A fellow airgunner from Waimate, a little town south of Christchurch, kindly invited me down to hunt some wallaby (a pest species introduced from Australia, like a small kangaroo), so last Saturday I loaded up the car with 3 bigbores and all the associated paraphernalia and set off for the 2 3/4 hour drive, arriving around 10.15 am. Met up with Craig and another avid airgunner, Vin ("vin" here on the NZAGF, ex UK, ex North Island, now living on the right island, hehehe) who had driven up from Waikouaiti, further south, and we set off to Craig's boss's farm to do some plinking and sight the guns in. We had some fun at 100 yards, seeing how various big bore slugs tried to penetrate an extremely hard slab of wood. All .45 and .50 rounds we tried bounced off; the winner was a spitzer shot from the DAQ .308, which penetrated about 1/3 of the way through the 2" slab. Then Craig's boss Robert put us to shame with his .270 powder-burner, punching through effortlessly. But man it was LOUD! And it was slinging lead at 2840 fps compared to 770 fps for the DAQ...
Anyway we had a good 2 hours of playing, giving me time to inspect Craig's Gladi8or and drool over and fondle Vin's Steyr, first one I have ever seen in the flesh. Very sexy.
Next it was off for a bite to eat, then we drove up to the hill behind the White Horse (that's a hill with a concrete shape of a horse inlaid on the side of it, painted white, hence the name) and kitted up for the hunt. Craig took my .45 SamYang 909 twin tube (he seemed to like it, and kept whispering sweet nothings to it), Vin took the DAQ .308, and I carried the ClarkArms .50 cal. Off we wandered across undulating terrain, with steep gorse encrusted gullies all around. Barely 10 minutes into the hunt, while Craig and I were loudly discussing all things airgun-related, Vin, who was just behind us, drew out attention to the fact that there were 2 pigs right in front of us, probably no more that 30 yards away. The pigs, one pale and the other jet-black, got as much of a surprise as we did and with a chorus of oinks, buggered off into the scrub before we could even raise our rifles! Craig and I duly kicked oursleves for our inattention, appointed Vin as honorary game-spotter, and carried on. We walked for several hours, and even though wallabys were few and far between, the day, the company and the scenery made up for the lack of targets. Here's the team, Craig with the beard, Vin in the black shirt, and I'm the young fella:


After about 3 or so hours, we were making our way down the side of a valley when I spotted a decent-sized wallaby at about 60 yards. I went down on one knee and sent a 335 grain hollowpoint at it, aiming about mid way down the animal. It took a solid hit, fell on its side, thrashed about, then miraculously jumped up and jumped its way up into the steep gorse immediately behind it.
I scrambled up through the gorse, on hands and knees, determined to find this super-beast who could survive being ventilated by a slug this big. I found a blood trail which I followed for maybe 10 yards, but at the point the trail was at its heaviest, it stopped. Weird. The gorse was so dense that the wallaby could have been only yards away for all I knew. I made a second attempt to find it but was rewarded only with 1000 gorse prickles on my hands, arms and knees. We all agreed the poor wallaby was toast after the hit it took, but it will always remain "the one that got away". Bugger.
So we moved on to the next steep gully and on the other side we saw a wallaby bolt across to a patch of gorse. Vin went down to investigate, and after a while took up a shooting position about 30 yard from the patch of gorse, shooting uphill. He fired, and there followed the sound of a prolonged ricochet. A wallaby broke cover from the gorse and disappeared at speed into the next thicket of gorse. Craig and I thought Vin had missed, but we were wrong! Vin knew better - there had been two wallabies there and he got one of them. He climbed up and pulled the unlucky victim out of the gorse. This man is a crack shot, and had sent the spitzer through the skull just above the left eye and out behind the left ear, to continue on into the distance somewhere. Here's Vin with his kill:

Craig sliced the backstraps of of it for Vin to take home to cook up, and we continued on back towards the car, intent on re-discovering those pigs. Sure enough, we spotted them rooting around in the grass near a cabbage tree, and Vin and I crept along the side of a big stand of gorse, to within 50 yards, while Craig skirted up the other side of the stand. Both Vin and I got prone, and started to line up the pale pig, which was standing side-on, begging to be shot. However before either of us could pull our triggers, it looked across at us and trotted off behind some bush. The black one ever so briefly trotted into view, but was gone before either of us could put the cross-hairs on it! Craig saw them pass on the horizon but he couldn't get a shot in either. What might have been....
We were disappointed, but what a buzz even to have got so close to shooting the first pigs any of us had seen in the wild. Next time, porky pigs!
We went back to the car, put on some warm clothes and had a snack, then as dark fell we were back hunting. No luck with the spotlighting, only saw a couple of wallabys running in the distance, and didn't encounter the pigs again either. So after 6 hours of hunting, we called it a day and went home.
For me, despite not having great success, it was a great day spent with two of the nicest airgunners you could meet. And I went home without the 909...I think Craig is in love....
Cheers
Neil

Hi Neil,

Thanks for the post. Absolutely beautiful scenery, as always. Sounds as if you had a fine day!

Gary

Well done Neil! Everyone has to get those "ones the got away" done and over with sooner or later!

Great hunting story Neil! I enjoyed it. Beautiful scenery, exotic animals, I wish I could be there hunting with you he..he..

Thanks guys! Every time I go out for a hunt I learn a thing or two, and realise just how much more there is to learn to become proficient. Lucky I'm so young time is on my side

Great story Neil. Beautiful country.

As much fun as it is to be "successful" I'm often reminded of something Jeff Cooper quoted in one of his books, "One does not hunt in order to kill. One kills in order to have hunted."

To me there's nothing better than spending a day out of doors with some good peeps. If you get a chance to shoot some stuff and bring home some food, well that's even better.

Thanks for the story Neil. Sorry you "lost" your 909. Maybe someday you'll get it back.

Nice pics and great picture with the mountains in the background.....LOVELY.

I had a boss from Australia who told me that ROO taste pretty good and since then i've been curious.

Good post.

"One does not hunt in order to kill. One kills in order to have hunted."

Griffin, I like that little quote. Add to that, "The worst day's hunting is always better than the best day in the office" or similar, and I guess we have covered all the bases!

Tofaz, according the Vin the wallaby tasted a bit like beef. He said it was a little tough and that he will tenderise it next time. Seems he's hooked on the idea of another wallaby hunt. Me too!

Cheers
Neil