hunting results..devastation, but a good time away

[madmullet]

Well it all started on Wednesday arvo packing the car for the 700km drive ahead. We finished packing around 9.30 and got some shut eye before heading of at 2,30.

2.30 was upon us and we were on the road heading to Albany downs, 70km south of Mitchell in the rain. We arrived at the town ship of condamine at around 7.30, filled up the car. We had 200km ahead of up, 100km of that being single lane bitumen road, and 100km dirt road, you a quick recharge with 2 cans of red bull and we were on our way. We got to the dirt road about an hr later, stopped and looked at the road to see if it was safe to drive on, and it was. A gravel base, so we headed of. 20 km into the trip along the dirt road we hit a clay based road; you can only imagine all the crab walking we did. We got threw that safely and without getting bogged.

We arrived at the property at around 10.00 and got a warm welcome from the property owners and went to the hut and unpacked before we got some shut eye . 2.30 the alarm sound and we rose, got the guns, ammo, camo ect ready and set of on foot. As we were walking the property, it dawned on me how badly the property owners out this way got affected by the floods back in January. Their was rubbish 15ft up it the trees, rubbish like tennis balls, bins, chairs, ect in the middle of paddocks, who knows where they came from. There were fences down around 50% of the property an acres of tree that were up rooted. There were dead cattle around and what I thort was interesting, there were roos tangled in fences and barb wire. We called it quits just before dark and headed back to the hut.

DAY 2

Next morn we awoke to a glimmer of light in the east and not a cloud to be seen, sweet, the rain had stopped. We planned to got look at 2500ac that we new before the floods held goats in the northern part of the property. On our threw the start of the paddock, a big boar around 70kg min, bolted at hull pase from some scrub 120m ahead of us from our right going to the left. I stopped the car, dad I I jumped out, and the 308 and 270 barked in frustration as we unloaded out 6 bullet from our guns. Hot barrels and 2 frustrated guys, we pushed on. We arrived to out destination and new instantly we were not going to see to many goats, if any. We walked around for about 3hrs and decided after looking at trees piled up everywhere that we were wasting our time and headed back for the hut. That afternoon, we decided to head out in search of pigs in a smaller paddock of around 600ac which was made up of scrubby country and swampy country. On arrival first thing we say were fresh digging and foot prints due to the ground being wet from the night before. I stayed in the swampy area and dad took the dry side about 15-20m to my right. We walked the full length of the scrub/swamp and all we saw was sign of pig. We high tailed it back to the car and went up to have a good chin wag with the property owners about the devastation of the property and to see what we could help with.

DAY 3

We didn’t set any alarm today as we had arranged to fix a squeaking alternator belt on their land cruiser wagon. Well he had to take the intake for the turbo off, and the surrounds for the radiator of to get to the belt to tension it up. This took longer than thort as, their wasn’t much room and we didn’t want to remove the fan and radiator. All done, we moved onto our next job, a 450cc Polaris quad that had a knock in the rear end. We took it for a drive, wow the dif is stuffed, told them the bad news and they were going to take it into roma next week to have it looked at. Well we finished our jobs we offered to do and then go all the gear ready to go for a hunt. We headed for the most northern part of the property to have a look as this was the high country, well high country for out there. We arrived and the grass was long and all the trees had low foliage on them where the goats hadn’t eaten it. We went for a walk anyway and we came across 2 goats down near the creek about 500 away. I brought my rifle up and had a good look at them. The black goat had had approx a 30-40cm rack, which is ok in my books and the other male had a smaller rack of about 20cm. we chose to let them walk of so they can find some females and produce more babies. We did see anything for the rest of the day so we called it and headed back to the hut. That afternoon we headed for a really swampy area about 2km north of the hut. We got their and the area was filled with pig sign, diggings and pads everywhere, but by the size of the prints, they were not big pigs, probably around the 20-30kg mark. As usual I followed the swamp and dad stayed on the dry stuff. We walked the length of the swamp and turned back. So this area there was 2 swamps with a finger of land up between them, I decided to cut across the swamp and dad went around. Apon arriving on the other side, still just in the water, I hear grunt, grunt, grunt grunt and see the reeds moving about a foot away from me. As it passes me I drew the gun up hoping to get a shot, but nope, the pig was shorter than the reeds and went unseen. I got out of the water and walked down towards do when he suddenly stopped and looked at me and put his hand to his hear as to say I can hear something. Next thing he has a shot of the him and the grass goes nuts with a little pig running away. We both now understood why we were not seeing any pigs even though there was pig sign everywhere.

DAY 4

Last day saw us going back to the area where we saw the big boar. Not too long after we got through the gate 6 small pigs ran across the track infront of the car about 80m ahead from our right going left in single file. We both jumped out of the car and opened up fire. The grass was way too long and with them darting in and out of the long grass you only had a quick second to snap shoot at them which was very difficult. Dad used all 6 rounds out of the tikka 308 and I used 5. Just as they got to the wooded area, one stopped and looked back, so I re-raised my gun and with my last round the 270 barks, booom, and the little fella drops to the ground. He ended up weighing 20km, very good eating size. After unleashing all hell, there was no point carrying on hunting cause the who paddock knew we were here, so we called it quits and head back to the hut to gut and skin the pig. We packed all the gear into the truck and went and had a good old chiny with the property owners and left at around 12.30.

Cheers for reading

hut

roo in fence

chair in the middle of a paddock

bin

egg shell and tin still in bin

tree debree

dog prints

goanna

pekican working carp

swamp

swamp

big tick

trail

trail

wollow

the little fella

ow and by the way, plastic bull bars hold up well to 4/5ft rood at 100km... i can say i blooded the truck

[madmullet]

i have no meat to give away.... i do have some dog meat tho if anyone wants some.... first 2 to p.m me well get some...

[Jimmyjack]

Nice work MM. Looks like the grass is good out there but frost in the next month will wipe that out quick smart. That Condamine road is a bastard isnt it. Grew up out there and its only in the last ten years the road east of Condi has been pushed up to mostly double lane. great pics, great report

[madmullet]

Nice work MM. Looks like the grass is good out there but frost in the next month will wipe that out quick smart. That Condamine road is a bastard isnt it. Grew up out there and its only in the last ten years the road east of Condi has been pushed up to mostly double lane. great pics, great report

when you get to the end of that road at condamine turn left and travle to the next intersection, roma/surat rd. you can go straight ahead to dunkeld.... thats the way we went to the property.....

[big al]

looks like 1 to the pigs and goats this time :whistle: .should have gone fishing ...al

[rosstralia46]

Sounds incredibly frustrating Kurt should have chased the carp instead

[JarrydA]

You win some, you lose some. Thats life.

At least you werent completely empty handed.

[madmullet]

we were not going out their with hight expectations due to the floods. but yes, you do win some, and loose some...

as for the carp, i should of taken a rod, but when your going hunting, thats usually the last thing you think of

[shortie]

we were not going out their with hight expectations due to the floods. but yes, you do win some, and loose some...

as for the carp, i should of taken a rod, but when your going hunting, thats usually the last thing you think of

oR A GRENADE.

[nook171]

you need to get urself a dog kurt for those types of trips aye

[madmullet]

you need to get urself a dog kurt for those types of trips aye

you need to tag along with ur dogs, so mine can learn more

[tugger]

Its always hard in the long grass unfortunately it will be that way for some time to come with all the rain

[Seiran]

Nice report mate. Shame you only got one little piggy, but it seemed like you guys had a good time out there.

[kmcrosby78]

Great report and pictures Kurt - good reminder that Bris/Lockyer Valley/Toowoomba aren't the only places to be affected by the floods. Sounded like great fun despite the lack of pigs/goats.

[nook171]

the floods hit alot of places and i got to experience it in dalby as thats where i was living at the time and it hit from roma to warwick condamine glennmorgan moonie surat ect ect even out at southwood lane in moonie where i hunt there is silage bails in the tops of trees and water tanks aswell its insane to walk around the places and see all the debry laying around but on a plus side last year and this year has been one of the best harvest which makes up for some losses

Great report and pictures Kurt - good reminder that Bris/Lockyer Valley/Toowoomba aren't the only places to be affected by the floods. Sounded like great fun despite the lack of pigs/goats.