My Hog Deer Hunt

[bigpete]

Well,I'm going to attempt to do a thread based on my first hog deer hunt.
I'm already behind the 8 ball a bit,I was originally going to leave yesterday morning from Goolwa SA and arrive in Gippsland today around lunchtime ready to hunt first thing tomorrow morning for 2 weeks.
Unfortunately plans have had to change if I want my offsider to come along,so now I'm leaving 1pm this arvo and I need to be back by next Sunday night.
I've got everything as sorted as I can considering I've never hunted them before. Taking my Howa superlite 308 with handloaded 165gn SGKs topped with a leupold vx1 2-7x32. I have a decent quality folding chair backpack and some shooting sticks,and a good quality hammock bought at the advice of a very successful public land hog deer hunter. For once I'll actually be wearing camo including a blaze orange cap. Tags and licenses are in the pack.
Have been told the mosquitoes are insane so have a solar powered bug zapper for camp and 2 tubes of tropical strength Bushman's, as well as an oztent rv4 waiting over there for me to pick up.
Beach fishing rods and tackle are packed ready to go in case we decide to go fishing.
Camera and bird watching equipment is packed.

First day I'm going to try to get to Green Hill Lake campground before dark. Not likely it'll happen though. Already started the day pretty crappy,been crook all night plus the offsider hasn't got her s**t sorted ( clothes for the trip are on the line drying instead of packed,fishing rod has no tackle,food for the week is a bunch of grapes and half a dozen small tins ). So right at this very moment I'm pretty pissed off. But it'll come good once we're moving

[Blr243]

I take forever to get my act together for a hunt Frustrating but we get there in the end. Good luck with the weather

[mchughcb]

Good luck. I'm heading out in 2 weeks. The plan is duck hunt , fox hunt and then 2 days waiting for a hog deer. My pack is always on standby so I'm ready in 30 min.

[deye243]

G'day Pete I don't want exact spot but what part of Gippsland are you heading for.

[Oldbloke]

I take forever to get my act together for a hunt Frustrating but we get there in the end. Good luck with the weather

I even take the kitchen sink, so, takes me about 3 or 4 hours.

Watching with interest.

[bigpete]

Well, arrived at Green Hill lake campground just on dark. Place is packed. Spewing a bit as we passed a few nice quiet spots but was determined to reach this joint.
Deye243 I'll be somewhere around Paradise beach. Don't know exactly till I get there

[bladeracer]

I'm looking forward to following your adventure, Pete!

I did the Hog ballot once when I first moved to Vic. I don't recall the details now but it was something along the lines of successful recipients will be given a date and they go in with four of five other ballot winners? That's not my sort of hunting so I never bothered again. Are they still doing it that way?

Well,I'm going to attempt to do a thread based on my first hog deer hunt.
I'm already behind the 8 ball a bit,I was originally going to leave yesterday morning from Goolwa SA and arrive in Gippsland today around lunchtime ready to hunt first thing tomorrow morning for 2 weeks.
Unfortunately plans have had to change if I want my offsider to come along,so now I'm leaving 1pm this arvo and I need to be back by next Sunday night.
I've got everything as sorted as I can considering I've never hunted them before. Taking my Howa superlite 308 with handloaded 165gn SGKs topped with a leupold vx1 2-7x32. I have a decent quality folding chair backpack and some shooting sticks,and a good quality hammock bought at the advice of a very successful public land hog deer hunter. For once I'll actually be wearing camo including a blaze orange cap. Tags and licenses are in the pack.
Have been told the mosquitoes are insane so have a solar powered bug zapper for camp and 2 tubes of tropical strength Bushman's, as well as an oztent rv4 waiting over there for me to pick up.
Beach fishing rods and tackle are packed ready to go in case we decide to go fishing.
Camera and bird watching equipment is packed.

First day I'm going to try to get to Green Hill Lake campground before dark. Not likely it'll happen though. Already started the day pretty crappy,been crook all night plus the offsider hasn't got her s**t sorted ( clothes for the trip are on the line drying instead of packed,fishing rod has no tackle,food for the week is a bunch of grapes and half a dozen small tins ). So right at this very moment I'm pretty pissed off. But it'll come good once we're moving

[GQshayne]

I take forever to get my act together for a hunt Frustrating but we get there in the end. Good luck with the weather

My best effort was an Easter trip actually.

It had been decided that we (me and my dad) were not going that year, as it was a long way to travel, and the cost too, for only four days. So we were not going. Definately. So about 6.30pm on Thursday night Dad says "Normally we would be all packed and heading off soon".

We left at 8.30pm.

[Flyonline]

Go Pete go!

Best of luck and looking forward to reading the rest - good and bad, it’s all part of the experience.

[bigpete]

Well,finally arrived at my destination. No idea if I've chosen a good spot or not,and I'm pretty tired,only had 15 hours sleep in the last 3 days. But there's plenty of sign,both sambar and hog deer. Looking at getting a fair bit of rain in the next 24 hours so that will be a dampener lol

[mchughcb]

Get ready to get smashed. I gave up stalking this arvo.

[on_one_wheel]

Good luck BP !

Hope ya keeping your powder dry

[bigpete]

Get ready to get smashed. I gave up stalking this arvo.

Pissing with rain your way then ?
I'm not sure if we're going to get heaps here by the forecast, maybe 10mm tops

[bigpete]

Good luck BP !

Hope ya keeping your powder dry

Cheers mate,using my superlite this hunt

[bigpete]

On the road north of the Grampians

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First camp

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Sambar vs hog deer prints

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Hog deer camp

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[bladeracer]

Get ready to get smashed. I gave up stalking this arvo.

Pissing with rain your way then ?
I'm not sure if we're going to get heaps here by the forecast, maybe 10mm tops

I'm ten minutes from Morwell/Traralgon and it's been raining most of the afternoon, not heavy and not cold so pretty nice to be out in it really.

[bigpete]

Get ready to get smashed. I gave up stalking this arvo.

Pissing with rain your way then ?
I'm not sure if we're going to get heaps here by the forecast, maybe 10mm tops

I'm ten minutes from Morwell/Traralgon and it's been raining most of the afternoon, not heavy and not cold so pretty nice to be out in it really.

Bugger me ! Nothing at all here !

[bigpete]

]

On the road near Yarra Junction

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Hog deer prints

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Glassing for deer

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Our camp

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[GQshayne]

Pics look good mate. Hope the huting goes alright.

Now we know how you got your login name too!

[bigpete]

Pics look good mate. Hope the huting goes alright.

Now we know how you got your login name too!

Yeah I'm a solid unit. Unfortunately getting too overweight but pretty darn strong still

[bigpete]

Well,rain has arrived,or should I say light but persistent showers. Very glad of the new oztent RV4 tent I bought a month ago and picked up from my mate yesterday. Not entirely sure if I'll get out this morning,its pretty miserable but well see

[bigpete]

Well I hunted yesterday afternoon for a few hours with no luck whatsoever. Heard a goat though in the thick stuff.
4am this morning I was hit by the sudden call of nature that cannot be ignored,once that was taken care of and the paper burnt I was crawling back in bed and putting my cpap on when we heard a hoggie barking right by camp,obviously alarmed by my activities prior and the scent of smoke. We listened to it move away and finally go quiet.
Was up before the sun,grabbed my stuff and stalked the lake edge. Saw some roos so remembering some advice I carefully stalked in on them,looking intently at the edge of the scrub for deer. Ended up setting my seat up within 100m of the roos just in case a hoggie came out to feed. Was there an hour before the roos hopped off so I headed back and checked the vehicle track into camp. Seen 2 fresh hoof prints and zero else.
Just been over to the eel farm,country there looks a lot better for hunting and I've been told there's loads more deer there. So will probably move camp tomorrow once this godforsaken rain stops.
Currently in at Golden Beach smashing down a serving of loaded chips from the general store,prior to heading back along the muddy tracks back to camp

[bigpete]

Hog deer sign

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Lakes edge

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Waiting

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White lipped snake

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[deye243]

Good read Pete and best of luck .
I'm about 50k east of you and plenty of trees so just about all hoggys are shot from tree stands .

[bigpete]

Yeah, I bought my hammock as a make shift tree stand but I've not found a place to set it up yet. Its all low coastal scrub and big banksias where I am.

[Oldbloke]

Never seen one of those snakes before. Great find

[mchughcb]

That looks like hoggie country alright.

[bigpete]

That looks like hoggie country alright.

Yeah there's plenty of older sign but nothing super fresh

[bigpete]

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Changed tactics this morning due to lack of wind and sat looking over this lovely little Glen from before sunrise till I left. Watched some roos for a while hoping a hoggy might be with them. Unfortunately not,and I didn't realise how close I still was to camp so when the offsider woke up and started moving about the subtle noises did end up spooking them,not full alert but enough that they meandered off into the scrub with no hog deer in tow lol.
Might be moving camp today,a bloke has given me a bit of a hot tip.

[Wm.Traynor]

Good luck with those "hogs" bigpete