Camp Stag

FEATURE Anthony Swirepik

Camp Stag

Over the past three years, I have been going through what could only be described as a midlife crisis. My relationship with my wife fell apart in 2020 and I have spent two-and-a-half years playing single dad to my two boys as they finished university and school respectively. It was also a period of personal growth that saw me take up deer hunting after not having hunted much since I was a kid growing up on the New England Tablelands. 

My rookie year as a deer hunter was 2022. I experienced a bit of success, with a fallow spiker in April, a fallow buck (221 3/8 Douglas Score) in May and a red hind in August - three deer from three hunts and three shots. But, of course, I wanted more and I’d developed a hankering to hunt sambar in the Victorian High Country after watching sambar-hunting shows by the likes of Zeb Jones, Daz Hawkings and Rob Fickling while cooped up during the COVID-19 lockdowns of the previous 18 months. 

The logistics of getting into the remote High Country and finding myself in some good deer country had me a bit worried, though, as it is six or seven hours’ drive from my home in Canberra and I just didn’t want to commit the effort and not see deer. So, I started thinking about paying a guide to take me out. It was a happy coincidence that just as I was starting to plan a three-week break in October, Zeb Jones started up his Zebra’s Hunting Adventures business. I quickly made a booking and started getting myself ready for the adventure, with plenty of big hills to walk and some load development for a monolithic projectile for my 7mm-08. 

The three months to prepare myself went by quickly with the unwelcome twist of my four-wheel drive dropping a turbo the week before the hunt, literally as I was driving to the range to finalise my loads. I have to thank my brother and his partner for letting me borrow their ute to get me there and back. 

The mother of my children was also pushing me through our financial settlement at the time, which was adding a bit of stress to the period. Despite all of this, I was really looking forward to my three weeks’ leave, which started with me seeing Midnight Oil play on the lawns of Australian National University with my 17-year-old son on the Saturday night, then driving to Victoria the next day to meet Zeb and get out in the bush. 

I arrived at Zeb’s place at 5pm on the Sunday. We quickly packed my gear into his vehicle and headed for the hills. I was immediately comfortable in Zeb’s company, with lots of talk of hunting, firearms and dirt bikes to keep us entertained as we drove. We arrived at the trail head just on dark and then into the bush by headlight we went. This is when I really started to appreciate Zeb’s lifetime of experience hunting this country as the track was steep with plenty of sharp gullies to cross once we had found our contour that would take us to the creek we would be camping by for the night. There is no way I would have tried this on my own, but with Zeb’s knowledge we arrived at the campsite a bit over two hours after starting, without incident. We quickly had the fly set up and were ready for bed.  

It was a cold night and as dawn broke I was happy in my sleeping bag contemplating the day ahead. It was while we were packing a few minutes later that our plan for the day went out the metaphorical window. 

It has been a while since I’ve bushwalked and camped in a remote spot, and I was wrestling with packing my new sleeping mat when Zeb came under the fly with wild eyes asking me where my rifle and ammo were. At first I thought he was just moving me along so the day didn’t slip away, but then it dawned on me that he was trying to tell me there was a stag nearby and I needed to get up and shoot it! Thankfully the rifle was handy and I knew exactly where the ammo was, so I quickly fed two rounds loaded with 139-grain GMX projectiles into my Sako Finnlight 2 7mm-08. I crawled out from under the fly feeling happy that I had my pants on!

I quickly spotted the stag, which was walking down the steep face opposite us towards the creek we were camped beside. I quickly got myself into position against a tree, checked that I had the Steiner ’scope on about 4x for what looked like an 80m to 90m shot, and lined up the stag. At first look I couldn’t see any of his vitals as he was in scrub and only offering a really tight front-on quartering shot. I figured I could wait a moment and see if he moved, which he obligingly did, coming down the hill about 5m closer and presenting a nice side-on target. I quickly put the crosshairs just behind his shoulder and squeezed off the shot. The shot hit right where I aimed and it was clear the stag was mortally wounded as he bucked hard and took off around the contour. About 30m into his run he went wobbly and I was confident that while he was now out of sight he would be on the ground and easy to find. You can watch all of this on Zeb’s YouTube channel if you are interested. 

It is worth reflecting here that you have got to be ready to take your chance when sambar hunting, I went from fumbling around packing gear to taking a shot in well under a minute. In that time, I needed to know where my ammo was, load the rifle, get out from under the fly, spot the animal, be patient for a moment and then be precise with my shot. Practice people, practice. 

Since getting back into hunting I’ve found that in those seconds after taking a kill shot, my mind is flooded with the elation of achievement and the emotion of having taken a life. Thinking back on that moment as I write this, a smile comes to my face as I think about the joy and peace that flooded into me as Mozart’s Requiem played in my ears - strange given my lifetime of listening to indie rock, but what a grand tune to celebrate my achievement in getting here (thanks Zeb) and the life of the sambar stag. There is also a bit of dark humour that creeps into me now as I reflect that, if I knew then what I know now, the tune could’ve been very different. Perhaps Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues? 

Recovering the stag was straightforward and we spent the next hour or so filming Zeb cape him and take his tenderloins and heart, which we ate for dinner that night, caveman-style, cooked on the end of a stick over coals. Delicious!

What do you do when you have got a stag on the ground, caped, butchered and head cleaned out well before lunch on the first day of a three-day backpack hunt? Loads, it turns out. The stag was wet with mud straight from a wallow when we found him, so we tracked back to the wallow that was only 100m or so from camp. Then we walked a bit further up into the gully system and found a couple of his beds, all great education for this new sambar hunter. We then found a great spot to set up for the afternoon and glass a massive face opposite looking for animals to target the next day, again, great education for me and very relaxing. That night we got honked by a deer right beside the tent while we slept!

The next day we crossed the river and made for the face we had been glassing the day before. Zeb had us targeting a high gully that would remain cool in the middle of the day, likely attracting deer to feed up into it and bed. He was spot on, and we spent a couple of hours glassing a few hinds and an immature stag; again, invaluable education for me. That evening, after an afternoon rain shower, we targeted a different gully that showed plenty of signs but no deer.

The final morning was cool and grey, with rain clearly on the way, so we packed and started the long climb back towards the vehicle. This was when the training I had done in the lead-up to the hunt came in useful, as carrying my gear plus the head out was pretty heavy. I found that while my cardio fitness was fine, I really could have done with a bit more leg strength (longer legs would have been good too) to help me up the slope and the many obstacles that presented themselves. 

So, if you want to get into sambar hunting but you are a bit apprehensive about getting into the ‘big’ country they live in on your own, don’t hesitate to drop Zeb a line and see if he has got a spare spot this season. You will learn heaps and have great company and a brilliant adventure.