2nd and 3rd animal down

Without wanting to dredge up my last post I thought I would just thank everyone for the positive feedback after getting my first DOC land deer over the summer. Tahr was right, the game bags are Hunters Element and they seem to go okay. The other one was a fancy one from the US, it seemed to work okay as well.

So towards the end of summer I got out for a final trip. On my previous trip to the tops I ran into a bloke on the flats who had just come out from hunting the river valley. He was very kind and gave me some useful info so figured I'd try the lower part of the valley this time. My holiday was quickly coming to an end but I managed two days of reasonable weather before it was due to pack in ( I'm currently a fair-weather hunter! ). On the way in I got talking to a possum trapper who was also very kind. He was heading in the same direction that I was but was not interested in deer. He told me my plan sounded spot on and if I played my cards right I should see something in the evening.

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The further I got into the valley the more the deer sign became evident. I was also very surprised at the amount of feed in the valley. Every so often there were game trails crossing the main track, they looked like they'd had a fair amount of activity. It was also great to see lots of sign as I got close to where I was heading.

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I arrived at my destination at about 5 pm, pitched the tent, got some water and had some dinner. At about 7:30pm I made my way into the wind down valley. At about 8 o'clock I came to a small creek that looked like it had some nice openings. I headed up and it wasn’t long before I glimpsed some movement from the right. It turned out to be a hind and a fawn. The fawn was still very young so they were safe from me. I made my way up the stream until it closed in. I left here and carried on up the main valley. I was beginning to wonder if I'd left camp too early as I was coming towards the end of where I planned to walk to. At this point, I spotted what looked like a deer in the distance. After working out it was indeed a deer I began the stalk. Luckily there was plenty of scrub to hide amongst and the wind was still in my favour. Fortunately, I stopped to range it while I was still a fair distance from it as I discovered there were 3 more deer with it. I closed the distance to 100 m and figured this was close enough. I must have sat and watched them for a good 15 minutes to work out whether or not I was going to shoot one or potentially two. It appeared that one of the hinds had a somewhat large fawn with it so I decided if I could take them both I would. As it turned out I was able to shoot them both and was very surprised when I realised the ‘fawn’ was a yearling! I was immediately worried that the hind may have had a fawn hidden in the grass but as it turned out she was dry.

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By this time it was getting on so I needed my headlight while I was sorting all of the meat and my word there was a lot of it! The good thing about getting them in the evening was there were no flies to worry about. I was able to lay the legs and back steaks in the grass without them getting dirty ( the meat was as close to clean as you could get it ). By the time I got back to camp it was about 1 am, I'm hoping that I get a bit faster at processing meat. I was so fired up with adrenaline that it made it hard to sleep that night. I reckon I only got about 3 hours sleep as I was up early the next morning so I could make tracks for home. It was a hard slog back out to the car too. Even though I was on the ‘flats’ you underestimate just how many times you have to go up slopes! My legs were absolutely shot by the time I got to the vehicle but my word was it a great feeling to have so much meat to put in the chilly bin.

I was chomping at the bit to get out again over Easter, maybe even get a reasonable stag. Unfortunately I got the flu and it was bad. I generally don’t get sick but when I do it brings me to a grinding halt. I’m looking forward to getting out over the spring. I've been studying the DOC website and various maps, I may even change things up and look for a chamois - watch this space!

Awesome news! Made me smile at the not being able to sleep. Its a cool feeling to be reliving the days events on a high. Even if you need the sleep.

Great stuff.you found a good area.now keep going back time n again.it just gets easier when you know where you are etc.

Great read and nice animals you have there

Well done mate!

Great adventure and hunt well done, once that hunting bug kicks, you're hooked. Enjoy that grass fed venison.

Nice write up, well done. Sounds to me like you are well and truly a hunter rather than a shooter.

Well done

Well done,just keep going back to the same spot and learn it well.Oh you'll need to buy a bigger freezer now.

Top effort

Great hunt! Sounds like you've got the basics sorted and should regularly get onto the deer now.

yep shooting them is often the easy part. type 2 fun is great fun.

Neat story. Good on you. Do the mahi get the venison!

Put in the hard yards and you get results, great story and enjoy the venison you earned it.