Mick Schmidt took this fine hog deer stag during the 2011 hog deer season.
FEATURE TROPHY
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The hog deer is Australia’s rarest and most challenging species to hunt successfully. With a population in the low thousands and many of them on conservation areas that are inaccessible to hunters (where they have been severely reduced by Parks Victoria’s recent deer control programs), access to private property, coastal parks, tiny wedges of public land or a state game reserve is usually the only option most hunters have to harvest a hog deer hind or stag.
This issue’s Feature Trophy, taken by Mick Schmidt during the April 2011 hog deer season, is a fine example of a mature hog deer stag. This photo, too, reflects classic hog deer country — low-lying coastal country covered in sparse grasses and dense scrub. Close-range sit-and-wait hunting is perhaps the most productive hunting technique on this species, and Mick’s head-to-toe camouflage clothing is an example of what is required for success.
Although Mick’s trophy stag falls a couple of Douglas points short of the ADA’s Top 50 for the species, it otherwise has all of the attributes that contribute to a high score: good tine length, weight and symmetry — what every deer hunter dreams of, but few attain.
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