AUSTRALIA: Backpack Sambar stag hunt

[Tim Blackwell]

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!

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

Superb Tim. Well done old chap.

 

[Nyati]

Congrats, good trophy and great experience

 

[IvW]

Super!

 

[James Patsis]

Congrats Tim! Epic effort to get a mature Sambar Stag over there. Truly impressive.

 

[Tim Blackwell]

Superb Tim. Well done old chap.

Cheers! I certainly felt old by the time I hiked back up to the helipad on the tops to our vehicle at the end of the week!

 

[Tim Blackwell]

Congrats, good trophy and great experience

Super!

Thanks guys, cheers for reading!

 

[Tim Blackwell]

Congrats Tim! Epic effort to get a mature Sambar Stag over there. Truly impressive.

Thank you mate!
There's a good reason many Aussie hunters regard them as the holy grail! Of all the Australian species, a trophy sambar was the last one I took.

 

[Opposite Pole]

Well earned trophy. Well done mate.

 

[cperso]

Well done Tim

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Fantastic looking country! I don't think elk hunting can top that. I would love to find a place to hunt critters like that way off the grid. Was it hard for you to get a license?

 

[Ragman]

Congrats, such a cool looking deer! Great to see some mud in the treads of your Crocs!!! Lol

 

[gillettehunter]

Very nice. Congrats on getting him.
Bruce

 

[Tim Blackwell]

Thanks everyone

Fantastic looking country! I don't think elk hunting can top that. I would love to find a place to hunt critters like that way off the grid. Was it hard for you to get a license?

It's awesome country for sure and there's millions of acres of it. This particular area of Victoria is called the Alpine National Park. All that's required is a Victorian game hunting permit which is available online for a modest fee. After that it's open slather. No bookings, no tags, no game limits. But it's certainly a challenging hunt when done properly!

 

[Tim Blackwell]

Congrats, such a cool looking deer! Great to see some mud in the treads of your Crocs!!! Lol

There's quite a few river crossings in that country. Sometimes there's a well used fallen log, but at other times crocs help keep your boots dry, especially on frosty mornings!
By the time we'd trudged through the swamp recovering my stag, we were so wet that we just walked straight through the river by camp haha

 

[cpr0312]

What a fantastic adventure! Congrats and thanks for sharing!

 

[Mark R]

Cheers! I certainly felt old by the time I hiked back up to the helipad on the tops to our vehicle at the end of the week!

So bloody well done mate.
That word “helipad” has a certain ring to it

 

[425SCHADE]

Awesome animal, and great looking country. Well done

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

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!

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@Tim Blackwell
The Victorian high country may not be as high as other places but you still know you've been up a few hills and worked for your game.
Beautiful stag mate hard earned.
They aren't a light carry .
The neck cut into rounds two or three inches thick and slow cooked with Guinness and a few herbs if choice makes beautiful meat pies or neck stew with mashed potatoes and peas.

Unfortunately I lost my sambar region when a certain gun writer was invited to help when I couldn't get there and spent the time bad mouthing me to the owner. Don't need people like that in our sport. Then he had the balls to invite others who were friends of mine to hunt the area with him . Fortunately one declined, so he is still a mate. He's the one that told me about it .
Fortunately the owner sold the property so he ended up losing it as well
The 350is a fine sambar round. The last one I shot was with a dare I say a 270 loaded with 130gn ACP before I converted it to my Whelen .
Sorry about the rant. Your story bought back find memories of sambar up until then. No the body is to stuffed to hunt the hills so I concentrate on the farm fringes up north nowadays after fallow.
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Fantastic looking country! I don't think elk hunting can top that. I would love to find a place to hunt critters like that way off the grid. Was it hard for you to get a license?

@Ontario Hunter
In Australia we are fortunate to have a year king deer season in many areas. For public land hunting in Victoria you just need a permit from the DSE (Department of Sustainability and Environment) a patch of public land and go hunt.
Bob