Was an epic hunt with good mates and great game, here's a few high lights.
The 2016 rut was spent hunting the majestic red deer with mate Wayne Preece on one of his concessions. Accompanying me on that trip was Luke Sampson a regular hunting companion. During our stay, we were both successful in taking a mature red stag each and also meeting a Danish man named Frank Morbech who was assisting Wayne doing some guiding during the rut before returning home to Denmark.
Over the week we got to know Frank pretty well and while he had done some hunting and guiding in New Zealand he had never hunted pigs and was really keen to hunt some, so I invited him out to Australia for a week of hunting big cranky boars and wild billy goats that I have good access to. I also invited Luke as he was a good mate and would save some time as he lived in Dubbo and would be able to bring Frank out to my home town of Cobar in western new south wales.
This meant flying from Denmark’s winter with temperatures of minus 10 to 15 degrees to the harsh Australian outback with temperatures in the mid 40’s. He just so timed it beautifully with an impending heat wave to hit us in early February 2016 with temps averaging 46 degrees for the week with a top of 50 on one of those days. Now that’s a swing of 60-65 degrees. Crazy.
Holy hell the game was going to be hitting the water big time with the hunting going to be super-hot and epic, I just hoped we didn’t cook Frank in the process. It was going to be one monumental acclimatization process. The big day finally arrived and we departed on our journey after introducing Frank to my family then saying good bye.
We arrived safely and called into say Gday to the owners before setting out to set up a couple of blinds and hides to use in the coming weeks’ worth of hunting. The plan was to hunt from the blinds on the water in the early morning for game until it really heated up and then driving from water hole to water hole and walking in to check the water for wallowing pigs and then hunting the nearby shady tree’s that a pig will seek refuge under from the hot sun.
With the temps we were getting along with the long day light hours during summer you could hunt like this from around 11am right up until dusk at around 9 pm of a night, but we generally hunted to about 6-7 pm before sitting on a tank in a good position for the remainder of the day on a tank that we had not hunted that day. That was the plan for the whole week other than swapping hunting partner’s and as you will see in the coming photos it proved to be a very successful plan indeed.
Being three hunters and for a week we took many a feral animal that there just isn’t enough space on the internet to write about it all, so I will keep this to a few special hunts and trophies for myself and frank. I’ll let Luke tell his story in due time but he got the nick name of the “goat slayer” taking 5 exceptional trophies on the first morning of the hunt all before 9.30am with billys ranging from 36 to 39 inches.
So, after unloading our gear and setting up camp we set up the blinds and had enough time for a quick hunt at a spot not too far to travel to so the three us headed out with Frank and I to hunt one bore while Luke would venture a bit further to a dam to sit the last couple of hours of light.
Franks first boar.
Not long into the hunt some pigs started turning up mainly sows and young but then a mature boar showed up and he was on the sniff of the ladies so I sent Frank in on his maiden hunt on the big lignum warrior.
Frank got in nice and close using a tree as cover but the boar did not present a shot, I could just imagine how his heart rate was increasing by the second in anticipation of it forthcoming and soon enough it did.
With the buildup and hype, he misjudged the distance and shot just under the big fella’s brisket with him and his lady not sticking around for another chance. His disappointment soon weaned off as I spotted another and even bigger boar coming in down the tree line towards us so gave him the heads up and sent him for round two, ironically this fella came in to the same wallow and Frank did not have to move for the stalk but had to wait until he finished having a wallow.
He patiently waited and soon enough got his chance as the big brute stood up quartering away just perfect for the recurve to flex its limbs and send down some carbon on a mission of seek and destroy.
This time his shot was spot on and the big beast let out a growl and a roar and spun around on the spot like a bucking bull looking for his tormentor before taking off down the track for about 60-70 meters before coming to a halt and succumbing to a well-placed broad head. I raced over and congratulated him and said the shot was good and that he went down. Man, he was pumped and thanked me no end.
Franks first boar and what a way to start.
During photos Luke turned up as well and congratulated Frank on a great first of species.
Frank done a good autopsy of his first boar for future reference before I showed him how to knock out the jaw of which he was real keen to and eager to do. We returned back to camp and had a few beers to celebrate before cooking up a feed and reminiscing some more, it was a great day.
Franks first billy.
The next day had Frank and I hitting up a tank we had set up a blind on. We checked the water and found no sign of the swine but settled in as we could hear bleats coming from the surrounding scrub so some goats would soon be upon us. Now Frank had not hunted a goat as yet so as my guest I said get stuck in as a reasonable billy started down a pad that would pass us at around 20 odd meters.
I stopped him with a bleat and as he came into anchor and he made no mistake putting one into the bread basket. The billy reared up and took full off full flight up over the bank towards some trees but was noted not to have come out as he had crashed down to the ground. He also was a pretty good first of species measuring at 34.5 inches.
Scott’s triple threat.
We could hear and see many goats coming into drink so opted to stay put as Franks billy was down and he wanted me to arrow a billy. We let a few mobs come in to settle things before another respectable billy came in and I made short work of him stopping him with a call and unleashing a 175gn VPA from rayzor vpa custom shop punching him thru the shoulders. He turned and bolted down the embankment and started nose diving and hitting the turf at the bottom.
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With this billys demise as he was the first in the long line of goats coming in, the rest stayed and milled about within range. Frank was soon on the prod wanting me to get another as he was really impressed with how my first billy went down within 20 meters after impact so I picked out another nice specimen that would suit the bill and let rip at 25 meters with this one only making 2 meters before collapsing.
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With that we got some photos of our billys, capped the horns and got the legs of the billys for some dog tucker for the owner. It was really hot and the goats just kept on coming in whether we were there or not just to get a drink. During the process of removing the legs I was keeping an eye on my surroundings and the goats coming in and happened to look up and see the big telltale sign of a big billy making his way in.
He was swaying and rocking from side to side as he started to amble in from behind the next mob. I said to Frank to get his bow as he was a cracker billy for sure and would be pushing high thirty’s and maybe even 40. “Nah I don’t want him, I have the one billy, you shoot him as I can’t take him home”, I replied that he was a really good goat and he should have a crack at him and expressed this immensely but he would have nothing of it so I promptly got my Hoyt locked and loaded and got into position.
This mob came in another pad that would be a bit further but still within range. As soon as he crested the bank he stopped on queue surveying the other goats around and I drew back, he was around 30 odd meters and just as I was about to release he started walking again. I followed him with my pin and he finally stopped again but I misjudged the distance oh so slightly and hit him low or so I thought. He turned and came straight at us before stopping and turning broadside, by then I had another VPA on its way.
After the second shot he made a very short distance and was succumbing to the shot very quickly which led me to believe that the first shot was not as bad as I thought. I wasn’t too far off the mark with the size department either with the big fella stretching the tape to 38 6/8 of an inch. A fantastic start to the day with Franks first of species and three top goats falling to my arrows with two trophy class and one record.
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Another really good billy came in a while later and I said to Frank, you have to have a crack as this one mate. He was very wide and was definitely giving 40 a really good nudge. He was coming in from the opposite side of where most of the goats were coming from so we had to try and tip toe around all the goats seeking refuge and shelter in the trees around us.
This effort had all the goats stamping and snorting as he tried to get in front of the mob moving in that contained the big billy which was still unaware of the danger, but you don’t get big by being dumb and he soon heard and seen all the others on edge and stayed out of his effective range with the recurve. Guess he’ll get a bit bigger then.