Thread: first deer

Hello everyone, I was lucky enough to go down to south westland the other week with @Gerald, Greg and @uk_exile to try and get my first deer. Just wanted to start off by saying that everybody there were great company, as well as welcoming and friendly for which I'm grateful. Got down to the hunting grounds mid arvo and went for a mean evening stalk, no deer seen in the first for the first wee while but its so much fun sneaking around trying to spot deer, luckily about 10 minutes before dark, we spotted a yearling hind feeding out in the flats about 200 off, so we get get out to about 130ish off and there was a really nice little knoll that provided a good lying down shot. So I got down and lined her up, but then she trotted a couple meters and I lost her, then found her again, calmed the nerves and squeezed the trigger. Managed to put the bullet in the right area so deer down. Collin got his spiker that night with Greg which is cool too.





Went out the next day but the rain was hissing down, saw a group of 3 about 80m away but a good shot never presented itself and they eventually spooked. A couple minutes later I made the mistake of rushing around corners too fast and spooked another hind about 15m away. Unfortunately that was to be the last deer we saw that day so empty handed on day 2, took away some good learnings from it though and had fun mucking around in the bush. The next day we could only hunt the day due to the weather, we saw an incredible amount of really fresh sign, but despite our best efforts we couldn't find a deer.



We were up early on the last day of the trip and the deer were out, after 3 days of persistent rain, a clear morning meant the deer were feeding out and after a short walk we managed to lay eyes on well over 15 deer about 600-700m away, the wind was not really perfect coming across us and the deer so the deer were on the lookout, we got to about 350m and the deer were getting a wee bit on edge, so I got a good rest and squeezed off, deer dropped on the spot but needed a second shot to put it down proper. Got a nice little kiss from the scope which I didn't notice until I felt the blood drip over my eyes and realised I hadn't even touched the deer yet.



Anyways it was a super cool trip, bit of a dream come true really shooting my first deer in a place like that. Being new to hunting I've been blown away at how welcoming and generous everyone is, wanted to give a huge thanks to @yeah_nah_missed as well for donating my share of the trip.

good stuff,you wont forget that first deer ever.

Sounds like you had a great time, hope it’s started a lifetime of outdoor adventures for you

You will learn no harm from the hills

Well done

definitely caught the bug haha @7mmsaum

That's how you do it. Well done to all.

Excellent write up, nice to hear it all came together.

Fantastic- well done!

Excellent

What a nice read at this hour of the morning,well done on yr 1st deer.Enjoy the venison.

Awesome mate, the first one always stays with you

He was so keen I spent the entire trip hanging onto his coat tails to slow him down...
For someone that showed up saying he had only fired a air rifle he did super well and showed a great natural ability for hunting..

Well done and good on on you Gerald for showing him the way.

Well done that man.