DEX’S FIRST STAG

FEATURE Cameron Wendt

The dreaded alarm sounded at around 5 am for the usual Sunday morning hunt. I shared a quick coffee with a couple of good mates while we waited for the first bit of daylight to appear and discussed a game plan on where each of us would like to go.

Daylight appeared, and we all separated in different directions. I decided I would take my pointer Dex for a walk up an old track that followed the floor of the main gully system for a few kilometres to see if anything had crossed it sometime during the night. Maybe we’d be able to track it up? After reaching the end of the track and not finding anything that looked fresh enough, I thought, “Bugger it”, we'll wander up this side gully to a well-used wallow I knew of and see if anything had visited it lately.

After a bit of a push up the side, we got to the wallow. To my surprise, there'd been a big-footed stag in there not that long ago. With his mud trail leading out of the wallow still nearly dripping, I knew this would be a really good opportunity for Dex to try and track him. I didn't really expect too much from Dex, seeing that he was not even five months old yet, but he has already seen a number of deer on the ground and is really keen on scent trailing them. Dex led the charge and off we went. We contoured up the gully around a few small spurs, still following the mud trail. There were a few times when I thought we'd lost him as we couldn't find any marks due to the dry conditions, but I kept telling myself, "Just trust the dog."

Sure enough, a bit further along there was more mud. We had one more spur to go before the gully turned really steep and thick, and I knew that around this next corner would be our only real chance of getting a crack at him. We snuck around the corner as quietly as we could in the cornflakes and, sure enough, there was the stag on the opposite face around 60-70 metres away. he was on the move with his tail up, heading out after hearing us come around the spur. I dropped to the ground straight away and called Dex back behind me as he was out in front by about 10 metres.

The stag stopped as I called out to Dex. He was facing away, but looking back over his shoulder at us. There was a bit of scrub between him and us, but I thought this would be my only opportunity and took the shot. The 270 barked and the stag dropped on the spot, then rolled end over end about 4 times down the side into the creek. I never really got a good look at how big the antlers were, I just thought I needed to reward Dex after tracking him for so long. It wasn’t until I walked around above him and could see the stag in the creek that I saw how good he really was…and was glad that he was still intact after the fall.

I eventually got onto the other boys and told them what had just gone on. After a few pics and a bit of reward for Dex the hard work began. It was a fair mission caping the stag out and getting what meat I could off him in the position he was in, but we got it done. The boys finally turned up and we carried out what we could. I can’t wait to see him up on the wall and reminisce over the years to come. His antlers ended up going just over 29 inches long. It had been a bloody good hunt!