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hi all i'm new to this site but some of you may have seen me around on other forums i went for a sika hunt the week before last (17th/18th may 06) and wrote a bit of a story on the hunt. so here goes After getting back home from a month of hunting in the roar (rut) a couple of weeks ago work was flat out but lucky for me we had a job fall through which gave me the chance I needed to head south. I had got a couple reports of the jap’s still roaring from a couple of people and putting it down to the 2nd heat cycle of the hind’s I decided I should go for a walk before they stoped for good. There had been a good dumping of snow in the hills a couple of days before which made it a lot cooler than when I was last down a few weeks before I didn't get down there till 12.30pm and bolted up the track, I had decided to fly camp the night out so I could make the most of the limited time I had. An hour and a half later I was at my start point for the hunt and gave a roar which I got a hee haw reply to shortly after. The wind was good for a change as I made my way along the ridge toward where the stag had roared. There was a bit of sign around and the odd rub but the pads were all unused for some time. As I got to where I thought he would be I gave another roar with out a reply so I had a suspicion that he would be coming for a look so got in a good spot and waited for a bit but he was a no show. I moved down the hill a little more and could hear some rusling going on in the gut to my right so a bit of a snecky pete found a hind and a yearling feeding along below me, I watched them for about 10 min but no sign of the stag so I left the hind and yearling to it and was off down the hill a bit more and roared again. It was slow going closing the gap on where I thought he would be and keeping the wind in my favour, I got to a good spot with a good view down the hill and roared again, this time I must have got his attention as I could hear him coming through the pepper woods off to the side of me, I got a quick look as his head and antlers as they came up the bank, he wasn’t a big boy but would do nicely, he stoped behind some thick shit and must have been trying to work out where I was so gave a mew and out popped his head booommmfffaaa!!! the grey ghost roared and down he went rolling back down the hill. He was only a small 4ptr but a fat bugger in good nic. It was out with the knife to bone out some meat and time was getting on so I needed to look for somewhere to sleep and found a good spot not to far down the hill and set up camp for the night. There were a couple of roar’s through the night and one not to far off, also got whistled at twice so at first light I was off ( if you have ever hunted with me you would know this wasn’t the norm ) looking for him but only managed to spook one so returned to the fly and collected my gear and headed off down to cross the creek to look for the other one I had heard and hunt some nice country I came through on the forum hunt in November. Once across the creek there was plenty of fresh sign and it was looking good until a wind change spooking two straight away I carried on for half an hour and came across a hind bedded down on a small flat she hadn’t seen me until I tried to get a photo of her and she trotted off up hill giving a bit of a yip on the way Not long after a stag roared up ahead of me so I made a bee line for him back into snecky pete mode. After 10 min I could hear him single calling but he was in some tight shit on the other side of a gut so had to back out and approach from above him to get the wind right, I dropped my pack off and left it there He was on a hind on heat and single calling well I got in close and could see a deer to my right between the pepper woods but the calling was still coming from below me, I could only see the back end but it looked like a male from the colour and had to wait for it to move. I had the cross hairs on him but it turned out to be a spiker so let him go knowing the stag was just below me and he was heading down to the action hoping for any left overs I’d say. I was only moving when the stag would call but also knew as long as the wind stayed on my side I had the jump on him and had gone 15m when he came into view following the hind with his head down sniffing and licking her. up with the grey ghost booommmfffaaa!!! he never took another step and dropped on the spot the hind ran forward then stopped before crashing off down hill. He wasn’t a wall hanger but an 8ptr all the same and it was a good hunt so I couldn’t complain I almost thought this was going to be the first roar in a while with out an 8ptr Back up to get the pack and camera and out with the knife again to whip off some meat and the head, now the day and a half bag is getting rather full and heavier I dropped down into the creek for a feed and a drink and plan my next move. It was the first time I have seen these guy's in this part of the park before The day was still young but I had a fair way to go to get back to the car and need to be back home for my sons birthday so started hunting my way out I wanted to check out another spot I had got onto a stag last year which was on the other side of the ridge I was on and as the bush where I was had little sign and was crappy to hunt I speed up to get to better ground. After getting to the top I found the wind was all wrong and soon got whistled at So could either carry along the ridge I was on but them remembered my mate mike had told me of the wind fall he had struck in the past so decided to try my luck with the wind and cut up through the next creek. just as a was going to drop down my phone rang in my pack as I had forgotten to turn it off but missed the call, but speck of the devil it was mike he must have had a feeling I was about to poach his spot When I got to the area the stag had been the year before there wasn’t any fresh rutting sign so carried on to cross the creek and sidle the other side The drink was great but I wasn’t to keen on a feed of these mushrooms There wasn’t as much sign on this side either and the bush was harder to get through with the load I had on and ended up putting one up just before the ridge top. Now the going was a little easier and made good time to get to the point where I was going to drop down and cut the track so slowed down and went back into sneaky pete mode. Fresh marks meant the deer couldn’t be far away and this proved to be so as I got hooked up with my pack on a pepper wood snapping a branch spooking a deer off to the left I got a glimpse of a stag as he made his way to freedom, bummer But another one was making a big fuss whistling its ass off so off with the pack and sneak into see what was making all the noise, to find a very lippy hind standing there stamping her hove and wouldn’t shut up so fixed her problem with a 150gr core loct to the head booommmfffaaa!!! she rolled down the hill a couple of meters into one of her ex boy friends rub tree’s Out with the knife once again to remove the back stakes and back legs, Now I was really loaded to the hilt and couldn’t wait to hit the track and get back to the road, Which I did around an hour later and was heading for home in a little over 24 hours from when I left I haven’t hunted a lot in may before what with duck shooting in the past and pig hunting now days but will be looking at giving it a go more often, I guess the roar isn’t over till it’s over. The end………… | ||
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One of Us |
great story looks like you had fun ill have to get down to nz and catch the roar it sounds like fun all the best greg | |||
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One of Us |
the roar is what i look foward to all year and take the hole month off to hunt red's,sika and fallow roaring up reds is good but it is hard to beat getting in close on a single calling sika i just love it | |||
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Ah Madness such is life! Posts: 87 | Location: Victoria Australia | Registered: 07 September 2002 | |||
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you only live once so have to make the most of it | |||
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welcome madness keep your barrell clean and your powder dry | |||
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cheers wazza | |||
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