macka
16-02-07, 09:28 PM
well i had a great day! Left home at 4:10am got to the property by 4:40am and started the long walk in. I was walking from the very boundary as to not scare the deer. I walked allong using a little flashligh and my only excitement was a stag that i stumbled across and it sat there looking at me from about 20m. Gee's they are dumb under a light of any sort. Kept walking at by about 630 i was where i wanted to be and the light was starting to get almost good enough to pick out any animals.
Just then i noticed some white shapes over on a grassy slope to my left . i walked over to my last bit of cover and did a belly crawl down the hill towards them to investigate. I ranged the shapes which i suspected to be bedded goats to be right on 20m. It was now a waiting game for it was still way to dark to take a shot as i could not even see through my peep yet.
The whole time it was playing in the back of my mind i'm wasting valuable time for the deer. As it became almost light enough to shoot the closest black billy noticed my movement with my rangefinder and stood up. He then walked towards me looking very curiously at me. I wasn't going to give him a chance to figure me out and slowly drew my bowtech back and sent a blazer fletched carbon through his brisket exiting his back leg. He ran about 60m down the hill and sat down to die in some branches. I knew where he was so i left him to go look for some deer. and would come back and get photo's later.
Here is the pic i took later of my first billy and a cast antler i found.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1010387.jpg
I then headded for a well known clearing that is a hot spot for deer in this area. I came into the north west edge of the clearing in the cover of a creek running allong the west side of it. Popping my head up and looking across the open ground i saw three deer feeding on an olive tree on the scrubline on the east side. I got the video camera out and took a bit of footage and noticed one stag had a massive set of antlers on him and the others were spikers. With a closer look through the bino's he had extremley long antlers but he was very weak in the palm. I diddn't care, having never shot a fallow stag before and only shooting one of the species with the bow before, i was going to take whatever i could get!
I Back tracked around through the scrub and came in above them. Weving through the bushy vegitation i searched for the deer again as i slowly made my way to where they last were. Then a brown shape moved down below me about 80m away. A good stalking plan came into my head and i belly crawled to a log and a bush that i could get an ambush from as they walked past. About 10 mins passed and they soon started walking my way. My heart was thumping and my hands were shaking i had never had a good stag walking straight towards me before. As he got to 55m he angled across me and kept moving. he was slowly getting closer and then stopped as close as i was going to get. I ranged him at 45m and drew back to line my shakie bow up. I toughed off the shot only to see it shave the hair on his back. They all scrambelled for a bit then propped again. The stag was behind a big gum tree and a spiker stood exactly where the buck had stood secconds earlier. I drew back and this time made no mistake punching out the crease behind the shoulder on the spiker. He only made 20m before expiring. I was both excited and dissapointed in myself and the thoughts of what could have been ran through my head. But then i thought to myself there is still all rut to go..
Here is one happy bowhunter. Seccond fallow with the bow and some great venison.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1010378.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1010381.jpg
I Started my walk out after the deer as to not spoil the meat. And on the way i spooked 3 does who stood gawking at me from 20m i even managed to draw on them but then let down as they will be my bait for the bucks in the up and coming rut and i had plenty of meat.
As i got back i rang Daniel and told him of my sucess and he said to call into his place and have a chat. He grabbed my bow and had a few shots at his target with it and was punching out the bullseye every time and after hearing about my sucess he wanted to go for a drive out the back to where the neighbour had been seeing a mob of goats. I was the only one with gear ready so we just took my bow and gear. We diddn't even wear camo we werent expecting to actually catch up with the mob but yep you can guess we found them. I took the first shot and nailed the big black billy then handed the bow to daniel who followed them up and shot a nice brown billy from front on with the arrow passing through the length of its body.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/blackbilly-1.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/Photo0205.jpg
It ended up being the best scouting trip i could have asked for and i'm glad that stag is still out there for me to chase in the next few weeks. The deer are still a little way from rutting here.. diddn't even find a rub tree but the antlers have hardly any velvet on them still?? How far off is the rut anyone keen for a guess?
Macka
Just then i noticed some white shapes over on a grassy slope to my left . i walked over to my last bit of cover and did a belly crawl down the hill towards them to investigate. I ranged the shapes which i suspected to be bedded goats to be right on 20m. It was now a waiting game for it was still way to dark to take a shot as i could not even see through my peep yet.
The whole time it was playing in the back of my mind i'm wasting valuable time for the deer. As it became almost light enough to shoot the closest black billy noticed my movement with my rangefinder and stood up. He then walked towards me looking very curiously at me. I wasn't going to give him a chance to figure me out and slowly drew my bowtech back and sent a blazer fletched carbon through his brisket exiting his back leg. He ran about 60m down the hill and sat down to die in some branches. I knew where he was so i left him to go look for some deer. and would come back and get photo's later.
Here is the pic i took later of my first billy and a cast antler i found.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1010387.jpg
I then headded for a well known clearing that is a hot spot for deer in this area. I came into the north west edge of the clearing in the cover of a creek running allong the west side of it. Popping my head up and looking across the open ground i saw three deer feeding on an olive tree on the scrubline on the east side. I got the video camera out and took a bit of footage and noticed one stag had a massive set of antlers on him and the others were spikers. With a closer look through the bino's he had extremley long antlers but he was very weak in the palm. I diddn't care, having never shot a fallow stag before and only shooting one of the species with the bow before, i was going to take whatever i could get!
I Back tracked around through the scrub and came in above them. Weving through the bushy vegitation i searched for the deer again as i slowly made my way to where they last were. Then a brown shape moved down below me about 80m away. A good stalking plan came into my head and i belly crawled to a log and a bush that i could get an ambush from as they walked past. About 10 mins passed and they soon started walking my way. My heart was thumping and my hands were shaking i had never had a good stag walking straight towards me before. As he got to 55m he angled across me and kept moving. he was slowly getting closer and then stopped as close as i was going to get. I ranged him at 45m and drew back to line my shakie bow up. I toughed off the shot only to see it shave the hair on his back. They all scrambelled for a bit then propped again. The stag was behind a big gum tree and a spiker stood exactly where the buck had stood secconds earlier. I drew back and this time made no mistake punching out the crease behind the shoulder on the spiker. He only made 20m before expiring. I was both excited and dissapointed in myself and the thoughts of what could have been ran through my head. But then i thought to myself there is still all rut to go..
Here is one happy bowhunter. Seccond fallow with the bow and some great venison.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1010378.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1010381.jpg
I Started my walk out after the deer as to not spoil the meat. And on the way i spooked 3 does who stood gawking at me from 20m i even managed to draw on them but then let down as they will be my bait for the bucks in the up and coming rut and i had plenty of meat.
As i got back i rang Daniel and told him of my sucess and he said to call into his place and have a chat. He grabbed my bow and had a few shots at his target with it and was punching out the bullseye every time and after hearing about my sucess he wanted to go for a drive out the back to where the neighbour had been seeing a mob of goats. I was the only one with gear ready so we just took my bow and gear. We diddn't even wear camo we werent expecting to actually catch up with the mob but yep you can guess we found them. I took the first shot and nailed the big black billy then handed the bow to daniel who followed them up and shot a nice brown billy from front on with the arrow passing through the length of its body.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/blackbilly-1.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/Photo0205.jpg
It ended up being the best scouting trip i could have asked for and i'm glad that stag is still out there for me to chase in the next few weeks. The deer are still a little way from rutting here.. diddn't even find a rub tree but the antlers have hardly any velvet on them still?? How far off is the rut anyone keen for a guess?
Macka