HEEDING THE CALL
Imitating the sound of a red stag would seem easy, and perhaps for those with the right voice and a little practice it could be. I tried, and uttered the worst kind of bawl you could imagine. Adrian, my guide, pinched his nose and produced a quite plausible bellow. He even had a short piece of one-inch PVC tubing he used as a roaring tube. He frequently received answers for his efforts, though with one exception, the stags never seemed anxious to come our way. Red deer, like elk, respond to calls in random and unpredictable ways. Sometimes it drives them off, sometimes it stimulates them to answer, and sometimes, it makes them simply stop what they are doing and trot determinedly your way. Primarily, we seemed to use the call to keep tabs on a stag's location, or to divert a potential bust.

Adrian did bring one very impressive stag to the call late one morning. The stag and I were in a valley while Adrian sat perched on a mountainside above. We had split up to try and waylay another stag when an unseen stag began roaring from its bed in the timber a quarter mile away. The animal seemed so cooperative that I decided to make a move, hoping Adrian kept it busy with his calling. When I finally spotted the stag he was up and moving away, so I took chase, using a series of small dips and rises as cover. What I didn't know is that a much larger stag, a third animal with a beautiful rack and strong crown points, was just over the next hill and headed my way. The stag and I crested the hill and spotted each other at the same time, freezing in a face-off 30 yards apart. All I could do was try to draw, but the animal spun and streaked away before I leveled my bow. Adrian had to watch helplessly as the animal and I moved on our blind collision course.

NO COW CALLING
Female red deer, or hinds, resemble cow elk in temperament and demeanor. Both animals share a similar buff-colored rump patch, though the hind's coats are redder than cow elk and their overall appearance is sleeker and a little more deer-like. I've always thought cow elk, with their darker manes, looked a little bit more like camels than deer. Red hinds look more like deer.

One distinct difference in the two animals is the amount of vocalizing they do. Cow elk are extremely vocal. Red deer are not. Most archers who have pursued elk know the chirps and mews made constantly by contented cow elk. These calls keep animals together and as hunters know, are great for settling and attracting bull elk. As a matter of fact, a few years back a revolution of cow calling made its way to the forefront of elk bowhunting, making the use of cow sounds for taking bulls more popular than bugling itself. Cow calling has proved a great advantage for elk hunters. Red stag hunters enjoy no such advantage.

Although red deer hinds don't mew, chirp or bleat, they do possess a very loud, sharp alarm bark.

On one of my last nights bowhunting, Adrian put together a plan for stalking a stag that had been using a local wallow. Each night on our way back to camp in the darkness, we could hear the stag roar from down the valley to the west. On one evening, while Adrian took care of some stream-crossing improvements while I was out hunting, he heard the stag roar just a small drainage away from his position.

The author downed this bull as the animal searched for guide Joseph Sanchez' enticing cow call last fall in Colorado. Although they are considered similar species, the author feels that, overall, elk are a less wary and less challenging quarry than free-ranging red deer.

The following day we moved above and around the stag's wallow in the early afternoon waiting to see where he might show. About an hour before sunset we heard him bugle, but the stag had fooled us and dropped into the next drainage. We didn't know there was also an active wallow in that creek bottom. Red deer wallows look just like elk wallows and they use them the same way, so as we crested the next hill we had little trouble spotting the worked-over mud hole. Within moments the stag and his three hinds came into view in the bottom. He was a good stag, not a great one, but definitely a shooter. We watched as the big 5x6 ran off a 3x3 stag, chasing nose-to-tail like dogs might do. We used the diversion to descend the hill, amazed at the speed and power of these animals.

When we finally reached the last bit of cover, we got to sit and watch the stag breed one of the hinds. She was so ready to stand that, comically, after the stag's mounting, she mounted him as he tried to walk away. The range was still over 60 yards and too far for a shot. The stag moved back and forth several times running his girls up and down the creek, but never stopped within range. At one point, in the last shooting light, the stag stood perfectly broadside downhill, at the far outer limits of my range. In desperation, and because it the hunt was nearly over, I took the shot, my only shot at a red. The arrow flew over the animal's back. It was a risky attempt, and luckily, a clean miss. The hinds took a great interest in the noise that came from my position, and soon we had one staring and barking our way.

PHYSICAL IMPRESSIONS
In addition to interesting wildlife like paradise shell ducks, spur-winged plovers, Australian magpies, hedgehogs and bushy-tailed possums, the countryside we hunted was vast and impressive. But nothing impressed me like the red deer.

Red stags are incredibly beautiful animals. The stag breeding the hind at that wallow wasnít the first Iíd seen at fairly close range. Adrian led me up a mountain early in the hunt, a brutal hour and a half climb that started two miles hike from camp. Soaked with sweat and covered with chaff and twigs from the bush, we reached the plateau and hiked another mile to a secluded rim rock. As we crawled to the edge we could hear a stag roaring and he soon came into view with four hinds on a meadow several hundred yards below. He was a beautiful 6x6, with even tines. His rich, dark coat had a sleek look and his body was compact and muscular. He was somewhat smaller than a bull elk, and the best comparison of the two beasts I could conjure was that what blacktail deer are to mule deer, so red deer are to elk.