Feral Camel Hunt in Oz

[Code4 3]

I don't know how many of you surf other forums on the www but here is a report I put together on a recent Feral Camel cull I organised as a High School graduation present for my son and his best mate. Feral Camels double their population every 9 years. As at 2009 there were i million feral camels in Australia. The largest feral herd in the world. They compete for water with native and domesticated stock and casually walk through fences causing a great cost to pastoralists.

 

Hope you enjoy.

 

There are no guarantees when hunting free range game and that was re-inforced on our latest Camel shooting trip.

 

We stopped at Winton for last minute supplies around noon.

 

 

We arrived at the property at 15:00 for a quick brief from the owner and leading jackaroo. We were told a commercial Camel meat operation had arrived four weeks earlier and taken off 10 tonne of boned meat from Camels shot around the homestead. My calculations put this at 60-90 camels which is quite a hit on the local population. We were more than slightly disappointed to hear this but if you don’t get off the couch you won’t shoot anything. Early rains had beaten us by one week and the game was also spread out. The owner had done a recce that morning and said there were big bores on most of the dams, wallowing in the water during the heat of the day.

 

We passed one waterhole before dark and Cameron was able to take a 40kg sow at a laser’d 270 yards off the bipod with his .243W and 100 Sierra SptBt’s. We called this the ‘Barnes Wallace Bouncing Bullet’ shot as the projectile hit the water a yard in front of the pig and ricochet’d into it taking out both lungs. We sent Cameron into the dam to recover the body rather than foul the water.

 

 

Camp was a fly camp beside the truck that night. We packed up the next morning and found a much better area 1km further down the track.

 

DAY ONE. We headed north into the burnt country which was new territory for us. We stopped to glass the surrounding country and saw three camels 500 yards away moving towards us.

 

 

There was a mature bull and our guest was keen to take one. The boys headed off on foot with the 7mm Remington Magnum loade with 160 Woodleigh PPSN’s. As soon as the boys were spotted (at 300 yards) the camels turned tail and bolted. We assumed they were gun shy from the meat eaters.

 

We returned to camp and then again headed North on a more westerly track. At approx 15:00 we spotted a dark lone bull. He was mature with a full beard. He took off and we gave chase. Our guest culled him with a single neck shot from the .243W. He dropped on the spot with both front legs shooting out to his right and then the rear legs folding up under him. I was glad for our guest as Cameron had built the place up to be Camel heaven.

 

 

On the way back to camp we spotted five bulls on top of a hill and again the boys took chase with Cameron leading with the 7mmRM. The lads contoured around a neighbouring hill out of sight and down wind but the camels had seen us and were gone like wisps of smoke. It was not a good omen.

 

DAY TWO: No game sighted but a lot of Ducks and Quail were disturbed when we walked up onto dams to check for pigs.

 

 

I understand it is illegal to shoot birds in Queensland but the numbers seemed excessive due to the recent rains. Lots of km’s were covered and daytime temperatures were on or just over 40 degrees Celcius. At night it got down to 21 deg and we slept under sheets only.

 

DAY THREE: Jumped some big pigs mid day in a dam but we were way too slow. Nothing else sighted so we headed for a water hole to cool off.

 

 

DAY FOUR: Last day. I finally got the boys to agree to get out of bed before dawn and we came across a large mob of pigs 1 km from camp just on dawn. Cam did the honours with the .243. The boys were saying ‘Gee, maybe we should have gotten up earlier’. Doah. I love it when dad is recognised as being right J.

 

 

THE CULL: We had nothing to lose and headed south to the area shot out by the meat hunters which was close to the homestead. We again saw nothing for hours. I climbed up onto the top of the loaded truck to get a higher view as we drove around. We were just about to quit in despair when far off to the right I spotted 14 camels with one large bull. They must have wandered in from next door. The boys again grabbed a bag with ammo, water and emergency stores and headed off on foot in pursuit. I secretly prayed a quick ‘thank you’ to the gods of the hunt.

 

Just as with our first camels, this mob took one look at us and headed off only this time at a slower trot. I drove up, picked up the boys in the truck and we headed in pursuit. We caught up with them and Cameron culled the largest with two 7mm 160 Woodleighs into the largest (bull) camel and it was DRT on the second shot.

 

 

We all bailed out of the truck with our rifles. The large females took off at Warp Speed 10 but the males all started to slow down looking for the Alpha male. I was in the lead and dropped a small male with the 9.3x62.

 

 

I opened the action and waved our guest through with the 7mm Rem Mag. He ran 50 metres past me and dropped to a kneeling position and shot the nearest male.

 

 

Cameron leaped frogged in front of him with the .243W and head shot a fourth off the bipod. This leap frogging advance resulted in us culling a total of 6 adult camels on foot.

 

LAST NIGHT: We returned to the station and were invited to join the owners and staff for drinks and the evening meal. As before we had a great time with many tales told and friendships confirmed. They have very few visitors out that far and they appreciated our respect and enjoyment of their lifestyle, home and property.

 

THE RIFLES:

 

 

PARKER HALE MAUSER ’98 .243W: Loaded with 100 Sierra SptBt’s this was a known quantity and performed extremely well again. We also took some 95 BT’s but despite being a ‘hunting’ bullet they were too explosive on large game.

 

WEATHERBY VANGUARD 7mm REMINGTON MAGNUM: We were all under impressed with this round. It killed more camels than the other rifles but we were expecting more. I guess we were victims of successful marketing. The 160 Woodleigh PPSN’s at 2,902 fps muzzle velocity, opened very quickly and the 175’s would be a better projjie. As we loaded it, it is a great long range deer round but it really is almost identical to the .30-06 with thinner bullets at higher velocity.

 

CUSTOM FN MAUSER ’98 9.3x62: Woodleigh 286 RNSP’s were loaded and I used the express sights out to 120 yards to cull and finish camels. This was very rewarding and the photo I had, showed massive off side damage and extruded organs. RULE303 has handled this rifle and will agree how well AFRO408 got it to balance.

 

EQUIPMENT: We had three flat tyres (two on the first day) with recently purchased tyres. The older Hankook 206R16 A/T’s did not puncture and did the same top job as on the last trip and are an excellent tyre with good sidewalls and puncture resistance. We had a 4x3 metre insect proof net tent as the mozzies were very bad at dusk and midges after dark were drawn to the lights. They had only come out with the rains and do not exist in the cooler months.

 

We took 140 litres of spare fuel and 145 litres of water and a 6x4 box trailer this time. Home to the property was 1,717 km’s. Total Km’s was 4,055 over 7 days and we covered 621 km’s on the station looking for game.

 

NEXT TIME: Go in cooler weather, take a three way/gas refridgerator to leave in camp to keep items cool. Take bigger rifles capable of 200-300 yard shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mackem 23,838]

I read this yesterday on another site,great read,very good pictures,4000 kilometers is a distance to cover

[Outofnowhere 93]

How do I get me an invite?

Edited December 2, 2011 by Outofnowhere

[Outofnowhere 93]

Also whats the details of the other forum?

[kenny14 656]

Very good write up, very enjoyable

[micky 3,325]

Good post mate , i had a mate who used to shoot camels and horses when he was over there in the 60s ,he made a few bob at it as well .

[mackem 23,838]

Heres the other forum outofnowhere,its got a bowhunting section so I pop in sometimes,I got an invite to bowhunt camel from an aussie guy,hope to take him up on it when things are not so topsy-turvy,hope mods dont mind me posting the link to the other forum?

 

http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5621043/m/2961021761

[whin 463]

good read and big game

[Outofnowhere 93]

Cheers Mackem I got my 50th in a few years and you never know...

[brickie 76]

A interesting read and good pic's

[bushing lad 114]

Them camels are HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Code4 3]

For a slightly more detailed report with more video and also info on Doubles and fine guns try here: http://forums.nitroexpress.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=194935&an=0&page=0#Post194935

[Neal 1,788]

You're going to need a pretty big retriever!

[choo-choo 41]

now thats different

[logun 91]

interesting bit about the rifles,, but think this belongs in the shooting section not the trapping .. got to be honest tho and pleasee lads dont think im knocking this but to shoot feral cammel is some thing i find odd maybe,, it cant be sporting for sure.. ive got feral poneys on the hills arouind me and i would never dream of shooting them.. as i said a topic tat shooters may be interested in