Over here in AU my uncle when he was alive owned a sheep property which I was regularly sent to over the Christmas Holidays to help out.
We used to use ex military 303's to shoot roos as they where in plague proportions at night the odd Dingo [i]Wild Dog[/i]well sort of anyway and Pigs which where vicious. As he only had a small property it was only several thousand acres we used various means to shoot depending on where we had to go we would take horse for the close stuff and 4 wheel drives for the more distant stuff when we went out. Then there where the [b]ID10T's[/b] that used to come out and ask for permission to shot on the property it was about 4 hours driving over dirt roads from the nearest small town so we where fairly isolated. But we got our fair share of [b]Sport Shooters[/b] visit the place and some left a lot to be desired.
They tended to be the Yuppie type who came out and where far more interested in drinking than shooting so they more often than not shot themselves. We tended to avoid the areas that they where in and kept the sheep away as well. The one that really springs to mind here was a [b]Total Fool[/b] who crawled under a fence with a double barrelled 20 Gauge Shotgun then grabbed it by the barrel and pulled it through after him. Naturally it wasn't broken and the safety wasn't on so when the triggers got caught on something it naturally discharged and took his head off as well as most of his chest that was in the way. Hearing a shot at 4.00 AM tended to raise the [b]Alarm Bells[/b] so we went out looking to make sure that everyone was OK which this guy certainly wasn't. It took 2 hours to find him and even then if the sun had not have been coming up I don;t think we would have found him so fast then about 45 minutes to get back to the house to raise the alarm and then about 8 hours for the Police and associated people to show up to take photos and remove the body. Naturally they came to the homestead and had to be directed to the site, I on the other hand was left at the accident site to make sure that nothing disturbed the scene. After a day of the body lying in 45 + degree Heat it was more than a bit off putting to say the least. Personally the Police like me and everyone there thought that this guy had got what he deserved by not following the most basic safety steps. But that was one case where I had to go out and find a body.
Another one was funny though at the time it wasn't much of a laugh but now I can't help but laugh at it. there where a bunch of so called [b]Sporting Shooters[/b] who asked permission to shot on the property as they had come out previously they told us exactly where they wanted to go and it didn't matter that the pigs had moved in there in the interim they where quite happy to go there and shoot. Well a few days latter one bright shinning new 4 Wheel Drive came tearing to the house and workers quarters asking for help apparently a pig had attacked this bunch of shooters and only having 12 gauge's it only antagonised the pig all the more. One fellow who needed the help had jumped up a tree to get away from the pig which would have been OK if he hadn't of dropped the 12 gauge which discharged when it hit the ground taking his foot clean off. When we got there the pig was circling the tree waiting for it's meal So I grabbed a 303 and shot it then we applied first aid and called in the Flying Doctor naturally we had to transport this guy back to the airstrip so it was slow going and we did get back before the Flying Doctor arrived but he was far less than healthy by that time that the doctor arrived. Then after they had gone I was given the job of going out and reclaiming the mess and bringing it back to the house. I took one of the farm hands with me as it involved driving back a car well a 4 wheel drive anyway so we packed up the camping gear and shoved everything back into the 4WD and took it back to the house and parked it beside the other 4WD that the person who raised the alarm had driven in.
Latter I was told that those 2 vehicles stayed put for about 10 months before someone turned up to claim them and even then they sent out a car carrier to pick them up and they had insisted that we remove the 12 gauge before the cars where taken. So my uncle scored 1 very expensive and useless 12 Gauge and several hundred rounds of ammo out of that deal. Out there 12 Gauge's where about as useful as 4 flat tires. We tended to use 303's and 22's most of the time the 303's where for culling the Roos and pigs and the 22's where for putting down sheep.
The last time I was out there was at the end of a major drought and we where spending the day shooting sheep and burring them in a big hole that had been dug, then we would go home and reload all the spent cartridges so we could do it all again the next day. Not really much fun but it had to be done as we where trying to keep the [b]Core Breeding Stock[/b] alive. Anyway after about 3 weeks of doing this on a daily basis it rained overnight and the few animals which we where hand feeding and watering froze during the rain mostly before we could get them under cover and dry.
It's certainly not much fun doing things like that but they have to be done if only to stop the suffering of the animals. It takes a certain kind of person to work the land as it's hard and unforgiving work. Thankfully I'm not one of those people but I can help out when required.
About 25 years latter I found myself on the border doing some service work with people who owned a sheep property and ran a business in town. I was fixing their computers and on the last day I was there I was asked would I help move some sheep from the lower paddock to one of the upper ons. The owner had two newly arrived [b]Exchange Students[/b] from somewhere in Europe so he really needed a hand. I agreed to help him and he took a 303 with him and as we where walking to the farm Ute I was asked did I want a rifle I just said not really do I need one? He said something about pigs being present so I immediately asked for a rifle and suggested that the exchange students carried one each which they objected to as Pigs are nice friendly things they had only seen them in farms and not the wild ones that we have here. :D
Well it went smoothly and there where the remains of several lambs that had been killed by pigs but no real sings of any pigs otherwise so we cleared the paddock and saw a gill net in the stream on the other side of the fence in a National Park so we took a note of it's position to report this to the National Park Rangers and moved on. It was a fairly small paddock only about 50 acres or so, so we got the sheep rounded up fairly quickly only took about 6 hours and drove them to the gate to move them into a different paddock. Just as the owner opened the gate a big old bore charged him as he had his hands full he couldn't do anything, the exchange students stood there shocked and me at the back of it all unslung the 303 and dropped the pig. Naturally the sheep scattered with the sound of the rifle discharging so we had to round them all up again and drive them through a different gate as they refused to go through the gate where the dead pig was.
On that occasion the only thing I felt was [b]Fear[/b] as the pig would have done serious damage if not killing the owner and taken out several of the sheep as well. From my limited experience of using firearms I don't derive any pleasure from shooting things I only do what is required at the time. On that occasion I don't know who was more scared the owner who was in for at best a serious injury or the Exchange Students who had never seen a wild pig before, I on the other hand had plenty of sheep between me and the pig so I was safe but I didn't want to stand and watch someone get hurt either. What I found difficult is using a strange rifle for the first time while there was someone standing within the firing range of the rifle but it was either that or stand back and watch someone get hurt. Thankfully the rifle was sighted correctly as most of the farm rifles just get thrown around and only used when necessary so the sights are anything but accurate. but I got in a fluke shot 1 round 1 dead pig straight through the head the caucus skidded to a halt just before hitting the farm owner. I then bent over picked up the spent cartridge and started to round up the sheep again.
After working on my Uncles farm I earned a healthy dislike for sheep which lingers to this day. The [b]Sporting Shooters[/b] come a close second though as they have no idea of firearm safety.
Col
