Thread: Sambar deer

I am currently trying to fallow up on a opportunity to go on a Sambar deer hunt down palmerston way.
I have never hunted Sambar and know nothing about them. Is there a better time of year to hunt them. When do they drop antlers. I am really only interested in shooting mature stag and happy to take pictures of others

Are you looking to pay for a guided hunt?

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No. Its a mate of my bosses and he has them coming out on his farm and none of his staff a hunters. So i thought if can tee it up i might as well go for a look. Doesn't worry me if i don't get to shoot one.

Can I be cheeky and say if they need someone to hunt them, I'm only.an hours drive away and happy to.

sambar rut more than once a year,now will be a good time to hunt them.

This time of year if you find a hind stags shouldn't be far away from them. Sucks that we don't have them down south, one of my favourite species to hunt!

Got one going into the butcher now. Younger stag 4: hard points. They aer a bloody big animal and are often minced or pickled. This one will be both plus salamis and maybe sausages. There is a lot of meat on them and they can take considerable effort to recover.

take enough gun, big tough animal. i have shot a few but i would never attempt on with 223 etc. some may disagree but i hate to see an animal run away wounded

Never take a rat gun to a dog fight

I found copper projectiles worked best for dropping them on the spot.

@Mooseman? BeeMan?

Now is the only time if you want them in the rut which is by far the best time to hunt them. Stags will be close to hind groups which does make it a bit easier. They are quite hard to stalk but can be done , you need to hunt slow and look and listen a lot. When I shot my best stag last year I was stationary , looking and listening and he walked out following a trail on the search for hinds. We have got them on camera around Xmas still with hard antler. Where we hunt the sambar seem to disappear around December and we start to see them on the camera lines again in numbers around May just prior to the rut which in my experience only happens once a year.

I mostly use a 300 Win Mag, but have shot them with my 6.5 X 55, and 270' 30 06. Beeman has used the 243 with good bullets and currently uses a 260 with the 143 gr ELD X. As said they are big tough animals so use enough gun with a good bullet.

Originally Posted by gonetropo

take enough gun, big tough animal. i have shot a few but i would never attempt on with 223 etc. some may disagree but i hate to see an animal run away wounded

Yep Iv only shot one under spotlight, dropped it and it crawled away to die somewhere.
spent the next whole day searching to no avail. still feel guilty 10+ years later

While my experience with sambar is limited [40-45yrs] , yes June , July and august would be your best months. Manawatu Sambar do rut twice a year. We found while running the Sambar hunts some of the trophy animals that guys were watching lost their antlers about end of august . And yes they can carry lead,,, one stag I monitored was hit three times with 308 to put it down , when being cut up another 20 old projectiles were found ranging from .22 to 45 slug.