Perfect South Westland weather.....and deer, or not!

Not sure where to start with this one, just got back from South Westland, have been at the family hut for a few days.
Wifey and MIL are still there whitebaiting, I grabbed the opportunity to head down to a wee bush spot and stay for the night and hopefully bag myself a deer or two.
Now if I was telling this story on FB then i'd do it under anonymous mode...but it appears that option isn't available on here so i'll just fess up and own it *sigh*.

I got myself set up for the night then went for a wander, found myself a wee possie on the bush edge which gave a view for around 40m both ways, small open clearing with some grass etc.
I had been there for maybe an hour, just sitting and watching...the sun was gonna be gone in an hour and a half thereabouts. Suddenly this large hind trotted into view, behind it was hind
number 2 - closely followed by hind number 3!. I was crouched down in the sand in sniper mode, they didn't see me and if they had of they would have only seen my head and the bad end of the bang stick.

They were in no hurry to move away and started playing & feeding, I had time to position myself, pick which hind was 1st...line up the shot side on to the deer and pull the trigger.
The bang stick went boom, hind number 1, 2 & 3 headed straight back into the bush...I was dumbfounded, didn't even crank another round into the rifle for a running shot.
I ranged the spot and they were 27m away!. So I got back to the hut the next day, fessed up to wifey and mumsie who were expecting venison for din dins. After working through the process
in my head I put a target on the quad and headed out to do some testing, I set the target at 27 metres and took the shot...that deer should have been a bang flop!

I moved back to 60m and took another shot - that should have been hind #2.
Wasn't the rifle, I must have pulled the shot and not squeezed the trigger maybe, couldn't find any blood trail, went up into the bush to see if it had dropped in there but no.
I'll be back over there this coming weekend and Labour weekend and I swear that f 'up' ain't gonna happen again lol.

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Bad luck on those deer, sometimes that sort of thing happens, god knows why. Hope your missus did better on the whitebait.

Just like the smelly poo Pooh's. It happens. Good on you for having the intestinal fortitude to admit it...and learn from it.the venison will taste all the sweeter next time.

Hard to beat the coast on a good day. Its been crap there for months, so well done.
Bit of a bugger with the close up miss. Some days you feel like you don't even have to aim the rifle and they fall over. Other times its too easy and ends up being a clean miss.

Yep been there missed a goat last year at 20m clean miss

Were aiming head or heart ?

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Originally Posted by HILLBILLYHUNTERS

Were aiming head or heart ?

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Front shoulder mate.

think we have all done it . line up a easy shot have all the time in the world and miss. next time have a hard shot only a wee bit of time and nail it .

Ive done it a few times and come to the conclusion I suck at close shots on anything bigger than a possum, Im probably the only one that does it but if they are too close I sneak further away bloody weirdo

I've just got back from down there and heading back tomorrow whitebaiting even made the weather news pic on sunday night. Did overnight thermal hunt on way down missed first one carried on and got one at 110m, deer aren't under a lot of pressure at this farm. We even managed 2.250kg whitebait at end the outgoing tide. Best weather we have had whole season. Been a real Wet Coast spring

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Originally Posted by turtleSO

I've just got back from down there and heading back tomorrow whitebaiting even made the weather news pic on sunday night. Did overnight thermal hunt on way down missed first one carried on and got one at 110m, deer aren't under a lot of pressure at this farm. We even managed 2.250kg whitebait at end the outgoing tide. Best weather we have had whole season. Been a real Wet Coast spring

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Yep, I'm heading back this weekend and labour weekend, I'm not so much into whitebaiting...more into hoovering the stuff lol.

Yeah I was walking back to camp once. Hind casually walked past about 25m away, racked a round noisily and deer kept casually walking, not too worried. took a bit of a rush standing shot and clean miss. Deer unperturbed just kept walking around the corner and into the bush, quite unconcerned about the whole thing. I took comfort in at least it was a clean miss and I didn’t just injure it. Also had my fair share of deer popping up right in front of me completely out of the blue and both of us staring at each other frozen for 10 seconds or so before deer runs away. I always feel like an idiot after those encounters haha.

Just to add further to this...old mate neighbour when I told him about this actually came up with something I hadn't even considered. The hinds were good size definitely and looked healthy, he asked if I thought the hind/s may have been carrying slinkies. That thought never occurred to me and I would have been gutted if I'd found a bun cooking in the oven when butchering it. Something for me to bear in mind at the same time of year next time.

That brings me to some questions.
I know I wouldn't flop over a stag that had cast his pointy things or when in velvet. Same with a hind that looked preggers.

When do hinds traditionally drop the slinkies?.
What stage are the stags at now with developing their new antlers?. Would they just starting to emerge in velvet or be much more advanced?.

Any other situations where ethical hunters wouldn't take the shot?. Cos I certainly wouldn't wanna be that guy.

Mid/end of November they can be fawning. Up to then shooting them in fawn is probably doing everyone a favour. Ethics blended with conservation.
Please yourself about velvet stags. Depends on the area's genetics and population. I tend not to cos there are plenty of young females to shoot from November to late February. Although I do shoot the ratty looking velvet stags a bit.
We need to keep hammering away at the population.

Sounds good Thar, I had set a game camera up last couple times I was over there, I checked it on the last visit and there were hinds around all hours of the day & night, didn't see any stags, I moved it to another spot but will set another camera up in the first spot again and see if hinds have fawns and any stags around.

Shoot as many pregnant hinds as you can

Rogie :thumbsup:

I reckon close shots,inside 20mtrs.Aim bit lower as you tend to hurry yr shot and yr rifle tends to lift a little under recoil.Just a thort.

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Originally Posted by gimp

Shoot as many pregnant hinds as you can

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All meat for the freezer.:thumbsup:

Ok. Confession time then....
Some time ago I was out for a hunt locally. Within the space of an hour I had wounded a medium sized pig standing broadside at 12m and completely missed another small pig quartering towards me at 15m. When I got home I discovered why my usually accurate 308 wasn't shooting so well. The idiot using it had taken 243win ammunition with him. Amazed I didn't blow the suppressor off!
On the velvet note, I filmed a stag two weeks ago with about 400mm on his head.

Twodiffs, I spent 5 days hunting in South Westland just a couple of weeks ago with my oldest son. We only saw one stag over the five days. We have been hunting this spot for 14 years and have also noticed a lack of stags in late spring in recent years. When we first started hunting there we used to see a lot of stags on the valley floor, but recently very few - I assume this is because there is much less helicopter hunting pressure now so the stags are up higher.

Hunting was still pretty good though - we shot 7 but could easily have shot more. My son shot 2 on the walk in to the hut and another that evening.

The highlight for me was my son shot a spiker with a crossbow - hit him in the chest front on at 50 metres. The spiker only ran about 20 metres before collapsing.

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Originally Posted by Shearer

Ok. Confession time then....
Some time ago I was out for a hunt locally. Within the space of an hour I had wounded a medium sized pig standing broadside at 12m and completely missed another small pig quartering towards me at 15m. When I got home I discovered why my usually accurate 308 wasn't shooting so well. The idiot using it had taken 243win ammunition with him. Amazed I didn't blow the suppressor off!
On the velvet note, I filmed a stag two weeks ago with about 400mm on his head.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyWk0x6FDck

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Originally Posted by Shearer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyWk0x6FDck

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Thats a nice clear image.

Would have given you brother in law something to rubbish you about if he were still here.
"Mumsie" would have given you arseholes I'm sure

Theres no right or wrong, hinds are pregnant from April onwards and personally id rather take them before the fawns are on foot so theres no possibility of one starving to death

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Originally Posted by Twodiffs

Sounds good Thar, I had set a game camera up last couple times I was over there, I checked it on the last visit and there were hinds around all hours of the day & night, didn't see any stags, I moved it to another spot but will set another camera up in the first spot again and see if hinds have fawns and any stags around.

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This time of year they can live in completely different locations, due to differing diet and cover requirements.

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Originally Posted by Boxton

Would have given you brother in law something to rubbish you about if he were still here.
"Mumsie" would have given you arseholes I'm sure

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Yep...she does anyway, I'm always a larakin and winding her up so being rubbished or clobbered is normal lol.

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Originally Posted by Sauer

Twodiffs, I spent 5 days hunting in South Westland just a couple of weeks ago with my oldest son. We only saw one stag over the five days. We have been hunting this spot for 14 years and have also noticed a lack of stags in late spring in recent years. When we first started hunting there we used to see a lot of stags on the valley floor, but recently very few - I assume this is because there is much less helicopter hunting pressure now so the stags are up higher.

Hunting was still pretty good though - we shot 7 but could easily have shot more. My son shot 2 on the walk in to the hut and another that evening.

The highlight for me was my son shot a spiker with a crossbow - hit him in the chest front on at 50 metres. The spiker only ran about 20 metres before collapsing.

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Nice going mate, what part were you in?. In and around Hari x2 is our local.

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Originally Posted by Tahr

Thats a nice clear image.

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Thanks. It was my first time out with the Sytong SX06-25lrf. The deer were at about 200 yards and I have no idea what zoom level (if any) I was on. Accidently made about 8 videos I didn't know what I was making.:)

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Originally Posted by Shearer

Thanks. It was my first time out with the Sytong SX06-25lrf. The deer were at about 200 yards and I have no idea what zoom level (if any) I was on. Accidently made about 8 videos I didn't know what I was making.:)

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I have the same model but a 50mm. Its stunning. The 50mm doesn't have a range finder in it though. Doesn't matter to me though.

Took the rifle out to the NZDA range this morning, the return to zero is originally set to about 4" above 100m by my BIL, I've now reset it to 1.5" above 100m.

Pretty happy with where it's at given most of the deer I see are within 25 -75m. First pic is a group at 100m. I then moved to 50m to see where they were hitting (2nd pic).
I ran out of time to check it out at 200m but I can do that down the river when we're back on the West Coast.

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Now with the RTZ at a hundy I can check it at 2-250m and maybe try some dialing up to 300, just to get a better handle on the scope and pair it with my range finder binos.