AUSTRALIA: Second Chital Deer Hunting Trip

bluey

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after waiting and planning for a while may 28 finally arrived.
brought the boat home in the middle of the night, tied the ole girl up three quarts full of fish. shut the main engine down and didn't look back............flew up the hill to home, woke the wife. my little wog mate denial was waiting out the front in his ute, not game enough to go up and wake joysie
grabbed my pre packed kit.
and the gear she would need down in the city for the time I would be away.through everything in the tray and put the riffles in the safe under the tray
this time l had pre arranged parking close to the airport, that's going to be my second phone call from now on, straight after booking the air tickets anywhere..
dropped the good lady of at the unit in the city.at 0430, twenty minutes drive to the park, place and straight into the shuttle bus.
at Tullamarine we were met by my dad lional and little brother danny, its going to be confussing with 2 danials in the one story.
denial = little wog mate
danny=little brother
we had about 15 minute wait for number 5 (Mathew) to fly in from Tasmania, on the first flight for the morning.while we waited me and denial checked in the riffles.
the ammo in its locked box, which was in our checked luggage so that went in with dangerous goods aswell.
after we all were checked in and Mathew arrived, we were on our way.
we had to stop over in Sydney.
then it was straight to Townsville.
went to pick up our hire car, at the avis desk, thinking we were getting a fourby,(4x4)
and burst out laughing when we got to bay 64 and seen it was a KIA carnival.......
a bloody family mini bus........
Mathew stuffed up, there, its going to be more like a circus than a carnival, my dad said......
off we go to just the other side of charters towers to a big property danny has accsess to.
in charters towers we are met up with number 6, headley another bloody Tasmanian, friend of Mathew and my dads.
he has been holidaying his way up here to north queensland for the past couple of weeks, doing some hunting in Victoria for samba, and fallow deer in new south wales,
and brought his landcruiser over with him, from tassy.
l was thinking shit hot another car, wrong....
he has this pop up set over his tray, and everything in the way of kitchen and shower, all the bells and whistles.
so once he has spent 2 hours setting up home its not going anywhere.(n)
the shower was nearly worth the hassle of having only one car to tour this place.
started a fire, and started cooking some tucker and sucking the sides in on a whole lotta cans.

the ole boy and the dannys went down for a fish for the evening
that night was bliss sitting around the fire catching up everyone, shit stirring each other and hearing of headleys hunts on the way up here, while enjoying samba backstrap pot roast and carlton draught cans.

just before daylight we got up worked out who was going where, as im the only one that has hunted to place
I said id take my dad in to where I shot a cracker last year along the river, which had a fair bit more of a flow than last year so l rekon we wont be crossing over this time.
so I show my dad the basics of the 300 rum.he has shot before but not for a while.
after we are dropped off and the boys keep going to wherever they end up.as the suns rising and we are walking parrellel to the river theres deer sign every where, and its not long before we are onto a few bachelor stags of different antler stages.
I cant help noticing theres a few skeletons laying around.
l was told by the owners son last year they wanted a heap of deer taken off the place, guess they thinned a few out........
before much longer, a nice stag trots off and the dad says that's the one.
so we follow him up for a few hundred yards.
I get a photo of him and tell dad that he is only around 27 or 28 inches, but ole lionel babe, don't care and BOOM, stag down.
and then theres a moment s silence,only to be broken by a SHIT THIS FKN THING KICKS.
ohh yeah I meant to tell ya about that,father, ha ha ha.
anyways we go up and look at his first ever trophy chital deer.
and he decides on me doing a skull mount on him, so l claim the skin for a rug.
about an hour later, we are off again hearing a few pops in the distance, sounds like everyones having fun.
I even get to carry his head strapped to my pack.
its about 9 am now and the fog is starting to burn off, so we can see a fair bit better on this mostly flat ground.
the tempreture is on the rise now also.
we walk around look seeing until lunchtime and find some shade.to eat our sandwiches and fruit.
my dad cant believe how many deer we are seeing, I cant believe how many skeletons we are seeing.
we see the circus, dust cloud coming towards us at a great rate of knots.
my dad says shithot, im going back with them and going fishing.
so he gets in and danny gets out.
its bloody hot now, but danny wants to get after one.
not long after we see another mob bedded in the shade.
the winds good, so we put in a sneak, and see if theres a goodun in amongst them.sadly theres not so we back out and go around them.
I warn him about the recoil and the niose, from this fine piece of plastic and stainless steel.
not far on. theres a cracker standing in the shade all alone.
so we get a plan and start the sneak.at about 300 metres he decides, thats enough, and gets a good rest.
BOOM, another one hits the deck.
its 31 1/2 inches with that classic wine glass shape.but as with most of the chital on here its only average on its inners.

id love to show you all photos of the oldman and danny with their trophies but they don't want their ugly mugs plastered all over the internet..so being the good bloke I am, ,,,,,,,,,,,Mathew is in the same boat.

after caping him out and taking the backstraps out for tea. we start heading back to the track we will be picked up on.
I pick up a couple of cast antlers and a nice dead head for the garden.

that night back at camp, headley and Mathew have taken 5 stags between them, and are busy fleshing and salting.
I salt dannys cape and the oldboys skin which will end up on the floor in my pool room, unless dad wants it.
luckily headley brought up 3 bags of salt in the cruiser.
denial was the designated driver for today so tomorrow I will take him in for walk.
after another heap of cans and way to fresh chital straps.it off to sleep, I bought this hammock off ebay for about four bucks, mate what an investment.thought it best to try it out, wheres its nice and warm.
find 2 trees and tie a tarp over the top for protection from the dew and fog.
real handy, compact and light weight.really thinking about spending the bucks on a good one from heenasay.


day 2
up at sparra fert.and off again this time me and the wog, just set off from the camp
and in no time we see deer in the fog, we sit for awhile to see how many there are
woooo,woo we are busted by one on our flank.
danial doesn't beleave its there bark
spent to much time stalking sambar.
a short time later seeing a nice stag in the open he sneaks in for his first chital.
BOOM.BOOM.its gone.
so find him in the fog.making sure he hasn't got a bullet in his.270.
he rekons he hit it, so we spend some time looking for it.to no avail. found some running marks but no blood at all.only been out for an hour
as the fog lifts we see another mob of 6 or 7 deer about 80 metres away, with a decent stag in it.
they don't seem to notice us.BOOM, BOOM.
it ran off laughing at us too.
I asked him when was the last time he sighted that bloody.270 in.
he claims it was 2 inches high at 100 metres.
so off we go again.0930ish was when next seen some deer, and bugger me, there was the stag of stags, from behind this guy looked like he had 4 foot of antler.
if ld brought the 300 out this morning, I would've shot this stag as soon as l seen it.it was atleat 32 inches minimum. it was hot sunny and out in the open, headed towards a shaded dip of a gully.

I said that's the stag we are looking for, man go and get him.its to open for us both to go, he had 4 or five other deer with him. and was picking his way across the wind. about 120 metres away.try and get to that fallen tree, get a good rest and whack him. leave your pack and go.I tried to video this stalk on this little cheapo handtycam ive been foolin around with.
he put in a good sneak trying to keep something between him and the deer.
BOOM, BOOM.
next thing I see him up and running, ,,,,,,,,, and really,danial really????
once again he says he hit it and it wont be far.so I get him stand where he shot and walk out to where he thought it was standing.,two and a half hours later we havnt found a thing. if it was down the wedgies(wedged tailed eagles) would ve been on it by now, they are every where up here.and seem to come in at every shot.
its really bloody hot now, weve nearly drank our water and have 3 kms walk back to camp.
shit its a different kind of hot up here....
back at camp every one has called it quits in the heat.
so its decided to go into town for more ice, fuel,beer..
up near the highway we see three stags on a dam bank. so I hit the skids and tell denial to go shoot one,
BOOM, BOOMN. are you shitting me......
the three stags are off into the dry grass.running parrellel to the track.and slow down about 400 metres up and are watching.
so in hops denial and we go again, as we near the deer they dart in the direction to run across the track, at about 70 metres danial jumps out and everyones is saying shoot the first, then some one says no the second.Mathew says the third one, which is definitely the best one.
l just told him to shoot which ever one is the easiest.
BOOM about 80 metres up the track the bullet ricochets off the ground, the dust cloud is maybe four or five feet from a kangaroo.which got the hell out of there.
only me and headley seen this, and denial thinks he hit the second one.....
all l could do is laugh at the poor bloke.
so into town we go....
we had some laughs in there, and stocked up on heaps of crap we didn't need.
we kept tellin denial to buy more.270 rounds.Mathew rekons, bugger that save your money bloke, .you should start throwing stones at the bloody deer.
which never helped his confidence one little iota.....

he can shoot and ive helped him drag out quite a few deer from the bush around home, and been spotlighting rabbits with him many a night.
then we drove down to the berdiken wier, to fish for the last hour of daylight
inthat time Mathew and my dad have caught 7 sooty grunters between them, the rest of us havnt caught squat.
they don't seem to like lures, prawns is the go.
so back to camp.
where danny puts the idea of going about 200 kms out further where he can get us on another place where we might get a camel.
the old boy just shook his head.
we had it all worked out in no time.and we started getting our water ready, we allowed 5 litres each a day and we were going to stay 3 days,



we coaxed dad into driving us out there tonight.it was about 3 hours drive to the station or red dust farm.
while we were gone Mathew and headley were going to walk denial around to see if they could get him a head.
to no avail,
they managed another 3 between them in the time, we were out back.
the oldman ended up taking him fishing in the afternoon. for a barramundi

we get into it after the sun came up and never seen very much at all, but keep wandering around.
dannys mate, ivan, said on the phone the night before that there was a few camel about the place, but lots of pigs, where evr the water is, so danny was happy.
late on the first afternoon, we spied the first camel, ranged him at 560 metres and BOOM, barked the 300 rum.to seal the deal.

its thirsty work just walking around in this heat and we are drinking way lots more water than we allowed for. the second and third camels we pretty easy affairs.
l shot the second one at 200 odd metres and give her a second one to speed up the departure.
danny shot one at around the same distance while we were walking back to where we are going light a fire and sleep.
we had used twice as much water in the first 24 hours than we had allowed, so we called up our father to come get us later in the morning, on the sat phone, another piece of kit that will always have space in my pack, while we waited danny sent 5 or 6 swine to heaven.
walking along the boundry of this place.

day four

bit of lecture from father, and then he said, how he caught a 110 cm barra, and released it.
denial hooked a few but they spat the lure., he went for walk by himself, but couldn't get a shot off.
we got back to the property early afternoon.
and decided to try and get danny another head so went driving till we seen a mob and stalked back.
with in half an hour, he had another nice stag on the deck,

I offered denial my gun to see if he can knock one over before dark, but he declined.
so we decided to see if he take one spot and stalk.
we drive about the place for awhile looking for a mob but they seem a bit on edge.
no bloody wonder......
about three parts of an hour before dark we see a big mob of chital, and its game on we drive a ways past them and sneak back.
15 minutes later we are in pole position, and the deer are unaware of looming disaster......
l glass out the best stag of the five that are in this group.and ask if he can see him, BOOM goes the.270 and a spiker thirty metres past the stag falls over, stone cold steve Austin.
all I say is sell that bloody gun..........
and walk over to the wrong bloody deer.which he hit in the neck.and skin it out for him.
to miss the big fella and hit the spiker, it had to be shooting over a foot high.
he was asked to resight the gun every day since we got here, and refused to, now he will be going home with out a head, in an area where they are that many in numbers, ,,,,,,,,,
but that's life.
he has had a good trip, as we all have.
i rekon l seen over a thousand deer here in four days, and with out a doubt some of them would've been seen multiple times.
so its back to camp and finnish of the last of the piss, before we all go our separate ways in the morning.
so after four day the head count is
denial =0,trophies, 1=spikee
bluey =0 chital, 2=cammels
danny =2chital, 1=camel, and lots of swine
liuonel =2 chital
matt =4 chital
headley =4 chital
but we all have lots of memories, and laughs,
in the morning, we went to thank the owners, son.
and promised to bring a heap of real fish next time, not that hot water shit, these guys are used to.
and next year we will taking as many hinds out of the equitation as is needed.
and we will be driving our utes up here so we can all cover some country, as we havnt even started here yet.
and definitely my bow, that was something l promised my self last year, but its just to much stuff to bring up on a plane.
im really toying with the idea of getting a full body mount done on one of these pretty little deer,aswell.

in the morning we all go for another fish, for bugger all action except denial nearly standing on a little croc.
I never seen it but heard it departing, and the look on his face would've been a trophy photo in nits self.
back to camp around 8 am
we all spent an hour wiping the inside of the carnival(circus) down, with spraynwipe and nil odour.

heed this warning if you see a white kia carnival for sale in a used car lot, walk away, it may be this little ripper we hired.......

headley and dad, through their kits together and turned left at bruce highway and are now fishing up the cape, and having as much fun as 2, senenty odd year old blokes could have, and im hioping my little handy cam is in ole headley ute, but unless they ring me up on their grand pa adventure (which I doubt) I wont know until dad gets home in the next month or so.

denial and danny flew back to Melbourne for work.
and me and the the mad Tasmanian flew to Brisbane to start a guided hunt the next day for rusa deer
in the rutt.
I will get to that tale over the next couple of days


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Good story bluey and great pics, loved the ones of the eagles. Feeling sorry for the fellow with the .270. If that rifle traveled far, I'd guess the scope got bumped a bit.
 
Thanks for the tale. Sounds like everybody had a good time. Nice pics. Bruce
 
Sounds like a great time Bluey.

And like Phil said, the camera did a great job on the eagles.
 
bluey that sounds like the beverley hill billys on a hunting trip :LOL:

certainly wish we had old jeds ,cash flow !!!
if its not fun its not worth doin ,
I may need you to teach me to type eloquently, when you turn Zambia into jersey shore ,bud....:rolleyes::p
 
that should be NEW jersey shore if your refering to that excremental tv show !!! but as a lot of the colonials on that side of the water seem not to realise, having new in front of the name means it is most likely named after an original place . it means when i am over there at SCI i spend a lot of the time having to give geography lessons when they tell me i cant be from jersey, as i dont sound like i am!!! :rolleyes:;)
 
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so ,how do you pommie rednecks ,rough it , in jersey?
 
so ,how do you pommie rednecks ,rough it , in jersey?

maybe having to drink champagne thats not quite chilled to perfection............;):D
ps as the island is independant of the uk the original locals cant be called pommies as their origins arent from there. the jersey people call people from the island of guernsey donkeys and they call the jersey people crapauds which is local for toad. here is a bit of aread for you http://www.theislandwiki.org/index.php/Crapaud
 
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wouldn't know what that bubbly grape, tastes like .spike.
once we get down Brisbane way , we had to drink warmish beer ,tho.
 
Congrats on the hunting trip, to see a thousand animals is quite a hunting adventure. Sounds like denial needs shooting lessons or to take up golf ...:).
 
Absolutely awesome story bluey. Enjoyed every minute of it.

If it ever got warm enough here I might have a sleep in that hammock.

Great pictures.
 
thanks enysee.
danial can shoot ,alright usually .
im just using young ses "s saying : you can always tell a malstesse bloke, you just cant tell him much , ha ha ha
a thousand chittel is the low count ,man .they really do need some control ,soon ,real soon .
some mobs would ve numbered 200 plus .
these pictures don't capture the whole of each mob , but you scare them off in the morning and just like pidgeons they will be back soon .
on Friday after we get back from the city , im going to ask denial ,if l can use his gun and get another friend to go over it ,l have a feeling his scope is knackered .
jeez, his copped some shit over his skills lately .
hoping that ive left my cheap little video camera in Headleys ute , its got some great video of deer, eagles attacking fawns.some of the fishing ,and pigs on it .and some of shit stirring ,that went on in camp and the car.
it will give a better idea of how many deer are just on this property ,and how tricky they are to sneak in on ,
 

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Bluey you make this story better and better. Man that sounds like fun!
 
009.JPG is a dream chital deer!
 
009.JPG is a dream chital deer!
although he is a pretty looking ,young stag ,he only just made 28 inches ,eric.
its the first one that my dad shot .
because they have such little heads it makes them very hard to judge .
wait til l get the video ,handy cam back .youll see some crackers in amongst young and good stags at the same time .
when these guys are way up there they really stand out .
 
I see what you mean, I didn't know I could zoom the picture in, once I could, I can see what you are talking about.

All the brush and grass was deceiving my eyes.
 
we ran the carnival through a drive thru carwash , twice before we returned it to the avis carpark ,
we give it another once over with the spray and wipe .
bloody unbelievable how much red dust keeps coming out of no where .
so we drop the keys of at the desk , and agree that with the young lady ,that we treated this fine car , just as we would of if it had been our own ........

check my firearm and ammo in with dangerous good at the virgin terminal , and went thru the metal detectors to departures ,and a pie with sauce and a jd and coke .
hour and a half we are in Brisbane and Mathew is ringing his mate and outfitter Clarke Mcghie from AUSTRALIAN WILD COUNTRY ADVETURES .
mat has been telling me of some of the hunts his had with Clarke ,over the last 20 odd years ,
been hunting with him 4 times from what he said , and never seen a bad one yet , in fact im impressed with all that Mathew has said of Clarke .and how hard he works at , making the experience , one that you remember forever.
five minutes after clearing our gear , we are out the front and Clarke is there almost at the same time .
my first impression of Clarke ,is wow a cowboy ....
as he swaggered out of his hilux ute to meet and greet us ,with a firm handshake,a direct gaze and a cheeky smile.we load our kit and he introduces us, to his three border collie dogs ,
Clarke has a long history of guiding in Australia, he explained that he will be going over to canada again this july to wrangle with the out fit his son is guiding for. And a
deeply ingrained passion for quality deer management , second to none ,in my limited experience .
he is also quick witted and always up for a laugh, which l can see in just the first minute of meeting this gent (read ,top bloke).
and in 4 minutes flat ,we"re in the traffic and heading for the hills ,im estimating a 2 hour drive out emu creek .it seemed to be a flash as matt and clark caught up and filled my ears with history , yarns , our plans and a whole lot of shit .
and then as if in no time at all, we enter the 14000 acre cattle farm in the Brisbane valley.
and the first thing we see is maybe 100 rusa deer hinds feeding in the property next door .clark explained that this a problem of late and the nieghbors either like the pretty little deer or shoot em on site .
as this should be the start of the rutt ,but we are definitely on the earlier end of it , as Clarke made this clear in the first 10 minutes of meeting us .
the weather is still to warm to kick it up ,as yet .
so he takes us up to the house to met the land owner ,and make aquaintances.
he lets clark know where he has been seeing the stags , and because of the heat the big boys are up top apparently , so we will be legging it for the next few days ,unless we get a cold snap .
after our short tool box meeting , we are back in the lux and heading up to the humpy (hut) we will be calling home for the next four days,unless we get lucky and take a stag each early on , then we will be going to clarkes place for fishing ,dingo hunting or pig sticking..
on the ride up the humpy, we notice there a bit of flat ground down low ,but its a bit like brittish Columbia , up or down ,without the water seeming to fall out of every hill .
this pace a a nice creek trickling through the middle of it .
up the humpy, we are greeted by clarks , partner and best friend , Judy .
who has been here setting up camp for us all ,and mowing the track to the thunder box.( talk about a shithouse with a view )
once we are unloaded we set about erecting our tents and gathering firewood for the duratation .
while judy is preparing tea , me ,mat and clark , go for a walk and stretch our legs,and have a bit of a glass along the tops to see if theres any stags coming down for the night .
staright away old eagle eyes Mathew has spotted some deer ,4 red deer hinds and a young stag , followed by more red deer . and more red deer .
we sit out glassing till its too dark to see.
judy has cooked up a storm ,in her campfire kitchen ,corned venison with mustard sauce and stacks of vegies..
over a couple of warm beers ,that's me and Mathew ,( neither clark or judy took in one drink in the time we were with them .) .clark inquired about what we were looking for in a rusa stag , Mathew ,being Mathew was interested in big ,top scoring trophy, 230 d,s up .as there is some giant rusa stag in this area .
I just want a good representive with some age to him ,and a decent cape , I love scars but not rubs .
so we flip a cion to see who get the first pick . l loose ......
clark is big on video , and tries to capture the exp[erince ,of the hunt and most things involved .
he is in the process of getting his own channel up and running on the net .

and films us off and on during our hunt him, every opportunity is pounced on .and he does in a fashion that most of the time you aren't aware of it happening .
it also doesn't take precedence over the hunt ....
if it can be filmed when opportunity knocks ,well and good .so be it if it cant ........
he would've got some good footage of Mathew and myself taking the piss out of each other at every opportunity .
it started cooling off around 10 pm , crystal clear ,star filled sky ,and not a breath of wind , we are in for a frost in the morning ,clark predicts, thats gotta be good .
as we are getting our gear sorted for in the morning ,l find a cant locate my little video handy camera.
Mathew just loves it when l leave stuff behind ,and has to tell everyone when ever he can ,how l left this in Canada , or that on the plane , or l walked of and left something on a fallen tree .
and this is just another feather in his cap .
get our kit sorted and go punch some zzzzzzzzzs
20 to 5 we are up and getting the fire started for some mcghie porridge ,and set about getting a plan together as its foggy as hell.just as its starting to get light enough to see ,clark leads us off to glass some tops from up high above the fog ,he explains that in a couple of hours the fog will get sucked up high then burn off quickly.
hoping to find a stag as he comes up from down the flats to bed for the day .
once again there are many red deer ,spotted .5x5 stag here with hinds and a couple of 6x6 there fedding ,lots of younger stags ,and heaps of hinds .(clark notes that the stags are usually well away form the hinds by now as their rut finish a month ago )
when ever we get a glimpse of something ,out come clarks spotter ,scope for verifercation .we see no rusa , up until the fog starts to lift so we jump in the ute , and go down on the flat to start glassing up .
2 hours later still no rusa .so clark sees if we are up for a walk.
we leg it straight up to the back bone (ridge), and all four of us start to slow and steady stalk ,just under the skyline , for 3 quarters of an hour or so .then stop for some water , its now pretty warm and the fog has all but burned off. we enjoy some of judys camp oven ,Anzac bikkies and an orange , then start off again glassing all the way ..
soon after , Clarke sees some young rusa stags ,still out feeding just below the ridge .
they keep eating the air ,and clark points out they are getting a whiff oh the hinds , definitely the very beginnings of rut activity .its pretty warm here now and they young fellas bed down .
we work our way down under them and then come back up , when clark says , theres one there .
so we hit the deck and start summing him up he , is about 700 metres further along this very ridge ,and looks plenty good as he dozes on and off and twists his head every so often .
clark judges him at 32 inches and reasonably wide ,does some maths and guess him at 200 to 205 ds. not quite what Mathew is looking for .
matt asks if im interested .
looking him over again in the spotter , I cant see a brow tine on the starboard side , so im not committing just yet.
after he drops off to sleep again for 6 or 7 minutes ,he wakes up and stands ,he definitely has a right brow I say as he puts his head down and eats some grass ,before turning around and eating some air .with his ass to us ,once he puts his head back up and get a squiz at how wide he is from the back .
I'm sold ,if you don't want him matt, I will definitely go in and have a closer look at him .
with in 2o minutes we are all seeing red deer heading down out of the steep hills for the night .but no rusa
 

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matt said he would look for one of the giants over the next couple of days ,
we get int0 250 metres and slide our way up to top again and start really checking this guy out, the first thing l notice is that he definitely hasn't gotten any smaller ,as we have closed the gap .
and that his right brow is a bit smaller than the left .
clark says that if we want to back out we can drop straight down from here and come up further along , but I said nah mate ,
his plenty good enough for me .
lll shoot from here if you want .
Clarke said we can get closer than this with out any problems .so I ditched the pack thinking that matt and judy will stay here while we go in ,but that was wrong .....
we get into about 110 or so metres .
and watch this cracker rusa stag dozing on off in that way all deer do .
filming and taking the odd photos, matt is using my newly aquired sonyHX 50 V and said that if l want he will video the rest of this stalk with it .seeing as how your video cam, is on its way to the cape ,ha ha ha .
We are watching him and taking in this , usually I would ve topped him right there where he is laying with a neck shot .
clark says there no rush he hasn't a clue we are here ,the breeze is just perfect , let just wait till he stands up and take a heart/ lung shot , and video the whole thing so you can watch it over and over again .
them morals ,make ya sit back and think ,why not hey?
and im glad we did , we sat I dont know , 20 minutes or so .
the anticipatation building and the left index finger getting itchy.
clark whispering .things about the rusa and their arrival into Australia 100 odd years ago ,to their release as the venison industry , in Australia became flooded , the velvet market ,aswell as the meat .soon became an unviable industry .which inturn lead to the release of these great game animals in queensland .red deer , rusa deer and chital deer,have abounded up here and are nearly found all the way up to cairns now
,the cameras in judys and the Tasmanian s hands purring away catching this climatic moment .
the angle he is laying to us it going to be a steep quartering away shot ,if theres time I will see if I can get a better shot .
after what seemed a long long time he stood up and as l put the cross hairs on him and squeezed ever so gently , the 300 rum roared .
the shot was just behing the last rib ,(green lung ,as clark called it .)
he gave a sharp jump , and l instantly thought , he absorbed that well ......
and ran 5 or 7 steps and pulled up .coughing large amounts of blood and lung .
I went to give him another one as l didn't want him heading down the steep side ,but clark pulled me up ,with a , he don't need another one ,bluey .
we watched him expire over the next 40 second and then sent choccy in to make sure he was out of the game , mainly as a practice run and for an easy treat .
clark and his border collie ,have an absolute wonderfull understanding of each others nature and with the slightest hand movement or look clark can get choccy to do some real cool stuff , in the field .
these 2 are definitely a team .......

we go up and and have a look at this magnificent rusa stag , and weren't disappointed .
he was bigger in the body than I thought a rusa would be and the antlers were bigger all round than we all thought .
he went 33 plus long on both sides
30 wide .9.5 coronets . and of course his right side is his weak side ,
ckarke aged him at 9 1/2 years young .
and around 180-190 kilos on the hoof.
we set him up for photos and clark and judy done several skits of video for their show.
then clark did a second to none ,job caping him out .for me .
then we busted him up for the hike out .
Mathew was definitely proving a point by carrying both back legs out slung over his shoulders with a good stick between .
l carried the head and cape , backstraps ,and eye fillets plus matts pack and my riffle and my pack .
we was both gasping when we got all the way back down to the hilux..
then l remembered my binos were slung on the fence . much to the 2 heads ,delight . and started heading way back up there . when judy and clark came down with the front legs and all their kit and my burris binos around the judes neck .

no sooner had we got to the ute , when the cow cockie ,came barrelling along on the ag bike to see what we got .apparently he checks out every shot , when theres hunters in camp, loves seeing the trophies ,
he didn't reconise this ole boy , and claims he hasn't seen him before .
we head back up to humpy, to hang the meat and Clarke face capes my new best friend ,then l salted the lips ,ears and eyes first , then a good coat of salt over the rest of the cape to draw out the moisture .
once this was done clark grabbed the tape and give his sticks a green score of 216 d.s. not that l cared much about the final number , but its great to see that clark under estimated him by a healthy margin .
cup of coffee and a sandwich and we head off to find Mathew his giant , for a late arvo hunt .
to no avail , we came back into camp late that evening jude as always had cooked up a storm ,with out a doubt she is the queen of camp oven cuisine.
few warm beers ,then l resalted the cape ,a quick bucket shower , and straight into the fart sack .


twenty to five ,Mathew is up stirring the coals into life ,for another serve of mc ghie porridge .
theres a fair dinkum frost on the ground here this morning ,and a thick fog ,so at dawn we pile into the ute and head down to the front of the property, to have a look see in the niegbors place ,where the hinds were on our arrival .
we leave the ute at the cockies place and hoof it along the flat staying in the creek bed .trying not to stir the livestock ,these brahmalieghs (brahmman ,shariliegh cross, beefers) are sticky beaks and try following you once you arouse their interests..
we get into the north eastern corner of the property ,as the sun is rising ,and quickly burning the fog up ,we get into the high ground .
its a weird feeling being in the pea soup thick fog watching theheat, suck it straight up the side of the hills ..
all the while trying to glass the flats below ,us and the surrounding properties .
while we were hunting this area the cockie was riding his boundry checking the fences .today ,and would let us know if he spotted a gaint .
we glassed all morning and only seen young stags and hinds , the youngens were fairly all jarred up trying to get look in with the ladies , but the girls weren't ready yet .
then we walked the ridges the 5 kms back to the hut in the early afternoon .
the only decent antler we saw this day was a good castie that Clarke found in some of the steepest country on this property .that and 2 big reds hiding out in the black boy ferns .
early on that evening the cockie ,rode up to camp and said over a couple of room tempreture cans ,that today while riding the boundary ,he seen nada, zilch , naught ,zero .rusa stags .
but this evening in the neighbors ,he seen a big one jump the fence in his place , and head for the hinds ,so they must becoming receptive .
he said this fella was a big one .
which chirped Mathew up.
next morning we are up early and fed full of mcghie porridge , its a great way to start these cold morning off , warms you on the inside .
and were off again the same way we went in yesterday morning .
as the sun rises the light fog this morning burns off quickly , and really starts to warm up early . .
glassing away much earlier than the last 2 mornings .there he is says Mathew right over there ,on his way up into the hills .
sadly right over there ,was not in clarkes jurristiction.......
but my oh my ,he is a dandy , with out setting up the spotter ,he will go 35 and lots wider than blueys stag .
shit hot, how are we gunna get him ? we said in stereo .
well, we wont be doing it this morning , this evening we will be back here waiting an hour before dark .
we sat there wachting the girls ,fend off the advances of the little stags. for a while .
then Clarke says , if we go back to the house and cross the paddock to the right and climb up there we may see him or some of the other stags that live here ,they have to be somewhere ,we havnt seen bugger all yet , it will be a bit of a hike ,if your up for it ....
were up and at it .4 seconds later .
at the ute we dumped the warm stuff and topped up the bladders , grabbed a couple of extra bits of fruit . and set off at a brisk walk .
hell walk in the heat ,once we get up on the ridge ,we get into sneak mode ,and only go 15 minutes ,before we come across a dozen hinds all milling about on the ridge ,we go to ground ,and watch ,waiting for a stag to appear.
didn't happen and hinds go over the top and bed on the shady side , we still watch and wait ,for quite some time glassing anything and every thing .
at the far edge of this property we sit and glass down into the neighboring properties.right down on the flat in the neighbors crop paddock , we count 70 odd hinds and 7 or 8 stags .they are a ways off but with out a doubt there is a couple of stags in the calibre Mathew is looking for.
and all we can do is watch and wait it out ,until late arvo and see where they head ,
not sure they will head anywhere , all the feed is right here ,
we glass all round to see if the big fella from this morning was bedded up anywhere.
we settled in and all had a nanny nap ,for awhile .
mid afternoon the deer are all laying around in the crop paddock. they aint going no where , today .
we head back the way we come and stop in to check the hinds on the ridge to see if big daddy is with the girls . .
the wind is swirling a bit now as the thermals start being drawn down the sides to the low ground .about 2 minutes later the hinds get our scent and depart the area .
we step it up to get back in place to glass the area where the big fella was this morning .
and stay there till its too late and dark to see.
the last day we wake at 5 ish and get a serioud plan today we will leg it from camp as soon as its light enough to see , ans run the ridges to end up where the big one was seen yesterday morning .if that fails will will drive around the other side of this huge property and stalk bact to the house , its warm already this morning , and by 7.30 we see three good stags ,but not good enough for Mathew , high expectations.
these guys were around the 200 mark .
we get in the ute and start towards the long end . Mathew says if we see something around the 220 we will go for it .
9am we top up the water and fill our packs with fruit and bikkies . start busten some bush .at 1.30 we have covered lots of area and are at a point where we go look at the neighbours crop paddock and watch and hope .
or back to the front and wait and hope .to the front we march .on the way past the house clark gets a call from judy saying that shes watching a decent stag on top out near where we are going .so we go up around the house to the nearest spur and grunt it up some steep country to the back bone ,and speed stalk it down to get a vantage look above where judy is watching .
theres 2 stags here bedded in the lantana one is 32 or better , and theres two young stags out in the flat feeding .
Clarke says this is the start of the rut , this should've been going on a week ago.but for the heat .
we slid down above the 2 better stags and then loose them in the lantana, so wait and glass waiting ,waiting ,for some antler movement or maybe see one move .
we keep sliding down ,and glassing .
two wallabies are feeding towards one another ,and once they are with in a metre of each other ,decide to duke it out .
pretty comical to watch ..its 1530 now and the thermals are starting suck down to ground lavel .
the 2 bedded up rusa stags have to be getting our scent .as we cant be anymore than 80 metres above them .
we decide to move around the top of them to see if we can em movin. .as soon as we step down they break , they had to watching us through the lantana,they couldn t of waited for a better time to bolt .
we run back the way they went ,but they are way out in front and don't look back .
so we replan ,we can go over and glass the the front and hope like mad , or quit ,now ,with an hour and 20 minutes of good light left.
so get our asses over to where we can see whats going on in the neighbours ,as soon as we get there ,we see 4 young stags geatly alert and prancing around right on the fence line ,
then there he is , the one , big daddy ......
about 1200 metres away and just stepped out of a gully /drainage run off .
we have about 40 minutes left ,before this hunt is done .
we hoof it down to the flat loosing sight of the deer ,all the way till get over the creek and across the track . we get there as the light is just starting to think about going .
sprint crawl sneak all at the same time , hey theres another castie I think and pick it up .
light is goin fast and all the deer are over the fence now and the big one is wallowing in the dam and 2 of the little guys a laying on the dam bank between us and Mathews , stag .
we stop and watch and hey theres another castie .
that's 2 in five minutes .
clark is filming this sad ending as the light keeps going ,whispering to the camera ,how we got to with 150 yard at last light on the last day of this awesome four day hunt . and the stag we are after is 50 metres on the wrong side of the fence ,with 2 young stags on the look out while he has himself a mud bath ,unaware that death is waiting for him to jump back over this side of the fence .
and as the last possible bit of shooting light is sapped from the sky . we watch him walk off with his 4 minions in tow , in the opposite direction .
as we sit in a comfortable silence , for a few minutes ,and each of us are thinking what could've been .
we start back toward the track and then up towards the farm house , when we see the hilux coming out to greet us ,
we climb in and then clark laughs and says , you and them bloody casties , bluey .
and we all crack up ..............................
back at camp we have a couple of warm beers ,and knock most to the salt off my cape , roll him up and put it in the pillow case. hang it up off a rafter ,for the night .
in the morning l will wrapit up good and tight in glad wrap for the plane ride home .we start packing up our gear and locking all the knives up and accounting for the ammo .so theres no surprises at the airport .lock the ammo box and padlock the plano hardcase for the gun .
have a great feed from her excellency and her camp oven ,have a bucket shower , and then the job ive been dreading since the first night ,splitting the skull cap so it fits in my duffle bag for the ride home .Mathew goes and does the sawing as he sees l don't want to .
this adventure, first of up north with my dad and brother , two of the best mates a bloke could be lucky enough to have , aswell as a new one in headley who is well known to both my dad and Mathew .
followed by this fantastic experience hunting rusa deer in the Brisbane valley with clark and judy , whom although ive only known for 4 days , already know they are the salt of the earth .and will be hunting with them again in the near future ,
anyone wanting an honest good ethical hunt for rusa deer , chital deer (clark has some acssess to maybe the best herds on private property in queensland )
will be wanting his number and email address


CLARK MCGHIE
AUSTRALIAN WILD COUNTRY ADVENTURES
clarkmcghie@bigpond.com
phone; : +61 0429688192

soon at ; www.mcghieswildcountryadventures.com
 

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