Quick afternoon local lower Hunter Valley Hunting wander for Fallow Deer and Wild Pigs in December 2019. Property owner has been noticing an increase in pig sign, unusual for this area so I though it worth a quick look around.

Bit of ATV Hunting on a family members farm. Scope view night vision & daytime footage hunting Foxes Rabbits & Feral Cat. The final reduction tally was 16 foxes, 1 feral cat, 40-50 rabbits and 6 crows.
Late December 2019.

Hunting Gear Tips - I’ve shortlisted the Top 5 Items I take on EVERY SINGLE HUNT which help in the field.

Fortunately, I live in a location with hunting access that gets me in the bush most weeks. So over time you quickly learn what works and what is a waste of time. I could prattle on for hours on hunting gear and what I take but these are the 5 accessories that I take on all my hunts be that deer hunting, calling foxes or shooting feral pigs off the quad bike.

These five items assume that you have the staples like a rifle or bow, backpack, clothes boots etc.

Item #1 - Great Binoculars - I can't understate these enough. Get the best you can buy, you don't have to spend $3k to get sharp optics, just do your research and if possible try before you buy in low light. You'll use them for hours on end, or at least you should. Look more, walk less is a good motto. And to look more, in detail you are best served with a pair of binoculars. So many people pump huge dollars into a rifle scope, And I'm not saying that's a bad thing, If you’ve the cash go right ahead. But you'll look through that scope on a deer hunt potentially once for 15 seconds.... But bino's, you'll run the socks off in use all the time. So get good ones and you'll be much more inclined to use them on every hunt.

Item #2 - Bino chest pouch - Neck straps suck, simple, they allow your bino's to flop around, especially climbing around and under things like trees and fences, I've just never been a fan.
I ran a Vortex elastic bino harness for years and liked it, At a minimum get something like that for about $30-40.
About a year ago I finally got a bino chest pack and man o man I wish I'd done that sooner, my hunting mate said the same thing after he got one last year too. No more bouncing swinging bino's, They are easy to access your optics as you don’t need to run lens covers, They balance and distribute the weight your carrying well and they offer great protection for your expensive glass. Additionally you can run a rangefinder, GPS, wind check, range card and other handy items in the side pockets or by adding side pouches. The easier things are to access the better and less fumbling on a hunt. An added bonus I’ve found is if you take the bino’s out a chest pouch is a great storage option when night hunting for a thermal or NV monucular.

Item #4 - Safari Sling - Just get one, Best thing ever. Puts your rifle on the front and super fast to shoot. Makes carrying a rifle ready to shoot in seconds a breeze. Plenty of times I’ve thought I was in a non productive hunting area, or just walking back to the car, you glance over and
shit - Something I want to shoot has busted me unprepared. With a safari sling there’s no more trying to do that stealthy / unstealthy rifle jiggle as you unsuccessfully attempt to smoothly slip the rifle off your shoulder on a traditional sling without moving around and startling the animal you’ve just bumped up. With a Safari sling all that unnecessary body movement is eliminated as your rifle is all but in your hands ready to shoot always, but your not actually holding it in your hands

Item #4 - Soft Bullet Holder. Prepare your credit card - Go punch into eBay - buttstock ammo holder. These elastic wonder things are made to slip over your rifle buttstock and well, hold ammo. Get the type to suit your general cartridge diameter size (They are quite universal). This epic item costs around four bucks thirty three cents from China, so very expensive. Now once you have it - Get some scissors or a sharp knife and cut it down to “this” and burn the edges to stop it fraying. Now you have a very quiet way to hold bullets and brass in your pocket or pack that isn’t bulky and it cost you next to nothing. I hate rattling shells in a pocket whilst trying to hunt, this is an easy, not bulky and cheap solution

Item #5 - Nitecore NU25 Headlight - I find being so light and compact it’s always in my hunting pack or belt. They are USB rechargeable which I like for backpack hunts as I take a small power bank, but it’s simple to charge at home on a phone charger lead too (micro USB). This light has three different light sources. Good main beam with various powers and run times. It has a Hi CRI flood beam which is great for camp use and pictures, I use this a bunch as it’s a really nice beam in close and with the Hi CRi it shows natural colours, not the white washed out regular LED most lights are. And the red LED with two brightness levels I use a bunch when walking around as it's doesn't spook the critters much and I can see where I’m stepping. The runtimes for a light this small and light are very impressive and with the three light sources in one body it’s super handy I find. Often your walking into or out of a hunting area in the dark so a nice light headlamp will serve you much better than the light on your mobile phone - Yes, I’m sure most people have been reduced to using the phone light in a pinch and isn’t that fun

Hunting Foxes NSW Australia 2020. Joint me on a Hunter Valley property hunting foxes and rabbits in January 2020. Of a nighttime on foot I'm using a thermal monocular and a night vision rifle scope. Hunting Foxes is a necessary control measure to reduce these invasive species. The are extremely damaging to our native animals and spread diseases.

My thoughts / review of the newer Kuiu Pro Binocular Harness and the Original Kuiu Binocular Harness.

A short wander on foot night hunting for foxes & rabbits with the thermal scanner and NV scope. No wild dogs about ATM, found two foxes and shot one. I ended up shooting a bunch of rats on a rubbish pile with the 17HMR from 40 meters. Good practice as the little buggers jump around a lot, Was an interesting little challenge to say the least.

I was completely surprised to end up shooting this Chital Stag on a local Fallow deer hunt. Have never heard a report of Axis Deer in the area and neither had the land owners. Nice little suprise to get I'll say that, freezer will be nice and full now.

It's a yearly passion for me to go fallow buck hunting in the deer rut. For 2020 it's been limited to area's very close to home with the Covid-19 restrictions. What follows is a few afternoons and mornings chasing the bucks around.

Hunting Wild Dogs in Australia. Another breeding pair of wild dogs removed last night with the 204 Ruger fitted with a thermal scope. These elusive evasive feral pests can be a huge challenge for the hunter to target. They are extremely in-tuned with their environment and super spooky to get within ethical shooting range of, even with passive night hunting equipment. Every wild dog that is reduced is a huge win for our agricultural industry and native animals. As you will see in the video these wild dogs were eating a native Australian Wombat which they would have killed.

I seem to get some strange questions around the hunting of these wild dogs. They are interbred over generations between escaped domestic animals and our Australian dingo. In Australia they are an animal that land owners loath due to the damage they do.

No - A mature wild dog cannot be domesticated (yes I have been asked that). It would be like capturing a wild lion and attempting to make it a house pet.

I'm back on the local lucerne flats night hunting problem foxes again. Perfect area for my Lithgow LA101 17HMR fitted with a PARD NV008 LRF night vision scope. Thermal conditions were I think the best I have ever been in. Low humidity and 6°C. I was picking out hare body signatures at over 500 yards with ease. I've certainly put a good dent in the fox numbers on this small block. That's 13 foxes down in a short space of time. The farmer is very impressed with the effectiveness of thermal and night vision for hunting foxes. Winning all round

This rabbit hunting trip was a zip out to a property I haven't hunted in over 10 years. Used to hold decent rabbit numbers and a fair few foxes. I was keen to get out on my new ATV Quadbike and give the thermal scope and scanner a run on the rabbits. Since the drought broke the grass has really shot up, The owner had warned me it was quite hard to see the rabbits and foxes but no way I was staying home. As you will see I racked up a fair old tally of rabbits shot with the thermal scope. I also shot a large feral cat and everyone know's I love nailing them.

This ATV hunting setup video is a walk around and description of how I have built up my new hunting ATV quadbike. Hopefully it will help others who own, or plan to own and hunt off an ATV quadbike. It's certainly a topic I have been asked about on my previous Honda hunting quadbike. I figured when I purchased this newer 2017 Suzuki King Quad 500 AXI that it would be a good chance to show you guys and gals the rig.

The setup works for me, It's not a huge change from the last ATV quadbike I'd owned for 12 years.

Local Friday night bunny busting wild rabbits. Plenty of the little buggers about but my 17HMR was hungry tonight. I'll definitely have to hit this place often to mop more rabbits up. Unfortunately they are making a hell of a mess on the open grass areas and underneath a few structures here. As you will see the effectiveness of night vision and passive shooting with the PARD NV008 is very efficient.

Great little hunting trip on the ATV to some new country. We found feral goats, foxes, feral cats and rabbits. Also some wild pig sign as this location certainly holds them. Lots of promise with plenty of great area's. Unfortunately after all the rain since the drought broke the thistles are just so thick and tall. I now have all the boundary and a heap of hot spots plotted out in the GPS. Next trip should be a little easier to navigate around and get more ferals on the deck.

My thoughts and Review on this newly released Olight Javelot Turbo flashlight. Awesome white beam torch for a hunting / shooting light.

My thoughts with plenty of scope footage using the Pulsar Thermion XQ50 Thermal Rifle Scope. Always a lot of money to spend on a thermal rifle scope and the Thermion XQ50 is no exception, These things are expensive. I've put the XQ50 Thermion through some harsh field use over a few months and I'm now ready to let you know my unbiased, unsponsored impression of a thermal scope I purchased as a regular consumer.

I will link below to Arms and Ammo who I purchased the scope from. The staff there had the XQ50 Thermion shipped in overnight and I couldn't be happier with service like that. If you are looking at a pulsar offering it is well worth giving Tommy and the crew a call to see what they can do for you.

This little hunt was in a NSW state forest near Nundle. I'd planned to do some deer and pig hunting while we had a nice night in the bush camping. Mainly I just wanted to spend some time in the forest with my 5yr old little boy and brother in law Steve from 4WD Recon Australia. We are legally permitted to hunt public land under the NSW R license system, So I wasn't passing up the chance to take the 30/06 and have a few little opportunistic hunts while the boys spent some time in camp together. While always positively optimistic about hunting in a busy state forest that has no shortage of pressure. You could imagine my excitement taking a big mountain boar right on the doorstep of camp.

Hunt those marginal skerrick's of first and last light guys, This pig was shot in timbered cover right on the fringe of dawn. I'd awoken in the dark and started scanning with the bino's straight away when light permitted. Fortunately I'm running a high quality Swarovski rifle scope with an illuminated reticle so I could positively ID and aim. Who knows where this big boy was wandering too before the sun popped up.

The journey up to the forest through Glenrock and Barry station was a drive I'd wanted to do for a long time, Steve's 4x4 rig was more than adequate for that task and the scenery was amazing.

This ATV hunting trip was off to a rough start with all the recent rain. The planned hunting property was cancelled mid route and I diverted to another (Fortunately). Unfortunately for all the rabbits I had packed gear for a pig and goat hunt. So the little pests copped it with the 308 Win running 130gr Speer Hollow Points. Massively over-gunned but at least it's ethical, If messy........

I didn't think a specific mouse hunt with thermal was on the cards for me, EVER. But as you will see I certainly thinned a few pests out with the little Lithgow LA101 22LR running the Thermion XQ50 thermal rifle scope. If anything it was excellent shooting practice and a great first official hunt for my new 22LR. Some of you guys thought it entertaining that I shot a mouse with my 308win recently. Well I can assure you the 22LR shooting CCI Stingers at 1620fps had a better result with much less noise and cost.

I gain a lot of my private property access to do specific pest control for the owners. If they call for a little hand, I'll do what I can. After talking to the 72yr old farmer he has only seen a mouse plague like this 3 times in all his years. Certainly something I have not experienced. And I can only imagine how annoying it must be living out there. It was an odd thing with that many mice about, they are quite vocal in the paddocks at night chirping and squeeking at one another as they scurry around.

I very nearly called this video mouse masacre but though it was rough enough without that fanfare.

Hunting Aussie predators, AKA - Wild Dogs and Foxes. This is the first use for my freshly customised Tikka T3 with a carbon fibre wrapped barrel and carbon fibre rifle stock. Cartridge choice I have gone with 6mm BR. Very happy with it so far.

This specific property has sustained some recent livestock losses to the wild dogs unfortunately. No they are NOT dingo's I'm hunting. As usual foxes are on the cards only once I've exhausted options on the wild dogs.