Rutting chital on the Queensland floodplains

My grandson Xavier and I had just finished building a bridge over the creek, below the house, enabling access to my back paddock. The humidity had been horrendous, when finally, the skies opened up and some much-needed rain tumbled down upon a thirsty landscape. My phone rang, it was my mate, Matt.

Matt has a guiding business, and a client, Jake, was booked to hunt chital deer trophies during the rut in North Queensland. He would be leaving the day after the school holidays finished and asked if I was interested in lending a hand as camp assistant etc. Of course I was!

We were aware of a cyclone forming off the coast but didn’t let it deter us. We would keep an eye on developments and if need be, shorten the trip accordingly.

At 2am the following morning we were in my ute heading north for a straight-through drive, arriving some 12 hours later. Our home for the hunt was individual air-conditioned bedrooms with a huge open space, under cover, as the communal eating and lounge area.

Thank God for modern technology, with solar electricity, gas stoves and hot and cold water showers, we had a great venue. As we unloaded, the first thing to draw one’s attention was the mozzies, they were in plague proportions, buzzing, biting and just generally annoying.

Jake is a boilermaker by trade and a keen hunter. He had never hunted chital but had some experience hunting reds. He ended up showing a huge amount of patience when it came to choosing his trophy.

The first evening saw us on a massive flood plain with a large billabong stretching about three quarters of the length of it. There were literally hundreds of deer feeding in front of us, what a dilemma that can create for the hunter.

The disturbance to the herd created by the rutting stags calling, running from one of the hundreds of does to another, or chasing opposition stags off, was in a constant state of movement. Stags were locked in combat for dominance while others were in various stages of antler growth. We faced literally hundreds of sets of eyes constantly watching for danger.

Each potential trophy animal required time to assess. By this I mean check for maturity, length and antler thickness, plus colour of cape to be sure it was into full colour phase. All the while the constant buzzing and stinging bites of mozzies disrupted our concentration levels while glassing each mob.

Some stags looked good, evoking the question of whether to take them or wait? As if by king’s decree, another stag would then parade before us, appearing to have better credentials. Our assessments would begin again, only to be thwarted by yet another stag supporting great head gear. 

Being the first night, there was no rush to decide. Jake was showing caution as to whether he should shoot or not, as he should. Matt was about to back out when I called his attention to a stag I thought was worth more than a second glance. Having my Nikon P1000 camera with me I took several distant photos of the stag. Light was poor and the zoom large, but I managed a couple of photos with enough detail to raise some interest. I showed them to Matt and Jake.

After looking at the photos I was more than convinced this was no ordinary stag. His inners were impressive, and he showed weight in the main beams with good length. Matt wasn’t so convinced, but offered Jake the first shot, though he declined. Too good for me to pass on, I hadn’t brought my rifle so borrowed Jake’s .308 Win. About 400m from the deer we began a slow stalk, closing the gap to about 280m.

Using a delicate rise in the ground as a rest, setting the cross-hairs squarely on the stag’s shoulder, I squeezed the trigger. The stag collapsed where it stood. As we walked to where the stag lay, Matt commented something about ground shrinkage, making me somewhat nervous on our approach.

No need for apprehension. As I grabbed the antlers for the first time, I knew instantly I had made the correct decision. In my hand was a beautiful specimen of a chital stag – heavy, long, even, neck swollen from being in the rut with the most magnificent cape. His body size, in comparison to the other deer we were looking at, made him a giant among his peers. During the following few days we noticed body sizes varied, which often made calling the antler size inherently difficult.

I couldn’t have been happier. I have often heard it said to never pass up a deer on the first day that you would willingly shoot on the last day. Over the next week, none of the stags we saw flicked my switch like this stag.

The following day saw us up at daybreak, walking to a known early morning haunt for deer. We were not disappointed; the deer were like fleas on a dog’s back. As the light brightened, we could see many potential trophies in front of us, though three stags were standouts. One was clearly longer than all the others, another had huge tops while the third was just a beautiful mature stag.

The deer were 300m from us, with no hope of closing the gap due to the number of eyes and ears that could bring us undone at any moment. Try as he may, Jake just didn’t feel comfortable taking the shot. Too good an opportunity to let go, this time Matt decided to have a crack.

Using my Manfrotto camera tripod as his rest, he let the largest stag have it, dropping it like a sack of potatoes in the middle of the open plain in front of us. In an instant the plains cleared of deer. Between us and the stag was a large waterhole that may have held a few crocodiles, so we decided to walk back to the vehicle and drive to the stag.

An hour later we drove over the plain to where the deer was last seen. Nothing! The deer had disappeared. We were totally flummoxed, we had watched the deer for approximately 10 minutes after the shot, all of us convinced the stag had met his Waterloo. We searched for blood, Matt went back to where he shot from, then directed us to where the deer had dropped. We gridded the area, searching for a wet spot or a droplet of blood or any further clues, but nothing. The rest of the day was spent searching.

The heat was oppressive, but we continued our search. We had no blood, no leads at all, not even distinguishable footprints. The following day Matt and Jake went hunting while I searched for signs, but still nothing. On the flipside, Jake managed to take a beautiful deer on his hunt.

Matt never retrieved that big deer but did eventually take a great stag after a testing stalk. The stag with great tops was out in front of us, some 500m away, preoccupied with his harem. The wind was howling as we had closed the gap to 300m with barely a skerrick of cover. Matt attempted a shot off the tripod but was buffeted too strongly by the wind. Our only chance was to close the gap more.

Using a slight fold in the ground, we hunched over and moved forward, aware of our vulnerability. Keeping our body and arm movements to a minimum, we slowly approached our prey.

Nearly 10 minutes later we were 50m closer when suddenly another unnoticed stag came along rounding up does. This was too much for our targeted stag, they were his does the fella was taking. Full of ire and intent he bolted toward the thieving marauder.

As the defender approached, our thief decided discretion was the better part of valour and scarpered off with his tail between his legs. Skidding to a halt, our targeted stag glared as his adversary disappeared. This action had brought our targeted stag within 100m. Matt, quickly into position on the tripod, waited for the stag to turn broadside, squeezing the shot off. Not knowing what hit him, the deer dropped.

When we approached the deer, his tops were a standout. What a magnificent deer Matt had taken. Matt, convinced he had taken his best chital stag, was mesmerized. The weather was changing, the tropical low had been declared a cyclone and once again discretion overrode valour, we packed up and headed home.

*The obvious conclusion with the missing deer is Matt’s shot was high, hitting the deer in the spinous processes above the spine, knocking him out on the spot before he recovered. A lesson for us all on shot placement. The Perfect Shot by Kevin Robertson provides excellent insight on the matter.