PeterM
26-04-07, 10:49 AM
The next week saw me travelling 5 hours from home to hunt the fallow with a new T.T. member Trevor Willis in Vic. On the way to one on Trevor’s favoured fallow hunting grounds which he was on the committee to setup the introduction on fallow in the area we where heading to some 25 years ago, we passed some of his other stomping grounds, with lots of stories about some massive Sambar stags that he and others had taken in the area over the 30 odd years that he has been deer hunting. Like some young kid I listened and checked out all the points on many hills sides as he would stop and point out land marks, gulley’s and favoured feeding locations and known bedding areas all while he explained the tactics and luck he had on the ghosts over the many years, it was I very enjoyable two and half drive to our destination from his farm.
We had all the luxury with us on this trip as we setup the small caravan that Trevor had just acquired, for his clients for his very successful guiding service and taxidermy business. The first night while eagerly awaiting for the sun to rise, we herd what the only thing that I call bad luck IMO, was the howling of a pack on no less than three wild dogs and they worked there way up the same section on pines and mountains that Trevor had planned for us to hunt that morning, not a grate way to be introduced to the new hunting grounds but what can you do, I could tell Trevor was a little worried.
As we set off on the first morning, with some new techniques again to try, this time we would setup another well hidden logging tracks, with active scrapes on them and put the following scenario together, Trevor would grunt and sometimes rattle while I would add in the occasional doe call and he would occasionally rake the tree with the pair of small antlers he had, I know what you are saying you guys think you are on the wrong side of the world and your not hunting Elk or Mouse, like most hunters think is hard to make all the noise when we spend so much time trying to be quite and then, sit here and make all this racket right, well this is what happened. The bucks where very quite at first light, so we started the show, Trevor started with his grunt tube, I called few times, and them we repeated the whole thing, then wait a couple of minutes and to it all again. Boy I thought this is a little too aggressive myself, but what do I know about the deer down this way, the next thing I knew I could see a buck making his way to us though the thinned out pines trees, I signalled Trevor and I got ready for a possible shot.
The buck was approaching us like he was at some military parade with a distinct style and walk, lifting his front legs high and pushing them into the ground almost like trying to stomp some bug and with his neck and chest all puffed up as he was trying to make himself look bigger that he really was which would have been hard as the body size on the bucks down here is really massive for Fallow! He was starting to slide off to my left and was heading in the general direction to approach us from down wind, (smart bugger) as he came ever closer, and siding up to our position I drew when he was about 40 metres out and tried to anticipate where he might come too and picked the clearest lane possible. He was getting close, and also he was getting closer and closer to cutting our wind, at 20 metres max he stopped right behind a large pine tree with only his head and neck exposed as I’m sure the alarm bells went up, only one more step and he would have been in real trouble. As he departed the seen we thought well that’s not a bad way to start the day, very exciting!
Not long after we herd three other bucks start grunting, so we made our way down the logging road in their direction, to the closest one, but we didn’t mange to get a good look at this buck as he winded us as we made our along the road so off we headed to the next buck, but all this action didn’t last long and soon the pines where very quite again Trevor knew that the amount of deer in the part of the world has diminished quite a bit and the unseasonable weather being so hot still and all the wild dogs about, plus a large hunting pressure is showing its impact. So we made out way back to camp, and we would try our luck in a different section in the afternoon.
We didn’t hear any bucks that afternoon and they also where very quite in the morning also, these things happen and I was saying the Trevor that I think we are just a little early mate, like most of the country the rut is going to be late this year.
We decided to try something new again on this trip, Trevor is a big fan of tree stands, as many a trip the states would have him attest to there effectiveness on wary deer. We setup a stand about 20 metres max from two very hot scrapes, and I perched myself some 10 metres off the ground one afternoon, now I am willing to try new things in hunting, but I can say with the tree swaying and a bit of a climb up there it is very interesting place to be, last time I climbed a tree I was 10, and I bet the tree wishes I was only 10 again too!
As I sat there checking to make sure my safety harness was still attached every 5 minutes, I could see how people fall out of these things quite easy with the fresh air and possibly the early starts for some, the smell of the sap from the tree, and who know how many hours later you might sit there until you might get a shot would all combine to become some very interesting stories at camp, about how you well you nose dived out of the thing and how long it took to climb back on the seat or what potential injuries you may suffer when the safety harness pulled tight around your groin to stop your fall, one things for sure there was no way I would stand up to take a shot ever, there’s no monkey in me man!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/peterm/Deer%202007/IMG_0984-2-2.jpg
The view from a high!
I sat there in that tree all afternoon till dark, and didn’t see or here a thing, well there was the resident rabbit that would look up occasionally and thump his foot on the ground, and then give me the evil rabbit eye, then he would start feeding again, until I adjusted my seating position trying get some circulation back in my butt from sitting so long, and he would look up and thump the ground and then eventually settle some minutes later, it was very amusing at some points, but it would have been more amusing if I had remembered to put a Judo point in my utility belt to replace one of my $15 broad heads!
Over the next two days and nights it was pretty much the same thing, very little grunting in the morning, we would try to close in on a buck and he would stop before we could really pin point his location, in some cases we would quickly walk trying to catch up to them and would cover some 2 or 3 km before they would stop leaving us all hot and bothered, then we where left only to retreat for the morning. During the day we would drive around some of the major logging roads and little off roads and check for fresh sign, and man was there some sign about I lost count on how many rubs and scrapes we saw, which in most cases didn’t point too any particular areas to hunt over others as the sign was simply every where, I stooped taking pictures as I would have filled the SD card in the camera!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/peterm/Deer%202007/IMG_0985-2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/peterm/Deer%202007/IMG_0334-2-2.jpg
There was no grunting in the afternoons and at night, again lots of wild dogs howling and it still really wasn’t that cold.
The last morning of hunt saw us back in one of the sections that seamed to be a little more active in the rutting process. The air had a little bite in it also. Just on the day brake the grunts would start and we would try plan which direction to go according to the wind and the possible location of the buck, we always obviously tried the closest one first. One buck was grunting right in the middle where the tree stand I had been using but the wind was going the wrong way this morning but I knew where my last afternoon would be spent.
We where slowly heading up another skidder row and we where getting set to try the grunt and doe stunt when I herd and stick snap, I peered around the tree I was using for cover and I could see a buck making his way down a game trial about 60 metres out, I told Trevor there was one coming and then I looked out in front trying to see the clearest lane where I could get a shot though, with all the little branches and sticks that make up most on the landscape here, it’s a hard task to try find one I can tell you, I guessed that he would pass anywhere from 30 to 40 metres out, and I found only one clear lane to shoot though, as he approached I drew, and aimied right down the lane until he stepped into it, all this in the small space of only a minute and I was guessing that he was no more than 35 out, so I lined him up with my 32 pin on his spine and fired!
The arrow looked like it was on the money but it passed just under the buck’s chest, and it then hit some bunch of dead sticks or wood by the sound of it, by the loud crack it made, the buck only stopped for a split second after the shot, before he motored out of there. We marked the spot where I shot from and checked the range it was 37 metres, and I was a little bewildered, why at least I didn’t hit him though the heart at that range I know my gear and I know where it shoots at all ranges. He was angling away slightly when I shot, we also spent a little time trying to find my arrow with no luck, and with no obvious sign of a hit or any blood there was no doubt in the end that I had clean missed.
Only some 100 metres later we where at the top of the skidder row and it joined and fire trail with of course had some scapes on it, so we set up for and gave some calls, within about a minute I thought I saw and palm of a buck moving though the trees and down the fire trial across form us, so we got set, anticipating the arrival of a buck within seconds, to my surprise it was an dingo walking down the trial, his flat short tail was what I had caught a glimpse of as I as he walked down the trial.
As he walked around the end of the fire trail we where on he checked out the scrape and started to head down the road we where hiding on the edge of, but he still was 50 metres out, and I knew it would be a closed shot if he continued on the same path, but the little change in wind direction straight down the trial and he bolted at about the 35 metre mark, damm it!
We got up and walked back down the trial a little and discussed what we would do next, again just like fox whistling you shouldn’t get up too soon after you stop calling, to out surprise and there was a buck walking down the track not far behind the dingo, can you believe it, we where left hi and dry in the middle of the fire trail like fools, he spotted us only seconds after we spotted him and he wad gone in a flash!
Well things where starting to heat up in the action department this morning anyway. As we headed back to the car the pack of dogs started howling some 500 metres from us right in the patch of native, so we guessed they not only hunting at night but as well as by day.
That afternoon I dropped Trevor up on a high ridge on another sicker row that had two very good scrapes on it. He used and another style of tree stand called a climber and placed him self about 35 foot up! I went back to the stand where we heard the buck grunting this morning. Didn’t take me as long to get into the thing this arvo, I guess the tree climbing and stand thing was starting grow on me, and you guessed it, not more than 15 minutes in the stand a buck started to grunt on the hill behind me some 500 metres out, I knew the wind was bad and he was higher than me so I had to sit there and just convince myself I wouldn’t be able to get near him while he was in that position on the hill. After some 20 minutes on constant grunting, I couldn’t stand it any more I had to get down; I just couldn’t help myself I love to hunt the grunts as I call it. I circled back away from the stand and made my way downwind as far I could so I hoped my sent wouldn’t carry that far until I could climb above him, and get the wind in my favour so I could start my attack.
As I made my way along the side on the hill moving as quickly a possible trying the cut the distance down between us, the wind was blowing at fairly high rate, which would help cover some on my noise though the pine needles and the ever continuous weaving in and on out of pines trees and the magnitude of little sticks and branches that really make it hard to negotiate without making so much noise and movement, visibility also was very deceiving you thought you could see further than you really could, but I pressed on.
After about an hour I was getting close, he was gradually moving across the face on the hill and the wind was good as I ever so slowly closed the gap, always on the look out for movement as I made my thought he pines, into other openings, I had no idea where I was going and what might be ahead but this is always the best part about places you never have been before. As moved though the pines I guess he now was only about 100 metres in front and I could make out an opening in the middle on the pines, I slowed and made my way down a row, and when I got the near the edge I stoped and took to one knee and carefully tried to look out into in to see if he was standing or fringing the sides of the pines, then to my surprise he was there walking back towards me about 20 metres out and entered and patch in black berry, I quickly knocked an arrow, and looked for a lane to shoot though. The black berry backed onto the same corner on pine I was in an I expected him to emerge out the back of it, but he didn’t, so I decided to do one doe call, within seconds he had come back out from the black berry from where he entered and was walking with his head down looking into the pines for the doe (me!) as he moved passed some smaller tress on the out edge I drew, he stopped and I was trying to find that little hole to get an arrow though, and hit that small spot on the front of his chest, I knew he would bust me any second, and had to rise myself off the ground just a little so I could clear some of the small branches and get the shot I needed in ensure a fatal hit, and boom he exploded, about 1 second to late, my mistake I knew I should drawn and aimed before I called when he was that close to start with.
As I made my way though the pines away trying to find my way out I ran into another buck standing in another one of these hidden open patches in the pines, I was not really expecting to see thing there off course it was that I had just stuffed up by not paying attention really! As I found my way onto a fire trial, I soon figured out my position from the stand, and started to make my way back to it, as all the grunting had now ceased and it was close to dusk, my beliefs that we had indeed arrived a little early for the rut seam justified. I eventually found the tree stand and climbed back into it in the dim light an removed it, and made my way back to camp, as we where heading home tonight before the rest on the Mexican section of Trophy Takers turn up tomorrow!
As we packed up the caravan Trevor told me about his afternoon, he had called a buck into 18 yards from his tree only to have it walk straight onto an apple core that he had eaten some 30 minutes earlier, as the buck put his head down, one sniff is all it took and bolt! You see even deer hunters with 30 years experience still make mistakes too.
To be continued..........
We had all the luxury with us on this trip as we setup the small caravan that Trevor had just acquired, for his clients for his very successful guiding service and taxidermy business. The first night while eagerly awaiting for the sun to rise, we herd what the only thing that I call bad luck IMO, was the howling of a pack on no less than three wild dogs and they worked there way up the same section on pines and mountains that Trevor had planned for us to hunt that morning, not a grate way to be introduced to the new hunting grounds but what can you do, I could tell Trevor was a little worried.
As we set off on the first morning, with some new techniques again to try, this time we would setup another well hidden logging tracks, with active scrapes on them and put the following scenario together, Trevor would grunt and sometimes rattle while I would add in the occasional doe call and he would occasionally rake the tree with the pair of small antlers he had, I know what you are saying you guys think you are on the wrong side of the world and your not hunting Elk or Mouse, like most hunters think is hard to make all the noise when we spend so much time trying to be quite and then, sit here and make all this racket right, well this is what happened. The bucks where very quite at first light, so we started the show, Trevor started with his grunt tube, I called few times, and them we repeated the whole thing, then wait a couple of minutes and to it all again. Boy I thought this is a little too aggressive myself, but what do I know about the deer down this way, the next thing I knew I could see a buck making his way to us though the thinned out pines trees, I signalled Trevor and I got ready for a possible shot.
The buck was approaching us like he was at some military parade with a distinct style and walk, lifting his front legs high and pushing them into the ground almost like trying to stomp some bug and with his neck and chest all puffed up as he was trying to make himself look bigger that he really was which would have been hard as the body size on the bucks down here is really massive for Fallow! He was starting to slide off to my left and was heading in the general direction to approach us from down wind, (smart bugger) as he came ever closer, and siding up to our position I drew when he was about 40 metres out and tried to anticipate where he might come too and picked the clearest lane possible. He was getting close, and also he was getting closer and closer to cutting our wind, at 20 metres max he stopped right behind a large pine tree with only his head and neck exposed as I’m sure the alarm bells went up, only one more step and he would have been in real trouble. As he departed the seen we thought well that’s not a bad way to start the day, very exciting!
Not long after we herd three other bucks start grunting, so we made our way down the logging road in their direction, to the closest one, but we didn’t mange to get a good look at this buck as he winded us as we made our along the road so off we headed to the next buck, but all this action didn’t last long and soon the pines where very quite again Trevor knew that the amount of deer in the part of the world has diminished quite a bit and the unseasonable weather being so hot still and all the wild dogs about, plus a large hunting pressure is showing its impact. So we made out way back to camp, and we would try our luck in a different section in the afternoon.
We didn’t hear any bucks that afternoon and they also where very quite in the morning also, these things happen and I was saying the Trevor that I think we are just a little early mate, like most of the country the rut is going to be late this year.
We decided to try something new again on this trip, Trevor is a big fan of tree stands, as many a trip the states would have him attest to there effectiveness on wary deer. We setup a stand about 20 metres max from two very hot scrapes, and I perched myself some 10 metres off the ground one afternoon, now I am willing to try new things in hunting, but I can say with the tree swaying and a bit of a climb up there it is very interesting place to be, last time I climbed a tree I was 10, and I bet the tree wishes I was only 10 again too!
As I sat there checking to make sure my safety harness was still attached every 5 minutes, I could see how people fall out of these things quite easy with the fresh air and possibly the early starts for some, the smell of the sap from the tree, and who know how many hours later you might sit there until you might get a shot would all combine to become some very interesting stories at camp, about how you well you nose dived out of the thing and how long it took to climb back on the seat or what potential injuries you may suffer when the safety harness pulled tight around your groin to stop your fall, one things for sure there was no way I would stand up to take a shot ever, there’s no monkey in me man!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/peterm/Deer%202007/IMG_0984-2-2.jpg
The view from a high!
I sat there in that tree all afternoon till dark, and didn’t see or here a thing, well there was the resident rabbit that would look up occasionally and thump his foot on the ground, and then give me the evil rabbit eye, then he would start feeding again, until I adjusted my seating position trying get some circulation back in my butt from sitting so long, and he would look up and thump the ground and then eventually settle some minutes later, it was very amusing at some points, but it would have been more amusing if I had remembered to put a Judo point in my utility belt to replace one of my $15 broad heads!
Over the next two days and nights it was pretty much the same thing, very little grunting in the morning, we would try to close in on a buck and he would stop before we could really pin point his location, in some cases we would quickly walk trying to catch up to them and would cover some 2 or 3 km before they would stop leaving us all hot and bothered, then we where left only to retreat for the morning. During the day we would drive around some of the major logging roads and little off roads and check for fresh sign, and man was there some sign about I lost count on how many rubs and scrapes we saw, which in most cases didn’t point too any particular areas to hunt over others as the sign was simply every where, I stooped taking pictures as I would have filled the SD card in the camera!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/peterm/Deer%202007/IMG_0985-2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/peterm/Deer%202007/IMG_0334-2-2.jpg
There was no grunting in the afternoons and at night, again lots of wild dogs howling and it still really wasn’t that cold.
The last morning of hunt saw us back in one of the sections that seamed to be a little more active in the rutting process. The air had a little bite in it also. Just on the day brake the grunts would start and we would try plan which direction to go according to the wind and the possible location of the buck, we always obviously tried the closest one first. One buck was grunting right in the middle where the tree stand I had been using but the wind was going the wrong way this morning but I knew where my last afternoon would be spent.
We where slowly heading up another skidder row and we where getting set to try the grunt and doe stunt when I herd and stick snap, I peered around the tree I was using for cover and I could see a buck making his way down a game trial about 60 metres out, I told Trevor there was one coming and then I looked out in front trying to see the clearest lane where I could get a shot though, with all the little branches and sticks that make up most on the landscape here, it’s a hard task to try find one I can tell you, I guessed that he would pass anywhere from 30 to 40 metres out, and I found only one clear lane to shoot though, as he approached I drew, and aimied right down the lane until he stepped into it, all this in the small space of only a minute and I was guessing that he was no more than 35 out, so I lined him up with my 32 pin on his spine and fired!
The arrow looked like it was on the money but it passed just under the buck’s chest, and it then hit some bunch of dead sticks or wood by the sound of it, by the loud crack it made, the buck only stopped for a split second after the shot, before he motored out of there. We marked the spot where I shot from and checked the range it was 37 metres, and I was a little bewildered, why at least I didn’t hit him though the heart at that range I know my gear and I know where it shoots at all ranges. He was angling away slightly when I shot, we also spent a little time trying to find my arrow with no luck, and with no obvious sign of a hit or any blood there was no doubt in the end that I had clean missed.
Only some 100 metres later we where at the top of the skidder row and it joined and fire trail with of course had some scapes on it, so we set up for and gave some calls, within about a minute I thought I saw and palm of a buck moving though the trees and down the fire trial across form us, so we got set, anticipating the arrival of a buck within seconds, to my surprise it was an dingo walking down the trial, his flat short tail was what I had caught a glimpse of as I as he walked down the trial.
As he walked around the end of the fire trail we where on he checked out the scrape and started to head down the road we where hiding on the edge of, but he still was 50 metres out, and I knew it would be a closed shot if he continued on the same path, but the little change in wind direction straight down the trial and he bolted at about the 35 metre mark, damm it!
We got up and walked back down the trial a little and discussed what we would do next, again just like fox whistling you shouldn’t get up too soon after you stop calling, to out surprise and there was a buck walking down the track not far behind the dingo, can you believe it, we where left hi and dry in the middle of the fire trail like fools, he spotted us only seconds after we spotted him and he wad gone in a flash!
Well things where starting to heat up in the action department this morning anyway. As we headed back to the car the pack of dogs started howling some 500 metres from us right in the patch of native, so we guessed they not only hunting at night but as well as by day.
That afternoon I dropped Trevor up on a high ridge on another sicker row that had two very good scrapes on it. He used and another style of tree stand called a climber and placed him self about 35 foot up! I went back to the stand where we heard the buck grunting this morning. Didn’t take me as long to get into the thing this arvo, I guess the tree climbing and stand thing was starting grow on me, and you guessed it, not more than 15 minutes in the stand a buck started to grunt on the hill behind me some 500 metres out, I knew the wind was bad and he was higher than me so I had to sit there and just convince myself I wouldn’t be able to get near him while he was in that position on the hill. After some 20 minutes on constant grunting, I couldn’t stand it any more I had to get down; I just couldn’t help myself I love to hunt the grunts as I call it. I circled back away from the stand and made my way downwind as far I could so I hoped my sent wouldn’t carry that far until I could climb above him, and get the wind in my favour so I could start my attack.
As I made my way along the side on the hill moving as quickly a possible trying the cut the distance down between us, the wind was blowing at fairly high rate, which would help cover some on my noise though the pine needles and the ever continuous weaving in and on out of pines trees and the magnitude of little sticks and branches that really make it hard to negotiate without making so much noise and movement, visibility also was very deceiving you thought you could see further than you really could, but I pressed on.
After about an hour I was getting close, he was gradually moving across the face on the hill and the wind was good as I ever so slowly closed the gap, always on the look out for movement as I made my thought he pines, into other openings, I had no idea where I was going and what might be ahead but this is always the best part about places you never have been before. As moved though the pines I guess he now was only about 100 metres in front and I could make out an opening in the middle on the pines, I slowed and made my way down a row, and when I got the near the edge I stoped and took to one knee and carefully tried to look out into in to see if he was standing or fringing the sides of the pines, then to my surprise he was there walking back towards me about 20 metres out and entered and patch in black berry, I quickly knocked an arrow, and looked for a lane to shoot though. The black berry backed onto the same corner on pine I was in an I expected him to emerge out the back of it, but he didn’t, so I decided to do one doe call, within seconds he had come back out from the black berry from where he entered and was walking with his head down looking into the pines for the doe (me!) as he moved passed some smaller tress on the out edge I drew, he stopped and I was trying to find that little hole to get an arrow though, and hit that small spot on the front of his chest, I knew he would bust me any second, and had to rise myself off the ground just a little so I could clear some of the small branches and get the shot I needed in ensure a fatal hit, and boom he exploded, about 1 second to late, my mistake I knew I should drawn and aimed before I called when he was that close to start with.
As I made my way though the pines away trying to find my way out I ran into another buck standing in another one of these hidden open patches in the pines, I was not really expecting to see thing there off course it was that I had just stuffed up by not paying attention really! As I found my way onto a fire trial, I soon figured out my position from the stand, and started to make my way back to it, as all the grunting had now ceased and it was close to dusk, my beliefs that we had indeed arrived a little early for the rut seam justified. I eventually found the tree stand and climbed back into it in the dim light an removed it, and made my way back to camp, as we where heading home tonight before the rest on the Mexican section of Trophy Takers turn up tomorrow!
As we packed up the caravan Trevor told me about his afternoon, he had called a buck into 18 yards from his tree only to have it walk straight onto an apple core that he had eaten some 30 minutes earlier, as the buck put his head down, one sniff is all it took and bolt! You see even deer hunters with 30 years experience still make mistakes too.
To be continued..........