Table of contents for Edition 83 in Australian Hunter

Understanding and appreciating animal traits and behaviours can improve a hunter’s chances of bagging game or scoring a long-pursued trophy beast. Sometimes it’s more a matter of accumulating knowledge and applying logic and reasoning, rather than trying to overthink or unsuccessfully outsmart game. Simplistically, what’s essential for any living creature is food, water, shelter plus the right terrain and climatic conditions. As long as these settings prevail game tends to remain in the general area unless disturbed by excessive shooting, eradication measures or similar disturbances. Evidence of their presence will be apparent by their browsing, scat or droppings, tracks and used trails. Property owners’ observations are always invaluable as they are out most days driving around and note animals’ movements, times and likely places to cross them, especially around established…

The Namibian summer sun blazed down as we weaved our way through the leafless mopane scrubland. And as I grew up in West Texas, trust me that I can recognise a smiting, summer sun. The 38-plus degrees temperature scorched our brains through our large-brimmed hats and our lungs as we breathed in the super-heated air. Professional Hunter, Kabous Grünschloss, of Jamy Traut Hunting Safaris, and I were out in the brilliant sunshine of the Kaokoland region of Namibia, chasing after a beautiful old Damara springbok ram and his ewes. We spotted the group at 300 yards as we drove along in Kabous’ LandCruiser. It didn’t take my PH long to confirm through his binoculars what he already knew with his unaided eyes – the ram was a great trophy. We…

Simply write your full name, address and contact number on a piece of paper and place it inside an envelope and send to: (Name of competition) Australian Hunter 83 PO Box 2520, Unley, SA 5061 Competitions close February 28, 2023. Check out ssaa.org.au/win for competition winners. …or enter online at ssaa.org.au/win Hunter Winchester Prize Pack Winchester 32Pc Universal Gun Cleaning Kit Warthog Curve Knife Sharpener Winchester W Hoodie L Winchester Khaki Cap RRP $264.85 Kindly donated by Winchester Australia winchesteraustralia.com.au Traser Green Spirit Watch RRP $779 Kindly donated by SSAA National ssaa.org.au Epic Shot X Class 3-9x40mm Mil-dot Rifle Scope 1 Inch Tube Waterproof Fog-proof With Rings RRP $109.95 Kindly donated by Xhunter Australia xhunter.com.au…

I always carry a rangefinder in my backpack. It’s not one that can capably give you an accurate reading out to 2000m. It pretty much pulls up at 700-800m, which I’m not going to shoot at anyway. But I reckon there’s been more fertiliser spread when hunters gather regarding distances than anything else. I had a bloke once tell me that he had shot a deer, on the run, at 700m. Now most sensible hunters would be rolling around in helpless laughter but there’s always the odd one who might just believe it, even a little bit. Nobody has any business shooting at game from that distance. This is why we call it hunting-not target shooting. I have spent time on a range and fired a rifle out to 1000m.…

A hunter’s chance of success is greatly increased by good knowledge of the prey animal’s behaviour. Traditionally, a hunter’s understanding increases a little with every trip afield, in a never-ending process of gradual wisdom building. This acquiring of perception can be accelerated by taking advantage of the expertise of more experienced hunters. Some species are well catered to in that regard. Red deer have been a premium species for millennia, as celebrated widely in the art of many cultures from antiquity. The behaviour of red deer has been closely observed over the years and many excellent books written on the topic, in many languages. In more recent times, since the introduction of deer to New Zealand, a strong hunting culture and appreciation of deer has developed there as well. Over…

It seems to be a fashion over the past few years that when a question is asked, the answer predictably, is, it’s on the internet. However, one word is missing and that word is control. Personally, as a reloader I treat everything on the internet with suspicion. If you are going to use a suggested powder load off the internet, the first item is to check the load against a reputable reloading manual. You might just find that the load is above the maximum recommended. There is a lot of information on the internet that is potentially dangerous for the reloader, so just how do you protect yourself? One answer comes from another area - it’s the ABC method: Assume nothing. Believe nothing. Check everything. I do not know how…

The Impact 1000 is Vortex’s entry-level laser rangefinder monocular, released in mid-2020. The name is derived from the device’s ability to range reflective targets out to 1000 yards. This is a convention that is carried over in the brand’s more expensive Ranger 1800 and Razor HD 4000 models. Immediate impressions upon picking up the device are that it is light, without feeling flimsy or cheap. The unit weighs just under 160 grams (with battery and lanyard) and fits easily in an average sized adult hand. Included in the box are a wrist lanyard, soft carry case, lens cloth, instruction manual, a field card showing slope angle compensation in both MOA and MRAD, and a CR2 battery. The rangefinder has 6x magnification and both the 24mm objective and the ocular lens…

The Kashmir Valley in the Indian subcontinent is home to rich and flavourful cuisine. The daily staple food of Kashmir Muslims is plain cooked rice supplemented with meat, cooked with a herb called asafoetida. However, Kashmiri Pandits use onions and garlic to replace the asafoetida. Asafoetida is the dried latex gum exuded from the tap root of several species of perennial herbs native to the deserts of Iran and mountains of Afghanistan. It has a pungent smell, giving it the local name of ‘stinking gum’. The odour dissipates while cooking to deliver a smooth flavour similar to leek or onion. As we don’t have access to asafoetida, this recipe uses the ingredients of Kashmiri Pandits to produce a similar result. It delivers a wonderful flavour with goat and works just…

While I handload most of my ammunition, I generally buy 100 rounds of factory ammo to start, in this case for my new Sako .308W Lightweight. The Winchester flat-nosed 150-grain bullet load is ideal for pigs of all sizes, including solid, big boars who can take a surprising amount of punishment. They are effective with .223 Remington Magnum, .243 Winchester and .270 Winchester rifles on game and are coupled with long life of the shells. The Winchester Power-Point line of projectiles have been out for a long time and are proven performers on game. Available in a wide range of calibres the Power-Point bullet is noted for its tough contoured jacket that is bound around a solid alloy lead core, which with its blunt point, assures a quick, instant kill…

Regular readers may have seen my review on the Fällkniven F1 in issue 76 of Australian Hunter. While the F1 makes for a great multi-purpose knife, smaller knives are particularly handy when hunting birds or soft-skinned animals like deer. While you may be hard pushed to pick between a modern folding knife and a fixed blade, the fixed blades are useful on longer trips and easy to clean. A great compact fixed blade is the Fällkniven Kolt Knife (KK). It is offered as one of the premium models by Fällkniven which means it is not the cheapest of knives, but it is well made with good blade steel, is small enough to fit in a pocket and has a grippy handle. To avoid duplicating information, please refer to issue 76…

Today in Australia, traditional trapping with leg hold traps is about as obscure to society as the best laid trap is to a rabbit’s eye. Even among hunters, trapping has vanished from view with the vast majority focusing their hunting attention down the barrels of shotguns and through riflescopes. Some people even think trapping is illegal; yet in most states it is not. It is true that trapping regulations are more complex and restrictive than they used to be in the days of the old traditional rabbit traps with their non-forgiving steel jaws. These days, we have jaws lined with rubber and chains with swivels and springs to facilitate easier movement and less distress to the animal that’s captured. There are particular sized traps for rabbits, foxes and wild dogs…

Spend enough time afield and you quickly come to appreciate that a sharp knife is an essential item of kit. Regardless of its design, age or designated function, a well-honed edge on your hunting knife – or indeed on any and every blade in camp – is a necessary thing. From both a practical and safety point of view, a dull blade is not only unfit for purpose but can cause frustration and handling errors which could easily result in a nasty injury. With this in mind, there are few hunters who venture forth without being confident that the knives they are packing are ‘good to go’. However, beyond beginning a hunt with a sharp knife, there is often the need to resharpen or ‘touch up’ a blade while out…

Water is essential to life. We know that instinctively. And as hunters, we also know it through the experience we gain tracking game. We observe, for example, that feral goats centre their movements around the availability of permanent water. And we see that pigs restrict their movement to the cooler parts of the day – following the game trails of other animals such as sheep or cattle towards water and food sources. But what else do we need to know? Like many things in life, much can be gained from experience – but much may be left to guesswork unless we look a little deeper. Taking the time to learn a few salient hunting facts can go a long way towards improving our efficiency. And this is particularly true when…

For many of us, scope rings teether on the fringes of our imagination. They can be a pain in the proverbial rear end when setting up a new rifle and installing a scope, but from there, if properly done, they fade into the background. Those who do not want to bother with installing, then shops will do you a favour and connect the rings and scope for you. If you trust your local dealer to do a good job, just let them deal with it. That said, there are those among us who regularly switch optics, use different ones on the same rifle or for some other reason regularly change things up. While there are various mounting solutions that allow quick attachment and detachment of an optic to a standardised…

For more than 200 years, Remington Firearms has been a leader and stalwart of firearms manufacture and design. However, at one stage, company mismanagement forced them to file for bankruptcy. Luckily, in 2020, RemArms acquired the Remington Firearms manufacturing facility in Ilion, New York, and with it the opportunity to restore their proud reputation. If you’re looking to acquire a piece of Remington’s rich history and a quality firearm for continued use, don’t turn a blind eye to the Remington Model 788. It was designed to compete in the growing sporting rifle market of the 1960s that accompanied the end of World War Two. The 788 carved a competitive edge with its design, accuracy and low price compared to the high-end sporting rifles available at the time (think Remington Model…

Rabbits were introduced to Australia with white settlement as a food source, game animal and to remind the settlers of home. However, rabbits adapted incredibly well. Indeed, their spread across Australia is the fastest of any mammal anywhere in the world. Not only did rabbits multiply wide and far, but they also soon became huge pests and continue to be a major problem for both conservation and farming, costing Australia between 600 million and 1 billion dollars each year. While rabbits have been hunted for both meat, pelt and fur (for instance, Akubra hats), during the Second World War they were primarily taken for their skins which were used to make a military explosive called cordite. Why rabbits are so successful Humans have strong binocular vision (a design feature which…