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first stag for April hits the ground
Long time no story so here is one from today.
The weather has been less than ideal for this roar, strong northerly winds and hot weather. I started hunting last week but the stags were only moaning to round up their hinds, yesterday was the first day I really noticed the stags getting amped up.
I wasn't holding my breath for success due to again strong northerlies and hot weather, I was a sweaty mess by the time I got into my area.
It was very quiet at first light so I thought it was a bust, about an hour later two stags cranked up and were back and forth roaring to each other. Being the logical thinker I naturally put in a stalk on the closest one about 800m away. At about 100m I began my sneak towards the side of a small spur, to try and get a view on top where I thought this guy was roaring from.
I was behind a beach tree for cover and lent out to try and get eyes on, I straight away saw a hind in the open looking in my direction, she hadn't seen me as she was acting far too casual, three more hinds came into view all facing my direction. Why the hell is it the ones you want to shoot are always hidden from view !!
My first thought was - "shit this is just not going to happen at all".
I could still hear the stag but could not see him, then suddenly a flash of red as the stag bolted over to the right edge of the spur, he let out a roar and ran back left, I could not see any part of him through the trees for a clear shot. I knew that I couldn't move as the hinds would pick me up immediately, it just wasn't worth the risk as they were still facing my location, all I could do was stay put and hope for an opportunity. I didn't want to risk giving a moan as I was too close, he would likely have spooked and moved down more into thicker cover.
The stag ran right again and roared out to the second stag that was winding him up, this time I saw his antlers, I could not see enough to count the points but it did look like the antlers had decent length.
Leaning against my tree I put the scope on him, still all I can see is antler and nothing else, his body was totally behind trees.
All of a sudden I see a partial part of his head, he must have turned to look back at his hinds. My only thought was "this is as good as it's going to get". He was only about 40m away but it was a very small target, I was aiming at a spot on his noggin about the size of a tennis ball with branches in the way just to make things even more frustrating.
Bugger it I thought and squeezed the trigger, the hinds bolted at the sound of the shot, I didn't hear the stag crash away so was hopeful, still it was a difficult shot placement. I wandered over to where he was feeling about 50/50 if my shot was good, and it sure was, here he lay where he stood just moments before, the bullet got him right in the side of the head. I felt quite pleased with myself as I am a smack em in the shoulder kind of guy.
He was only a 9 pointer but I was very happy all the same, this was a very challenging hunt, having the hinds facing me, the weather/wind was shit, and a trick shot through thick bush.
If you look at the blown up photo you can actually see where the bullet went through the edge of the stag's ear before connecting with his central processor.
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The trees in the back of this photo are where I was stalking from, I was quite far back into the trees with extremely minimal visibility.
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