Saturday, March 20, 2010

Pilliga East Billy: A New Year's Resolution

Back in June 2008 I placed an order for a new left hand .30-06. After much waiting, phone calls to the gun shop, and the odd false start I finally got it on the last day of the year. A few hours later with the new rifle safely away in the safe I made a New Year’s resolution to use it to take a Red Deer, Pig and Billy - all by the end of 2009.

I got my Red and a couple of Pigs in April but preparing for 3 weddings, one of them my own, and the other two as MC, meant further hunting opportunities were quickly vanishing and by July 09 I had run out of chances to chase that Billy.

By October with the dust settled and me starting married life I began thinking about my resolution again and so started talking up a Goat and Pig hunt. My idea caught with the guys from ADA(Q) and with his usual precision our State Hunt Coordinator had a trip to Pilliga East State Forest in NSW ready to go for the Christmas/New Year break.

About six weeks out from heading off much of NSW including Pilliga East fell under the threat of bush fire and things weren’t looking too good, least of all for our trip. Of course as these things happen about 3 weeks later a new weather pattern came along and dumped about ten years worth of flooding rain right where we wanted to hunt. While thankfully knocking any immediate fire threat on the head, now we had to contend with swollen creeks, potential highway closures and lots of mud.
This new situation also had us reconsidering how we would go about hunting. We were expecting very hot, dry conditions and so had spent considerable time over the maps identifying water courses, bores and dams. Now it seemed we’d have too much water and nothing, except possibly flood waters to hold the game in place.

With our trip now only a couple of days away and with the rain still falling, we decided it was much better to go than die wondering and so our group of eight hunters left Brisbane around 7am on the 27th of December. Eight hours later, after a fairly uneventful drive down the Newell highway, we reached Narrabri, our base for the next week.

Our accommodation was right on the highway south west of town and about 30 kilometres away from the start of Pilliga East State Forest. With such a handy location our plan was to travel each morning down the highway and then follow the well graded, though as we soon found out, increasingly flooded forestry tracks to where we hoped the action would be.

After dropping off our gear we all excitedly headed out to the forest to have our first look. Jimmy, Clinton and I headed out in Clinton’s Hi-Lux and we were immediately impressed by what we saw. There was plenty of Pig and Goat sign, though the wet made it difficult to accurately determine how fresh the sign was.

With the amount of water on the ground the forestry tracks were already quite greasy and even during that first look around we got bogged. Clinton’s masterly efforts at the wheel saw us free however the threat of getting stuck would be constantly with us over the coming days.

The next morning we headed out for our first hunt. We decided to split up into three groups - each heading off in different directions. We would follow this pattern for the next five days and would only raft up and hunt as a single group on our last day.

Pilliga East provided us with a huge hunting area - which translated into a lot of travel in very wet conditions for the chance of bagging some game. Quickly our routine became one of early starts, late lunches, occasionally getting bogged and hunting through to dusk. This would mean an 8pm return to camp with most people heading to bed around 11pm after a feed and clean up.

Though long days, each night we would all meet back at Narrabri to discuss the day’s events. During these times any success or animal sign was recorded on a large map taped to the wall of our accommodation. As the days rolled on the map was gradually covered with Goat and Pig symbols and the odd note, all of which helped us gain a better understanding of the place.

While we weren’t seeing game in the numbers we had hoped, early on Adrian took a good sized Sow while hunting in lightly timbered scrub. On the following day another of our party John, got his first Goat. Back at camp that afternoon John relayed the details of his successful stalk while giving us all a look at his newly acquired trophy.

As the days progressed Ron also got himself a Goat - so our total was slowly increasing. However a number of us still hadn’t had any luck and we were dead keen to get amongst it. As is often the case, the more time we spent hunting, the closer we came to success. For me things came together on New Years Eve.

Following some advice I picked up over a beer the previous night, we decided to check out an area of recently cleared timber. After a couple of hours searching, around 10am we spotted a good sized mob of Goats. Catching us a little unprepared the mob moved off before we could properly react - though we were happy to finally see them in good numbers.

Soon after, Jimmy spotted a good sized Billy with two Nannies and after a very quick discussion the boys told me to have a go at them.

Taking note of the very light breeze I positioned myself downwind and began moving directly towards the Goats. Being my first genuine opportunity to take a Billy the adrenaline was really pumping and it seemed like I was stalking with all the finesse of a marching band. Not wanting to blow it I stopped and crouched behind a tree and let things settle down.

Firstly checking to make sure I hadn’t scared them off, I then began slowly moving from cover to cover, trying to get a better view and more importantly a clear shot.

All three were white, or Judas Goats, (because the white ones give the other Goats away) and were easily distinguishable against the surrounding bush. They were unhurriedly moving along the far edge of some felled timber while picking at the newly available green shoots.

At about 100 metres I went to a kneeling position and with my scope set at its lowest magnification, I lined up on the Billy. The VX-III scope provided a perfect picture and sighting my rifle over his left shoulder the Billy appeared healthy and with a good set of horns.

Continuing to kneel in a comfortable and steady off hand position I tracked the Billy as he moved slightly away from me. Noticing Clinton slowly coming up on my right, I kept my eye on things as the Billy turned back towards me and filled my scope with a full broadside.

The .30-06 boomed and I immediately cycled the bolt while keeping an eye on things. I was expecting to drop him cold though he appeared quite unaffected by the shot and noise, so of course a bit of doubt started creeping in. As he hadn’t moved off I fired again, with a similar result - though he did now seem to be walking quite slowly. Meanwhile the Nannies began moving directly away into the protection of the trees.

I looked across at Clinton and gave him an ‘I think I missed’ kind of look and so we slowly moved forward, watching the retreating Goats. At about 25 metres I saw a large white shape down against a tree and felt a wave of relief.

With the Billy in the bag, Clinton and I went after the others, but they were now too deep into the cover and so after a quick chase we came back to the Billy.

On inspection one of my shots had been a dead on heart shot and the other through the lungs. Both good clean shots that I thought would have dropped him, however laying down obviously hadn’t been part of his plans. While practising on the Goat targets at SSAA Belmont had helped with shot placement, I was more than a little surprised by the animal’s ability to carry catastrophic injury, something you don’t pick up from banging away at a paper silhouette.

After a bit of high fiving, as well as a few colourful observations about how tough the Billy was - we began moving him back to the Hi-Lux.

He was a heavy bugger and after a bit of huffing and puffing we had him back at the car. Looking him over we considered our next moves, Clinton suggested that we prepare him for a full shoulder mount. While I appreciated the thought, it was a little ambitious for a sub-30 inch horn spread. Also, at present no matter the potential quality of the trophy, my far better half has drawn a line at such decorations (though I’m working on it) so for me it was some meat and a smaller trophy.

The Billy had an impressive skin, white with a slash of black at the shoulder so Clinton asked for it - to which I wholeheartedly answered it was his. Jimmy also wanted some meat so we all got to work.

The two 150gr Accubonds had all but written off the meat within the fore quarters so we skinned him, took the back straps, rib fillets, hind quarters and horns.

Once we were done it was time to head back to Narrabri to buy some salt, put the meat on ice and get cleaned up for a New Year’s Eve feed and a couple of drinks at the RSL.

With New Years Day being our last at Pilliga East, we decided to head back to the same area where we had some success the previous day. We decided to split up with Jimmy and Clinton heading slowly north while I headed into a new area in a southerly direction.

The rain was really falling now and about two hours into my lone hunt I heard a voice over the radio. It was one of the other guys from of our party. It seems that some of the others had turned up and they had decided to now hunt as a single group. The change in approach had resulted in immediate success with the boys locating a large mob and Clinton and Jimmy getting their first Billy.

Back with the others, after a quick feed we now all headed out in the pouring rain in a line of six hunters. Initially moving north east we came across the odd Goat sign but nothing to indicate the large mob we had now come across over the last two days was about. Swinging south east along a creek after about 15 minutes stalking through the now saturated forest we realised we had made the right choice and spotted a mob of about ten Goats.

With everyone in position in quick time six Goats were bowled over. As I was on the far right of the line I didn’t even take a shot – and really I wasn’t that disappointed. I had my Billy from the previous day and was just glad to be hunting, even though with the rain it could have been mistaken for swimming.

Heading back to the cars we now had more meat and a total of 11 Goats and one pig for the week, not bad at all.
For me the Pilliga East trip came down to my New Year’s Eve Billy. It was my first Billy and was a trophy I took on my own, though admittedly with the help of my hunting partners. It was also the realisation of a resolution that I had managed to keep by about 12 hours.

Heading home early on the second of January, I started thinking about my resolutions for 2010. A 6 x 6 Red, a 100kg+ Pig and a 35inch+ Billy - so bring on the New Year.