Thread: first fawns

Friday sawheavy rain,thunder and lightning all night into the early hours of Saturday morning...good time for a hunt I thinks to self...chucked Meg in terrano and off we set,nice late start dayhunt should be just the ticket...Rangitata river was rather high as we crossed it Saturday morning ......oh how a little hind sight wouldve been good here....
we arrived up at bush edge just as sun came out and set off. nice day for a wander although the wind was fair howling,
thought to self at least its fairly consistant in direction,even if it was completely diferent direction to ten minutes earlier!!!!
went up through jelly fern clearings where we have shot 4 deer before...nothing doing there,little sign either...full stalk mode out other side,we have spooked deer in this 200 yard stretch of bush at least 10 times over the years,normally they beat us to the draw and are long gone...Meg my faithful big black bitch has upped the odds in my favour.shot 2 earlings here a couple of years back after she let me know they were close...some of her first deer.
a month ago in pouring rain again she let me know before deer broke...and I missed.
saturday looked promising the wind was fair howling over top of us but Meg winding VERY strongly down hill...so down hill we stalked full on ninga mode,eyes on stalks and dog in close...down fifty yards,then another 50 she still winding like mad...then sound of movement down below us,winding so hard its a wonder the ferns werent sucked up her nose,turned to look at me and let out tiny whine...then movement below..... deers head TICK upright neck TICK a fawn TICK fawns are good TICK
BOOM goes the 308 quick reload but hind wasnt seen..then brain kicks in...fawns are only weeks if not days old...if Ive connected with 50 yard standing neck shot it wont be a very big animal.......Meg leads me down hyper excited as she can smell what happened before I can see it...yip a fawn,yip its tiny...feet were firm so going by bobby calf standards more than four days old......
oh well its a deer,bush stalked and at least I didnt shoot the Mum and leave fawn to starve. removed poohs n wees,legs at joints and the head via the smashed neck....hornady 180grn RN did rather a lot of damage even with little resistance met.
into daybag and nice quiet walk back to wagon...only to find out via txt message from folks the river had continue going up and bridge was shut......no gas cookers were to be had in either store on way home so spent night in terrano at camp ground before a nice chap who Ive met from work offered me a bed for night...and dinner. so that took care of Sunday night,got to bridge at 07:30 this morning and crossed at noon.
so much for a quick outing. fawn tastes good,contemplating using it instead of chicken in dishes and doing a boilup type thing with the bones.
stoked for the dog,happy with the shot....not quite so much with age of Bambi....VERY pleased to be home.