2 Attachment(s)
Two stags for my roar 2018
I haven't posted one of my hunts in quite sometime now so here goes.
Wednesday 4th April Stag number One.
First successful day of the roar. The wind was shit and I hadn’t heard any stags roaring yet. Powerful Northerlies had been making it pretty warm to say the least, plus winds swirling all over the place spreading my stink for all the wild critters to pick up on was not doing much for my confidence. But still, a crap day on the hill is better than a day at home vacuuming the house. I was up at 04:30 and heading to my spot in the Rimutaka’s, once in the bush and not expecting much, I was quite surprised to hear a stag reply to me almost immediately. I could tell he wasn’t in full swing as his roars were only half angry, and he was also walking away from me quite hurriedly when I roared. I started to get quite frustrated as every time I walked in on the stag and grunted at him he would bugger off, even when I made small quite grunts to trick him into thinking I was no threat. I was now wondering if I should leave him and come back in a couple of days, I was worried about spreading to much scent around and ruining things completely. I sat down and contemplated what to do, Mr stag made a few more grunts but a bit louder this time. My last ditch effort was to keep quiet and stalk in on him (hopefully). He would half grunt/roar every 5-10 minutes which gave me just enough info to kind of pin point where he was, I would stalk in about 20-30 yards then listen. I got to a reasonable location and he grunted again which sounded bloody close. I put my best ninja stance on and went down into a shallow gut then up on a small spur. Straight away I saw him walking down another spur opposite me only about 40 yards away broadside. I didn’t have time to get a good look at his head, the rifle was up and lined on his lower neck, he obviously detected my movement as he flinched slightly and began to turn his head as though he was thinking “Oh fuck me I’m in trouble”. He was dead on his feet as the bullet hit him center neck. A reasonable looking 10 pointer apart from the broken bez tine, It was freshly broken off from scrapping probably. Boned out and head chopped off I was feeling seriously hungry and dehydrated by the time I got back to the car at the road end. Beer always taste better though being that shagged.
Attachment 85648
Friday 6th April Stag number Two.
I made plans to go back to the same area but in a different valley a few creek beds up. Again the wind was shit and not working in my favour, I was planning to go around wide and hunt back down getting the wind to work for me. The ridge I was hunting on has a few grass clearings dotted about it. The wind was still bollocks as it was swirling my scent around. Coming down my ridge I got a good view of a large grass patch, on the edge of the grass about 80m away was a stag with a couple of hinds, I could see he had three points on his crowns so that was a good start. Right at that moment the wind turned blowing straight towards him and his two lady friends. I knew I had to be damn quick, only about 2-3 seconds after the wind changed the Stag lifted his head curling his nose and winding in my direction, just as I was lining up on him he turned to the left and began to run, he took maybe 5-6 strides when I let him have it BOOMF……THUMP, he kept running until out of sight but I knew I had hit him, I wasn’t overly concerned as at that distance and cross hairs center shoulder I felt pretty confident… I hoped. I went down to where I last saw him, no blood….hmm getting worried…a few more steps and here he is dead as a dead thing hidden in some rough ground, he ran roughly 20m from where I hit him. Inspecting his antlers he was a 12, a pretty crappy 12 but still a 12. Averagely small with both bez tines ugly and short. After hauling his guts out I had a look inside his rib cage, the entry hole was center should right where I aimed, heart and lungs were just pulp. Again another hard carry back to the car, more cold beers at home to replenish what I sweated out.
Attachment 85649
I have been out this week just finished. I got onto a good stag roaring well, I wasn't able to get a shot off as the most I saw of him was his big back end in the thick stuff. He was going really well and it was a long stalk, I had a Spiker walk right up to me during this hunt, close enough that I had to push him away with my rifle barrel. The spiker followed me and the stag for about an hour staying back about 15-20m, I could have shot the spiker easily, hell I could have jumped on his back he was so close at times. These rare experiences are worth more though, so glad I didn't pull the trigger. The stag finally had enough of this roaring back and forth carry on and by 11am he stopped being vocal and just slipped away, I don't mind not having the chance at a shot, he will be there next year.
