Table of contents for Edition 65 in Australian Hunter

Our scheduled pig hunt in November on the NSW property coincided with a cooler break in the weather compared to the oppressive 40C-degree temperatures we had been experiencing. And the property owner’s late aerial rice sewing, a task normally performed in August/September each year had been delayed due to the heavy rains, swollen creeks and general flooding. All this made it impossible for the owner to reach the rice paddocks to attend to the maintenance of the levies and floodgates. The flooding had also prevented us from moving onto the property earlier, when conditions were more favourable with good feed still about. While the waterways were overflowing, the land was dry - supporting tall yellow grass and little else. Still, any opportunity to hunt pigs, despite the conditions, is always…

On this trip, we were all arriving separately due to varying work commitments. I was there in the afternoon, followed by my regular hunting mate Thommo, with our third member Welshy due to join us at around midnight. While we set up camp and patched-out our rifles, I mentioned to Thommo that I’d really like Welshy to land a fox this time. Welshy had previously been on several moderately successful outings with me, but had missed out on taking anything to put on display. I reckoned a simple fox tail would have him started. Thommo and I went out for a short spotlighting session that night and managed to bag a couple of bunnies for the pot. They were field-dressed, with the remains left in a strategic position about 80m…

Someone who is not quite up to scaling the higher peaks will opt to find a good, well-marked game trail and pick a spot to stake it out. Growing old has many benefits: you aren’t expected to be excessively athletic, you don’t worry too much if things tend to sag a bit here and there, and if you’ve done it right from the start, you have some good yarns up your sleeve. But there are those who tend to draw lines in the sand and say things like: “Oh, I’m too old for that.” I guess this leads to the questions: How long can a hunter keep doing what they love and is there a limit? The fact is everyone has their own perspective on life. The nightly news is…

Hunting knives are personal tools and most hunters have a preference. Many of today’s young hunters, however, seem to struggle with knives better suited for survival use. The problem is that there are so many good knives about and unless you know what you want, you can end up taking what the salesperson talks you into. My advice is to think outside the square and avoid the very popular long-bladed survival and ‘fighting’ style knives, as the only thing the hunting knife is designed for is skinning, cutting and field-dressing. This means that it has a single blade designed to skin, cut and bone the animals you hunt - ranging from birds to buffaloes. If the blade is too big or small, it makes the task difficult - the reason…

A rump steak is made by slicing a thick cut from across the end of a leg roast. In doing so, many muscles end up as part of the rump steak. Because of the number of muscles, there is a lot of sinew (found between the muscles) in each rump steak. In order to break down some of the potentially chewier bits into tender pieces as well as to extract the flavour and diffuse it through the meat, low-fat game rump steaks are best prepared using slow-cooking techniques such as braising. The muscles in a rump steak can include the topside, round, eye-of-round, and/or silverside. The rump steak is slightly chewier but has more flavour as it includes some well-worked muscle groups. Actually, there is an interesting aspect to the…

Whereabouts? When? Is there a spare spot? With those three questions, I was suddenly on my way to Africa. The answers to those questions were: Namibia, in about eight months and yes, there’s a place available if you want to come too. Wow! I was going to the Dark Continent on a plains game hunting trip. How did that happen? I had never really thought that one day I’d be hunting in Africa, but as it transpired, my brother Reid and a couple of his mates had chosen an outfitter, booked their flights and were raring to go. I jumped at the chance to join the gang. We would be hunting with Harald and Liezel Jacobsz of Osombahe-Nord Hunting Safaris, in central Namibia, for seven days. I was going to…

In Edition 62 of Australian Hunter we looked at the treatment for the most renowned biters… snakes. This time we will deal with the more sneaky, but sometimes equally deadly, stinging insects - or anthropods. Of the anthropods, the classes Hymenoptera and Arachnida are the most common culprits of envenomation in Australia. All stings from anthropods result in at least mild local pain, swelling and redness. This is because the body has a natural and complex ‘border control’ which involves sending an army of cells, via the blood, to fight the invader. The pain is a result of the pressure buildup due to the excess fluid in the area and stimulation of nerve fibres. The swelling and redness occur as the capillaries open up to allow an influx of blood…

I confess to having too many items in my field butchering kit, which consists of an old tackle box, a canvas bag and a small bumbag pouch. I’m unsure how many knives, sharpeners and associated accoutrements I have collected over the years but I am always looking for items to relocate into our kitchen where they would be put to better and more regular use. My field dressing bumbag, which lives in my wayfaring backpack, consists of two processing knives, a gutting knife and a sharpening steel. To be frank, it does take up space and adds to the ever-increasing weight on my shoulders. If only there could be a utensil that would do all the tasks of my bumbag tools at a fraction of the size. The good news…

One of the factors determining whether you load your own ammunition or use commercially produced factory loads is the amount of ammo you actually go through in a season. Those who do not use enough to justify setting up a reloading outfit, buying all the components and devoting the time required, usually opt for factory-loaded ammunition, of which many brands and bullet weight configurations are available. In 2005 the Federal Cartridge Company released a new ammunition brand - Fusion. The reason for the separate branding is that the new ammunition is loaded with bullets made by Federal’s proprietary molecular-fused jacket technology. This is an electrochemical process and according to the Fusion literature: “The jacket is applied to the core, one molecule at a time, to totally eliminate separation and maintain…

The Shooter MOBEEL was created by Hisun dealer Geoff Lark to meet the needs of shooters and hunters. The Shooter MOBEEL is a Hisun Model 750 UTV with a number of extras Geoff has carefully added in order to make it the ideal mode of transport for professional shooters. Some of the extras include a Kolpin floor mounted adjustable dual gun rack, a rifle rest pad, extra lighting and a steel flat bed tray with drop sides. Of course, all the add-ons in the world don’t count for much if the UTV breaks down or can’t handle rough terrain. Fortunately, the Hisun Model 750 contains plenty of power with a single-cylinder 750cc engine delivering 38hp. Although similar-sized UTVs may have larger engines, Geoff feels more power is not always better.…

Having just shared a pig carcass, our old friends John and Betty set a date for us to meet and participate in making a batch of traditional Yorkshire pork pies. John is a Yorkshireman, born and bred, nearing his ninth decade. He and Betty have led adventurous lives, with hunting, fine food and conviviality their focus. We enjoyed a morning in the kitchen cooking up a big array of pies, then sat down to enjoy our efforts. In the following recipe, we made our own pork stock by boiling down pig trotters in seasoned water. The trotters are best simmered for the hours needed until they are well and truly cooked and the stock has reduced. The stock should not need any gelatine added, given the natural gelatine that comes…

With high expectations, I was being rushed away from Christchurch Airport southbound by a shuttle driver who moments earlier had been waiting for me at the bottom of an escalator holding up a sign with my name on it. It was a long time in the making but I was about to commence a trip of a lifetime and my first overseas hunt. Years ago, back in 2008, my wife and I spent a two-week driving holiday in New Zealand. We instantly fell in love with the place and the scenery was breathtaking. At the time, I didn’t know much about hunting in that country or the game roaming the mountains. It was at the airport that I picked up a New Zealand hunting magazine and began reading about mountain-dwelling…

A lot of people have commented to me over the years that I must be a lucky hunter. Well, no. I don’t always take something - a lot of the time I just go out into the bush and look, take photos and enjoy the wildlife and leave them alone. I remember a while back when I went out for four roars in a row and never shot a stag, or even a doe for that matter. I never saw a stag carrying a trophy set of antlers better than anything I had hanging on my wall at home, so I didn’t feel the need to shoot one. Nowadays, I take more deer as meat animals and rarely take a trophy animal as I’m content with what I have. In…

Not so long ago, a hunting buddy and I were discussing the subject of taking a shot at running game. It soon became apparent that we were poles apart about how much lead was required under different circumstances. Lead, of course, is the technique of shooting ahead of your moving target, in this case an animal, so that your projectile and the animal come together at the same place at the same time. While I have always tried to limit my shots to those at stationary animals, sometimes a running shot must be taken. Over the past few years, I have begun to spend more time hunting wild dogs, where the shot is often a long one at a moving animal. Under those circumstances, you need to have a feel…

Cutting tools undoubtedly play a significant role in human evolution. Respected anthropologists and historians are on record with assertions that development of blade-ware has fuelled the technology without which our civilisation would have come to a grinding halt. Whatever the academic theories, today we take a knife for granted. It’s something with which to slice up stuff in the kitchen for the family dinner and subsequently use a smaller version to reduce it to bite-sized portions on our plate. It’s also now a functional, well-made tool from many manufacturing sources that only a foolhardy modern hunter or fisher would venture forth without. This was not always so. Quality blade-ware once was a very scarce and desirable luxury item, forged and crafted by the sweat of brow on an anvil by…

Rump steaks are unique in that, as opposed to a steak cut from one muscle, they are made by cutting across a leg roast so that many muscles end up as part of the steak. Because of this, there is a lot of sinew between the muscles in each rump steak. Therefore game rump steaks are best prepared using slow-cooking techniques in order to break down some of the potentially chewier bits into tender pieces as well as to extract the flavour and diffuse it through the meat. No wonder braised rump steak is such a delicacy among those who know how to cook it. To demonstrate the technique for boning out the meat, I have trimmed a goat leg roast. Two knives will be needed in the processing of…

Serves 4-6 8 wild duck breastsplain flour - for dusting5 potatoes - thickly sliced1 large white onion - peeled275g cranberry sauce1 cup soy sauce½ teaspoon chilli flakes (optional)1 dessertspoon raw sugar1 bottle red winecrusty bread - to serve 1 Dust the duck breasts with flour and place them on top of the potatoes in a casserole dish or slow cooker.2 Cut the onion through the centre from top to bottom, then cut each half into slices and add to the dish.3 Combine the cranberry and soy sauces and add to the dish, along with the chilli flakes and raw sugar.4 Pour in enough red wine (or water) to cover, then cook in a preheated 150C oven for 1½ hours or until tender. If cooking in a slow cooker, cook for…