Been a bit busy lately, but never too busy to report on the feral animal control operation that took me off the forums for the first two weeks of September.
Six of us travelled to the allotted property and set up camp at the station-house this year, which sure beats river-bank tarpaulins when shooting dawn till dusk. Unfortunately the waterholes were much drier than in previous years, the river having flowed only once during the preceding wet season. Most of the thick stuff along the river-bank was knocked down by cattle, so the shotguns were not as useful as we had hoped. There were plenty of pigs of course, however the large numbers of suckers we relied on for numbers in previous years were not in evidence this year. Family groups were still the mainstay, with a scattering of big boars mainly taken out on the plains. Twelve days of hard shooting resulted in 539 pigs and 3 feral cats, not a bad result under the circumstances.

We all like photos of course, so here's a few to give a general impression of the shooting:

Large numbers of pigs were heading out onto the Mitchell-grass plains to feed at night, returning around sun-up next morning. These 'pig highways' were common around the permanant waterholes:

Family groups still made up the bulk of pigs taken, and it was cause for celebration when a mob was successfully stalked or ambushed with no survivors!

This mob of 12 pigs, including 4 suckers, were ambushed as they walked in to water.

I spotted the sow sheltering under a log, and called my partner over. At the shot, out ran 3 half-growns and 4 young suckers.

These eight young pigs were sheltering under a prickle-bush in the open.
Two of us sneaked in for the bomb-up, no pig made more than a few metres.

Plenty of decent boars were taken too, although the ivory was nothing to write home about this year. Here's a few examples:

This fellow almost made his escape by running interference with a mob of cattle. Once clear, I nailed him on the run at well over 200 metres from an improvised rest against a handy tree (one of the very few!).

Nice boar extracted from the tail-end of a mob of about 25 camped in the open at this bore overflow.

This animal sat up as I approached his camp-tree, so he copped a 140gr 6.5 Sierra in the pump. Still ran 30 metres though!

Jumped from his bed at the base of an embankment, this red boar stopped to look back and caught a bullet behind the ear.

Shaggy old boar covered in noogoora burr. Initial shot was too far back as he took off at full gallop, but forward angle helped (along with accurate back-up shot from my partner!).

...and of course the highlight in terms of difficulty: two feral cats! We reckon they're worth about 20 pigs each!

It's very satisfying to be able to conduct this type of activity to assist pastoralists and land managers at a time when Australian shooters are still trying to recover from the public vilification we suffered under the Howard government. Shooters are the largest and most pro-active group of practicing conservationists this country will ever know.