havgunwilltravel
Active member
Spring time in Australia is a great season to be hunting our premier deer species, the mighty sambar. So i organised my bowhunter mate to schedule a few days off this week so we could hit the hills. In between our hunt dates i had a call from a good mate who was also over chasing sambar and wanted to meet up for a few days backpacking. He was an ex culler from NZ and had shot multiples of thousands of chamois, tahr and deer. The guy was as good as they come with stalking deer and a mighty good bloke to have sharing a load climbing into remote places.
He had done 40 odd days hunting sambar in Australia over the course of 5 hunts the last 3 years and was yet to shoot a representative stag. Sambar are just an insane deer species to pursue and the top of the pile for the South Pacific deer species when it comes to toughness to harvest a mature deer.
After a 6 hour drive well into the night we rolled out the swags and sun up came very quickly. It didn't take us long before we were checking out a sunny ridge after the heavy frost and a reasonable stag heading up to bed was located. It was 15 minutes into legal light, but his internal clock was telling him to bed up fast. I told my kiwi mate to take the shot and he did when a gap presented. He was very happy with the stag, his personal best and we had some venison for the eskies for sausages and hamburgers.
By the time we got everything sorted with the deer it was warming up and we took a quick swim in the river, well at least my mate did and when a tourist drove past he thought it appropriate to take off the last of his clothes and pretend he didn't see them and give himself a good old stretch..we were on the ground in tears laughing as we could see their reaction to the dude skinning dipping underneath them.
It was time to go through our packs, sort out who was carrying the lightest load, buckle up and get ready for a hike in. After a decent drive we reached the location i wanted to walk in from and we punched out a few kilometres under a sky full of clouds and strong winds that were increasing. I located a campsite in a sheltered gully head, it was right next to a fresh stag wallow which i was well aware was far from ideal but it was the best we could do with the remaining daylight we had. Tents and a bivvy was put up, rifles and bows were grabbed and we split up to cover some ground over the last hour of the day.
I took Casey around the lip of a big ledge glassing regularly, we located lots of sign and seen a few female sambar but no stags. That night sleep was pretty restless with gale force winds, and plenty of dead timber above to keep us guessing if any was going to break off and come crashing down through our tents.
Daylight couldn't come quick enough, some toasted muesli was washed down with milk in the headlamps and before the sun was up i was sitting on a ledge glassing a basin. Nothing was located and even though we gave it a bit longer behind the glass we knew we had to mix it up to located what elevation the deer were feeding at. I took my bowhunter mate around to where we had often found stags, sent him on his way and i eased over a ledge onto a bench full of feed. I took 15 steps along a deer path full of tracks and noticed a stag feeding his way up to bed.
I was already in my socks, so took out the camera, grabbed the rifle (incase he had big brother company) and snuck in to 15 metres.
After a while he got sick of the strange shape lying in the dirt, barked and moved around a ledge.
I gave him some time, gathered my hunting gear and climbed out to a rocky ledge. The binos were in over drive as i located a stag in timber and soon realised it was my old mate from the morning encounter 30 minutes ago. He was pretty clued up now and watching is back trail in between mouthfuls of feed.
I got on the phone to my mate, left him a message to call me asap (we were up very high in elevation and had service) and within a minute the bowhunter was running back up the platue to meet me up top. Maybe just maybe we could get him in on this stag. 15 minutes later we located each other, and i took his bow and jogged straight back to my glassing point. I was worried with the strengthening sun the thermals would shift soon and create issues with getting close. I pointed him out to my mate, he took off his boats, put on his camo face net and we moved in as quick as possible to the deer. We made it to 50 metres pretty easily, but he was wary now and didn't like it much when he noticed two drab blobs in the shade that he hadn't seen previously. Eventually my mate got into a sitting position, and released an arrow. It clipped a small twig and just missed the deer, he moved off a few metres and my mate was able to close some distance before taking a superb shot that punched his heart. The stag moved off over a hill but was clearly hit well. We gathered out gear, gave him time and moved up the ridge. My mate found him dead on a game trail, he was ecstatic, sambar are supremely difficult to harvest with a bow and my mate was now 3 from 3 for his last 3 hunts over with us. I don't get that excited when i walk up to dead animals now, but i was truly happy for my mate to get it done up in the big country like he had.
After photos, video and field work our kiwi mate came up to help with the carry out and i took a short walk above when all the knife work was done to check out another bench. I hadn't gone 200 metres into the breeze when i jumped a stag in his bed. He was running side on and look good so i shot him with the .300wsm. He toppled over and i walked up to him to realise he had cast one antler within 24 hours and the remaining antler he had fell off when he hit the ground. That was a first for me and i have to admit i wasn't too happy to have shot him half cast.
None the less he would provide good table fare and we had another stag to take care off.
The boys came to lend a hand and when everything i was done i wanted to go quickly check out a wallow nearby to see if he had cast the first antler in it whilst he was rolling around. He hadn't and on the way back i found a big cast sambar antler, they are incredibly difficult to find so i called the boys to help me look for the other one and my bowhunter mate located the other side in bracken fern. I lay them down in a cleared area for a picture.
Packs were loaded up with boned out meat, capes, antlers and we commenced the journey back to our fly camp.
It was agreed we would head out early to take care of the meat and with 90 minutes of daylight left we began the walk out. Rifles were kept ready, as we knew in this country a stag could turn up at any time and as we rounded a hill a good stag was seen eating on the spring growth on a clearing. He was a mature animal and i told the kiwi he better get it done quick as the wind wasn't too favourable. His .308 boomed and the stag took off before falling over after an 80 metre dash. The angling shot had driven in from behind the ribs to his lungs.
Walking up to the deer, the kiwi was truly overwhelmed at finally harvesting a mature sambar after the effort he had put in and we sat and admired the chocolate coloured stag. He had lived plenty of days in tough conditions and climates and would be mounted to take pride of place in my mates trophy room.
We know realised we had all taken a stag during the same day and it was a one off hunt for us as to all shoot a stag as we normally are pretty selective over what we pull the trigger on when it comes to Sambar.
The hike out was intense to say the least and we had to make a return trip the next morning for the remainder of the meat.
Finally we made it back to the river where we cooked up a feed, had a couple of beers and kicked back to reflect on the previous days hunt. Our hunt wasn't over and we managed to shoot a couple more stags later on as well, but nothing compared to seeing two real good keen mates achieve success in the high altitude remote country we love to get up into and backpack for the deer species that consumes every spare moment of my life.
He had done 40 odd days hunting sambar in Australia over the course of 5 hunts the last 3 years and was yet to shoot a representative stag. Sambar are just an insane deer species to pursue and the top of the pile for the South Pacific deer species when it comes to toughness to harvest a mature deer.
After a 6 hour drive well into the night we rolled out the swags and sun up came very quickly. It didn't take us long before we were checking out a sunny ridge after the heavy frost and a reasonable stag heading up to bed was located. It was 15 minutes into legal light, but his internal clock was telling him to bed up fast. I told my kiwi mate to take the shot and he did when a gap presented. He was very happy with the stag, his personal best and we had some venison for the eskies for sausages and hamburgers.
By the time we got everything sorted with the deer it was warming up and we took a quick swim in the river, well at least my mate did and when a tourist drove past he thought it appropriate to take off the last of his clothes and pretend he didn't see them and give himself a good old stretch..we were on the ground in tears laughing as we could see their reaction to the dude skinning dipping underneath them.
It was time to go through our packs, sort out who was carrying the lightest load, buckle up and get ready for a hike in. After a decent drive we reached the location i wanted to walk in from and we punched out a few kilometres under a sky full of clouds and strong winds that were increasing. I located a campsite in a sheltered gully head, it was right next to a fresh stag wallow which i was well aware was far from ideal but it was the best we could do with the remaining daylight we had. Tents and a bivvy was put up, rifles and bows were grabbed and we split up to cover some ground over the last hour of the day.
I took Casey around the lip of a big ledge glassing regularly, we located lots of sign and seen a few female sambar but no stags. That night sleep was pretty restless with gale force winds, and plenty of dead timber above to keep us guessing if any was going to break off and come crashing down through our tents.
Daylight couldn't come quick enough, some toasted muesli was washed down with milk in the headlamps and before the sun was up i was sitting on a ledge glassing a basin. Nothing was located and even though we gave it a bit longer behind the glass we knew we had to mix it up to located what elevation the deer were feeding at. I took my bowhunter mate around to where we had often found stags, sent him on his way and i eased over a ledge onto a bench full of feed. I took 15 steps along a deer path full of tracks and noticed a stag feeding his way up to bed.
I was already in my socks, so took out the camera, grabbed the rifle (incase he had big brother company) and snuck in to 15 metres.
After a while he got sick of the strange shape lying in the dirt, barked and moved around a ledge.
I gave him some time, gathered my hunting gear and climbed out to a rocky ledge. The binos were in over drive as i located a stag in timber and soon realised it was my old mate from the morning encounter 30 minutes ago. He was pretty clued up now and watching is back trail in between mouthfuls of feed.
I got on the phone to my mate, left him a message to call me asap (we were up very high in elevation and had service) and within a minute the bowhunter was running back up the platue to meet me up top. Maybe just maybe we could get him in on this stag. 15 minutes later we located each other, and i took his bow and jogged straight back to my glassing point. I was worried with the strengthening sun the thermals would shift soon and create issues with getting close. I pointed him out to my mate, he took off his boats, put on his camo face net and we moved in as quick as possible to the deer. We made it to 50 metres pretty easily, but he was wary now and didn't like it much when he noticed two drab blobs in the shade that he hadn't seen previously. Eventually my mate got into a sitting position, and released an arrow. It clipped a small twig and just missed the deer, he moved off a few metres and my mate was able to close some distance before taking a superb shot that punched his heart. The stag moved off over a hill but was clearly hit well. We gathered out gear, gave him time and moved up the ridge. My mate found him dead on a game trail, he was ecstatic, sambar are supremely difficult to harvest with a bow and my mate was now 3 from 3 for his last 3 hunts over with us. I don't get that excited when i walk up to dead animals now, but i was truly happy for my mate to get it done up in the big country like he had.
After photos, video and field work our kiwi mate came up to help with the carry out and i took a short walk above when all the knife work was done to check out another bench. I hadn't gone 200 metres into the breeze when i jumped a stag in his bed. He was running side on and look good so i shot him with the .300wsm. He toppled over and i walked up to him to realise he had cast one antler within 24 hours and the remaining antler he had fell off when he hit the ground. That was a first for me and i have to admit i wasn't too happy to have shot him half cast.
None the less he would provide good table fare and we had another stag to take care off.
The boys came to lend a hand and when everything i was done i wanted to go quickly check out a wallow nearby to see if he had cast the first antler in it whilst he was rolling around. He hadn't and on the way back i found a big cast sambar antler, they are incredibly difficult to find so i called the boys to help me look for the other one and my bowhunter mate located the other side in bracken fern. I lay them down in a cleared area for a picture.
Packs were loaded up with boned out meat, capes, antlers and we commenced the journey back to our fly camp.
It was agreed we would head out early to take care of the meat and with 90 minutes of daylight left we began the walk out. Rifles were kept ready, as we knew in this country a stag could turn up at any time and as we rounded a hill a good stag was seen eating on the spring growth on a clearing. He was a mature animal and i told the kiwi he better get it done quick as the wind wasn't too favourable. His .308 boomed and the stag took off before falling over after an 80 metre dash. The angling shot had driven in from behind the ribs to his lungs.
Walking up to the deer, the kiwi was truly overwhelmed at finally harvesting a mature sambar after the effort he had put in and we sat and admired the chocolate coloured stag. He had lived plenty of days in tough conditions and climates and would be mounted to take pride of place in my mates trophy room.
We know realised we had all taken a stag during the same day and it was a one off hunt for us as to all shoot a stag as we normally are pretty selective over what we pull the trigger on when it comes to Sambar.
The hike out was intense to say the least and we had to make a return trip the next morning for the remainder of the meat.
Finally we made it back to the river where we cooked up a feed, had a couple of beers and kicked back to reflect on the previous days hunt. Our hunt wasn't over and we managed to shoot a couple more stags later on as well, but nothing compared to seeing two real good keen mates achieve success in the high altitude remote country we love to get up into and backpack for the deer species that consumes every spare moment of my life.
