Every hunt is different with some just down right , full-on exciting. Today was one of the above. It began in the usual fashion with the alarm seemingly spitting out its hideous blah blah about 5 seconds after I had shut my eyes. After falling off the bed putting the gruts on inside out I was out the door with the kit and hurtling down the road at a pace that may well have earned me one or two demerit points and soured my little excursion. Where I have been going is a good haul of about an hour fourty five minutes so there is ample time to gobble down pies , sausage rolls and other tasty health food purchased from "yes flesh this morning sir "   bakeries , dotted intermittently every 30km of the trip all with the same recipes as each other ..........if you know what I mean. Any how later on after expiry of said time frame , I hastily extract my chuff from the seat , out of the motorised dutch oven and into what I had hoped would be a slightly cooler morning than I experienced as I kitted up and dove over the bank and into a mature and very healthy bush lawyer. Down to the creek and up the other side takes well over an hour before there is any point in sharpening the senses. I know the animals are holding high up in the creek heads , just like fishing I want to be in the right spot at the right time. As I move along at my top pace leaking like a holey bucket , I put out the odd moan with an every so often , full on Roar , but the bush is all but silent except for the birds enjoying the fine and settled start to yet another day. Eventually I get to within reach of the creek heads , all close together with little finger ridges between and start to notice a little fresh sign here and there.   I decide it is a about time to flop to the ground to top up the radiator , let the temperature settle and the heart rate drop to under 600 beats per minute so I might have the opportunity to hear something other than my organs trying to jump out of my chest.
As I settle back to normal I let out a few grumbles as I  re-fuel . There is no reply until about 10 or so minutes later and it is a half hearted sort of moan only , but better than nothing. I estimated the distance at about 200m away , but without consideration for the ups and downs. So off I went , with the slight zephyr of Catabatic air on my nose to close the gap. I wasnt in any particular hurry , the bush floor was a little crunchy and every thing was good in my little part of the world. The odd moan here and there was returned occassionally with the same.
As I got to within about 100m I roared loudly and directly to receive an instant rebuttal from not one but three different Stags. The original Stag above was still static but one further away on my level sounded furious. He didn't so much Roar as Bellow out seriously loud grunts which , in my experience    occassionally follow a roar. The Stag below was going to cut my wind at some stage and besides , he was a good 400m away. I made the decision to go for old Grunter. To cut a long story short I spent the next three hours getting close to Grunter before he sidled further along . With him went the top Stag and the bottom Stag. They verbally harassed each other and every so often I put in my 2cents worth. I was getting a little annoyed with the whole situation of following the three "turkeys". They hadn't winded my but certainly were not in the mood to check me out. When the three hours was around about done I felt like I was making progress. They were all holed up in a large basin and giving each other "heaps" but from the safety of there own individual positions. I must add in here that old Grunter had all along been Shepherding a number of Hinds and it was their combined prints that kept me on the right elevation. I was closing the gap now and for the last few minutes or so there had been no talking from anyone. I perched on a wee knob above a little creek riddled with Pungas before I let out a low moan. and kept still . Above me there was a roar and also below.......waiting then just a very low gurgle close. I sat , I looked , I waited. I listen , I hear movement . I spot him , 3 tops He is looking at me no further than 15m away. I am ready , I fire , He drops. All happens so fast . The Shepherd is down and out. I am Sad , I am Happy . I am the Hunter. He is my best.

Cracking looking stag, quite the trip!

Regards

BP

nice stag there, enjoyd the yarn too
thanks

Cheers, very good read and cracker head! Well done.

Nice one Harry. You've got to copy and paste the image code and nothing else. Ive corrected it for you so the pics show directly. 

Thanks for that Headcase. You do a mighty job on here.

gidday mate is this a 13? if im thinking of the right person are you the fella I met up the northblock? jaspurs the name