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Yeh we had a good weekend but this weekend was better, Beeman blooded his new Swaro HD5 with two Redskins, one at 273 m and the other at 300 m, me I bombed another Sambar at 50 yards the 6.5x55 works a treat just need to try it at more distance. We are both impressed with the 143gr ELD X they work so well even in other calibers, I won't be changing any time soon.Attachment 94758Attachment 94760
Looks like spring has sprung up our way.
The red faces are from the cold and retrieval, @Mooseman didn't tell the full story. I couldn't find the animal from my second shot, with darkness closing in I scoured the area with no joy then returned to the first kill and gutted it. Darkness had closed in by this time so I left my kill to pick up @Mooseman so he could help drag it through the cutover slash and 1 metre high fireweed to the road. We keep in contact with handheld radios, so when I called up I was informed that he was still in the proses of dragging one off the hill and needed a hand. Hence I gapped it to help finish the recovery of a nice fat Samba hind, when we returned to my kill @Mooseman convinced me to have another look for my lost animal which I thought was fruitless and had planned to check the following morning with my trusty hound. I'm glad I have a rubber arm, with nose to ground, boots n arms flailing through slash and scrub Moosemandog found my second kill. Talk about hot, cold, cold hot, sweating dragging and sweating again. Saved me going out the next day. Thanks again @Mooseman. :thumbsup:
Well Beeman has been busy this weekend , but more on that later. Saturday morning had us checking a few spots early in the piece but to no avail. We then split up to check the camera lines. It has been a couple of weeks since we checked them last so we thought there may be a few triggers.
My line had been busy with deer on all but one camera and fresh sign around. One place we call Waterhole skid had heaps of sign around the mud/waterholes and I am keen to put a camera up to see what's bouncing around there, but looking at the sign it looks like Red stags.(next weekend )
Beeman's line was much the same with heaps of sign about. One place that the sign has been regular Beeman put up another camera to see if PD is passing through. PD was caught on one camera on Friday 14th so hopefully he is still around.
After lunch and checking the camera chips we headed back up the forest for the afternoon hunt. We did a bit of cruising around earlier on and seen several areas with promising sign.
Beeman asked me where I wanted to hunt later in afternoon but as I wasn't sure he said to come out to his "Lookout" and whoever spotted the animal first would take the shot.
I was keen to see the spot Beeman had shot the two animals a couple of weeks back from so accepted his offer. We arrived there with about an hour and a half of light left and after a short hike we were in position on a commanding high . Shooting distances ranged from around 300 yards out to 650 yards depending where they popped out from.
We settled in with the sun still above the tree line but that soon changed and dropped lower and started casting the evening shadows. I had been watching most of the bush edge but couldn't see a small potion to my left so a bit before dark I move around a bit and almost immediately spotted a stag. Quickly I told Beeman and he to had him spotted. I said he could take the shot if he wished, which he accepted without hesitation.
Quickly Beeman got himself set up for a 304 yard shot using his 260 with the HD 5 Swaro which he only needs to aim, press the range button, hold the red dot on the spot and shoot.
At the shot the stag reared up and bolted down the steep face to the bottom only to turn and run at an angle back up the face ( I was starting to panic at this stage and suggested a second shot was needed). By now the stag was at the top of the hill but was on shaky legs and stumbled and fell, tumbling all the way to the bottom.
We gathered our gear and hightailed it to the truck then drove to where we could drag the stag back to. Half an hour later and with darkness just upon us we had him loaded up on the truck. Interestingly the shot was perfect, dead center shoulder with the bullet exiting behind the off shoulder, why he ran not sure as the bullet sure messed the insides, just one of those un explained shots. Bullet was the 143gr ELD X.Attachment 95582Attachment 95583
View from the "Lookout" Attachment 95584 The 100kg plus Redskin
One thing we did notice when checking the camera's was a new Sambar Stag at several of the camera's which was a bit of a worry as it may have suggested that PD was not in residence any more.
The stag has been scraping out rut pads and preaching at a lot of the sites that PD frequents. As said above we did pick up PD on the 14th Sept so hopefully he's still about and judging by the amount of scars on this new boy he may have had a few encounters. This one will be a cracker in 3-4 years if he's careful.Attachment 95592
Wicked scars, cool photo
The weekends camera check revealed plenty of deer moving about but no further shots of PD this time round. There were several shots of a reasonable stag on a couple of camera's ( see Trail Cam Pic's) as well as this one Attachment 96047
It looks as if the rut is over for another year but the stags still seem to wander around the areas they have been living in for the last several months so we may still get some pictures or maybe even a crack at the big boy , who knows, but we will be out there looking. One thing is for sure if he turns up next year and is bigger than he is now we might end up living up there in the hope of getting a look at him.
Dark skin.
Bit like a fallow
It's been a while since the camera's have picked up on our star attraction PD. Beeman checked wallow cam yesterday and sure enough PD was there in all his glory around mid day on Saturday.
Funny enough though we didn't check many camera's last weekend and had we done this camera we may have been lucky ….. you never know what's around the corner, it pays to check.
There was also another smaller newbie sambar stag and a very promising looking Red stag with nice looking velvet with a bit of growing still to do.
The first two pic's are PD then the smaller Sambar followed by the good Red.
Attachment 97497Attachment 97498Attachment 97499Attachment 97500
That is a bloody big head on PD.
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@Wildman you are correct ,we think he has to be up there in the DS the only place he may lack is in brow tine length the rest of his antler growth is great. It is amazing how far these stags move about as Beemans cameras are spread over a fair area and PD seems to turn up on most from time to time, of late he has been on the two outer extremities and he could be traveling further out than those. It makes it hard to work out a pattern but it sure keeps things interesting.
Ooohhh he is looking bloody good Brian!!
Very cool. But his brows aren't short, just short compared to the rest!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mooseman
There are reports from round the Manawatu of stags moving up to 10 kms in the same season. ..
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You are dead right on that one.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gibo
@Wildman the brows do look short but most likely are better than they look due to the length of the main beams, would be good to even find one of his casts that would give us a pretty good idea on lenght and score.
Have you tried measuring them against something in the background? Might give you a good idea. Even stand our put a pole of known length in the spot where he was lying would do the trick. Cheers for the posts:thumbsup: I've never seen them in NZ only in Mauritius.
The do driven hunting for them there.
@Sideshow we have tried to guess the length by using the skull length method. The average skull length of a Sambar stag (adult) is about 17 inches, by using this which is a bit rough we think he could be in the 37-38 inch in length, may even more due to the curve in the main beam.
Cool @Mooseman with luck he has a bigger head than normal then you will be in for a nice surprise if you ever chatch up with him:thumbsup:
Can only but keep trying.
Something caught my eye the other day reading Bruce Banwell's sambar book. PD looks like he might have a bit of Rusa influence in there with those longer inner tops. Photo below is from his book and the second biggest trophy in there. Attachment 97571
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We have thought that as there are Rusa in the area. The body on PD is Sambar but if he has Rusa in him it may show in the antlers. I shot a nice Mule Deer in Canada at my son's and the body was all Mulie but it shows characteristics of Whitetail deer in the antler structure, only way to tell is DNA.
Yeah there is another Sambar in his book with Rusa influenced antlers but the body is obviously Sambar at over 500lbs... That one in the photo above has antler length of about the same as you are estimating PD @~37" or 38". Either way bloody big and very very cool looking.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mooseman
If we are correct in the estimates it would put him up there in the top 4 or Sambar in NZ. Phil Chalmers who does a lot of measuring Sambar and who has a book at print at the moment on Sambar Trophies does DNA also so he would be the man to check it if we ever get lucky. That one in the book was shot a fair distance from where we are hunting but certainly has very similar characteristics as PD.
