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Success depends on how you look at it.
After last weeks successful hunt i was off again this weekend to see what i could find in the bush.
Got up early as, and headed to a spot where i expected to be a few deer at this time of year. I was hoping to get a animal in some broken country first,
and if that didnt work it was the real jungle then open native on the way back if i needed plan C.
Arrived to a mint day, and headed of with my trusty 243 and headed in a mixture of scrub and broken country where i expected to see a couple.
Unforturely sign was crap, apart from alot of 2 day old pig sign that was it .
After a couple of hours it was time to head to the jungle, thick as bush but it always has some deer sign and its just open enough if you follow the game trails not to make much noise.
I was looking forward to this part. to see anything in here you had to be 10-30 feet away at best if you tracked down a deer.
Its a challenge,but if you used the game trails and moved slowly you always had a chance to get up close and personal with a animal.
There was plenty of fresh deer marks, the hunt was going well, going to one side of the valley and heading up and if missed out i could head back down the other side as it was clear there were deer here and covering the ground was the key.
It would be easy as to walk past a deer in here that was 40 feet to your left/right and you never see it .
After a hour or so of slow stalking, seeing sign to keep the hopes up i still hadnt seen a deer or spooked any (i know off lol) and the sign started to run out so thats the end of this direction
and i started to head back the other side of the valley.
I knew there were deer in here, the marks were fresh, but 20 feet was all i could see half the time, looking low for legs further out and using the ears and nose to alert me of a animal.
Halfway out of this jungle i looked out to my left, looked back and out of the corner of my eye saw movement and the same time a noise just where i was looking
Was that a deer, the hopes were high as the head swung back and looked hard.
Nothing, crouched down and had a good look for any thing, movement noise but nothing apart from a bird.
i think it was a bird, but that noise i heard, i heard it before and im sure it was a larger animal moving so normally i would just carry on but i thought i better head that way and have a good look.
Well, fuck me, i turned to take a step to head over that way and 15yards, yes, 15 yards straight in front of me was the noise that i heard the same time i caught that bird movemnt out to my left .
A good size deer was crouching there looking straight at me with eyes as wide as tennis balls lol.
Clearly, while i was stalking in his direction, he was walking toward me and was ducking under a thick branch from a tree just as i caught that movement and failed to see him.
He must of stayed in that position the whole time, locked on to me whie i was looking the other way trying to spot whatever caught my eye.
We stared at each other that seemed like a age, i was thinking how cool is this, a young stag 15 yards away, could see every detail while we eyeballed each other.
Even thou it was prob a few seconds or so i still thought i tracked the animal down, and in this thick stuff there was something satisfying about it.
The problem was he was that close i thought it be 50/50 if he bolt as soon as i raise the rifle. So i slowly raised the rifle, nearly got it up and i lost the flip.
He bolted and was gone and didnt attempt any hero shot on the run thru thick crap.
Well, bugger but just finding a animal in that thick stuff i knew was a win and if that bird(i assume) didnt distract me i would have got him for sure as he stayed there crouched under that branch for so long even thou i crouched down etc.
After that it was plan C, the open native back to the car.
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This was way different than the jungle i was just in, not much deer sign at all but plenty of pig rooting.
After awhile came across some fresh marks of a pig on a well worn game trail and followed them out
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The game trail lend to some fern not far from the car, and i could hear pigs! First i saw a 20-30lber just on the edge of the native and scrub but could hear a sow being rooted by a boar so pasted that one up.
Got within a few metres of the boar but the fern was high and apart from the ferm moving couldnt see it to shoot.
In the end the wind blew it for me and the pigs were gone.
No animals on the deck this time, but after being holed up at home for 3.5 months the last two weeks have been pretty successful bush stalking the DOC land around here.
Sometimes getting a animal isnt whats it all about, its much more than that. Thinking about it i wasnt unhappy at all that deer won the flip, win some, lose some
Cheers
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