So managed to sneak in to a new area for the first time Yesterday on a day trip.
Set my alarm for what I thought was 3:50am, turns out I had set it for pm..... However thanks to a little girls bladder, I woke at 4:30 and was driving into the main carpark right on sunrise. Four other vehicles in the first carpark, carried on a little deeper to the final park and to my surprise only two other trucks in there.
Boots, gear and the rifle on ready to go, I was off. Firstly along a marked unused track listening to 2-3 stags roaring when I dipped off the side and tried my luck. Managed to roar one of the boys in over an hour or so. Just my luck, the wind changed on me and all I heard was the bush crashing ahead and my bottom lip hitting the ground below!
Ahwell, by now it was 8am and the roaring had stopped, so off I was again along the track trying to get to a valley ahead. Another 20mins in, not taking to much care as to my noise, I heard crashing to my left which I assume was a young hind who had clearly been feeding on some broadleaf trees. So took it as a good sign, got to my valley and dipped off the side and began hunting the wind. Took a while before I found some fresh sign, so slowed down and took my time. Underfoot was still really dry in places which made it difficult but before long I managed to follow the game trail to a small re-entrant and creek. This time there was fresh, warm sign so slowed right down and began scanning the other side of the creek. One wrong step and CRACK. With that I heard the bloody thing "mewing" at me. For 20 minutes I sat there trying to spot it but every time I moved even the slightest, there was another mew. Needless to say it was safe to live another day.
Dropped over into another basin and again, after a while of poking my nose around, found another game trail with some fresh sign. Whilst stalking the trail, all of a sudden I hear a whole bunch of thudding, right towards ME! Next thing I see a nice fat hind at full flight not more than 3 meters away. I gave it a couple of Mews and she stopped dead in her tracks, enough for me to get a shot off, WHACK! She takes off along with 4 others. I gave it 5 mins, had a brew and then went off and followed the blood trail for 15mins or so before it stopped, not a lot of blood which had me questioning the shot placement. For the next two hours I search high and low and could not find the poor thing. I marked the spot and sent it to a mate who was heading in today to keep an eye out. After much reflection I think I hit her low and to towards the back legs as she took off again.
After a solid 11hrs of hunting, I returned to the truck thinking it was a day of disappointment right from my alarm, to the shot I fired. However on reflection, it was a good day full of learnings that I will take with me onto my future trips. The only disappointment for the day was knowing I shot that poor animal and she was left to die for no good reason or is going to walk around wounded for a very long time.
All in all, for a completely new spot and the hunting pressure im sure it has received lately, I was extremely happy with the animals I saw and bumped. Looking forward to getting back out there again!
