The Beast ‘From’ The East

The time had come after months of planning and anticipation. It was the last week of march and with the ute and trailer loaded we were off to Gisborne to chase roaring red stags! It can be abit hit or miss at this time of year although we were hopeful that the stags would be roaring.
After a 4am start and eight hours in the vehicle Shaun, Tim and myself had arrived at the station where we were greeted by the fourth and final member of our hunting party Mike. It was time for a quick brew (coffee), few jokes and a yarn then we loaded up the quads and headed for the hut out back. After about an hour we were at the hut, we unpacked the gear and settled in.

Unloading the quad bikes upon arrival at the Hut.

After camp was set up we went for a stroll up to a high point overlooking a couple of gullies to see if we could catch a few deer out feeding just before dark. Also to see if we could hear that beautiful sound of a red stag roar. We found a nice spot to glass from and settled into the side of the hill. There were plenty of deer starting to move out on the feed and we spotted what looked to be a nice stag but with the sun setting and the stag being out of range we decided to leave the gullies undisturbed as it would be the area we were hunting on first light the following morning. The really exciting and promising sign was not the deer that we seen but the deer we heard. Within the hour or so that we were up there we heard 7 different stags roar! Talk about excitement! Back at the hut the plan was hatched that Tim and Mike would head down one ridge, Shaun and Myself would head down the other.

When morning finally came we made our way up to the high point then went our separate ways. We managed to hear a few stags roar but they weren't getting too fired up so we kept pushing down the ridgeline. We were due to go for a short trip in Mike's good friend Dave's Helicopter from Gisborne Helicopters at 10am so at 9am, so being aware of the time we radioed the boys to see how they were getting on. We got the reply that they had just got back to the hut and were waiting for the chopper to turn up. With this in mind started our walk up the ridgeline when we heard a stag roar then after we replied he really got fired up. He was on the other side of the ridge the boys had already been down so we radioed them to see if they wanted to make their way down and have a go at him. Their reply was "na you boys have a crack if you want", not gonna say no to that opportunity. As we were having a discussion on how we were going to plan an approach on him, we heard some crashing coming over the ridgeline and onto the face of the gully across from us followed by some beautiful roars! He was making his way to us!! We headed higher up the ridgeline as we knew there was some nice open clearings in the bottom of the gully higher up. We were hoping to pull him out in the open there to get a clear shot. Once we were in position above the clearings we could still hear movement on the other side of the gully but he wasn't roaring as often or as strong as he was earlier. The decision was made that Shaun would stay up on the ridge and keep him roaring and I would make my way down and try sneak in on him if he wasn't going to come to us.

I was very cautious as I made my way down into the gully not to make too much noise or be seen by him first as that would ruin my element of surprise, the one element we had in our favour at this stage. As I got closer to the bottom of the gully the scrub began to thin, I had to be very careful that he wasn't watching me. So it was lots of small movements and taking cover behind scrub bushes. I reached the clearing and nestled down behind a scrub bush while I scanned the surrounding bush to see if I could spot the stag. At the same time I was looking for a route across or around the clearing that would give me enough cover to continue my approach. The last roar I heard was up above the clearing on the other side of the gully maybe 100 yards in. The clearing had a big scrub bush in the middle of it which I thought I seen some movement on the other side of.

Then I got my first glimpse of the stag. At first I thought it was a spiker as I only saw two little what I thought were antlers 80 yards away over the top of the scrub bush. As he continued to make his way across the clearing he soon revealed that it wasn't his whole antlers I had seen but just two of his tops on his right hand side. I quickly dropped down behind the the scrub bush I was using for cover and attempted to load my 300 win mag as quickly and quietly as possible. After loading the rifle with a little bit of noise which I wasn’t happy with myself about, I took a deep breath to control my nerves and heart rate, I popped my head up to see if he was still there. I couldn't see him, dam he heard me and has gone I thought to myself. Only to be wrong and see him reveal his beautiful set of antlers from the behind the same scrub bush I had originally spotted him. He continued to make his way through the clearing ,so I popped back down behind the scrub bush to calm myself to take the shot when he revealed himself in the open. I had decided I would wait until he had made his way past the big scrub bush in the clearing, that would give me a clear shot and he would only be around 40-50 yards away. With my heart pounding as I peered through the scrub I was using for cover I began to see him come into the open. First his antlers then his head then neck and shoulder at this time I slowly stood up and raised my rifle placing the crosshairs on his shoulder as he slowly walked out into the open. He had his head up and tipped back trying to catch wind of the other stag/us that was in his territory. I waited for him to stop to make sure my shot was going to be placed just in behind his left shoulder. Just as another scrub bush began to threaten my clear line of sight on him he stopped and I squeezed off the trigger. He faulted then went to take off, I quickly reloaded and jumped around the other side ready to put another round into him if need be but the shot was good and he toppled over. Then the voice of Shaun came from the top of the ridgeline, "you get him bro"? I happily replied with "yea bro he's down". I waited for Shaun to make his way down into the gully and we walked over to the beautiful big 13 point red stag together! After a fair few yahoos and hand shakes it was on the radio to tell Tim and Mike about the monster stag they had passed up and left for us. Perfect timing as they were just about to take off in the chopper. After a congrats from them both they said, “we will swing by in the chopper for a look”. Little did we know but Dave had mentioned to the boys that they should fly the stag out using the chopper to save us the carry. As the chopper came up the gully and lowered down over the clearing Shaun and I were surprised to see Mike jump out of the chopper with a strop and loop it over the stags head. Perfect result for us as we later weighed the monster stag and he went 184 kg gutted. Would have been a very long day for us to get him out!

The ‘Beast’ being lifted out by Dave at Gisborne Helicopters.