Tim Blackwell
AH fanatic
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2011
- Messages
- 884
- Reaction score
- 2,829
- Location
- South Australia
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- Media
- 336
- Member of
- Australian Deer Association, Australian Association of Wildlife Artists
- Hunted
- Australia, New Zealand, Namibia, South Africa
I'm recently home after a fantastic week's backpack hunting Sambar in the Victorian high country. This is public land wilderness hunting. Vehicle access is allowed over summer, so we stash a bit of the heavier camping gear in the bush
then hunt during winter when its foot access only. Its a 10 hour drive from home, so it's a fair undertaking! This year, I managed to take my first trophy stag, 16 years after I shot my first ever sambar.
It was the evening of day 2, and after picking him up in the binos thrashing a bush at quite a distance, we closed in but initially lost him. After a bit of a search we found him strutting across a small clearing, in full rut mode with his hind. I managed to snap a kneeling shot at 120 metres with my Ruger .350 Rem Mag, he hunched up as the 225gn Woodleigh hit home, but bolted for the thick crap. I chased in after him, but reached the river before I found him. Circling around, I found him at less than 10 metres in the thickets, where I could finish him off. He then made it another 50m and died by a fallen tree, only metres from the river.
As the light failed we managed a few average phone pics before caping under head torch. With my mate Roger, we had a gruelling 3 hour carry out through a thick coprosma and blackberry choked swamp, getting turned around a couple of times in the dark. All worth it for this nice stag, he ended up going 28 3/4" x 27 1/2" x 30 1/4 wide.
We finished with a marathon 16km hike out back to the vehicle up top a couple of days later, to round out about 70km on foot, mostly under load in tough country. A few months at the gym beforehand certainly helped! A fantastic experience, and a hard-earned trophy that I'll always remember!
Here's a few pics. Cheers!
then hunt during winter when its foot access only. Its a 10 hour drive from home, so it's a fair undertaking! This year, I managed to take my first trophy stag, 16 years after I shot my first ever sambar.
It was the evening of day 2, and after picking him up in the binos thrashing a bush at quite a distance, we closed in but initially lost him. After a bit of a search we found him strutting across a small clearing, in full rut mode with his hind. I managed to snap a kneeling shot at 120 metres with my Ruger .350 Rem Mag, he hunched up as the 225gn Woodleigh hit home, but bolted for the thick crap. I chased in after him, but reached the river before I found him. Circling around, I found him at less than 10 metres in the thickets, where I could finish him off. He then made it another 50m and died by a fallen tree, only metres from the river.
As the light failed we managed a few average phone pics before caping under head torch. With my mate Roger, we had a gruelling 3 hour carry out through a thick coprosma and blackberry choked swamp, getting turned around a couple of times in the dark. All worth it for this nice stag, he ended up going 28 3/4" x 27 1/2" x 30 1/4 wide.
We finished with a marathon 16km hike out back to the vehicle up top a couple of days later, to round out about 70km on foot, mostly under load in tough country. A few months at the gym beforehand certainly helped! A fantastic experience, and a hard-earned trophy that I'll always remember!
Here's a few pics. Cheers!
