Thread: 2014 Northern Territory Hunt - Day 1

Just returned from my Northern Territory Hunt, left Auckland Thursday week before last and arrived at the cattle station 9pm last Saturday, worn out before firing a shot. I took two rifles, Tikka 300wm and Sako 375 H & H. Ended up checking in 46kg of gear so lucky I didn't get pinged excess baggage.

The main exercise of this trip was to get a Trophy Bull Water Buffalo and when required snot other animals when the opportunity arose.

Day 1 - Up early Sunday morning after a bloody chilly night, temp during the day 35c+ and night was around 8c



The Cattle station covers 1/2 million acres and they were about to start a chopper muster on Monday on a portion of it that in the past has been quite productive for us in the past so we had Sunday to scoot around that area before they started the muster using 3 choppers and Bull capturing vehicles.

So after breakfast we mooched around that area and blooded the 375 on 5 horses early on. I have 270 grain hand loads using Woodleigh projectiles, shit they do the business.



Went back to camp for lunch and the went deeper into the bush of the track for fuckup no 1 around 5pm and miles from anywhere.
We were tootling around pushing over small trees making a track for ourselves when the complete front axle of the Landcruiser parted company, no one new where we were but luckily I brought a Satellite phone with me on this trip and had programmed the Stations and Matts numbers into it.

Couldn't get hold of Matt so called the Station, after a couple of hours they managed to get hold of him and give him some general directions. So all we could do is just sit and wait. He turned up about 9pm but in the meantime and just before dark we went for a wander and blooded the 375 on the first Donkey of the trip, absolutely pole axed him from 80 yards.

We lit a fire next to the Landcruiser to keep warm and a bit of beacon for Matt, managed to get him on his Sat phone and guided him to where we were, typical aussie's just treat it like it was nothing.

The front springs U bolts had come lose and one had broken, the whole axle had rotated and the only thing stopping it further was the drive shaft universal joint.





Took us about 3 hours using 2 jacks to lift the front end up and man handle the front end around and bolt everything back in place, got back to camp around midnight and pretty well buggered and looking forward to Day 2 which will be another post

Nice report, nice pics too. What was the station you were on? (I used to work up that way years ago)

Dorisvale, approx. 2hrs West of Katherine, more pics to follow.
Cheers

yip keep us posted I have lot of memorys from Katherine in the NT

Originally Posted by Dundee

yip keep us posted I have lot of memorys from Katherine in the NT

I was in Katherine for a couple hours lunchtime yesterday, shit is was funny watching originals pissed up and annoying each other, there were several hundred US Marines filling every eatery in town and it's not a big place.

Originally Posted by 300winmag

Dorisvale, approx. 2hrs West of Katherine, more pics to follow.
Cheers

Just checked my logbook, it was May 1983 when I first flew out there, part of a job interview for the then local air charter mob. I cant remember the family's name, but they were friends of the boss.
Small world.

awesome