I have been checking out a new area and yesterday i got onto a very nice sambar stag, i took a snap shot at him only to hit a 15cm tree in the way.
My question is will he be back into that same feeding gully (blackberries) or will he clear right out now that i have shot at him.
If he does come back, how long do you think i should wait before giving it another try in that same gully?
At the moment i am shattered , only glad that i did not wound him.

Most sambar hunters have probably exerienced a similar thing to that at some time . If my exerience is anything to go by you might never see that stag in THAT gully again , but he will probably still be living in the same general area . Probably not what you wanted to hear and im sure other people will have had different experiences but thats the way its been for me . I would be waiting for about a month before checking out that gully again to let things settle down . The areas I hunt get a lot of hunting pressure so if its a quite area things may be different , good luck and remember perseverance normally pays of when it comes to sambar .

Go back every weekend till you get him mate otherwise some one else will....give it to him Dugga! Here`s a pic of a stag my Tassy mate took with me on Saturday,not a world beater but none the less a neat 26 incher.
After more than fifty hunts this year and repeatedly going back to some areas we have often seen the same deer more than two or three times,if its not you it will be someone else!
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a48/gryph...tag004irfan.jpg

Well on the whole the stag will be long gone and depending on the area, could have moved a couple of klms away and may never return, on the other hand if the area is lightly hunted and feed is sparse it may return in a short time maybe within a week, the only way to tell is go back in and "still" hunt this will depend on of course on the terrain and how thick the cover is. This it what Sambar hunting is all about you never realy know it's a bit like "how long is a piece of string" if it was me I would go back in a week to see if there has been any activity, if none I would lay off the area for sometime and hope no one else has hunted the area in the mean time.
Oh by the way try a few gullys which are close by you never know....best if luck...