Australia is just one of those lands that nearly everyone dreams about visiting in their lifetime. For those that have had fortunate enough to visit they anxiously await their return trip.
My opportunity to make my journey halfway around the world came in the form of an email last year from my sister announcing that her and her family would be relocating to Melbourne for the next 3 years. Perfect. I now had the excuse I've been waiting for to make this trip.
After discussions(or perhaps my begging?) with my wife and twin daughters, we started the planning process to make the journey from home in south central Pennsylania to Oz in April of 2017. In case you don't know, April "coincidentally" just happens to be peak roar for the free range red stag in Queensland.
When traveling halfway around the world, hours and hours of research was in order to not only nail down travel logistics, passports, travel visas, etc but also more importantly(at least to me) finding a great place to chase stags was in order. More to come later on this journey.............in the meantime here is a teaser landscape picture from a side trip to Tasmania.
(http://i.imgur.com/t2K74FD.jpg)
I killed my first deer with a flintlock muzzleloader in the tuscarora state forest. My family camp is still there off laurel run rd. Wonder how far you are from there.
Bingo, Bango, Bingo I'm all over this. Bring it on.
My dream hunt can't wait to read this
Etter,
If I am correct Laurel Run Road is near Colonel Denning State Park? By air miles I am not far away but as you know the roads are quite winding and no straight stretches anywhere around. My address is East Waterford but I am actually 15 minutes from town over on Rt 35 near the Juniata/Huntingdon Co line. If you ever head back up to your family's camp, by all means get in contact with me. It would roughly a half hour away and we have some pretty nice hunting on our farm. Clay
Back to the adventure.....
I recalled an acquaintance hunting red stag a few years back so after some emails and phone calls he got me some contact info with a fellow he had hunted with in 2012. Communicating with the 14 hour time difference in Australia was not always easy but finally all the connections were made and the trip was scheduled with a 7 day hunt beginning the second week of April.
My brother in law is a beginning hunter, and quite lucky I might add(taking a GA hog and NJ whitetail buck on his first 2 bowhunts), so he jumped at the chance to tag along on this adventure. In addition, a buddy from Georgia and his hunting partner joined in on the hunt plans. 4 guys on 20,000 acres of prime cattle ranch country in the peak of the roar...what could be better?
Finally the time came to make the journey and it was tough to mentally prepare for 22 hours of flight time. My kids were less enthused about the flight than I expected and to make matters worse we missed our first connection. This resulted in us being re-routed to Houston, sleeping on the floor of an airport, a flight to LAX and then a 12 hour layover in Los Angeles. We ultimately arrived in Australia a day late. The Aussie saying "No Worries" must have been coined by folks traveling by plane because what can you do but be patient?
Despite the flight debacle I tell everyone to never skip a chance to go to Australia just because of the flights. The 15 hour leg from LAX to OZ was really much better than I was dreading. Actually jet lag was much better than expected and we hit the ground running to do as much sightseeing as possible before my hunt the following week. Hence the photos from Cradle Mountain Park in Tasmania......make sure you add that to your travel plans. The scenery was unreal.
(http://i.imgur.com/Y9b8Xx5.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/Bmi9dKN.jpg)
At the end of our few days of sightseeing it was time to pack up and fly once again(I had 11 flights in a 2 week period on this adventure). As we flew over the mountains between Melbourne and Brisbane I marveled at the vastness and the rugged landscape. Once we landed we met with our guide to travel an hour and a half to his "man cave" which would be our base camp for this trip. Within the first 5 minutes of meeting Wayne I knew we were going to hit it off with no problem. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard in a week's time as he has to be one of the funniest characters I have ever had the pleasure to meet. As we would find out, the only thing better than his sense of humor was his hunting skills. This guy has "been there done that" and hunted all over the world. His camp was fill of mounts, pictures, artifacts, etc from his various expeditions. Despite being only in his late 40's he has had a few lifetimes worth of hunting experience. Unreal.
Due to some scheduling issues my buddy from Georgia would not be arriving until the next day so my brother-in-law and I settled into camp. After shooting our bows and getting gear ready for our next day's hunt, Wayne asked me if I wanted to ride over to the ranch to pick up the 3 guys that were there on their last day of their hunt. Upon picking up the hunters, we found that 2 out of the 3 had taken stags on that very afternoon. Talk about starting off the hunt on a high note. When we got back to camp there was certainly a buzz of excitement.
Here are some examples of the size of free range stags we are hunting in Australia. The original red deer were given to Queensland as a gift from the queen back in the early 1800's. The original animals were released into the wild about 40 minutes from where we were hunting so the reds in that area are a pure strain of the Scottish Highland strain. They are smaller in body size and smaller antlers than the Hungarian strain that is typically raised in game farms in New Zealand. What the free range stags lack in antler potential they make up for it in their rut intensity and amount of roaring. In fact the night before our hunt I woke up at midnight and could hear a stag roaring within 100 yards of the cabins and right in among a few homes. It roared throughout the night and continued to roar even as we left to head out for our first morning hunt.
If you have never heard a red stag roar I would suggest that you go onto You Tube so you can get the full effect of what this animal vocalizes. It is such an unsual sound (similar to a mixture of an angus bull and a lion) and just as exciting as hearing an elk bugle.
(http://i.imgur.com/H0y8mUF.jpg)
Thanks for posting, I'm really interested in your adventure. I'm planning to go to New Zealand for stag cause I heard I don't need a guide and am wanting a DIY stag hunt.
Can I do a stag hunt in Australia by myself?
I'm from Oregon so I need a visa to go to Australia? How hard and time consuming is that?
Does New Zealand need me to have a visa?
I'm not real familiar with the New Zealand regulations but I have read that you can DIY hunt there. As for Australia, each state is different but Queensland does not permit hunting on their public lands even though red deer are classified as an invasive species. As a result it is a requirement to hunt private land. There might be other states that permit public land hunting but I am not real certain. New South Wales has red deer as well so you might want to check their regs. I believe the Victoria state allows public land hunting. As for a visa it is pretty simple. We were able to get an ETA, which is an electronic travel visa for like $20. It is an on-line process right on the government's site. Not sure on the New Zealand visa but it seems like most countries require something similar.
As we arrived at the hunting property in the dark, before we even closed the truck door a stag roared in the distance. We immediately took off and tracked his location by his frequent roaring. Once we got within a few hundred yards it was apparent he was in a small open meadow. I allowed my brother in law to go after him and I hung back about 80 yards to watch. The 4x4 stag continued to roar and 3 hinds(female red deer) stood at the far end of the meadow staring in our direction. As the stag disappeared from my view I saw my brother in law come to full draw and shoot. It was a miss and the stag started a loud barking sound and began to circle around him to try and catch his wind. Eventually the stag trotted off and continued to bark as he went away from us.
First 30 minutes of the hunt and he already got a shot at a stag! You would think that after 32 years of bowhunting I would know better but I was thinking "this is going to be easy". Later I would learn how wrong I was in that initial assessment.
It was now my turn to be the hunter and we headed a distance along a creek bed to a large open meadow of approximately 50 acres that was unfortunately filled with beef cattle. At the far end of the meadow was a really big roaring stag with 4 hinds. Through our binos he appeared to be a 6x6. As we stood there getting ready to make a stalk another stag begins to roar from the bush as he followed his hind into the same meadow. The original small herd was now on full alert from this other approaching stag plus 2 spike stags entered the scene. This is where the hunting gets tricky. Not only do you have to contend with all of those red deer eyes but now we had to thread between a bunch of cattle as well.
It didn't take long to realize how difficult the cattle make the hunting. Every time you would try to sneak around them they would either come towards you or stampede off in the other direction. The red deer seemed to almost like to feed near the cattle for their protection. You almost had to spend more time trying to plan a route to avoid the cattle more than how to stalk the deer.
As I skirted the cattle I dropped into a large gully which would allow me to remain out of sight of the deer and cover the needed distance. After getting to within 100 yards I peered over the high grasses and realized that the original big stag had taken over the other herd so now he had about a dozen hinds. The defeated stag was now headed away from me and continued to travel a few hundred yards back into the bush. I knew it was going to be tough with the open terrain but I started to crawl to close the distance. The herd was slowly feeding their way to a brushy gully to bed. With the sun warming up this basin the winds began to swirl and we opted to back out to allow the herd to bed with the intention of hunting them either that afternoon or the next morning when the winds were favorable.
With only one morning's worth of hunting in the books I was already on cloud nine with all of the action.
Here is a picture of the creek bottom and pastures where we hunted our first morning.
(http://i.imgur.com/mTe87If.jpg)
Midday the temps were reaching in the lower 80 degree range and somewhat humid. The stags would really shut down by about 9am and then get cranked up again about 3pm. In the middle of the day it was time to rehydrate and sling some arrows around camp.
When we returned to camp at about 11am from our first mornings hunt, the stag that had roared during the middle of the night was now roaring right behind the neighbor's house. After he roared about a dozen times his hinds stepped out into a pasture and he followed them up a hillside. He was a nice 4x5 and after he went out of sight we decided we might as well attempt to pursue him. After climbing the ridge we realized he was in an impenetrable thicket on the back side so we backed out.
Despite the fact that a tropical cyclone had hit this area of Queensland with 6" of rain a week and a half before we arrived, the ground was very dry and leaves were crunchy. It was very difficult to sneak through the thick woods quietly and much of our hunting took place while trying to sneak up on sharp eyed red deer as they were out in the open pastures and broken terrain. It was amazing how much dew they would get every night and then be bone dry within 2 hours after daylight. As a result of the dew you would be soaked from the waist down within the first 100 yards in the morning but then the sun would bake you and have you sweating profusely in no time.
As a result of the humid climate, rather than cotton I wore my quick drying elk hunting clothing for this trip. Lightweight synthetics and merino wool were ideal. In addition, I also wore gaiters and lightweight hikers to keep feet dry but also allow good grip on some of the steep, rocky hillsides.
My buddy from Georgia arrived midday on the first day of my hunt so he gathered his gear in time for us to head out to our first evening's hunt. We decided to hunt the eastern edge of the ranch adn save the spot we hunted earlier for the following morning. My brother in law went with the guide and the rest of us went out on our own in different drainages. I headed up a long, open climb through a large pasture and then planned to ease along a fenceline so I could hear and see on both sides of the ridge.
Here is the fenceline that I took that evening as I hunted the ridgelines on the right side of the valley.
(http://i.imgur.com/hNCUqGn.jpg)
As I crested the top, the scenery to the right was incredible as it overlooked a huge lake. The property bordered the lake and I knew anything within sight would be fair game. I continued to sneak along listening for roars and glassing the various openings for feeding reds.
(http://i.imgur.com/bAlSAKq.jpg)
After about 2 hours of taking in the scenery I came to a high point on the ridge and decided to sit there until dark to see if anything roared or would come out to feed. I hadn't any more than set down my bow and pack when the wind gusts became quite strong. The grasses in the meadow below were roughly chest high and with the swaying in the wind I could see 2 large darks spots against the predominantly green background. My binos revealed a whopper(or cracker as the Aussies say) of a 6x5 and a hind feeding in the high grass.
The winds were strong but fortunately very consistently blowing into my face. Years of elk hunting taught me to look through my binos at the grasses by the stag to make certain the wind was doing the same pattern down the ridge. It was game on time.
I scanned the area below to figure out my path to the stag. Between the heavy brush, lantana bushes, rocks and high grass it was going to take some effort to make a play on this stag....
:campfire:
Great story!!
The stag was roughly 300 yards away when I first spotted him. During wind gusts I would move through any thick spots to keep down my noise. I knew I would need to get down to a gully below and then get to the same level to have any type of a chance at this big guy. It took some time but managed to get to an open path to the bench where the stag and hind were feeding. Once I got there the grass was much more dense and high than anticipated. I climbed up to the edge of the bench but the stag was gone. I assumed a swirling wind had alerted him to my presence.
Since I had quite a distance back to the truck before dark I started back up the path I had made on my initial stalk. As I got part way up the hillside I looked back to where I had just stalked and surprisingly the stag was actually still there! With the high grass and some unknown contours I had been within 50 yards of him and had no idea he was still around. Rookie mistake. I immediately headed back down on the same path and at this point the wind had died down. I had to move painstakingly slow to move quietly through the high, thick grasses.
As I made my way towards him I had to climb up a bank and as I parted the grasses for a look, his massive 6x5 rack swung into view as we saw each other at the same time. He was gone in a flash. This stag would end up being the biggest stag I saw the entire trip and on the very first evening I almost had a shot at him. Anticipation was high for the rest of the hunt. Thrilling hunt so far but during the couple of mile walk back to the truck I was mentally kicking myself for messing up that first stalk by assuming he was gone. These red deer's senses were much sharper than I expected and careless mistakes weren't going to cut it with them.
Here is the actual place where the stalk took place. The stag was in the bright green grassy area near the left side of the picture. While it might not look like it, the grass is really high and could easily hide a 350 lb animal. Add in a lot of hidden rocks and it was a tough place to stalk and especially quietly.
(http://i.imgur.com/iFqaSyf.jpg)
Every evening after our hunt we would head back to the cabin for dinner. Our guide's friends and family would come to visit so normally there were 10-12 folks there every evening. Apparently they wanted to hear the yankees talk? Throw a Georgia boy in the mix and they were wondering if they needed a translator...
It was great to hear all the hunting stories and learn about the Australian culture. I learned more from them in those few evenings than you will learn from any textbook. My take away from our conversations was that the Australian country folks are some of the most down to earth and entertaining people you will ever meet. Period. The people made a great trip even better.
Day two started off with a stag roaring in the dark as I was getting my gear off the back of the truck. I started off in that direction and after about a quarter of a mile walk it was getting daylight enough to glass. Almost instantly I saw 3 hinds that were feeding on a ridge top. Knowing that a stag had roared in tha vicinity I circled around the end of the ridge and began my climb to intercept them. I heard another roar on the adjoining ridge and my binos revealed a separate herd was on the move. No time to go after them with the fact that I had a different stag somewhere right ahead of me. As I approached the top and looked over into the backside of the ridge, I caught sight of the 4x4 and his 3 hinds. Unfortunately the cool morning area had the thermals heading down the hill and I was not going to be able to make a play on these deer. They appeared to be heading to a saddle so I kept in the shadows and worked that direction. As I got to the saddle apparently the deer had taken a different path as I never saw them again.
I continued out the shaded side of the ridge to prevent skylining myself. Every once in awhile I would peek over the backside into the large meadow, which was the same one I had chased the large herd the first morning. Unlike the previous day, the meadow was completed devoid of deer. For the next few hours I eased along glassing and listening.
At about 8:30 I was to the end of the ridge and came to a heavily wooded valley. On this trip I was carrying an elk bugle tube and was roaring with just my own mouth. After the second roar I made a stag fired right back in what sounded like that wooded area. I roared again and he started to get really fired up with the longest, most drawn out roars I heard on the entire trip. As he continued to talk I decided to get aggressive and close the distance. As I started down into the valley I realized he was over on the oppsite grassy hillside just past the woods. I tried to be as quiet as possible and worked by way to the bottom while staying hidden in the brush. There was a gully that I needed to get to so that I could climb up and get on the same level with my quarry. As soon as I stepped out of the brush to start up the gully, apparently the stag had closed the distance on me and was standing there looking at me at about 50 yards. He barked twice, ran 20 yards before stopping again and then headed out of sight. My assumption was that he had heard me descending the hill and wanted to confront this intruder. Unfortunately I had messed up a chance on a good stag that was by himself with no hinds to mess up the hunt.
I proceeded to climb up the ridge and found that he had been busy making rubs and the entire area smelled almost like a rutting elk. There were several beds and some of the best sign I have seen the entire trip. I continued up the steep ridge and spent the oven hot midday hours sitting on a shaded point overlooking a huge valley. This area provided a great spot to glass during the midday and await some evening action.
(http://i.imgur.com/OcsPsSh.jpg)
It was breezy throughout the day and I started to have issues with my contacts drying out. I kept using drops but they kept bothering me. More on this later. By late afternoon I started on my way back towards the truck and when I glassed into a huge meadow there were 12 hinds literally bedded in the middle of a bunch of range cattle. I started to hear a roar and suddenly a big stag enters the meadow with another 5 hinds. They were headed right towards other bedded hinds so I figured my best play was to work around to a saddle and hope they headed there for water. As soon as I got a few hundred yards here comes like 100 head of beef cattle running right towards all of my red deer. Later I learned that the rancher had been fixing fences and spooked the entire herd. I heard another stag roar but he never showed before dark. It had been a good day with 4 stags spotted and 29 hinds.
The other hunters had also seen a lot of deer and overall it was a pretty productive all day hunt.
When we got back to camp I immediately removed my contact to relieve some of the irritation to my eye. Unfortunately removing the contact offered no relief. The eye was now very bloodshot and it was determined that I had gotten something in my eye causing an irritation. I put a mild saltwater solution hoping for some relief by morning. However, the next morning it was worse and I could hardly open it due to the pain and swelling. Half the way around the world on a dream hunt and a dreaded health issue surfaced. To make matters worse it was my right eye and nautrally I am right eye dominant.
I kept awakening throughout the night with my eye swelled shut but kept optimistic it would somehow improve by daylight. No such luck but I still went on a hunt in the morning because sitting around camp was not an option. That morning I saw a stag and 2 hinds within the first 300 yards of the clinmb up a ridge. At one time they were headed right towards me but turned and headed out the sidehill away from my location. I saw a few more hinds and then headed back to the truck by 9am.
It was decided that I would go to the doctor once we got back to town. The local family practitioner was a really nice guy and they took me right in without any delay. The diagnosis was a corneal ulcer on the surface of my eye. A trip to the pharmacist to get eye drops and was told to go rest in a dark place to prevent light sensitivity.
Since I could not hunt I told my brother in law he should go after that big 6x5 that I encountered the first evening. When he came back that evening he was full of stories because the big 6x5 had shown itself again in the same meadow and he almost got a shot at him. The guide Wayne confirmed that he was about as nice of a stag as you will see in that area.
I slept the rest of the day and night but when I awoke to hunt the next morning my eye had worsened. At this point I could not literally see my hand in front of my face. In fact the only thing I could see was my dream hunt slipping by...
That morning I tagged along with my buddy from Georgia as his cameraman. It was a great time as we headed out into some more remote country and were treated to seeing some roaring stags and spotted several hinds. We set up at an awesome mountaintop waterhole and I did some calling. A red deer came into investigate but stayed well above our location.
(http://i.imgur.com/qm579iH.jpg)
We heard roaring down the mountain and took off after him. He was heading down through the valley and we picked up the pace to intercept him. It was easy to keep tabs on him with his roaring but we came to a roadblock in the form of a herd of range cattle. One wrong move and they would take off in his direction. We circled way around the cattle's location but never could get a chance to see him.
(http://i.imgur.com/dGpA12P.jpg)
As you can see this area was much more rugged and mountainous than the previous sections we hunted on the ranch. Certain sections of the ranch reminded you of terrain you might encounter when chasing elk and yet other areas were more gentle like the mountains near my home here in PA.
When we returned to camp I was getting a bit stir crazy not being able to hunt so I decided to see if I could retrain my brain to shoot right handed and left eye dominant. Nothing ventured nothing gained. The first few shots weren't pretty as they typically hit a few feet to the left even at close range. I stuck with it and after quite a few shots I realized that even though I could not see out of my right eye I had to keep it completely closed to make this new shooting system work. By the way, it you have never tried to shoot with our non-dominant eye I suggest you give it a try with a big backstop!
After some initial frustrations I started to adjust and was now shooting well out to 20 yards. It wasn't ideal because it took a lot of extra concentration but it sure beat the alternative of not hunting. I lost about 10 yards of effective shooting range but at this point I was fine with that.
If you have never had a corneal ulcer here is an idea of what it looks like. Yes, it does hurt as much as you think.
(http://i.imgur.com/QfJX1do.jpg)
Speaking of shooting I forgot to mention my red stag set up. A friend that made this journey previously had an issue with customs and his leather selway quiver. They confiscated it as they felt it was rawhide and not acceptable to enter the country. Rather than take my usual Black Canyon recurve with leather grip and Thunderhorn quiver(I would be sick if either the bow or quiver were confiscated) I set up my Morrison Phoenix 15" ILF riser with 55 lb Black Max limbs. With this set up and my 27" draw length I was shooting 53 lbs. Coupled with a Gold Tip Hunter shaft, brass insert and a Grizzly single bevel for a total arrow weight of 540 grains. This set up is virtually identical to my elk rig and with reds being 150 lbs lighter I was comfortable with my set up.
(http://i.imgur.com/MVYq5Uq.jpg)
Glad you got to see some good aussie bush mate...
Thanks Al. Besides seing some good aussie bush, I also got to see a copy of your article in Arrowhead Magazine. Well done. They had a copy in camp and what a quality magazine!
Now that I had figured out the left eye shooting technique we headed out for the evening hunt. Since it had been a few days since I had hunted the valley where I encountered the big 6x5 it was decided to head back there again.
I eased up through the valley and found my way to a vantage point to glass the same spots where I had seen reds on the past hunt. Just as soon as I reached a spot to sit and glass, the first thing I see is a young stag with 2 hinds feeding on that very spot the big guy from the first night. Immediately I belly crawled down to some brush and eased my way to where I could make a move to the hillside that held the stag. I needed to cover about 80 yards of high grass with very little wind to cover my noise.
After easing along every so slowly I used my binos to glass the horizon for movement. Low and behold I caught a glimpse of an antler sticking out from the side of a lantana bush. A split second later the antler was gone so I had gotten lucky and saw him first. Slowly I moved towards his direction and he stepped out from behind the bush to move down the ridge. He was headed right towards me and was 30 yards and closing. It looked like it was coming together perfectly.
As he got to within 25 he was still quartering towards me and then he decided to drop into a gully filled with high grass. He fed very slowly and a few times I actually thought he had somehow disappeared. As I searched for his form in the grass I would hear him crunching through the grass and getting closer. My fingers gripped the string and I was surprisingly relaxed as he stepped out at 20 yards. The upper half of his body was out of the grass so I focused on the sweet spot behind the shoulder and right at the edge of the grass. When I felt my clicker go off I released and watched the arrow go right over his back! He bolted another 20 yards and stood behind a lantana bush to look back and survey what had happened. After a few moments he barked and then walked out onto the hillside at about 35 yards. He continued to look back my direction and then disappeared down over the bank.
Dejected I walked over and surprisingly found my arrow in the thick grass. I had finally gotten my chance and missed.
As I decided to sit down and see if anything else showed, I looked across the valley and there was the big 6x5 chasing a hind on an open hillside. Unfortunately with the wind direction I could do nothing but watch the trophy stag chase hinds and roar.
Here is a picture of the hillside where the big stag was having a field day chasing hinds. He looked bigger and more massive than ever.
(http://i.imgur.com/p0DjVCI.jpg)
Thanks for you kind words Clay, and yeh... ArrowHead magazine is quality alright.
On our travels I actually got to meet Doug, the editor/owner of Arrowhead. Very intense fellow but also very down to earth. Really enjoyed speaking with him. He was showing me pictures from some of his 20 day New Zealand backpack trips. Hardcore hunter for sure.
The next morning I was back chasing stags in an area that I had previously seen a few near a secluded pond. Just at daylight I glassed a lone stag feeding on the hillside about 150 yards away. I immediately dropped into a steep ravine to stay out of sight and try to get to the same level. There were was about a 50 yard section of soaking wet grass that I needed to crawl through to get behind some lantana for cover and that way I could get a look to see where the stag was currently. Midway across that open area I look up and here comes the stag at 125 yards feeding from bush to bush. Previous red deer that I encountered in this area had headed that same direction and then down the gully. Pinned down I could not go anywhere but laid flat on the ground behind a small rock to hide my human outline. Once he got behind a small bush I moved closer to the gully and some cover. Shortly thereafter the stag turns my way and starts down the hill nibbling on a line of randomly spaced lantana....70 yards then 60 then 50....next thing he is behind a lantana bush at 30 yards. Assuming a similar path as he had been taking he would be headed my direction to the lantana where I was hiding. I got my arrow ready and fingers on the string to prepare for the shot. It looked like I was going to get my second chance in 2 consecutive hunts. Just as he cleared the bush to head my way a fickle wind blew on the back of my neck and off he ran up the ridge and into parts unknown. Ugh...so close.
(http://i.imgur.com/dv9Z5iA.jpg)
I shook it off and headed up the drainage where I had heard a stag. As a covered ground I saw 2 hinds on the edge of a meadow, one was feeding and the other was bedded. Hidden by a steep bank and brush was the source of the roars. I dropped down into the creek bank and kept tabs on the 2 hinds. After a few hundred yards I ran out of cover and could do nothing but watch the hinds and stag head to their beds.
The rest of the morning was rather uneventful and by mid morning I headed back to the truck. My hunting partner also had an eventful morning as he encountered over 15 hinds and 3 stags in a small secluded basin. The largest stag had pinned him down and stared at him for an hour and five minutes just daring him to move. The crazy thing was that the stag was over 150 yards away but it was a testament to the senses of these deer. All of us continually remarked about how tough these deer were to hunt and once you got within about 150 yards they were more than likely going to pick you off. My buddy is by far the most successful hunter I know and on DIY hunts has taken some huge elk, cape buffalo, water buffalo, caribou, moose, muleys, blacktail, hogs, whitetails, etc. He said that hands down these red deer were the hardest thing he has hunted. As of the 4th day of his hunt the closest deer he had encountered was over 80 yards away. Unreal.
Since it was the last evening to hunt this ranch before we moved to a different place, I wanted to head back to the spot where I had been having such good luck with close encounters. I made good time moving up the valley to my location and as I turned to start up the ridge decided to take a breather so I was not so sweated up. Just as I glanced up the hill a young stag stepped out of the bush and was pretty oblivious to my location. He was gradually working downhill and as he stepped out from behind a lantana bush I came to full draw. Unfortunately due to the high grass I could not get a shot and he wandered off unscathed.
So close again and I decided to sit tight to see if anything else showed. Within 5 minutes my massive 6x5 that had been taunting me on each hunt in this valley showed up again on the adjacent hillside. He was by himself and not a hind in sight. I instantly took off after him and as I crossed the valley to his side noticed that the wind was heading up the ridge still due to thermals. I made the decision to wait for the thermals to start drawing down the valley before I headed up after him.
(http://i.imgur.com/covJtKo.jpg)
After an hour or so, I caught movement and here comes the 6x5 off the ridge, crossed the valley floor and headed to the area where I encountered him the first evening. It was now getting dark and I was out of time. Since we could hunt one more morning it was decided to head back into this drainage for one last chance at the big guy.
:coffee:
I'm really enjoying your write up mate, can't wait to see how it ends. Not that the outcome on game matters with the great experiences you enjoyed.
I aplaud your choice of outfitters, Waynes a top bloke and an excellent guide and has access to fanastic hunting land. His mancave/ bar/ bunk house is an awesome place to rest up too!
:campfire:
Yes the mancave was an awesome place. I am used to backpack hunting and sleeping on the ground so having a bunk, shower, warm meals with a couple of Great Northerns to wash them down was great. Add in the stories, hanging out with the locals and reliving the days adventures was icing on the cake for this trip and is really a lot of what I will always remember from this trip.
For those of you not familiar with Australian bowhunting or Australia in general, the country itself is huge and is roughly the size of our lower 48 states. Population wise they have only about 25 million spread(some of our individual states have populations this large) over a huge landmass. Of the population, the vast majority reside along the coastal areas in some of the large, modern cities. As a result there are some truly wild spaces and I didn't even get to touch the surface of what remoteness is there. It is truly one of the last great frontiers on this planet. Hunting and bowhunting in general is not as popular as here in the US but I can assure you the ones that bowhunt are very serious. It is estimated that they have only 20,000 bowhunters in the entire country whereas my home state of PA has 300,000 alone! With virtually no seasons, no bag limits and most of the game species being considered invasive by their government the hunting opportunities are endless. As a result, some bowhunters will hunt more in one year than those of us in the states will hunt in a decade or in some cases a lifetime. Some of the stories I heard were about charging water buffalo, overly aggressive scrub bulls, close contact with big toothy boars and encounters with deadly king brown snakes and saltwater crocs were incredible. In addition to all of the stories, our host has spent his lifetime videoing hunts and taking still photography so we were treated to experiencing some of Australia as taken through his camera lenses.
Speaking of some of the hazards of the bush, as soon as folks from back home would hear I was heading to Australia the first comment would be "You know they have a bunch of poisonous stuff over there that will kill you". True. Some of the most deadly snakes in the world live in Australia plus lots of poisonous scorpions, spiders,cane toads, etc. When you are wading through chest high grasses it is on your mind a bit but I actually never saw a snake on the entire trip except for a single king brown that was crossing the road as we traveled back to camp one evening. While these poisonous critters demand respect I quickly learned that you can't spend the entire time worried about them.
Sounds like an amazing trip, thanks for bringing us along! Really enjoying this :thumbsup:
:campfire: :coffee:
Glad to hear you are enjoying. Sorry about the delays but unfortunately work really messes up my story telling schedule.
I had one more chance to hunt the valley that had been so productive and this was actually the only time I had hunted it in the morning. As daylight broke I slipped up the valley and hadn't gone far when I caught a glimpse of a stag slipping through some brush. He got out of there before I got a good look so I slowed my pace. Within about 100 yards I entered two hinds feeding in a small meadow. I tucked in behind some brush to see if any stags were around because the night before I had been a young stag in this meadow as I was walking out right at dark. After a few minutes the hinds fed back into the bush and shortly thereafter I stag roared up the valley. The roar just so happened to be in my favorite spot. Pretty neat to hunt a spot and see/hear a stag there each time. As I continued to move into position I glassed the stag in the exact same place as the 6x5 and the stag that I had missed a few days back. I took the familiar path and continued into position to make a play on the stag. He was pre-occupied with eating but since it was still pretty calm out I needed to move slowly. Actually too slowly in this case because after crawling and wading through 200 yards of high grass the stag had given me the slip. I sat in that spot and absorbed the surroundings as this would be the final chance to return to this spot.
(http://i.imgur.com/b9apPg8.jpg)
I decided to travel a bit further up a narrowing valley on a small cattle trail surrounded by high grass. After a few hundred yards I heard something in the grass nearby and caught a glimpse of 7 red deer hinds starting up a steep section of the ridge and into the bush. After they disappeared I continued to explore further and by mid morning decided to head back to the truck as we had to head back to camp to pack to move to another ranch.
I had spent 6 days on this incredible place and leaving was kind of bittersweet. This place had exceeded my expectations but the ranch we were relocating to was the one we were to hunt originally. A tropical cyclone that devastated much of northern Queensland right before we arrived had dumped excessive rains making the access impossible to this ranch. It had now dried out and since the property had yet to be hunted this year I anxiously agreed to relocate.
While two of my partners had 5 more days to hunt, the next day would be my last day of hunting as I had to head back to Melbourne and then fly back to the States. My brother in law and I would leave at the end of the next day, but my other two hunting partners would have this new ranch to themselves and 4 days to roam over nearly 20,000 acres. Saying I was jealous was an understatement. 5 more days would have been huge after all I had learned this week.
Before I wrap up with the tales from the final day of hunting, here are some other pictures of the first ranch that I did not previously post. Enjoy.
(http://i.imgur.com/ECAW1zt.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/SzKOMCT.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/ZHXzCjM.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/wJC4mH1.jpg)
amazing trip! thanks for sharing it
A splendid and most fulfilling adventure.
I'm glad you are all enjoying the stories. Even though it has been barely over a month ago, putting the adventure in writing has brought back some great memories.
On this last day, the ranch we would be hunting was to feature more gentle terrain with staggering sheer numbers of reds, along with hogs, hares and a variety of native game such as wallabies, dingoes, etc. I was anxious to see how the hunting would compare to the stories we had been told.
With this part of Australia being 14 hours ahead in time of my home, I was really surprised at how well I adjusted. For the entire 2 weeks I spent downunder I rarely slept more than 5-6 hours per night but never felt exhausted. Every morning I was wide awake at 4am and ready to roll. On this last morning of the trip I woke up even earlier, making certain I didn't miss a minute of this adventure. The new ranch was about an hour north so we had some travel time ahead of us to arrive in location by daylight. As we wound up through the mountains I could tell we were gaining elevation and there were fewer signs of population as we neared our destination.
I opened 2 cattle gates and we pulled the Toyota Hilux(cool truck used by nearly everyone in the bush) into a small grove of trees on a ridgetop. Even though it was still dark and had fog lifting I could make out some distance ridgetops. As I got out of the truck to grab my gear we were greeted with the sounds of roaring stags in nearly every direction! We quickly decided who was headed in which area and the 4 of us split up in pursuit of the roars.
My brother in law and I eased out along a pasture road and would split off from each other about 400 yards from camp. By the time we reached that spot, we wished each other good luck and headed out respective directions. It was just breaking daylight and I had not gone literally 100 yards when I caught movement to my left and saw 2 young pigs scurrying from a hidden pond into a saddle on the ridgeline. Hunting pigs has become one of my favorite hunts and it didn't take me long to leave red stag mode and switch to hog hunting mode. As they went out of sight, I picked up the pace in case more were in the area. Just as I got about midway, a big boar came onto the scene but unfortunately still out of range. He was all over the hillside with nose to the ground and likely was trying to scent check the younger sows that had just passed through. Caught in the wide open it was difficult to get much closer and eventually he dropped into the small gully to my right and continued to move to his daytime bedding area.
As you can see in this picture, the terrain of this new ranch was much more rolling and gentle in nature.
(http://i.imgur.com/29zUtpZ.jpg)
After the encounter with the boar, a nearby stag roared in the foggy valley below. I checked the wind then dropped down in elevation to see if I could close the distance. As his occasional roars got closer, out of the fog a red deer hind appeared on the spine of a ridge about 70 yards away. As she passed by here comes another followed by another, any another....eventually 9 hinds followed by a young roaring 2x2 stag. As they dropped out of sight I quickly moved at a slight unhill angle but when I crested the hill they had remained out of range. I turned right into the bush as another stag roared above.
The hillside brush was very thick and the fog was wreaking havoc on my glasses. Every couple of steps I was wiping them off in order to see ahead. A slight groan on the hillside told me that a stag was warning that other stag to say away. I had learned earlier in the week that the larger stags typically will not be as vocal when they are with hinds as they do not want to draw unwanted competition from others. As a result they typically would only groan. Somewhere above me in the bush above was a stag that was showing just that exact type of behavior. Unfortauntely with his dominant position above me on the hillside and the dense brush preventing me from sneaking closer I never was able to catch sight of this stag before he moved off. The first half hour of daylight had already been full of non-stop action.
Hate to do this but I need to head to work..... I will wrap up the conclusion to my hunt this evening.
I understand "going to work", but dang you got me hooked. :campfire: :clapper:
:campfire:
Ok...let's do this.
After the contact with the stag that was groaning I climbed up and out of the thick bush. Once on top the vegetation opened up and I could see some hinds in the distance. Once they dropped out of sight I proceeded that direction to see if any stags were trailing them. Once I got to that area I found some waterholes and a saw a few more hinds in a steep valley. I worked around the point of a ridge and came to an area of mature timber. I slipped along a fence and glassed several hundred yards to see some more hinds coming out of the brushy draws.
It was now about 2 hours after daylight and I sat on a ridge top to glass and listen. I heard a roar and my binos revealed a stag and 3 hinds on a meadow below me. However, that was not the stag that had just roared. In looking around a tree I caught a glimpse of a hind stepping into an opening in a creekbottom. As I moved for a better look I saw not just one hind but actually 38 and a dandy stag roaring his guts out to keep others away. It was time to move as the sun was getting higher and hotter by the minute.
To have a chance at these reds, I would need to drop down in elevation through a very dense patch of brush and not spook a herd of ranch cattle on the edge of the meadow. I felt that if I could get down through the brush and get downwind from the reds that I might be able to close in on the herd. After a few hundred yards of brush and skirting around the cattle I got into the edge of the creekbottom. As I approached the bottom I could see a waterhole and another herd with 27 hinds and another stag feeding and watering. My plan had to change by the second with all of these eyes and noses. I decided that this second herd was closer and worth trying to stalk.
I dropped into a steep, brushy creekbottom and as I climbed up into the huge meadows that contained the 2 herds. I caught movement to my left and coming out of the brush single file was still another respectable size herd of 22 hinds. No stags with this group but now I had to wait so that I did not blow out all the other reds. Within 300 yards of me was over 80 head of red deer! This ranch was living up to all the hype.
I planned a route but had to move extremely slowly and jump back and forth between pieces of cover. Once I finally reached that first waterhole the herd had moved on into a large open drainage and I could hear roaring. After that I crawled around the corner to another hidden waterhole and there was the herd of nearly 40 animals but they were about 70 yards away from the nearest cover so I could do nothing. Since there was no way to move in on so many animals in the open I headed back to waterhole around the corner and decided to wait in ambush. Eventually the roaring slowed down with the heat and only a few hinds passed within eyesight of my makeshift blind. Despite all of the reds in the area I still did not get a shot oppportunity.
At noon I decided to slip back to camp for a sandwich and water but within a few minutes was back in hunt mode. I felt that my best chance was to head back to the waterhole and spend the heat of the day in ambush. On my walk to the waterhole I saw 5 hinds come out into the open but quickly retreated when a herd of range cattle decided to stampeded their way.
(http://i.imgur.com/onGLh8B.jpg)
I spent the afternoon sitting in the shade and about 2 hours before dark a single hind fed onto a ridgetop about 80 yards away. Despite all the morning chaos, the stags just were not talking at all and nothing was feeding.
With any hour to go in the hunt, I decided to make one more attempt and headed towards the brushy creekbottom I had crossed earlier in the morning. As I approached the edge of the woods I heard several loud squeals from a few hundred yards away. The squeals were non-stop and without a red deer in sight it was time to try and close in on these fighting hogs.
As the hogs continued to squeal I had to pick up the pace as they were moving up the draw away from my direction. Finally I got close enough to catch movement and saw a large black boar working through the brush about 50 yards away. With plenty of daylight I slowed by movement and everytime I would hear a squeal would look for the source in the brush. Every once in awhile a hog would pop out on the trail and then right back into the brush. After this happened a few times it became apparent that there was 2 big boars and they were chasing sows. The sows were making all the ruckus. It was an awesome amount of close action.
(http://i.imgur.com/KdEc9rU.jpg)
Daylight was starting to fade and hogs continued to scoot around on the trails below. At times they would walk by at 35 yards and just disappear back over the edge before getting into my stickbow range. This happened several times and each time it seemed like the shot was imminent but then they would disappear again. The sows finally decided to get away from the boars and headed up a trail on the opposite bank. Several other small hogs followed suit and then one of the boars took off after the exiting sounder.
(http://i.imgur.com/2q4ocZM.jpg)
I stood there in disbelief that I had been so close and no shot. As I watched the herd walk out of sight I caught movement and an even bigger boar steps out on the trail below me at 30 yards looking for the rest of the group. I was still in the game. With the relatively small vitals of a hog and my blurred vision from the eye infection there was just no way to make the shot. He continued on his way and with that encounter my hunting adventure in Australia had come to an end in pretty dramatic fashion. So close again....
(http://i.imgur.com/YYYVhfI.jpg)
Excellent story telling and even though no game was taken you were definitely in the game. Thanks for taking us along on a grand adventure-a lifetime of memories.
As I walked back to camp I caught up with my brother in law, who was returning from an equally exciting day. As we reflected on the hunt we come to the agreement that it had been an adventure of a lifetime.
As the sun set on our final day I caught this photo of the last sunset on this incredible adventure.
(http://i.imgur.com/1aFpsi7.jpg)
Looking back I have always been pretty lucky in my 31 years of bowhunting, I have taken some great animals, met some great folks and on this trip I was just plain lucky to get the chance to experience the real Australia.
Thanks for joining along.
Great adventure!
Great adventure!
Wonderful story Clay, thanks so much for sharing. Hopefully that's in my future.
Great story! Beautiful pictures. Thank you for bringing us along.
Awesome stuff! Sorry you didn't connect with anything, but it sounds like you'll have memories to last a lifetime!
Excellent story. Thanks for taking us along.
That is something I would like to do as well!
Glad all of you enjoyed reading about my adventure. Truly hope everyone gets the chance to do something similar in their lifetime.
Clay
Anyone else in the group get a deer?
Thanks for sharing your tale! A great series of hunts!
Great story, and glad you got to appreciate a hunt down here. Kudos to you for hunting wild deer, and luckily for you you went with Preecey. He's a character for sure.
Hope you get back for round two,
Memo.
Thanks guys.
RJonesRCRV, yes one of my hunting partners shot a stag on day 5 but since it was with the compound I did not show it. He also got a second one the week after I left.
memo, great buffalo story! After hearing all of Wayne's stories about them I have an interest in chasing after one of them in the future. His scrub bull stories were pretty intense as well. Of course all of his hunting stories are pretty awesome.