The story

***

As you might remember I spent about three days at the same place in October showing a German acquaintance around. He had a couple of opportunities at stags like this or better but turned them down. Also saw some larger ones which escaped or where in velvet.

Now having done some decent "scouting" and knowing the location of four or more hard antlered stags and probably a couple shedding their velvet, I deciced to head back and my mate "Orion" also volunteered to come as well.

Having to work we missed out on some lovely cool weather and hit weather in the mid to high 30's (celsius) so midday's would be spent lounging with cool early mornings and the last hour and a half before dark being hunting time. The chital and most of the deer spent the mid-days lying up in thick patches of scrub anyway.

Checking out the various locations of the herds we sorted out where the best spots might be and found one very long stag with a good sized thinnish antler but the other antler being only half the length. He could stay where he was. Also sighted a couple of rusa stags one of which looked huge but was several hundred metres away. Eventually the andrenalin worked of and we worked out he was youngish with probably not enough weight in his antlers. Another perhaps longer rusa was found but again thinnish. This stag had a broken or damaged withered leg, probably as a result of being shot in the front leg and escaping. Otherwise he was still in OK condition and was near to water.

The chital are very fast to go to cover and generally do not stand around. I did get some photos this time though. We sighted some stags occasionally and would you know it? Everytime they stood with their antlers in the branches until they moved off, perhaps giving a tantilising glimpse of hard antler.

At one choice location we did spot a long wide antlered stag in the evening. He moved into thicker cover and we left to wait for a half-hour to see if he would again come out to feed. I did notice some hinds running off across open country behind the hill and as luck had it the herd had been seriously winded even if they did not appear to be and had left for different parts. The next day the herd was not in existence but the day after a few hinds were again around.

Orion had advised me he wanted only a 29 or 30 inch stag to beat a previous one and I was to hunt first. Of course I said we should take it in turns but he was adamant.

While it felt longer it was only on the evening of day 2 that we sighted this stag and he was off at a slow trot. I had decided instantly that he was long enough to take, aiming for a representative 26 inches or more, so as he ran away I had him in my sights with the post-cross-hair up his "own" and luckily he turned just before the scrub and another animal moved from behind to allow me to take an very angled shot at just behind his shoulder.

He dropped instantly and hardly moved. The 150 gr factory load had taken him in the neck, which I at first thought a terribly bad shot, before realising the bullet was probably less than 2 inches to the right of where I aimed.

A "waidmannsheil" photos with the sprig in the hat and one as a last meal, he was gutted and hung to cool in a tree while we looked for another stag for the twenty minutes of light remaining. Then back to the hut, skin off and cape off, Orion being a butcher gave me an experts lesson in the best techniques (I am entirely self taught and not at all to his standard

.). The next morning the carcase was boned out and put in the freezer to chill.

This last day was to be very hot and I don't remember if we got off that morning for a look or not. But as luck would have it we did find a good stag that evening, maybe a couple inches longer. Unfortunately we had to go through a gate and the stag was less than 50 metres away in for once a thin patch of scrub. Using the vehicle for cover we got to within 30 metres of the three stags and I drove the Lancruiser away as a diversion while Orion stalked around the scrub to try for a shot. The stags however were off and away. If they had stood for a second or two longer another chital stag might have been in the freezer and a nice long rack as well.