We made it back form the winterless north late on Friday night, I had earmarked Saturday afternoon for a hunt and opened the safe about 5.00pm. Looking in I saw a range of rifles with dial up turrets or ballistic reticles, having shot number of deer last year at all sorts of ranges, I thought it was time to go back to basics; I'll take the .243 with a plan jane 3-9x40 Weaver...
I got to the area I was going to hunt and started walking towards a couple of good glassing spots, as I moved along I couldn't help notice how much feed was around, whilst it was early I was pretty confident that something would be out.
Stopping at my first glassing spot I got the Geovids out and hit the seek button, less that 60 seconds later I had spied the first deer of the year. The Geovids showed that it was 750 yards away, a little far for the .243, so I continued glassing. I swapped sides of the ridge and glassed some other slips that usually showed a deer or two, nothing presented itself this time.
Whilst I glassed I wondered to my self how far I should attempt to shoot with the .243, I jumped onto shooter and quickly made up a drop chart, with some help from the Reloaders Nest; wonderfull stuff technology! That confirmed that a shot of up to 350 yards was probably OK. With that in mind I headed down the ride to see how close I could get to the deer.
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The deer turned out to be two spikers and one stag, although I didn't realise there was two spikers until I watched the video at home. You can just see one spiker in the photo above.
The closest I could get was around 400 yards so I decided the best thing to do was to get up close and personal. I crossed a stream and made my way up a game trail and onto a ridge that would eventually take me to within 100 yards of the deer. Once I got that close I went into stealth mode and snuck into closer to where I last saw them bedded down. I had to be as quiet as I could and I eventually made it to around 20 yards from where I thought they were. Eva was indicating really well and I knew they must be close. I closed the bolt and snuck further in. Eva looked up to our left and I saw a spikers inquisitive head looking towards us through the scrub. I looked at him through the scope and thought it's a head shot or nothing, I squeezed the trigger and it ran off unharmed! A stag appeared in his place, but more side on, I aimed at the neck this time and he dropped at the shot. It all happened as fast as these things do and as I walked over I hoped I'd missed the spiker, a quick search by Eva proved me right! Phew...
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As I'd shot it in the neck I thought I better take the whole thing, I boned out both shoulders and stuffed them with the back steaks, inside steaks and both legs into my pack, I had to strap my jacket, tripod and pants to the outside and sling my camera over my shoulder. That's the disadvantage of hunting alone, having to carry the whole deer yourself, I had invited a bow hunting mate to come with me; but he was heading away the following day.
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The walk back down to the main track wasn't long, but it was steep and the legs felt it the entire way.
I got home to find some Belguim overstayers in my venison fridge, I quickly turfed them out and replaced them with the venison.
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One of them lost there life in the process.
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I'd given all my venison away over the holidays so the young stag will be processed into steaks, patties and sausages for the rest over the month or so...
Hope everyone else is having as much luck in this awesome time of the year to hunt.
