havgunwilltravel
Active member
is something we just love. The outback is so boring to many city people who can't seem to grasp what it takes to reveal each of the layers to truly discover all there is in these remote places of Australia. The animals, sights, smells, sunsets, colours, characters and conditions each time we head west change and evolve with the seasons.
Its the middle of Summer right now and damn hot in many regions. But with an eagerness to explore we pointed the hilux north at 5pm and drove into the night stopping at 4:15am. It was a decent haul, but as always great to be away from the city and the hustle and bustle it brings.
Plenty of wildlife was seen in the HID driving lights on the way up and we almost ran over this little guy. I thought we better get close to check out to see who had the longest beard.
When we got near our destination a quick check revealed we had the last room on offer at the star hotel and settled in for a couple hours rest. Come sunrise we had a few prickles in our swags and ants crawling around, but they got us up moving and rolling the wheels.
We explored some areas that held a lot of goats, but as is often the case, no big wide horned billies were located. We raced into the station homestead, a new property for us that a good mate had kindly organised, we said g'day, let them know our intentions and pushed out to the back of their country. Overcast days with light rain get all animals moving and we soon located goats, some nannies and kids here and there, a few billies in mobs under trees or feeding in shrub and it was good to be looking over them.
Up ahead a big wide horned billy strolled out of some brush, he was broken almost at the base of his RH side, never going to be any better he was old and moving slowly. My mate had no interest in shooting him but i like these guys at the end of their journey and snuck in to punch an arrow into his chest.
Continuing on we decided to do a big loop up over a ridge and into some scrub that looked like it would hold billies. The older males are certainly smarter then the younger animals and nannies and look to keep to thicker habitat when they can.
Movement ahead caught our eye and a few billies fed up ahead. One was quite nice, unbroken tips, good style and plenty of spread, my mate said he would be happy to shoot him and we closed the distance before putting a 55gr pill from his .223 into the chest. He took off wounded hard and my mate finished him off. He was happy with his billy, a great animal around 10 years of age.
We then thought we would go check out a massive flat we could see that was crawling with goats, there were literally hundreds of animals out on it. We sifted through them always trying to get a look at every goat in the herd just to make sure no monsters were slipping away on the quiet. We would have looked over 1500 goats, sometimes jogging to keep up with them to make sure we could see all in a herd before peeling off and moving to the next group of animals. A few big billies were located, but there were younger animals with growing to do and we had no interest in shooting them. Finally an older billy was seen at long distance trailing a herd. I took off after him and closed the distance easily. He was trotting along and looked pretty good with his curls and wide spread so pulled out the Sako 75 in .30/06 and sorted him out.
It was a very big walk back out and we did a loop into fresh country with the setting sun always checking out new herds and keeping the fingers crossed we might just find that monster billy.
But it didn't happen and with sore feet and tired legs we finally made it back to the ute where a couple of cold beers were inhaled and we celebrated a great day on foot in goat country.
Next day was more of the same, massive walking out to water sources, looking over goats in the hundreds all day long, but we couldn't locate anything better then what we had shot. There was a high spiralling white billy that almost got a bullet, but in the end he still wasn't the next size up from what we had taken so we left him hopefully to get a bit more age. We explored valleys, climbed up onto ridges and pushed on in the searing sun. An old billy was found dead at water, most likely taken by a farmer or a hunter.
The third day was spent exploring new country, trying to find a boar, to no avail and once again looking over incredible numbers of goats. No more animals were taken though and we decided to begin the big push south and drive into the night to break up the drive. By the time we got home the next day we had done over 2,200kms on the odometer, walked more then our share of kms and enjoyed another outback adventure in great company.
Its the middle of Summer right now and damn hot in many regions. But with an eagerness to explore we pointed the hilux north at 5pm and drove into the night stopping at 4:15am. It was a decent haul, but as always great to be away from the city and the hustle and bustle it brings.
Plenty of wildlife was seen in the HID driving lights on the way up and we almost ran over this little guy. I thought we better get close to check out to see who had the longest beard.
When we got near our destination a quick check revealed we had the last room on offer at the star hotel and settled in for a couple hours rest. Come sunrise we had a few prickles in our swags and ants crawling around, but they got us up moving and rolling the wheels.
We explored some areas that held a lot of goats, but as is often the case, no big wide horned billies were located. We raced into the station homestead, a new property for us that a good mate had kindly organised, we said g'day, let them know our intentions and pushed out to the back of their country. Overcast days with light rain get all animals moving and we soon located goats, some nannies and kids here and there, a few billies in mobs under trees or feeding in shrub and it was good to be looking over them.
Up ahead a big wide horned billy strolled out of some brush, he was broken almost at the base of his RH side, never going to be any better he was old and moving slowly. My mate had no interest in shooting him but i like these guys at the end of their journey and snuck in to punch an arrow into his chest.
Continuing on we decided to do a big loop up over a ridge and into some scrub that looked like it would hold billies. The older males are certainly smarter then the younger animals and nannies and look to keep to thicker habitat when they can.
Movement ahead caught our eye and a few billies fed up ahead. One was quite nice, unbroken tips, good style and plenty of spread, my mate said he would be happy to shoot him and we closed the distance before putting a 55gr pill from his .223 into the chest. He took off wounded hard and my mate finished him off. He was happy with his billy, a great animal around 10 years of age.
We then thought we would go check out a massive flat we could see that was crawling with goats, there were literally hundreds of animals out on it. We sifted through them always trying to get a look at every goat in the herd just to make sure no monsters were slipping away on the quiet. We would have looked over 1500 goats, sometimes jogging to keep up with them to make sure we could see all in a herd before peeling off and moving to the next group of animals. A few big billies were located, but there were younger animals with growing to do and we had no interest in shooting them. Finally an older billy was seen at long distance trailing a herd. I took off after him and closed the distance easily. He was trotting along and looked pretty good with his curls and wide spread so pulled out the Sako 75 in .30/06 and sorted him out.
It was a very big walk back out and we did a loop into fresh country with the setting sun always checking out new herds and keeping the fingers crossed we might just find that monster billy.
But it didn't happen and with sore feet and tired legs we finally made it back to the ute where a couple of cold beers were inhaled and we celebrated a great day on foot in goat country.
Next day was more of the same, massive walking out to water sources, looking over goats in the hundreds all day long, but we couldn't locate anything better then what we had shot. There was a high spiralling white billy that almost got a bullet, but in the end he still wasn't the next size up from what we had taken so we left him hopefully to get a bit more age. We explored valleys, climbed up onto ridges and pushed on in the searing sun. An old billy was found dead at water, most likely taken by a farmer or a hunter.
The third day was spent exploring new country, trying to find a boar, to no avail and once again looking over incredible numbers of goats. No more animals were taken though and we decided to begin the big push south and drive into the night to break up the drive. By the time we got home the next day we had done over 2,200kms on the odometer, walked more then our share of kms and enjoyed another outback adventure in great company.
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I don't post all my hunts up, just those that i think might be interesting for members.
