NEWS Lexi Halman
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
The Australian Deer Association South-East Branch Junior Ballot applications were sent out in January. As I had partaken in the Junior Ballot in previous years I was eager to know if I would be fortunate enough to be drawn out for a spot this year. After entering and waiting for a response, I was overjoyed to discover I was in fact successful and invited to this wonderful opportunity. The Junior Ballot was one week into the school holidays for me, so I could pack and get ready throughout the week ready to leave on Friday.
Every year the SE Branch of the ADA holds a Junior Ballot, calling for all ADA-associated juniors aged between 14 and 18 years of age to lodge an application to the ballot in the hope of being drawn to hunt a deer in the SE of South Australia. This weekend would not be possible without the support from volunteers to guide and help out with cooking. The weekend is run and managed within the SE Branch, the organiser being Pat Mahon who ensured that the weekend ran smoothly with most juniors having an opportunity to harvest a deer.
The SE Branch has a number of properties to hunt on, with long standing agreements in place with landowners, as well as their own property. This property is mainly a heritage block of native scrub that cannot be developed for farming or other purposes. The early members of this founding SE Branch worked hard to purchase this block and built a wonderful hut on the small section of the property that is not heritage-listed. They diligently and continuously maintain it and its boundary fences, and pay all associated annual costs such as insurances, taxes, rates and the like, for the benefit of the SE Branch members. This property formed the base for the weekend, to be enjoyed by all invited.
On our way down to the hunt, Dad and I discussed our respective days and quickly moved on to whether we thought the famous bush doughnuts would make an appearance once again. We arrived around 4.00pm, and I found out that I was going out for a hunt that afternoon. Dad and I quickly got ready for my guide to take me out, as the sun was soon to set. We drove to the approved parking spot and headed out from there. We walked along the scrub line, being sure to look around whenever there was a clear, flat area in the bush, while at the same time looking for deer activity wherever possible. We found a location close to a lot of recent deer sign.
My guide had good knowledge of the property from his many previous hunts here, although he had not been on this property for a while as it sadly has been subjected to aerial culling by the Limestone Coast Landscape Board. After selecting a good vantage point, we sat down to hopefully find deer exiting the scrub and going into the paddock. During our wait many kangaroos came out, giving us hope as it neared sunset. A couple even came up to us about 20m away to work out what we were.
We had not seen any sign of deer coming out, and as it was slowly getting darker we decided to head back to the car. On the walk back we saw a few deer that had left the scrub, but by this time it was too dark to have a shot. Of course they had crossed the track that we previously walked down, but that's hunting.
As we got back to the hut, many other juniors had already arrived back from their afternoon hunts. I met some of the other juniors who had been out for a hunt and asked how they went. Many had seen deer. As the night progressed, dinner was cooked up by Steve Jensen, being venison sausages, venison hamburgers and lamb cutlets which were amazing as always. Most juniors went back to the properties they were hunting in the morning. However, Dad and I were staying at the hut as where I was going to be hunting was not that far and an easy drive in the morning. A few people were staying at this property, so a few stories were shared and then we called it a night.
Before sunrise we awoke and got up ready to leave. After packing all the gear in the car we headed off to a neighbouring property that the owner had kindly offered access to as he knew there would be a great chance of success. At this point, I had changed guides, now having Jake Nicholson. This neighbouring property owner was so generous and eager to involve juniors in the experience of hunting, it was greatly appreciated by those who got the opportunity to be on his land.
When we arrived at the property we started walking out to have a look around. Being on a property I had never been on before was amazing and fascinating. After walking a little and seeing a few deer, we searched for a cull buck or stag with at least two faults. We rounded a Mallee knob to see a mob of fallow deer standing there. There were two young bucks with a large group of does, fawns and spikeys, but no suitable bucks. We moved on from this mob of deer, heading towards a different part of the property. We took a rest and had a look around. We discovered we had a mob of deer on either side of us. Looking at the mob on the right there were fallow and chital deer, and the mob on the left was a bachelor mob of fallows.
We had a look at the chital first, noticing that one of the stags had a short inner. Looking at the other stags, we noted that they were all young heads. Dad, Jake and I were all focused on the chital stag unsure if it was something the landowner wanted shot. After looking for a while the decision was made to leave him as he did not have any faults other than the ultra short inner. The bachelor mob had about 10 bucks. To look for a cull buck we focused on one deer at a time. All of us worked through the deer to make sure they had their brow, trez and guard tines. With there being a few young heads we watched them for a while, and I chose to let them go and keep moving on to have a look for a definite cull.
We continued with the hunt and got onto another mob of deer, one that had a few more bucks. A cull was spotted quite a distance out, which was problematic as we had about 60 pairs of eyes watching us. We did well to get to within 200m of the cull fallow buck. I was set up on the bipod just waiting for him to stand. The tension was building as time seemed to go so slowly. He was bedded down facing directly away from us, hence the wait for him to stand and turn. Before long he did exactly that, but as it turned out he stood and just walked and walked without stopping or standing still even for a moment. We tried to follow him along but with little or no cover the hunt was destined to fail, as it did.
We returned to the hut where we were able to once again mingle with others and I discovered that a few juniors were quite excited by the fact that they were successful in harvesting deer that morning. The excitement and anticipation of further hunts grew amongst all the juniors.
Dad and I spent the rest of the day and evening helping out at the hut to ensure all were fed and those hard working cooks had sufficient supplies and help where needed. And yes, to absolutely everyone's delight, the famous bush doughnuts did make an appearance. I could name names of those who might have overindulged but I won't because who knows what favours I might need in the future.
Juniors along with their guides and guardians returned to the SE Branch property for dinner, and some of the broad smiles on some juniors faces were well deserved with the deer they had been fortunate to harvest. Later in the evening, everyone returned to their respective hunting properties to enable an early start for the Sunday.
On the Sunday morning, I was feeling hopeful as another junior, Lachie, and I had headed out with Jake to the neighbouring property that I had been to on Saturday morning, but going to a different section. We walked and glassed around the area to see if there were any deer, deciding to look around one more mallee knob to see if there were deer in that area. Woohoo, there were deer, standing around feeding. We crept up closer to see if there were any faults on the antlers. Lachie and I discussed who was having the first shot, and we were both prepared for the other to shoot first. We finally agreed that I would take the first shot.
After glassing these bucks, we spotted a cull buck. This buck looked like it had a huge guard, thin palms and a missing trez tine. The excitement was building in me. Jake and I crawled up closer to ensure I had a clear shot, nothing in the way, with me setting up on the bipod. Waiting for the deer to get broadside, seemed like forever. The buck went broadside so, I took some deep breaths to relax my body, and slowly squeezed the trigger. My .308 Win firing a 155-grain projectile from Atomic 29 did the job once again, taking out the lungs. We headed over to the buck and noticed that it was not a huge guard tine but instead almost a second beam coming off from behind the brow tine. Wow, the smile I had on my face was not disappearing easily.
After we had cleaned up my buck, we were deciding whether to continue on the hunt for Lachie or whether to go back to the car. The hunt continued and Lachie also had success in harvesting a cull buck. I think Lachie’s huge smile almost matched mine. It was a very joyful drive back to the SE property for our group, as both of us juniors had the best time and success harvesting a deer. A big thank you to Jake Nicholson for organising the weekend and to the generous neighbouring landowner for the use of his property to guide a few juniors on for the weekend. I know it was greatly appreciated by all.
I have to admit though, for the past few times Dad has had hunting trips without me, New Zealand for tahr, Queensland for chital and Moluccan rusa and the Victorian High Country for sambar, he has always said you would have loved it, you should have been there. This hunt gave me the satisfaction of finally being able to repay the favour and tell him “Hey Dad, you would have loved it, you should have been there.”
“Hey Dad, you would have loved it, you should have been there.”
THE WRAP UP
I'll keep this short as I'm sure a few juniors will submit their own hunting stories of the weekend.
On July 5, 14 lucky junior hunters from across Australia, who had entered the ballot earlier in the year, arrived at the hut at Suwinskis in the South East of South Australia. This is a property proudly owned by the ADA, purchased through the hard work and fundraising by members of the SE branch in the early 2000s. We are very fortunate to own a property in the southeast for hunting and for the branch to call home. It is a pleasure to welcome members from around the country each year to our to our little slice of paradise and the Junior Ballot.
Suwinskis is our base for the hunt and a hive of activity over the weekend. There are many stories and memories shared around the campfire, friendships formed and delicious food is enjoyed, having been prepared by our catering crew. After arriving on Friday, juniors participate in a proficiency test. With both handling of the firearm and accuracy components completed, juniors and their guardian are paired up with an experienced hunter from the SE branch who has volunteered their time to guide for the weekend.
Once the meet and greet was out of the way, with most juniors arriving around midday, there was plenty of time to head out for an afternoon hunt. This year we were blessed with beautiful weather, blue skies and warm afternoons, a welcome change from the howling wind and rain of previous years. I teamed up juniors with guides who had arrived around the same time and sent them off to hunt on a variety of properties the SE branch has access to.
After the aerial culling on our properties recently we weren't sure how successful the juniors would be in harvesting deer but we were sure the weekend would be a success either way.
Once the sun set, everyone started rolling back into Suwinskis. Some hunters arrived with no deer, some had close encounters, with deer not offering an ethical and safe shot to be taken, and of course, a couple of success stories. That night we enjoyed a barbeque dinner and then dispersed to the properties we would be hunting for the weekend, all located within a 20-45 minute drive of our base.
With everyone out hunting, our catering crew enjoyed a sleep-in before the hard work started for the preparation of lunch and getting the fire going for the camp oven roasts for dinner. Some of the groups on the further properties stay out for the whole day to maximise hunting opportunities. They do not miss out on the catering though, they’re given their packed lunch the night before.
It was great to hear of a few more success stories, a few close encounters and some near misses. Unfortunately, there were also stories about the evidence of aerial culling, with rotting carcases found and also a number of shotgun shells. This included myself and my junior; while on our Saturday morning hunt through the thick Mallee scrub, without searching for them, found 13 carcasses rotting away and also 10 shotgun shells. I'm sure we walked over and past many more as our eyes were looking for deer moving through the scrub, not for shells on the ground. After a quick feed we were then straight back out into the field for another chance at a deer in the afternoon.
This continued over the weekend and when the sun set on another successful Junior Ballot, 20 deer and 3 foxes had been taken. It's always a special time helping the next generation of hunters gain more knowledge and skills. For some, this is their first hunt; first deer, first buck, first fallow. Even for the ones fortunate enough to have already taken deer, it's still a great weekend with lots learnt, plenty of laughter and friendships formed and some new challenging terrain hunted.
I highly encourage other branches to get weekends like this happening in their area. These weekends are as rewarding for the guides and other volunteers as they are for the junior hunters and their families.
- Pat Mahon
Australia Deer magazine Editor