Recent hunting...

G'day!

As I was told that there is no permanent or "sticky" thread for recent harvests on our hunting trips in general I decided to start this one.
I will post such pictures from time to time as long as they don't bore you to death.
In that case, please let me know! ;)

And everybody else is more than welcome to post their nice pictures and a few lines on the latest "mission accomplished".

So... I will start.

From the midst of October to the end of December I hunt a lot for roe deer. Mainly does and fawns.

Standard procedure for me is to look for a doe with two fawns and take the weaker one or the female fawn, if both are of comparable constitution.
This manages to population and is also giving the remaining fawn an edge even before winter really starts.
And from the meat point of view they do not gain much more weight than the winter coat and some abdominal fat in the next months.

This morning I managed to do this twice.
Two different does with two youngsters each.
Harvested the weaker one of each pair.

Stunning morning with the mist and the first slight bit of frost on the gras...
It was a very nice stalk with two clean shots.

Attachment 261121
Attachment 261122

Cheers
Ben

neat. keep the pics coming.

They so look like hares eh! Not too difficult to carry out.

...But they are hares aren't they???;)

Looks like could have shot out of bedroom window of house in background lol...so very different from over here. What's the rifle and cartridge?? Them wee deer look like .222 material.

Nice pics they look about the size of a dog

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Husky1600#2

They so look like hares eh! Not too difficult to carry out.

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Yeah. They are not large animals by any means...
The fawns are around 10 kg after gutting.
But even strong bucks in summer are raley more than 20 kg for the carcass.

Delicate creatures and tasty vension!

Cheers
Ben

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Looks like could have shot out of bedroom window of house in background lol...so very different from over here. What's the rifle and cartridge?? Them wee deer look like .222 material.

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Almost... ;)
The house is the only one in my hunting area.
It is a forestry building in the middle of nowhere.
At least by our standards...

But you are right:
The year round hunting here in dedicated areas is way different and often starts just behind the fence of the last garden.

Roe deer can be taken with anything .22 Hornet and up.
Although the legal calibers start with the said .222 here.
I use my trusted .308 Winchester with lead-free deforming bullets for two reasons:

A) Opportunities... In my area you can always encounter wild boar.

B) These bullets are highly accurate in my rifle, are super consistent in performance and do very little meat damage. Entrance wound is caliber size. Exit usually less than 2 or 3 cm. Barley any hemorrhage in the muscle tissue. Very clean!

Cheers
Ben

(By the way: The rifle is a slightly modified Tikka T3x Lite...)

Beautiful countryside and some tasty looking animals. Do you have any hills to train on to get fit for your NZ adventure?
Most of our hunting pictures and stories are in the "Magazine" section of this forum. Have a look through there to see nz hunting pics.

Ben, you are such a clever guy. Tell the Kiwis here more about shot placement, bullet construction and wound channels and maybe ballistics in general!
Cheers LMP

Quote:

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Originally Posted by littlemorepork

Ben, you are such a clever guy. Tell the Kiwis here more about shot placement, bullet construction and wound channels and maybe ballistics in general!
Cheers LMP

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Hey... I would not be to sure about the clever part...
But I am pretty sure that I do not need to tell someone else "how it is done". ;)
Just sharing my experience and what works for me with my kind of hunting.

Oh, and I just saw: Munich... Another German here or a "Kiwi" living in Bavaria?

Cheers
Ben

Well done Ben,i love my 308 tikka t3x.Enjoy yr veni and yes more pics please.Lots of us old farts cant read right.:D

I always wish we'd gotten Roe deer here in NZ, wonderful wee guys. Neat story Ben, do keep them coming. Thanks

Great pics ,as always it’s nice to see how other people around the world hunt, keep them coming.

My hog deer stags stand 70 cm tall, might be a bit heavier than your roe though. Bigger antlers too, good ones go 16 to 17 inches. But I would like to hunt Siberian roe, they look neat.

Nice work Ben, makes me dearly miss "England's green and pleasant land"!

Could you please explain the leaves on the carcass? Is that similar to the German tradition of placing foliage in the mouth as a mark of respect? LMP, perhaps you can please elaborate on that?

Ben is following hunting traditions which is a nice thing to do to show your respect for the animal that gave its life.
The twig you put into the animals mouth is the so called „last bite“
The twig you put on the wound is the so called „erleger bruch“ which is something like an honour for the shooter.
It should have some blood on it and the shooter if he is on his own will take the twig and put it on his hat.
On a group hunt another member of the party will present the twig to the shooter.
Twigs come usually from certain trees that are ment to be used for that purpose.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by littlemorepork

Ben is following hunting traditions which is a nice thing to do to show your respect for the animal that gave its life.
The twig you put into the animals mouth is the so called „last bite“
The twig you put on the wound is the so called „erleger bruch“ which is something like an honour for the shooter.
It should have some blood on it and the shooter if he is on his own will take the twig and put it on his hat.
On a group hunt another member of the party will present the twig to the shooter.
Twigs come usually from certain trees that are ment to be used for that purpose.

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What he said... :)
In former times the twig on the animal also indicated that is was touched and claimed by the hunter who harvested it.
We consider quarry to be free and not property until it is harvested.
With this gesture the free deer becomes venison and my property...
Of course, stuff without real legal relevance in todays world where transport is instantly available.
But I like to keep these small rituals alive.
And just for myself it is always a short brake to never forget what is acutally going on here.
Taking a life to nourish others.

Just my take on it.

Cheers
Ben

Yearling sambar stag. Was on the way back to camp on a run down farm shortly after sunset. Got one last trip too.
30.06 did the job.

Waidmannsheil 😉
This is going to be nice venison for sure! 👌🏻

Yep, hung in 3c over night. Butchered and on ice by about 11.30. Hanging in the beer fridge that evening (saturday) probably bag it up Wednesday.

What's best way to cook eye fillets?

This weekend I joined a small driven hunt with just a few dogs and friends...
Not too bad for two hours in the field.

I managed to secure two of the little ones myself.

Attachment 261942

So nice to enter this type of hunting season.
I really enjoy hunting solo but there is something about hunting with the dogs and friends for driven wild boar...

Cheers
Ben

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Oldbloke

Yep, hung in 3c over night. Butchered and on ice by about 11.30. Hanging in the beer fridge that evening (saturday) probably bag it up Wednesday.

What's best way to cook eye fillets?

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Hot frypan,butter fat or oil ,quick fry them in one piece, slice when you think cooked.i like to slice one in half when think it's medium rare...then if want it cooked more slice n give quick 30 seconds or so moving in pan...if like it medium rare,just slice n serve. Beauty of cooking as a log...you get to slice into rings,steaks after its cooked.keeps moisture in meat and you can keep middle rings less cooked than the ends of log. Works well for backstrap too.

@Micky Duck
:redbullsmiley:
Back strap steaks were fantastic fried in butter. Thx :)

I recently tried your cooking method MD. A vast improvement on my previous method so thanks for sharing.

Hey folks...

Hunting has been a bit slow due to work load in the last weeks but I managed to look after geese now and then.
They are coming slowly but surely now and starting to do damage to the winter crop...
By now I secured five.

All with the trusty 308 as there is now way of getting close enough for a shot shell in the fields here.
Mighty small target @150 meters and out...

Attachment 263413

Also one of the reasons why I like my 308 to be sighted in with deforming copper solids and results around 0.5 MOA:
Attachment 263412
To me that looks better than a lot of geese that took a 17 HMR to the boiler room.

Cheers
Ben

Good shooting,geese are nice cooked right.We round up the flappers (none flying)here at Xmas time,nice eating.

For some time now I jumped on the "sous vide" train.
Especially if there already some "flight hours" on the bird... ;)

With wild geese I just pluck the breasts and legs.
Cut them out.
Maybe the heart.
No sense in doing the whole bird.
Just too lean.

Then I put these cuts in a vacuum bag and cook it slooooooooowly.
Well worth the time!
Super tender and yummy stuff.

Cheers
Ben