Recently I attended a hunting workshop and it was great, arranged by the Game Council and hosted by Filskis at Capertee. The emphasis was on deer hunting and included different workshops focusing on different aspects like equipment, techniques and deer behaviour. It was alot of information and by sunday afternoon I had doubled my knowledge of deer, although the weekend was very comprehensive I found the planning and safety aspect of hunting could have been given more attention. the level of experience and skill of those that attended the workshop would have varied greatly, from the new, experienced and landowners who want to simply know more about deer. I noticed the majority of the people that attended the workshop were either experienced hunters or landowners that had a interest in shooting deer on their property, I myself am new to the deer hunting community and plan to learn and hone the art for many years to come, so I enjoyed the advice given by the more experienced hunters.
This post is aimed at new hunters or people who usually stick to trails and want to go off track, I found this to be a important consideration on how you plan to hunt. Using trails or hunting in a vechile means you won't get lost especially if you're on private land. But for people like me, I don't have access to private land and will usually hunt alone, Safety is my number one consideration. What I am about to describe is not the only way and certainly not the cheapest, but its my way. Anyone who has been walking in the australian bush off the beaten trail or has gotten lost would say how easy it is to get lost and how scary it can get. You may be 20meters or less to a light trial that may lead you to safety but you'll never know. Its so easy to loose your bearings when every directiion you turn looks the same, especially when you've got no reference points to work with. Some would say its just plain common sense not to go into the woods or hunt alone, It may be sound advice but not always practical. Its nice to have a hunting partner, but people have lives and families so they're not always going to be available. I'm a firm believer in that if something is important enough to you, you'll make it happen no matter what. Many things can go right and wrong when you're out in the scrub, some of these State Forests are well over 10,000 acres in size. For me safety is about managing many things, and like anything that has variables, its a system. A system that helps me plan and mange my trips. I would call it a Safety System, I view my individual pieces of safety gear as components of my System that I use to ensure my safety.
This post is aimed at new hunters or people who usually stick to trails and want to go off track, I found this to be a important consideration on how you plan to hunt. Using trails or hunting in a vechile means you won't get lost especially if you're on private land. But for people like me, I don't have access to private land and will usually hunt alone, Safety is my number one consideration. What I am about to describe is not the only way and certainly not the cheapest, but its my way. Anyone who has been walking in the australian bush off the beaten trail or has gotten lost would say how easy it is to get lost and how scary it can get. You may be 20meters or less to a light trial that may lead you to safety but you'll never know. Its so easy to loose your bearings when every directiion you turn looks the same, especially when you've got no reference points to work with. Some would say its just plain common sense not to go into the woods or hunt alone, It may be sound advice but not always practical. Its nice to have a hunting partner, but people have lives and families so they're not always going to be available. I'm a firm believer in that if something is important enough to you, you'll make it happen no matter what. Many things can go right and wrong when you're out in the scrub, some of these State Forests are well over 10,000 acres in size. For me safety is about managing many things, and like anything that has variables, its a system. A system that helps me plan and mange my trips. I would call it a Safety System, I view my individual pieces of safety gear as components of my System that I use to ensure my safety.
Planning the hunt starts with me choosing the area I plan to hunt in, this is done by looking at which state forest is available within the region I plan to hunt, the Game Council provides PDFs online complete with the distance to each location via Sydney. This is important because I want be able to get there and setup camp well before lunchtime so I can spend mid day scouting. Once I have chosen the location I bring it up on Google Earth. I usually break the trip into three main components, first is the drive itself and hiking in and setting up camp, and scouting. The second component is the afternoon hunt/stalk, this is when I go into stealth mode, then the following morning is another hunt/stalk. Once thats over I might go looking for some feral animals to clear out before I head home. So for a overnight hunt I usually get two good hunting sessions, other times are spent on more scouting/exploring , eating, gathering water and relaxing. One thing that is important to me is inbetween the moring and afternoon stalks is getting some R&R time, its good for the soul to enjoy the peace and quiet that the bush has to offer. We're so busy in our lives and just don't the spend the time to reflect and appreciate the good life that we have, when you sit back and listen to the sounds of the bush it will speak to you in many forms, the birds, wind and rustling of the trees there is a message for everyone if you listen carefully enough.
Now that I've got my location and looked it up on Google Maps, I'll pan around to look at the area down load the Hunting zone from the Game Council. This will clearly show the borders and any exclusion zones for the area I plan to hunt in. So once I know where I'm going using Google Earth Iand route via Google Earth I'll switch to Garmin Basecamp, from there using the route tools I plot my track in the bush. I usually place way points on the map for important locations like where I plan to setup camp and water sources. Just bear in mind when you're on the ground things may change and you may end up in another area, although its not a big deal if you've got a GPS with the hunting zones loaded. While in BaseCamp you should download the hunting zones from the Game Council website, these are detailed maps that will overlay on your existing map in BaseCamp, I use the Australian&NZ TOPO V3 map.
Once you're happy with your hunting location and trail you plan to follow then upload it into your GPS, you'll need a decent GPS for this, some of the cheaper GPS units will not allow custom maps. I use the Garmin 650T as my driving GPS and a backup for when I'm in the bush. For my Primary GPS I use the Garmin MAP62SC, these are expensive units costing me well over a thousand dollars for the both of them. It may sound expensive but its the price you pay if you want a adventure, on the end of the day you get what you pay for, keep these points in mind if you plan on getting a GPS.
At this point I've got my hunting trail, hunting zones and maps uploaded to both of my GPS units I'm ready to rock n roll, just don't forget your signed permission slip. This is the process I use to plan and manage my trips, BaseCamp is great in that it saves all my trips and tells me exactly where I walked and marks the exact location of any photos that I take. I organise all my trips, way points and photos in folders and allows me to lookup any details of any previous trips.
As a added safety measure I also now bring with me a SatPhone, more specifically the Iridium Extreme 9575, this is the first SatPhone to have a GPS built into it, its not cheap at $1500 just for the handset and you'll still need to pay for airtime. I know what you may think, all these electronics are very expensive and there are ways to go hunting without the need for GPS, that may work on private property or if you simply keep to a road/path but if you plan to go off track and bushbash I suggest you think twice before wandering off into the scrub.
I'll be posting reviews on the GPS units and the Iridium Extreme 9575 soon, I hope you found this post interesting and useful.
Now that I've got my location and looked it up on Google Maps, I'll pan around to look at the area down load the Hunting zone from the Game Council. This will clearly show the borders and any exclusion zones for the area I plan to hunt in. So once I know where I'm going using Google Earth Iand route via Google Earth I'll switch to Garmin Basecamp, from there using the route tools I plot my track in the bush. I usually place way points on the map for important locations like where I plan to setup camp and water sources. Just bear in mind when you're on the ground things may change and you may end up in another area, although its not a big deal if you've got a GPS with the hunting zones loaded. While in BaseCamp you should download the hunting zones from the Game Council website, these are detailed maps that will overlay on your existing map in BaseCamp, I use the Australian&NZ TOPO V3 map.
Once you're happy with your hunting location and trail you plan to follow then upload it into your GPS, you'll need a decent GPS for this, some of the cheaper GPS units will not allow custom maps. I use the Garmin 650T as my driving GPS and a backup for when I'm in the bush. For my Primary GPS I use the Garmin MAP62SC, these are expensive units costing me well over a thousand dollars for the both of them. It may sound expensive but its the price you pay if you want a adventure, on the end of the day you get what you pay for, keep these points in mind if you plan on getting a GPS.
At this point I've got my hunting trail, hunting zones and maps uploaded to both of my GPS units I'm ready to rock n roll, just don't forget your signed permission slip. This is the process I use to plan and manage my trips, BaseCamp is great in that it saves all my trips and tells me exactly where I walked and marks the exact location of any photos that I take. I organise all my trips, way points and photos in folders and allows me to lookup any details of any previous trips.
As a added safety measure I also now bring with me a SatPhone, more specifically the Iridium Extreme 9575, this is the first SatPhone to have a GPS built into it, its not cheap at $1500 just for the handset and you'll still need to pay for airtime. I know what you may think, all these electronics are very expensive and there are ways to go hunting without the need for GPS, that may work on private property or if you simply keep to a road/path but if you plan to go off track and bushbash I suggest you think twice before wandering off into the scrub.
I'll be posting reviews on the GPS units and the Iridium Extreme 9575 soon, I hope you found this post interesting and useful.
