Thread: Something a little different

The roar of 2009 was spent in one of my favorite spots in Sika country, it was also the year in which one stag caught my attention, he became known as the camp stag.

Sleep usually comes easily after a long day on the hill, but almost every night squealing and whistling would break the peace as only a cunning old Sika stag can do. These calls were very distinctive and over several years I came to recognize them well, the Hew Haw consisted of 8 or 9 consecutive calls, indicating a mature animal while his single call was short and sharp, it did not pierce the air like many Sika stags I had heard before instead sounded more like a quick bleat of a siren followed by a drawn out grunt.

Over this roar period I spent hour after hour, day after day following these calls but at every turn Mr stagy was one step ahead, this only fueled my determination to catch up with him but it wasn’t too be. In 2010 I had a very close encounter with our camp stag roaring him in from around 200m, only to have the one patch of bush, which always gets in the way do it again! After a second unsuccessful attempt the 2011 roar could not come fast enough and he was on my shopping list, again his distinctive calls could be heard clearly from camp, but as many know they don’t get old by being stupid and once again I was left looking the fool. Roll around 2012, by this time I gained a huge amount of respect for an animal that can live in such close proximity to a popular campsite, and avoid so many hunters. Personally I have met four other hunters who have had a crack at the same stag, and all have been faced with the same predicament.

This year I was very disappointed when I wasn’t awoken during the night by my favorite old stag instead I was awoken by another animal, a new animal. What did this mean… where was our camp stag? Had he met his fate to some other hunter or had he just been pushed out of place by a new master stag? There were so many possibilities, an inquest was now on the cards. I searched high and low far and wide, came close to this new stag on a number of occasions, but still hadn’t found any sign of our old camp stag.

Then while stalking along one afternoon during the last roar a fitting end too many years of excitement took place, there curled up beneath a log lay a skeleton of what we assumed was our camp stag. Every appendage was present and there was no evident damage to any of the bones, to me it looked as though our camp stag had made it through the 2011 roar only to die of old age the following winter. He was sporting a 6 point set of antlers missing only trez tines, and looked as though he had been going backwards for a number of years (I will get him aged at some point). Who knows what he was like in his prime, for now I have gone about restoring the head to its former glory, to show my respect to a stag that beat every hunter that ever tried. Here’s hoping the new camp stag provides just as much fun!

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I think i will also use this head to practice euro mounting within the next few months and will post a pic of the finished product.

Bloody hell that is a brilliant story Nick. Not sure why I haven't encountered it before. No one else seems to have found it either. I like your tenacity in going back to the same spot repeatedly to hint an animal that is more wily than most.

Be interesting to find out how old he was.

Good story!!

Nice one, good to hear a story with a different happy ending! :-)

grate story turnd out very well