Flexmark Outdoors was established in 1988. Since then this small company has created some great hunting gear and accessories. They are based in the United States and are mostly known for their hand-made elk calls. It has since been discovered that one of their calls can also be very effective on a different species on the far side of the world. The world’s first and only sambar call has hit the Australian market with the Flexmark Sambar Stalker.
The Sambar Stalker call is in fact very similar to the calls used on elk in the US, but has also proven to be lethal on the Aussie sambar deer. It is said to imitate the sounds of a sambar calf. The small plastic call can be made to produce different pitches and lengths of call, and if you jump online you will find some great video clips from Australian distributor Paul Boag on how to use it.
My dad, brothers and I live in West Gippsland and are lucky enough to get out and hunt sambar locally quite often. When we heard about these sambar calls hitting Australian shores, we were so curious that we just had to have a crack. We managed to get our hands on a couple and hit the bush straight away. I got up in the early morning one day and headed out to stalk the thick bush on a private property we have access to.
Usually when hunting thick bush for sambar, if you hear a loud, close honk, it is quickly followed by the crashing of the deer as it bursts off, often to never be seen again. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you might even see the big ginger behind of the animal! This particular morning, I was slowly stalking my way through the bush and got honked at from about 50 m. Almost instantly I let a few calls out of the Sambar Stalker and the hind stayed put for a few seconds extra as she was second guessing herself. These few seconds gave me enough time to let an offhand shot go from my Sako .270. My first solo sambar was on the deck thanks to the Sambar Stalker!
At the same local property there are two large fragments of bush and we have found there are regularly sambar deer crossing the 150-metre gap between them. It is a good place to sit and wait for the ghost-like deer. One morning I set out and got into position early, trying to catch the sambar sneaking across. About 15 minutes in, that was exactly what happened. I caught a sambar hind in quite a hurry crossing the gap.
She was in a trot and didn’t want to hang around. Luckily, I had the Flexmark Sambar Stalker quickly at hand and gave it a loud go. Again, the call instantly grabbed the attention of the deer. The hind put the brakes on and seemed very interested at the sound. She was very alert and taking slow steps towards me. I lined up my Sako .270 and gave a few more calls until she was completely stopped broadside and took the shot. I believe that if it wasn’t for the Sambar Stalker, I wouldn’t have been able to make a safe shot on that deer. This same tactic at the same place has worked for a stag with 22-inch antlers that my brother Billy shot after Dad stopped it with the assistance of the Sambar Stalker.
All these deer have definitely been interested in the Flexmark Sambar Stalker; it works. Although I personally haven’t been able to call a deer right up to me, there have been two occasions on which this has happened to Dad and Billy. Once the deer came bolting right at them from 200 m across a clearing, while on another occasion a hind snuck silently up to them through the bush and stood in front of them only 15 m away. Obviously there have been plenty of reports on social media of this happening as well, including with some good stags. I don’t doubt it at all as I have seen firsthand just how curious this call makes sambar deer in the Australian bush.
As Paul Boag says in his videos, the Sambar Stalker call isn’t a silver bullet. It doesn’t work every time. But it does work often enough to make it a real game-changer for Aussie sambar hunters. It is a cheap and handy addition to any hunter’s backpack and I for one won’t leave home without it when I head out the door on a sambar hunt.
- Review by Cal Auldist
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