Australia, my bit of hunting

[treeman]

I was recently fortunate enough to be able to go see my lil brother in Australia, he was 23 when he left and I have not seen him since, he is now 50 years old. It hurt much to have waved good bye to a young boy and next wave was a old man greeting me.
I had heard that he hunts a bit ( we have spoken thrice in 25 years) and hoped that he would offer a little hunt or shoot. The trip airport to his place was 5 hrs and by arrival we had become 25 and 23 again, never apart.
Turns out he is a almost every day hunter. Here is our story for two weeks.

[treeman]

My brother lives in Bairnsdale on the edge of the developed parts of Ausi land, he has about 70 hectors of land that borders on the backlands or woods in a very hilly country. The private land is interspersed with state land and then just 4/500 km of state land and nothing man made. You need a permit to hunt and a licence for a rifle, thats about it. One thing I did not like about the Ausi folk (also the only thing I did dislike) is that it seems most of them consider almost every animal a pest.The parrots eat you house wood work and screech incessantly, the Wombats destroy the roads fences dams, the Roos compete one on one for grazing. The deer - well they pretty much vermin like the fox and the rabbit, so no quota or save our deer happening there.
The first 3 days we did the most common hunting method used, the find a farm field and set up on a good vantage point along a chosen strip of land that borders the great back lands. Each day a hour before and after sunrise sunset the deer venture from the thick stuff too the open lands where they walk all night before seeking the safety of the wooded back lands during the day.We saw many deer but only km,s away, Roos and wombats and wallaby's by the dozen, but I had no interest in killing them, they not my pests.
Day 4 we stalked along the same land/ woodlands edges but moving this time not sitting waiting - day 5 the same, got this Chocolate Fallow Deer Stag last moments of can see end of day.

[treeman]

Day 6 and seven were spent early and late walking the most killing hills I could imagine, there is no rest, hill - down hill - hill - up hill and the time between the 09h00 and the 16h00 hunt spent with family in towns and tourist places - death by exhaustion was a ever present threat . Hunting between Blue Gums and Wattle was different experience in every way. Here in RSA Wattle and Gums are invader plants and where they have invaded is usually very dead areas, no other plants and limited animal life in the invader forests. In Aus the home of the Gum and Wattle it was very different, unusual ants and beetles birds and sounds - I was in a world of fascination marred only by the aching legs and out of breath gasping for breath state I seemed to find myself perpetually. Day 8 found us 180 km from home on a dairy farm where the farmer met us and reminded us to please shoot the Roo's and deer, " as many as you can, pleeeze". One of my fears was that my brother would see and point out "my animal" , this would be a great disappointment for me. How ever this was not to be, by day 5 already I noticed my Ausi bush eyes starting to come into being and at least seeing some animals before they were pointed out. We had just crested another *&&^^ kin hill when I noticed a dark spot on a faaaaar hill - another hill after a hill after a another hill. It was a darkish smudge that my Warthog eyes said "not part of land" and I glassed it - deer, stag, my own stag. At this stage I could not tell if it was Red Deer, ( my life long admire Stag) or Sambar or Chittal, it was far away. We either had to climb over hill away and come around, a task i did not wish to do again, or stay on sunside of hill and be careful. Every hollow was filled with anxiety that he would not be there on his hill when we got to higher ground again and every higher ground part was the fear of being spotted. These Aussi deer are very skittish and the locals say you will never see a Sambar that is not already looking at you.
We eventually got to the closest edge of the woodlands on to a hill of pure grass and the Stag was gone, the disappointment was huge and I made it known I was done, no more hunting - I was beyond tired and still wanted to see Australia other than hunting.We tried.
I did a last look and said I just wanted to try a different angle of view, why I do not know, it was just a clean green field of grass like a giant half green orange, no where to hide. Twenty minutes back the way we came and back to edge, glass field and there my stag is. How ?? dunno?? magic I guess. Ranged stag at 323 m and no where further to stalk. I took the shot and Stag fell to a quartering frontal shot from bottom of hill to top. 180 gr Hornady bullet entered front of left shoulder very low just above brisket and traveled over heart and stopped in spine dropping the Stag on spot. I have never seen this before, but the Stag rolled like a 150 m down the hill only stopping because a leg went into a wombat hole. The climb to the Stag was appalling &%$%$ing have not worked that hard since army, the ground was wet and it was one step forward three quarter step slide back. Pulled stag loose and it slid freely all the way to where we shot it from, right to our back packs. i asked for a Evac but brother said there was no cell coverage - "sorry boet".
It was a old Sambar stag which in later discussions was said to be in regression(?) past its prime and its antlers were declining in size. 250 kg abouts and 26 inch antlers. As is the way in Ausi land the hind legs were cut out and the back straps and eye fillets, we loaded up and carried them out about a million km sharing the head between us. Those hind legs are heavy enough that getting it on your shoulder is a big thing, a really big thing. None of the hunters in area had ever shot a Sambar out in the open on top of a hill, just unheard of.

[Gert Odendaal]

Thank you Treeman, great report and great photos , it is much appreciated...

[treeman]

Photo bucket will not allow me to type after posting pic - hence the individual posts.
The Sambar are huge - really huge, much bigger than our east cape average hunt kudo. The bodies are just shy of 210 liter drums, and the thighs are huge - I am reluctant to say big as a horse, but some pony's definitely.
It was well into night when we got home and my boy had been promised a fox hunt - nothing to it - say what you mean and do what you say, off we went. I almost laughed when we got to fox area, I was given a torch to go hunt jakkels se broer, like je', this is gonna work real well - a torch. Well I made such a fuss when this thing was put on that they bought me one as a parting gift, a OLight something, moer it shines, far and strong. I really raved bout that torch.
The state pays you 10 dollars for each fox you shoot and a 100 dollars for each feral dog ( not a dingo - just a feral dog). This was my boys hunt and I passed up a few shots so as for him to get the first fox. 20 mins later we were onto eyes and he laid up on a hill and took a shot hill to hill 200/220 m, got his fox. The fox made me sad, it was really beautiful, a lovely hated animal. Our Jackal smell strong, but these male fox's - wow, the are something else. Cody dragged it about .5 km back to bakkie and only touched itwith hands as much as needed to drag it, yet he was a unbearable presence in vehicle, even with windows open at like 3 deg cel we were still giggling, it stinks yeeeeooog !. Here is a pic of a rare piece of flat ground

[pblaauw]

Nice animal treeman, such a privilege!

[treeman]

Its a pity the photo's do not show how big it is, I really thought Sambar were like big impala, perhaps a bit bigger. Told my brother I would use 223, he said not - I explained I had shot many kudu with a 223 - he said not. I now believe even a head shot could be sketchy with a 223 - it is big, my brother and I could make it move when trying to drag it, but we could not move it any where - it is heavy - very much so.
In the area he lives in he goes most days after work and does 2 hrs or so hunting, mostly fox and dog now, he said he started feeling bad about shooting the deer and mostly just leaving them after removing "rugstring". The meat from the Sambar is really hard and dry, tried it as minute steak and mince, its really a no go, makes passable biltong, comparable to W/Beest/ Blesbuck - only using the back straps though.
The one comparison that kept coming to mind - This is like Africa was 70 years ago, so much of some things that they had no value - like those pesky trek springbok that ate the lands bare, like those blesbuck that competed with the live stock, just too many to be appreciated. Its a beautiful country with very much and plenty of space and creature delights - birds, insects and reptiles, a lover of lifes delights - Darwins delight and a childs mystery abounds, ant heaps as big as a child (not termites) - rabbits and Wombats in back yard with possums in trees in front yard and fresh water crayfish in stream its really a amaze your mind country.

[Spliffcat]

Enjoyed the read. Thanks Treeman.

[dbndude]

Enjoyed your write up!

[Luker]

Thanks Dave !!