The 10 month old pup & I were sneaking up Stag Ridge . There had been very little sign before the base of the ridge but now it was battle stations as "Dottie" ( the kids named her ) was winding strongly on the fresh prints in front of us. Some swirling gusts came through as we stalked quietly to the 1st Knob & testament to that wind revealled itself in four freshly abandoned beds where the deer had scarpered . A few quiet oaths were muttered about the winds Heritage & we carryed on. A few little jerks on the trailing rope reminded Dottie that we are meant to be hunting together; which slowed her back down to my pace.
As we got up higher on the ridge the wind strengthened coming in from left to right . Approaching the top bedding area on that ridge i was thinking that the breeze was too strong for them to probably be in residence but still had to check it out anyway. Empty deer beds meant a change of plan ; & as i was contiplating that down the right side of the ridge seemed to be in a light back eddy ;i caught a glimpse of a hind walking seemingly
undisturbed out of sight.
We quietly snuck back 50m then headed as quiet as possible down to where that hind was last seen. Dottie was jolted into full Alert as she got a nose full of hot deer scent but was winding strongly straight down when i knew the hind had moved off to the left. Silly dog. Perhaps the hinds scent was going along below us then swirling straight up . Dottie was on full point only moving her eyes to look at me so i halted beside her & waited . Straight below & to the right was a massive patch of ugly tree " Flax" & supplejack, while to the left where the hind had walked i could see the start of a nice basin. For 10-15 min Dottie never moved; remaining on full point with the wind coming straight up . I very slowly moved 3 paces to my left & down on the edge of the basin was a deers hindquarters sheltering from the wind & rain under some low pungas . I moved alittle more to my left & saw its chest & front half emerge from behind a tree.
Clicking the hammer back on the Begara single shot 45/70 ; i could see big eyes looking ait me as the wet spiker rose up outa its bed 50m away. The Subsonic 410 grain Sub-X hit him high on the right shoulder & bulldozed through exiting on his left shoulder. His head whiplashed back under impact & he collapsed back into his bed ,dead. While the sound of the shot seemed to reverberate through the mist I broke the single shot open & reloaded another round.Glancing at Dottie; she was still on full point facing 90 degrees from the deer. Silly dog. I gave it a slow count to 100 trying to work out how the spikers scent was doing a big L Shape to get to Dottie then came to the conclusion that there must be another deer on the other side of the thick patch directly below me.
There had been no noise of Dotties deer moving off after my "noisey" shot so it must be frozen 40ish m away. Waiting 20min for it to emerge; nothing happened .We quietly moved down 15m with Dottie Very Reluctant to move at all. Suddenly 5m away the hidden deer erupted out of the crap & took off. Always trust your dog. Silly Human. That deer had sat approx 20m away from me for about 25min after the 45/70 shot.
We took our time boning out the big spiker taking almost all the meat. With the big 45 cal Subs you can pretty well eat right up to the bullet hole & i wasted less than a fist full of meat off those front shoulders. i hung a very full pillowcase up after letting each leg & backsteak cool down before going into the cotton. Dottie was still winding intermittantly so I thought id just do a quick circuit before I carryed the meat out.
There was a low brow about 100m away that i knew the deer liked but the sound of the 45 cal had rolled over that so i didnt give it much hope but went anyway. The wind changed again as i climbed the low 20m to the top coming in gusty directy behind. As I topped the brow a Big hind stood up & moved off: I pulled the Begara up but hesitated & she was gone. Movement caught my eye as another "periscope" looked around from close to where she had been as another hind tryed to work out what her mate was on about. Crosshairs on her, my back cried out not to shoot as i had enough meat. A lucky hind slipped away maybe for someone else to bump into .
Nothing else was sighted as i spent an hour circling around back to the pillowcase . I struggled for about 10 min trying to zip the 30L day bag up then just tied the zippers together leaving 100mm gap at the top so i didnt burst my zip . In all ; 5 deer seen ; 3 of which stayed within 100m of where i pulled the trigger on the Subsonic round of the 45/70.
45/70 is too Noisey .........yeh right .....
