Jump to content

First solo backpack hunt- advice requested


Recommended Posts

Hi all, I'm heading out to East Gippsland for a 3 night backpack hunt in a State Forest next weekend, looking for Sambar. I've never done a backpack hunt before, so I was hoping you guys could look over my equipment list and see if I've forgotten anything essential. I'll be setting up my first camp about 1km from the car and then just going where the chase takes me for the next couple of nights. I've never hunted Sambar before, so I'm hoping for the best, but fully prepared for 4 days of armed bushwalking if it doesn't pan out. 

My equipment list is as follows:

Camp gear: Hammock, Tarp, Sleeping Bag, 30m of paracord for shelter. Small gas bottle and stove (in theory, I'm not allowed to light fires, but I might check with the DELWPSRDT or whatever they're currently called to see if there's any wiggle room on this), two lighters, vaseline impregnated cotton balls for use as firelighters. Headlamp and a small torch.

I also have a billy, plate, small frypan (for fresh deer liver, if it happens to appear), cutlery etc. Bog roll and unscented baby wipes, first aid kit, emergency blanket, meat bags, and a couple of large garbage bags for my own mess, and anyone else's that I might find. Also, a small axe.

Food and water: a few dehydrated meals for dinner, a few Clif Bars for snacks, salami, cheese and crackers for lunches, oats and coffee for breakfast. I'm taking 3 litres of water in with me, as theres the start of a few streams in my hunting area, but I will have more water in the car if I need to head back and get it. Also, water purification tablets if I find dodgy looking water.

Hunting gear: Rifle, 10 rounds of ammo, binos, knives (skinning knife and my old dad's locking folder), multitool, a couple of scraps of hi-vis to attach to antlers if I get any so I don't look like a target wandering around..

Map and compass, just to make sure I don't cross into National Park at any stage.

Is there any glaring omissions that anyone can see? I'd welcome any tips!

Cheers!

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey mate, sounds like your on the money. It takes a few trips to get your kit down pat. I'm sure the fire thing won't be a problem at this time of year but pays to check. Also it gets bloody cold out there so hopefully your sleeping bag is well rated. Not sure how good the reception will be where you are going? In case of an emergency it pays to have backup battery pack to keep your phone charged. And if the reception is poor or nothing it pays to have a personal locating beacon with you. Myself, I always take a personal location beacon. They can be a little pricy but could be the difference between being found and not if the shit hits the fan. A worthy investment, especially if you are doing it often. I also carry a uhf radio. Binoculars are a must also. Take your time, these Sambar have big ears and will move off quicker and quieter than you can imagine. Glass through the scrub as far as you can then move and repeat. Good luck out there and be safe.


Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, ANZAC said:

Myself, I always take a personal location beacon. They can be a little pricy but could be the difference between being found and not if the shit hits the fan. A worthy investment, especially if you are doing it often.

 Yes a PLB is a super investment for sure. I wouldn't say that they are pricey especially with what they offer if a busted ankle stops you from walking out.

Ten years @ under $30 a year is almost a must if one is doing solo`s.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, ANZAC said:

Hey mate, sounds like your on the money. It takes a few trips to get your kit down pat. I'm sure the fire thing won't be a problem at this time of year but pays to check. Also it gets bloody cold out there so hopefully your sleeping bag is well rated. Not sure how good the reception will be where you are going? In case of an emergency it pays to have backup battery pack to keep your phone charged. And if the reception is poor or nothing it pays to have a personal locating beacon with you. Myself, I always take a personal location beacon. They can be a little pricy but could be the difference between being found and not if the shit hits the fan. A worthy investment, especially if you are doing it often. I also carry a uhf radio. Binoculars are a must also. Take your time, these Sambar have big ears and will move off quicker and quieter than you can imagine. Glass through the scrub as far as you can then move and repeat. Good luck out there and be safe.


Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk
 

Thanks for that. My sleeping bag is pretty good, and I have insulation for the hammock, so I should be warm enough. I'm pretty sure reception will be patchy, but hopefully not too bad, and I've already spoken to the local police on the phone and will be dropping in to show my planned first nights camp and also when I should be dropping back in on the way home. A PLB is a good investment, but I'm stretching the budget as it is this time around, though it'll certainly be in my kit for the next trip. Backup phone power is something I will be taking though.

I'm planning on taking it super easy, I'd rather have a few nights camping and no fresh meat than dead stag and a broken ankle! Everything I've read mentions taking it slow, so I'll be doing a little walking and a lot of looking, which sounds pretty damn relaxing anyway.

2 hours ago, Seb said:

Depending on which national park you are near you may be allowed to hunt it. Check before you go

Cheers Seb, I was hoping that would be the case, but I'll but up near Snowy River, which is a no-go zone. There's a lot of deer in that park, but I'll just have to wait until they open it up.

Edited to add: Actually, just sold a guitar, so a PLB is on the cards. Any recommendations?

Edited by Croan Choille
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Howdy,  looks like you got enuff stuff to do 3 nights ,  a pack of noodles or 2 goes a long way for a warm quick feed at any stage of the trip and very light weight.  salami is great but weighs up as does cheese, its a luxury item for sure but if your onlya K or so away you can afford to pack heavy for sure!

with the hammock i assume the insulation mat is good qual as thats where you will lose alot of your heat, or gain the cold from any breeze etc..

re the fire you will be right especially if just light it after dark an use til sleep, then start when wake if needed by having prepared tinder an shit to getit goin quick an then out before ya go huntin...  easy.

 

yep, just go for a slow armed bush walk into chosen spot, sounds like your packing up each morning? this can be good to follow the animal or sign an into productive ground, but base camping once in good location is most simplest.

enjoy man and do drop back in with your results, what ya learnt and what you will do different next time.

 

 

warm barrels



 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, WhelanLad said:

Howdy,  looks like you got enuff stuff to do 3 nights ,  a pack of noodles or 2 goes a long way for a warm quick feed at any stage of the trip and very light weight.  salami is great but weighs up as does cheese, its a luxury item for sure but if your onlya K or so away you can afford to pack heavy for sure!

with the hammock i assume the insulation mat is good qual as thats where you will lose alot of your heat, or gain the cold from any breeze etc..

re the fire you will be right especially if just light it after dark an use til sleep, then start when wake if needed by having prepared tinder an shit to getit goin quick an then out before ya go huntin...  easy.

 

yep, just go for a slow armed bush walk into chosen spot, sounds like your packing up each morning? this can be good to follow the animal or sign an into productive ground, but base camping once in good location is most simplest.

enjoy man and do drop back in with your results, what ya learnt and what you will do different next time.

 

 

warm barrels



 

Thanks mate, yeah, taking a couple of luxury items because I'm pretty low on weight, my pack should be less than 15kgs all told. I agree about the fire, I'm not interested in having a massive bonfire, just small cooking fire and a little hand warmer at night. 

Definitely planning on packing out each morning, I'm arriving about 2pm on Thursday, so I figured I could hike in and be set up on the north side of a stream by 4 for a bit of glassing around and hopefully I can locate a wallow down in the creek. If I was camping back a few hundred metres from the creek hopefully I won't spook any game first thing and I can catch them moving up the opposite slope into the sun. If it's a dead zone, I'll move further downstream and try to find a better location by mid afternoon. Rinse and repeat. 

Cheers! 

Edited by Croan Choille
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, an update on all this, now that Ive had time to reflect....

I started out at Silvertop Track in the Orbost State Forest, and pulled into a logging coupe to have a look around. The bush there is very thick, and a local bloke pulled in about 20 mins after me and told me he was spending the weekend hound hunting there. He directed me to another logging coupe off Cooney Ridge Road, which was a bit better but still quite thick (I'm giving locations, because someone might want to hound hunt out that way, but I don't think I'll go back, the fire regeneration is just too thick). The weather was quite warm on the Thursday, and there were plenty of snakes around ( I saw 3), which seriously held up my stalking, as I am only recently married, and don't want to leave a young widow. It was a cold night, and a very still morning, which meant I could actually feel the thermals, so I got a good understanding of how they work, so that's a positive for next time. 

Friday was more of the same, quite hot (it got up to 24), and stalking down a north-easterly face was slow and sweaty work.  I kept the wind in my face, and stalked down to the bottom of the gully, and while I definitely felt like things were looking right, I didn't see any deer. I'm not sure if the right thing to do is to keep moving, or to sit and wait (newbie hunter), so I sat for about 45 minutes (until 1 o'clock) and kept my eye on the bush, but to no avail. I went into Orbost for lunch, and spoke with some old guys in the pub who shared their advice on locations, and marked down some ideas for next time. Back in the afternoon I walked down the western face of the gully, which was wooded with quite large trees at the bottom, which I hoped would mean more open ground for stalking. I found a couple of game trails, but as there was a storm rolling in, the light failed before dusk truly was upon me. That night there was a spectacular storm which made the temperature drop from 24 to 7 in about an hour. Then heaps of rain, and really strong winds.

Saturday was a very cold, windy morning, and I decided that the bush was just too thick, so I should pack up and try the areas I'd been told about the day before. I was driving out of the forest and on the way I saw what looked like a more clear area that had didn't have the dense bush that I had been dealing with for the last two days, so I pulled over and had a look around. I walked down a couple of logging tracks and just when I was about to give up, I came across a game trail with recent hoof prints (I could tell they were from the morning because they weren't filled with water from the storm). I was tracking along the trail for about an hour, and passed what I'm assuming is a rub tree (see attached photo). The trail went around the base of a small hill covered in Bracken, and I assumed there was deer on top as it was in the sun, and it had been a hell of a night for being out in the open. As I was stalking around the hill, the wind shifted, and I heard hoofbeats, so I can only assume I was sniffed out... I had a brief stalk in another area, but heard shots upwind of me, so I guess the gully was flushed out before I got there.

Things I learned from my trip:

1. Be prepared! I have never in my life been bitten by mosquitos, including all the years I lived in North Queensland, but the East Gippsland mosquitos devoured me, so I couldn't camp like I wanted. In addition to not having mosquito repellant, I also didn't have a day pack, which would have come in handy, as I didn't need my giant backpack for a couple of food items, my PLB, and a bottle of water. It was too big and got in the way constantly. Also, a sleeping bag mat would have made sleeping in the car much better, I was freezing at night, which made the early mornings a hassle, instead of being a joy. My trip would have been vastly improved with these two items, which I had in my house.

2. While patience is a virtue, if an area is not right, just move along. I probably wasted half the time I was out stalking trying to deal with thick undergrowth, and bad visibility.

3. Good optics are essential. I borrowed some binos for this trip which were woefully inadequate, my scope was better at looking into low-light areas, and that was a massive hassle.

4. It takes about 4 times as long to stalk, as it does to walk the same distance.

20190928_080529.jpg

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good to see you're getting out there. I bet you that deer was watching you.

Looking at that tree I would guess that the bark is like that from another tree hitting it in the wind. You will know a rub when you see it. These two photos aren't fresh rubs but you can see how the antlers have torn strips out and left divots in the trunk. Next time drag your fingernail across the tree and you will get an idea of what a fresh rub looks like, Whelan lad taught me that.Screenshot_2019-10-07-18-31-45-577_com.instagram.android.png.edc1049318ba04dacabf3839780fe1c4.pngScreenshot_2019-10-07-18-31-10-387_com.instagram.android.png.eca197a9e384cfb360182a0fc9c18956.png

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

39 minutes ago, Croan Choille said:

In addition to not having mosquito repellant

Hey mate, instead of spraying that stinky stuff on ya, around camp try a Thermacell, we swear by them here, had 3 going in the boat the other night and the mozzies just hovered above us just haunting us with the annoying buzzing noise, they were thick!

https://www.thermacell.com/pages/how-it-works

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Croan Choille said:

1. Be prepared! I have never in my life been bitten by mosquitos, including all the years I lived in North Queensland, but the East Gippsland mosquitos devoured me, so I couldn't camp like I wanted. In addition to not having mosquito repellant,

 

They occasionally get outbreaks of Ross River Fever along that way. Something to look out for.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 07/10/2019 at 7:05 PM, Burners said:

Hey mate, instead of spraying that stinky stuff on ya, around camp try a Thermacell, we swear by them here, had 3 going in the boat the other night and the mozzies just hovered above us just haunting us with the annoying buzzing noise, they were thick!

https://www.thermacell.com/pages/how-it-works

 

Are they really that good?

 

Still work in windy conditions?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Canguro said:

Are they really that good?

 

Still work in windy conditions?

Depends how windy I guess, they wouldn't work in gale force, wouldn't bother with mozzie coils or citronella candles again

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...