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Beyond the Basics Training Course

Errol Mason’s Hunt Smart^®
‘Beyond the Basics’ Training Course

'The Smarter You Hunt The Luckier You Get'

What is the "Hunt Smart System"

My Hunt Smart(R) system is the result of 20 years research into the biology, ecology, behaviour and the most effective tactics for hunting sambar.

My Hunt Smart System is Based upon the 90/10 Rule of Predictability

What I teach is based upon 90/10 rule of predictability.

It's what I have identified as being clear trends in Sambar behaviour.

10% may break the rule – but your hunting will be much more successful and enjoyable if you hunt with a 90% chance.

Some hunters say Sambar are where you find them. My research proves this statement is at best incorrect - and at worst – it is misleading.

Aim of the Hunt Smart System

The aim of my 'Hunt Smart System' is to enable you to find a sambar that has no idea you are there. This will give you time to range the distance, adopt a steady shooting position, then take the shot at precisely the right moment resulting in an instant one shot kill.

Once you have attended my course you will never approach sambar hunting in the same way again. When you get up in the morning the first thing you will do is carefully plan your hunt, rather than simply putting on your daypack, grabbing your rifle and wandering off into bush hoping to put up a deer. My Hunt Smart System teaches you how to plan each days hunt subject to changing weather conditions and hunting pressure.

Remember this old but true addage: If you fail to plan you plan to fail.

Strong Demand for Sambar Training

After writing 50 articles over 14 years for my ‘Secrets of the Sambar’ column in Guns & Game - and now having published Secrets of the Sambar Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - I thought I had provided so much information that no one would ever have a need to attend my ‘Beyond the Basics’ Training Course. However since Volume 1 hit the shelves precisely the opposite has happened. Demand has gone through the roof.

Who Attends

Course participants come with a wide variety of experience. They range from complete newcomers to those who have been unable to set eyes on a stag in 20 years of hunting. They include those who have successfully taken a trophy stag but have had many lean years since. Some have been consistently successful but realise there is so much more to learn about this Magnificent Deer.

Why Hunters Attend

Students have explained that they can only absorb so much by reading. But if shown, and then actually perform a task they instantly grasp it. This is known as ‘kinesthetic learning’. Research shows that 70 per cent of people learn much better by actually seeing something demonstrated and then doing it, rather than just reading about it. This is why hands-on training plays such an important role in education today.

Two Days ‘Hands On’ in the Bush

Unlike the early days when I walked around in a ‘fog’ occasionally getting a shot at a fleeing sambar, I now hunt using my ‘Hunt Smart’ system. This system is based upon a thorough understanding of sambar behaviour and comprises many key pieces. A thorough understanding and the correct application of each piece is vital if you wish to become a consistently successful hunter.

Consistent with the principles of kinesthetic learning I guide students, step by step through actual hunting scenarios. Students sit in the exact spot where hunters sat when they fired at stags and hinds. I explain why the deer were there, and the process I went through in deciding on the tactics to be used.

Using their own bino’s - plus bino’s and a spotting scope which I provide - students actually glass faces where sambar have been seen, including trophy stags. I explain when is the best time to look, where to look, and what to look for. You will be shown key topographical features and I explain when and why sambar use them.

Course Syllabus

On Friday the course begins with a comprehensive and unique PowerPoint presentation and finishes with 2 days in the bush where you learn first hand about:

• Tracks & Faecal Pellets – Learn who left them, how to age them and how to determine the sex and size of their maker.
• Tactics that work in various scenarios.
• Visit the exact spot where stags have been consistently harvested and learn why they were there and how they were hunted.
• Learn how the sambars finely tuned sense of smell, hearing and vision is used to detect predators - including humans - and how to overcome them.
• Wallows – their role in the mating & communication system, how to decide which one to ambush and how to do it successfully.
• Where to find bedded stags & how to hunt them.
• How to hunt from face to face.
• Use my tripod mounted Swarovski 15X binos & compare their 'sambar finding capability' with spotting scopes and standard binoculars.
• Plants eaten and when and where sambar feed.
• The sambar's circadian rhythm – learn what they do every 24hrs and what causes them to change the location where they do it.
• Zones of Silence – learn what are, why they are essential to sambar and how to find them.
• Learn the Hunt Smart "Wagon Wheel Approach" to understanding sambar - the Hub, the Spokes and the Rim and how and when sambar use each part.
• Excessive hunting pressure can make sambar nocturnal. Learn how to avoid pressuring them and how to "depressurize" sambar.
• Learn where to find sambar in various weather conditions and why they are there.
• Low Impact Hunting– what is it, how to do it, and why it's vital to understand.
• Binocular & scope twilight comparison. From an hour before dark compare at least 8 scope and reticle combinations, including several illuminated versions and see for yourself the difference in low light.
• The subject of suitable cartridges and projectiles for sambar is demystified.
• See the aiming points that kill stags cleanly and learn why.

Twilight Optics Comparison – A Unique Opportunity

From about 1hr before dark right up until dark you will be able to use and compare 10 pairs of binoculars, 2 spotting scopes, 10 telescopic sights plus 3 range finders.

You are able to swap from one to the other and compare this large range of optics in the bush throughout the course.

Nowhere else in Australia can you do this.

Remember, when you view optics through a gunshop window in broad daylight the light transmission performance of all optics is the same. It’s only during the last 20 minutes of daylight - when sambar move the most - that really separates the outstanding from the ordinary. On my course you will see for yourself the difference in performance between various brands, magnifications and objective lens diameter. In a nutshell ‘seeing is believing’.

The following optics are provided for the Twilight Optics Comparison:

Binoculars: Leica Gevovid 8 x 42 with built-in range finder; Kahles 8 x 42; Swarovski 8 x 50; Swarovski 15 x 56; Bushnell Elite2 10 x 42; Vixen Apex Pro 10 x 50; Vixen Apex Pro 8 x 42; Vixen Artes 8.5 x 45 and 10.5 x 45.

Spotting scopes: Leupold 12 - 40 x 60HD; Vixen Geoma 11 ED 67-A 16 - 48X.

Telescopic sights: Leupold 2.5 - 8 x 36 Vari X 3; Vixen 1.5 - 6 x 42 illuminated; Bushnell Elite 4200 2.5 – 10 x 50 with Firefly reticle; Swarovski 2.5 – 10 x 56 illuminated; Vixen 2.5 - 10 x 56 illuminated; Zeiss Victory 2.5 - 10 x 50 illuminated; Vixen 2.5 - 10 x 50 illuminated; Vixen 5 - 20 x 50 Mil Dot illuminated.

Scope Reticles include various versions of the duplex and German # 4.

Range Finders: Leica Geovid 8 x 42 binocular with built-in 1200m range finder; Leica 900yd; Bushnell Legend 1200yd with ARC and Brush mode.

Tactics for Back Country & Farm Fringe Sambar

Tactics taught apply equally to farm fringe as well as those living deeper in the forest. The reason the same tactics work for those on the farm fringe as well as those in remote forest is simply because a sambar's basic genetic blueprint is identical, regardless of its location. As a result the sambar's 'Hierarchy of Needs' and how they use each 'Micro-habitat' is exactly the same.

Course Notes

Course notes are not provided. However Secrets of the Sambar Vol 1, 2 and 3 are available. Volume 1 is $190 per copy, Volume 2 is $99 and Volume 3 is $109. The complete 3 Volume set is $370. Postage is free within Australia to course participants who have booked.

Courses Are Tailored to Students Needs

Each course is tailored to meet the specific needs of each participant. By listening to each student’s experiences, I ascertain what each know and don’t know.

Venue

Training courses commence from our home at Sarsfield, Victoria, 10km north of Bairnsdale. Bairnsdale is about 3 hours from the Monash Freeway Ringwood/Frankston Ringroad intersection in Melbourne's east. Bairnsdale is about 4 hrs from Albury. The first afternoon and night is at our home. On the Saturday and Sunday morning we travel to scenarios north of Bairnsdale.

Email for directions.

We Provide:

• Two nights rustic accommodation on large heavy duty Coleman stretchers;
• Bathroom, shower, toilet facilities;
• Transport to the bush each day;
• High quality meals plus Cascade heavy & light beer and high quality red wine;

You Provide:

• Sleeping bag and/or swag, pillow, towel & toiletries;
• Hunting clothes appropriate to the weather for the time of year;
• Daypack, equipped as per hunting;
• Binoculars for twilight comparison and use during course; and
• Camera, note book and pen.

Dates:

• Courses are held from April to October.
• Courses commence 1pm Friday and conclude 3pm Sunday.
• Courses can be run mid-week by arrangement.

Dates for 2011

1. April 22 - 24	Fully booked
2. May 6 - 8	Fully booked
3. May 20 - 22	Fully booked
4. June 3 - 5	Fully Booked
5. June 17 - 19	Fully Booked
6. July 1 - 3	Fully Booked
7. July 15 - 17	Fully booked
8. July 29 - 31	Fully Booked
9. August 12 - 14	Fully booked
10. August 26 - 28	Fully booked
11. September 9 - 11	Fully Booked
12. September 23 - 25	Fully Booked

Dates for 2012

Emergency List

Although we are fully booked for 2012 we often receive cancellations, so if would like to attend make your payment of a $200 deposit we will place you on our Emergency List and slot you in when we receive the next cancellation.

Note: If we are unable to slot you into a course on 2012 we will transfer your deposit to a course in 2013 or refund your deposit in full.

Click here to contact us.

1. April 27 - 29	Fully Booked
2. May 11 - 13	Fully Booked
3. May 25 - 27	Fully Booked
4. June 8 - 10	Fully Booked
5. June 22 - 24	Fully Booked
6. July 6 - 8	Fully Booked
7. July 20 - 22	Fully Booked
8. August 3 - 5	Fully Booked
9. August 17 - 19	Fully Booked
10. August 31 - September 2	Fully Booked
11. September 14 - 16	Fully Booked
12. September 28 - 30	Fully Booked

Course Size

Each course is limited to 5 people.

 

Timetable

Dawn & Dusk Vary With Course Dates

Friday
12-1.00 pm	Arrive.
1.00 pm	Lunch - meet other participants and discuss experiences.
2.00 pm	In the classroom. Using a PowerPoint Presentation Errol explains how weather conditions & hunting pressure effect sambar, plus other key points such as the sambar's circadian (daily) rhythm and how it can be used to locate them.
4.00 pm	Participants rifle evaluation. Cartridge, projectile & aiming points.
4.30pm	Twilight binocular and scope comparison until dark using participants own binos and scopes plus those provided on the course. Click here for Optics Provided.
6.00 pm	Refreshments, beer, red wine and Lynne’s great hot finger food.
7.00 pm	Dinner and opportunity for students to ask questions.
8.00 pm	Continue PowerPoint Presentation and How to use Google Earth to Find the Best Hunting Spots.
10.00 pm	Retire/shower etc...
Saturday
5.30 am	Rise & shower etc... Breakfast - Continental Style.
Dawn	In bush glassing using participants own binoculars plus those provided on the course.
8.30 am	Travel further into bush. Inspect feeding, staging areas and plant identification. Discuss effects of weather conditions & hunting pressure. Sign interpretation. Visit wallows. Hide location & construction, treestands, and other tactics such as low impact and hunting according to wind direction & air currents is explained.
1.00 pm	Lunch in the bush.
2.00 pm	Visit various types of feeding & bedding areas, including tree fern gullies. Plants from high to low preference examined. Effective tactics explained.
4.30 pm	Visit logging coup where sambar feed. Tactics, including how to use hides & treestands.
6.00 pm	Refreshments, beer, red wine and Lynne’s great hot finger food.
7.00 pm	Dinner. Errol discusses keys points and answers questions
9.30 pm	Shower/retire.
Sunday
5.30 am	Rise & shower etc... Breakfast
Dawn	Travel to face to face scenario. At dawn glass for sambar on opposite face and in gully heads. Tuition on where to look, when to look and what to look for. Then I discuss how food, water, weather conditions, wind direction & hunting pressure effects face to face hunting. I point out various micro-habitats and discuss how, when and why sambar use them. Further sign interpretation including wallows, tracks, pellets, rubs, scrapes etc.... Participants practice tactics for hunting from face to face, using binoculars including Swaro 15X and a spotting scope on a tripod, range finders, shooting aids such as various bipods/shooting sticks. Discuss suitable cartridges, shot placement and correct rifle zeroing. Usually we find sambar.
1.30 pm	Lunch and wrap-up.
3.00 pm	Course concludes.

Firearms

Bring your sambar rifle for set-up evaluation and optics twilight comparison.

NB: - Rifles are secured in a safe after twilight comparison. They are not carried during the course.

Bookings

Cost - $990 per person.
Bookings can be made by paying a $200.00 deposit or paying the full amount of $990.00.

 

To make a payment using Visa or Mastercard click the Pay Now icon.

Other payment Options are:

Send a Cheque or Australia Post Money Order payable to E & L Mason to:
PO Box 727
Bairnsdale
Vic 3875

OR

By Direct Deposit into our bank. Please email us for our bank details.
click here to email.

Balance

The balance of outstanding fees must be paid at least 30 days prior to the commencement of your course.

Balance can be paid by Personal Cheque, Bank Cheque, Money Order or directly into our bank account (please email us for BSB and Account details).

Liabilities

Errol & Lynne Mason, trading as Shikari Press, reserve the right to amend any itinerary, or cancel any course should it become necessary, and shall be exempt from all liability in respect of any detention, delay, loss, damage, sickness or injury incurred during the training course. I look forward to seeing you on my ‘Beyond the Basics’ Training Course where in 2 days you will acquire enough quality information to hunt sambar successfully for the rest of your life.

Reviews by Course Participants

Whilst glassing as per Errol’s ‘Hunt Smart’ tactics, I looked to my right and spotted a stag with a hind about 100 yards down the spur. Just as Errol had said, ‘when they’re in the sun they glow chestnut’. The hind was glowing! The stag’s points shone bright and he looked magnificent. I quickly shouldered my .338 and went to take an off-hand shot, wobbling from the excitement. Errol’s words ‘Shot placement’ echoed in my head as I leaned over to rest against the base of a tree. I steadied just as I saw the stag tense and start to turn and bolt. I squeezed the trigger and sent the 250gn Partition aimed for the back of shoulder. We tracked him down the face and soon came upon a very impressive stag - stone dead from one well delivered shot.

Euphoria set in – I couldn’t believe it. I had broken the hoodoo of the Sambar Stag drought that had plagued me for the past 8 years. I looked at my watch, 1.35pm – exactly 23 hours and 25 minutes after completing Errol Mason’s Beyond the Basics Training Course.

I firmly believe my success on that hunt was largely attributable to Errol’s highly professional tuition and my employment of his ‘Hunt Smart’ system. Because it covers all practical aspects of sambar hunting and is delivered in the setting to which it applies, it is easily understood. I believe we make our own luck. I made mine when I decided to gain knowledge by participating in his fabulous course. As the three of us on the course had vastly different experience levels, it was clear that Errol’s course was suitable for beginners through to the most experienced.

Finally, Errol’s course is absolutely unique – a true innovation in the Australian hunting industry and I congratulate him for introducing this first class resource to the hunting community.

Brett Cooke Orange N.S.W.

Click here to read Brett Cooke’s entire testimonial.

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I now find that when I use tips gained from the course I am now able to watch hinds, fawns, spikies and stags that used to crash away unseen. Being able to do gives me a huge buzz. Recently I hunted the ‘High Country’ with some mates and was much more confident with my own ability. I put into practice a lot of the hints and tips which Errol gave me and it all paid off when I took a magnificent 25 inch stag doing precisely what he recommended. Without Errol’s vast knowledge and experience behind me I would still be wandering around the bush hearing a lot of crashing noises in the distance.

Many, many thanks to Errol, Lynne and Daisy.

Mark Walker, Alexandra, Victoria

Click here to read Mark Walker’s entire testimonial.

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This course caters for everyone from the novice to the experienced sambar hunter. It was refreshing to see that Errol made every effort to tailor this course to our specific needs instead of bogging us down with information we already knew. The field trips were astounding, with real-life scenarios dissected instead of going over text book cases.

As experienced sambar hunters, Errol helped us piece together the complex jigsaw that hunting these elusive animals presents, and it finally all made sense by the end of the weekend. It took someone with his knowledge and experience to confirm some of the hunches we had and also give us the why, where and how to go along with it.

The secret world of the stag hunter is sometimes very hard to extract information from. To find someone who is so willing to share all this information not only shows Errol’s dedication to teaching others, but also shows the passion he has for these deer, inspiring us to learn as much as we can about these magnificent creatures.

We can highly recommend this course to everyone. Comfortable accommodation, outstanding hospitality and family atmosphere, great home-cooked meals (thanks Lynne, you are a Master Chef) and a wealth of knowledge at your disposal – worth every cent in our opinion.

Carlo Nicolo, Paul Brincat and Anthony Macciocca.

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I have been hunting all my life, starting with my father as a kid. I had always thought about hunting deer but it wasn`t until in 2005 I really got serious about it, since then I have had some reasonable success (more by luck and persistence than technique). Over that time I have read lots of books and articles on Sambar particularly Errol Mason`s ‘Secrets of the Sambar’. I found them extremely interesting and helpful, but it wasn`t until I went on Errol`s ‘Beyond the Basics’ Hunting Course that it really came together. It was like Errol turned a key with his ‘Hunt Smart’ tactics. Suddenly the information was unlocked and everything made sense. I think it was the practical side of actually seeing and doing the things that Errol writes about in his books and articles that made me understand the information that had been right there in front of me all the time.

I recommend this course to anyone who has been working at hunting Sambar for a while and may or may not have had a lot of success I believe you will certainly increase your chances of taking the Sambar in the future.

Col Brumley.

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I have been hunting deer over the past 2 years and have had some success with the ‘Walking Them Up’ method of hunting that I taught myself following reading pretty much everything I could get my hands on as well as watching most of the videos available. To date I had managed 3 Sambar and 4 Fallow deer but no Sambar Stags. The best I had managed to achieve was fleeting glances of a departing stag even though I had watched Hinds through the binos on a couple of occasions for lengthy periods.

I figured there had to be a better way and have always considered the key to success is knowledge. After seeing a number of Errol's photos of unalarmed sambar (unalarmed being the key) and reading his articles, I guessed that his knowledge was far better than mine, I just didn't realize how much better. I knew how to put deer up and on that basis I figured I must have walked past many more than those I had alarmed, but this method was leading to more frustration than reward.

To learn a hunting method that has taken 25inch plus stags consistently year after year for Errol's clients and be taught the science behind the method to back it up so that you can then put them into practice for yourself. You just cannot beat being taken to the area of a previously successful hunt and worked through deciding is there is a resident stag, how big is he likely to be, what and where is he eating, where is he sleeping, and how do I get an opportunity to hunt him, whilst un alarmed, so as not to risk wounding a magnificent specimen and then see the photos of the stag to prove the science and technique.

Concurrently Errol will advise you of the most suitable hunting kit for deer and in doing so may just save you a fortune in ensuring you get the right gear the first time round. As it turned out, Errol's and my gear were remarkable similar however I might add I have sold, shelved or given more gear away than I care to admit and of course lost money in arriving at my hunting kit via trail and error based on half the B.S you will be told by so called experts who wish to sell you something. Errol knows hunting gear from rifles to calibres to projectiles to optics to meat safes to tree stands to back packs to everything in between from all around the world and he's done the trial and error thing for you.

2 ½ days of solid tuition from 7am to 10pm that's jammed packed with information. So you will mentally tired but not physically exhausted from your time in the bush so long as you are moderately fit

First class food in a magnificent environment. Cannot recommend the investment highly enough.

Click here to read Matt Appleton's full review

Matthew Appleton

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Errol not only covers the basics of equipment, rifles, calibres and hunting locations, but he puts you in his Patrol and drives into the bush, and like boot camp, he makes you work the bush, finding rub trees, wallows, scrapes and game trails. Or in Errol's words the stag's mating territory. Then he explains how all the pieces fit together to form a system and he explains how the deer use each part of the jigsaw. Errol shows you how to make sense of it all rather than it being a big mystery. As a result I am now very confident about sambar hunting and recommend the course to the novice who wants to get started to seasoned deer hunters who want to know more about hunting this magnificent animal.

Steven Psichalos

Click here to read Steven Psichalos’s entire testimonial.

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I really loved the course. It was fantastic.

I’ll never hunt sambar the same way again. And I must give a special mention to the hospitality and food. It was simply awesome.

Thanks Errol, Lynne & Daisy

Keith Grundy
Mialls Guns Shop
Frankston

Click Here for Hunt Smart Success Stories

Click here to read Reviews of the Course

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