Some like it moist

Picked up @Micky Duck at 0530 and headed west to a block we've hunted a few times before. Today we were also accompanied by my eldest son Ryan.

Arriving at the block a bit after daylight we quickly kitted up preparing for a damp day with drizzle threatening. A few hundred metres in and we spooked a couple of wallabies, giving them an education on what bullets flying past at close range sounds like.
We had decided to head into a different part of the block today to see what was around. The next kilometre being fairly uneventful apart from seeing a fallow bolt over a ridge and quickly out of sight.

Micky on point and ahead of Ryan and myself we hear the .222 crack followed by a solid thud of a good hit. I instantly ask "was it a large animal" to which Micky turned with a huge smile on his face and a fist punching the air.
As we approach we find a nice fallow spiker with a solid shoulder hit.

Now something was really different today, instead of us both ripping our knives out and fiting over who would butcher the animal, I stood back and let Micky show Ryan how to remove the rear leg, front leg and backsteak on one side.
This is the first hunt Ryan has been on where a deer has been shot so some good skills were shown by Micky.
After the first side I took over and showed Ryan the same again on the other.
With the meat cooling we threw on the billys on and had a cuppa, followed by some boning out and stashing the meat to pick up on our return.

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Up a nearby ridge we gained height and then sidled around through some scrub filled gullies. This is where the real action started, along with the real rain. Over the next 15 minutes about 5 wallabies were spooked but only one was hit by Micky with Ryan having a bit of trouble finding his target with the 223 being a bit heavy for freehand shooting.

Stopping for a quick glass across the main valley I spotted a wally sitting close to 200m away. Setting up Ryan sitting behind the frame pack for a good rest and making sure he was steady and comfortable he sent a shot and managed a great hit. This is only his second wallaby and a few high fives and "well done son" said we continued around the spurs and scared a couple more which were lucky to escape.

Further up Micky got a great hit on a fast moving wally at about 50m which tumbled into the tussock dead as a dead thing.
With the rain setting in and nothing seen for the next couple of hundred metres we turned for home and had a slowish trudge back to our now cool meat.

Another k or so later we got to a sheltered area and set up for a quick lunch and cuppa to warm up but with the wet clothes and windchill we actually got a bit colder even after a hot drink. Another quick session of trudging had us back at the ute, stripping of our outer layers and boots we cranked up the heater and headed home.

Another great day out with a great mate and one of my Sons.

Life is good.

life is GREAT

really enjoyed the young fellas company,he is a crack shot,his first wallaby a few years back was with my .223 and he couldnt fit properly and line up so it was a real 3 person team effort. great to see how much he has progressed,wont be long and he will be carting a smoke pole himself. we will have to be quick to get a shot in then mate.

Awesome Rumpy and MD, passing on your skills to the young fella.

I have fond memories of hunting with my Dad when I was a little tucker. Bit of Fallow vennie and a wallaby to boot, do you eat the wallaby?

Cheers FBD

not this time I didnt...it makes good jerky,the steaks arent bad and the tails make awesome casserole/stew .

I haven't tried Wallaby, but have eaten plenty of roo so assume it will be similar in taste and too cook.

The tails are pretty good alright, mightvhave to go for a look around the lakes up here in NI.

Enjoy the fallow steaks, I am slightly envious.. yum

I don't eat wallaby, darn worm infested rodents, not too different to rats IMO. Although I have had some of Mickys wallaby jerky and it's quite tasty.

What a great outing despite the weather, the venison will taste sweeter, well done team.

Good effort.

Well done team.

Nice work guys. Sounds like that's a pretty good spot for critters