May 2014.....another unsuccessful sambar hunt

[kombi1976]

I've been banging on about this trip for a little while now and everything did not run smooth before hand. Saturday 10th May my covers band played a debutante ball which was supposed to end before midnight......AND THE REST. I was still packing gear into my VW Bus after 1am. So when Bruce, one of my companions reached my house at 5:30am to pick me up ready for the trip south I'd had no sleep and so slept for a few hours while he drove south. But I should start at the beginning......

I've known Ben & Bruce since my first sambar hunt trip to Victoria in 2012 and both were great fellows. They invited me then to come along on a trip with them but with the birth of my youngest, Tessa, last year I had to hunt by myself a few weeks earlier than they did. Besides, they got snowed out!

Anyhow, I was at Ben's house having him check out my Cadet when Bruce called over and they mentioned the trip. After a short chat I was summarily invited and so I organised the requisite leave and, to be honest, didn't think a great deal more about it. It swept down upon me fast and soon the aforementioned gig and the hunt were upon me. So we headed down to Vic on the Sunday to meet up with Ben and Ian, the other hunter, who'd left the day before. Bruce and I arrived at Jamieson pub and had lunch at midday and then headed into the state forest in search of the others. We'd meant to camp at a site down by the river but the fires 2 or 3 years back killed a lot of trees and the folliage has grown up again, all about 12' high and so thick you can't walk through it. So it was really unsuitable for hunting.


A view across the highlands. Note the dead branches sticking out above the green, the burnt trees amongst the new growth.

Some parts of the forest were ok and we meant to stay at Crows Hut closer to Woods Point but hound hunters had set their gear up permanently. This is against the law, or the rules, or whatever. But hound hunters have a bad reputation. A few blokes with rifles is nothing compared to 8 or 10 blokes with a mobs of beagles and a rifle each. We could either have pulled out their beds and sleeping bags and stuff and thrown it outside.....hoping they didn't arrive before we left.....or we could camp elsewhere. We chose the latter. So it took us a long while to get back down to Grannies Flat campground only 5 mins from Jamieson and get our tent up. It's a lovely location, right on the river and a fave for fly fishermen and families.


Our campsite with both vehicles.


The river looking across at the ford.

Having got set up we were joined by a younger guy called Ben S. who hunts throughout the Jamieson area regularly and he camped with us for the night before dropping us off the following morning at some good hunting spots. Now, I could go on at length about what happened at each location but the entire trip boiled down to this. We saw lots of prints, lots of droppings and plenty of other evidence but deer sightings were almost non existent. Ben S. spotted a hind and fawn on the first day moving away too quick for a shot and Ian spotted a hind on the run on Wednesday afternoon. Aside of that, nada, zero, zilch, zip. It was intensely frustrating and I was more than a little despondent by the end. But the scenery was lovely. Here are a couple of pics.


Looking down across Lake Eildon from a hill just north of Jamieson on Monday 12th.


Looking across the valley from the state forest the following morning.


Sunset on Wednesday.

So, you may well ask, what did we do wrong? Our own post mortem came up with the following factors.....

• The weather was simply too warm. It didn't drop below 3ºC and although there were some very heavy dews most nights these didn't turn into frosts and day time temps were quite mild. Sambar are from India and Sri Lanka and feed at night. However, when the cold snap hits they have to feed in the daytime as well to stay warm enough. The consensus was they were lying up during the day, safely camoflaged, or fled as soon as they got a whif of our authentic woodsmoke-&-sweat odour.
• There was a full moon and it was so bright at midnight you could easily see without a flashlight. I suspect it made them much more skittish along with the warm temps.
• Finally, it's a popular area and gets hunted regularly. Oh, there are TONS of deer about but none put themselves in our harms way.

Lord knows if the wind wasn't behind me I was pretty disguised. Here's a pic:



Anyhow, Ben and Bruce in particular were great company and I certainly enjoyed being away with them. But that's my 3rd "swing & miss" at sambar deer and I felt more than a little ripped off. I intend to go after them again this year as I'm not satisfied to leave it again for another year.

Oh, my other lesson for the trip was 4x4s. Ben owns a SsangYong Musso which runs the turbo diesel Mercedes plant and has a centre diff and rear LSD. No word of a lie, using AT tyres with tread more designed for the freeway it climbed some incredible gradients. With the MT tyres Ben is going to buy it should be able to climb fricken' trees! Bruce's GM Holden Rodeo was no slouch and Ben S.'s V8 turbo diesel 2012 Toyota Troop Carrier was impressive too.

[gitano]

That's too bad you got skunked again. That's about the same story as my visits to Colorado for elk.

I might add that IF sambar are normally nocturnal feeders "Sambar are from India and Sri Lanka and feed at night", and "There was a full moon and it was so bright at midnight you could easily see without a flashlight.", AND there were 'bad' things (hunters) in the woods during the day, THEN they were almost certainly feeding at night and sleeping during the day. This is very typical for hard-hunted white-tails.

Hunting is usually tough on public lands.

Paul

[kombi1976]

It was pretty much the perfect storm of those 3 things. You're right about public land hunting but there are lots of deer taken in that area. I need to be there when it's colder and close to a new moon.

[j0e_bl0ggs (deceased)]

I agree with Paul, it is quite normal for deer in general to feed nocturnally especially near or on a full moon - it's a survival thing.
The main reason is predation which will force them to be out at night regardless of moon phase.
Provenance of the species will have little to do with the feeding habits unlike local predatory pressures.
For example with Roe here, we see them taking advantage of the moon to feed and becoming almost fully nocturnal when a particular forest is being hunted hard.
It is always worth taking into account the moon phase when planning a trip!

BTW - the camouflage was amusing! The real give-away is movement. Scent is important but most hunters know how to hunt in the wind. Hunters know how to rely on their eyes to detect motion the wildlife does this naturally, we have developed 'over thinking' rather than just 'doing'!

[kombi1976]

So you're saying they were able to avoid any day grazing at all during full moon. Never thought about it that way but it explains stuff even better. I just attributed it to them being more skittish due to the extra visibility at night. That's a serious problem when spotlighting small game & foxes on a full moon. It's entirely pointless in fact, as my son and I found out during April.

[j0e_bl0ggs (deceased)]

Self preservation is the name of the game...

[kombi1976]

Self preservation is the name of the game...

Undoubtedly!

[Paul Hoskins]

Kombi, don't forget to turn off the spotlight soon as you shoot.  ......Paul H

[kombi1976]

Kombi, don't forget to turn off the spotlight soon as you shoot.  ......Paul H

:D:D:D:D

Funnily enough, a local police officer came through the camping ground, checked our licences and hunting permits and discussed the deer and their habits. In the midst of the discussion he said:
"If you went spotlighting you'd get a couple along the fenceline of the private land just across the river."
We were all a little bemused by this comment and didn't really respond. Then later he said:
"Of course, if I caught you with one I'd have to give you a fine."
He grinned and we all had a good chuckle. He talked about one local jerk who shot a good stag under spotlight, cut the head off and then left the rest of the animal on the road!:stare:
But he knew who it was and he was biding his time. The guy was going to go down for it.

[Jamie.270]

Oregon schedules their/our mule deer hunts for the full moon in the 2nd half of September, or the 1st half of October every year.
Rain is the only thing I have ever seen that will keep them up and moving during the days around a full moon, and even then it's sketchy (dodgy) at best.
After the first hour or so of daylight, ya gotta get up and push them if you want them moving at all.  Otherwise they will just bed down and beat the heat in a thicket.

One year a friend taught me how he glasses meticulously with his spotting scope, looking into thickets and under low conifer boughs looking for an ear or tail twitch, or any other indication of a bedded buck.  He will sometimes spend a couple of hours and only move 50-100 feet, changing the angle(s) of his view of a hillside or draw.

He has killed numerous nice bucks (while still in their beds) that way, and always claims to see the most deer/bucks, of everyone in camp.  It's a slow, tedious process, but I must admit, when I've tried it, I've seen deer that I never would have known were there, without that method.

Sorry about the poor results Kombi, but it sounds like you had a decent hunt with some good folks.
It's always great to get out and away, and spend some time doing that thing we all love so much.  The trophy and the meat are just icing for the cake.

[davidlt89]

you can see whitetails by the "droves" up here in the fields at night when there is a full moon. God Bless.

[Jorge in Oz]

Hi Andy, sorry to hear you didn't get your Sambar on this hunt. I enjoyed your narratives and pictures though and as Jamie said the hunting part is the bulk of the experience.

Stalking Sambar, I believe, is the hardest of all hunting here in Oz. Nocturnal by nature, they are hard to see and catch. My mate from Qld use to hunt Sambar in Indonesian Borneo and the native hunters would set up tree stands & hides up high in the trees (American style) and that is how they would catch them. They would hang small trinkets in the bushes so when the deer travelled through them they would make a noise to let them know something was out there heading their way. Stalking them is a lot harder but most rewarding when you get one.

May be we'll have a better go if and when we get together for a THL hunt towards the end of year down at Swifts Creek way. We may need to shine a light or two just in case.

Cheers

Jorge

[kombi1976]

Swifts Creek sounds like a great go. Let's line this trip up, eh?

[Jorge in Oz]

Sounds like a plan. Will talk to my mate who has access to the property and see if we can arrange a trip for October/November. I would not want to go up there in December again as it gets mighty warm.

[kombi1976]

Sounds good.
I was chatting with a mate and he felt we needed to be out earlier too, before sunrise.