THE SHOOTERS & FISHERS STAG

Posted on 26 September 2011 by Site Admin

A great hunting story from a great supporter of the Shooters and Fishers Party - Kevin Gittings

Having handed out how to vote cards all Saturday at this years NSW Election and with the next few days free, I was well and truly ready for a bit of time in the scrub.

After a friend declined an invite, we talked about the possibilities for the hunt. I told him that if the opportunity arose I would try to take a stag, as I had spent the last year or so sussing out some new country with the view of giving other younger hunters some opportunities to take some large stags. 

In doing that I had identified four or five different groups of animals in the area that I was to hunt, and had passed on four or five large stags. I was starting to think that this was having a bit of a detrimental effect on my young dog ,so that was the reason for deciding to take any reasonable stag, if the opportunity arose.

I chose a spot for the first evening hunt that was close to camp and easily accessible  I had seen a few hinds and a small stag there previously. 

The fact that there were hinds and great feed suggested that there had to be the odd big fella about somewhere. The country looked too good for them not to be there. . 

The weather conditions were perfect for a gundog ie fine and clear with no wind. In those conditions the thermals are reliable.

I started this hunt high as the thermals were still rising and made my way to a well-used scrape which had only the few odd tracks through it; certainly no sign of major activity. As I made my way down the hill, the dog started wind scenting quiet strongly and I followed her nose to a sambar bed that had been recently vacated. As we followed the fresh tracks through the grass another fresh bed materialised along with the strong scent of a sambar stag.

My guess was that he had urinated in the area when he stepped out of the bed. The tracks lead in a westerly direction but were meandering about in a general feeding pattern.  The draught was from the south east, as I was following two deer one of which was defiantly a stag by the scent and also by the large stag droppings. I deduced that it was most likely two stags in fact.

I have noticed that in this alpine scrub stags seem to hang out together as opposed to stag and hind, unless she is coming onto season. For the rest of the year they can’t be bothered talking to them. Large stags that is, small stags seem to think that they may be a chance. So if it was a stag and hind I felt that the rut pad would have been scraped and urinated on. The other strong possibility was that it may be two or three velvet stags that seem to wander freely about in this country, possibly searching for a home territory for themselves. If it was to be two stags then I would have to be careful later on if a shot presented that I got the right one. Not to make the mistake that we have all heard many times before, ("when I shot the stag a great big one got up and ran off". For some reason they always seem to be at least thirty inchers or better)

The dog was following the marks that were meandering about in a generally western direction.  At this stage I decided to call the dog off the tracks as I deemed it to risky  to keep following as sooner or later the deer would scent us, particularly as there was at least two and they were on a feeding pattern; that is; meandering all over the place.

Past experience has taught me that as they spread and wander about, with the draught getting to close for comfort; that is; the breeze within the same quadrant, the odds are one of them will become aware of your presence .With these conditions I see tracking as a low percentage option.

I walked away into the wind for the time being checking other spots as I knew that the thermals would change in about a half an hour or so. As the thermals started to drop I cut across the hill under where I presumed the deer would be feeding to. I choose this course of action instead of circling back up the hill above them for two reasons. One was I could not be sure when the breeze would change and the other was I would have to cross through a thick scrubby swamp and being March, I was still concerned with snakes and the dog.

When the thermals were consistently dropping I turned back up the hill. After about 3 or 4 hundred metres of cutting back under the deer’s presumed feeding line the dog started to air scent strongly, this was my cue to start heading back up into the breeze as the dog now had a bead on the actual deer and not just recent tracks and beds.

I followed the dog carefully into that breeze and scent line - happy for her to call the shots. I had fulfilled my half of the partnership by getting her into a position where she could lock onto the true line of scent with the breeze totally in our favour.

I kept a close eye on her however, as she is only eighteen months old and developing into a very good dog, but she is still a work in progress. On the last few trips she had been finding and pointing plenty of deer but her finishing had not been as precise as I require from my dogs

After stalking in for about 300 m. I noticed a hind and calf about 200 m. in front through a rare gap in the scrub. However, they were on a mission and soon disappeared from view. The dog kept concentrating on that spot and after a few minutes I saw some movement. Looking through the binoculars I saw the torso of a deer that looked too big to be a hind, then I saw the tip of the right brow tine and the shanghai tops of the left antler. He soon disappeared from view but I saw him long enough to see that he was only mooching about and did not seem to be alarmed in any way.

We started to close in on him very slowly and carefully keeping a lookout for any other deer off to the sides. It took about half an hour to move 200 m.  I had no more sightings of the deer but the dog was fixated straight into the thermals dead ahead. One thing that I have noticed over all my years of hunting Sambar with a gundog is that, if there are stags and hinds about they always seem to preference the stags,

Whether this is from the stronger scent or possibly the greater fuss that is made after a stag is bagged I do not know. Eventually, I noticed a horizontal line between two trees and through the binoculars could make out the hairy outline of a deer’s back.  I had to move slowly around the head of a fallen tree to get a full view of the animal which was about 30m away and fully side-on.

It looked to be a 24 to 26 inch stag from this angle. In trying to get a photo of the dog pointing the still unaware stag, the lens cap of my camera clacked on my binoculars and the stag moved off immediately.  As he did I saw that his headgear was a bit better than the 26 inches that I first thought. He totally disappeared into the scrub to my right and as I scanned around with the binoculars for no result I thought that I had blown my chance. I put the binoculars down and looked at the dog that was now pointing out to the left. About 90 degrees from where I had been looking.

I took the binoculars up again and saw the stag standing on a mound of dirt, probably trying to see over the scrub trying and work out what the noise was. He had outwitted me [which would not be too hard, being about 80% deaf] by circling around behind the low scrub cover but he could not fool the senses of the dog!

This time there would be no photos as I got a rest on a nearby tree and sent a 180 grain Woodleigh hydrostatic on its way. The light was starting to fade by this time and as the 300WM. came back to rest there was total silence and no sign of the stag.  He had been about 70 or 80 metres away when I fired but I was confident that the shot was good.

As I made my way over I could see an antler sticking up. The stag was still on the mound and he had been pole axed by a shot to the base of the neck

I had to chalk this one up to the young gundog, it is her best stag to date and I made a big fuss about the stag - telling her what a good dog she is, etc and generally made sure that she knew that I was very happy with her hunt and finish.

I have found this to be a very effective tool with previous dogs, and they will work their butt off to get a good result to please you.  Although it did create a lot of work for me and mucked up my hunting plans for the next day and a half. 

When I arrived home I found him to be a slightly under spread 29.5 incher

As the election results started coming in over the next week or so, it was very interesting to see the results booth by booth in the Albury area and note the booths that we manned came in third or fourth with some of the outlying country areas coming in second.

I thought that this was a great result for us, considering the amount of parties standing in the upper house. And it just goes to show that a little bit effort is certainly worth it if we are to preserve our lifestyle.