One for trophy hunters,
I'm interested in seeing peoples favourite trophy. I find people hunt for all different reasons and it's interesting in seeing someone's favourite trophy, it quite often is because of the "why" and not the "what" and for that reason biggest isn't always best.
For me my big red stag is my favorite but a close second is my first sambar hind. Id been hunting them about 3 times over a 12 month period when I finally took my first.
My brother and I had been stalking up some good gullies and glassing some nice open faces coming out from the thickets of pine covering the hills we were in. We dropped down into one particular creek and found a position where we could glass a beautiful open face that had loads of sign with shots covering the whole area and not exceeding 200yds. After a short wait the wind swirled and blew our scent right where we expected the deer to come from. After a while it hadn't changed so we decided to push over the face and glass the next ridge over. We made it to the other side and got into position without any drama and began glassing. We'd been there maybe 30 minutes when the Roos began coming out in ones and twos. The Australian prerequisite to deer o'clock! Within 10 mins I spotted two sambar hinds coming over the crest of the opposite ridge and feeding down the face toward us. Across gully it was a 300m shot but they were moving constantly between trees and no clear shot was given so we decided to skirt out wide in a big U and get on to their face downwind with hopefully enough light to make it happen.after a mix of careful walking and running where possible we got to the face in under half an hour and began stalking in to where they were. We got closer and closer and my heart was beating so loud I was sure the deer would hear it from 50 yards off! A paused in the long lush grass and Spotted at my feet some fresh droppings and for a moment my heart sank as I thought I must have spooked them but I decided as I'd heard nothing at all (sambar can be very loud when running away) that they were probably still there.
I pressed on maybe another 50m when a movement to my 90 degree left caught the corner of my eye. I slowly turned my head to see the hind feeding with only her head and neck exposed. I instantly had a pulsating rush of adrenaline pump through my body swirling and tumbling and finally landing in a burning mass in the pit of my stomach. I raised the trusty old 270 and at that movement she raised her head up alert Realising she'd been caught out. But before she could take off I put the dancing crosshairs on her neck and squeezed the trigger. At the shot the recoil caused me to lose sight of her but as I lowered the rifle I saw her come to rest on the ground where she stood. At the shot her partner jumped up from seemingly nowhere and my brother threw up his old Parker hale 30-06 and sent a projectile into her chest, she ran 30m before comig to rest. And there it was our first sambar taken within 10 seconds of each other. It was the hunt more than anything else that made it so special to me, it's not often you can perfectly execute a hunt exactly as you envision but for me this was certainly one of those few.
For me, trophy hunting is more about the experience than the head at the end. Sure I love big deer but any deer with a good story is a great trophy in my eyes. I've always hunted by a simple saying I thought up to myself years ago "not all trophies are measured in inches" and for me it sure is true.
Sambar are delicious eating too so we dined well for a while after that!
I'm interested in seeing peoples favourite trophy. I find people hunt for all different reasons and it's interesting in seeing someone's favourite trophy, it quite often is because of the "why" and not the "what" and for that reason biggest isn't always best.
For me my big red stag is my favorite but a close second is my first sambar hind. Id been hunting them about 3 times over a 12 month period when I finally took my first.
My brother and I had been stalking up some good gullies and glassing some nice open faces coming out from the thickets of pine covering the hills we were in. We dropped down into one particular creek and found a position where we could glass a beautiful open face that had loads of sign with shots covering the whole area and not exceeding 200yds. After a short wait the wind swirled and blew our scent right where we expected the deer to come from. After a while it hadn't changed so we decided to push over the face and glass the next ridge over. We made it to the other side and got into position without any drama and began glassing. We'd been there maybe 30 minutes when the Roos began coming out in ones and twos. The Australian prerequisite to deer o'clock! Within 10 mins I spotted two sambar hinds coming over the crest of the opposite ridge and feeding down the face toward us. Across gully it was a 300m shot but they were moving constantly between trees and no clear shot was given so we decided to skirt out wide in a big U and get on to their face downwind with hopefully enough light to make it happen.after a mix of careful walking and running where possible we got to the face in under half an hour and began stalking in to where they were. We got closer and closer and my heart was beating so loud I was sure the deer would hear it from 50 yards off! A paused in the long lush grass and Spotted at my feet some fresh droppings and for a moment my heart sank as I thought I must have spooked them but I decided as I'd heard nothing at all (sambar can be very loud when running away) that they were probably still there.
I pressed on maybe another 50m when a movement to my 90 degree left caught the corner of my eye. I slowly turned my head to see the hind feeding with only her head and neck exposed. I instantly had a pulsating rush of adrenaline pump through my body swirling and tumbling and finally landing in a burning mass in the pit of my stomach. I raised the trusty old 270 and at that movement she raised her head up alert Realising she'd been caught out. But before she could take off I put the dancing crosshairs on her neck and squeezed the trigger. At the shot the recoil caused me to lose sight of her but as I lowered the rifle I saw her come to rest on the ground where she stood. At the shot her partner jumped up from seemingly nowhere and my brother threw up his old Parker hale 30-06 and sent a projectile into her chest, she ran 30m before comig to rest. And there it was our first sambar taken within 10 seconds of each other. It was the hunt more than anything else that made it so special to me, it's not often you can perfectly execute a hunt exactly as you envision but for me this was certainly one of those few.
For me, trophy hunting is more about the experience than the head at the end. Sure I love big deer but any deer with a good story is a great trophy in my eyes. I've always hunted by a simple saying I thought up to myself years ago "not all trophies are measured in inches" and for me it sure is true.
Sambar are delicious eating too so we dined well for a while after that!
