NUMBER 6

FEATURE Rupe Hoskin

I started my deer hunting journey for the Deer Grand Slam slowly. My first representative trophy of the six Australian deer species was a 10-point red deer stag taken during the 2000 roar on a Ridge Group property in Queensland.

I then spent many trips down south hunting sambar gaining knowledge and experience. Working my way up from hinds and smaller stags I eventually succeeded in harvesting a representative sambar stag while on a club hunt down at Benny’s.

My next trophy taken was a fallow buck taken in the Hunter Valley on a private property we’d gained access to. I’ve taken several 200+ DS fallow from numerous properties over the years but the one in the photo was the most memorable. I trailed a bachelor herd for over any hour before getting close enough for a shot.

My rusa was taken on a great hunt with my son Ben on the north coast of NSW on a cold June morning in 2018. He was taken on the last morning of a 4-day hunt and the pressure was on. He is my only representation in the ADA top 50.

My chital was taken from southern Queensland after many trips to different locations in NSW and Queensland. Although not a cracker it was a very memorable hunt. It was a spot and stalk hunt with us spotting him right on shooting light about a kilometre away with a difficult stalk in due to the open country and half dozen does that were with him

All of which brings me to number 6.

This hunt started back in November 2021 with a slow Friday afternoon at work. I googled ‘hog deer hunts’ and Neil and Corrie from Australian Hog Deer Safaris popped up. I had 18 or so hog deer ballot badges at the time with only a fourth period on Boole Poole and no shots fired to show for it. I decided to swing the odds in my favour and paid my deposit for a 2025 hunt with Neil and Corrie. I still applied for the ballot but 2025 rolled around and I still hadn’t been drawn, so my decision had been validated.

Three years later in November I received an email from Neil and Corrie to advise my hunt would start on Friday, April 11, and that I should arrive the day before. I rang and confirmed it was OK for my son Ben to accompany me and they said he was more than welcome. I applied for my Victorian Game Licence and then my hog deer tags, which turned up a couple of weeks later. Things were getting real.

On April 10 at 2.45 am my alarm went off but I was already awake. I sent Ben a couple of texts to get up, then finally a phone call got a sleepy response. “I’m up, see you in 20 minutes”. We had loaded the car the night before so it was a quick pick up for the 12-hour drive down south.

Corrie contacted us on the way and we advised an ETA of 4.00 pm. Neil met us at the gate and after a quick meet and greet he said “Follow me in, don’t tail gate me, if I see a stag I might stop quick!” We saw a few animals on the way in but no stags.

Arriving at the house we were shown to our rooms. Neil mentioned Jacko was already on the lookout for stags and pointed to the top of an ominous tower. He said we were welcome to go up and join him. We headed up and stayed up there until dark, looking at deer through our binos and spotting scope. We were like kids in a lolly shop. Forced down from the tower by dark we were greeted by a great meal from Corrie.

The next morning after a quick cuppa saw Jacko, Ben and myself in the tower at daylight looking for stags. We looked over 50 deer and a couple of good prospects were spotted for an afternoon hunt when the wind was better. We headed down for a hearty bacon and egg breakfast.

We went out for a mid-morning hunt to sit near a waterhole and see what turned up. We set up our chairs amongst the tussock about 200 metres from where Jacko thought the deer would cross a shooting lane to an unseen waterhole. The mossies and midges were ferocious but we refrained from putting on any insect repellent. The hinds started emerging from the tussock, then came the stags one after another. One in particular piqued our interest.

After drinking, the deer started filtering back out and feeding in the shooting lane. One was pretty good, not overly long but nice and even. I remembered the advice “don’t pass up a stag on the first day that you would shoot on the last day”. Giving Jacko the nod we all three stalked in to 70 metres. I got Jacko to set up the shooting sticks and we got ready for the stag to present a shot. The stag was facing away from me, which was a godsend as I had more than a little buck fever and it allowed me time to breath deep and calm down to set the shot up. Eventually the stag presented a side on shot. I glanced at Jacko and he gave a slight nod. Focusing back on the stag I placed the crosshairs just behind the shoulder and squeezed off the shot.

The result was not what I expected. The stag dropped in the back end and took off in the direction he was pointing, Jacko said I had shot high and clipped the spine and my bloody rifle jammed for the first time ever. The stag doubled back to where it had emerged from the scrub and all I could do was watch. He ran out of steam well before reaching cover. I was elated, after almost 25 years to the day from taking my first red stag I had completed the Australian Deer Grand Slam. To make it all the better I was accompanied by my long-term hunting mate, my son Ben, to share the moment. Ben and I were both shaking with excitement and it was high fives and handshakes all round.

Australian Hog Deer Safaris is an accredited hog deer checking station so Jacko and Corrie checked the deer while Ben and I watched on and had a couple of celebration ales. Jacko and Ben then caped and broke the deer down ready for the freezer and the trip home.

That afternoon with all the pressure off we went out to a stand and watched 40 deer emerge from the tea tree with an emu and fox also putting in an appearance. It was one of my most enjoyable afternoons spent in the bush, watching so many deer with no rifle in sight. Multiple stags were fighting and or facing off, and young deer were just enjoying life and racing through the bracken fern around our hide. A stag with 17-inch antlers and a broken brow tine bedded within 40 metres of the blind and Ben had his eye on a really heavy stag that was lucky he didn’t have a tag.

When we returned from a fantastic afternoon, Corrie had boiled and cleaned up my trophy ready to go and had another great meal of butter chicken piping hot and ready to go.

Before we left, Ben and I had already booked in again for the 2030 season. The bets are already on between us who will take the better stag.

The last morning, as we departed, Neil gave me an engraved cast antler as a souvenir of our time spent at Lake Reeves Ranch. This was an unexpected surprise and made it straight into the man cave.

Back home Ben scored Number 6 for me. He went 99 7/8 DS. I tried bribery but we just couldn’t squeeze the last 1/8 out the head to hit the 100 mark.