Bush Stalking Sambar and the Importance of practice.

Having just completed my second Sambar hunt for 2019 and managing to shoot a very nice Hind, it occurred to me that my success was due in no small part to the amount of time I spend practising shooting. I shoot .22 rimfire Field rifle competition as well as spending a lot of time dry firing with snap caps and shooting off sticks at the range. This practice no doubt helped me on this hunt.

I woke up to the alarm at 4am and got dressed and had a quick breakfast and cup of coffee before heading out to a gully I had been looking at for some time, though this would be the first time I hunted it. I parked my vehicle and began my walk in the dark, I stopped every 50 meters or so and glassed into darkness just able to make out the gaps between trees and some shapes, it was not quite light enough to see properly. I sat down and waited for it to get lighter, half way up a face with my back against a tree. Not long after it started to rain lightly, good I thought the deer will stay feeding a bit longer in this weather and it will be quieter. 

I eventually made out the shape of a Sambar Stag feeding but couldn't see if he was still in Velvet or not and before it was light enough to tell he had disappeared. Another 20 minutes of waiting and it was light enough to begin hunting my way up the gully with the thermal still dropping cold air down the hill. The gully ran for about 2 km and was quite steeply sided and narrow but reasonably open in the bottom and carpeted with ferns, I wanted to hunt my way up looking for Wallows and Preaches to place a camera on.     

The Gully I was hunting up.

The first thing I noted was the amount of deer sign, piles of pellets and obvious signs of browsing. I hadn't gone too far up the gully when I was honked and heard an animal make its way up hill to my left, I waited a good 10 minutes before carrying on as planned. I crossed over a small creek and made my way to the left side of the gully and continued on my way. About 200 meters further on I was honked again, this time I saw the animal on the left face and watched as it first ran left to right before ducking behind a tree and doing a complete 180 turn and sneaking back to the left at a crouch.  It stopped again behind another tree after about 50 meters and proceeded to look at me trying to work out what I was. I slowly raised the rifle and could clearly see the Deer's face looking intently at me, having no other shot and being only 30 meters away I slipped the safety off, put the cross-hairs on the end of it's nose and squeezed the trigger. At the sound of the shot the deer dropped and slid down hill a little coming to rest against a big tree. 

The Deer where it ended up after sliding down the hill a little, now the hard work really starts, you don't train for the hunt you train for the carry out.

I quickly chambered another round and slowly made my way towards the deer, once I was close enough to see my shot had landed exactly where I was aiming I ejected the round and made my rifle safe. All the while it had been raining and it was only now that I noticed how wet I was, I took a quick picture and set up a small tarp to put my pack and rifle under while I broke up the Deer.

I put out another small tarp and placed the Backstraps, Loin Fillets, Liver, Kidneys and legs on as I removed them. 

 

I then bagged all the meat and hung the legs up in a nearby tree, I loaded my pack with the Backstraps, loin Fillets and offal, then sat under the tarp and made a hot cup of tea out of the rain.

Once I was reasonably dry and I had finished my Tea and a snack I took my small tarp down and shook it as dry as possible before rolling it up and strapping it to the back of my pack. I then made my way back down the gully and out to my vehicle. when I arrived at my car I had a big drink before I loaded up my gear and made my way home to drop off the meat and get my big backpack to carry out the rest of the legs. Once at home I changed into dry clothes and bagged up the meat before placing it all in the fridge. I then loaded up my big backpack with 2 litres of water and some snacks and headed back out to retrieve the rest of the legs.  

The Backstraps ready to bag and go in the fridge.

I spent the rest of the afternoon retrieving the legs and finally arrived back home again just on dark. I hung the legs under the back verandah for the night to set. I was pretty well stuffed by now and looking forward to a hot shower and a big feed, but first I pulled my rifle apart and gave it a good spray with WD40 to drive out all the water from the rain then wiped it dry and gave everything a good oil. After dinner when I climbed into bed around 10pm I had no trouble dropping off to sleep.

I spent the next day cleaning up my gear, washing meat bags and clothes and boning and bagging the meat. It was while doing this I thought of all the practice I had done that enabled me to take the shot that resulted in me taking a fine meat animal.