# Hunting > The Magazine >  One of those Days

## Mooseman

I'm not quite ready for the story so WATCH THIS SPACE....tomorrow night.

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## Flyblown

One of those days when it takes a whole day to recover? Looking forward to hearing this one!

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## muzza

slow typer?

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## Frogfeatures

All day counselling session ?

This could be a goody !

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## Boaraxa

Oh Deer it doesn't sound good

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## 7mm Rem Mag

The one that got away?  24 pointer?    :Grin:

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## Gibo

PD on the deck?

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## Max Headroom

> I'm not quite ready for the story so WATCH THIS SPACE...….tomorrow night.


Has it been a long year this week?

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## mawzer308

Spill the beans mate, was it the monster Sambar?

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## Sarvo

He got caught Poaching on his own Trail Cam :-)

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## Mooseman

Love the comments will be a little while , must be a slow typer but it should be out in an hour or so.

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## planenutz

Drum roll please....... !!!

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## Shearer

Sounds like dancing with the stars......

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## Woody

Bthrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrratatatatatatat

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## Sideshow

Must be the our....sooooo in this hour :Wink:  :Psmiley:  or youre having trouble with that  leotard

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## Mooseman

Well this starts as the roar kicked in. It was a funny roar, they roared OK but as we can only weekend hunt we may have missed some of the better days. We set a few extra cameras in different areas and got some really good shots several nice 11's the big drop tine 16 pointer roaring in one of the wallows and numerous other stags. The 13 th of April I was hunting with Wayne, Beemans oldest son, we had hunted for several hours and heard a few stags and eventually got in close to one. I held off roaring until about 70 yards out then gave a soft roar , he answered then after a while started coming in. I seen an antler then the head and top of the neck, Wayne couldn't see him where he was so I took the shot, shit I missed clean. First stuff up. 
The next weekend we had two stags come into our roars , the first cut our wind and that was that. The second came in but stopped on the other side of a  skid site but wouldn't  step into the open and  ghosted away.
After that the roar started to tapper off so we had nothing on the ground.
On opening weekend I did a hunt in my local forest, very pleased to see a fair bit of sign about. On Sunday the wife and I went for a look see and found a nice spot on a clear cut plenty of sign so I sneaked out there in the late afternoon. 15 mins before dark out pops a big hind, 475 yards, 3 shots later still standing then walks off, Fuck stuff up number 2. Teach me not to get a good solid rest.
Roll around this weekend. Beeman and Mrs Beeman checked there camera lines lot of Sambar activity, preaching, ripping up rut pads etc and several different stags about. ( PD  had been caught on camera (Wallaby surveillance camera)   on the 14th April  so is still about although we haven't seen him on our lines yet)

On my line I only had one camera to check so I then continued around a ridge system for a hunt. About half way round  when on a high ridge I heard a branch break Ah I thought that's got to be a pig or deer, then a punga began to shack and out stepped a damn fine looking redskin, long black antlers and plenty of points. Murphy's law prevailed and he stopped in a bunch of crap about 15 meters below me.
I put the scope on a patch of grey hair but couldn't ID which part it was for sure so held fire, then the hunters worst enemy hit, wind, it reached the stag and he exploded out of the shit and I managed a shotgun style snap shot to no avail, nearly cried listening to him crashing off into the distance. Stuff Up number 3.
As the afternoon hunt neared I decided to change rifles and took my 6.5x55. We did a short cruise before Beeman dropped me off on my chosen spot ( Gibo you know the spot ) I walked up the old track then up to the clear cut which is fast being overtaken with gorse. I looked up the edge of the pines and there was a sambar hind watching me only it's head visible, she took off with another in tow. Bugger I thought, I figured I should wait a while so spent the next half hour watching the small grassy patches to no avail, Time to move so up to the corner then into the open pines to start my stalk back round to the road. 
All was going well, I got to a nice open spot and paused looking to my left into the open pines, nothing, then I glanced to my right, sheit there was a monster Sambar Stag  striding it up a trail heading towards the clear cut, I raised the rifle and let him have it at about  40 meters in the shoulder , he jumped and took off. I could hear him crashing through rubbish then it went quite …..that was a good sign I thought.
 No blood along the way but I found big deep skid marks ,then an old punga stump smashed up then beyond that an antler, a big one, sticking out of the blackberry. I got to him and shit he was a monster the best I have ever shot.


 My Sambar 213 DS what a beauty.        
I took some photos then removed his head and gutted him, that was a mission but got it done and rolled him on his back and propped him up to cool, no way was I moving him now with darkness about half an hour away. My shot had hit him in the shoulder a little low, the bullet a 143 gr ELD X destroyed his heart and lungs and lodged on the off side in front of the guts , perfectly mushroomed .



I took the head and beat the feet back to the road to meet Beeman who was rapped to see I had finely shot a record book stag. Beeman had twisted his  knee during the morning hunt and was now starting to feel the pain so he was out for the meat recovery tomorrow. Lucky he found a willing young fella Dan to lend a hand in the morning.
Sunday morning had Dan an I were on the way to the stag to break him down and get him back to the road. We got busy and took the legs off and back steaks along with the neck meat. Dan took a front quarter, Back strap and one side of the neck in the first load, I had  the other back strap and tried to carry the hindquarters but only managed a short distance before I dropped them and took the pelvis out and took one leg in my pack.



Dan headed off while I finished getting the back legs done and meet him coming back for the next load. After I got back and a short break I headed up and meet Dan not far along the ridge so I dragged the hind leg back to the road.
It sure was good to have him back a the truck. We ended up with 106 kg of meat, no rib cage, neck, back bone hooves etc so figured he would have been about 200 kg + on the hoof.

After the shot he had run about 70 meters before going down. The next series of pictures are his heart and lungs, the bullet entry into the chest cavity and the recovered bullet.

What a weekend missing a huge red skin then taking a monster Sambar stag, it sure is nice to be relaxing with the feet up right now.

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## Max Headroom

Interesting Rack on the Sambar. Very simple, strong antler pattern. Is that typical structure?

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## Gibo

Wow what a beast!!! Congratulations mate!!!

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## tiroatedson

Good stuff. Congrats in the stag


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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## top of the south

Good story well done

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## Mooseman

Forgot to put this in, This is my stag at one of the wallows three days before I shot him. This wallow is about 1.5 km from the spot I shot him at.

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## Boaraxa

Whata horse , well done !!! will you get it mounted ?

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## mawzer308

Haha knew it, congratulations mate what a beauty!!

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## Mooseman

> Interesting Rack on the Sambar. Very simple, strong antler pattern. Is that typical structure?


Yes and no there are a few different styles, this particular stag is similar to PD ( Pencil Dick). we know it isn't him because he has a nick in the ear in a different place. Some stags are more straight up, some bowed, but they generally are very heavy in the beams and have long tines.

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## Mooseman

> Whata horse , well done !!! will you get it mounted ?


Would love to but no room to put him, even my moose isn't ….need a bigger house.

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## Mooseman

> Good story well done


Thanks Rod, pretty chuffed with this one.

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## cameronjackwhite

Been waiting all day for this write up and was worth it! Good read and awesome stag

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## Micky Duck

hope the vennison tastes as good as it looks.... awesome stag,now tell me have you checked the zero on the other rifle yet????

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## 7mm Rem Mag

Bloody good stuff @Mooseman, it was worth the wait for the write up. Well done   :36 1 11:

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## Mooseman

> hope the vennison tastes as good as it looks.... awesome stag,now tell me have you checked the zero on the other rifle yet????


Yes it was my 300 Win mag, shot the other day out to 350 yards and its all good. Just me need to take a bit more time when the heats on.

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## Chur Bay

Awesome. Now to go back and get that Red Stag

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## Josan

Fantastic story! Brings back good memories.  :Thumbsup:

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## Mooseman

> Fantastic story! Brings back good memories.


Thanks Jo nice to hear from you. Great weekend we had those big boys don't come that easy , usually.

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## 57jl

a good way to finish the roar off mate well done :Thumbsup:

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## 300CALMAN

Bloody hell that's awesome. I have always wanted to shoot a Sambar.

Maybe the caption should be "Horse gets tired, Man carries Horse!"




> Attachment 111654

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## Flyblown

Ha ha Brian, what was it we were talking about the other day, big carries??! That's put a smile on my face on a Monday morning your story, well done, really really great photo with a look of deep satisfaction on your face.

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## Gibo

Reckon you could weigh that 143 now for us Brian. Be interesting to see what is left. Looks good

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## Mooseman

Just weighted recovered projectile and it is 89.4 grs

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## Mooseman

That projectile traveled about 18-20 inches through hide, meat and bone . It went in a fraction low on the shoulder and angled out through the chest cavity to come to rest on the off side in front of the gut. It didn't puncture the gut bag. It started out at 2750 fps and at 40 meters was hitting at about 2680 fps. Like I have said before these ELD X bullets seem to work.

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## Gibo

Thanks mate, good info there. Definitely a heavy bodied beast that one so that has held up well in my view.

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## Mooseman

Yep I have to agree on that one.

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## Sideshow

News flash.........

Deer shits man! :Wink: 


Top story @Mooseman  :Thumbsup: 
They look like a good thick set of antlers  :Have A Nice Day:

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## ghosts

Well done @Mooseman that's a cracker. Reckon it will take awhile to beat that one.

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## Mooseman

> Well done @Mooseman that's a cracker. Reckon it will take awhile to beat that one.


It sure will be, they don't come easy as a rule, this one was in the right place at the right time, bit like most as 5 minutes either side of when I got him he wouldn't have been there. We do have a better stag in this area we have been following for about 3 years on the trail cameras , we think he could be around the 240 DS, hard to tell until the tape is on them,but he is big.

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## Tahr

That's a wonderful head. And what a Beast of an animal!
 @Mooseman what do you do with the meat? Just sausages and small goods?

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## Wildman

Awesome. How long was the longest antler? 

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## Mooseman

We gave this to a friend, we prefer a nice bit of red deer for steak. Sambar is ok for small goods. I know a few people that like it for steak etc but we don't. Yes he certainly is a beautiful stag the characteristics of this stag are similar to PD but we know it's a different one as the nicks out of his ears don't match with PD. This stag turned up three days befor I got him and we have never seen him before. Strange how they just turn up.

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## Mooseman

[QUOTE=Wildman;839066]Awesome. How long was the longest antler? 

Sent from my F5321 using Tapatalk[/QUOTE

28.5 Inches, he makes the score with the long tops, beams, cornet, spread etc

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## Tikka7mm08

Congratulations. Impressive. Strong animals to go 70m after that damage.

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## Mohawk .308

What an awesome Stag, be a shame not to put him on the wall.

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## Mooseman

> What an awesome Stag, be a shame not to put him on the wall.


Yes I would love to have all my heads on the wall but I would need a lot bigger/ no ceiling type house to fit them in.

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## Mooseman

> Congratulations. Impressive. Strong animals to go 70m after that damage.


They are very strong animals , I suppose that comes from there homelands where tigers hunt them all the time.

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## Gibo

PD has slightly better length on top from memory.... been a while since ive seen a pic. Can you pop up a similar pic of them both to peruse by any chance?

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## Sideshow

Penny just dropped OH you mean ONE of THOSE  :36 1 11:  :36 1 11:  :36 1 11:  DAYS :Thumbsup:

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## Mooseman

Hey @Gibo Here are a couple of pic's of PD in 2018 the one picture we have of him this year I don't have at the moment but Beeman thinks he has better brow tines but possibly a bit shorter

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## Mooseman

You can see the similarity of PD and the one I got, but in the top picture you can see the nicks out of the top of his left ear, mine had a nick out of the bottom of his ear nothing out of the top.

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## Gibo

Bloody similar though aye

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## Mooseman

> Bloody similar though aye


Sure are.

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## Sideshow

Year there Granddad was a bit of a STUD :Wink: 
Sowed him some oats :Thumbsup:

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## kukuwai

@Mooseman you might have to add another chapter to that book 

I for one are still waiting for the forum release 

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## footsore

Fantastic beast, Mooseman just awesome.

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## northdude

Nice job good old x55

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## Mooseman

Yep quite impressed with the old 6.5x55 doesn't break any speed or energy records but sure does work. My Sambar was officially scored yesterday , he goes 212 1/8 DS, really pleased with him.

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## northdude

Ive got 3 of them its a no fuss round

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## Mooseman

When I got mine the first load I tried using 2213 SC was good so I increased the powder charge till I got the velocity I wanted and was still safe and that was that, very accurate ,mild  to shoot and kills well. I like all my other calibers but if you could only have one it would be a good all rounder out to 500-600 yards.

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## johnd

Nice work! Been seeing some big prints myself, so guessing Red.

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