Another rut comes to an end
Realised I only posted one hunting story in 2015 so figured it couldnt hurt to throw up a quick one to fill my 2016 quota!
Ruts for me generally aren't great, where I am the cast majority of deer rut in national park which is off limits to hunting. This year though proved to be a corker, not in the size of deer but the number of stags.
It started out as usual very quiet with not a lot happening but a couple of hunts in and with Ellie finally working well off the lead I decided it was time to let her run the show and see if all the training had made any difference.
By my third rut hunt I'd heard one stag roar but the sign was quite lacking. We got to about 9am and hadn't seen anything worth following up so as I sat down eating an apple I said to El "bugger this miss let's just get home there's nothing about". We started heading back and as we got part way down the Gully she began scenting along a game trail that contoured into the next system. I thought stuff it what's one more andet her lead the way. The only thing in my mind was that I'd seen roos not too far from there and was concerned she would leave the deer sign in favour of them as she's done in the past. After maybe 10mins of tracking (mind you we're in a drought and it was very dry so I couldn't see any sign and was relying on her nose) I hadn't seen enough to convince me and concluded she must be on the roos. I said to her "El you're leading me on to nothing mate there's not a thing here". Like a cliche movie no sooner had I said that than looked at my feet and there in front of me was fresh stag shit. "well shit she's onto something" I thought, and gave her a good praising. We continued to contour and not long later I fancied I heard a faint roar off in the distance. I paused straining to hear it again but nada. I moved around a little more and let out a roar through my pipe and waited, sure enough here was a Roar about a minute later. I glassed the opposite Gully about 800m away and spotted a young stag holding a hind, quite obviously a satellite. Then came out another roar from below me, my guess being the stag Ellie had been scenting, and he was moving towards the distant stag and his girl. We made our move letting out a roar every now and then to keep track of where they were. Within 30 mins we were amongst 3 stags roaring and two fighting but the country was thick! Like 2m visibility thick and a good 4 to 5 m high. I managed to spot a young stag with a broken antler a little above me so I let him walk and focussed on the most mature sounding bloke. There was no.way to be silent in this stuff so I did what any stag would do and made as much of a rucess as I could moving through it letting out roars and coughs and raking my pipe on vegetation. At this point his roars were booming and he was close but wouldn't budge so we had to move to him. Now we were closer, every breath into my lungs full of stag perfume. Ellie off the lead with the same smells and roars all around her didn't break from my side, this was her first roar encounter but she knew this is what we were here for. We eventually made it to the side of the Gully and moved up a couple of metres out of the thick stuff and let out another roar. I could see open stuff for about 20m and then there was a fallen tree branches everywhere and open again 30m beyond that before it was back.in the thick stuff. The roar was Returned which is when I realised he was just on the other side of this fallen tree not 30m away.
And so it began, for 15 mins we waited without moving while trying to get a look at his head gear before deciding whether to take a shot or not. All I could see was his lower half, every roar showed his heaving chest, pushing up every ounce of breath he could muster out through his lungs. After 15 mins though Ellie just had to.get a better view and decided to take a few steps closer, he spotted the movement and stepped towards us at 25m. I could now see his head but his antlers were still covered. His nostrils flared, half from exhaustion and half to.try and take in the smell of this intruder on his domain. I could tell from.the body by this stage he was a mature animal and when he decided that he'd had enough he trotted off up the hill, which is when I finally saw his antlers. I was set, this was an old regressing stag not going to get any better. I could see a game trail beyond that he'd likely go and if he went back that way I'd get a window between the fallen tree of maybe 40x40cm to take a running shot. Today fortunate favoured me as he decided to do just that, I followed him in the scope and as he came into my window at a steady trot I Squeezed the shot, he leapt into the air and ran forward into the thick mess of bush. I heard him running and then crash and fall maybe 70m into the bush. I turned to Ellie and gave her a right old pat and praise. She knew she'd done well too the bugger.
She did the tracking job with ease and he ended up being a great old bush stag, going backwards but still a heavy ten with as big basal snags as I've ever seen.
And so was Ellies first stag off the lead that she put me on to, for sentimental reasons this bloke has earned his spot on the wall.
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After this hunt I changed to the bow and muzzleloader alternatively. Got into bow range of a nice up and comer but let him walk in favour of a pic.
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And then I managed to roar this old boy into 20m and take him with my muzzleloader. An uneven 12 that's seen far better days but I love the mature old boys. I'm writing a story for this bloke up for a mag so ill save it for that. Suffice it to say I had one heck of a rut!
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Some age!
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Muzzleloader entry hole!
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Jack
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