Nippon out to bag a monster
We had just left our vehicle, a practical if primitive Lada Niva, when we heard the cry of a sika stag. The sound came from a thick stand of pines, which we knew would be impossible to approach without alerting the stag’s harem of females. Instead, our guide Roy Hrelja — an Australian who’s put down roots in the Ukrainian forest area we were trekking through — put the sika call to his lips and answered the ghost hidden in the undergrowth.
The stag responded at once and was soon joined by a shrill chorus of other deer, which were foraging close by in thin deciduous woodland.
Keen to bring down one of Ukraine’s monster stags, hunter Frank Olsen led the way, but by the time we got there, or at least to where we thought it was, the beast had gone.
Beautiful set-up
Eight hours
