Thread: good friday for Kev

Good Friday had snuck up quickly this year, what with work and life’s commitments, it was Thursday arvo and neither I nor Kevin had planned anything.
A quick phone call to a mate had us organised to get out to the back of his property, which unfortunately backs onto national park!
The downside was that he had already organised for a couple of other hunters to come out at the same time. We discussed it and decided that it would be the best and safest if we started out together and when we found some likely stags, we could split up into different directions.
A couple of hours of 4 blokes bashing around the bush with nothing but a spiker half heartedly calling out to us, we split up and I spooked a couple of hinds who were promptly gathered up by the resident stag and hightailed it out of there, that left us a little disappointed.
We came across this wallow near the state highway 1 of deer tracks, there must be a reasonable population density in the area, but they were too smart for us.


We headed back and decided we would have a bit of a look at an old hut built by the previous owner on another part of the property.


We walked out to the top of the hill where there was a mossy swamp. It was Interesting that there was so much water, all the way up there.
It was a little after 1pm, the light cloud that had covered the sun all morning finally began to break, with a light breeze pushing across the top of the hill we discussed working our way back to the car. The shorter path would have been to drop back with the wind at our backs, but I wanted to keep hunting so we decided to work our way around the face of the hill with the wind in our favour.
We hit the tree line and I pulled out the caller. Sat down for a rest and gave it a blast. It was a couple minutes or more but a distant roar came back at us. Then another, but this one was much closer.
Where we were sitting there was a fantastic view below us, the ground cover was as light as I have seen in the New Zealand bush. So when we heard a stick snap below us and then a very loud roar, we knew we were in for some action.
I looked across to Kev and whispered “you better get a cracker up the pipe and get in front of me coz were on here!”
Kev moved forward and found a good position to shoot from, as he chambered a round I let out another call and the stag came charging up the hill, the heart thumped as soon as I saw the antlers come into view. It was much bigger than the little 8 pointer I shot on Tuesday. I was so excited to see Kev get an opportunity to shoot a good sized animal.
The stag let out an almighty roar and just as I was really enjoying the moment Kev’s .308 barked. I did not see the shot but the crashing sound of the animal below had me up onto my feet and charging down the hill. He came back into view and I yelled out to Kev to get another one into him. I looked across and he was fumbling around with his hand in his pocket! Another bang and I saw the animal stumble. I did not see the first shot but when I saw him stumble I knew there was at least one good hit in him.
We ran down the hill faster than was safe but you do these things when the blood is rushing. The stag had turned and was moving slowly up hill, he was not well, but I wanted him on the ground ASAP, so I closed the bolt on my rifle and put in a finisher.


Turns out Kev only put 2 rounds in his Remington. He reckons that he must have lost one, so he was down to a single shot! Bloody Kiwis, I just cannot handle going into the bush without a full mag and at least 10 rounds as back up!
Kev’s first shot was fatal, with buck fever biting he slipped the shot up the stags nose travelling just below the brain, this had caused massive blood loss and he was all but dead when I shot him. The second shot that I was sure I saw him stumble, must have been him slipping over as there was no second bullet wound.
Kev was as pleased as punch and so was I. 2 for 2 for the caller and personal bests for both of us.
i rekon he is quietly chuffed that his 8 pointer is TWICE the size of mine.
greg

That is some nice open bush

I reckon - nice quiet country in there. Good effort, cool hut!