Chital Hunt-Raffle prize

[ricochet]

My Raffle Prize hunt-:
Well it is nearly here, my chital trip, I fly out this coming friday, leaving Melbourne at 4.50pm and heading to Townsville, Mick Baker will be there to pick me up at the airport ( gee i hope so :lol: ),we will be meeting up with Pedro and then leave to head out to Mick's chital spot on Saturday, to spend 6 days chasing the deer, (I hope i have enough arrows packed:) ,
anyway hope to take plenty of photos, especially of Mick stuffing up, he keeps telling me he is the number one guide in australia 8) , hopefully will have a story or two to tell when i get back.

cheers,
Rick :)

[XTfreak]

Good luck to you. Go easy on Mick :D
Bill

[jindydiver]

The anticipation mounts :lol:

I hope you have a great trip Rick :D

[Luke]

Go ya hardest mate :P

Best of luck and may you survive Mick's driving... :lol:

8)

[HOOD]

Best of luck Ricco, just don't let the buck fever set into early :wink:

[Sparra]

Iv'e hunted with Mick Ricko so there will definnately be plenty of stories...and what Luke said...Good luck with his driving... :wink: :wink:I am sure you will have a ball...
Sparra...

[Jeffro]

Have a great time Rick I hope you get a few :D

[woodstoka]

good luck mate

[Piggy]

Hope you have a great time. I'm not going to wish you luck as I'm sure you will do well.

Cheers

Paul

[Puk]

enjoy the whole damn thing mate, from the time the plane takes off from Melbourne to the time you arrive back again sore, tired, wiser and hopefully one happy hunter!

Puk

[Trophy Bowhunts]

He's Here....Drooling over the photo' already...

Just hope he adds to the collection... :twisted: :twisted:

See you guys in a week...

Mick

[Luke]

Have a great time boys!

Hope the heat n humidity don't do ya too bad Rico :P

8)

[adam]

Look forward to your return lads

[ricochet]

CHITAL HUNT WITH TROPHYBOWHUNTS AUSTRALIA


Flew Into Townsville on Friday 23rd February, thought that my bow had gone walk-about, it did not come down with my other gear, was thinking hello they have left it in Melbourne, but it turned up about 30 minutes later, Mick arrive to pick me up from the airport, after being warned about Mick’s driving from others on this site, was holding on tight, but I must say Mick drove very well, we headed off to Charters Towers the next morning to meet up with Pedro, once there we changed over the gear into Pedro’s troopie, and then headed out to the property, When we got to the property, Mick started pointing out the chital deer to us, which got us in the mood.

On arriving at the property we unpacked our gear, and sorted out our hunting clothes and gear ready for an afternoon hunt, after some explaining from Mick on the habits and areas frequented by the Chital, we headed out for a look around, after checking out the areas to hunt, I sat in a tree stand for the late arvo hunt, Pedro and Mick went for a walk, nothing came into the stand that evening, so back to camp for tea, we had a barby-Q at the homestead that night, and were introduced to the owners, after tea we headed back to camp and a plan for the mornings hunt was put in place.


The next morning we headed out to a ground blind (Pedro) and a tree stand (me), Pedro had a couple does come in close to his blind but the slightest movement had them on the run, nothing came to my tree stand that morning, we then headed of for a walk to check on other areas, Pedro had a great stalk into a bedded down stag, spiky and a doe, but no joy for Pedro this time,.


We also headed out for a look for pigs one arvo, sighting a lone boar, we set of after him, but he beats us this time, we ended up checking out the basalt wall that is on the property, also checking on the swamps around this area, with no luck on the pigs, the property had 8 inches rain the week before we arrived, so the pigs did not need to come out to the swampy areas for water, as there was plenty in the wall for them to drink,

The property owners were mustering stock all week, they were back and forth through the paddocks all day with cattle, horses and the dogs, this had an affect on the Chital, as with all this activity going on the deer did not follow their usual routine around the property, so this made it more interesting, one time when we were back at camp for lunch, Pedro spotted a nice stag ,spiky and a couple other deer bedded down about 60 metres from the tree stand I had been in that morning, this was also about 200 meters from camp, Pedro grabbed his bow and set of for a stalk on this group, this stalk took about 2 hours by Pedro, after doing a big loop from camp and then coming in from over the small ridge, Pedro got to within 60 metres, (after doing the “BUM stalk” for about 100metres) all Pedro needed was to get a further 15 –20 metres to a bush and fallen tree cover, he would then be able to have a good crack at the bigger stag, but at that moment the property owner/workers mustered some cattle down past these deer, stopping the cattle within 100 metres, this resulted in the deer getting very nervous, and getting out of there, leaving Pedro sitting on his Bum watching the deer move away, and all this after a 2 hour stalk in the hot sun, on his way back to the hut all that could heard was Pedro cursing stockmen and ringers,(but only for a minute :lol: ),this was a good stalk from Pedro, especially in the mid day sun.


Then it was my turn to put in a 2 hour stalk on about 5 stags, after heading of with Mick for a walk around a ridge, we spotted ( well Mick Spotted) stags bedded up under some trees 300 metres away, after back tracking, and then a slow stalk, including the 60 metres on our bums, we got to about 60 metres from the bigger stag, and only needed to get a further 15-20 metres to some good cover for a shot, the wind changed, in a flash these deer were on their feet and running away, they just reminded me of a coiled spring, ready to explode, In a flash they were away, another 2 hour stalk getting busted at the last minute.. :)
During the week Pedro put in some great stalks, (one which was captured on video by Mick,), unfortunately Pedro did not get a deer, I had a hit on a good stag as it was running past me, but only in the hip area, so this did not stop him, Pedro had a shot on a good pig late one evening near the basalt wall, with the pig running into the wall,and as it was getting towards night fall Pedro did not venture into the wall,as he had some swampy ground to cover to get back to camp :)






For the 6 days hunting the following-:

Pedro had shots at deer to no avail, one hit on a pig, and some great stalks put in by Pedro without success,

I had a hit on a Stag,(only a graze) without stopping him, I Had another shot at a Doe without a hit,

Heaps and heaps of Chital deer seen for the 6 days, some very good heads on some stags were also seen, Mick estimates some around 30 inches+
also saw some camels on the drive into and out of the property, unfortunately I did not get any photos of the deer, even after purchasing a new camera for this trip.

It was great to finally meet Mick and Pedro, hopefully I have come away from this trip a bit wiser for the experience, a great time was had by all, some great country to see, and a taste of the tropical weather in north Queensland,

Next time I will get a chital on the ground.

I attended the Townsville Bowhunters Invitation shot over the weekend (along with Mick,)I had a great time, the weather was a bit hard to take for this Victorian. (did not shoot very well)


I can recommend to others, if they want to try a chital hunt, get in touch with Mick BAKER at Trophy Bowhunts Australia, the company was great, also the food was superb.

www.trophybowhunts.com.au


Cheers,
Rick




Photo from the tree stand at sunset-:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y63/ricochetrabbit/ChitalHunt001.jpg


resting after coming out of the Basalt wall(Pedro & Mick)


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y63/ricochetrabbit/ChitalHunt004.jpg


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y63/ricochetrabbit/ChitalHunt002.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y63/ricochetrabbit/ChitalHunt003.jpg

Photo of some horses that visited me early one morning while i was in the tree stand-:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y63/ricochetrabbit/ChitalHunt005.jpg


Photo of the Camels-:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y63/ricochetrabbit/ChitalHunt007.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y63/ricochetrabbit/ChitalHunt008.jpg

[Luke]

Great read Ricko!

Bad luck on the game but I'm sure it will be something you'll not forget in a hurry.

I do doubt that was really Mick with you though, the Mick I know doesn't wear shoes :shock: :lol:

8)

[rory]

Nice read mate 8) :D

Seriously sucks though about the highly disruptive mustering :x

[ricochet]

Seriously sucks though about the highly disruptive mustering :x



Rory- we must remember that this is a working property, we must take the good with the bad, 8)

Rick :)

[rory]

yeah, fully understand, but just bad timing :( :wink:

[Piggy]

Mate Thats hunting 8) The good thing is I bet you learnt a heap and will be a bit better prepared for next time.

[adam]

Glad to hear of your safe return mate and good experience.

Adam

[HOOD]

Good to hear you had a great trip pitty about not finding your stag.