THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Stalking Sambar
The sambar deer is widely regarded as Australia’s greatest hunting challenge. The rewards that flow from pursuing this elusive animal are equally great.
Story and photos Alistair McGlashan
Drenched to the bone, the hunter stands shivering at the base of a remote gully in the country around Victoria’s Big River. He is oblivious to the miserable conditions. His eyes scan the fresh set of prints that he’s been ‘walking up’ for the last hour. With a pounding heart, he edges forward, following the stag’s tracks into a patch of thick dogwood. Seconds later there is a loud ‘honk’ off to the left. Spinning around, the hunter catches a glimpse of a heavy-bodied stag making good his escape over the ridge. There is no chance of a shot, but just sighting such a big stag is enough to make the hunt a success – such is sambar hunting.
Widely considered the toughest
of all game species to hunt, the sambar, particularly a stag, is seen as
the pinnacle for most hunters in Australia. There is something
special about stalking sambar that makes it stand alone from all other
styles of hunting. To stalk sambar successfully, hunters must show a level
of dedication
far greater than that required to hunt any other animal. As a result, sambar
hunters tend to be an extremely committed group truly passionate about
the deer. For them, hunting is only a small part of a much greater picture.
When
you talk to deer hunters, the tales they relive are not of the deer they
killed, but the encounters they had. “My most exciting encounter involving
sambar didn’t even see me pull the trigger,” Stewart McGlashan says.
“I was contouring around a hill when suddenly a hind materialised out of
the
scrub
just a few metres away. With a fawn in tow, she trotted straight past
me oblivious to my presence. The encounter only lasted a few seconds yet
it
is a vivid memory.” 
Full story OUTBACK Issue 36 Aug/Sept 2004
