Flood relief hunt success
 

I dont know if you it made the news over in the USA but we had a bad run with the natural disasters in Australia this year. In particular there was widespread flooding in queensland, earlier in the year.

It was pretty crook anyway and the aussie bowhunting forum pulled together an auction to raise some $ for those affected. I thought Id offer up a hunt as my way of helping out. Anyway the fella who won the hunt came out the other day and had his first taste of desert hunting.

I dont normally do any guiding beyond trying to get mates a camel or two but as this fella had thrown in quite a few $ to help out those affected by the disaster I really wanted to do my best to get him onto some good animals.

Anyway after getting the car loaded and fueled up we headed out west. After a lot of driving we finally spotted a lone bull camel.
The males are coming into rut now and seem to be out and about wandering around everywhere. We followed this one on foot for about 2kms and finally got into about 70yards only to have the wind give us away at the last minute. Dissapointing but still exciting stuff


A few kms further on a bull camel just stepped out in front on the car, crossing the track up ahead. We quickly had the car turned off and were off after him on foot as fast as we could. The bull was moving steadily but a gurgling attempt at camel challenge by yours truely (think a large raspberry noise crossed with a burp!) pulled him up long enough for Guy to launch a 60 yard shot into the boiler.

After a spot of lunch we spotted a small group browsing in some half decent cover and the stalk was on.
Guy did the last 60m or so on his hands an knees while I snapped a few photos and held my breath. He got in to only 50m and put a shot on the lead bull.

The shot went a touch high and we ended up bloodtrailing for a fair way. I lost the blood trail up in the rough country but guessed the path that the mob would have taken and Guy spotted the trail some hundred or so metres further on. We then closed on the wounded bull and a quick finisher put him on the ground for keeps

Not a bad first day!
The following day was a bit slower, we did some kms trying to find animals and spent a few hours waiting on a waterhole but only saw a lot of wild horses.

Its been a good year for the brumbies, lots of fat animals and young stock about.

We did more kms looking for a young meat camel now to fill the freezer and finally found one. They spooked at the noise of us moving up on them but a challenge call had the bull turning the mob around back to face us and that gave Guy a chance to drive home his 3rd and last arrow for the trip.

Was a bit of an awkward carry back to the car as we had nothing to put any meat in and ended up just taking prime cuts. Plenty to go round tho and that youngster is gonna be tasty over the next few weeks =)

And that was prety much it.. We were late back to camp that night then had to pack up and head out in the morning.
The last camel of the trip just stepped out onto the road and walked along a bit before heading off into the scrub again as we headed homewards.


Cheers benno

Can't say I've ever been camel hunting, but thanks for sharing the story and pictures, great job. I'm always watching hunting on tv too, and I've never seen anyone kill a camel before.

Sounds like you had to "hump" some of the meat out on your backs............

Awesome Ben! Thanks for sharing! Someday mate, someday!

Wow. Didn't know there was such a thing as camel hunting. Guess we're kinda out of touch with the animals that can be hunted! Sounds like it was great and they look like some nice size camel anyhow! :cool2:

Bigbuck,

That's the neat thing about taking your game to a different court. You are exposed to things beyond belief! I maintain, "It is the things we know that keeps us from knowing the things we should know". The World is a huge and amazing place! It seems such a waste of life, at least to me, to limit one's self to an area the size of a knat's hinny (relatively speaking).

There are an estimated one million feral camels in Australia-they can double in size within 9 years. These camel devour up to 80% of their habitat. This is an enormous problem! Recently, their eradication has been conducted via helicopter shooting/culling at great expense. The carcasses are left to rot, and as you can clearly see their flesh is completely consummable. It's awesome hunters like Ben take it upon themselves to become part of the solution. Moreover, additional "trickle down economics" effect beneficial change for flood victims. I say, good on Ben!

http://blogs.nature.com/news/2009/08..._australi.html

Ben, would you care to share camel recipes?

Thanks a lot..

haha Will you know camel is gooooood!!! your gonna love it when u finally get here.

Think any lamb or beef recipie but just subsitute camel.
For example, camel biltong, camel jerky, we had camel lasagne the other night.
I love camel burgers with feta cheese and bacon bits minced into the patty. Camel curry, say a Rogan Josh or a Beef (camel) Vindaloo.
I make up Borewors sausages with camel and pork mince then smoke them lightly or dry them for backpacking meals.

Its ALL good =)