A few trips and some camera placements out hadn't revealed a whole lot, I'm beginning to suspect that the numbers are just not high enough to really show up over the top of the local sambar population, though I have found a couple of scrapes over the years and had eyeballs on a handful of fallow. The fallow seem to bookend the mountain range I usually hunt, and as I've concentrated on the goats that live in the higher reaches in the middle up until the last few years I've not really spent a lot of time in the rolling gullies creeks that are a little more pleasant to hunt than the steep rocky sides where the goats like to live.
A bit of e-scouting had given me a few ideas of areas to look - nice open glades with either blackberry or grassy bottoms, perfect places to find a feeding fallow in the late afternoon evening. I'd already covered a few of these without finding anything too exciting, so I decided to try one patch that kept catching my eye but I'd never seen in the flesh. The plan was to punch in and out as I was a little early to sit and wait for the dusk, as well as checking out a little forestry dam and then decide on a place to sit depending on the winds and walking motivation.
Reaching the stopping point on the ridge above it, I parked on the forestry road before loading up quickly and sliding down the side of the gully face through the dry and crispy leaf litter. It was a little more open than the goat and sambar country of the steeper ranges, I could glass through to the other side and further on. Further down the gully I could hear some heavy machinery working away, possibly a dozer or digger re-doing some of the forestry roads that are being brushed up before thinning or harvesting that appears to be starting shortly. Through the peppermints I could see an open glade a few hundred meters away, and as I made my way slowly closer I could see it open up to a few acres of clear blackberries with paths meandering throughout the tangle of briars and occasional fallen tree. The opposite face was also clear of understory for the most part and I could glass up the opposite face opposite some way before the trees began to block it out. I had a bit of a poke around, trying to pick a good spot to match the downdraft winds of an evening and decided I would probably be better coming in from the other side at the bottom of the clearing, though it would mean a harder walk in/out. I'd looped around a little on my way in rather than following the tiny trickle of the creek, and as I stepped forward to see if I could find a crossing through the blackberries, a young stag with new antlers jumped to his feet about 30m away on the point of the 2 creeks that joined in the clearing and trotted swiftly up the finger ridge between the creeks. He wasn't completely spooked, but didn't want to hang around so i wasn't able to stop him with a call to get a shot off. Another deer that I wasn't able to see also jumped up and headed up the creek I'd paralleled and vanished, along with a black wallaby that must about have been sleeping with the stag they were that close.
Figuring it was a bust and still too early, I decided to push up the creek and immediately came across a pair of wallows, with mud splattered blackberries on either side showing the paths away. A quick scout for cast antlers brought up nothing, so I pushed on up the creek finding a few crossings and game trails that showed some heavy and active use. Reaching the car, I packed everything away and marked the glade on my phone, I'll be back!!!!
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Swinging briefly past the small dam (no fresh activity), I decided to make my way back a couple of kms to the spot where I saw the dog chasing the wallabies a few months ago and wait out the last couple of hours sitting over a larger side gully feeding the main creek. I've seen a few sambar here as well as fallow further down the same creek so hopefully something would be moving in the late afternoon/evening.
Parking the car at the top of the hill, I punched down the ridge trying to make as little noise as possible the 500m or so to my intended point. When I reached it, I decided sit to slightly further downstream as it would give me a bitter look at anything coming up the creek on the opposite face, so I slid in behind an old fallen and blackened tree trunk which gave me a good rest for a shot for anything coming down/crossing the side gully 70 odd meters in front of me.
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The lightly slowly waned as the sun finally dropped below the horizon and the mosquitos and flies grew more friendly if it was possible. A dark shape that I couldn't remember before was suddenly in my eyeline, and even before I slowly slid my binos up I could see the bat-like ears of a sambar feeding down the opposite gully. Through the binos I could make out a young hind, game on!
If it turned to it's left and kept going down the main creek I would have to reposition slightly and wait for it to clear some branches between us. If it turned uphill I would have a clear shot off the rest. It took a few steps and moved behind the trunk of a gum on the opposite face. I took the opportunity to get into a slightly more comfortable position and slide my earplugs into place. When it didn't reappear after a couple of minutes I began to fear that it had heard me shuffling and taken off, but it popped into view heading uphill, perfect!
Taking a bead in the middle of the shoulder, I took a breath and as I slowly exhaled and relaxed the shot broke. Immediately the hind jumped and staggered off maybe 20 steps before stopping and swaying slightly. Quickly reloading, I could see the nearside leg was useless, so I threw the rifle up again and took a shot through a few wattles in creek bed. I could see clearly through the scope, though there was a slight haze of foliage - not a shot I'd take as first up, but no problem for a follow up.
The hind tipped over, twitched a couple of times and was motionless. Unloading and pocketing the brass, I crossed the creek and got my first close up look. Dragging her to a better position for a photo and some butchering, I decided my first shot had been exactly through the centre of the chest taking out the leg bone on the way through, and my second hadn't been necessary. Still, better safe than sorry!!
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Dropping the bag and rifle, I unpacked and quickly took off the backstraps, the unbroken offside shoulder and one of the back-legs. With a bit of a walkout in the dark I decided in the end to leave the legs on the side of the road about 100m above me and try and get in with the car to pick the bits I'd taken off, and then take off the second back leg. Looking at the map I could see a road just below me that I knew ended up not far from the car high above me on the ridge top. Using the torches I moved back and forth, staring at the screen of my phone and walls of blackberries and wattle trying to make head or tail of what I was seeing. Somehow my direction was a little off, and I was able to eventually able to find the theoretical location of the road, but an impenetrable blackberry tangle faced me. After maybe 15min of trying to find away around/through it I pulled the pin and climbed back to the road, the thought of a fall and twisted leg/broken ankle on my mind. I knew from the map that the road I was on headed vaguely in the direction I wanted to go and another couple of other forestry roads that bordered the bush could be used to get back to the car - longer in km, but easier on the foot and ankles!
After about 30 sweating minutes and a slight shortcut through the pines I was back at the car and quickly drained most of my emergency bottle of water I always leave in the car when hunting for just this purpose. Easing my sore bones back into the car, I checked the map and picked a way through the plantation roads in my 2wd car to get me as close as possible. In the end, I was able to get back to the legs I'd stashed before parking just above the hind. Dropping back in for the last leg, I was pleasantly surprised that the flies had already gone to bed and I didn't see a single on either the carcass or the legs I'd left behind on the road. While doing the first part of the butchery, I'd had a bit of a wake up call just brushing my pointer finger on the razor sharp knife (rather than knife to finger) and ended up with a small cut so I was somewhat more careful in the complete dark. Returning to the car, I thought of the size of the spare fridge and ended up cutting off the hocks before loading the car up and heading for home in the dark for a celebratory beer.
A good way to end what will likely be my last serious hunt for a few months!
