havgunwilltravel
Active member
Its always good fun to head out at the tail end of Summer and climb up into higher elevation country glassing for Sambar and exploring new areas hoping to find a big old stag to put in the crosshairs.
Sambar are sporadic with their antler growth and there are no routine casting, stripping, mating periods where you can identify and mark dates on a calendar as being opportunities for increased success.
It is just plain hard work, endless glassing, (where the country is suitable) lots of hiking into remote areas trying to find out of the way valleys that deer can get age with limited hunting pressure and lots of moving and relocating trail cameras to give us an idea of how certain deer are developing over the years and what new deer might be using the same habitat.
The last couple of days i had two mates fly in for a few nights out the bush and we all headed off keen to burn some boot leather and locate a few deer.
First night in camp around a good fire and a hot meal with a few cold beers kept us up late and it wasn't until midnight when we hit the sack. But we didn't get much sleep as at 4:00am the alarm went off and we were on the hill punching out a path with the headlamp showing us the terrain. I had a basin i wanted to be in at daylight and with purpose and not much talk we kicked into gear. One of the guys had trouble 30 minutes into the hike and popped out an old knee injury and he wasn't going anywhere fast. Within a minute or two it was determined he would head slowly back to camp, glassing along the way and with final instructions to cook us up a storm in the camp oven for dinner and keep the beers cold for our likely return after sunset.
As the sun rose we realised we were going to be a half hour or so late to get to where i wanted to. It was a big hike out there but we pressed on with urgency and purpose.
Peeling off the ridge we dropped elevation down a spur and soon started glassing with a better angle on the face now we had opened it up. Some young stags were seen straight away and we tried hard but failed to find one of the older stags we knew grow out their velvet here.
A flat spot on a bench provided an ideal place to catch up on some shut eye come mid morning and here you can see the view from a deer bed where the sako 75 is sitting waiting for action!
I took the opportunity to set a couple of homebrew trail cameras that a mate and i had built and one went on a saddle at an intersection of game trails and the other in a bed that is regularly used by stags.
An hour later dark clouds zoomed over the horizon, thunder and lightening filled the basin and it started to rain hard. We all took the opportunity to glass for deer shifting their locations due to the changing conditions and some animals were seen but nothing old. My mate was taking in his first day of being in sambar country.
The clouds blew over and the sun came back and we glassed this young stag bedded on a flat spot, he was still in soft velvet and needed about 7 years to get to the age of sambar we were looking for.
Come mid afternoon we were getting itchy feet so climbed back up the spur and continued out the ridge. Deer were glassed in between the rain, thunder, lightening and sunshine but again not what were looking for. A final trail camera was set in another bed that had a great setting.
With a falling sun it was time to burn it out of there and after a solid 3 hours of hiking we eventually dragged weary legs into camp using the headlamps for the final kilometre and we eagerly rehydrated our bodies. It had been a big day, at least 16kms covered, lots of glassing, plenty of deer and our mate had come through with a great dinner prepared washed down by some icy cold beers.
Early morning the next day we climbed high and glassed hard for only 1 female deer located. It was time to move and look in other country and after a few hours behind the wheel we made our way over to glass a feeder gully.
This stag almost grown out was spotted coming out of the timber and he was in great condition body wise but again needed a few more season under his belt to develop the antlers.
We hoped he might have had male company with big brother nearby, but only females and young stags were glassed up.
We still had distance to travel so made it to another area with half an hour of light left. I spotted a nice set of stag marks that were fresh that afternoon crossing the track so a mate and i headed in slowly hoping to get a look. Again lightening and thunder came down and right on dark a stag in a little gully turned and trotted out, he had just cast and we shook our heads wondering how many more stags we needed to look over before we found one grown out or stripped.
The hut we stayed in was like a motel compared to our usual camps and we really appreciated the roof above when the thunder at night turned into hail storms.
Next morning we glassed off a ledge and found this big boy bedded up 5 minutes after daylight. He was still in soft velvet, only a third grown and true to form, the moment the sun hit his level on the side of the hill he stood up and turned to ease back into heavier cover for greater security and less chance of disturbance. He was glassed at 1300 metres and we hope he stays in the area to be looked over in a couple of months time.
The last day and a half repeated itself with many more deer and stags seen, but in the end we eased the 4wd's out of the mountains and down into the farm country without a shot fired. As always it was a success for us to experience all we have in our high country with great company and optics and rifle in hand and it won't be long before we point the trucks north and climb more hills on the pursuit of early season sambar stags.
Hope you enjoyed a view into what some of our sambar hunting can offer for the keen hunter.
Sambar are sporadic with their antler growth and there are no routine casting, stripping, mating periods where you can identify and mark dates on a calendar as being opportunities for increased success.
It is just plain hard work, endless glassing, (where the country is suitable) lots of hiking into remote areas trying to find out of the way valleys that deer can get age with limited hunting pressure and lots of moving and relocating trail cameras to give us an idea of how certain deer are developing over the years and what new deer might be using the same habitat.
The last couple of days i had two mates fly in for a few nights out the bush and we all headed off keen to burn some boot leather and locate a few deer.
First night in camp around a good fire and a hot meal with a few cold beers kept us up late and it wasn't until midnight when we hit the sack. But we didn't get much sleep as at 4:00am the alarm went off and we were on the hill punching out a path with the headlamp showing us the terrain. I had a basin i wanted to be in at daylight and with purpose and not much talk we kicked into gear. One of the guys had trouble 30 minutes into the hike and popped out an old knee injury and he wasn't going anywhere fast. Within a minute or two it was determined he would head slowly back to camp, glassing along the way and with final instructions to cook us up a storm in the camp oven for dinner and keep the beers cold for our likely return after sunset.
As the sun rose we realised we were going to be a half hour or so late to get to where i wanted to. It was a big hike out there but we pressed on with urgency and purpose.
Peeling off the ridge we dropped elevation down a spur and soon started glassing with a better angle on the face now we had opened it up. Some young stags were seen straight away and we tried hard but failed to find one of the older stags we knew grow out their velvet here.
A flat spot on a bench provided an ideal place to catch up on some shut eye come mid morning and here you can see the view from a deer bed where the sako 75 is sitting waiting for action!
I took the opportunity to set a couple of homebrew trail cameras that a mate and i had built and one went on a saddle at an intersection of game trails and the other in a bed that is regularly used by stags.
An hour later dark clouds zoomed over the horizon, thunder and lightening filled the basin and it started to rain hard. We all took the opportunity to glass for deer shifting their locations due to the changing conditions and some animals were seen but nothing old. My mate was taking in his first day of being in sambar country.
The clouds blew over and the sun came back and we glassed this young stag bedded on a flat spot, he was still in soft velvet and needed about 7 years to get to the age of sambar we were looking for.
Come mid afternoon we were getting itchy feet so climbed back up the spur and continued out the ridge. Deer were glassed in between the rain, thunder, lightening and sunshine but again not what were looking for. A final trail camera was set in another bed that had a great setting.
With a falling sun it was time to burn it out of there and after a solid 3 hours of hiking we eventually dragged weary legs into camp using the headlamps for the final kilometre and we eagerly rehydrated our bodies. It had been a big day, at least 16kms covered, lots of glassing, plenty of deer and our mate had come through with a great dinner prepared washed down by some icy cold beers.
Early morning the next day we climbed high and glassed hard for only 1 female deer located. It was time to move and look in other country and after a few hours behind the wheel we made our way over to glass a feeder gully.
This stag almost grown out was spotted coming out of the timber and he was in great condition body wise but again needed a few more season under his belt to develop the antlers.
We hoped he might have had male company with big brother nearby, but only females and young stags were glassed up.
We still had distance to travel so made it to another area with half an hour of light left. I spotted a nice set of stag marks that were fresh that afternoon crossing the track so a mate and i headed in slowly hoping to get a look. Again lightening and thunder came down and right on dark a stag in a little gully turned and trotted out, he had just cast and we shook our heads wondering how many more stags we needed to look over before we found one grown out or stripped.
The hut we stayed in was like a motel compared to our usual camps and we really appreciated the roof above when the thunder at night turned into hail storms.
Next morning we glassed off a ledge and found this big boy bedded up 5 minutes after daylight. He was still in soft velvet, only a third grown and true to form, the moment the sun hit his level on the side of the hill he stood up and turned to ease back into heavier cover for greater security and less chance of disturbance. He was glassed at 1300 metres and we hope he stays in the area to be looked over in a couple of months time.
The last day and a half repeated itself with many more deer and stags seen, but in the end we eased the 4wd's out of the mountains and down into the farm country without a shot fired. As always it was a success for us to experience all we have in our high country with great company and optics and rifle in hand and it won't be long before we point the trucks north and climb more hills on the pursuit of early season sambar stags.
Hope you enjoyed a view into what some of our sambar hunting can offer for the keen hunter.
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