Tim Blackwell
AH fanatic
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2011
- Messages
- 905
- Reaction score
- 2,919
- Location
- South Australia
- Website
- www.facebook.com
- Media
- 342
- Member of
- Australian Deer Association, Australian Association of Wildlife Artists
- Hunted
- Australia, New Zealand, Namibia, South Africa
Well I've had an exceptionally lucky year when it comes to hunting. Our African Buff/Ele hunt with KMG Safaris has been postponed again....2020, 21, now August 2022. Fingers crossed.
So with Africa on the backburner again, I made some plan B's & C's, knowing that most probably wouldn't come off with border closures etc. Well, bugger me if every single trip went ahead, much to the detriment of my hunting fund and annual leave balance!
I started in February/March with my annual freezer-filling missions, with a couple of fallow does doing that nicely. Then in March, a mate from Melbourne was coming over to my state of South Australia for a hunt. After being locked down for nearly a year, he was chomping at the bit. Cameron took a beautiful Fallow buck and I took my first Red stag in several years, a nice 39" long 13-pointer.
Then in April came my favourite time of year, the Fallow rut. I managed to spend a week on a fantastic private property, and deep into the mallee scrub in his rutting stand I took my personal best buck. He is 28.5" long and wide scoring 232DS on our local scale.
In May I joined my good mate Mark Rohde for a crazy 18-hour drive up into NSW to hunt Blackbuck. While not being readily available free range in Australia, we hunted a mountainous property with dense scrub that gave us an enjoyable challenge, and we collected a nice trophy each. We had the luxury of 3 days to drive home and it was a great way to spend time with a good mate and meet a few other friends along the way.
In July I managed to take advantage of the NZ travel bubble, and slip across the ditch for a fantastic rut Chamois hunt with Mike Biemond of Real Kiwi Hunting. We hunted free range private land out of Wanaka, where I managed a beautiful buck & nanny combination, with the loss of a lot of sweat. We then travelled further north where I collected a nice Arapawa Ram for the trophy room. Recent floods had washed out their game fencing and the farmer didn't want them getting into his merinos, to my benefit!
I then had to actually do some work for a few months, until September when I travelled to remote central Arnhemland in the Northern Territory, to catch up with a bunch of good mates to hunt buffalo with Alex Jagers of Big Country Safaris.
It was hot going and late in the season, but very productive with the game focused on water. I took a nice old sweeper bull with my 458WM, which gave us a few anxious moments when he died right in a creek on dark. Luckily there were only freshwater crocodiles present
On the rest of the hunt I also took a great cow buffalo, as well as a couple of pigs and a wild dog. A great way to cap off a tremendous year. Thanks to all of the friends, guides, landowners etc that made it all possible.
So with Africa on the backburner again, I made some plan B's & C's, knowing that most probably wouldn't come off with border closures etc. Well, bugger me if every single trip went ahead, much to the detriment of my hunting fund and annual leave balance!
I started in February/March with my annual freezer-filling missions, with a couple of fallow does doing that nicely. Then in March, a mate from Melbourne was coming over to my state of South Australia for a hunt. After being locked down for nearly a year, he was chomping at the bit. Cameron took a beautiful Fallow buck and I took my first Red stag in several years, a nice 39" long 13-pointer.
Then in April came my favourite time of year, the Fallow rut. I managed to spend a week on a fantastic private property, and deep into the mallee scrub in his rutting stand I took my personal best buck. He is 28.5" long and wide scoring 232DS on our local scale.
In May I joined my good mate Mark Rohde for a crazy 18-hour drive up into NSW to hunt Blackbuck. While not being readily available free range in Australia, we hunted a mountainous property with dense scrub that gave us an enjoyable challenge, and we collected a nice trophy each. We had the luxury of 3 days to drive home and it was a great way to spend time with a good mate and meet a few other friends along the way.
In July I managed to take advantage of the NZ travel bubble, and slip across the ditch for a fantastic rut Chamois hunt with Mike Biemond of Real Kiwi Hunting. We hunted free range private land out of Wanaka, where I managed a beautiful buck & nanny combination, with the loss of a lot of sweat. We then travelled further north where I collected a nice Arapawa Ram for the trophy room. Recent floods had washed out their game fencing and the farmer didn't want them getting into his merinos, to my benefit!
I then had to actually do some work for a few months, until September when I travelled to remote central Arnhemland in the Northern Territory, to catch up with a bunch of good mates to hunt buffalo with Alex Jagers of Big Country Safaris.
It was hot going and late in the season, but very productive with the game focused on water. I took a nice old sweeper bull with my 458WM, which gave us a few anxious moments when he died right in a creek on dark. Luckily there were only freshwater crocodiles present
On the rest of the hunt I also took a great cow buffalo, as well as a couple of pigs and a wild dog. A great way to cap off a tremendous year. Thanks to all of the friends, guides, landowners etc that made it all possible.
