Hog deer are not widely distributed. The main population is located along a narrow coastal strip stretching from south-east Victoria up into the south-east corner of NSW. I’d received an invite to hunt on private property where the hog deer population was living in heavy tea-tree thickets along swampy creeks. Being subjected to light hunting pressure, they haven’t been much disturbed, and are inclined to leave cover and feed on adjacent grasslands in early morning and late evening. In this haven they often stay out all day and bed down in the tall grass to enjoy the warmth of the sun.
In most areas, however, hog deer don’t stray too far from the edges of cover, but during the rut which takes place in February and March, they are inclined to linger longer in the open, wandering about through the long grass. The gestation period averages five months and hinds usually drop their fawns late in August. But I was hunting in April after the end of the rut and the deer were scattered all about.
I decided to watch a well-traveled runway through the tall grass, but the spot I chose lacked natural cover. A low bush about 50 meters off to one side made a perfect blind and I sat down to wait, my Swazi gum tree camo blended in perfectly, making me hard to distinguish.
Before long two stags walked slowly down the runway without suspicion and passed 30 meters in front of me, giving me my first good look at a hog deer. I was surprised to see the deer were nowhere near as small as I’d expected them to be, going on hearsay. They were brown in color with the lower part of the body appearing slightly darker. Their antlers were like those of a chital in miniature and I estimated them to be about 25cm to 30cm in length. But it was early days and I decided to spend time looking for a decent trophy.
From what I read before setting out on the hunt a big hog deer stag stands about 66 to 74cm high at the shoulder, and weighs from 36 to 45 kilos. They are stocky-built, low-slung animals with short legs, and a comparatively short face with short rounded ears. Later I watched these deer fleeing through the grass with the rushing motion of a wild pig, and knew why they’d been named Hog deer. When alarmed they make a whistling sound which will often be followed with a warning bark.
Hog deer or Para are the same genus as chital but are more widely distributed in Asia. The typical race (A.p.porcinus) inhabit the low alluvial grass plains of the Indus and Ganges valleys, ranging from Sind in the west through the Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Bengal to Assam in the east, and from there on into Burma. The foothills of the Himalayas are the boundary of the hog deer’s range in the north. In Thailand a slightly larger hog deer (A.p.annamiticus) occurs and extends eastward into Vietnam. Hog deer are not native to Ceylon and may have been introduced by the Dutch during the 16th century. Today, they are rumored to have become extinct in Sri Lanka as Ceylon is now called.
Hog deer were introduced into Australia in the 1870s and released in a number of localities in the coastal region of south-eastern Victoria which included Gippsland, Wilson’s Promontory, Snake Island and possibly nearby Little Snake and St Margaret’s. The terrain suited the little deer and they flourished and eventually spread into some of the larger river systems. They are usually shot from a tree stand, but are more of a sporting proposition when stalked.
I didn’t think there was a deer anywhere near me an hour later, but when I glassed all around I found four or five deer, mostly hinds unaware of my presence. If they had discovered me and bolted, I would never have seen that stag which I was tempted to shoot, but held off.
During the following two days, hunting from hides along frequently used runways, I saw lots of unsuspecting deer, and a few nice stags. during this time, I learned enough about their habits to set myself some rules for hunting hog deer: when selecting a site for a stand, always try to find natural cover; locate so that the deer may freely use the runway without the slightest suspicion of your presence; make sure you’re downwind of the route to eliminate your scent; and be absolutely still and silent.
I had deduced that stands should be near grazing areas, but then I found a good many deer were bedding down in the long grass. This was unlike other deer species I’d hunted who leave their beds and move toward a feeding area in the last hour before dark and return to their bedding area shortly after dawn. Not being hunted much, these little fellows preferred to stay in the open, but are hard to detect even when standing in long grass.
The majority of hunters I talked to kill their hog deer stags from a tree stand and most of their shots were taken during the first hour after dawn or the last hour before nightfall. Even the veterans saw very few deer, and the biggest percentages of those seen were hinds and spikers.
After dinner one night I told mine host of my experiences and the conclusions I’d drawn. “Your problem,” he said, “is that you’re watching deer runways but not all are buck runways. There’s a big difference. A buck with a good rack is a loner, and he has his own routes. He stays away from trails used by hinds. Don’t pay any attention to heavily traveled routes. Look for a well-packed, narrow and recently used trail. You may have to check out quite a few runways before you find one with fresh rub marks on nearby trees. When you find these signs, you’ve found a buck runway, select a site for a stand, then sit still and watch and wait.
This explained quite a few things about the deer’s habits that I simply hadn’t understood, and now the answers fell into place. A buck runway is narrow and well packed and shows fewer fresh tracks. It is used by only one or two deer, but they use it frequently. Does have their runways too, but if they are near any bushes or trees, they lack one important distinction. There are no antler rub marks on adjacent trees.
Rub marks are made when stags clean and polish their antlers on saplings and small trees. By late summer a stag’s antlers are fully formed and the velvet begins to peel. Stags speed up the peeling by rubbing their antlers. They rub hard enough to gouge and strip the bark. This sign is easily recognized. Rub marks made by hog deer are about 60cm above the ground.
The next day I began scouting a feeding area, looking for fresh rub marks indicating a stag’s runway. Stags lie down in their sheltered beds between feeding periods. Bedding areas are usually found near the edges of thick, tea tree, heavy brush or swamps. Beds I found consisted of leaves, grass or weeds flattened on a patch of ground, the size of the deer’s prostrate body. A buck usually beds at a certain spot, returning day after day unless disturbed.
Another day I found a buck runway and cast about for a stand. A tree had toppled alongside a stump and some of the branches were still covered with brown leaves. I broke off a few leafy twigs and jabbed them into the ground near the stump. When I sat down I was in perfect cover. The stump and windfall absorbed my camoclad body and the broken branches screened my face.
The effectiveness of my cover was vindicated about an hour later when I glanced across the gentle slope and saw two hinds walking through the long grass moving slowly toward me. It took them 15 minutes to pass by and vanish into a brush patch farther along. During that time a lone stag with one antler missing a tine emerged from the grass and passed below me. I’d finally got my act together and felt more confident of bagging a decent representative trophy head.
As when hunting any kind of deer it’s important to avoid unnecessary movements. A stag often materialized out of nearby bush before I suspected he was anywhere near. I’ll never forget the sage advice I received from Len Richardson called “the doyen of deer hunters” many years ago.
“Hunt as though you’re being hunted,” he said. “Hide so well that slight movements won’t betray you.”
“Don’t give up good cover for a better view. Most stand hunters try to look over too much territory and stand up and sit down and move about too much. The object of the hunt isn’t to see as many deer as possible, you’re after one stag and a clear shot at him.”
I was located about 50 meters from a buck runway. I couldn’t see much of the surrounding terrain, but the grass tunnel was my main focus point. When on a stand I’m always alert for changes in wind direction. On this occasion it suddenly changed and so I had to find another stand about halfway around the slope, sitting down behind a small clump of saplings. I hadn’t been there long before I spotted two young hinds walking toward me through the grass. If I hadn’t have changed my stand, the hinds would have scented me and the show would have been over in that area. As it was they never discovered my presence and continued on their way.
Many hunters arrive at their hides too late and leave too early. I like to be in position about half an hour before dawn because most deer species I’ve hunted begin moving with the first hint of daybreak. If you wait until its light enough to walk to your hide, you’ll miss seeing many deer, and allow many deer to see you. And I leave my stand in the evening when I can no longer see through my scope.
In the winter months I plan to spend as many hours as possible in my hide. Deer often move to water in the middle of the day, and where they do, this is a prime hunting time. I found this to be true when hunting rusa deer in New Caledonia. The herds filed down from the hills at mid-day and after watering, would spread out along the creek and graze for an hour before going back to their bedding areas. I have no doubt that hog deer adhere to their own pattern of movement, but since this was my first try at hunting them, I had to “learn on the job.”
I never found a group of hog deer numbering more than three, mostly hinds. More often the stags were loners although on many occasions I was glassing two or three stags grazing not too far apart. There were three different stags that I’d been seeing every day. I knew which one had the longest most even antlers and that he was a keeper. On the last afternoon of the hunt I set out to look for him.
Eventually, I found him again, standing on a slight slope, the top half of his body visible above the grass. Dropping into a sitting position, I slowly fed a round into the chamber of my Ruger Hawkeye, aligned the crosswires in the ‘3-9x Zeiss Conquest scope’ on the center of his chest and pressed the trigger. The Barnes 115gn TSX left the muzzle at 3000fps, struck home and he dropped straight down.
He wouldn’t break any records, but was a fine representative head. The antlers were nicely curved and very even and measured a 14 inches in length. I have no plans to hunt hog deer ever again, or any ambition to bag a bigger trophy. That little stag will just have to do me.