My First Sambar Stag
06-25-2011, 12:46 AM
#1
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 11
My First Sambar Stag
After knocking off early from work, on my down to the VIC high country with two of my hunting pals, it was our 3rd Sambar hunting trip and third time at this particular camp. We knew there were deer there cause we had seen quite a few on the other two occasions that we had gone. After the 6 1/2 hour drive from Canberra we were lucky enough to pull into camp already set up by one of the other blokes who had left a few hours before us. thankfully enough the fire was burning so we could jump out have a stretch have a quick feed before calling it a night for an early start the next morning.
Of course I found it very hard to get to sleep that night as I was boiling with excitement at the thought of tomorrow might bring. Running over previous gullies that i had cased on the prior occasions and just genuinely fantasising about the possibility of taking my first stag!
Knowing full well that the chances of me taking the all revered mighty Sambar Stag was well, slim. I had previously made a goal of trying to bring one down within my first year of hunting Sambar. I had big expectations, but knowing full well I was committed to putting in the time and effort into learning and gathering as much information possible without losing my wife and family.
I awoke at around 5am the next morning, stepping straight out of my troopy fully cammed noticing my mate Matt was already sitting at the fire feeding his face and ready to go. Over a quick breakfast we discussed what gullies each of us would take so our paths wouldn't cross during the day. I packed my daypack and gat and started walking along the road to my pre-GPS'd gully.
At this time it was just starting to get light knowing full well I had a fair hike ahead of me I put the foot to the floor to get the first two hills behind me. After a couple of hours of non-productive trekking I decided to pull up for a bit of morning tea, overlooking some of the best country I had seen in a while. As I snacked on my baked beans I came to realise ####, I was on the wrong mountain and I needed to be one mountain over to the right. So as I sat there feeling pissed off at myself wondering where I had went wrong and what I was going to do next. Feeling deflated I just wanted to head back to camp.
After about 5 minutes of running through the insults and #### I was going to cope from the others for pulling the pin, it re-motivated me to head up the massive hill to get to the correct gully. As I headed down to the bottom of the gully, through some blackberry and other shrubs not even thinking of being quiet, I stopped at the gully floor for a quick breather and to wipe the sweat from my brow when I heard something banging and crashing, making it’s way down the other side of the gully.
Although thinking to myself ‘well, I don’t think anyone else is around here, I have made a #### load of noise so it wont be a deer’ my instincts still kicked in. Clutching at my rifle I looked up about twenty meters towards where the racket was coming from and I noticed two white tips through the shrubs. I upped my rifle in the direction of the antler tips and thorugh my scope I saw that the deer had moved out from a smaller shrub, which gave me just enough shoulder for a shot. Knowing that I only had seconds I pulled the trigger!
After the shot had been fired I lowed my gun only to see the Stag running directly at me. When he finally realized I was only meters in front of him, he quickly put on a side step and vanished into the thick scrub. Unsure if I had made the hit I thought ‘#### I have missed him, the others will never believe that I had the opportunity to shoot at a stag’ I decided to walk over to where he had been standing when I took the shot to check for blood, which I could not find. I quickly went in the direction, which he had ran to see if there was any sign of blood there. To my unexpected excitement I noticed a single of blood on a blade of grass. With adrenaline raging now knowing that I had made the hit I started the painful two hour trek following blood drops through the bush. Hearing noises to my right I have looked over only to see him making his way up the hill. Knowing that I didn’t want to loose him again I decided to take the Texan heart shot, which did the trick!!!!
As he collapsed I started running towards him. After about ten minutes of ‘wooo hooing’ and carry on, it finally sunk in that I had got him and the hunt was over! I had got my first Sambar Stag!!!
Of course I found it very hard to get to sleep that night as I was boiling with excitement at the thought of tomorrow might bring. Running over previous gullies that i had cased on the prior occasions and just genuinely fantasising about the possibility of taking my first stag!
Knowing full well that the chances of me taking the all revered mighty Sambar Stag was well, slim. I had previously made a goal of trying to bring one down within my first year of hunting Sambar. I had big expectations, but knowing full well I was committed to putting in the time and effort into learning and gathering as much information possible without losing my wife and family.
I awoke at around 5am the next morning, stepping straight out of my troopy fully cammed noticing my mate Matt was already sitting at the fire feeding his face and ready to go. Over a quick breakfast we discussed what gullies each of us would take so our paths wouldn't cross during the day. I packed my daypack and gat and started walking along the road to my pre-GPS'd gully.
At this time it was just starting to get light knowing full well I had a fair hike ahead of me I put the foot to the floor to get the first two hills behind me. After a couple of hours of non-productive trekking I decided to pull up for a bit of morning tea, overlooking some of the best country I had seen in a while. As I snacked on my baked beans I came to realise ####, I was on the wrong mountain and I needed to be one mountain over to the right. So as I sat there feeling pissed off at myself wondering where I had went wrong and what I was going to do next. Feeling deflated I just wanted to head back to camp.
After about 5 minutes of running through the insults and #### I was going to cope from the others for pulling the pin, it re-motivated me to head up the massive hill to get to the correct gully. As I headed down to the bottom of the gully, through some blackberry and other shrubs not even thinking of being quiet, I stopped at the gully floor for a quick breather and to wipe the sweat from my brow when I heard something banging and crashing, making it’s way down the other side of the gully.
Although thinking to myself ‘well, I don’t think anyone else is around here, I have made a #### load of noise so it wont be a deer’ my instincts still kicked in. Clutching at my rifle I looked up about twenty meters towards where the racket was coming from and I noticed two white tips through the shrubs. I upped my rifle in the direction of the antler tips and thorugh my scope I saw that the deer had moved out from a smaller shrub, which gave me just enough shoulder for a shot. Knowing that I only had seconds I pulled the trigger!
After the shot had been fired I lowed my gun only to see the Stag running directly at me. When he finally realized I was only meters in front of him, he quickly put on a side step and vanished into the thick scrub. Unsure if I had made the hit I thought ‘#### I have missed him, the others will never believe that I had the opportunity to shoot at a stag’ I decided to walk over to where he had been standing when I took the shot to check for blood, which I could not find. I quickly went in the direction, which he had ran to see if there was any sign of blood there. To my unexpected excitement I noticed a single of blood on a blade of grass. With adrenaline raging now knowing that I had made the hit I started the painful two hour trek following blood drops through the bush. Hearing noises to my right I have looked over only to see him making his way up the hill. Knowing that I didn’t want to loose him again I decided to take the Texan heart shot, which did the trick!!!!
As he collapsed I started running towards him. After about ten minutes of ‘wooo hooing’ and carry on, it finally sunk in that I had got him and the hunt was over! I had got my first Sambar Stag!!!
06-26-2011, 02:41 PM
#5
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 11
