Ever had one of those days? Well, Wednesday was one of them. Work was shocking and I knew it was going to spill over into the afternoon's shooting.
I periodically cull roos for friends who own a small 200 acre cattle farm. They raise heifers and then sell them on so whatever feed they have is fairly important to keep. Most of the time they have at least 100 roos on the place who freeload and this was no exception. Now to cull roos you need tags as they're a protected species. However the National Parks & Wildlife Service only issued them with 5 tags!! We usually get tags for about 10% but it was less than 5% this time as they'd stated 120 roos on the application. Add to that the fact that their neighbours aren't fond of shooters and have caused problems before and you're in a tight spot. After some discussion we agreed that myself and the odd friend should come out early in the morning or late in the arvo, knock one or 2 over and then leave. The plan seemed fine but some days it's all against you.
We stopped just inside the front gate and loaded up. My mate had a blued/walnut Weatherby Vanguard Deluxe in .243 Win & I was packing a my sportered k98 8x57JS. Overkill really but it was it's first outing since I mounted it with a scope. Not 100yds inside the property the roos were moving across a slope in a mob of about 50. One came so close to my mate it almost ran into him and realised it's mistake at the last minute. He aimed at another, let fly, missed and the mob bid us good day! We circled around & tried to find them but they were gone. For the next 3 hours we then chased 2 small roos and a big male we'd stumbled upon back and forth across the paddocks. I almost knocked the big male down twice but each time he was on the crest of a rise, in front of stock or a building or moved at the last instant. Bunnies kept on popping up and with my .25-20 Martini they would've been a goner. The German cannon, however, was no where near suitable so I had to watch them despairingly as they hopped away to safety.
The score......hunters: zero.
I couldn't help but think when I staggered in the door and pried my boots off to rest my aching feet, that with a 12g/7x57R combo or similar drilling in hand that it would've yielded at least one bunny for the pot if not more. Did we waste our time? No. We know where to lie in wait next time, but it was disappointing nonetheless.
How many of you guys have found that you combo or drilling has really come up useful when unexpected small game or large game appeared? Do you keep one in the chamber just in case?
