The Aussie red stag experience

[ShadeMt]

Thanks Al.  Besides seing some good aussie bush, I also got to see a copy of your article in Arrowhead Magazine.  Well done. They had a copy in camp and what a quality magazine!

[ShadeMt]

Now that I had figured out the left eye shooting technique we headed out for the evening hunt.  Since it had been a few days since I had hunted the valley where I encountered the big 6x5 it was decided to head back there again.  

I eased up through the valley and found my way to a vantage point to glass the same spots where I had seen reds on the past hunt.  Just as soon as I reached a spot to sit and glass, the first thing I see is a young stag with 2 hinds feeding on that very spot the big guy from the first night.  Immediately I belly crawled down to some brush and eased my way to where I could make a move to the hillside that held the stag.  I needed to cover about 80 yards of high grass with very little wind to cover my noise.  

After easing along every so slowly I used my binos to glass the horizon for movement.  Low and behold I caught a glimpse of an antler sticking out from the side of a lantana bush.  A split second later the antler was gone so I had gotten lucky and saw him first.  Slowly I moved towards his direction and he stepped out from behind the bush to move down the ridge.  He was headed right towards me and was 30 yards and closing.  It looked like it was coming together perfectly.  

As he got to within 25 he was still quartering towards me and then he decided to drop into a gully filled with high grass.  He fed very slowly and a few times I actually thought he had somehow disappeared.  As I searched for his form in the grass I would hear him crunching through the grass and getting closer.  My fingers gripped the string and I was surprisingly relaxed as he stepped out at 20 yards.  The upper half of his body was out of the grass so I focused on the sweet spot behind the shoulder and right at the edge of the grass.  When I felt my clicker go off I released and watched the arrow go right over his back!   He bolted another 20 yards and stood behind a lantana bush to look back and survey what had happened.  After a few moments he barked and then walked out onto the hillside at about 35 yards.  He continued to look back my direction and then disappeared down over the bank.  

Dejected I walked over and surprisingly found my arrow in the thick grass.  I had finally gotten my chance and missed.

As I decided to sit down and see if anything else showed, I looked across the valley and there was the big 6x5 chasing a hind on an open hillside.  Unfortunately with the wind direction I could do nothing but watch the trophy stag chase hinds and roar.  

Here is a picture of the hillside where the big stag was having a field day chasing hinds. He looked bigger and more massive than ever.

 

[Al Kidner]

Thanks for you kind words Clay, and yeh... ArrowHead magazine is quality alright.

[ShadeMt]

On our travels I actually got to meet Doug, the editor/owner of Arrowhead.  Very intense fellow but also very down to earth.  Really enjoyed speaking with him. He was showing me pictures from some of his 20 day New Zealand backpack trips.  Hardcore hunter for sure.

[ShadeMt]

The next morning I was back chasing stags in an area that I had previously seen a few near a secluded pond.  Just at daylight I glassed a lone stag feeding on the hillside about 150 yards away.  I immediately dropped into a steep ravine to stay out of sight and try to get to the same level. There were was about a 50 yard section of soaking wet grass that I needed to crawl through to get behind some lantana for cover and that way I could get a look to see where the stag was currently. Midway across that open area I look up and here comes the stag at 125 yards feeding from bush to bush. Previous red deer that I encountered in this area had headed that same direction and then down the gully.  Pinned down I could not go anywhere but laid flat on the ground behind a small rock to hide my human outline. Once he got behind a small bush I moved closer to the gully and some cover.  Shortly thereafter the stag turns my way and starts down the hill nibbling on a line of randomly spaced lantana....70 yards then 60 then 50....next thing he is behind a lantana bush at 30 yards.  Assuming a similar path as he had been taking he would be headed my direction to the lantana where I was hiding.  I got my arrow ready and fingers on the string to prepare for the shot.   It looked like I was going to get my second chance in 2 consecutive hunts.  Just as he cleared the bush to head my way a fickle wind blew on the back of my neck and off he ran up the ridge and into parts unknown.  Ugh...so close.  

 

I shook it off and headed up the drainage where I had heard a stag.  As a covered ground I saw 2 hinds on the edge of a meadow, one was feeding and the other was bedded.  Hidden by a steep bank and brush was the source of the roars.  I dropped down into the creek bank and kept tabs on the 2 hinds. After a few hundred yards I ran out of cover and could do nothing but watch the hinds and stag head to their beds.

The rest of the morning was rather uneventful and by mid morning I headed back to the truck.  My hunting partner also had an eventful morning as he encountered over 15 hinds and 3 stags in a small secluded basin.  The largest stag had pinned him down and stared at him for an hour and five minutes just daring him to move. The crazy thing was that the stag was over 150 yards away but it was a testament to the senses of these deer. All of us continually remarked about how tough these deer were to hunt and once you got within about 150 yards they were more than likely going to pick you off.  My buddy is by far the most successful hunter I know and on DIY hunts has taken some huge elk, cape buffalo, water buffalo, caribou, moose, muleys, blacktail, hogs, whitetails, etc.  He said that hands down these red deer were the hardest thing he has hunted.  As of the 4th day of his hunt the closest deer he had encountered was over 80 yards away.  Unreal.

[ShadeMt]

Since it was the last evening to hunt this ranch before we moved to a different place, I wanted to head back to the spot where I had been having such good luck with close encounters.  I made good time moving up the valley to my location and as I turned to start up the ridge decided to take a breather so I was not so sweated up.  Just as I glanced up the hill a young stag stepped out of the bush and was pretty oblivious to my location.  He was gradually working downhill and as he stepped out from behind a lantana bush I came to full draw.  Unfortunately due to the high grass I could not get a shot and he wandered off unscathed.

So close again and I decided to sit tight to see if anything else showed.  Within 5 minutes my massive 6x5 that had been taunting me on each hunt in this valley showed up again on the adjacent hillside.  He was by himself and not a hind in sight.   I instantly took off after him and as I crossed the valley  to his side noticed that the wind was heading up the ridge still due to thermals.  I made the decision to wait for the thermals to start drawing down the valley before I headed up after him.

 

After an hour or so, I caught movement and here comes the 6x5 off the ridge, crossed the valley floor and headed to the area where I encountered him the first evening.  It was now getting dark and I was out of time.  Since we could hunt one more morning it was decided to head back into this drainage for one last chance at the big guy.

[4dogs]

[Paul R]

I'm really enjoying your write up mate, can't wait to see how it ends. Not that the outcome on game matters with the great experiences you enjoyed.

I aplaud your choice of outfitters, Waynes a top bloke and an excellent guide and has access to fanastic hunting land. His mancave/ bar/ bunk house is an awesome place to rest up too!

[hitmantoto]

[ShadeMt]

Yes the mancave was an awesome place.  I am used to backpack hunting and sleeping on the ground so having a bunk, shower, warm meals with a couple of Great Northerns to wash them down was great.  Add in the stories, hanging out with the locals and reliving the days adventures was icing on the cake for this trip and is really a lot of what I will always remember from this trip.  

For those of you not familiar with Australian bowhunting or Australia in general, the country itself is huge and is roughly the size of our lower 48 states.  Population wise they have only about 25 million spread(some of our individual states have populations this large) over a huge landmass.  Of the population, the vast majority reside along the coastal areas in some of the large, modern cities.  As a result there are some truly wild spaces and I didn't even get to touch the surface of what remoteness is there. It is truly one of the last great frontiers on this planet. Hunting and bowhunting in general is not as popular as here in the US but I can assure you the ones that bowhunt are very serious.  It is estimated that they have only 20,000 bowhunters in the entire country whereas my home state of PA has 300,000 alone!  With virtually no seasons, no bag limits and most of the game species being considered invasive by their government the hunting opportunities are endless.  As a result, some bowhunters will hunt more in one year than those of us in the states will hunt in a decade or in some cases a lifetime.  Some of the stories I heard were about charging water buffalo, overly aggressive scrub bulls, close contact with big toothy boars and encounters with deadly king brown snakes and saltwater crocs were incredible. In addition to all of the stories, our host has spent his lifetime videoing hunts and taking still photography so we were treated to experiencing some of Australia as taken through his camera lenses.

Speaking of some of the hazards of the bush, as soon as folks from back home would hear I was heading to Australia the first comment would be "You know they have a bunch of poisonous stuff over there that will kill you".  True.  Some of the most deadly snakes in the world live in Australia plus lots of poisonous scorpions, spiders,cane toads, etc.  When you are wading through chest high grasses it is on your mind a bit but I actually never saw a snake on the entire trip except for a single king brown that was crossing the road as we traveled back to camp one evening.  While these poisonous critters demand respect I quickly learned that you can't spend the entire time worried about them.

[Matabele]

Sounds like an amazing trip, thanks for bringing us along! Really enjoying this    

[Cyclic-Rivers]

   

[ShadeMt]

Glad to hear you are enjoying.  Sorry about the delays but unfortunately work really messes up my story telling schedule.

I had one more chance to hunt the valley that had been so productive and this was actually the only time I had hunted it in the morning.  As daylight broke I slipped up the valley and hadn't gone far when I caught a glimpse of a stag slipping through some brush. He got out of there before I got a good look so I slowed my pace.  Within about 100 yards I entered two hinds feeding in a small meadow.  I tucked in behind some brush to see if any stags were around because the night before I had been a young stag in this meadow as I was walking out right at dark. After a few minutes the hinds fed back into the bush and shortly thereafter I stag roared up the valley.  The roar just so happened to be in my favorite spot.  Pretty neat to hunt a spot and see/hear a stag there each time.  As I continued to move into position I glassed the stag in the exact same place as the 6x5 and the stag that I had missed a few days back.  I took the familiar path and continued into position to make a play on the stag.  He was pre-occupied with eating but since it was still pretty calm out I needed to move slowly.  Actually too slowly in this case because after crawling and wading through 200 yards of high grass the stag had given me the slip.  I sat in that spot and absorbed the surroundings as this would be the final chance to return to this spot.

 

I decided to travel a bit further up a narrowing valley on a small cattle trail surrounded by high grass.  After a few hundred yards I heard something in the grass nearby and caught a glimpse of 7 red deer hinds starting up a steep section of the ridge and into the bush.  After they disappeared I continued to explore further and by mid morning decided to head back to the truck as we had to head back to camp to pack to move to another ranch.  

I had spent 6 days on this incredible place and leaving was kind of bittersweet.  This place had exceeded my expectations but the ranch we were relocating to was the one we were to hunt originally.   A tropical cyclone that devastated much of northern Queensland right before we arrived had dumped excessive rains making the access impossible to this ranch.   It had now dried out and since the property had yet to be hunted this year I anxiously agreed to relocate.  

While two of my partners had 5 more days to hunt, the next day would be my last day of hunting as I had to head back to Melbourne and then fly back to the States.  My brother in law and I would leave at the end of the next day, but my other two hunting partners would have this new ranch to themselves and 4 days to roam over nearly 20,000 acres.  Saying I was jealous was an understatement.  5 more days would have been huge after all I had learned this week.

Before I wrap up with the tales from the final day of hunting, here are some other pictures of the first ranch that I did not previously post. Enjoy.

 

 

   

 

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

amazing trip! thanks for sharing it

[Friend]

A splendid and most fulfilling adventure.

[ShadeMt]

I'm glad you are all enjoying the stories. Even though it has been barely over a month ago, putting the adventure in writing has brought back some great memories.

On this last day, the ranch we would be hunting was to feature more gentle terrain with staggering sheer numbers of reds, along with hogs, hares and a variety of native game such as wallabies, dingoes, etc.  I was anxious to see how the hunting would compare to the stories we had been told.

With this part of Australia being 14 hours ahead in time of my home, I was really surprised at how well I adjusted.  For the entire 2 weeks I spent downunder I rarely slept more than 5-6 hours per night but never felt exhausted.  Every morning I was wide awake at 4am and ready to roll.  On this last morning of the trip I woke up even earlier, making certain I didn't miss a minute of this adventure.   The new ranch was about an hour north so we had some travel time ahead of us to arrive in location by daylight.  As we wound up through the mountains I could tell we were gaining elevation and there were fewer signs of population as we neared our destination.

I opened 2 cattle gates and we pulled the Toyota Hilux(cool truck used by nearly everyone in the bush) into a small grove of trees on a ridgetop.  Even though it was still dark and had fog lifting I could make out some distance ridgetops.  As I got out of the truck to grab my gear we were greeted with the sounds of roaring stags in nearly every direction!  We quickly decided who was headed in which area and the 4 of us split up in pursuit of the roars.  

My brother in law and I eased out along a pasture road and would split off from each other about 400 yards from camp. By the time we reached that spot, we wished each other good luck and headed out respective directions.  It was just breaking daylight and I had not gone literally 100 yards when I caught movement to my left and saw 2 young pigs scurrying from a hidden pond into a saddle on the ridgeline.  Hunting pigs has become one of my favorite hunts and it didn't take me long to leave red stag mode and switch to hog hunting mode.  As they went out of sight, I picked up the pace in case more were in the area.   Just as I got about midway, a big boar came onto the scene but unfortunately still out of range.  He was all over the hillside with nose to the ground and likely was trying to scent check the younger sows that had just passed through. Caught in the wide open it was difficult to get much closer and eventually he dropped into the small gully to my right and continued to move to his daytime bedding area.  

As you can see in this picture, the terrain of this new ranch was much more rolling and gentle in nature.

 

[ShadeMt]

After the encounter with the boar, a nearby stag roared in the foggy valley below.  I checked the wind then dropped down in elevation to see if I could close the distance. As his occasional roars got closer, out of the fog a red deer hind appeared on the spine of a ridge about 70 yards away.  As she passed by here comes another followed by another, any another....eventually 9 hinds followed by a young roaring 2x2 stag.  As they dropped out of sight I quickly moved at a slight unhill angle but when I crested the hill they had remained out of range. I turned right into the bush as another stag roared above.  

The hillside brush was very thick and the fog was wreaking havoc on my glasses.  Every couple of steps I was wiping them off in order to see ahead.  A slight groan on the hillside told me that a stag was warning that other stag to say away.  I had learned earlier in the week that the larger stags typically will not be as vocal when they are with hinds as they do not want to draw unwanted competition from others.  As a result they typically would only groan.  Somewhere above me in the bush above was a stag that was showing just that exact type of behavior. Unfortauntely with his dominant position above me on the hillside and the dense brush preventing me from sneaking closer I never was able to catch sight of this stag before he moved off.  The first half hour of daylight had already been full of non-stop action.

Hate to do this but I need to head to work..... I will wrap up the conclusion to my hunt this evening.

[Pete McMiller]

I understand "going to work", but dang you got me hooked.      

[23feetupandhappy]

[ShadeMt]

Ok...let's do this.

After the contact with the stag that was groaning I climbed up and out of the thick bush. Once on top the vegetation opened up and I could see some hinds in the distance. Once they dropped out of sight I proceeded that direction to see if any stags were trailing them.  Once I got to that area I found some waterholes and a saw a few more hinds in a steep valley.  I worked around the point of a ridge and came to an area of mature timber. I slipped along a fence and glassed several hundred yards to see some more hinds coming out of the brushy draws.  

It was now about 2 hours after daylight and I sat on a ridge top to glass and listen. I heard a roar and my binos revealed a stag and 3 hinds on a meadow below me.  However, that was not the stag that had just roared.  In looking around a tree I caught a glimpse of a hind stepping into an opening in a creekbottom.  As I moved for a better look I saw not just one hind but actually 38 and a dandy stag roaring his guts out to keep others away.  It was time to move as the sun was getting higher and hotter by the minute.  

To have a chance at these reds, I would need to drop down in elevation through a very dense patch of brush and not spook a herd of ranch cattle on the edge of the meadow.  I felt that if I could get down through the brush and get downwind from the reds that I might be able to close in on the herd.  After a few hundred yards of brush and skirting around the cattle I got into the edge of the creekbottom. As I approached the bottom I could see a waterhole and another herd with 27 hinds and another stag feeding and watering.  My plan had to change by the second with all of these eyes and noses.  I decided that this second herd was closer and worth trying to stalk.

I dropped into a steep, brushy creekbottom and as I climbed up into the huge meadows that contained the 2 herds.  I caught movement to my left and coming out of the brush single file was still another respectable size herd of 22 hinds.  No stags with this group but now I had to wait so that I did not blow out all the other reds.  Within 300 yards of me was over 80 head of red deer!  This ranch was living up to all the hype.

I planned a route but had to move extremely slowly and jump back and forth between pieces of cover.  Once I finally reached that first waterhole the herd had moved on into a large open drainage and I could hear roaring.  After that I crawled around the corner to another hidden waterhole and there was the herd of nearly 40 animals but they were about 70 yards away from the nearest cover so I could do nothing.  Since there was no way to move in on so many animals in the open I headed back to waterhole around the corner and decided to wait in ambush.  Eventually the roaring slowed down with the heat and only a few hinds passed within eyesight of my makeshift blind. Despite all of the reds in the area I still did not get a shot oppportunity.  

At noon I decided to slip back to camp for a sandwich and water but within a few minutes was back in hunt mode.  I felt that my best chance was to head back to the waterhole and spend the heat of the day in ambush.  On my walk to the waterhole I saw 5 hinds come out into the open but quickly retreated when a herd of range cattle decided to stampeded their way.  

 

I spent the afternoon sitting in the shade and about 2 hours before dark a single hind fed onto a ridgetop about 80 yards away.  Despite all the morning chaos, the stags just were not talking at all and nothing was feeding.  

With any hour to go in the hunt, I decided to make one more attempt and headed towards the brushy creekbottom I had crossed earlier in the morning. As I approached the edge of the woods I heard several loud squeals from a few hundred yards away.  The squeals were non-stop and without a red deer in sight it was time to try and close in on these fighting hogs.