stag a week earlier.
It didn’t take long before
I spotted a large deer
feeding on the side of
a small slip. It was the
stag I’d seen the previous
week. He was only about
500m from where we’d seen
him the week prior, and a
bit lower in altitude. I was
so shaky I couldn’t work my
camera to check. At first I
had my doubts if it really
was him as I thought this
head was a lot wider than
I remembered, but after
I’d assessed him closely, I
realized that without a doubt
it was him!
I was nervous to say the
least. We didn't have muchlight left so we quickly hatched a
plan to get to the stag. Simon was
to stay put and keep an eye on him
as I did a mad dash across the creek
bed to get out of view. I radioed
Simon every two minutes to ask
if the stag had moved but he
stayed put the whole time, just
watching over his territory. This
was surprising because I thought
that at any hint of danger, a mature
stag would be out of there. I guess
the more you hunt, the better chance
you have of running into a lucky
opportunity like this.
As I got into position, the wind
shifted but it was going underneath
the stag and even though the fog
had dropped quite a way, it was
still about 100m above him. With a
makeshift rest made of my jersey and
bino caddy on a rock, I calmed myself
down for what felt like an eternity
but would have really only been a
minute – if that.As the stag
stood without
moving, I
squeezed off
the shot.
He dropped on the spot and
tumbled down the hill a wee way
into the scrub. This had all been
viewed through Simon’s spotting
scope, accompanied by some
cheering and a few explicit words
over the radio. We’d got the bugger!
It had been a good team effort.
When we got to him, I counted his points
and found he was a mature 15 pointer; a
heavy-timbered, public land stag. Sadly,
he had a broken bey tine but at least it
had been there and the other one was
still intact. This was a ‘plus’ for the area as
it usually produced stags either with very
small or no bey tines at all. Definitely a
personal best.
With the photo session done and snow
beginning to fall, we dealt to the beast
and walked to our usual camp. I had left
some brown bombers there the previous
week so we topped off the night with a
quality beverage.
We woke in the morning to a late winter
dusting of snow and a cracker day. We
had a casual walk out and headed
home to share the story with
friends.Toby with his great stag, showing a lot of tops
development and huge trey tinesSimon showing
another angle on
the stag
August /stag a week earlier.
It didn’t take long before
I spotted a large deer
feeding on the side of
a small slip. It was the
stag I’d seen the previous
week. He was only about
500m from where we’d seen
him the week prior, and a
bit lower in altitude. I was
so shaky I couldn’t work my
camera to check. At first I
had my doubts if it really
was him as I thought this
head was a lot wider than
I remembered, but after
I’d assessed him closely, I
realized that without a doubt
it was him!
I was nervous to say the
least. We didn't have muchlight left so we quickly hatched a
plan to get to the stag. Simon was
to stay put and keep an eye on him
as I did a mad dash across the creek
bed to get out of view. I radioed
Simon every two minutes to ask
if the stag had moved but he
stayed put the whole time, just
watching over his territory. This
was surprising because I thought
that at any hint of danger, a mature
stag would be out of there. I guess
the more you hunt, the better chance
you have of running into a lucky
opportunity like this.
As I got into position, the wind
shifted but it was going underneath
the stag and even though the fog
had dropped quite a way, it was
still about 100m above him. With a
makeshift rest made of my jersey and
bino caddy on a rock, I calmed myself
down for what felt like an eternity
but would have really only been a
minute – if that.As the stag
stood without
moving, I
squeezed off
the shot.
He dropped on the spot and
tumbled down the hill a wee way
into the scrub. This had all been
viewed through Simon’s spotting
scope, accompanied by some
cheering and a few explicit words
over the radio. We’d got the bugger!
It had been a good team effort.
When we got to him, I counted his points
and found he was a mature 15 pointer; a
heavy-timbered, public land stag. Sadly,
he had a broken bey tine but at least it
had been there and the other one was
still intact. This was a ‘plus’ for the area as
it usually produced stags either with very
small or no bey tines at all. Definitely a
personal best.
With the photo session done and snow
beginning to fall, we dealt to the beast
and walked to our usual camp. I had left
some brown bombers there the previous
week so we topped off the night with a
quality beverage.
We woke in the morning to a late winter
dusting of snow and a cracker day. We
had a casual walk out and headed
home to share the story with
friends.Toby with his great stag, showing a lot of tops
development and huge trey tines
Simon showing
another angle on
the stag