the boots arrived this week so i thought i would take em for a walk to see how they felt in the bush on saturday morning as they were pretty tight on friday night walking around the house , bloody oath they have got some ankle support and seems pretty quiet on the tile floor i just walked around after i knocked off work and with in an hour and half they felt like id been wearing them for months i just forgot they were brand new .
saturday morning i woke up about 5am as it is daylight at 6.45 had a shower got dressed in my see me no more (camo)grabbed my jack russel and drove twenty odd minutes to try my luck jumped out of the ute and loaded the 06 and slowly walked down a fence line to a gully ive been sneaking around in for the last few months .
i have been hunting this place in the afternoons and not seeing any deer but the place is always trampled with sign and rubs averywhere
ive found three wallows there so far ,this is regrowth as the place copped a fare dinkum bush fire three years ago and borders farmland the cow cockies dont want the samba there but they like theyre privacy as well so it can be very event full hunting in this area especially as theres alot after dark adventuring going on there at times .
as it was dawning to a bleak overcast morning with a little drizzle i slowly came to the first of the wallows wich is right in the middle of 4x4 track which doubles as the fire break there was a fallen tree in it but the boys had been using it as a scent marker and there was mud smeared eveywhere the stags had been having a grand old time there so i decided that i will stick a game camera on it either this arvo or tommorow
and moved on to check the next one,the second one was untouched not even any hoove prints around it which didnt add up as it was off the track a bit and more secluded .
there looked liked dozens off deer had been coming and going to and from the bush to the improved pasture on the other side of the fence
so im sneaking along watching to see if vidal (my dog) is sensing any action but shes just running around sniffing trying to unjumble the jigsaw of sign so we are just off the track slowly stalking our way to the big gully in the steadily growing dawn about 100 metres down i hear a twang of something hitting the fence wire so i go to ground and start glassing and hear a couple of twiggs snap on the wrong side of the fence, 5 minutes go by with no more sounds so we go a bit further into the bush and keep heading towards the gully about 200 metres ahead i watched a huge hind clear the fence and trot out in to the paddock towards a branch of the gully that runs through the property so im in stealth mode now as we approach the descent into the gully i hear a couple of more twigs snap and the dionk of antler on wood as i know there is another wallow about 90 metres ahead and the wind is perfectly in my face with my old blundstone boots i would of taken them off and gone on in my sox but seen as i want to take these boots to canada in september i decide to leave em on and go in on hands and knees i can see pretty good now and i stop to glass for a few minutes.
bugger me dead i dont see a thing so i get up and start sneaking in like a mongrel dog at this piont i look down at videl and see shes looking on the other side of the gully a long ways off so i start glassing in that direction not seeing anything keep moving down into the shallow system shes still looking ahead on the other side when i stand on a stick which cracked like a gun shot ,at this piont all hell broke loose and the bush came alive up ahead with three deer that i saw and at least that many that i only heard getting out of there, the closest one which barked and came across from the left in the direction from the wallow i was heading in to check had a huge body so i closed the bolt on the ruger through it up to my shoulder and aimed half a body length in front of him and let rip it sound really loud in the gully the stag took the shot without even flinching and ran straight through the fence with videl on his ass and me yelling at her to stop which she did at the fence the stag kept going up the other side of the gully with claret jetting out of him about 80 metres on the other side of the fencehe stopped and i thought he was gunna die right there but he looked back for a second and ran back down into the gully at that piont out the corner of
my eye i see movement and now know what the dog was looking at there went big daddy i dont know for sure how big he was but he looked hoooge some where in the 30 inch model if he wasnt 30 he was as close as f### is to swearing
and then there was silence.
im standing there shaking with adrenalin trying to put it all together in my head what just happened and work out how i was going to get him out
i waltz down to the fence where he went through and there good blood there which videl is feasting on ,i decide to wake the farmer up and ask to retrieve my deer the right way (even thought ive had strips ripped out of my by other farmers by trying to do the right thing before)
its now 7.20 so i walk back to the ute with videl who just wants to follow the deer and is whining as i put her lead on her and walk off the otherway.
at the hilux i sit for a while and try to remember how big his sticks were but all i remember was how big his body was .
drive back to the highway and 5 minutes later i pull up at the house and he was in the yard going about his bussiness, had one look at me dressed like G.I JOE witha smile on his face ask did you just let that shot off mate?
what did you shot a hind or stag?
this isnt what i was expecting at all
long story short he was on his way over to the back block and half expected to find some prick sneaking around on his property.
he was gratefull that i came to see him and let me go and get the stag , he even gave me his phone number to let him know when i was next going for a shot out his way
the stag was in fact a huge bodied three year old but was only 23 inches long,he would have been a snoozer in another 3 or 4 years but now his gunna be a whole l
View attachment 12683View attachment 12684
