well, that was interesting.
a short story for now but on arrival we were not greeted well with the locals o nthe road that accesses the National Park... i wave an get real dirty looks.. "ok these peolpe hate deer hunters" i said to myself....
I met the bloke who was comin for the couple of days at the top of the track an descended down to the river bottoms... within an hour the Farmer turned up with lots to say...
some allegations were thrown around and he made it very clear on his views and opinions on the amount of illegal deer poaching that has been going on recently in that area.. THE same #### as what i deal with here...... So after explaining myself, situation and what i was there to do, he left on good terms and happens to dabble in guiding for bowhunters nearby on his property but as all victorian farmers, just sick to death of people shooting into propertie off the roads at night and taking nothing by the head... its going on just too bloody much.
so, weird vibes about the area from the get go, im somewhat cool with that sort of a revving from locals but im ashamed that i am a deer hunter who is tarred with the brush of the thermal/spotlighting 'mixed races' of hectic often poaching..... That god i got a face that anyone could recognise on a dark street corner and my ute is similiar.....
dissapointing to feel these feels, legal hunting is such a minority yet if you read stats, they claim 55,000 licensed deer hunters - not one menton that 60% of those licensed are illegally doing it, an the fact a paper over the counter permit isnt cutting mustard differentiating, hunters from Cnts!!! GR rant over for now.
Hunting was good but evident of lack of Stags on the hinds, i did see a few but they were the sort that spotlighters leave, or a 'wonky' head per say.... dissapointing again. but adbundant hinds, So i hunted a big day an toward lunch down near the river after coming up from over the ridge top, i caught up with some deer i thought was a hind and calf, afer filming them for a long time hoping a stag would arrive i was certain there was no stag and felt that 8 hinds already for the morning was too many...considering there was only 1 stags that i seen, i decided to take the two younger deer.
unfortunatly turned out to be young males pre spike? so still flat tops an whooda known...
i grabbed the backstraps out and headed back about 3-4 k by now to camp along the river bed , thats when i spied a great animal enjoying the sun down by the bottoms. pic attatched.
i return to camp to find old mate had been back for 'hours' ..it was now 3pm,... and that when he pointed out where he walked hunting, i wondered WTF he had been doing for the previous 4-5 hours.... lol... fair to say he packed up as he "was buggered" and headed home....
me not wanting to confront any poachers i also packed up an hour later an left for my own personal hut..... wasted time to some degree.....
heres a few photos
hello
i think that covers it for now haha
