Tabla de contenidos para Edition 61 en Australian Hunter

I have been hunting pigs in a range of habitats for more than 40 years and they still continue to surprise me. The feral pig (Sus scrofa) is an underrated game animal. While not as glamorous as a stag carrying a good spread of antlers, or exotic international game such as tahrs, pigs deserve respect as hunting animals. They are great survivors, adapting well to a range of environments. Hunting big pigs on foot is a challenge with direct environmental and economic benefits. Successful hunting demands knowledge and understanding of animal behaviour. I have been hunting pigs in a range of habitats for more than 40 years and they still continue to surprise me. Description Domestic and feral pigs have clear physical differences. The feral pig is generally smaller, leaner…

Tomahawks or hatches are small hafted axes that have a long history, being the earliest axe that ancient man designed from stone. Most likely the first originated from a stone club with a handle fitted that was used for combat and hunting. Later it evolved in a ground cutting edge that initially saw light in the Mesolithic period 6000 years ago and ended in the Neolithic 4000 to 2000 years ago when metals such as bronze and iron became the standard. When the First Fleet landed in Botany Bay, the indigenous people they encountered were armed with stone axes and spear tips. Axes are well versed in ancient mythology. For instance stone tomahawks were believed to be thunderbolts that were used to protect people against lightning strikes. Early steel axes…

It goes without question that the American whitetail deer is the number one big-game animal sought after in the whole United States. More magazines, books and equipment centre around this animal than any other in the country, and probably anywhere else in the world for that matter. The whitetail deer has become so popular that places such as Finland have successfully imported whitetails from the state of Wisconsin into their country and as such now have a huntable population of this outstanding trophy-class animal. While many areas in the US, including my home state of South Dakota, have free-ranging herds along with millions of acres of public land including the famous Black Hills to hunt these deer in, states such as Texas are mostly all privately-owned lands. Also, hunters who…

In an industry where aptly named ‘super-steels’ have more or less taken over, the process of sharpening such steels can be time consuming and just plain confusing. With a plethora of sharpening methods and products on the market, deciding what knife is right for you can be an arduous task when you are confronted with tough-as-nails, hard-as-rock steels. Wouldn’t it be nice in a busy world, if instead of painfully sharpening a blunt knife, finding the right angles and buying various sharpening equipment, you could just start afresh, replacing the old blade with a new, razor-sharp edge? Thankfully, Outdoor Edge has given us the Razor-Lite series and in particular we put the Razor-Blaze under the microscope. The Outdoor Edge Razor-Blaze is a folding pocket-knife with interchangeable surgical-style razor blades. It…

Even though I have had a bit to do with supports over the years, I’ve never come across anything quite like the Bistoli Talon All-Grip bipod feet. These replacement feet are a specialty item, designed by Teznik Pty Ltd of Sydney, to fit both Harris and Atlas bipods, for precision long-range prone shooting. With necessity being the mother of invention, Nick from Teznik advises that the spike feet are his firm’s own design, after experiencing the standard rubber feet on most bipods which tended to slide, sink and move too much while attempting to maintain a firm prone shooting position behind heavy-recoiling rifles. The replacement spike feet remedy this situation by providing a much more stable and secure platform for the rifle, that virtually eliminates the problems associated with the…

This recipe is something of an enigma. Not that it’s a difficult recipe to prepare; it’s just that according to the rules of cooking meat, as I understand them, this cooking method should make the venison as ‘tough as old boots’ as it is essentially being stewed. But for reasons I can’t explain, it doesn’t make it tough at all. It certainly does make it delicious though! Before starting to prepare the ingredients, keep in mind that longer, thinner strips of fillings tend to stay in a fajita better than shorter bits, which have a tendency to fall out. I like to cut the meat into thin strips of about 6x2x½cm thick. A beautifully simple way to do this is to lay the backstrap or fillet out across in front…

The massive mud-encrusted buffalo bull suddenly turned and took off through the mimosa bush for parts unknown. Putting the Swarovski scope onto him, his rear end was all that could be seen departing. Taking careful aim and squeezing the trigger, there was a resounding boom as my .300 Weatherby spat out a Barnes TTSX projectile. Perhaps I had better start at the beginning to put this story into perspective. The trip to the Northern Territory from near Brisbane in Queensland took us three full days. Boy, it is a long drive. The weather seemed to be against us as it was raining when we left home and also coming down unseasonably hard around the far west. As we came close to Blackall, the flooded roads had been closed but luckily…

It’s hard to believe that the Browning X-Bolt has been in production since 2009. Being manufactured alongside its stablemates in the Browning A-Bolt II and AB3, it is a symbiosis between the parent company in Browning and BC Miroku, of Japan. The Japanese firearm giant has been turning out all manner of longarms for Browning and Winchester for decades, such is the quality of its products and their acceptance worldwide. The A-Bolt and X-Bolt range of rifles have been well accepted into the Australian marketplace, being synonymous with accuracy, reliability and value for money. The X-Bolt collection has gone from strength to strength, with Browning constantly refining the design, bringing in fresh variants while discontinuing older models. This decision-making process by Browning keeps the X-Bolt category a top seller worldwide.…

Everyone knows it can be difficult to find a property to hunt on. But sometimes you can just be lucky. That happened to me recently when I was talking to my mate Gary during a stop on one of our rides. I had not known Gaz for very long but I was aware he lived on a small farm only about 40 minutes from my place. It turned out that he owns a flower farm on 28 acres of lovely rolling hills. As we were talking, I mentioned something about hunting and he said: “You should come up and knock over a few rabbits for me, they’re eating everything.” Apparently he was having problems with the bunnies getting stuck into his flower seedlings and bulbs and he wanted the benefits…

I have to ’fess up right here - for a long time, I thought camo hunting clothing was, well, silly. That was even more so for blaze camo. However, with time I have become a convert, especially for blaze camo. Many countries require hunters to wear blaze camo. Whether regulated or not, I have found that it is a commonsense safety choice that does not reduce your hunting opportunities. The key point to remember is that the animals we hunt do not see the world as we do. Humans are among the small number of animal species that can see a broad spectrum of color. We evolved from fruit-eating primates and color vision was vital for detecting ripe fruits and vegetables. Predators do not have color vision as they do…

Reading the literature, there is no doubt that the Lowa brand has achieved critical acclaim all over Europe, with its design and manufacture complying with the stringent quality standards that are needed to supply footwear that will stand up to the harsh conditions of the European outdoors. At the time of writing, I had just returned to Australia from a trip to New Zealand, testing a pair of Mauria Flex GTX boots in the ice-capped mountains of the rugged West Coast of the South Island. There was by no means any shortage of genuine field testing of the boots’ comfort and waterproof-ability. There was plenty of hilly terrain. Hilly, cold and wet terrain. Straight out of the box, the boots felt like they were made for walking. The distinctive lacing…

I have owned my favourite sporting shotgun for many years and until recently, I have had absolutely no desire or interest in changing it. It is a 26" side-by-side ejector shotgun and its boring is perfect for the close-quarter driven shooting or decoying I normally do during the season. It is light to carry, fits me like a glove and since I shoot from the left shoulder, the stock has been ‘cast’ to shoot where I look. There is of course a continuing debate about whether it is better to have a ‘specialist’ firearm for different occasions or whether sticking with a tried-and-trusted old favourite is the best option. However, clearly, the first consideration is to decide what the gun will be used for and what kind of game will…

My outdoor experiences have sometimes been plagued by bouts of inclement weather and extreme cold to the point that I feared my aching fingers could be on the verge of suffering frostbite. Some of those instances have occurred in elevated blinds and tree stands while hunting various types of game, awaiting a duck or a goose to set its wings while hunkered down around a marsh or grain field. At other times I have simply been working outside under less-than-hospitable circumstances. Obviously, we all attempt to dress appropriately for the weather we are anticipating, but sometimes that by itself isn’t always adequate to protect us from the chilly conditions that follow. To shield my fingers and hands from the cold, I have tried many of the different types of commercially…

With retail pricing from around $630, the Ruger American Rimfire represents great value for money. I have a pretty standard approach to testing rifles and I started my review of the Ruger American Rimfire .22LR 18" OD Green rifle the way I usually do. The only variation was that instead of doing the sighting-in at my local SSAA range, I was using the private 50m range on my hunting buddy’s farm. It did not take many shots to have the Ruger shooting to point of aim at 50m, good enough to test some groupings of different ammo types. However, before I could settle down and start shooting groups, a shower of rain came over and reduced my batch of targets to soggy paper mâché. The range has a few metal…

I recently came across a website dedicated to publicising the dangers of hunting and why it should be banned. With stories sporting the headlines “Man killed when mistaken for a turkey” and “Rattlesnake drops teenage hunter”, it became apparent that this was an American site. We Australians have had our fair share of mishaps in the outdoors, although they are fortunately less publicised and rarely to do with turkeys, at least of the feathered kind! I’m sure that hunters are under no misconceptions of the unique safety considerations that must taken with what we choose do for recreation. If that bothered us, we would probably be attending pottery classes on the weekends, instead of going head to head with cranky feral beasts in the land where snakes roam young and…

Over 100 years of pioneering optical design and construction, most notably in the photographic camera range and more recently sport optic products, has led to German company Leica Camera AG, based in Wetzlar, releasing the new Noctivid family of binoculars. At the pinnacle of its genre, these binoculars represent a revolution in the field of viewing optics, giving the avid lover of the outdoors a window to explore it more closely with vivid clarity and previously unimagined quality. To say this new binoculars model is the best you can have would be a statement I would concur with. Having previously reviewed for the SSAA readers several of Leica’s riflescopes and been hugely impressed with their quality and functionality, I was positive the Noctivid would set the gold standard for high-end…

The Brisbane Valley has had its fair share of bad droughts in the past 50 years. Such a time is a landowner’s nightmare. However, it can be a time of feast for animal predators such as pigs, foxes and wild dogs as well as hunters of the human kind. No grass and very little water supply equals dead livestock and any game animal that eats grass or leaves. Game will tend to congregate close to water and any food available. This makes finding lots of hungry animals to hunt or cull much easier. My son has access to two really good properties in the Brisbane Valley and we hunted there several times in a recent drought. Toogoolawah had been in the grip of drought for two-and-a-half years. The 2000-acre property…

Boats are investments for many hunters and fishers but costs can quickly mount depending on the size of the vessel and the options selected. Owners should set aside an annual budget to cover the ongoing outlay of licences, registration, insurance and maintenance. Ownership overheads can be optimised by hunters with the selection of a light (60kg) to medium (120kg) weight aluminium boat, also known as a ‘tinny’, but size is a matter of what is perceived as practical and the amount of use it will obtain. The big ticket items in the boat purchase are the hull, motor and possibly the trailer. In Australia, we are fortunate as there is a choice of reputable manufacturers and several custom builders who all provide quality products. There is also the secondhand market,…

We have all seen the demos on television but just how good are the Kleva Cut kitchen cutlery? Like many people I don’t like buying goods unseen but when I came across a Kleva stand in a Cairns supermarket I ended up walking away $100 poorer in exchange for five new kitchen knives after the sales bloke demonstrated all the stuff that I have seen on TV. It convinced me to buy a set. He tossed a fillet knife into the deal. I need one like a hole in the head, having a dozen or more, but one more won’t hurt, will it? I ended up with a three-piece professional Kleva Cut Master Series Kitchen Knife Set, which contained a 20cm Chef knife, 20cm Bread knife and a 9cm Paring…