Tilly would be proud.

My good mate Allen / @amlnz decided he was free for a hunt today so we set off from mine at 0stupid hundred and headed up to my favourite bush stalking haunt knowing it would be hot....Holy smoke it was over 20degrees all day with only a slight breaze to give any relief. Meg ,my big black bitch is getting long in the tooth but mates,she did us proud today,Tilly must have had a word in her ear while sleeping,she kept in range and behaved. we bush bashed up through some real crappy country to begin with.no animals were hiding in there,well if they were they hiding really well. we got out onto open bit with a clean clear creek...Allen whipped out his jet boil and boiled the billy for a cuppa....primo.
Meg drank heaps from creek,we set off again and checked out a wee side track that sometimes holds animlas,no dice there either,so back on with packs and up to "the lookout" bit of a stop and chinwag there,nothing played ball so back on with packs and slowly started stalk up hill,the wind had been forcast SE but was very light,at that point it was up our jacksee and sure enough a couple of hundred yards up spur crashing off ahead,2-3 deer moving off in hurry,Meg gave a wee whine but stayed put and shutup.... I said a naughty word or three under breath,a deer there would have been easy carry...oh well onward and upwards,semi hoping deer had gone in that direction,Ive tried following up spooked deer up there too many times to bother anymore.
we got nearly up to jellyfern clearing Meg winding but no real strong point...a young stags head n neck appeared up above us,but the old fart was too slow,and the young gun was behind me with no shot and poor visibility.... more naughty words said.Meg was good girl and kept mum and stayed with me... we cruised up through JF clearing,stopping for a snack and cold water.... NORMALLY there is water running a couple of hundred yards ahead..not today,wee seeps were mud n no more. over the years Ive spooked over a dozen deer in this 200 yard stretch of bush and managed to shoot half that number.Meg knows it well and today she was really on point...nose questing and indicating to head downhill.I said to Allen "Ive got to trust her on this" so we slowly stalked own hill @RUMPY always tells me to trust the dog and slow down you silly old fart... so today we did just that.
we stalked down maybe 3-400 yards,sign was all around us but meg couldnt really get a solid fix,3 times coming down she was really keen but then lost scent on breaze,that is untill we got well down face and approaching some big windfall.nose went straight up ears pricks,her body launguage was SCREAMING at me..deer right here...its right plurry here you old fart dont muck this one up....I got Allen on high alert and we moved forwards,a head and neck appeared ahead..no chance to muck around,up went the HOWA, the wee 4x on neck,steady,look out of scope,yip thats him,line up well and fire. deer dropped out of sight.I said t oAllen thats either hollywood shot or a miss,then deer broke to our left from where Id fired at deer,a running shot was all offered, didnt drop deer,but then I spotted deer stationary in direction it was going,lined up on shoulder and fired,my mind going haywire,was it one two or three deer. shot felt good. then in same spot the plurry deers head came up..so reloaded AGAIN and fired AGAIN...
said to Allen thats a definated dead deer now....... he headed down towards it while I headed towards where first shot had been directed...yip Ive got a dead one...then Allen found blood...hmm running shot was good,then Meg pounced on stag,it was still moving so Allen called her out of way and head shot it again...... Mayhem......
I cut throat of mine then headed down to him.... did same and had a wee look around for 50 yards just in case third deer was around,no blood and Meg not interested....still not 100% convinced there isnt a dead deer rotting under ferns but 2 good stags is more than enough for two lads to carry out on hot day....we got stuck in on knives,Allen learning the tricks of the job...third time hes been with me to see,he did fair share of knife work today... with heavy packs we staggered homeward,2hot prickle KMs of hard graft,we did stop for another cuppa.
got home and I did the knife work sorting steak for him and sent him homewards with chillybin full of primo venison cooled by frozen dogroll.
bit of a bugger the chance for him to shoot didnt happen,thats bush hunting. a good mate and our batting average is back to 100%.

Great write up mate. Absolutely brilliant day as always! Good yarns and exciting times.
The incoming thunderstorm was pretty exciting too!


Couple of pics:

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Excellent mate, bit of a grunt out of there with a stag each. Is that Allens first time up there?

2nd time,first was a bust so we have kept our batting average at 100% by popping off two this trip.
my knee was starting to twinge a bit after leaving JF clearing yesterday...really sore today,cant see me going to work tomorrow,lucky it held up while up hill,would have been rude to call SAR... they call me a fat bugga often enough as it is without having to carry me off hill LOL.
weighed meat when got home...something around 35kgs in total...