Thread: Three Legga

Saturday morning and the alarm went off, 3.15 am, the joys of summer hunting. I got myself sorted and got to Beeman's place about 4.45 pm shortly after we were on the move, heading for a spot we check early morning by doing a quick drive by.
This morning it was obvious the night stalkers had been out as there were fresh wheel marks every where, we even found fresh dog prints so there had been mid week activity as well.
Nothing doing there so we shot over to another part of the forest for a look, finding a bit of sign, but not a lot, maybe due to the hinds staying close to there fawns.
We decided to check one of the last two cameras that needed to be checked as we hadn't been out and about as much as Beeman was busy with his bees.

We took the camera gear and walked in the 10 or so minutes to the gully the camera was set on. It's a neat spot in a little gully with a wee trickle of water which draws the deer in. Since the last visit in late September there had been 860 odd triggers , most were deer.
Camera done we were about to move on and Beeman got caught by the call of nature so I followed a deer trail up to a saddle that looked down onto a overgrown skid I call Spiker skid, an area I have shot a couple of deer before, with nice grass below I waited for Beeman.
Several minutes past and nothing stirred, mind you it was about 9.am by now. I moved further along the ridge to a spur that ran down to the road. It's a nice open ridge so I stopped for a look and listen, while there I thought I heard something , just then a flick of movement of the right side of the spur then a spiker ran up onto the open ridge but he had his head/neck and shoulder behind a pine tree.
The seconds ticked by, I lined up in a gap in the trees and held level where his shoulder was, then he made a break and I touched off a shot hitting him through the lungs , dropping him on the spot.

I made my way down to the stag and low and behold if it wasn't " Three Legga" a stag we had picked up several months earlier on another camera. We always thought he would probably get hammered by the pig hunters who's dogs tend to chase deer as well.
He was in very good condition, the bullet that we presumed had taken his leg off by the joint had healed perfectly.
Beeman soon found me, he had been trying to figure which way I had gone when my 300 went off, as he came round to the spur he spotted me and the rather large spray of blood that had leaked from the stag.
After the photo's we gutted him and then had an easy drag down hill to the road for pick up. Beeman had to watch out as he dragged the stag it took off on the pine needles and near bowled him over a couple of times.

It's amazing how resilient deer are, injuries like that for us would most likely kill us especially without medical treatment but they tend to get on with it and survive,

Looks to be in good condition a good animal for the freezer. Thanks for the write up

Well well that has to be a first

As said above looks to be in good nick, amazing what nature is capable of ah !!

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"He was in very good condition, the bullet that we presumed had taken his leg off by the joint had healed perfectly"

I wonder if it was a bullet wound ,when we were in Oz ,l spent a couple of months Helcopter shooting in a area that had been hit by a cyclone & had a lot of fallen timber (Coburg Penninsula) .We must have shot 20 + 3 legged Buffalo & Brumbies that had snapped their legs in fallen timbers & then had them rot off leaving the animal perfectly healthy other wise.

When we first encounterd this the Gov't vets came out to look (we would do spot blood checks for disease) as they were not sure the local Blackfellas had not been wounding them with their infamous wet sand shotgun slugs .The veternarians theory was that while a bullet would shatter bone & flesh, cutting arteries etc & possibly leading to bleed out, but more likely a slow death from some blood supply getting to part leading to growing infection.Where as a twist & break cut blood supply with twisting injury, leading to dead flesh & limb eventually dropping off with chance for skin to grow over wound & seal off.They took one 3 legged Buffalo a crew shot near camp & had it stuffed for the Govt Vet school/HQ .

Great write up ,l hurt my ankle years ago with a deer we were dragging out to a flat bit skidding on wet leaf litter & cleaning me up ,always been real careful since.What rifle combo you using ,looks like it has done the job perfectly.

Nice animal good to be able to drag them out to the road for pick up

yeah nice lookin animal

Originally Posted by bunji

"He was in very good condition, the bullet that we presumed had taken his leg off by the joint had healed perfectly"

I wonder if it was a bullet wound ,when we were in Oz ,l spent a couple of months Helcopter shooting in a area that had been hit by a cyclone & had a lot of fallen timber (Coburg Penninsula) .We must have shot 20 + 3 legged Buffalo & Brumbies that had snapped their legs in fallen timbers & then had them rot off leaving the animal perfectly healthy other wise.

When we first encounterd this the Gov't vets came out to look (we would do spot blood checks for disease) as they were not sure the local Blackfellas had not been wounding them with their infamous wet sand shotgun slugs .The veternarians theory was that while a bullet would shatter bone & flesh, cutting arteries etc & possibly leading to bleed out, but more likely a slow death from some blood supply getting to part leading to growing infection.Where as a twist & break cut blood supply with twisting injury, leading to dead flesh & limb eventually dropping off with chance for skin to grow over wound & seal off.They took one 3 legged Buffalo a crew shot near camp & had it stuffed for the Govt Vet school/HQ .

Great write up ,l hurt my ankle years ago with a deer we were dragging out to a flat bit skidding on wet leaf litter & cleaning me up ,always been real careful since.What rifle combo you using ,looks like it has done the job perfectly.

That's an interesting thought, we will never know for sure buthe was doing alright till I stuffed his day up. I was using my 300 Win Mag and 200 gr ELDX bullets , I am running a Vortex 4x14 Viper HS which is a very good scope but are going to put a VX5 Leupold on it in the next week or so.

A trick I was taught was to use a good length of rope for towing animals down hills. Gives a good bit of distance between you and them so you can get out the way if needed.

What is this "towing/dragging" animals down hill stuff ????? All the ones I manage to shoot need to be hauled up hill

Originally Posted by dannyb

What is this "towing/dragging" animals down hill stuff ????? All the ones I manage to shoot need to be hauled up hill

Ha Ha Danny, now that I have reached the "retired" status we are careful where we shoot our animals. Very hard to drag them uphill. Also with Sambar in the area moving those beasts is a down hill only option. Failing the dragging out method, bone em out.

Originally Posted by Ned

A trick I was taught was to use a good length of rope for towing animals down hills. Gives a good bit of distance between you and them so you can get out the way if needed.

Yes we usually carry in our day packs a length of rope and I have a short piece of antler for my handle to make a tow rope set up. Much easy to hold a piece of antler attached to the rope which is tied around the deer's neck than trying to hang onto a leg or antler.

I shot a spika standing in the bush about 200m up a ridge looked real hard trying to figure out where to shoot as I couldn't,t see its neck or head anyway pulled the trigger bang whack deer didn,t move what the fuck is going on I thought why has this deer not fallen over or run away like every other deer I have shot just kept standing there still could not see its head so put my 2.5-15 scope on max power as my binos are only 8x25 but really good binos anyways finally sore its head that was down below its front knees in the undergrowth on a funny angle looking at us and still couldn't,see its neck just its head are bugger shot it at the wrong end which i did so shot it at the other end and pole axed it on the spot cut a long story short this deers neck was shaped like the letter c and must have had no feeling in the rest of its body because it didn,t jump or move on the first shot through its back legs area

Amazing they survive alright we would be long dead , don't normally see them missing that high up the leg either , poor buggers loose a lot in fences on that fringe country

Good stuff mate. We pulled a 3 legged Sika out of one of the blocks not long ago too.

Hardcase, tough buggers alright