Thread: Unexpected bonus….part one

This story could of been a couple of pics in the .223 thread. Decide nah the forum needs another story.

I headed up to my brothers for what seems like a annual pilgrimage( be meaning to go more but lockdowns and quad issues meant it hasn’t happen as often as I’d like…). Actually I’d gone up at a similar time last year. Was a bit cooler then but yesterday arvo was hot as…

Rock up to the locked double gates, go to dial up the combination….hmm what gives… not working.. shuffled it round a few times, give it a tap, yes I’ve the right combination…no go. Sweet as, I’ll try another gate…nup, locked, couldn’t even move the keys. As I was I a cellphone dead spot, didn’t really want to drive out and make a call…I’ll try that gate. Sweet as, gate was unlocked. Not a idea place to park as couldn’t get car/trailer up track cos of branches n trees, so backed up as far as I could, scratching the car in the process…f##k, hopefully mum won’t see it…. Hmmm, this looks real dodge so I left a note on window for local nosey neighbour/neighbourhood watch/pitch fork vigilante types to assuage any concerns.

Unload quad n load up quad turning it into a ‘technical..’…sort of. Plan was to do a evening hunt then spotlight back out when was dark.

Cruised up a track, noticing some real laid back magpies..might get a crack here….shore nuff, managed this one….



Rode up to where I was going to park quad n go for a walk. Basically I park at top of ridge then using old bulldozed tracks, I walk down a face that’s covered in regen native which has grass clearings I that can look into. With the way the wind was I had to head up a ridge then cut down the ‘middle’ of the face then do a loop back to quad with the wind in my face…


As I was walking up ridge I spooked a hare. Was going to have a crack at it but it took off…which turned out to be a good thing as to what happened shortly…. Funnily enough I’d spooked a hare in the same spot(ish) a year ago…

I walked down a spur (that had been bulldozed once upon a time but now was just a stock track), taking my time and checking out clearings as I went. I had plenty of time as I needed it to be dark when I headed back to car spotlighting. About 2/3 of the way down I had a sit down and scanned whatever clearings I could see. I saw some sheep make a appearance on the opposite face(neighbouring property) coming up out of some rubbish..most probably from the creek. Sweet, starting to look like prime time, animals starting to move up out of the shade to eat/forage.

With not seeing anything and enough contemplation I start up shanks pony again n moseyed off. Within 50 metres of moving off down the track it opened up on my left hand side. Oh, a deer..hasn’t seen me, sweet. Lie down, jiggle around to get a clear line of fire…(suppressed) BOOM, thud, neck shot , deer down. Best way to get to it is to scuttle down the bottom and come back up the other side. Scout around and and find it…resting against a fence…luckily… The 55gn SP had done it’s job.



Now the fun begins….. getting meat out.. I knew I wasn’t going to carry it out whole as I had nowhere for it to go ie a chiller so brak it down it was. Drag it out a bit then turn it on its back…front wheels off…then one back strap…as I was getting the second in, it rolled through the fence…oh dear….Put everything over the fence then climb down…no actually zigzag using the cattle tracks, mucho easier.

The deer ended up in a better spot as I had room more to finish business…
Finish cutting the other backstrap off then the rear wheels…the neck chops can stay for Tane. Plan was to lug the meat out to where the (good) track came down to the creek then walk up and get the quad. Normally I like to walk it out once but since I had climb a few elevations with a load I thought I’d use my top two inches, walk out and use Honda goodness to do the grunt work..




I’d leaked a bit getting the meat to the pick up point so made use of the H20 in the creek…dead sheep n all. As I was waiting for it to get darker I’ll killed a bit of time by pulling out some ragwort. Good deed for the day done. I’ll come back another time n do some more weeds n some fencing jobs since he’s been kid enough to let me hunt here.

I might break this adventure into 2 parts as Tapatalk is been a bit if a dick loading photos and I’m starting to wilt a bit… all will be revealed in part two…


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Cool story thus far, maybe there is a change coming ......roll on part two.

Bit of a effort,enjoy yr veni.

Part 2…..

After loading up quad I headed back up to where I’d parked previously. I still had a bit of light before it was going to be dark enough to spotlight my way back to car. I plonked myself down beside the quad, grabbed phone to kill a few minutes. As I started to look something caught my attention out the corner of my eye…something moving…

Nope….not a deer….nope not a goat…….black sheep..?Nope…slow moving log..f@@k it’s a pig….good sized one too…haven’t got/shot one of these for a while…
I reach up to get rifle out of holder…it’s a bit wedged in ….fnnn it won’t come out…getting a little panicky as mr pig is heading uphill and that the way the breeze is going to….a bit more of a heave n rifle comes out…
Load up…take aim, not too far back as it’s a pig….(suppressed)BOOM thud…it’s a hit…(cycle bolt) but too far back….it’s moving down hill a bit….cross hairs still on it…it’s stopped…Boom…headshot. Pig down. .223 and 55gn SP done the job again…





The thought rattling through my head is “ I was not expecting to see a pig…never mind SHOOT one…

Pop it’s guts n offal out, do the big 60-70 metre carry back to the quad and strap it on the front of quad(to even out the weight)…

I figure by now I’m just going to head the straightest route back to the car, spotlighting as I I go without any serious deviations as the weight on the quad and still no 100% used to the ground at night. Still managed 3 hares and a possum. Using the Syntong and red light helped but as they don’t get shot very often the effect most probably not as noticeable as a continuously shot property.





I get back to car, gut the hares n possum then put them on ice as they are suitable for commercial pet food. Load up quad and head back home(1 1/2 hours approx away)

On my journey home I may or may not have had a incident where the quad went backwards off the trailer as I was going forwards, losing my loading boards in the process, having to grunt the quad up, a car driving slowly past seeing the scene with a dude wearing a camo top, sheath knife, blood on legs …nup nothing to see here, carry on….

Get back home, hang up pig and put whatever meat I can in fridge, then put fan on to help with cooling process.

Up early as I wanted to singe it and beat the heat. I drop down to cutting below house and cut some ti tree as didn’t have a burner.


I was reasonably happy with the result but finished off what I could using a little Kovea cooker I’ve had for years. Then hanging up in dog tucker freezer.




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Good yarn, very descriptive. The ole .223 is deadly in the right hands. I started my hunting year with three goats with my .223, I really enjoy the low recoil and quieter blast. Good fun rifles aye. :-)

Originally Posted by craigc

Good yarn, very descriptive. The ole .223 is deadly in the right hands. I started my hunting year with three goats with my .223, I really enjoy the low recoil and quieter blast. Good fun rifles aye. :-)

I’ve had that particular rifle for over 20 years. Jenny Craig form for the last five or so years. Think I like it better in its current form.


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great write up...nice to see someone else does the singe thing still.
enjoy all that meat.
go the mighty .223

Cool wee adventure! Thanks for sharing.

Awesome man