Good Shooting
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Good Shooting
I reckon a group like this would have seen some good marksmen shooting from the machine. I remember Smokin Dan the DPI officer when working in the Cape. I saw him shoot 14 head of cattle once in a line working from the tail, all single shots, heart lung shots. He only had to put a finisher in 2. And then there is that guy Lindsay in Halls Creek, he's a head shot specialist on Donkeys. Of course no one was shooting back for our operations.
And Dick the manager of Moola Bulla in WA, he would land his Cessna 180 anywhere after the muster, jump in the machine and go back shooting any Donkeys we had seen. Best day was about 600.
And Dick the manager of Moola Bulla in WA, he would land his Cessna 180 anywhere after the muster, jump in the machine and go back shooting any Donkeys we had seen. Best day was about 600.
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Well, I would be the opposite of that.
In a flood out west in 1983, I came across a pack of feral pigs in knee-deep water. I was carrying a .38 revolver loaded with wad-cutters (light, blunt, target practice rounds).
I hovered beside the chosen pig, (the biggest one and most likely to be hit) and of course it was running away from me. Cyclic between the knees, put the first round up its @rse to make it turn around, then four or five more wad-cutters put enough holes in it so it filled with water and sank.
Not as efficient as the fella beside me with a Ruger Mini 14. His rounds were going straight through the pigs, so took some side cutters and nipped off the bullet tips. After that, each round blew a pile of guts out the other side and instant kill.
In a flood out west in 1983, I came across a pack of feral pigs in knee-deep water. I was carrying a .38 revolver loaded with wad-cutters (light, blunt, target practice rounds).
I hovered beside the chosen pig, (the biggest one and most likely to be hit) and of course it was running away from me. Cyclic between the knees, put the first round up its @rse to make it turn around, then four or five more wad-cutters put enough holes in it so it filled with water and sank.
Not as efficient as the fella beside me with a Ruger Mini 14. His rounds were going straight through the pigs, so took some side cutters and nipped off the bullet tips. After that, each round blew a pile of guts out the other side and instant kill.
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Goat shooting one day i watched a guy get out of a 500 and walk upto a two goats that where huddled up under an old log and let rip with a semi auto shotgun using buckshot!! he was only about 2 feet away from them!! needless to say we made him walk back as he was coverd in s 
t!!! if only i had a camera!!
t!!! if only i had a camera!!
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Yup, it's great sport shooting animals from a helicopter - for no good reason that I can see based on the posts so far.
I say, give some lifer criminals sniper rifles and/or RPGs, set them loose, and see how brave y'all are.
Dave Blevins
I say, give some lifer criminals sniper rifles and/or RPGs, set them loose, and see how brave y'all are.
Dave Blevins
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For about 15 years, about 1980 to1995 we had a Brucilosis and Tuberculosis Eradication campaign (BTEC) here in Aus where I think about 190,000 feral cattle were shot from Helicopters. There is also a huge feral donkey problem in north western Australia. I have heard of sought after Government contracts where up to 40,000 donkeys were shot each year. I think that it not so big nowadays.
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Why is it that there is always someone commenting on things that they know nothing about ??????????(blave)
Goats used to be a massive problem out West, not now though. Govt. couldn't beat them so they opened the market for the sale of feral goats, getting good prices too.
Good shooting Tex.
Goats used to be a massive problem out West, not now though. Govt. couldn't beat them so they opened the market for the sale of feral goats, getting good prices too.
Good shooting Tex.
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Blade Root,
You're correct - being in the US, I know little about those sort of eradication efforts, but the first few posts said nothing about that context of location and/or the problem at hand - only about shooting living things from a helicopter and how "hard" that is. As you may surmise I am no fan of killing animals for sport, and that's how the opening posts read to me.
I think that if you took some average person off the street that knows nothing of such things and let them read those posts, they'd be horrified too.
I will try harder to keep an open mind now that you have ?enlightened? me. Just keep that bloody thing pointed away from me.
dB.
You're correct - being in the US, I know little about those sort of eradication efforts, but the first few posts said nothing about that context of location and/or the problem at hand - only about shooting living things from a helicopter and how "hard" that is. As you may surmise I am no fan of killing animals for sport, and that's how the opening posts read to me.
I think that if you took some average person off the street that knows nothing of such things and let them read those posts, they'd be horrified too.
I will try harder to keep an open mind now that you have ?enlightened? me. Just keep that bloody thing pointed away from me.
dB.
And for those who would like to try there hand at it...
http://www.adventuresnz.co.nz/hunting.html
A good page with a brief history on commercial helicopter hunting operations in New Zealand:
http://www.geocities.com/nedu537/helihunt/
A good DVD to get hold of is "The Last Great Adventure" which tells the story of commercial deer recovery in NZ with some great footage of the live capture of animals for the US Parks Service.
http://www.videosouth.com/wares.html#
http://www.adventuresnz.co.nz/hunting.html
A good page with a brief history on commercial helicopter hunting operations in New Zealand:
http://www.geocities.com/nedu537/helihunt/
A good DVD to get hold of is "The Last Great Adventure" which tells the story of commercial deer recovery in NZ with some great footage of the live capture of animals for the US Parks Service.
http://www.videosouth.com/wares.html#
Last edited by BigMike; 23rd Sep 2005 at 14:06.
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....still one of my favorite photo's.
Edit by Heliport
Picture by: Tony Overman
A staff photojournalist for The Olympian, published in Olympia, Washington State
Vice President National Press Photographers Association
Edit by Heliport
Picture by: Tony Overman
A staff photojournalist for The Olympian, published in Olympia, Washington State
Vice President National Press Photographers Association
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Big Russ
Think I must know you!
Was at Moola Bulla 2 months ago and saw only 2 donkeys the whole time. So somebody's done a good job!
Many years ago I had a shooter use a full auto SKK out of my 300 shooting brumbies. That was brutal. Very quick and effective on the brumbies. Too bad about the spent shells flying into the blades though.......
Think I must know you!
Was at Moola Bulla 2 months ago and saw only 2 donkeys the whole time. So somebody's done a good job!
Many years ago I had a shooter use a full auto SKK out of my 300 shooting brumbies. That was brutal. Very quick and effective on the brumbies. Too bad about the spent shells flying into the blades though.......
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I agree. Great picture.
It was taken by Tony Overman, a staff photojournalist for The Olympian, published in Olympia, Washington State.
I don't know where or when. It was posted in our 'Rotorheads Around the World' collection some time ago.
Click here for some more amazing pics.
It was taken by Tony Overman, a staff photojournalist for The Olympian, published in Olympia, Washington State.
I don't know where or when. It was posted in our 'Rotorheads Around the World' collection some time ago.
Click here for some more amazing pics.
Hmm, looks like a herd of young elk. Far right one looks like it is about to be shot in the ass with a dart (that little white streak about 5 feet away). Probably tranqulizer, elk aren't plentiful enough anywhere in North America (N-registration, US 206) to cull.
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The DPI shooters used to run these camps that would go for a couple of weeks. There would usually be 4 or 5 machines on the job. Lots of Barramundi fishing and party time. (sensibly conducted of course). There were usually a few extra shooters to carry in rotation. Some were excellent shots, some not so good. I remember one officer i carried north of Mt. Isa, he was such a crook shot from the machine i ended up putting him on the ground and driving the feral cattle to him, fortunately there were only a few to be destroyed. On the big shooting camps in the early days and depending on the area up to 3000 head in one campout were destroyed. Some of the DPI officers would get sores on their shoulders from the constant firing. I heard one story that the Tennant Creek DPP one year bought more 308 rounds than the Australian army.
Bigruss
I'm thinking we know each other from "way back".
For those unfamiliar with the period of time mentioned by bigruss and just to add my 2 bob's worth about the feral animal culls - the main concern was simply that the top end of Australia had a major problem with animals that had been introduced by European settlement.
After roads were extablished and the advent of motor vehicles, animals such as Camels, donkeys, buffalo, horses were let loose and then started to build big feral populations.
I was involved in a lot of the control shoots thru the eighties and the government was trying to reduce the feral herd size due the fear of Foot and mouth and other such problems coming in thru illegal boat immigrants.
I flew the 12E and 47G 3B1 and just looked up some of my logs and noted an average day consisted of 3 X 3 + hour sorties.
We shot about 25K donkeys per 4 or 5 weeks with the best being 548 in a total sortie flight time of 1.75 hrs.
The good white shooters averaged about 3.5 rounds per animal while an aboriginal shooter I teamed with for a few years averaged 1.5.
It sounds like a turkey shoot - but far from it as the animals were running full tit, often down wind, the nachine was floating in and out of transition, the flight path was usually with the nose offset about 45 degrees (for the shooter to aim forward), usually it was very rough, rocky, sandstone hills strewn with bush. Temp averaged about 35 - 40 C, humidity above 85% after October, always a wind, unbearable glare reflecting back thru the bubble, dust etc.
We slept on the ground, serviced our own machines, refulled out of drums and probably averaged about 150 - 200 hrs a month.
An interesting job! I respect those other Aussie pilots in a big way who were involved as to survive they had to work bloody hard.
I'm thinking we know each other from "way back".
For those unfamiliar with the period of time mentioned by bigruss and just to add my 2 bob's worth about the feral animal culls - the main concern was simply that the top end of Australia had a major problem with animals that had been introduced by European settlement.
After roads were extablished and the advent of motor vehicles, animals such as Camels, donkeys, buffalo, horses were let loose and then started to build big feral populations.
I was involved in a lot of the control shoots thru the eighties and the government was trying to reduce the feral herd size due the fear of Foot and mouth and other such problems coming in thru illegal boat immigrants.
I flew the 12E and 47G 3B1 and just looked up some of my logs and noted an average day consisted of 3 X 3 + hour sorties.
We shot about 25K donkeys per 4 or 5 weeks with the best being 548 in a total sortie flight time of 1.75 hrs.
The good white shooters averaged about 3.5 rounds per animal while an aboriginal shooter I teamed with for a few years averaged 1.5.
It sounds like a turkey shoot - but far from it as the animals were running full tit, often down wind, the nachine was floating in and out of transition, the flight path was usually with the nose offset about 45 degrees (for the shooter to aim forward), usually it was very rough, rocky, sandstone hills strewn with bush. Temp averaged about 35 - 40 C, humidity above 85% after October, always a wind, unbearable glare reflecting back thru the bubble, dust etc.
We slept on the ground, serviced our own machines, refulled out of drums and probably averaged about 150 - 200 hrs a month.
An interesting job! I respect those other Aussie pilots in a big way who were involved as to survive they had to work bloody hard.
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Hi TC
We know each other alright. Haven't caught up with you for some years now. I am still at it. I am going away for about a week shortly. I thought you would have been on the Donkey work.
cheers
We know each other alright. Haven't caught up with you for some years now. I am still at it. I am going away for about a week shortly. I thought you would have been on the Donkey work.
cheers
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Donkeys.......
Have just got back from using our 44 (and a good old astro at that) shooting donkeys and brumbys out of Gregory National park (North West NT). Main Parks shooter is Pat Karmody...best shot i have ever seen. The man has a 1% miss rate, puts three in each beast to make sure, and it looks like it was only shot with one most of the time.... Was gone for 9 days, shot 7000 donkeys and 3000 brumbys, in 50 hours of flying. Also using a 22 with a second shooter, and brought in a third 22 for one day to help clean up a big mob. Still many a drum of avgas out in that scrub. I look forward to the day when i evenutally get to use a bowser...., and maybe sleep somewhere other than the ground 
Also glad they have a sock on the gun to catch spent shells. Have had a shell down the shirt before...and I'm not that keen to try that one again..... shooter thought the blades were falling off the way we were going....
Temp was about 37-39 degrees everyday, good strong winds too. why don't they want to run into wind???
Also glad they have a sock on the gun to catch spent shells. Have had a shell down the shirt before...and I'm not that keen to try that one again..... shooter thought the blades were falling off the way we were going.... Temp was about 37-39 degrees everyday, good strong winds too. why don't they want to run into wind???
Not enough $$$ ...
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Those figures are just amazing, and serve to remind everyone of the extent of the problem we have in Australia with introduced species that reproduce unchecked, with no natural predators, in vast expanses of uninhabited land.
Good on you guys, and pass on my (our) thanks to the shooters as well. I look forward to helping out one day, either shooting or flying.
Good on you guys, and pass on my (our) thanks to the shooters as well. I look forward to helping out one day, either shooting or flying.