AB’S FIRST RIFLE

HUNTING ABOUT

While on Sunday Island for the Australian Deer Association’s Hog Deer Education weekend, Sean Kilkenny bumped into a fellow member, Greg Sartori, who is the owner of Arthur Bentley’s 1881 Martini-Enfield that is chambered in .303 British. This was Arthur’s first centrefire rifle and most carried. The stock was carved by AB himself and is a significant piece of ADA history.

Eastern long-necked turtles occur widely across eastern Australia but normally fly under most people’s radar although they are occasionally seen crossing roads between farm dams and wetlands. This species is slow to mature, but is long-lived. Breeding females lay up to 20 eggs once or twice a year in shallow U-shaped holes that they dig close to water. Most nesting occurs in late spring with eggs taking several months to hatch. Hatchling turtles dig their way out of the nest before heading back to water.

Although they have always had plenty of predators, turtles are now under much greater pressure – foxes sniff out nests and dig them up to eat the eggs and it is thought that up to 90 per cent of nests are now lost in this way. Another good reason for hunters to target foxes!

Steve Robinson recently had a close encounter with this fine fallow buck in South Gippsland.

Paul De Marchi sent in these photos of a white-eared honeyeater taking hair from a sambar deer he had recently shot. The bird was taking this hair back to its nest so it could build upon its foundation and improve the nest.

In another trail camera surprise, Ken Slee was flipping through and deleting trail camera photos when he came across these interesting pics. A photo of a mature hog deer stag that had recently cast its antlers was an excellent find, but more intriguing was the distant appearance of a koala low on a tree in the background. Wow! But was it climbing up the tree or descending?

The answer came a couple of frames later when both the koala and the hog deer were clearly captured in a photo!

Every month, the Australian Deer Association will give a prize to a member from a proud supporter of the Association.

This is a fantastic way of giving back to our members, who are the lifeblood of the Association and enable the advocacy efforts regarding public land access for recreational deer hunting and deer management for which we exist.

To be in the draw, you only need to be a member. There has never been a better or more important time to be a member. Thank you for your ongoing support. The winner is drawn at the end of each calendar month and then published on our social platforms, emails, and in the Australian Deer magazine.