It was a bit late in the year for a trip on the Sambar, but the planets didn’t line up for a trip in August so it was a prayer to the weather gods and off we went, our luck held and it didn’t get to hot, for December anyway. Ty has been desperate for a look at a few deer in the wild and a Sambar in particular.
The first place we camped was more of a Fallow haven although there was a few Sambar back off the semi cleared/fringe country. While I set up the camp for the next couple of nights Ty screwed some broady’s on, and took off up the hill for a squiz, I glassed the hills for a while and spotted a few Fallow , he returned almost on dark beaming as he’d got to about 45 on a deer and got sprung when he moved his feet in to position to draw.
Morning bought fairly heavy rain and a wet start, it didn’t last long and we were soon seeing deer
We spotted a couple way down a gully and in the open, with no chance of an easy approach we headed for the fence and the grand plan of sitting over a hole in the fence each and waiting for them to feed back to their beds, all went well for me getting a spot in the bush 30m back but Ty got messed around on a high bit of roo fence and ended up staying on the paddock side of the fence and snugged up beside some blackberry, 20 mins later and they are starting to filter back towards us, I saw four head in the direction of Ty, nothing, nothing ,then I hear the sound of the compound being shot. Twenty minutes later I sneak down to find him, looking a little disappointed and excited all at once, he calls it a miss, turns out they had fed in on his far right and he drew , turned and released at about he estimated 37 on a very awkward angle, we had a hunt for the arrow and it turns out the shot was about 42 paces, so he read that fairly well, he finds the arrow and says “see no blood”, then spots a couple of guard hairs stuck between the blade and ferrule of the broadhead....oh so close.
The evening saw us trading bows for the rifle, sitting high glassing a gully in the vain hope of a deer stepping out for an early evening feed and offering a long shot, not a tactic i have had any luck with , and tonight was no different.
Next morning saw us away early to get some height and do some good glassing to try and get the drop on one early. As this was to be our last hunt in Fallow country before pulling up stumps and moving a couple of hours away into some serious Sambar country , I took the rifle ,as when we left home there was some discussion about the need of a few nice roasts for the freezer.
The morning went from one blown opportunity to the next, with us either being spotted, winded or us blundering in over the top of them and stuffing things up, the only upside was putting up of a Sambar hind in a thick choked gully we crossed through. By 11:30 worn out, very hungry and a little disappointed we came off the back of the area and started down the last gully, by midday we were caught in one of those nightmare blackberry choked gully bottoms, after taking ages to get out of that we had decided to head straight for camp and a feed, wandering along talking of the last few days we came around the side of a big briar rose and spotted a bedded deer out at about 150m, dropping, I crawled into where i could get a shot over the crest of the gully and let one rip at a young buck facing away, first shot was garbage, second less than impressive and he was up, the third was right on the money and we had roast, even if it was in the form of a “truck crash” with that many shots.
With the now dubbed “truck crash” field dressed and the salvageable bits in meat bags it was time to make the quick trip to where we would chase Sambar for the next few days and get the Fallow on ice. We set up, got the meat skun, hocked and on ice, it was time for a good feed and an evening sit on a clearing in a basin about 2 clicks from camp.
We sat for a while glassing the clearing for the first hour uneventfully, with just half a dozen ‘roos keeping us entertained, with a couple of them putting on a great boxing show, in a flash ‘roos were bounding in all directions with the reason hot on ones tail, a wild dog had come over the saddle up higher and just ran full tilt down the gully, crossing to our left at about 15 meters , but all to quickly for even a thought of a shot. We sat on for the next three quarts of an hour thinking that all the action would have put everything to ground for the evening, then as light was at its last, “HONK”, scaring the bejesus out of us both, a hind had appeared low in the basin and was standing watching us but unsure what we were, the honking, foot stomping, tail waving and ear twitching went on for a full 5 minutes before she turned stepped over a log and was gone in a thunder of hooves, all pretty cool stuff to see, the easy shot was there for the taking but at this point the trip was still to young to be rolling hinds with a rifle and with no esky big enough for Sambar, it would mean the end of the fun and the start of trying to protect meat, so it was a primer for what we hoped would be a good few days to follow.
Up and off early next morning we headed up along the small flats along the river edge following fresh sign before heading higher, the flats were still nice and moist with a few good wallows found and in use, so a good boost to think that there was a stag in hard antler in the area (although the odd old hind wallows, but you tend to discount that part)
The game trails took us fairly high and had us contouring the smaller gullies and spurs off the main ridge for a couple of hours, although no deer were bumped there was a good amount of sign, with a could see was legsback for a feed and an arvo in the creek fly fishing, the first of what would be a few good fly sessions.
Another evening up in the basin was very very quiet, even the ‘roos were thin on the ground so we just sat and enjoyed the bush and told ourselves we were hunting, then bashed our way back to camp by headlight to get a sleep and head along the creek in the morning. Off again at sparra’s we hunted along the flats through some heavy cover and decided to cross the creek and hunt back along the opposite side, being the south side of the ridge it was wetter than the previous days hunt and the regrowth thicker, in general a bit harder going with some serious chewing of dogwood happening for quite awhile, it was while cutting higher to get out of a thick patch of dogwood that we emerged from it and was passing a stand of wattle when the ground shook to the thump of hooves again, a quick glance to the right and all we could see was legs disappearing, on a closer look after the dust settled , we found the running marks of two deer where they had gotten up from their beds, it was more than likely a hind and reasonably big calf by the marks.
That evening it was back up the hill to where the action occurred, all was pretty quiet with only a couple of ‘roos grazing, then at roughly 8;30 while glassing across the east side of the basin I spy what i thought was a ‘roo I had missed through a tree, ‘till I note four legs and a horizontal back, a hind was feeding along on our left and was to pass behind some heavy cover to emerge about 70 yards to our left, alas she didn’t appear on our side of the cover and at approx 8:45 the decision was made to make a move before the light beat us all together. The bolt was closed and off we went, around the blackberries peering into the shadows then the now familiar HONK and clatter of hooves, up comes the boom stick and boom, a hurried shot, that wasn’t even close , but no matter I tell myself, the hard work doesn’t start ,till you deck something.
Last day was spent trying to cover all the better sign we had seen previously, in the hope that we may be able to get an arrow in the direction of deer, but all was to no avail and it was time to roll the show up and head for home.
All up it was a great trip and one I hope the young fella will remember as good times with the Old Man. Sorry to the died in the wool trad guys as the trad gear just didn’t get a berth this trip, but that’s just the way things panned out, next time who knows what will happen.
Cheers
Wayne
