SSAA NSW

Tilterweira Youth Camp Just like any trip, packing for a hunting trip takes forever. Working out what is just enough of the right stuff and nothing else is the hard bit. We left home at 8:00am on Saturday to board the bus at St Mary's Indoor Shooting Centre. When we arrived, some of the others we had met at the 'meet and greet' evening were already there loading their stuff into the bus and trailer. I have been hunting a couple of times before on the Parent and Child hunting trips that are held at Tilterweira every year during the school winter holidays. I've always enjoyed these trips and I was keen to see what the Tilterweira Youth Camp was like and how enjoyable it would be, as this is the only camp in Australia where young people can attend a hunting camp designed specifically for them. When everyone was ready we left at around 9:00am stopping at Mudgee for lunch. Then it was off to Trangie which was where we were sleeping for the night in old train carriages set up with bunk beds inside them. After a long day of travel, everyone was in bed by 8:30pm! Up early the next morning we left at 8:00am, filled the bus with fuel and continued our journey to Tilterweira stopping in Bourke for lunch. After Bourke it was dirt roads and corrugations all the way to Tilterweira. For the next three hours the bus was shaking and bouncing up and down all the way to Tilterweira, putting the bus on its threshold of falling into thousands of pieces. When we arrived at Tilterweira everyone found their stuff in the back of the trailer covered in an inch of red dust. After shaking the dust out of our bags everyone put their belongings in the rooms we were sharing. After dinner Robert did a presentation on bullet placement. The next morning everyone had a range shoot to check the sighting in of the rifles after the 250km of corrugated roads between Bourke to Wanaaring. Everyone had a great time firing the centrefires that were going to be used during the hunting as well as seeing how quickly we could put a certain number of .22 rounds into a target at 50 metres. After the range practice we all had lunch and a rest. That afternoon everyone piled into the utes at the property and Robert showed us all the places we would be hunting for the week, mainly in the south-eastern part of the property. We then went down to the river to place some yabby traps in the river and have some cool off time in the canoes. When we got down there we decided to check the pig trap and found two feral pigs trapped inside. After radioing the homestead Robert came down to the river with his .243. The big boar was in a pretty aggressive mood, charging at the gate and the trap fence and nearly breaking through. Robert shot it first while we were all looking from a safe distance. Another camper, Toby, then shot the sow in the trap. The next morning it was a shock to wake up at 5:00am am and go off to our designated hunting areas for the morning. It is an amazing experience hunting before the sun comes up because it is much easier to walk through the bush and all the animals are more relaxed and easier to stalk. About halfway through the hunt one of the supervisors shot a meat goat and we watched the goat being prepared for skinning and even though I have done this before it is always interesting to watch how other people prepare the carcasses. This also lifted everyone's spirits during that day. After lunch we went down to the river to check the yabby traps, unfortunately there weren't many so we threw them back.

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