Doc land hunting report or lack of!)

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Originally Posted by Mrfants

I'm with you on that. I just can't seem to find, see or shoot anything on my own. Sometimes you wonder if there's actually anything lurking out there at all. I'm pretty patient, but it does get a bit demoralising. There's definitely more to hunting than just walking out into a paddock and shooting some food.

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I hear you but it's such a rush when you finally get your first bush deer. I took 2 years for mine. I kept getting closer each time. Now her I am 6 months later wondering if it will be another 18 months before the next one.
But my last hunt got me within barking distant by following advice off the forum: green bush near water on northern slopes.

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Originally Posted by MonkeyNutz

Following on from this post, I went out for an early morning hunt to an area I have never been before. Once I got into the hunting area I set up and loaded my rifle but didn't chamber a round. Walking along a 4WD track not expecting to see anything I popped up over a small rise and on my left just of the track about 20 metres away there is a Spiker, I quickly ducked down out of sight behind a bush and proceeded to "quietly" load a bullet, unfortunately I wasn't quiet enough as I was now being watched. As I was hiding a rabbit decided to pop out on the track about 5 metres away and hop right up to me sit and look at me (probably laughing) and then turned around and hopped off again.
The deer then barked and slowly started walking off so I jumped up to take a shot but my inexperience got the better of me and I didn't take a shot.

The takeaway? Once again I'm getting that little bit closer, I learnt another lesson and it was great being in a new area and seeing plenty of sign.

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keep your rifle chambered if your hunting by yourself mate,youll lose a lot of deer if you dont.

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Originally Posted by Yesmate

keep your rifle chambered if your hunting by yourself mate,youll lose a lot of deer if you dont.

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Yip absolutely! Funny thing is, I usually do, but for whatever reason I didn't on this occasion, as I said lesson learnt. I won't be doing that again.

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Originally Posted by longshot

There is also that almost ‘universal to all mammals’ reaction to seeing something, dogs, cats etc do it and humans do too, it’s exaggerated when we are really concentrating on trying to get something and I think prey animals are tuned into this. They know when ears prick up or eyes lock on.

If you have a strong emotional response when you do see a deer, and your body twitches accordingly, the deer will know you have seen it and be gone. I think this is why it can often be easier to get within 15m of a deer that you haven’t seen than it is to get within 50m of a deer that you’re aware of.

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Observation -- If the animal is used to the sound of a vehicle & human always dressed in blue overalls ie the cocky, they take no notice. Sounds silly but one goes into stalk mode, tring to creep up on a cat or dog, suspicion is instant they sense it, and its game time, same with game. Got a cat that loves hide & seek, he will stork me, rush up & a tackle, hard case.

One thing I learnt years ago, if there's sign keep hunting the same area until you know it better than your back yard, not a lot gained by moving district to district, hoping to trip over something. As mentioned earlier, in todays climate the best deer hunting in 50 plus years, animals where they weren't 10-15 years ago plus the long established areas, numbers are great.

Some people seem to have have a knack of seeing deer etc as well. I can spot goats magpies etc miles away but fuked if I can see deer 99% of the time