much on hiding to nothing under 1km if the wind switches on you with deer. they are funny to watch out at 3-4-500 yards,they know you are there but figure your far enough away they are safe..why the longer range crowd are so sucessful...but that has draw backs too..they get even more toey and scoot at first sight or whiff of humans.
these deer know they are safe on private land.....they wander 150 yards up hill then turn around stick front paws up beside ears and poke tongues out blowing rasperries at me...