A guy called Jerod from eastern Washington contacted me on one of our Aussie bowhunting forums, he was studying in Aus and coming out to see Uluru and Kings Canyon (some iconic tourist spots here in the Aussie desert)at the end of his course. He wondered if I could take him out for a camel hunt. We told him it would cost him bigtime, some cokes and some kitkats for breakfast, a bit of lunch and one carton of beer - jsut to wash the dust out of our throats on the way home you know? Anyways we headed out to a great spot about 3 hours from town, saw some dingos on the way out but didnt get a shot away. Then we got onto some good mobs, spotted them in the distance and set up for a stalk. Me with video camera and rangefinder, Jerod with his bow. He did a great job of following me in on the stalk, its not easy when they stand 15 foot tall (literally) and the bushes are only 5 foot tall max! We got in undetected, Jerod got ready and I ranged the big boy. Distance 58yrds. He let fly and the arrow went in a perfect line but a foot low!! No way.. Well we were both dismayed, especially Jerod cause he thought his chance of a lifetime was gone! Here are the camels running off We checked the bow and had a couple practise shots with it - turned out the dropaway wasnt dropping properly. We fixed it and headed on. It turned out that there was another big mob not at all far from where we spotted this first lot so we put another stalk on them, jerod doing a great job of staying low for a big man! we got in to 68 yards and got busted, not properly but this big bull knew something was up. i asked jerod if he wanted to try the shot - he did, so he drew the bow and we stood up together, i told him the range and he let fly. The best part was that arrow flew perfectly low into the boiler room, broadside up the leg and we got it on video. The camel did a bolt, then slowed to a walk, we followed him for mebbe 600yrds where it fell down and it was all over. I think my favourite big was Jerod going "oh my god, thats the biggest thing ive ever shot, man... that thing is bigger than my car!" heh heh just perfect. Here is a couple of photos of his camel. It was so big that 3 of us couldnt turn it up for a photo- which is why its still lying down! and another of the head, we are going to boil it out for him and send it over to the USofA for him. It would be an ugly as mount but he reckons he wants it! And that was about it for the day. It was really cool to meet a fellow bowhunter from the otehr side of the world and help him nail a pretty exotic animal. Plus I made a new mate, cant ask for more than that out of a days hunting can you? cheers benno
Never really heard of hunting camel before but that's pretty cool. Are you going to post a link of the video? I'd like to see it. BTW....great pics!
I have seen some of these threads on camel bow hunting lately and I must say that I need to put it on my 2 do list. Very Cool!!!!
thanks fellas. Its always fun to share on here. I have to say when I saw him punch that arrow into the camel - right on the button - I felt so happy. It was way better than me shooting it myself!! I really enjoyed that day =)
I could hunt the camels.. The tai-pans, brown snakes, and red backed spiders I could do without! Kinda gotta be careful when stalking around over there eh?
