last months deer hunt

[roo]

Well after the assorted problems co-ordinating gear and supplies with the three of us coming from different states we finally got into the bush for a ten day hunt.
Fellow C V Branch members Kelvin (Tas)and Alan Woodward (Vic) ( the bow hunter ) and myself( Qld) quickly set up camp and were fairly happy about the just” wallowed on the roadside” mud hole three hundred metres from camp.

Next day i watched a hind in the berries looking uphill for the source of the man scent she was obviously getting and was thinking to myself how fat she was when a stag jumped from under her feet and stood with his back to me for an easy shot. After looking at him for a minute or two and deciding that he was only around the 20” mark i declined the shot. They got another wind swirl and scattered left and right, the stag going straight up the hill and over the top through heavy cover as i found his marks doing so later that day.
We twice went around the fresh wallow and saw hinds but no stag and we reckoned by his marks to be a 24 inch model so we set up another hunt with the two other boys going into where he could be...me? i had to drop a load and after doing so and getting my pack back over my coat i heard a sound and “****” there he was going with his head laid back above me, all this with no chance of a shot as i had been too busy doing the nature calls thing. Next thing a big horse sized hind came from below in the usual sneak on tip toes manner with a calf behind her and stopped across from me, i had a think about it and thought no! too much work with her size so i took the calf out and of course what a sweet eater it is too, the liver and sweet breads were bloody beautiful as well. The liver i rolled in flour and slow cooked the slices on the fire in a little olive oil till browned and then eaten in bread.. Yum!

Putting Kelvin up above us into the small stag gully while we checked another wallow below resulted in him watching five hinds feeding in the berries a couple of days later and seeing the same stag bolting across the gully. After a few shots his .300 Win Mag knocked him over, and as we had planned to go across another two systems we caped him out, cut him up and placed his pieces in the creek all this of course after the video and still photography. This stag after the first hit jumped right on top of a big young one in his desperate run for survival and according to Kelvin there were hoofs and horns going everywhere as they both struggled to get up.
Alan later that day loaded with his pack, bow, a hind leg and two long back straps took the wrong spur back to camp and ended up in the worst spot resulting in having to climb all the bloody way back again, we did have a bit of a laugh about that back in camp of course. (he has a GPS too )
All of our hunting was carried out in rain for nine days with snow and hail at times a bit higher up and was a nuisance too.
Alan did have a nice young one stand for him at 52 metres (rangefinder) but with the distance and a branch across the kill zone declined the shot.

I had seen last year a good stag three systems across from camp so we made the long haul to the far side of the third one and immediately hit fresh marks of many deer so we split into a likely place and i commenced with me watching the big arse end of a deer below me as i sneaked into a side gully, the deer was good and dark and i thought it was a stag to such an extent that i was getting a bit toey sneaking in further for a better look, as it turned out it was only a hind so i climbed higher into the gully and eventually met Kelvin up high.
Turning our attention to another broad gully head we dropped into a side each and i then came to a freshly rubbed green white gum, looking around i could see more and more green rubs with stag marks all about, yep with excitement growing i started the long “sniff him out procedure” by following marks everywhere including over the spur and into the next gully but always coming back to more green rubs. By now i was convinced that he was in there with me (bloody somewhere) and after an hour or more of slowly poking around i heard a slight noise and the there he was a big fella going hard downhill about 60/70 yards below and across the hump between two gully heads. Immediately noticing his right antler to be a minimum of 28” but could easy go 30” i was dismayed to watch him disappear only to surface out of the cover another hundred yards away, pissed off with not getting a crack as it all happened in micro seconds i bolted straight uphill for fifty yards and waited for 20 odd minutes for him to come back and watch his back trail which he did not do of course or at least i did not see him.

All this time one thing worried me as i had on both occasions of sighting him only could remember seeing his right antler and a bloody good wide one at that too.
As he was not on the ground i still do not know if the left antler was there or not but believe me if i could have i would have taken the shot and worried about that part later on. After my ambush waiting i climbed across and back into the opposite gully head and stumbled around for another hour finding more green rubs and thrashed bushes and then consulting the failing light i had no option but to pull out for the two and a half hour walk back to camp with “i will be back here tomorrow” in my mind.

Next day being our last hunting day and torrential rain pouring down we decided that it was a waste of time hunting in such conditions so we laid back and dried gear etc.
Kelvin and myself hit another creek late that day but with snow and hail again we pulled the pin for the comforts of camp. I sighted 14 deer myself with three being stags, one a soda the other two beat me fair and square, Kelvin from memory saw eleven i think and Alan sighted a handful as well but admitted being handicapped by the bow getting through the thick cover. Driving over the tops next day we ran into snowy conditions and i think a delay would have had us missing ferries and planes so we were happy enough to get out then. Bring it on again for next year (without the ten days rain)

[blacktail]

Great storry Roo !!

Nice stag

[roo]

Yeah thanks mate,i`m a little late replying..sorry but i just got out of jail haha