A SHORT AND SWEET PRE-ROAR HUNT

It was a dry and warm start to autumn in our area and, after a few brief scouting trips to where I intended to hunt revealed minimal fresh stag sign, I was not feeling overly confident. However, with my limited timeframe for this roar I was pretty excited to be getting out in the bush, and with a predicted change in the weather I hoped this may fire up a bit of early roaring or at least get the animals up and moving.

With my upcoming holiday a full day off for a decent Friday hunt was out of the question, however I did jag an early knock off and managed to get to the block with a reasonable amount of light left to glass a few areas before sundown.

It was a warm and sunny afternoon as I set out from my intended campsite. I worked my way around a fire trail and then began working down a long spur to a good glassing position. With the dry ground and warm weather, I was watching the ground more than the bush, trying to minimise noise on the dry leaves and with a one eye out for a tiger snake. After a slow, tedious and noisy walk I got into a productive area.

One step at a time I worked my way down a big leading ridge, glassing the gullies either side. I was quickly forgetting about the pressures of work and life and tuning into the rhythms of the bush. Despite being a great afternoon, one thing appeared to be missing; deer. Despite putting in a good few hours working this ridge where I have previously found abundant sign and often seen deer, I had failed to spot anything more exciting than a wallaby. With darkness falling I made the trek back up to the fire trail and back to camp.

Back at camp a good mate who I often hunt with had also turned up to start his rut hunt. He was in for two weeks and so was in relaxation mode. We had a few beers, a feed, a good catch up and plenty of speculation about when the deer might start roaring. After turning in relatively early, I was woken by a roaring wind and pouring rain.

Getting out of the tent in heavy rain I sat under cover and assessed my sanity in going for a hunt that morning. After a cup of tea and a quick bite to eat I decided that, considering I only today, I had better get out and after it. As I geared up and walked out of camp, the rain started to ease to a light drizzle and things started to lighten up enough to start glassing. Conditions were excellent for hunting, with the overnight rain dampening the ground enough to allow quiet movement and a steady wind making scent management a lot easier.

I decided to work the northern face of the mountain I had camped on, in the hope that animals may look for some sun after the cold wet night, and knowing I could effectively hunt this normally dry crunchy face given the damp ground conditions. Things felt good. I spotted a few wallabies and was able to work around several groups without spooking them; it seemed like there were wallabies feeding in every gully.

I had worked my way through about a kilometre and a half over a few hours when I popped out of a rocky gully head onto a big spur. I spotted some movement about 100m downhill and saw two wallabies hopping off alarmed. I quickly froze, got the binos up and started looking, half expecting another hunter to pop out. Then I saw what had spooked the wallabies. A big-bodied red stag was contouring his way through the trees below me. I couldn’t get a good look at his antlers but at the least it looked like my freezer would be filled!

I quickly stalked about 30m downhill to where I had a clear shooting lane and where I would see him go into the next gully. I was about to lean on a fallen tree and get ready for him when out he came. There was no time for a rest so I took an offhand shot at about 80m quartering away. He fell and rolled at the shot and ran unsteadily down the hill another 40m or so. He was standing up at the base of a big tree and he looked like he was in a fair bit of trouble. I moved forward to get a better shot to finish him off with a rest on a small tree. At this point I got a good look at his antlers; he was a good stag. I took a couple of breaths and quickly put a finisher into the base of his neck. The stag dropped and I made my way over and had a look at him.

He was a beautiful, very even 14-point stag in prime condition. He hadn’t started rutting yet and was a beautiful specimen of a bush stag. I sat down and took in the scene and admired my stag. After a few photos clumsily taken with the timer on an iPhone, I answered my mate’s message, enquiring about the shots, with a photo. As I field dressed him the good summer season was evident in his body condition. I have never seen a red deer with as much fat as this stag was carrying. After a couple of trips up the mountain to camp (which was fortunately only about a kilometre as the crow flies), I had the meat and antlers out.

That was not quite the end of the adventure though, with all of the rain the track back down the mountain was extremely slippery and it was a white-knuckle ride to the bottom, taking about an hour instead of the usual 20 minutes. After some very hairy sideways action the Hilux was back on the gravel, and I was off home. I then got to share the moment with my young kids as they helped me process the meat and clean up the skull. They are always excited when I have some success and enjoy eating the spoils of the hunt; three keen future hunters. We are very lucky to have the opportunity to harvest fine animals like this one from public land in NSW.

“I took an offhand shot at about 80m.”