with the rain forecast to stop yesterday arvo i set out with the bow in the rain to check out a couple of bush edges. sure enough a half hour before dark the rain stopped and all was quiet, the birds started chirping and it just had that deery feel.
i hadn't checked out this area of the farm before so was excited to find large manuka and low fern with big belts of grass..... as i drifted along just inside the bush following a deep rutted game trail, i used my sika bush hunting skills taking one or two slow steps and scanning the entire area. with light fading fast, i paused above a small gut, the gut was open and littered with game trails, i slowly scanned the area thinking there has to be an animal here somewhere....i stayed put for ten mins or so as it would be all but dark very soon. then as i took the first step of about ten to reach the fence an animal bolted above me not ten metres away, it charged down the game trail i was on towards me. its fair to say i did a wee poo in my pants as it clanced off to avoid me    . now ive seen the pics of sambar so know they are rather large, but JESUS!! this was a mature hind and was larger by far than alot of red stags ive shot  although i was rapped to see an animal i couldn't help but feel under gunned, might just roll with a rifle till ive got one on the deck.
question, being predominantly a meat hunter i have been told the sambar meat is sh!t. is it the taste that makes it crap or just the fact its grainy and tough? after last night i can see that if i do deck one it shall be a long mission boning the animal and many many trips getting the meat out.
Cheers 

Sambar meat tastes great, the issue is, you rip a beautiful eye fillet off the BBQ and get about three chews into it before it turns into boot leather. It's just no good for steak.

It is however as Chris has noted beautiful for any manner of other goods. I literally live on Sambar sausages, corned Sambar, Sambar salamis etc. Just make sure you have plenty of freezer space before you shoot one.

As for using a bow rather than a 270...You are certainly keener than I. They can take some putting down and you might be in for a long and difficult search if you arrow one through the heart and lungs. They can go some distance with minced organs. A mate with a dog will be your best friend.

Good luck and keep at it!

Take the dog. Sambar will hold better if you have a dog as a mature animal is not scared of a dog. Infact more than one sambar has been shot after chasing a dog back to it owner.
It may be different in NZ as we have wild dogs (dingo and dingo x's) in oz but I think sambar will be the same all over the world

cool finding the pair of casts mate. wicked looking bit of ground also in that last pic

Nice looking country there green hill. Always exciting to explore new country.

I have just got back from 2 days at my possie. Saw a lot of animals including several different stags but as usual no big boys. Saw a couple of stags that had great promise, guessed them to be about 24-25 inches. Will post some footage up on here when I get a minute.

They are mobbed up in groups now. I saw one mob with five stags and five hinds and another mob this morning which number 22 deer! Included in that were several stags. They are taking an interest in individual hinds which are coming into season.

Interestingly I also saw small groups of hinds and calves without stags in tow so presumably these girls are finishing looking after their calves and will come on later and then they will join up with the stags (or the stags join up with them!).

The light was too low for filming but watched a stag mounting a hind right on dark, first time I have witnessed copulation with these deer.

Also saw a young stag still in velvet. He left the main mob he was originally with and say down by himself. The younger stags do a lot of pushing and shoving of each other at this time of year to establish their pecking orders but this guys velvet is probably a bit too tender at the moment to engage in this sort of behaviour!

Sort of frustrating seeing so many animals and I still can't find the big boy I'm looking for but that's hunting. Makes me wish like hell I had caught up with the big one I got scraps of footage of from May last year. Hopefully another big sucker will come into my area and I'll catch him out next time I'm down.

Cheers

Hell! I didn't know they were farming Sambar.    Nice bit of footage there RJ. 

Hook_Grass wrote on Jul 10^th, 2014 at 12:19am:


Hi HG.

I would only be guessing as to age, while I have seen a lot of Sambar over time I have only ever shot one so I can't claim to be an expert on those sorts of things, I understand behaviour better really. But at a guess he would be 4-6 years old I would have thought.

There was actually another one in that group that was similar in antler dimensions although a bit smaller in body and obviously a less dominant stag so I assume he was younger again.

Body size seems to be as good an indication of age as the actual antler size. Will try and post some other footage of a very large bodied animal that had reasonable antlers only, but he was quite massive.

Cheers

Nice one, quit your job get a divorce and sit there for a solid month and the big boy will wander out in front of ya mate.

Primo vid