Safety and the hunter

by Rob Murton
Hunter 1

This article was written because of an experience I had a while back and although it wasn’t too serious, it made me think about safety and the hunter.

The family was out camping, doing a bit of hunting and fishing in a small cove near the sea. In the hills nearby lived small herds of goats that hung around the steep cliffs feeding over the crumbling edges on hardy shrubs and grasses that grew between the shale and boulders.

I was up early one morning and, without waking my wife and children, got dressed, slung my rifle and day pack and headed up the steep hill near camp. An hour later I was stalking the cliffs, peering over the drop-off looking for the shaggy ferals as I went.

It didn’t take too long to locate a small band of goats below me. I held my fire, because from past experience I knew that if I dropped a goat here, the body would plummet down the cliff face and either become lodged behind a rock halfway down or fall onto the rocky beach or possibly into the sea. In either scenario, the animal would be lost because there was no way down at this point. It was just too steep and that’s a waste of meat.

The herd was slowly feeding to the right so I followed along, sticking my head up to check on their progress every now and then. I knew of a small gully that ran to the edge up further so that’s where I headed. A perfect ambush point and there was a way down to the sea, as long as I was careful. It was still steep and the loose rock was treacherous underfoot, but I had done the climb before.

The goats passed below me on a narrow game trail. I selected a young nanny for dog tucker and dropped it cleanly with one shot. The carcass rolled down the cliff in a loose limbed tumble and I marked the spot where it should be.

There was no drama getting down and I located my quarry lying among some large boulders near the surging sea without any problems. I had left my pack and rifle up top, just bringing my belt and knife.

I was making the initial cuts on the animal to gut and skin it. The carcass, lying among the rocks, made the job awkward and I stretched one foot out to hold down a leg while I slit the skin. The knife slipped and stabbed deeply through the Cordura of my Rossi Lite boot. I knew that the cut was deep, but I didn’t take my boot off. It was then that I realised the first-aid kit I always carry was in my daypack at the top of the cliff. Wasting no time, I began to climb out, leaving my hard-earned meat where it lay. By now my foot was hurting like hell, but I was still able to walk on it.

Up top I removed the boot. The wound was narrow but deep. After applying a dressing and binding it tightly, I replaced the boot and slowly limped towards camp, which was a couple of big gullies away. I was worried about infection and I didn’t carry any disinfectant in my small first-aid kit.

Down near the sea, I removed the dressing and soaked my throbbing foot in the salt water to clean the cut. After all, the knife had been gutting a goat only seconds before it entered my foot.

The cold water made the gash bleed again, so I carefully dried and re-bandaged the area. It was a slow and painful hobble back, especially on the uphill climb out of the gully and I sure was glad to see the tent below me when I topped the last rise.

I didn’t do much walking for the rest of the weekend, but there was no infection and the wound quickly healed. After that episode, my first-aid kit was always on my belt, not in my daypack and disinfectant powder was added for emergencies.

They say you learn by your mistakes and in my case this was certainly true.

Captions
Image 1: Care must be taken while using knives.
Image 2: Hunting goats in steep country.
Image 3: Backpacking requires planning and a good firstaid kit.
Image 4: The author learnt the hard way that a pouch containing a first-aid kit should be kept on your belt.
Image 5: The author and a young billy taken on the cliffs.