A PERFECT HUNT AFTER WORK

After showing a couple of the guys at work I half-jokingly said “I might go shoot a stag this afternoon.” I laughed then continued working. Pondering this thought for a while I realised I didn’t have to pick my kids up after school that day. A joke soon became a plan and I spent the remainder of my workday running scenarios in my head…what gear I needed to grab, and where I was going to go.

As I didn’t have a lot of time after work for packing and travel, I needed to think of a spot not too far away as well as a spot that didn’t involve walking too far. After what felt like forever, 3.30 pm finally came. Knock off time! I jumped in the Hilux, took off home and quickly pleaded with the wife. On my drive out I called up my mate to hear about his stag. I then told him I was on my way out, to which he replied, “you’ll probably shoot a stag you tin arse’.

I finally made it into the bush with two and a half hours of light left. I drove along scouring the bush as I went, looking for good spot. I had a gully system in mind that I had hunted in earlier in the year. I have seen a few sambar in it, and the occasional fallow. But I still hadn’t made up my mind.

The road I was driving ran parallel with a big gully that I’ve driven past hundreds of times, but I had never bothered with. I’ve always assumed it would get hammered being so close to the road. But as I kept looking at it, the nice green feed and the lush bracken fern kept stirring my curiosity. As I approached the head of the gully the road comes to a saddle and continues up the ridge. I thought to myself “I’ll stop at the top and check the wind, and if it is in my favour, I’ll give it a crack and see what’s about”.

At this point I had two hours of good light left as it was slightly overcast. With this in mind I didn’t want to be walking too far in, and I hoped the deer would be traveling up the gully to cross at the saddle. My plan was to walk in and sit, looking into any feeder gullies leading into the main system. This way I would have the deer coming to me and I wouldn’t have too far to walk back out in the dark.

I grabbed my rifle and headed off. As I walked, I had the wind perfectly in my face. This gully looked very promising as it had two crucial things going for it: good feed and good cover.

With the wind in my face and the prospect that the stags were rutting, I was feeling optimistic. I contoured up the hill until I hit the first feeder gully. I slowed down and slowly crept into a position where I could see reasonably well. Three obstacle presented themselves. A bunch of cockies above me, a ’roo below me and a wallaby nearby. My old man’s voice popped into my head “patience is a virtue”. I thought to myself “I’m exactly where I need to be at this point in time”. So, I sat and waited. Patiently and quietly. I normally like to take 15-20mins quiet time to let the bush settle anyway, so I never worry about having to sit and wait for animals to move off.

After half an hour or so the native creatures moved off, but I was unsure if I should turn back, stay in that location till after dark or push further in, at the very least try learning a bit more about the system for the next hunt. Then the cloud cover cleared a bit, and I decided maybe I’ll keep going in. I crossed through the feeder gully and slowly moved along. I thought “I’ll creep into the next feeder and have a peek in there”. As I was approaching, I couldn’t stop thinking how I have never bothered to hunt this in the past. I thought “I’ll stop and have a quick glass before I get to the feeder gully”. I felt very exposed, it was very open. But I still had the wind perfect. There was enough wind that I could make noise and still remain undetected; I’d make a bound and stop, glass, then bound, repeat, etc.

As I stopped, I caught some movement in the corner of my eye. Within seconds, I knew it was a big animal. From its sheer size alone, I knew it was a stag. He was 80-100m above and slightly right of where I was. He had no idea I was there, he was just going about his business feeding.

I had nothing near me to use as a rest. I also had no concealment, so it was only a matter of time before he saw or smelt me. I knew there was no way I could try get into a better shooting position. So, an offhand shot was my only option.

He was head down feeding and stopped behind a big, forked tree. I could see his antlers poking out one side and his front legs and shoulders in the V of the fork. I raised my rifle. With my scope still on 3x I quickly wound it up to 12x and as soon as the crosshairs settled on his shoulder, I released the shot. He absolutely folded. Straight down. A 160-grain Barnes TTSX travelling near 3500fps is devastating.

I quickly reloaded. I knew he was 100% on the ground and being so excited, I wanted to get up there as quickly as I could. Straight up I ran, puffing my guts out, but I just kept on pushing. As I got there, he was still kicking a bit, so I had to approach with some caution…but he died within seconds.

My first thoughts were he that had this beautiful chocolate coat with thick hair and some recent mud from wallowing. Another interesting thing was he also had a mouthful of eucalyptus leaves.

Now is the time where I just sit and reflect and take it all in. After all the small stags I had passed up over the last 3 years, this was the reward. I reckon I have passed up 10 in that time period, some of which have since been cleaned up by a contact shooter, which I am gutted about. But all that was forgotten now as I sat there and looked at the beast that lay before me. He was no monster, don’t get me wrong, but it had been five years since my last decent stag.

He was a cool looking head, not super even but with good tops and a little over spread…but I still knew I had to have him mounted on the wall.

After a few photos and text messages (one to my mate just to rub it in). I then got to caping him out. A blunt knife and flat head torch made for a challenge.

This was one of those textbook hunts where everything was so perfect it almost felt too easy…the stalk, the terrain, the wind, the shot were all textbook. There was no tracking involved and the carry out was only 400m. These types of scenarios only come around every so often.

I did manage to get disorientated on the carry out and added another 600m to the walk in the dark. but I made it back to my car around 8pm, and home by 8.30.

When I finally managed to get a tape on him, his antlers went just shy of 28 inches long with 10.5 coronets. At 187 5/8 DS he scored pretty well considering the length.

“From its sheer size alone, I knew it was a stag.”