MELBOURNE BRANCH HUNT

On Friday night, members marked the map where they would like to hunt the following morning. Much to my surprise, no one had marked my secret spot, so I put Isaac and myself down. As it rained all night, I thought the conditions would be right for a good hunt, as I have always seen multiple deer in this area, including stags.

Not being an early riser, we started our hunt about 7.30am. We quickly climbed up to the ridge line where we immediately saw lots of fresh rub trees, and I mean lots. Nearly every tree between 8 and 10 inches in diameter was rubbed. We were in bright sunshine but soon the clouds lower down lifted and for about half an hour we were in the clouds with visibility down to less than 50m.

We followed the ridge line for a short time, but apart from all the rub trees, there was no other sign. As it had been a dry winter, from previous experience most deer would be staying low for both feed and cover. We started heading down the gully, towards the river and contouring across the gullies. Lower down, deer sign appeared everywhere, from multiple tracks to droppings and browsing. It wasn’t long before we put up a deer, but the thicker vegetation made it hard to see.

Isaac and I were about 50m apart vertically and would take turns advancing along the contour. We had followed at least one deer for several hours and by 12.00pm we were near camp, but on the other side of the river. We had covered about 5.5km and had decided to head back, so we started climbing back up to the ridge line. Isaac made it to the top first while I was about 30m lower. Suddenly, I heard Isaac whisper on the radio, “deer, deer”, and I saw him crouch down and raise his rifle. He was trying to position himself for a shot, but I could not see the deer from my position.

I instinctively had my rifle up (a Model 70 Winchester in .458 Win. Mag.) while both looking at Isaac and towards where he was looking. This went on for about 15 to 20 seconds, when suddenly a sambar stag stepped into my view. Not knowing if Isaac could still see it, I fired, and it dropped on the spot. It had been facing away from me and I place the shot behind its rib cage, so that the bullet would end up in the boiler room.

It wasn’t till we approached the deer from behind that I realised how good a head it had. It was quite even, and I thought the antlers might make 26 inches or so. As I only had shot spikers and hinds in the past, I was going to get this head mounted. The Woodleigh 400-grain, Weldcore PP Soft Nose bullet had certainly done its job. The time of the shot was just before 1.00pm. There was still bark remaining in its antlers from rubbing recently and mud on the lower body and legs from wallowing.

The radio had suddenly come alive. Members back at camp heard the shot nearby and offered help. They were particularly excited when I said I was caping the head for a shoulder mount. Three members from the Central Victoria branch who were with our camp and are new to deer hunting were only a few kilometres away and offered to walk in and help with the carry out. We ended up taking all four legs, back straps, eye fillets and the head and cape. It was a big deer, and it was almost dark by the time we walked the 6km back to their car. Many thanks to the guys from Central Victoria for the help in the carry out. They were well rewarded with much venison.

Back at camp, everyone believed that the head was larger, but no one had a tape measure. That night, after dinner, Mark Fitzmaurice caped out the head for me. That’s after he had cooked dinner for everyone. As they say, there is no rest for the wicked. I had 6kg of salt for the cape but needed more, and Julian Maloney came to the rescue with more salt. Many thanks to all who helped me.

Back at home, I ran the tape over the antlers, and they measured about 30 and 31 inches long and a span of about 30 inches. The only downside is, that Isaac’s been in the foetal position sobbing ever since and not talking to me.

See you at the next branch hunt!

“I saw him crouch down and raise his rifle.”