havgunwilltravel
Active member
It was a pretty hectic last couple of days. We had just made it from a family holiday to Indonesia, i had time to unload the kids, unpack the car, immediately repack it with some hunting gear, give everybody a kiss and head north to the mountains. I was pretty bleary eyed from no sleep on the over night plane flight home trying to get the kids to have some rest, but pushed on knowing i had three trail cameras to retrieve.
We have recently had some tremendous rain and i knew with the sun trying to come out it would be ideal to be in the bush. I passed a stag in a paddock near a mob of kangaroos, but he took off before i could get the binoculars on him and soon enough, the 350km drive that took 6 hours (as there was a lot of 4wd terrain to navigate through) was completed.
I wasn't sure whether i would sleep overnight out on the hill, so i took my down jacket thinking if i shot a stag i would just get out of the wind and use that for warmth. It was 2pm when i lifted the heels and commenced the climb out and i was feeling pretty strong from the recent running i had been regularly fitting in. Two hours of solid legwork completed and i found myself sitting on a ledge above the trail cameras, glassing the rear end of a deer feeding on a clearing. He was black and i anxiously waited hoping when i got a look at his front half he would be a mature stag, but when he took a couple of steps he i could see he would need a few more years to develop. I got set up and practised getting a field rest and calculating the turret adjustment with the Nightforce and then glassed some more. Movement above indicated another deer, a stag as well, but again he wasn't old enough. I had no doubt if i stayed here glassing until dark i would see more deer, but i had things to do back in the city and continued down to my TC's. They were still there, which was great, and i took a few minutes to glass over the ledges incase a big old boy was tucked up somewhere, but i kept telling myself the sun was getting lower in the horizon, i had a big climb back out and i really didn't want to have to deal with a stag out here at the moment. So i quickly scrolled through the pics, and began the climb out. I made it about half way back before it was time to put the headlamp on, have a drink, eat some sardines and enjoy the view in the evening light for a couple of minutes. There are few places i'd rather be then up high in remote sambar country and it felt good to be back in the mountains.
The 4wd was eventually reached, i decided to try to make it home and finally after a very long drive i pulled into my street at midnight. It had been over 40 hours since i had any sleep, and i had time to quickly check out a couple of the stags on the computer, shower and get some much needed rest.
With the TC's i thought i would try something different and put two on beds and one on a saddle at an intersection of game trails. The pictures aren't the most exciting in terms of deer behaviour, but it is nice to get deer in different settings. Next week i have mates coming for a hunt and i will get a bit more serious about trying to put one in the crosshairs.
We have recently had some tremendous rain and i knew with the sun trying to come out it would be ideal to be in the bush. I passed a stag in a paddock near a mob of kangaroos, but he took off before i could get the binoculars on him and soon enough, the 350km drive that took 6 hours (as there was a lot of 4wd terrain to navigate through) was completed.
I wasn't sure whether i would sleep overnight out on the hill, so i took my down jacket thinking if i shot a stag i would just get out of the wind and use that for warmth. It was 2pm when i lifted the heels and commenced the climb out and i was feeling pretty strong from the recent running i had been regularly fitting in. Two hours of solid legwork completed and i found myself sitting on a ledge above the trail cameras, glassing the rear end of a deer feeding on a clearing. He was black and i anxiously waited hoping when i got a look at his front half he would be a mature stag, but when he took a couple of steps he i could see he would need a few more years to develop. I got set up and practised getting a field rest and calculating the turret adjustment with the Nightforce and then glassed some more. Movement above indicated another deer, a stag as well, but again he wasn't old enough. I had no doubt if i stayed here glassing until dark i would see more deer, but i had things to do back in the city and continued down to my TC's. They were still there, which was great, and i took a few minutes to glass over the ledges incase a big old boy was tucked up somewhere, but i kept telling myself the sun was getting lower in the horizon, i had a big climb back out and i really didn't want to have to deal with a stag out here at the moment. So i quickly scrolled through the pics, and began the climb out. I made it about half way back before it was time to put the headlamp on, have a drink, eat some sardines and enjoy the view in the evening light for a couple of minutes. There are few places i'd rather be then up high in remote sambar country and it felt good to be back in the mountains.
The 4wd was eventually reached, i decided to try to make it home and finally after a very long drive i pulled into my street at midnight. It had been over 40 hours since i had any sleep, and i had time to quickly check out a couple of the stags on the computer, shower and get some much needed rest.
With the TC's i thought i would try something different and put two on beds and one on a saddle at an intersection of game trails. The pictures aren't the most exciting in terms of deer behaviour, but it is nice to get deer in different settings. Next week i have mates coming for a hunt and i will get a bit more serious about trying to put one in the crosshairs.
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