Tabla de contenidos para Edition 66 en Australian Hunter

I am lucky enough to have access to a property 45 minutes away from work. For the past four years I have been helping out the owner to keep some wild dogs in check. Recently, a mate and I have been targeting a part of the property that is not in use much. During the past two trips we have come across a pair of dogs, one black and the other tan, harassing the cattle. Even though we have watched them at length through our binoculars, we have not been able to veer in closer than 500m due to the terrain. Then one afternoon after work, I decided to give it another try. I was going to be solo this time as my mate was away with work duties. I…

Among other highly skilled knife users such as chefs, meat workers, butchers and deckhands, hunters stand alone as having no definitive description of the tools of their trade. The food preparation industry trains future chefs and cooks principally through TAFE and the Secondary Schools’ hospitality courses, They list the items of equipment needed to be mastered as skills are developed. A trainee chef needs a ‘starter’ kit consisting of an 8” cook’s knife, 4” paring knife and a 6” straight back boning knife, all with honing steel and sharpening stone or diamond steel or stone. A full understanding of the scope, care and use of the kit is considered an underpinning skill of the chef. The kit is always kept in an hygienic box, brought to every training session. New…

During the height of summer my hunting buddy Mike and I went on a deer hunt in northern Queensland. Competing circumstances meant we had to postpone the trip a couple of times before we could lock it in. It just so happened that a severe heat-wave was predicted for the period we would finally be out bush. That did not unduly worry us; we had camped and hunted at this location numerous times during summer and knew what to expect. Also, we figured that the heat-wave was more likely to inflict itself on the southern latitudes and we would not have to endure it. We were way off the mark on that one, as it turned out. The sky was clear and the sun intense. It was terrifically hot as…

John Marozzi is the inventor of the Hydrostatically Stabilised Bullet (HSB). The bullet started as a thought or a seed implanted in the back of his mind in the late-1970s, when John was just 17-years-old. He would listen to his Uncle Max recount stories of encounters with marauding dangerous game that raided crops and wreaked havoc in Zambia. Initially ‘Father Max’, who had graduated from an Italian seminary, was sent to Zambia to convert the locals to Christianity. Situated near the fertile Luangwa Valley, crops were frequently raided by buffaloes. He was further exasperated by the inefficiencies of his only firearm - a Short Magazine Lee-Enfield .303 British. The factory soft point bullets proved useless on heavy muscled big game and the military full metal jackets were slow going. In…

Having covered goat butchery and recipes in this edition and previously that incorporated the main cuts of meat, the next progression is to procure any leftover goat meat and cut it into cubes. As well as the cubes, any reasonable-sized pieces of trim (that is, trim not destined to go into the mincer) can be incorporated into the meat for a stroganoff recipe. As a handy hint, if you want to make a stroganoff a few days after the hunt, then you can use any of the tender cuts of meat or the trim, including the backstrap. If you want an option for the first evening or next day, I recommend that you use the tenderloins and cut them across the grain into cube-sized pieces. In the following recipe I…

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After studying the banteng in his binoculars, the guide turned and whispered to me: “He’s a very good head.” It was my fourth day of hunting in Arnhem Land for bantengs and boars. The banteng was lying down in front of us with his head facing away. Through my Swarovski 8x30 binoculars I could see his right horn sticking up in the air but his left horn was obscured by the grass and a paperbark tree. If the left horn was as good as the right, then I would take the shot. The wild Timor Ponies had not ruined this stalk. Unlike on the previous trails where they would run right across our path, turn around and then run straight towards the banteng, alerting the banteng that something was up.…

Leaving home at a very respectable time one late January Sunday morning, we headed south. After an uneventful seven hours of sedate highway travel we pulled in at the service station and filled up with diesel, water and food to see us through nearly a week of hunting. This would be my third time hunting the scrubby Pilliga region of NSW with my good mates Simon, Darcy and Tim. It would also be our longest trip away so we weren’t in any rush and took it easy on the dirt tracks as we made our way to camp. Arriving, we set up, made ourselves comfortable and then headed out in the late afternoon light to see what was about. While we didn’t take any game that first afternoon, we did…

This all started when my son Lance and I attended the Safari Club International Convention in Las Vegas in February 2017 as a part of my bucket list, and I was not disappointed. It took four days to view the incredible display of taxidermy, world outfitters and the finest of firearm manufacturers. Famous names like Westley Richards, Holland & Holland, Rigby, Purdey, Mauser, Boss and Churchill were in abundance. As it was our intention to find an economical African safari, we were fortunate to meet Greg Harvey, of Huntershill Safaris in Eastern Cape, South Africa. Greg offered a choice from 62 trophy animals, licence fees, full accommodation with daily laundry plus the services of a 4WD safari wagon with qualified Personal Hunter (PH) and two tracker/skinners plus free pick-up and…

When my older brother Darcy became quite ill and underwent an operation we spent time together during his recovery and planned a weekend hunting trip for red deer. I could no longer hunt deer on a splendid Brisbane Valley property I favourited as the amazing owner had sadly passed away. Times like this make it hard to find a new location to hunt, as you don’t have any contacts to suss out any new property owners, especially when age is catching up with you. Luckily for us, my son told me about a property he frequents and said: “Why don’t you two old-timers go for a hunt on my spot?” Well, we couldn’t refuse an offer like that! Darcy turned up at my place and we packed up the four-wheel…

In Australian Hunter 64 we looked at the shin meat butchery on a goat foreleg and in Australian Hunter 65 we focused on carving rump steak. In this edition we move on to the roast (bone-in) butchery of a goat hind/rear leg. For this process, I used the Outdoor Edge 4¼” gut-hook skinner and 5½” boning/fillet knives. Incidentally, the shin meat butchery procedure is essentially the same for any similar sized critter, such as a deer or lamb. To commence the production of a leg roast, the hind leg is removed from the carcass, then the shin (AKA hock or shank) is removed from the hind leg. Next, with the hind leg skinned and then the shin removed below the ‘kneecap’, you are left with the very desirable leg roast.…

From its humble beginnings as a frontier staple, jerky has experienced somewhat of a renaissance of late. In fact, the shelves of supermarkets, liquor outlets and outdoors shops are stocked with an amazing array of product and flavour selections. But consumers can pay a high price for this tasty treat - between $50 and $162 per kilo! Which is extraordinary when you realise that with a little time and effort, you can produce top-quality jerky yourself at home. Jerky is essentially dried meat. It can be created from both store bought cuts or game harvested in the field. Regardless of the cut or kind of meat, the process is the same. The seasoning or marinate used to make jerky will vary according to individual taste and preference in terms of…

When given the opportunity to move out to the family farm in a caretaking role, after some serious thought, we agreed to the offer and made the journey to Dalby in Queensland’s Darling Downs. Having an extra room at my disposal, I set it up as a reloading zone and gun workshop. Just outside the room, I have the luxury of a 100m range with butts that is used for target shooting and test loads. Ranges of easily 1000m with a safe backdrop are also achievable after a crop harvest. However, I have not set up targets past 300m as realistically most of my hunting situations fall within that range. The property consists of 2000 acres of cropping country with a creek separating one half from the other. It is…

While we don’t do it intentionally, sometimes it happens - an animal is wounded and rushes into cover. I have had it happen to me, though it’s rare. Recently, I had a big mud-encrusted boar take off after I hit him with a well-placed 90-grain Speer bullet from my Tikka Lite .243. Normally, such a shot drops a big boar like a brick – normally… But this one humped his back and took off into a dam’s thick rubber vine. This stuff forms vine thickets that are almost impossible to see under let alone make your way through. I waited on the high dam wall for him to break cover and head into the bush on the other side but he stayed put, no doubt grinding his tusks to razor…

If you’re camping out on a winter hunt in the southern states of Australia, there’s a good chance you’re using a sleeping bag. It’s important to have the right one for the right weather conditions and temperature to avoid a cold and uncomfortable night. The question is: what’s the right sleeping bag for you? A number have ratings stated by the manufacturer but unfortunately independent testing has found these to be unreliable. A standard has now been set for European sleeping bags (EN 13537) and is widely used in Europe and other places in the world. This helps prevent misleading temperature claims and allows purchasers to make a more appropriate choice. The EN 13537 has four separate ratings: an upper limit, comfort rating, lower limit and extreme limit. Upper limit:…

I don’t believe there is such a thing as the ‘ideal’ hunting boot. Well, not for everyone as a blanket statement anyway. Your preference in a boot is governed by a number of factors. You can go on any hunting website and ask the question and you receive responses ranging from work boots to gumboots to maybe even joggers and pretty much everything in between. It also comes down to what you can afford and not everyone can shell out up to $600 for a pair of boots, especially if they only hunt a couple of times a year. In fact, the amount of money you spend on a boots is not always going to guarantee the result you want. So you have to establish some guidelines. This brings me…

Years ago, heading bush for a few days of hunting was a relatively uncomplicated affair. We just loaded up the family sedan or ute, if you were lucky enough to own one, and set off to the hunting property. Once there, it was a simple matter of getting on your Shanks’s pony and covering as much ground as you could walk over. That has all changed thanks to modern technology and there is now a smorgasbord of All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) available that have been designed and developed specifically to aid the hunter and farmer in their quests. In recent times, side-by-side ATVs have become popular among hunters as their primary means of transport around their hunting grounds, being usually more powerful and able to carry far heavier loads than the…

Any hunting rifle that wears an overly-large and weighty scope can easily suffer from being ‘out of balance’. We’ve all seen the slim, trim bolt-action .308 hunting rifle that should be a pleasure to cart over hill and dale, wearing the ridiculously outsized scope, something like a 5.5-25x56 range in high mounts, that ends up extremely top heavy and totally unsteady. The same rifle would be a treat to carry and use if it wore a more suitable scope, possibly something in the 2-7x36 or 3-9x40 range, in the lowest possible mounts that complemented the true usage, size and balance of the rifle. Rimfire hunting rifles, whether .22LRs, .22 Magnums or .17HMRs, are no different in this regard and, if anything, suffer from being ‘out of balance’ far more often…

It’s pretty much a mandatory skill in any hunting camp to be able to evenly roast a self-butchered joint of meat from something that you successfully hunted on a previous outing. A roast rump can be cooked, without burning it, in less than an hour, maybe even 30 to 45 minutes if you ramp up the heat. The secret is in having hot air flowing around the cut of meat rather than the meat touching the exterior metal and thus burning it, so I recommend a trivet. Typically, you will serve roast vegetables with your roast rump. Naturally, choose your favourite vegetables and pay particular attention to your pick of potatoes, selecting roasting potatoes rather than mashing spuds for example. While the meat is roasting, set up the vegetables in…