Table of contents for Edition 82 in Australian Hunter

In the field Matthew Cameron fondly recollects hunting various species across the Wide Brown Land, Ben Smith tackles the frost and other factors for freezer-filler deer, Perry Magowan rides the roller-coaster that is the red deer roar, Brad Allen eagerly takes on chital deer, Don Caswell finally gets a crack at a bothersome boar, Gary Hall has a big day out for a buffalo and a boar, Ben Unten finds precision for his first buffalo trophy and more, Adrian Kenney looks to the skies with his air rifle to despatch feathered foes and Mick Chapman rounds up Arapawa rams in the New Zealand mountaintops for trophies with a twist. Do you see what I see? The animals you are hunting certainly don’t so we help keep you hidden in our…

Trying to get two people to line their work/life schedules up is like trying to win Lotto sometimes, especially when both own businesses. This is what happens most times when I try to hunt with my mate Warrick. We grew up as teenagers together in Victoria, shooting at the local clay target club. However, our planned visit to a property for some venison actually panned out. We decided to include two Ruger M77s - a .22 WMR and. 17 HMR - for some small game hunting, should the deer action be slow. We made the long journey to the property knowing the forecast on this trip was to be -3°C with wind chill on top of that. We arrived at our camp spot and greeted the farmer. The first task…

Federal Ammunition recently celebrated their centenary. The company was established in 1922 in Anoka, Minnesota. Since then, the group has grown and innovated to become one of the world’s largest manufacturers of sporting ammunition. Federal produces rimfire, centrefire rifle, shotshells and pistol ammunition. In Australia, Federal is distributed by Nioa, who provided a selection for testing. My interest was in Federal rifle ammunition specifically for hunting but Federal offer a huge choice, over many calibres, for hunters and sport shooters. They have more than 70 calibres, varying from .17 Hornet up to .500 Nitro Express, including a number of European calibres as well. Apart from their own projectiles, Federal offer premium projectiles for hunting and target shooting. Recognised brands include Barnes, Berger, Buckmaster, Hornady, Nosler, Sierra, Speer, Swift, Trophy and…

A misting of rain droplets, or a haze of fine dust, can ruin your hunting opportunity by blurring your optics at the critical moment. An obvious solution is to fit flip-back scope covers to the objective and eyepiece ends of your riflescope. I was a late adopter of flip-back scope covers but eventually saw the necessity of fitting them to my rifles. In the space of a few weeks, I lost several hard-won openings on the wild dogs I was hunting. The first occasion was when three dogs approached my position with the setting sun behind them. The rifle was fitted with first-class optics that could have enabled a shot had the lens been clean. However, an accumulation of fine dust on the lens caught the sunlight and just flared-out…

I have been obsessed with camo since I was a youngster. To the point that, for a high school art project I made a camo t-shirt. Initially I dyed the shirt brown using onion skins as a base colour. Then I tie-dyed it with a light khaki derived from green vegetables before I embossed the shirt with brown prints from a bracken fern. The sense of accomplishment I had from making it myself, then busting bunnies while wearing it, gave me a real incentive to strive for more. Now, as a 28-year Army veteran, I’m still playing around with different camo patterns and colours for hunting. While my old Army issued cams may work well during warfare, they don’t function as effectively as you would think for hunting. And it…

A SSAA National-led wildlife survey involving more than 17,000 documented quail sightings from across South Australia has effectively proven quail hunting poses no risk to the future of the species. The grassroots effort to prove widespread and abundant quail population - the first time the game bird has been monitored in this way since the 1980s - projected a quail population of between 6.2 and 17.7 million birds. The study’s release prompted authorities to declare a quail hunting season in South Australia for the first time since 2019. SSAA National Wildlife Programs Leader Matthew Godson said a lack of scientific interest in quail, a species which doesn’t fit the endangered or pest narrative that typically attracts attention and funding, had left it virtually ignored for decades. “The SA Minister for…

During a lengthy drive home from a successful hunt, ample time gave rise to some thoughts on how to prepare and cook some of the venison that filled the car fridge freezer. It had been quite a bit of time since I was last able to hunt deer, due to COVID lockdowns and unseasonable wet weather. So, it is great to once again have a good quantity of venison cuts to cook and experiment with new ideas and break away from the other staple recipes to see what I come up with. Enter the French connection where the sous vide (under vacuum) method of cooking is one that I have built up some experience with in preparing beef and lamb. Now, with a good supply of venison, it’s time to…

Some say you can never have enough knives. I wholeheartedly agree, albeit with a little voice in the back of my head asking me when I expect to use them all. This rings particularly true for a number of the specialised meat processing and hunting knives I own and only take out on rare occasions. However, I carry folding knives almost everywhere I go, provided it is legal to do so. Among my favourite folders are Ruike knives, like the Ruike P108, reviewed in issue 76 of Australian Hunter. Many of my other knives are considerably more expensive and have fancier steels or names that are better known. These include my Spyderco knives. Even if you have never heard of the name itself, there is a good chance you will…

Who does not love the smell of their hard-earned game meat cooking on a barbecue plate placed on top of a campfire? But the realities are that most likely we opt for the easy way out and cook a quick meal on a camp stove. There is also the factor that in many parts of Australia having a campfire is banned due to the risk of starting a bushfire. Visit a good camping store and you will find a fine array of cooking stoves that fit the bill and the needs. Here is some handy advice what may suit your desires. Butane gas Arguably the most popular camping stove these days is the single-burner butane gas stove. They cost about $20 and last forever. They have a low, controlled heat…

For those in the know, 0800 – ‘Oh eight hundred’ - is a 24-hour time call, meaning 8am, but it’s also the postcode for Darwin. To backtrack, I recently celebrated a birthday and my wife asked me what I’d like to do. “Just a family dinner,” I replied. “And a buff hunt with two close mates.” The meal was great, which left me with two phone calls to make. Both my long-time hunting mates, ‘Country’ and ‘Dodge’, took little persuasion. A buffalo hunt has been on my bucket list since I started hunting. Flicking through the pages of my grandad’s hunting magazines as a teenager I almost didn’t believe such a game animal existed in Australia. But three decades later, you could say that maintaining interest in buff hunting eventually…

After catching up with our close friends at the homestead for a brew and a good chat, Neil and I rolled the mighty Honda Pioneer 700 off the trailer. We then conducted our usual quick inventory check - icebox, rifles, ammo, GPS, camera, tracking collars, firstaid/survival kit and bailing dogs. A short time later, I eased the side-by-side to a stop as a perfect ‘meat eater’ buffalo moved cautiously in the light scrub to our left, contemplating its next move. That split second of hesitation gave Neil the chance to shoulder his hard hitting .300, take a sight picture through the scope and squeeze the trigger. The thunderous sound of the .300 going off in the confined space of the Honda’s cab was absolutely deafening. My ears were still ringing…

When I think back to memorable camping trips, a wide variety of places, friends and events come to mind. Yet, there is one thing many of these outings have in common. They involved great food, prepared over a campfire. These days, electric coolers, vacuum sealers and other innovations have made it easy to bring food for an entire week, but where is the fun in that? Growing up, the basic idea was to pack some emergency staples and shoot or fish for protein. And what better protein than game birds? What beats spending a few intense hours, with or without your dog, looking for something that is a challenge to shoot and makes for great eating? While there are a variety of birds that can be had, quail has always…

It would be nice if you could have a singular rifle for each hunting situation irrespective of the game involved. Unfortunately, there is the small matter of finance which normally limits the number of rifles that you might own. However, I suggest that in the modern world under the right circumstances you are able to take your rifles to a higher level of performance simply by upgrading to a different type of projectile. Secondly, another situation has occurred with many calibres having heavier than normal projectiles progressively available for the first time. Unfortunately, there is a real problem in that most barrels from older rifles are not fast enough in twist to stabilise the new offerings. It’s not a new problem and it has existed for many years. When I…

The global pandemic threw travel plans out of the window for many hunters. But for me, out of the blue, my mate Scottie Dempster phoned. He had been in contact with an outfitter who could arrange a hunt for red deer stags across the ditch in the Land of the Long White Cloud’s South Island. Was I interested? I quickly agreed to the venture. We discussed the details, setting our plans for the middle of the roar. We had also been told that there were some good fallow in the area. Topping the whole deal off, if time permitted, we would hunt an Arapawa ram each. The vagaries of international border restrictions meant that the trip was delayed. We eventually arrived in Queenstown with a day spare for sightseeing. Then…

Well, it had been a reasonably good period, with plenty of tall green grass, but not a lot of water in dams or through gully systems. That being the case, I thought I would put my trail camera out on my favourite cattle dam to see if there were many deer about. The property owner gave me permission to go on and put the camera on the remote dam in the back paddock and to take a meat animal if I wished. That would be a bonus for me. What a difference to the rough boundary track in 12 months. In some places the wheel tracks were so deep from being washed out with rainwater that my car was bottoming out. In other spots I had to straddle the track…

Following my recent once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Northern Territory chasing bull buffaloes, my freezer was packed with mince. I love mince as it is just so versatile. Buff mince is especially easy to work with as the taste could possibly best be described as slightly stronger beef. However, after lightly frying some thinly-sliced, mature buffalo backstrap, I can tell you that although the flavour is excellent, without additional treatment it is tougher than a shearer’s handshake. The key to this recipe is the horseradish cream and going big with your choice of condiments. Seriously BIG! Ingredients • 600g buffalo mince• 1¾ cup breadcrumbs• 2 eggs• 2-3 onions - grated• 1¾ tablespoon barbecue sauce• 1¾ tablespoon tomato sauce• 1¾ tablespoon Worcestershire sauce• 2-3 cloves garlic - grated• 1 teaspoon pepper• ¾…

It’s doubtful whether there’s a better pig cartridge in a bolt-action rifle than the .308 Winchester. I used the .308 almost exclusively on pigs in the 1980s, before moving on to the longer legged .270. Recently, my interest in the .308 has been rekindled. You can have a light, short rifle and use relatively inexpensive 150-grain projectiles and easily take the largest boars. In thick lignum at close range or at difficult angles, cartridges such as the .338 Federal and .358 Winchester might stop the larger ones faster on some occasions, but the .308 will be better at ensuring multiple shots off at running pigs or when trying to shoot several in a mob. The .308 projectiles will also usually be considerably cheaper. The other cartridge I really like on…

With pigs too plentiful on my hunting grounds, I had temporarily switched attention from wild dogs to feral porkers. The trail cameras were showing lots of daytime pig activity on a dead cow, so hunting buddy Pete and I decided to sit over the carcass late one afternoon. Only a week or so previously I had shot a smallish ginger boar there using the same approach. The trail cams were indicating that the sows had overcome their fright and resumed business as usual, with a new black-coloured boyfriend in tow. The plan was to wait until we had a swarm of pigs at the carcass and then open fire with the intention of dropping the breeding sows as a priority, before turning our interest to any boar still in the…

As I write this, the rain is coming down in sheets. Rivers are rising all along the east coast, and a few further inland streams have experienced some minor flooding. Now, it’s no fun to be out camping in the bush and being rained on, but it happens. That we have no control over the weather goes without saying, so we learn to live with it. It’s times like this that you are grateful for prior preparation. When you wisely decided not to camp in your swag, but took the time to put up a tent, or at least a good tarp. Like most of those who choose to enjoy a recreation involving the outdoors, weather is a constant factor. For hunters, droughts are not much good as the game…