1st evening continued….
So we have passed a few stags including one that would be a shooter in many places. Keep in mind, this is low fence hunting. There is a high fence portion of the 38k acre ranch where there are stags of 500+ inches. We are on the low side…all of the hunters in camp with me are hunting low fence only. That is one of the biggest takeaways from this week; the quality of the low fence side was unbeatable. I stand by that and will offer proof and additional info as we go.
Nestor and I continue stalking and moving on to other fields and transition zones…typical of most deer hunting strategies. One thing I’m picking up on quickly is that the stags seem less tuned in but the blackbuck…geez! Those suckers are wired and on caffeine, Red Bull and crack! You could be 100 feet back from a field edge and in heavy cover in the woods, wearing camo and face mask, moving slowly and playing the wind smartly…but the friggin blackbuck (especially the females) would often see you first from the farthest edge of the field and well back into the cover. Probably 2 out of 3 times, consistently, when I would glass them from way back in the cover, they were already watching me. Amazing animals and on that point, all 11 hunters agreed. The blackbuck are wired tightly and put up with no nonsense! It reminded me a bit of how monkeys and giraffe are so aware in Africa and the other animals use them as sentries.
The sun is setting and we come into another area and see 2 stags that look to be trophy quality. The problem is they are mixed in with numerous hinds (female stags) and worse than that, they seem to be using a small group of blackbuck as their sentries. We tried to sneak in with face masks using all available cover and the blackbuck picked us up quickly. The stags bumped a little bit and went back to feeding. This happened several times and I really didn’t think it was going to work out. Hey, it’s the first night and we are just seeing what’s out here. However, Nestor was so turned onto one particular stag that I took that seriously. Any time a guide really likes an animal, the client should pay attention to that.
I got on the sticks once…then they bumped and we setup again. The larger of the 2 stags goes from feeding to laying down and then is back on his feet again at about 120 yards. The light is fading fast and the sun is down. The larger stag separates somewhat and I send a shot…impact. Quick reload but the animals are all too close together now almost as if they didn’t know where the sound came from. No running yet…I watch and the stag has locked his legs and then takes a little wobble step. I send another round…impact is heard. At this point it’s really too dark to see distinguishing features but he slowly walks to the edge of timber with his head down.
I reload and we walk forward in the dark. I know he’s hit twice. The first hit should be on the shoulder…the 2nd hit about the same but on the opposite side. We get close to where he entered the trees and we hear him on the ground. We turn on a light and I shoot once more out of respect to finish this strong stag. It’s done. As always, it’s a very sobering thing and I stand quietly thinking about him before going forward to get a closer look. Awesome animals. Awesome first hunt with my new friend Nestor.
View attachment 671048
View attachment 671049