Raining, Deer and Dingoes: Toomba 2007

Eighteen months of anticipation ended in total darkness as I stepped off a quad bike, tied my bow onto a rope and started to climb a gum tree. I was in Australia, Toomba Station in North Queensland to be exact and I was finally hunting Chital deer.

Good friend Ray Scott had asked me at the beginning of 2006 if I would like to hunt Chital deer with him in June 2007. I jumped at the opportunity to hunt a new species. We were to have hunted with Bill Baker, owner of Pacific Bowhunting Safaris, but unfortunately Bill was undergoing treatment for stomach cancer. Good friend of Bill’s and editor of “Bowhunting Downunder Magazine” Graham Cash would guide us.

Chital or Axis deer were introduced to Australia around the same time deer were being liberated in New Zealand. They are generally regarded as the most “attractive” of the many deer species. Looking at photos of Chital on the net while researching their habits showed them to be a striking animal. The stags are about the size of our Sika stags and their antlers are long (30 inches is a sought after length) with mature heads sporting six points. Like Sika, Chital have spotted hides but unlike Sika these spots are particularly distinctive, smaller, more numerous and white. The hinds appeared to be just a little smaller than a Sika hind but a little bigger than a fallow hind.

Halfway up the gum tree I was climbing was a tree stand. Hunting from one of these would be a new experience for me. I felt somewhat vulnerable perched on a small seat off the ground. Fortunately it wouldn’t be light for another half hour so I couldn’t see how high up I was.

As my surroundings emerged from the gloom I saw that I was in a tree on the edge of a large area of bush and of some eight square kilometers of grass. The stand I was in was put there to intercept the large mobs of Chital that fed nightly on the grass. In the morning they would walk to their bedding areas situated in the bush behind me. Three tree stands were placed along the bush edge spaced approximately 200 yards apart. I was in the center one and Graham was confident that this was the right stand to be in. Time would tell. It was cool perched in the dim morning light with the temperature around 12 degrees but the day promised to be very hot.

Top Aussie bow hunter Dan Smith had told me about the bountiful bird life at Toomba Station and he wasn’t wrong. Just as the sun poked its head over the horizon it was as if someone had flicked a switch as the pre-dawn silence was shattered by thousands of bird calls. Over the next twenty minutes they all took to the air, leaving their overnight perches in search of food. What an experience.

Looking about I quickly realized the grass below me was not like our grass. It is anywhere from two to seven feet tall. The grass was eaten short around the stand, growing to three feet high 50 yards out. This was higher than all of the deer, bar the tallest antlered stags. I glassed and glassed for ninety minutes through my 10 power Leica Geovids before I saw a deer. The time was 7.55am and what I thought was a hind but turned out to be a stag that had cast its antlers, appeared on the edge of the paddock 422 yards ahead of me. It waited 20 yards in from the bush edge looking out into the paddock for almost ten minutes before trotting out 80 yards across a dried swamp to the safety of the long grass.

One of Kevin's morning hunting areas

I was pleased to have seen my first Chital and it only took a few minutes for me to see my second, third …and thirty-first. A large mob of around thirty deer appeared from the trees 100 yards to the left of the first deer. They slowly eased out of the cover and began feeding along a strip about 120 yards wide between the basalt wall and the grass. The geography of Toomba Station is quite unique with the Aussies calling it basalt country.  Ten thousand years ago lava flowed for some 120 kilometres over the landscape. Fingers of lava up to 20 feet high spread out from the main flow that is up to 10 kilometres wide in places. These fingers provide refuge for the chital as broken surface of the basalt is virtually impossible to stalk quietly on.

As the mob spread out on the strip I could see two stags, one of which was particularly interested in a hind. From what I could see the larger of the two stags had a reasonable set of antlers. The tops were short so I estimated his antlers to be between 23-25 inches long. The stag pushed the hind closer to me but they were still 250 yards away. As he followed the hind he roared. It was an unusual roar, sounding like four sika single calls but very “songlike, birdlike”.

At Toomba the Chital breed all year round. This is why you can see stags with cast antlers and stags in rut in the same morning. The warm climate creates this rather unusual situation. Ray had told me about this before we arrived but seeing is believing, very confusing for a kiwi hunter.

This was looking really good for me with the stag pushing the hind, bringing him very quickly to my tree stand. The rest of the mob was following them. I nocked an arrow. They all passed a large gum tree 200 yards away. The mob fed around it for a few minutes before moving in my direction. I would later find out that there was a tree stand in that particular gum tree. When the stag was 150 yards away he realized that the hind was just stringing him along. Abruptly he turned tail and trotted back the way he came and out of sight. The smaller stag followed him.

Graham "Cashy" Cash 

The mob was still coming my way but now at a much slower pace, just mooching along. Moving towards their bedding area they mob spilled over the basalt feeding as they went. They were now around 100yards away, I readied for an opportunity. It was now 9am and starting to warm up. The mob was spread out a little with some heading into the trees behind the stand but the majority starting bedding down on the warm basalt rocks. That wasn’t part of my plan. I ranged them at 106 yards. Things were about to get worse as the wind was blowing from the paddock into the trees. I took a few photos of the deer bedded down, waiting for the inevitable. The deer that had fed behind me got my wind, alerting the mob. Soon I was alone.

It was apparent that I was in the “Wrong” stand on the first day. I called Graham on the radio and he and Ray picked me up in an old Landcruiser. Ray had no luck either with a hind winding him in his stand and taking all the deer in bow range out of it as she fled the scene.

That afternoon Graham and I hunted in the heat of the day to look for deer bedded down. The Chital like to bed down under shady trees. The plan was to spot the deer at distance then stalk in using the grass (waist high) as cover. Graham pointed out several fresh stag scrapes, while encouraging we didn’t see any deer.

Discussion that night focused on the day’s events and where to hunt the next morning. I quizzed Graham about the Chital and he outlined the three basic rules of Chital hunting. Rule number one is aim low, rule number two is aim low and rule number three is aim low. Chital have lightning reflexes and frequently drop down out of an arrow’s path. Graham said that he could not recall anyone ever shooting low. Little did Graham know but he just put the commentators curse on me.

State of Origin 2

Wednesday morning saw me head out again into the darkness to the stand the mob had been feeding around the previous morning. In three hours time I would call this the “Right” stand. Graham used one of the farm quads so as not to alert the deer by using a vehicle unknown to them. He also followed a well-worn loop farm track for the same reason.

At 7.50am I saw the antler-less stag again. He was in the same place. Five minutes later the large mob I saw the morning before appeared right on cue. This time a larger stag (28” antlers) was with them. They milled about on the bush edge for 10 minutes before they felt safe to head to the bedding area. My luck was in as they starting trotting along the farm track and would pass within 20yards of the stand. They were moving too fast to range so I relied on remembering the various landmarks I had ranged earlier. I didn’t know how the deer would react when I drew the bow and my lack of experience saw me draw too soon. Some of the deer were only 15 yards away and they reacted to the movement. Some ran off, some stopped. The stag stopped looking at the deer in front of him. He was at the back of the line and further out than I would have liked, I guessed 42 yards. Placing my 40 yard pin low on his chest I executed a perfect shot. It would have been more perfect if it had hit the stag but the arrow went just under, yes under, its chest. He just stood there perfectly still, I couldn’t believe it, the stag was supposed to drop. Before I could reload he ran to catch the rest of the mob and was gone.

I hardly had time to reflect on the chance when I looked to my left to see a mob of fifteen deer walking past 50 yards out. I effortlessly drew the 62lbs of my Hoyt Vectrix back. I lined up on the lead hind and squeezed a shot off when she stopped. By the time the arrow arrived the hind was a full body length away. Wow, two extremes, one deer not reacting at all to the shot and another super fast. Two shots in two minutes and more was to come. A third group emerged ahead of me. No stags in it with two spikers acting as rear guards. I didn’t want to shoot at the two spikers so I let the mob of ten deer run past me at 15-20 yards. This proved to be a good call.

Just as that mob went past I saw two more deer appear 100 yards in front of me. They were running along the same path. A hind was in the lead with the second deer, a spiker a few yards behind. The hind stopped on the track and licked her left side. I estimated the range to be 25 yards. With her head turned I drew the bow. Deciding on a quartering on shot I placed my 20 yard pin at the base of her neck. She brought her head back around and looked down the track towards the basalt just as I moved my right elbow back. I didn’t see the arrow speed across the gap between the tip of the broad head and the hind but heard that it had struck its mark, or so I thought. The hind turned to her right and then she powered across the dried up swamp to my right. Her destination was to the apparent safety of the long grass covering the paddock on the other side of the swamp. It took the hind less than ten seconds to cover the 200 yards from where I shot her to reach the waist-high grass. I was surprised she made it that far, expecting her to drop halfway across the swamp. 

She slowed to a walk as she weaved her way through the grass. I was glad to have good optics on me as I could easily make out the top of her back in the grass but after she had moved 20 yards through it she was gone. 

Uncertainty over my shot now hit me. Most deer if hit properly would have dropped halfway across the swamp but she had made it all the way to the other side. Had she kept on going in the long grass, hidden from view or had she simply died where I had last seen her? The minutes ticked by as I scanned the area for any sign of her, all the time running the different scenarios through my head, wondering what had happened. I was about to get the answer and it came from a most unlikely source, a bird. One about the size of our native falcon flew 20 feet over the spot I had last seen the hind, circled twice then landed in the grass. It turned out to be a forked-tailed kite and it looked like it had found my hind. I called up the boys and soon the Landcruiser was parked under the treestand. I told Ray and Graham what had happened and where I thought the hind was and why. Picking up the blood trail was easy, I felt good about this because the hind had fair belted for cover. Despite the long strides she took, the blood trail was easy to follow, a sign of a solid hit. Graham and Ray were keen on following the blood trail but I wasn’t really that interested in following it, instead setting my sights on where I had seen the kite land. It didn’t take long to cover the spongy surface of the dried swamp and reach the long grass. As a precaution I nocked an arrow. Moving through the waist-high grass we continued to find blood and then a few yards in front of us the kite took to the air in a panic. Any doubts I had over the shot were gone, there lay the hind, man was I happy. If I thought I was happy then Ray was even happier.

Kevin with his first hind

He was extremely pleased for me. I felt very fortunate to be hunting with Ray. Two years earlier Ray had spent a week on Toomba and while he had opportunities Ray ended up going home empty-handed. Those of lesser character may have been miffed not to have shot a deer first but not Ray.

Doing a quick autopsy I found the hind had jumped the shot with the arrow hitting her on her left side instead of her right where I had been aiming. The arrow passed through her chest coming out by her back legs. Looking at the hind I had to agree that they were a striking looking deer.

That afternoon Ray and Graham discussed the options for the evening and decided to hunt from “Stralia” stand. “Stralia” stand got its name because of a piece of basalt at the base of it that is the shape of Australia. “Stralia” stand was at the end of small peninsula of basalt around 3 feet high. It faced the homestead overlooking a large feeding area. To Ray’s right was a large swamp with a small pond in the center of it. Straight ahead and to the left lay open grassland. The deer usually fed out from basalt bedding area to Ray’s right and past the stand well within bow range.

Getting into the stand early so the area would be pristine for the evening hunt Ray had a few hours to pass before the action started. For the kiwi hunter, waiting up a tree would seem like the most boring thing you could ever do but it’s not. Having spent the previous two mornings in one myself, it surprised me just how quickly time passed. As Ray waited he was treated to a wide range of wildlife moving around him with the highlight being an Echidna.

An hour before dark Ray spied a mob of 11 Chital as they ventured out to feed. Ray first saw them at 180 yards. Rather than emerge from where predicted, the right, they came out behind the stand and to Ray’s left. The mob hugged the natural contours created by the basalt as they picked their way through the long grass towards “Stralia” stand. Unfortunately there were no stags in the mob, just a mixture of hinds, spikers and yearlings. Ray was eager to put a Chital on the deck so decided to take the first good opportunity at a hind. It took the mob almost an hour to feed into bow range. Two spikers walked past the stand and around the top of the small pond, two hinds followed. Ray carefully ranged the closest hind, 20 yards. Side-on to Ray he drew his Hoyt Vectrix back to full draw as she dropped her head down to feed. With his pin sitting mid-chest Ray sent his arrow on its way.

The next sound that reached Rays ears was not the sound he was expecting or wanting. It was the sound of an arrow hitting the ground, the shot was high. Both hunter and quarry were surprised. Without thinking about it Ray nocked another arrow as the deer bounded five paces further out. Unsure what was going on it stopped, somewhat confused. The hind was now quartering away with its head to the right. Taking into account the extra distance Ray quickly sent another arrow towards the hind. Ray cursed as he realised he had rushed the shot. The arrow passed within 1/2inch of her right shoulder landing six feet past her in a cloud of dust. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred after firing two arrows at a deer you would expect never see it again, what happened next I have never seen. The hind looked at the arrow quivering in the ground, trying to work out what it was. This gave Ray a third chance.

Ray with his hind

Already having had two practice shots Ray made no mistake on his third shot. The 125 grain Montec whipped straight through the hinds chest. It looked and sounded like a good hit. Ray lost sight of her as she ran for the safety of the basalt bedding area. Darkness was starting to close in so Ray climbed down out of the stand almost immediately confident the deer was dead. A good patch of blood greeted Ray when he reached the spot the deer had been hit. Looking to where the deer had run he saw her only 20 yards away piled up in the pond. Ray called Graham and me up on the radio and we headed in to pick him up. He could not contain his happiness as he had a permanent grin on his face. This was absolutely fantastic, two deer shot on one day, it doesn’t get much better than that but it did. That night we watched Queensland spank New South Wales in the second State of Origin match.

Later in the night it rained. This was a bonus I thought as it would wash away all of our scent from the hunting areas. What I didn’t know is that we wouldn’t see the sun again until we got to Brisbane Airport four days later.

The Rains Came

It poured that night and turned into a constant drizzle for the morning hunt. I hunted “Wrong” stand again and it lived up to its name. The closest a deer got to the stand was 400 yards. Ray also had no luck. For the afternoon hunt Ray sat in a stand in “Middle Alley” a main thoroughfare for the chital. Just after Ray got into his stand it poured. Graham was thrilled about this as according to him “you can just walk right up to the stags in heavy rain and simply poke an arrow into them”. After two hours of power walking in the heavy rain I worked out that the stags must know this as none were about.  

Graham, Ray and I spent Friday searching for deer at a spot called Four Corners. The country around here is what the Aussies call the sand hill country. A classic Aussie description, it was basically flat, no hills and covered in trees and grass. Despite the misleading description it was great country to hunt and screamed deer. Spreading out we covered a lot of country with light rain falling all of the time. Kangaroo’s and wallabies were everywhere, a good sign according to Graham as this means the food in the area is appealing to deer. Two hours later we met up, no deer had been seen even though there was an abundance of “Rub trees”. This is an Aussie term for a tree a stag has rubbed his antlers on, not a type of tree. We headed back to camp. Shortly after we arrived the heavens opened.

Two pm rolled around and the rain had eased to a light drizzle. Graham took Ray out to a tree stand in the basalt. Just as Graham got back the rain came down heavier than before. I laughed, Ray would be saturated. Graham and I delayed our departure for as long as possible hoping the rain would ease. It didn’t but it wasn’t going to stop us going for a hunt.

Stalking along the bush edge I spotted a dingo out in the open. Graham howled at the dingo. Its ears picked up and he came quickly towards us. We moved towards it as well but the dingo stayed 65 yards away from us. Not having a pin for that range I estimated where 65 yard pin would be and let rip. Graham said the arrow just cleared its back. The dingo ran 10 yards and then came back to see what had almost hit him. I watched it sniff the arrow. It must have got a nose full of my scent as it turned tail and ran for the hills.

An hour later we were stalking the edge of a small lake. Graham led the way as the rain came down just a little heavier and the temperature dropped a couple of degrees, fantastic. This is where I was very pleased to have thrown in two extra items of clothing, a Bow hunting New Zealand magazine beanie Matt Willis had given me and a Stoney Creek Silent Series top. The top kept the worst of the rain out and the beanie kept me warm. Six foot high reeds surrounded the pond flanking us on the left while waist-high grass was on our right. With all of the rain we were able to move relatively silently through the grass, our noise masked by the heavy droplets falling around and on us. All of a sudden the back end of a hind materialized 20 yards ahead. I fumbled in the wet to nock an arrow. Moving two paces forward I could see three deer feeding next to the tall green reeds. I called to Graham and he slowly lowered himself down, out of sight and harms way. One of the deer was side on to me. Facing left its head was lifted so it could nibble on something tasty high in the reeds. I guessed it to be only 18 yards away. Drawing the bow I instinctively lined up my green 20 yard pin low on its left front leg. The shot went off easily and the sound of a solid hit could be heard through the heavy rain. All three deer literally exploded away from the reeds, heading for cover. One went high back to the basalt while the other two ran 20 yards above the pond but parallel to the reeds. They were soon lost from sight in the high grass. I thought the deer I shot at was one of the two that ran off together but I couldn’t be sure. I also thought I saw the deer react to the shot going off, so once again I had doubts as to where the arrow had gone. Graham was unsighted so could shed no light on where the deer was hit.

Cashy with Kevin's second hind

Unlike the hind I had shot two days earlier there was no time to ponder, the heavy rain would soon be washing any blood trail away. I looked for the arrow but there was no sign of it, lost somewhere in the vegetation. There was good blood where the deer had been standing and it was easy to follow but after following it for 20 yards it began to disappear due to the rain. It was after 5 pm and was getting dark making the blood even harder to see. We decided to split up to look for the deer. Graham followed a likely trail in the grass not far from the reeds while I ventured a little higher. It was less than five minutes since my shot and we were looking for a dead animal. It was impossible to find blood; any sign had simply been washed away. Pushing through the dense waist high grass for a few minutes I yelled out to Graham, “Here it is”. My second Chital lay on top of the grass very dead and facing back the way it had come. It had traveled about 60 yards from where it had been feeding. Graham was quickly at my side shaking my hand. Turning the deer over confirmed it had reacted to the shot. There was no hole where there should have been on its left hand side. Turning the deer over we could see the arrow had gone in the front of its chest between the front legs coming out behind the right hand shoulder. I was amazed how fast the deer had reacted. It was a short walk back to the accommodation where we had left our cameras. I took great delight having my photo taken while kneeling in a large puddle of rain water. How often does that ever happen in the Northern Queensland dry season?

Ray glassing for Chital

The next day Ray and Graham stalked in on a feeding stag with antlers around the 26 inch mark. Over an hour had passed as they covered the 400 yards of open ground to get within bow range. Tucked into some light cover Ray ranged the stag at 42 yards. He waited for the right moment. As the stag moved into a broadside position and lowered his head to feed Ray drew back putting his 40 yard pin halfway up its body. Ray released his arrow as the stag fed, perfect timing. On release the stag dropped down on his hind legs, wheeled around 180 degrees and bolted for the cover. Rays arrow was right on target but the stag had moved completely out of the way. It ran out to 60 yards stopping to work out what had just happened. There was no chance for a second shot and they watched the stag disappear into the long grass. Ray and Graham were both amazed how quickly the stag had reacted and Ray’s bow is particularly quiet.

During the last two days of hunting at Toomba Ray and I saw a lot of deer. No more stags were seen, the rain spreading them far and wide over the property. Like all good trips it came to an end far too soon, it had been one of the best hunting trips I had been on. Graham is a brilliant guide doing everything he could to get us a stag each. We both had shots at stags so could ask for nothing more. On our way home Ray and I were fortunate to catch up with Bill and Linda Baker at Townsville Airport before we left. We had a good yarn and Bill was thrilled with our success. Regrettably Bill succumbed to his illness on August 20^th.  Bill’s passing is a huge loss to bowhunting in Australia and his regular column in Bowhunting New Zealand Magazine will be missed by readers on this side of the Tasman.

Ray and I will be heading back to Aussie soon as we both have unfinished business with the Chital. 

Ray taking a picture of Kevin

On behalf of Archery Addix, I would like to thank Kevin Watson of Advanced Archery New Zealand who kindly agreed to allow Ray Scott (dream rider) to submit this incredible story to the AAF Blog. Kevin has for many years made regular contributions to New Zealand and Australian bow hunting Mags.