Cherry popped....on the board

[Scouser]

Hi all, got my first deer yesterday, Fallow, on a guided hunt at Balnagown deer farm, about 40 mins north of Auckland

as im a complete novice/newbie, whose only experience is from 'you tube' and other internet sights, i decided to try and get some first hand experience before 'the roar'.....got to start somewhere!

the 'farm' is set up for hunting (bowhunters can go solo, no guide) with 300 acres of pines, rolling hills and native bush, my guide Peter Hansen, set me up for a stag, so we ignored the 'spikers' and hinds
for a decent sized animal (4-5 years old), after seeing no stags in the pine forest, we were unfortunately 'upwind' for the open hills part of the farm, a mob ran off with a couple of nice stags in it, didn't even
get the chance to take the safety off the 222 cal Remington Peter had set me up with (my 25-06 is not sighted in yet), so we flanked around, got downwind and slowly descended into the native bush to try
and stalk them, lots of activity in the bush, and eventually i got the chance to shoot at a stag approx 80 mts away, prone shot....

I managed to control my 'fever' and drop him first shot, RAPT, my shot placement was a few inches further right than i wanted (we all want perfect, right) but thankfully is was not a gut shot and Peter humanely
finished him with a knife....took some photos (which i cant down load onto this site, unfortunately) he then taught me cleaning out and checking liver and ribcage for spots/disease and how to make the front/back legs
into back pack straps for me to carry out, then taught me to skin him, carcass weight 32 kgs

brilliant start to the season for me, now of course I want to hunt 'in the wild' and do the prep work myself, if any body else is in this situation please PM me for details and costs, (NO commission for me, bummer)