Driving in between two rugged mountain ranges and seeing goats out in the neighbouring properties was a good sign. as we pulled up at the gate of the property we were to hunt we saw our first mob of goats on the property. There were a few small billies and a hand full of nannies with them. We snuck up on them with simon closeing in about 40m above me and with things looking better from his position i opted to watch. As he crept within range one of the nannies saw one of us and started to walk off. I quickly jogged up behind the back of the mob and saw a shooting window open up on a small billy quartering away. Before i knew it the arrow was away and hitting him a little far back only getting the back of one lung. But he only made it 100m to the creek before stumbling and falling over dead.
I was stoked its like getting your first goat's all over again when useing trad on them! I shot him from right on 20m which is a bit of a long shot atm for me but it came off alright so i'm happy with the end result.
After a couple of photo's we went up into the valley for a walk and diddnt see anything worth chaseing. After a bit of a rest we walked around the front of the mountain to check if anything was hanging around the water.
This payed off because as we came within view of the tank we could see a mob of goats. There wasnt anything big so simon grabbd my recurve and was going to have a go with that after him outshooting me earlier with it on a creek bank. As he told me for a year all he had was a fiberglas recurve out chaseing rabbits so he was no stranger to no sights. There wasn't much cover but we did manage to get to 40m where if he had his compound a goat would have fallen but alas getting into recurve distance was a challenge and the goats soon ran up and over the mountain.
Dissapointed we moved on where I noticed a mob of goats walking allong the creek towards us. We jumped behind a bank where they would walk past at about 5m! We were only about 300m off the main road and with cars going past the goats diddnt even flinch. Then all of a sudden a motorbike went past. You guessed it with all the mustering these goats get by bikes they were straight up the side of the hill. I grabbed the curve and took off after them and managed to close the gap to 15m on a nanny. I drew back picked a spot and nailed her right in the point of the shoulder. But with my 55 pound recurve bone smashing is a bit of a problem with a carbon shaft and the arrow only penetrated about the length of the broadhead and soon fell out. I Know she will still be out there as the wound was not fatal.
We then remembered we had to get back to footy training and raced out of the mountains and back to my ute. Where i managed to rock up an hour late! lol!
Here is my billy, not big in anyones books but a hard earned trophy in my books considering how flighty the buggers are from shooting and mustering preassure.
Billy shot with 55# TD samick recurve, Carbon arrows fletched with home cut goose feathers.
About a week later i took the samick out for another walk with a mate.
Today got up rather early for a goat hunt and drove the hour and twenty mins out to my uncles property out east in the bluebush and big open rolling hills. Well what can i say but it was one of those days
Goats everywhere we looked, diddnt even get out the ute and saw about 50 coming into a dam across from where we parked the ute. Sure enough the wind stuffed up our stalk there as we got to 50m from the mob. That sort of set the scene for the day with 12 stalks in a row ither ending up with us getting spotted or the wind swirling at the last minute and sending the goats bolting.Then at about 2 in the arvo after seeing over 200 goats so far we had a small billy come trotting into about 5m away and brownie punched an arrow through his chest putting him down quick. we took the legs and persisted with the rest of the mob only to get spied by another bloody nanny. (no pic legs were off before we remembered)
After a good think about our options we opted to go for a small mob just up on a hill in front of us that had not been disturbed all day. About half way to them brownie relised he had left his bow back at his goat and had to walk back and get it. While he was doing this i stalked the mob by myself with my not so trusty samick recurve. (well there is nothing wrong with the recurve only my shooting with it out past about 15m)
Well with only one bush bigger than 1 foot high i made it to 15m from the closest goat in the mob. A Brown nanny who was feeding directly towards me. I was sure she was going to feed right in on top of me and i'm still sure she would have if a billy back behind her haddnt seen me risen from his bed to warn the rest of the goats. So with the 55# limbs bending back to my anchor and the release i saw my goose feathered arrow sink into her chest front on almost up until the feathers. She only walked about 40m and layed down never to wake again.
On the way out we saw another 150* goats but diddnt have time to put in any more stalks. As i said it was one of those days and we would have had no less than 15 to 18 stalks for the day but with no luck and no help from the wind it was just the two nannies between us. With the hunting that hard it makes you apreciate taking one even more and especually with the recurve.
Here is my 5th goat with the trad gear.
Here is brownie in the country we were hunting. There were about 100 orr goats spread out in mobs all over the hills behind his head. They were left unmolestered as we ran out of time.
another view of the landscape from up on one of the large hills.
And while sitting having a bite to eat this little fella came out next to us for a look. We diddnt have a clue what type of lizard it was so caught him and got a pic to ask you folk. Any ideas? It looks like a small what we call bearded dragon but it had light blue all under his belly and bright orange on his face.
well thats it for the day. A Hamburger with the lot and an ice coffe on the way hope topped off the days hunting.. ahh geez life's good when your hunting
Macka