Thread: A Couple of Firsts

With the weather being less than favorable on Friday night with heavy rain, the only glimmer of hope was that it was to improve from Saturday morning onwards. This Saturday we had a friend ,Robin, joining us on our hunt with the hope of at least seeing a Sambar deer.
As the weather was a bit dodgy just before daylight we decided to do a few drive by look see's before deciding if it was going to be fine enough to check some camera's. Shortly after, as we approached our turn off to one of the spots Beeman slowed then shouted "on the corner there's two deer". Sure enough two reds stood for a few seconds before starting to move for cover, Robin was out but had no time to sight up so the deer made a great escape.
Unfortunately the spot we were going to check was closed off as logging had started. We quickly thought of another area to quickly check as daylight was well on it's way.
The clear cut we checked was Beeman's honey pot as he has had a lot of success there over the last four weekends and as if to not disappoint us as we drove up the road a deer bolted for cover, not looking back though so no shot.

As it hadn't rained since we left we grabbed our gear and Robin and I set off to check my camera line while Beeman did the two wallows and another close by, his camera's had multiple triggers, one wallow had 144 triggers the other about 70, mostly deer which was good to see. My line had some action but also some that hadn't, never mind though as Robin had a good look at how they were set up and enjoyed his walk.
After a BBQ lunch of German sausages and Bacon supplied by Robin and a break we got things ready for the evening hunt.

I was taking Robin into the area I had been seeing a few Sambar along a clear cut with the hope he could nail his first one, Beeman was off to the "Lookout" to try and see if his lucky spot still had anything to offer.
We set off up through the pine block noticing a fair bit of fresh sign with no rain on it so that looked promising. Part way through to the clear cut there is a nice saddle so we stopped for a break and to look and listen, we also wanted to waste a bit of time as I didn't want to be on the clear cut to early.
After about 10 minutes I notice a flash of black by a bunch of punga's then a big Sambar hind burst out and sprinted around the hillside to be swallowed up by the pine canopy, we both smiled and said shit she was quick no chance for a shot at her.

Shortly after we moved off , still plenty of sign about so we were ever hopeful of seeing something in the open. About half an hour later we edged our way carefully out to a point where we could glass the open area. It didn't take long before Robin said there's one and it's a stag, but I couldn't see it, Robin said it was just inside the bush edge by a crooked pine tree but I still couldn't pick it up. We moved about 50 yards closer and waited, watching the area Robin had seen the deer. It must have only been a couple minutes and out stepped a Sambar Stag, quickly Robin set up for a shot while I ranged him at 235 yards. I told Robin to wait till he stepped into the open out of the gorse before firing.
A minute passed and out he stepped and stopped...the shot echoed out and I seen the impact, in the middle not the best but a solid hit, he ran about 30 yards and shot number two poleaxed him with a neck shot. High fives all round for Robin as he had just shot his first Stag and first Sambar and his third deer ever... boy was he stoked.

We gathered our gear and got down there quickly as darkness was not all that far away. At the stag Robin was taken back a little at the shear size, they are huge. The stag sported a small set of 6 point antlers which had broken tops which was unfortunate. After photo's we set to work butchering the animal as we had no way of dragging him back up the face to the gully that lead down to the road below. We found the bullet, a 130 gr SST( 270 Win) low on the off side of his chest perfectly mushroomed which was pretty good performance for a bullet that gets a few bad wraps for being to explosive. It was dark when we had him finished then we ferried the meat to the top of the hill before carrying down to the road which required two trips. Beeman called on the radio to see where we were at and told us that he had seen two deer come out right on dark but decided to leave them for another day with better light.

When we got back with the second load Beeman had already collected the first lot so we had it all loaded and we were on the way home after another epic day on the hill with good friends

Thanks for the write up Mooseman, good to see a good keen bugger taking someone out and helping them bag their first stag, Sambar and third deer!

The smile on his face said it all. Great memories for life!

Looks like a few bbqs in that beast too!

Yes he sure was a happy hunter after yesterday, the animal will be processed into steaks, sausage, a few roasts etc, there is a lot of meat on those sambar..we estimated about 130 odd kg gutted.

Enjoyed the writeup, also good to hear that the SST worked well, it is much maligned mostly by blokes that have hit something at 60m and about 2750fps and they wonder why it breaks up.

Also a good reminder to be ready for the second shot if required. Great photo!