Thread: 4 day 3 night hunt

So for my big thirtieth this year, me and my old man decided on going out for a multi day hunt on the West Coast.
We were itching to get going and time was taking forever to come around as it always does. The old boy went and bought some new gear and I cashed in on a new down sleeping bag aswell.
But it all went to shit. 1 week out from our trip and Dad got sick. He was fucked, having all the Covid tests and all that. Turns out it was pneumonia, and his hunting trip had ended before it started.
Now Dad is a proud bloke and told me not to cancel the trip, he knew he wouldn't be able to make it, but he knew I should still go.
So with his blessing, I asked a couple of work mates if they wanted to come.
1, who has just moved down here from the North Island, practically bit my hand off to come.
So anyway, Friday morning rolled round and we were on our way bright and early.
After a couple of stops along the way and a quick shop in Wild Outdoorsman in Hokitika, we arrived.
We got to the hut for about 1pm. Chucked all the gear away and boiled the Billy.
After a brew looking through binos down the valley we decided to go for a quick recce from the hut.
Within 15 minutes we were onto a shit load of pig sign, which was great as I still hadn't managed to get onto a pig before.

So fast forward a couple of hours and we figured we had about an hour to an hour half of daylight left, perfect for trying to squeeze in a look at the other side of the valley. We shouldered the rifles and set off.
We were all of 800m from the hit and we bumped into our first deer of the trip.
He started to run and stopped at a hind call about 35 meters away. With his arse facing me and his head turned back, I had a quick decision to make, I was just settling down on his forehead, when he moved broadside and that was it.i bought the Sauer up and slammed the .30cal corelokt through the lungs. He danced around as they do then dropped.
Fucking awesome, first deer for the trip and first deer for the new rifle. We waltzed over to the yearling spiker and my mate being a butcher of 10 years made quick work of dealing to the gutting. We carried the whole carcass out and called it a night.

Next morning was a cracker of a day, crisp and slightly frosty, was certainly warmer outside than the hut.
We made our way to a grassy clearing we thought on the maps looked promising.
It was my mates turn on gun first and he was itching to get his first Mainland deer (I've told him they taste better down here).
We set off in the dark and we were getting close come daybreak. We were just rounding a band when I was hushed to stay still, out in the open.
4 deer were feeding on some primo grass and were well aware of our presence. My mate got down prone and let off a shot from his 7mm rem mag on a tasty looking smaller hind. She dropped like a sack of spuds, the deer started to bolt but stopped for a second too long and I decided to leave the big spiker as he was a little skinny and took a shot at what appeared to be the lead hind. I felt good about the shot but as the deer took off, my thoughts of my pulling off a cracking off hand shot at 80-90 meters faded fast.
We went and checked out old mates hind and his shot had hit a lung and veered upwards and exited through the spine. Those ballistic tips made a mess inside. We though we would have a look around the corner and blow me dead, there's my hind, dead as a doornail. She had stumbled when she went down and got caught up in supple supplejack, luckily for me, as if she hadn't, she would have been in a muddy swampy shit place.
We gutted the deer and my shot had been spot on to my surprise and gone straight through the lungs and exited the other side.
At this point we couldn't believe we were no even 24 hours into the hunt and had 3 deer hanging at the hut.
We decided to take it easy and read a couple Barry Crump books and chill out. It was venny hearts for tea that night, after old mate only went for a stroll and put another massive hind on the deck.
Sunday morning was bloody cold and we went for a walk around and saw plenty of sign but no animals. We did spook a hind layed up in the bush and got barked at by a stag higher up but we couldn't get eyes on him.
What we were itching to get was a bit of pork. So we hatched a plan on a spot we had been told pigs have been annihilating.
We walked up in daylight and hunkered down behind a massive rock. Wind was in out favour and we were layered up like eskimos so we were good to keep waiting.

The light was starting to fade fast now and if we didn't get onto something now, we would miss our chance.
We decided to leave our hideout and walk a bit further into the clearing. My mate goes "that's a lot of weeks over there"."shhhhh, that's not wekas its pigs".
We got down low and crept closer and closer. I wanted my first pig and wanted it bad.
We got within 15 meters and decided we would line up on separate pigs and as soon as I fired,my mate would down one.
Well nothing goes to plan and I might have been a bit premature and lined up on the neck of my pig and dropped it,my mate had to take a running shot on his and done his best and dispatched the pig after a second shot.
Fuck me I shot my first pig, a boar too. Alright he might only go 15lb but I'll take that.
We carried the pigs out to the hut and got cleaned up and called it quits.
After a fairly easy hours stroll in the morning to warm up, we decided to make our way out back to civilization

We had a massive skinning and butchering job the following day but made good and got it all done. 2 deer and a pig each and the nice yearling going to the old man when I see him next.

That's how its done, all the meat out and put to use. Top effort !

Solid trip man! well done.

Well done.

What a great read on a Sunday morning over a coffee,4 inchs of snow out side the door.Good hunting guys,enjoy your veni n pork.

Excellent write up- job well done and a bit of variety in meat.

Great trip, plenty of deer there. Cheers for sharing

Thanks for sharing that. Enjoyable read. Plenty of meat to take home there and some good memories.

Sounds like a good spot, plenty of good meat for your freezers, well done.

Great read for a Monday morning at work. Happy birthday, and what a great way to spend it!

Nice, good read thanks 👍