Tangimoana Hunt

Thank you for the opportunity to hunt the mighty Sambar Deer. I was disappointed with the end result on my own behalf with a young stag. When I first spotted him on a little nob he was looking back down in my direction. The sun was shinning straight in my eyes and when I looked through my scope at him the first thing I looked for was his head as I was strictly trophy hunting. The angle he stood and the way the sun was shinning on what turned out to be pine tree branches, looked like an impressive rack of antler.

I quickly shot him, cranked another round up into the chamber, through the rifle back up to my shoulder and watched like a hawk over the top of my scope, only to see a hind cautiously trot away. I unloaded the rifle them made my way over to what I thought was a good stag with a good head. How disappointing to find a head with beams approx 1 inch long! If only those tree branches had been his antlers he would have been a bloody beauty.

The weight dressed up on the hook was 103 kg. A special thanks to Lionel for doing some research for me and to Peter Harper from MAF for being so prompt to come out to view the animal and take the samples required to go to the laboratory. I admire how well the Sambar deer herd are monitored - keep up the good work.

 T J Smith.

TOP TROPHY FOR THE 2002 SEASON

As the ute slowly pulled up our drive, you could see by the hooves that this was another Sambar deer to monitor. Two fairly young guys from up north slowly got out, carrying their almost hidden grins, extending their right, bloodied hand's.

After the formalities, I went with them to check their "young" and "wee" Sambar stag that was taking up the best part of the ute deck. "Wee stag" be blowed I babbled as I looked at what was to me the true trophy of the season. The 2 hunters looked at each other a bit strange, at me even stranger, and made some vague comment about blokes that had been to long out in the bush.

"But even the M.A.F. chap reckoned it was only a young one", was the first response. "I even notice that he cut up the throat with a chain saw" was my reply. Again they looked at each other a bit strange, "do you really think that this is not a bad deer ? Craig isn't it", "sure do and sure is, but real shame about the headskin now though" as I looked over what had been a nice maned cape with no scars, clean ears and top coloured features. So I explained to the lucky hunters, that the chance of getting a 30" wide head, with an extremely good cape, and to be out of their ballot block by 9.30 a.m. on their first day hunting these beasts were really slim. In fact their chances of winning lotto had just gone up immensely.

"But the M.A.F. vet was sure that it isn't an old stag, would he know" said the one with the most blood on himself. "Sure would, those vets know their job and are good at it, I suppose that he even helped you to get it up on the ute? but anyway, with this stag being so young and now on the way to a chiller only make this trophy better to me" I continued.

"As with such a stag taken out of the gene pool, you guys have done so much for the future members and their hunters of this herd, that the true value of you harvesting this one before it has had a chance to breed, will thankfully now never be known.

"You really mean that don't you Craig"?. My turn for that almost hidden grin.

 "Well look at it this way guys, your have had a good hunt, really enjoyed your time, outwitted a Sambar stag, harvested him cleanly, his 100kg of meat will be excellent when you get it back from your processor and you had no intention of hanging his head on your wall and why, because he hasn't got, and never would have grown a 'typical' head. He has a 30" spread all right, but the 'typical' head has only 3 points per side, not 4, and due to his shape that he would have passed on, if he isn't fit for your walls, why should this truly unique trophy be allowed to breed, so on behalf of all Sambar lovers, thanks guys".

Best wishes,
Craig

SAMBAR SEASON 2002

As per the usual winter ritual I sent away my Sambar deer ballot hunt application. As per usual I was unsuccessful (only 3 blocks in 11 years), but after a couple of phone calls I had a place jacked up to take the rifle for a walk on for a weekend. So I sent off my $20 license fee and I was soon all legal.

On the appointed Saturday in early September I headed off in the direction of Wanganui, as the day started to lighten. My block was a pine plantation, not yet thinned; surrounded by lush hilly pastureland and some steep and substantial gorse-filled gullies. These gullies are prime year-round habitat of the Sambar, but you'd never know they were there, as they can't be seen when traveling past.

I left the car and, as always, jumped the usual mallard hen off the water supply pond beside the access road. The sun was already well up when I settled into my high vantage spot to make a really close study of thousands of gorse bushes. I worked my eyes methodically over the gaps and it wasn't long before a Sambar fawn came into focus. Mum was bound to be nearby. and yes... big sister too by the looks. They were camped on a clear knob, basking in the warming sun. Obviously they weren't disturbed much here. I really enjoy watching a unique and relatively scarce magnificent game animal like a Sambar, Rusa or Wapiti go about it's daily routine. Maybe its a sign I'm getting old (Sambar are heavy as I recall) or could be maturity, but I only watch most of my deer these days and still go home claiming a successful hunt.

The younger deer were lighter in colour, the older hind being more like charcoal. Similar to NZ Rusa in this trend it seems. They fed on the gorse flowers and grazed the grass in a relaxed manner. They were pretty obviously camped there for the day, as they just mooched around.

I continued to glass up the valley, and up onto the pasture fringes. I'm sure my heart skipped a beat at my glasses settled on two Sambar standing almost right on the crest of the ridge, the sun highlighting the sheen of their coats ... and the 6 points on the antler rack carried by one of them. For a few moments I struggled to hold the glasses steady enough to do a full Douglas Score on the hoof. Good length, points well matched, great brow tines, good outer tops... but medium spread, shorter inners, lightish timber and the fact his body size didn't massively dominate the hind identified him as youngish and below his ultimate potential. About 4 years old I guessed and perhaps 160 DS range?? I relaxed as I made my decision to enjoy watching him, a luxury permitted by a larger mounted Sambar head back home.

They fed a bit but generally they just seemed to be enjoying the warmth of the sun. The stag was a very attentive suitor. He groomed the hind, licking the long hair down her neck and behind her ears. I contemplated how I may get a quality photo chance. The only good place was a ridge about 50m from them, I studied the best approach. I then realised there was a cock pheasant pecking at the grass on the ridge. Scattered cattle and sheep rounded out the challenge.

The stag and hind had been in sight for 20 minutes when I became aware their stance had altered, they were very tense -and then alarmed; the hinds alarm honk echoing down the gully. The other 3 Sambar seen earlier stood at full alert staring fixedly toward the alarm honks. The hind then bolted down into the gully, the stag following closely. I was confused by this; it sure wasn't me that had scared them.

All was eventually revealed when I spotted the figure of a bow-hunter on the neighbouring property stalking the boundary. Later in the morning we were to meet up and enjoy comparing notes. He'd also seen quite a few animals on his block. My rifle was more low-tech than the amazing gear he brandished.

 I returned that evening, and located the group of 3 again in the same place, but no further sign of the stag. I enjoyed the pleasant evening watching the 3 animals feed, and left on dark.

Next morning I watched a hind and a fawn feed out into the open and stand for a long period in the warm sun in a bare winter paddock with the sheep -before heading down into a bushy gully towards the main road, an area I'd never seen them in before. While sneaking around I had a couple of Sambar nearly bowl me over as I got between them and the cover, they sure can run fast. I finished off my sightings with an exciting discovery -the lovely menil fallow hind I'd seen the year before was still around the same patch of scrub, showing that although a lot of people must now know she lived there, everyone just likes to see her and don't blow her away. Gives me some faith in human nature. Hope she meets up with the escapee bucks the bow hunter told me he'd seen on his big block.

I left very happy, sure no venison in the bag but maybe I'll never shoot another Sambar? Maybe I'll see a 200 DS one here some day, I'll keep visiting in hope; for his own health a stag like that couldn't afford to be so blatant as the resident deer -they're surrounded by open farm blocks and he'd have to keep a rack like that under cover. The numbers in this area have increased in recent years, and they seem to have got quieter also, even though they could very easily be poached if the word got around. The future of this unique animal is being secured by landowners like these ones giving them a quiet sanctuary, with the people in the know being discrete and only taking an occasional animal.

I'll be back in 2003 -something I'm already thinking about.

Roger Stokes