Well guys as im gearing up for my trip to California in december (cant wait!!) i got out on another hound hunt with our team.
The weather is starting to turn warm here which isnt good, it brings out the snakes and dries the bush out and the dogs knock up so was up at 3:30am saturday morning and off we went to meet up with the rest of our crew in the bush.
Everyone was in the bush by 6am looking for fresh marks and I walked down an old logging track and came across some stag marks that looked ok, about half a k down, i went on to the end of the track about another k and found nothing else so got back out and told the boss i had some that weren't friday nights but would have been early friday morning and i reckon they would go.
The boys took off to their various positions in the bush and so armed with my gun, and 3 beagles i went back in the track to the marks, i let our old starting dog go off on the marks and after a bit of fluffing around he sorted out where the deer had gone and was off cold trailing down the gully, i let the other 2 off and they went with him, our boss let a couple of other dogs go from back at the trucks about 3/4 of a k back and they followed my scent down and were to me in about 5 mins after he let them go.
The dogs then started after catching upto the deer and went into full screaming mode and rushed off down the gully to the river, i stayed on the old track heading down after them, then watching them on the gps they bailed up and i was rushing down to catch them only being 400 yards from them. i got to about 150 and they broke bail and continued down further and a bloke on the river in a known crossing spot at the base of a cliff shot a stag as it jumped into the water. You beauty i thought! then the dogs turned and headed back up another ridge and we realised they must have split up and were chasing 2 deer!
one of our guys on a bike roared around back upto the top of the valley and ran in another old logging road and was in a nice saddle and the deer came out halfway up the hill and he got a good shot into it and it was down.
So both deer down by 10:30 am which was a good start and we then caught trailing dogs and after cutting out way into the track to retrieve the second deer it was 1pm and hot! so back to camp for a couple of cold ones and pack up all the gear etc and head off home to watch the AFL grand final.
Cracker of a day for sure with dogs going like trains.
First stag shot
Second deer shot, bit of a mongrel head with no inners etc.
The weather is starting to turn warm here which isnt good, it brings out the snakes and dries the bush out and the dogs knock up so was up at 3:30am saturday morning and off we went to meet up with the rest of our crew in the bush.
Everyone was in the bush by 6am looking for fresh marks and I walked down an old logging track and came across some stag marks that looked ok, about half a k down, i went on to the end of the track about another k and found nothing else so got back out and told the boss i had some that weren't friday nights but would have been early friday morning and i reckon they would go.
The boys took off to their various positions in the bush and so armed with my gun, and 3 beagles i went back in the track to the marks, i let our old starting dog go off on the marks and after a bit of fluffing around he sorted out where the deer had gone and was off cold trailing down the gully, i let the other 2 off and they went with him, our boss let a couple of other dogs go from back at the trucks about 3/4 of a k back and they followed my scent down and were to me in about 5 mins after he let them go.
The dogs then started after catching upto the deer and went into full screaming mode and rushed off down the gully to the river, i stayed on the old track heading down after them, then watching them on the gps they bailed up and i was rushing down to catch them only being 400 yards from them. i got to about 150 and they broke bail and continued down further and a bloke on the river in a known crossing spot at the base of a cliff shot a stag as it jumped into the water. You beauty i thought! then the dogs turned and headed back up another ridge and we realised they must have split up and were chasing 2 deer!
one of our guys on a bike roared around back upto the top of the valley and ran in another old logging road and was in a nice saddle and the deer came out halfway up the hill and he got a good shot into it and it was down.
So both deer down by 10:30 am which was a good start and we then caught trailing dogs and after cutting out way into the track to retrieve the second deer it was 1pm and hot! so back to camp for a couple of cold ones and pack up all the gear etc and head off home to watch the AFL grand final.
Cracker of a day for sure with dogs going like trains.
First stag shot
Second deer shot, bit of a mongrel head with no inners etc.
