Hunting during the COVID era

Last year a lot of trips for a lot of people were cancelled.

This year a lot of people simply haven’t planned trips due to the risk factors and the disappointment faced when a trip gets cancelled.

Should we be so dictated to by this thing called COVID-19, or should we be finding a way to carry on, with respect and within the rules, and continue to enjoy our passion of hunting?

This was the question that I asked myself when my friend Alex in Victoria contacted me again to raise the idea of doing a hunting trip in June.

We had planned a trip to Victoria and Tasmania last year that was unfortunately cancelled as so many were.

At the time, earlier in the year, it seemed like COVID-19 was starting to settle down a bit, so I thought `why not?', the risk was at a level that I could accept, so we started planning.

I was lucky enough to have accumulated enough points to fly Jodee and I to Victoria and back, so things were looking up until I inquired about taking Hugo.

The quotes came back a few days later and I nearly fell off my chair; it was going to cost about $2000 return for the dog!

Going without Hugo was simply not an option since a lot of the itinerary included field work with the dogs.

After some debate and back and forth it was decided that a road trip was looming and that would give me the opportunity to get Alex’s wreck of a Series 1 Land Rover to him.

On June 9 we loaded the car up, hooked the trailer up, and set off in an easterly direction.

Four days later we were un-hooking the trailer at Alex’s property, having picked up Mitchell for the long weekend from Puckapunyal, and were getting ready for an afternoon walk with the binos!

At about 4.30pm we strolled out of the farmhouse down towards the first track and paused at the fence to admire the two sambar hinds browsing their way through the rich pasture.

As the light was fading fast we carried on, and an hour-and-a-half later we had seen six sambar in total and it was time to return to the house for dinner and a good sleep to recover from the long drive.

On the second afternoon we walked out to a tree line and found a good place to sit and watch one of the pastures.

About 45 minutes after we’d sat down a hind confidently strolled out into the clear and was making her way into the middle of the pasture for a feed.

Mitchell, who had taken ‘ownership’ of my binos, ranged the deer at 154m and I prepared myself for the shot.

With the light wind in our favour and the light fading fast, conditions were just about perfect.

I chambered a 7mm SAUM round with an ELD-X 162gr projectile and picked my spot on the deer’s shoulder as she slowly moved from left to right.

The rifle reported and I clearly heard the hit on the animal. She sprang forward and ran 70 or so metres before she dropped.

We quickly made our way over to her; she had been cleanly dispatched.

We spent the next couple of hours field dressing and moving the hind up to the shed to hang.

The next few days were spent enjoying the farm, working the dogs through fields full of rabbits and other game, doing some maintenance on the farm and breaking down the deer.

We didn’t have the luxury to hang it for a few weeks as we were on to the next phase of the trip in just a few days.

Jodee had to fly back to Western Australia after the first week so we got her to the airport with a large esky full of prime sambar so that we would have enough room in the car fridge and eskys for the Tasmanian leg.

Because we had only been in regional Victoria and Western Australia we were granted permission to enter Tasmania so on the Monday off we went to the Spirit of Tasmania.

If you’re going to go to Tasmania by car there are a few things you need to know:

• Remember to fill in the firearm form;

• You’ll need to remove bolts and lock them with the ammunition;

• You can only take a max of 200 rounds / 10kg of ammunition and it must be in a locked box;

• Your firearms and ammunition will be checked and handed over to the Spirit of Tasmania for the duration of the transit — you’ll pick them up on the other side; and

• Don’t take more than 60 litres of additional fuel in jerry cans.

On the way over we had to confine to cabins for the whole journey which is about 13 hours if you include boarding and disembarking.

It was very strange going onto the boat, it was like a ghost ship with only a few staff members directing you as quickly as possible to your cabins.

The journey was good though, light winds, smooth and comfortable and by about 0700 hours we were disembarking onto Tasmanian soil.

One more thing to remember: Clean your car, especially under the wheel arches, as otherwise you will be stopped and have to clean it before you can enter.

We found a park close the ferry terminal to let the dogs out and they had fared well, actually they had travelled incredibly well.

The next few days were spent working and training the dogs, which was amazing. We learnt so much and got experience that you just can’t get here in WA.

Quail, hare, loads of rabbit and a host of other small game were about.

The dogs took everything in their stride and while Hugo was not as experienced as the other dogs he picked up the reins and was working in amongst the other more experienced dogs and even showing them up every now and then.

Our host in Tasmania has access to farm land that has issues with a large number of ‘pest’ animals including fallow deer.

On the second to last night we went out to one of these properties that sits over some hills and pasture and three of us headed off on foot in different directions for the evening hunt.

I found a spot on the side of a hill, set up and started glassing.

As the light faded I was looking out over the top of a dam and noticed movement; focusing on this my heart rate almost doubled — there were around 40 deer making their way down the hill towards the lucerne paddock, but they were still over 1km off so it was unlikely I’d see them before darkness fell.

I continued to glass closer, and at the edge of the tree line I picked up the shape I was looking for — it was a lovely stag, standing completely still on the tree side of the fence.

I ranged him and he was 680m away — I had a brief, dumb, moment of thinking I could have a crack at the shot, after all my 7mm SAUM could do it … right?? NOOOO!!!! Settle down and stalk in.

Anyway, I watched him for another 20 minutes and he just stood absolutely still until he finally lifted his head and effortlessly jumped the fence and ambled through the paddock among the sheep.

I made my way down and across the hill, keeping low and smooth, moving as fast as I could and checking if I had been detected every few steps.

I was making ground on the stag. I crossed a stream and then I was heading back up the hill towards the paddock fence-line but light was fading fast.

The stag was still moving, he obviously knew which bit of the lucerne crop he wanted to get into, and I had more than halved the distance between us.

I ranged him again and the gap was now 280m and was a much more do-able shot.

I was unlikely to make it any closer as it was open ground between us now.

Watching him, he jumped another fence, putting obstacles between us, and was now in between a lot of sheep who seemed completely unfazed by his presence.

In the background was a tractor parked in the paddock, and with the light almost all gone, and even my Swaro scope struggling, I decided to simply enjoy the fact that I was in the environment and I had managed to close the gap without being noticed (although I was still a fair way off).

I passed it up and started to make my way back to the vehicles, and as I turned a shot was fired and echoed through the valley — a particular sound that you only hear in the hills.

I got back to the cars and Alex and Paul were already there, about to drive down to where Paul had shot a young spika.

This was the first of many but the rest would come on the next evening.

We’d really just stopped off here on the way home from doing some dog work.

The next day we headed back to the property and set up camp and got ready for an afternoon / evening hunt.

Needless to say we had a very successful evening taking another seven fallow, a bunch of hares and Forester wallaby — all of which we had tags for.

All were field dressed and carried back to the vehicle and then taken back to camp. We slept well that night.

On the last day we were busy breaking down the carcases to get the meat into our fridges and eskys and, needless to say, they were all fully loaded to the point of ridiculousness.

It was my first trip to Tasmania and I was really lucky to have such a generous host with so many contacts and local knowledge.

I have only really given a snippet of the trip in this short story, but we spent days working dogs through paddocks full of rabbits, we used ferrets on rabbits, we hunted quail and a bunch of other game birds that were in season.

The weather was very kind to us, we had a little rain but the temperatures were never really low or high and we were never really uncomfortable from the weather.

I fell in love with Tasmania and you can be sure that I’ll be heading back there at my earliest convenience.

If you haven’t been to Tasmania, put it on your list of must-visit locations!

During the trip COVID-19 was playing havoc around the country, and although we’d made the conscious decision to just get on with it and do whatever we could within the rules, we did have a few moments of concern about getting back home.

We caught the ferry back to Melbourne and then continued the journey home, through Victoria and South Australia to the Western Australia border where we were met with some very nice officials who took our details and gave us some guidelines and let us through.

The quarantine staff were very interested in the multitude of fridges and eskys full of meat, and I’m rather surprised that they didn’t ‘tax’ us a couple of back straps as they seemed pretty keen.

They were all very pro what we’d been doing though, which was not only pleasant but a relief.

We have to get to a point of getting on with it in amongst all that is happening around the country and world in relation to COVID-19.

I’ve just had an amazing trip and, to be fair, COVID-19 was only a very minor influence in the end.

My advice is have a dream, make a plan and then get on with it!

- by Tim Hartley