Aussie_hunter_JD
Well-known member
Haven't been on the forum for a while so thought I'd chuck up a coming back story. Got a pounding headache currently so I'll be brief.
Unfortunately due to Covid we lost our hunting privileges for a couple of months here, which happened to extend through the entirety of the red stag rut and hog deer season. Once restrictions lifted my brother and I took our eldest boys out for a hunt. We both chucked our respective kids into our packs and set off. We were glassing off a small ridge down into farmland where the deer come off thick creekline cover to feed. Pretty much straight away I spotted something a ways off, a bit of glass time informed us that he needed a few more years so we pressed on. We had continued on another 500m when my brother spotted a stag down near the creek. By the time I threw up my binos he'd gone back into cover. We decided to move in closer, which across open land and a scattering of roos wasn't easy. I ended up putting a silencer in my young fella's gob because he was getting very vocal about all the roos and cockies around him (pic 1).
We used the contour of an old creekline to close the distance and pulled up about 400m from where we last saw him. It was starting to get dark but my brother again turned him up though couldn't get a better look or shot from where we were so he crawled another off to the right while I sat with the boys. Presently the stag stepped out and started feeding, he was short but heavy and missing some major tines (a proper cull head) and my brother wanted meat so through hand signals indicated he was taking the shot. I got the camera up and filmed it, unfortunately a little too far for the boys to really see (besides a mob of roos close by were occupying their attention). One shot from about 300m with his 300wm Fierce and Barnes Vortx and he was down where he stood. Everyone was excited, and my brother and I who nearly 25 years ago got to experience our first deer taken with our dad now were able to do the same with our own boys. Very special hunt neither of us will forget.
The stag was rightly one to take out, I aged him at 5 by which time he needed to be showing a lot more than what he was. Something we hadn't noticed at the shot was the patches of white on both shoulders and legs. Never seen it before on a red. So the cape was taken as well.
Hopefully just the first of many hunts to come.
Unfortunately due to Covid we lost our hunting privileges for a couple of months here, which happened to extend through the entirety of the red stag rut and hog deer season. Once restrictions lifted my brother and I took our eldest boys out for a hunt. We both chucked our respective kids into our packs and set off. We were glassing off a small ridge down into farmland where the deer come off thick creekline cover to feed. Pretty much straight away I spotted something a ways off, a bit of glass time informed us that he needed a few more years so we pressed on. We had continued on another 500m when my brother spotted a stag down near the creek. By the time I threw up my binos he'd gone back into cover. We decided to move in closer, which across open land and a scattering of roos wasn't easy. I ended up putting a silencer in my young fella's gob because he was getting very vocal about all the roos and cockies around him (pic 1).
We used the contour of an old creekline to close the distance and pulled up about 400m from where we last saw him. It was starting to get dark but my brother again turned him up though couldn't get a better look or shot from where we were so he crawled another off to the right while I sat with the boys. Presently the stag stepped out and started feeding, he was short but heavy and missing some major tines (a proper cull head) and my brother wanted meat so through hand signals indicated he was taking the shot. I got the camera up and filmed it, unfortunately a little too far for the boys to really see (besides a mob of roos close by were occupying their attention). One shot from about 300m with his 300wm Fierce and Barnes Vortx and he was down where he stood. Everyone was excited, and my brother and I who nearly 25 years ago got to experience our first deer taken with our dad now were able to do the same with our own boys. Very special hunt neither of us will forget.
The stag was rightly one to take out, I aged him at 5 by which time he needed to be showing a lot more than what he was. Something we hadn't noticed at the shot was the patches of white on both shoulders and legs. Never seen it before on a red. So the cape was taken as well.
Hopefully just the first of many hunts to come.
Last edited:
