Thanks guys. Nikki was over in the gravel-pit on the first rotation, and returned safely earlier this year. She was early in and late back, so a couple of months longer than the standard six months. The second rotation has just returned too I believe. I'll pass on your sentiments, Al. I'm real proud of her too!

If that Taipan had struck bone, it certainly wouldn't have made the second lung. They are marvellous bullets, very accurate and relatively inexpensive, and I love 'em, but they are bombs and not suitable for large or dangerous game. On the buff pictured above, it would have made little difference as the first shot was a perfect killer, the animal just didn't realise it was dead yet! We tend to keep firing if they're still on their feet: the old 'unwritten rule'! No braggin'-rights for one-shot kills around here!

And further to that, I've been present at a number of stuff-ups over the years where inexperienced hunters tried to kill a big bull with a .30-cal. Many thousands were shot with .308s during the big cull, but from a Toyota or a helicopter. For walking-up big bulls on foot in remote country, only a fool would carry a .308. I agree with John's comments (and others) on the other thread: 9.3 or .375 is a practical minimum, with over-.40 highly desirable. Even so, they rarely drop to the first shot.

Mickey: a bit like Africa, once you get inland a couple hundred kilometres the temperature can drop almost to zero overnight (rarely) in June/July/August. Five degrees C is common, but 10 degrees would be closer to an 'average' overnight minimum during what we call a 'cold snap' (Yeah, yeah, I know you 'snow-gophers' are gonna laugh!). These occur when we get a large high pressure system sitting over our southern coastline, which funnels a cold air-stream straight from Antarctica up through central Australia to the Top End.

9ThreeXFifty7: if our two daughters ever got together, we'd probably never get them apart!