Of grass being pulled and chewed, I was supposed to be going out with one of my work mates but as it was my last hunting pass for a while I bailed and went to a spot thats been playing on my mind a bit lately.
I left the truck on the dark side of dawn and trotted off at pace to get where I wanted to be by daylight. I quick scout of my vantage point and found a posy facing the wind and overlooking a scruby gully full of toitoi and punga. Sat down and surveyed the gully, nothing to be seen but from time to time I could hear a bit of a rustle in the bushes but the wind an fog made it impossible to pin point where the noise was coming from, I coldnt tell if it was 20m or 200m away. After about half an hour of listening I moved across about 10m to get a better veiw of the base of the gully, still nothing to be seen and the wind was giving me a serious chill.
I was starting to think even if I catch a glimpse of this animal theres no way I shoot the bugger shaking like this let alone the numb hands. But before long the wind died down, the shivering stopped and I regained feeling in my hands and now the sounds were more constant and defined, it suddenly dawned on me that the source was closer rather than further. There was grass being pulled and chewed, flappy ear head shakes and sneezes, it was becoming clear that there was a animal in close proximity totally oblivious to my presence. My heart pounding I slowly stood up, only making it to a high crouch to see the rump of a deer not more than 50m below me, it pushed out of the scrub to reveal itself as a young hind, I lowered to one knee and lined up on her shoulder and BOOMFA, she rolled down into the scrub.
It was the first time Ive really carried the full animal any distance it was probably about a km back to the truck through scrub, I was lucky enough to get the climb out of the way at the start. I learnt a very important lesson at this stage, carrying a deer in a singlet with sun burnt shoulders sucks the kumara...Big time. Now I know theres nothing spectacular about a wee hind but bearing in mind Ive devoted a lot of time to this sport over the last 6 years and this is the 4th animal Ive bought home I had a fair buzz on.
I was met at the gate by my 3yr old boy "you shoot some turkeys dad?" "not this time buddy I got a deer" "YOU GOT A DEER??!!! (runs to mum) DAD GOT A DEER!!!" he comes running back "IS IT A BIG ONE!!??" "ah yea I guess so.."(popped the back of the suzuki open) "WHOOAA CAN I SHOOT A DEER DAD!!??" "sure buddy":)
