macka
29-07-07, 09:27 PM
Flinders Ranges Fallow
The deer bug really only hit me after the rut last year. And my number one goal for 2007 was to ground myself a fallow stag. I was not worried about what size, if it had antlers then I was going to be happy with it. Where I hunted in the Southern Flinders Ranges you are very lucky if you have a good deer spot and even if you have some good numbers of deer the dense scrub and miles of good country means finding and shooting one is a challenge in itself.
My season started for me with my first scouting trip on the 18th of Feb. It was at my local deer property and I had high expectations. I was in at the hot spot before daylight and soon came across a mob of bedded goats. I was so close to where I wanted to be for the deer I decided to wait for some light to see what the quality of the goats was like. I belly crawled to about 15m from the edge of the mob and waited. The sky was just starting to turn a crimson colour as the shadows of my surroundings slowly lightened with each minute and soon the goats started to lift themselves from their beds. As they fed towards me I slowly rose off my belly to my knee’s and position my bow in front of me ready to draw. I couldn’t work out which was the bigger of the two front billies so just chose the closest. At about five meters the sound of my bowtech was followed quickly by the thump of the arrow entering in the centre of the billies chest front on and passing through and out its back leg. The mob scattered and ran down the hill but with one less feral in the mob. I could see the billy was down so I moved on in search of deer and would come back later for some photo’s.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1010387.jpg
My plan of attack was to follow a creek along which gave me cover to glass over a big clearing that the deer frequently graze on. As I got to my glassing spot straight away I picked out three white shapes across the clearing at the bottom of the ridge. I used the creek to stay out of sight and moved about 500m down wind of them before I stalked up into the timber. Slowly stalking through the scrub above them I frantically searched to get a fix on their position. Antlers moving above a small olive tree gave them away and I was pleased to see a stag in the mob. After a look through the bino’s the stag had a good length but only skinny palms. I was happy with anything this early in the season so I started my stalk. Moving towards them on my belly I pushed my bow further in front of me with every movement forward until I reached a large stump which was the end of my available cover. Luck was on my side as it looked like they were starting to feed on an angle up past me. The stag was in the lead with two spikers in tow, my hands started to shake as I tried to get a range on him with the finder. The range came back at 40m I drew my bowtech tomkat back and brought the blazers back past my cheek. I had a fair bit of wobble going on as I touched the shot off and yep you guessed it I pulled the shot. It went just high above his shoulder. Trust me to come unstuck when you put a set of antlers in front of me.
The deer scrambled for a bit but then propped within 40m of me. The stag was behind a big gum tree so I ranged a spiker at 40m and sent a blazer-fletched shaft his way slicing through his boiler room. He only ran about 15m before he was finished. I thought to myself at that point what a great scouting trip and a good lump of venison for the freezer.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1010381.jpg
Over the next couple weeks I spent quite a few mornings in there scouting and managed a couple goats a hunt but nothing huge. Then one weekend a mate Daniel and I had arranged a hunt to try our luck with the deer and maybe give the goats another touch up. We walked in very early but with the wind in the north it was useless trying to approach the deer and we only saw one all morning. Ah well we thought where are those bloody goats.
We smelt them first before we saw them and stalked down into the breeze to find a mob of billies feeding at the foot of the hill. There wasn’t anything above 30 inch in the mob so we weren’t real worried about which goat to go for. Daniel had the shot so with me on the video camera we made it to 20m from a couple of bedded white billies and he angled a shot through the goat giving the best shot. The shot looked good so I swapped the camera for my bow and nailed a big shaggy goat from 40m. All the goats disappeared off into the scrub and after following them up we found brownie’s still standing his shot had exited its armpit but the goat wouldn’t quit so he put another in him for keeps. We found my goat about another 50m further along the hill stone dead and he had the longest shaggiest coat I had ever seen. I might have done him a favour as the temp was meant to be in to 40’s later that day.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1010397.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1010400.jpg
My eagerness to ground a stag grew each day closer to the rut and later that day I decided to go and check out my uncle’s property the following afternoon on the Sunday. Daniel had to work so it was yet another solo hunt for me.
This place has a few small rocky hills on it but is mostly cropping ground with the odd patch of scrub, which the deer take refuge in and feed out from during the night. The deer are not always on the property as they only seem to pass through. So I was not really expecting to see much but more to give the waterholes along his creek a good fish with some spinners for some red fin. The fishing soon became a small part of my mind as I drove past a thick patch of planted black oak tree’s about 400m long by 60m wide and saw a fallow stag feeding out the front. I quickly brought my ute to a stop and hurried to get all my gear on. I was planning to drive in and set up camp before dark but now with 20mins before dark I was stalking my way to the south of the plantation of tree’s to keep the scrub between me and the stag. I reached the edge of the scrub and slowly stalked my way through. As I reached the last few tree’s before the other side I took a deep breath and drew my bow back. Stepping out I locked my eyes on the light coloured stag about 30m away feeding directly towards me. With my heart just about pounding out my chest I moved out the tree’s a bit more to get a clear shot and he lifted his head to look straight at me. I settled the pin right in the middle of his chest and squeezed the release aide. The arrow flew very high as I used the wrong pin and smacked him in the throat and stopping at its spine. The big stag rolled over and got back up running straight through a fence before disappearing into the stand of tree’s again.
My hands were shaking and my legs were jelly as I walked back to my ute. The light was to poor to follow the stag up so I decided to wait a couple hours before following the blood trail with a torch. I couldn’t get the shot out my head I kept thinking that I had stuffed up the best opportunity I was ever going to get. The worst thing was I had still not really had a proper look at its antlers and wasn’t sure what size he was. It was the slowest 2 hours of my life waiting to go and look for my deer but when I saw the blood trail it had left I knew I had grounded my first stag. I followed it through the scrub and found him up on the ridge stone dead. The shot was effective even though shooting them in the neck on purpose is not really much of a kill zone. I just could not get over the size of the antlers on him I knew he had a set on him but these things were better than I could ever imagine. Well I am still walking on air now as I write this and even though I didn’t end up going fishing it ended up being my most memorable hunting moment so far and I don’t think I’ll ever better this stag but I’m going to try. I left him until the morning to get the photos and to recover him. All this and the rut hasn’t even started yet I can’t wait to see what it will bring. I dropped my stag Merv Rabig at Quorn for the taxidermy and he scored him at 210 6/16dp. I can’t wait to see the finished result and hang him on my wall. After all the miles and km’s travelled to my regular property I went and shot this beauty on my first trip to my new one. I guess you can just be lucky sometimes….
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1010420.jpg
A bloke from ADA in Adelaide oficially scored him at 212 4/8dp
Macka
The deer bug really only hit me after the rut last year. And my number one goal for 2007 was to ground myself a fallow stag. I was not worried about what size, if it had antlers then I was going to be happy with it. Where I hunted in the Southern Flinders Ranges you are very lucky if you have a good deer spot and even if you have some good numbers of deer the dense scrub and miles of good country means finding and shooting one is a challenge in itself.
My season started for me with my first scouting trip on the 18th of Feb. It was at my local deer property and I had high expectations. I was in at the hot spot before daylight and soon came across a mob of bedded goats. I was so close to where I wanted to be for the deer I decided to wait for some light to see what the quality of the goats was like. I belly crawled to about 15m from the edge of the mob and waited. The sky was just starting to turn a crimson colour as the shadows of my surroundings slowly lightened with each minute and soon the goats started to lift themselves from their beds. As they fed towards me I slowly rose off my belly to my knee’s and position my bow in front of me ready to draw. I couldn’t work out which was the bigger of the two front billies so just chose the closest. At about five meters the sound of my bowtech was followed quickly by the thump of the arrow entering in the centre of the billies chest front on and passing through and out its back leg. The mob scattered and ran down the hill but with one less feral in the mob. I could see the billy was down so I moved on in search of deer and would come back later for some photo’s.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1010387.jpg
My plan of attack was to follow a creek along which gave me cover to glass over a big clearing that the deer frequently graze on. As I got to my glassing spot straight away I picked out three white shapes across the clearing at the bottom of the ridge. I used the creek to stay out of sight and moved about 500m down wind of them before I stalked up into the timber. Slowly stalking through the scrub above them I frantically searched to get a fix on their position. Antlers moving above a small olive tree gave them away and I was pleased to see a stag in the mob. After a look through the bino’s the stag had a good length but only skinny palms. I was happy with anything this early in the season so I started my stalk. Moving towards them on my belly I pushed my bow further in front of me with every movement forward until I reached a large stump which was the end of my available cover. Luck was on my side as it looked like they were starting to feed on an angle up past me. The stag was in the lead with two spikers in tow, my hands started to shake as I tried to get a range on him with the finder. The range came back at 40m I drew my bowtech tomkat back and brought the blazers back past my cheek. I had a fair bit of wobble going on as I touched the shot off and yep you guessed it I pulled the shot. It went just high above his shoulder. Trust me to come unstuck when you put a set of antlers in front of me.
The deer scrambled for a bit but then propped within 40m of me. The stag was behind a big gum tree so I ranged a spiker at 40m and sent a blazer-fletched shaft his way slicing through his boiler room. He only ran about 15m before he was finished. I thought to myself at that point what a great scouting trip and a good lump of venison for the freezer.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1010381.jpg
Over the next couple weeks I spent quite a few mornings in there scouting and managed a couple goats a hunt but nothing huge. Then one weekend a mate Daniel and I had arranged a hunt to try our luck with the deer and maybe give the goats another touch up. We walked in very early but with the wind in the north it was useless trying to approach the deer and we only saw one all morning. Ah well we thought where are those bloody goats.
We smelt them first before we saw them and stalked down into the breeze to find a mob of billies feeding at the foot of the hill. There wasn’t anything above 30 inch in the mob so we weren’t real worried about which goat to go for. Daniel had the shot so with me on the video camera we made it to 20m from a couple of bedded white billies and he angled a shot through the goat giving the best shot. The shot looked good so I swapped the camera for my bow and nailed a big shaggy goat from 40m. All the goats disappeared off into the scrub and after following them up we found brownie’s still standing his shot had exited its armpit but the goat wouldn’t quit so he put another in him for keeps. We found my goat about another 50m further along the hill stone dead and he had the longest shaggiest coat I had ever seen. I might have done him a favour as the temp was meant to be in to 40’s later that day.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1010397.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1010400.jpg
My eagerness to ground a stag grew each day closer to the rut and later that day I decided to go and check out my uncle’s property the following afternoon on the Sunday. Daniel had to work so it was yet another solo hunt for me.
This place has a few small rocky hills on it but is mostly cropping ground with the odd patch of scrub, which the deer take refuge in and feed out from during the night. The deer are not always on the property as they only seem to pass through. So I was not really expecting to see much but more to give the waterholes along his creek a good fish with some spinners for some red fin. The fishing soon became a small part of my mind as I drove past a thick patch of planted black oak tree’s about 400m long by 60m wide and saw a fallow stag feeding out the front. I quickly brought my ute to a stop and hurried to get all my gear on. I was planning to drive in and set up camp before dark but now with 20mins before dark I was stalking my way to the south of the plantation of tree’s to keep the scrub between me and the stag. I reached the edge of the scrub and slowly stalked my way through. As I reached the last few tree’s before the other side I took a deep breath and drew my bow back. Stepping out I locked my eyes on the light coloured stag about 30m away feeding directly towards me. With my heart just about pounding out my chest I moved out the tree’s a bit more to get a clear shot and he lifted his head to look straight at me. I settled the pin right in the middle of his chest and squeezed the release aide. The arrow flew very high as I used the wrong pin and smacked him in the throat and stopping at its spine. The big stag rolled over and got back up running straight through a fence before disappearing into the stand of tree’s again.
My hands were shaking and my legs were jelly as I walked back to my ute. The light was to poor to follow the stag up so I decided to wait a couple hours before following the blood trail with a torch. I couldn’t get the shot out my head I kept thinking that I had stuffed up the best opportunity I was ever going to get. The worst thing was I had still not really had a proper look at its antlers and wasn’t sure what size he was. It was the slowest 2 hours of my life waiting to go and look for my deer but when I saw the blood trail it had left I knew I had grounded my first stag. I followed it through the scrub and found him up on the ridge stone dead. The shot was effective even though shooting them in the neck on purpose is not really much of a kill zone. I just could not get over the size of the antlers on him I knew he had a set on him but these things were better than I could ever imagine. Well I am still walking on air now as I write this and even though I didn’t end up going fishing it ended up being my most memorable hunting moment so far and I don’t think I’ll ever better this stag but I’m going to try. I left him until the morning to get the photos and to recover him. All this and the rut hasn’t even started yet I can’t wait to see what it will bring. I dropped my stag Merv Rabig at Quorn for the taxidermy and he scored him at 210 6/16dp. I can’t wait to see the finished result and hang him on my wall. After all the miles and km’s travelled to my regular property I went and shot this beauty on my first trip to my new one. I guess you can just be lucky sometimes….
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/Mackadebowhunter/P1010420.jpg
A bloke from ADA in Adelaide oficially scored him at 212 4/8dp
Macka