havgunwilltravel
Active member
With summer approaching and hot weather into the 40's it was time to catch an interstate flight and head into the outback to chase billies and boars. My mate had worked hard at locating a great area full of boars and billies and with much anticipation a keen mate and i soon found ourselves heading north in his land cruiser into the outback.
Camp would be mobile, pretty simple and we only had 3 full days to find some animals.
It was dark as we drove in and soon we were looking over dozens of pigs, we selectively shot a couple of good boars each to burn some powder and then set up camp. It had been a big day and drive in and we had no time to sleep. Sun would be up in less then an hour and we sharpened broadheads and pushed off into a perfect morning with the sky strengthening in the east.
We decided to split up and cover more ground and i put in a hard 14kms across the desert and up into some hills looking over dozens and dozens of goats, passing on plenty of good young billies before i thought i better open the bow account and punched an arrow into this guy. I had seen much bigger that morning but they weren't good younger animals in the making.
On the way back i found an older billy with poor body condition on his own and worked in close before sorting him out. He was around 10 years and wouldn't have any more growing to do horn wise. A nice bow trophy and i took the horns.
The boys had got into the pigs and billies and taken a real nice billy from a herd of old males.
I was pretty worn out by the time i made it back to the vehicle and we met up, loaded up and shifted camp to a more suitable area. Along the way we found a sleeping boar in the shallows of a dam and i took him on the walk with the .223, it made for a nice morning with a decent goat and a nice boar.
Camp was set up, lunch eaten and we rested for an hour in the shade. But i could see goats up in the hills behind us and decided that was my evening whilst the boys kicked over the 2 wheel motorbike to cover some fresh ground. My evening was spent looking at over 400 goats, and not finding any big old billies i turned to camp and snuck in on a herd and got this male.
I was a long way from camp and walking out took a big part of my evening, another 12kms under the boots in the searing sun and my feet definitely were feeling it.
The boys again had knocked over some boars and had a great evneing.
Next morning we sat water for goats seeing maybe 1200 animals, but not a big trophy class amongst them. We seen plenty of nice billies and some good younger animals, just not the wide curly horned 10+ year animals we were looking for.
That afternoon we pushed into the hills again, cover an immense amount of ground and looking over hundreds of goats before we found an old guy, i put an arrow or three into him after some issues with my peep sight twisting. A little frustrating, but he lay in the dust eventually and that was the end result we wanted.
That night we sat off water for boars, had a great time and i shot a big boar with the bow and my mate took a good boar with the rifle. Our other mate looked over a few boars before taking a great old tusker.
A few beers were drunk that night in camp, nothing but great mates, a carpet of outback stars and a fire to keep us company.
Come sunrise we shifted gears to look over goats on another water source and we were soon finding herds numbering into the triple figures, but no real big billies. Then we found a massive lump of a boar and it was my turn behind the trigger and when we shifted location to head back into the trees and grass i put a bullet into him. Before i shot, like all of the boars we shot, i tried to look for decent tusk above the grinder and i could see this guy had a big hook on the side we were looking at. He turned out to be a fantastic old boar, with a massive tusk and the other side had grown the same but he had broken it half way out the jaw at some stage. It didn't bother me, i took the skull to have a full skull of him as a trophy from a really good outback boar.
We spent the rest of the day knocking over more big boars and searching for that elusive giant billy. They are out there, it is just a matter of time in these locations before we come across them.
Here is a line up of our tusks, my mate also kept a skull for one of his boars.
We pulled tusks from the better boars, boiled billy heads and packed to head home, it had been an incredible trip full of non stop action and we certainly had experienced out back billy and boar hunting at its finest possible. Big thanks to our mate who had gone the distance to seek out this location, and we will certainly be planning another out there with him when we get everything lined up.
Camp would be mobile, pretty simple and we only had 3 full days to find some animals.
It was dark as we drove in and soon we were looking over dozens of pigs, we selectively shot a couple of good boars each to burn some powder and then set up camp. It had been a big day and drive in and we had no time to sleep. Sun would be up in less then an hour and we sharpened broadheads and pushed off into a perfect morning with the sky strengthening in the east.
We decided to split up and cover more ground and i put in a hard 14kms across the desert and up into some hills looking over dozens and dozens of goats, passing on plenty of good young billies before i thought i better open the bow account and punched an arrow into this guy. I had seen much bigger that morning but they weren't good younger animals in the making.
On the way back i found an older billy with poor body condition on his own and worked in close before sorting him out. He was around 10 years and wouldn't have any more growing to do horn wise. A nice bow trophy and i took the horns.
The boys had got into the pigs and billies and taken a real nice billy from a herd of old males.
I was pretty worn out by the time i made it back to the vehicle and we met up, loaded up and shifted camp to a more suitable area. Along the way we found a sleeping boar in the shallows of a dam and i took him on the walk with the .223, it made for a nice morning with a decent goat and a nice boar.
Camp was set up, lunch eaten and we rested for an hour in the shade. But i could see goats up in the hills behind us and decided that was my evening whilst the boys kicked over the 2 wheel motorbike to cover some fresh ground. My evening was spent looking at over 400 goats, and not finding any big old billies i turned to camp and snuck in on a herd and got this male.
I was a long way from camp and walking out took a big part of my evening, another 12kms under the boots in the searing sun and my feet definitely were feeling it.
The boys again had knocked over some boars and had a great evneing.
Next morning we sat water for goats seeing maybe 1200 animals, but not a big trophy class amongst them. We seen plenty of nice billies and some good younger animals, just not the wide curly horned 10+ year animals we were looking for.
That afternoon we pushed into the hills again, cover an immense amount of ground and looking over hundreds of goats before we found an old guy, i put an arrow or three into him after some issues with my peep sight twisting. A little frustrating, but he lay in the dust eventually and that was the end result we wanted.
That night we sat off water for boars, had a great time and i shot a big boar with the bow and my mate took a good boar with the rifle. Our other mate looked over a few boars before taking a great old tusker.
A few beers were drunk that night in camp, nothing but great mates, a carpet of outback stars and a fire to keep us company.
Come sunrise we shifted gears to look over goats on another water source and we were soon finding herds numbering into the triple figures, but no real big billies. Then we found a massive lump of a boar and it was my turn behind the trigger and when we shifted location to head back into the trees and grass i put a bullet into him. Before i shot, like all of the boars we shot, i tried to look for decent tusk above the grinder and i could see this guy had a big hook on the side we were looking at. He turned out to be a fantastic old boar, with a massive tusk and the other side had grown the same but he had broken it half way out the jaw at some stage. It didn't bother me, i took the skull to have a full skull of him as a trophy from a really good outback boar.
We spent the rest of the day knocking over more big boars and searching for that elusive giant billy. They are out there, it is just a matter of time in these locations before we come across them.
Here is a line up of our tusks, my mate also kept a skull for one of his boars.
We pulled tusks from the better boars, boiled billy heads and packed to head home, it had been an incredible trip full of non stop action and we certainly had experienced out back billy and boar hunting at its finest possible. Big thanks to our mate who had gone the distance to seek out this location, and we will certainly be planning another out there with him when we get everything lined up.
