Table of contents for Edition 58 in Australian Hunter

Hunting and holidays at the same time, what a combination! For about 10 years, my wife and I have been taking our holidays in the Victorian high country and it’s been great. We set up camp in a good hunting area, after a two-day drive down from Queensland. Luckily for me, she loves camping in the cold country. It usually takes two days to prepare camp to her satisfaction, with plenty of firewood, then I’m free to go and do some deer hunting. Although we enjoy a little bit of sightseeing too, once we are settled, we stay put for 10 to 14 days. The best part though is coming back to camp after a hard day of hunting to a nice cuddle and a ‘home-cooked’ meal. As every sambar…

I was lucky to be invited to take a tour of the Savage Arms factory in Westfield, Massachusetts, late last year and was given the hands-on opportunity to actually build one of Savage’s newest rifles, a Model 16 Lightweight Hunter, for my own personal use. The experience provided me with a better appreciation of the complexities of the processes followed by Savage Arms and gave me a greater understanding of why the Savage products are so distinctive and accurate. At the heart of the Savage Lightweight Hunter rifle is its diversity. It would be the perfect match for those who are seeking a rifle for the outback which is not so burdensome to pack around. However, just because this rifle is extremely lightweight, at only a little more than 2.5kg…

Much like marrying the wrong person, if you purchase the wrong pair of boots, you could wind up suffering a great deal of pain coupled with a lot of costly regret. To ensure a satisfactory outcome in either of these situations, you must keep a clear head and possess a thorough understanding of what to expect. However, for this discussion, I will attempt to avoid the pitfalls associated with my own personal feelings as they pertain to the perfect lifetime partner and rather concentrate on the possibly less interesting but more appropriate topic of footwear for the outback. Like a lot of hunters and sporting shooters, I prefer my boots to be waterproof and properly insulated to match the conditions I expect to face. In the past, those boots generally…

My first exposure to the Top End was in 1964 when I was a young sailor based at the Naval Radio Station at Coonawarra. That one-year posting allowed me to venture into numerous places ‘down the track’ and I took every opportunity during my off-duty days to explore, fish and hunt. Darwin did not offer very much in the recreational sphere in those days, so we were in a situation of making our own fun. I didn’t know it then, but that brief passage in my life was to become the lure, and me, the fish. It took 10 years before I returned to the Northern Territory in 1974. I was a 30-year-old fisheries officer and had recently relocated from Townsville, attempting to find a place where I could settle…

Hunter merchandise - store.ssaa.org.au These great SSAA Store products and lots more are available at our online store - store.ssaa.org.au SSAA JKR folding knife Made in Spain using quality lama inox, this knife has a stylishly embossed burl wood handle and is designed for easy, one-handed opening. The SSAA JKR folding knife also has a handy belt clip so no pouch is required. • Total length 190mm • Blade length 80mm • Handle length 110mm • Blade thickness 2.7mm • Blade width at base 24.97mm • Weight 116g Code JKR001 $34.95 Twin light pack The P7.2 AFS LED Lenser torch has a push-pull focus and 320 lumens that can reach out to 260m. It runs on 4x AAA batteries. P3 AFS has push-pull focus and 25 lumens with 60m coverage.…

The introduction of the SSAA Farmer Assist program in Queensland has been a recognised success. It provides farmers with access to sporting shooters for the control of pests on their properties. It also opens up good opportunities to SSAA members who might otherwise have difficulty in finding properties to shoot on. For farmers, many of whom do not have firearm licences and firearms, the SSAA’s sporting shooters are a valuable free resource for pest control. Most city folks do not appreciate the sheer economic impact that pest species have on farmers. The loss of a single heifer to wild dogs, for example, can represent a cumulative financial deficit of some thousands of dollars. When pigs and roos descend onto a sprouting grain crop covering some thousands of hectares, the margin…

After a long break from hunting, about six years ago I jumped straight back into it and have worked hard since to get out and hunt as much as possible. Along the way, I’ve managed to hunt in all sorts of different country and gain some new experiences, such as taking a nice fallow buck, as well as enjoy some great hunting trips with friends. While my new lease on the hunting life has included some success, it’s also included a lesson or two, with the latter certainly making far better campfire stories. So here are a few of those firsts, as well as a couple of lessons that might resonate with some readers, as well as educate others. Pigs galore Having travelled about 5km from camp, my mate Tim…

A trophy of a lifetime was going to take something extraordinary. This meant backpacking in to a hunting location behind locked gates so we could really go off the grid. The key to success would be to find some remote terrain that holds the right genetics and which experiences little to no hunting pressure. With this type of hunting being new to us, my mate Frank and I began to plan our trek nearly a year in advance. If we were to have any real chance of achievement, we needed to be well prepared. This included studying topological maps, talking to experts, snapping up the right gear and clothing, doing pre-season reconnaissance and most importantly, being fit enough to be able to scale those snow-covered peaks. Research Google Earth puts…

Smith’s has done it! Go and buy one. End of product review. Well, almost... By now, everybody who has been alive longer than the mould in their vegetable crisper knows about the need to maintain an edge on their knives, whether they be for domestic, commercial or field use. I have worked long and hard at my knife-sharpening ability and yet it is such a demanding art that I can still turn a scalpel into a nail pick simply by attempting to hone it on a whetstone. I can also make a razor-sharp carving knife into a blunt-edged meat skewer with only a few strokes on a chef’s sharpening steel. So consequently, I own countless knife sharpeners of every size, type and description and yes, I’m still learning - but…

I have been using a Primos trail camera quite successfully for the past couple of seasons so this experience gives me a good benchmark against which to evaluate the manufacturer’s latest model, the Proof Cam 03. The Primos range of no-glow infrared trail cameras (aka game cameras) is well regarded for daytime photo quality and after field testing the Proof Cam 03 among my collection of game cameras, I can vouch that the latest model confirms this reputation. Over the recent spring to summer period, I invested considerable effort with various game cameras to study the buck and spiker populations in my local fallow deer haunts. Out of curiosity, I wanted to know what they were up to around this location when they were antlerless and I wasn’t hunting them…

Neck meat is often considered to be a lot of bother, especially from a small animal such as a goat. Some might even say it is ‘too much trouble’ or ‘more trouble than it is worth’. Because of such sentiments, a hunter might be tempted to leave the neck and its meat behind on the ground in the bush, rather than carrying it out. There are many cultures and cuisines that practise the tasty, frugal and respectful habit of nose-to-tail butchery and cooking. Thai is one such cuisine that has become very popular in Australia over the past 20 years or so. By taking the whole neck of your downed animal and then sawing it into neck chops when you go back to your butchery block, you will have an…

As the evening settled down, the storm that had been brewing all afternoon finally arrived. Lightning crackled and flared all around, thunder rumbled and a cooling breeze blew in. The power flickered and died so we ate dinner by torchlight and went to bed with the sound of rain tapping on the roof. There were several good downpours during the night and we woke to a grey and gloomy morning. The sweeping south wind had a cold edge to it and while that was not doing us any favours, at least we knew where we would be looking for deer. Feeling the change as much as we had, they would be seeking shelter in or on the lee side of any cover that offered protection. With Jim Power from Tumut…

I had been hunting hard for days and the sun was touching the horizon, signalling the end of my trek and washing the bush in golden late-afternoon sunshine. My pick-up point, a prominent baobab tree, kept guard over the wintry terrain like some prehistoric lighthouse and the loose, sandy soil was sapping my diminishing energy every time I forced one foot in front of the other. I was by now no longer hunting but just walking, as fast as my tired legs could carry me down the dusty track. Then the kudu cow stepped out of the bush. I sat down so fast that my backside hit the dust with a thump and lifted the .30-06 to my shoulder. The distance was no more than 100m and I watched the…

If there is anything good that can be said about us hunters growing older is that our kids have grown up and are less dependent on us, which usually equates to us having a little more money in our pockets that we have to spend on ourselves for a change. And so it was with me and I actually found I had a few bob to spare so I offered to buy my wife a piece of jewellery. Unfortunately, the piece she had her eye on was already sold, which was unfortunate for her, but good for me, as it left the way clear for me to buy a new shotgun! I had always wanted to own a 20-gauge shotgun, but circumstances had prevented me from doing so. I had…

After refurbishing a nice Western Bowie (see Australian Hunter 51), I have developed a keen interest in collecting older and antique knifes. While it is early days and I don’t know where I really want to focus my attention, a little while ago I decided to look for English carbon steel folders, for no particular reason other than I like them. While there are plenty around, many on sale aren’t even worth a second look, with some people selling nothing more than expensive pieces of scrap metal. These dogs are often advertised as being in an ‘as is’ state, or according to some of the more creative sellers, ‘a fine example of a working knife’, but to me, a knife should at least have both a handle and blade! After…

Back in November 2013, Winchester Australia sent me a CZ 455 Special Rimfire rifle for review. Apart from the fact the CZ 455 was replacing the CZ 452 model we had all become used to, for me one of the most interesting aspects of the rifle was its ability to switch barrels and shoot two different calibres - .22LR and .17HMR - due to a redesigned receiver and magazine well. It proved to be an interesting and hunting accurate rifle to shoot, so when I was recently asked if I would like to have a look at the new CZ 455 Varmint Thumbhole in .22 Long Rifle calibre, I was happy to accept. The CZ 455 Varmint Thumbhole has two features that catch the eye when you first take it…

Having been a boater for the past 50-odd years, more recent times have seen me carrying an EPIRB (Electronic Position Indicating Radio Beacon) on board in case I come to some sort of grief when offshore. Once triggered, an EPIRB emits a signal to the satellites above, which transfer it to Maritime Services in Canberra which identifies the user and sets the rescue wheels in motion. Such technology has only been available to the masses for the past two decades but the carriage of EPIRBs quickly became law and still is for all vessels operating offshore. These days, as well as running firearm safety courses for newcomers to the game, I operate an animal control business specialising in dogtrapping and culling ferals as well as other beasts under mitigation permits.…

My motto when it comes to cooking is: buy takeaway! However, from time to time, I will venture into the tiled-tomb that is the kitchen in order to gain huge brownie points (or get out of the doghouse) with my wife. Even so, the main requirement of my game-meals is that they be as simple as I am and the ingredients need to be of the common, run-of-the-mill types. Now, the purists out there may well feel the need to coat the meat in flour and then lightly fry it before sticking it in the casserole. By all means, go right ahead and do that. I have tried it both ways and can’t honestly say that I can tell the difference. Also, please don’t be put off because this dish…