I went hunting with this good ole hunter over the weekend, tested him to the limit and I reckon he'll bat on to 100; at least.
A narly grind in up out of one water catchment into the next. Even though we we on a quad it was pretty tough, it was loaded up and the good ole hunter was perched on the side.
Once we got into some likely looking country we started searching for deer.
It wasn't too long before the good ole hunter spotted one, even though it was pretty windy and over 400 yards away he was keen for a shot; I said I'd video the whole affair. As he predicted, it appeared hit hard and we had deer one on the ground. We had pretty simple instructions from the property owner; shoot everything you see. We wanted to be invited back... It turns out this was a pretty poor conditioned hind, so if we hadn't shot her she would not made a very good mother.
We trotted off to the hut and made ourselves at home, it was a nice wee batch in a pretty cool place.
We split up for the afternoon hunt, it what was pretty trying conditions, heaps of wind. I did a big walk and ended up glassing a face above the hut. Five pigs turned up and I set the 300 RUM up on one of the fatter ones at 500 yards, with plenty of wind. I squeezed a shot off and the wind blew it just off its tail (if you watch the video below you'll see). The pigs weren't that concerned about the shot, that's how bad the wind was, so I had an opportunity at 510 yards later on, I aimed at the tail this time and it dropped on the spot. I'd picked a bigger one this time, but it turned out to be pretty skinny.
I was three quarters the way up a very steep hill so I thought I might swell continue to the very top. Three encounters later I decided to take the easy option and bash back down and around the ridge two four deer I had spied earlier on a grassy face. I stalked around to within 250 yards and planned the double drop. The first shot hit a spiker a bit low but he looked pretty groggy so I focussed my attention on a yearling hind, even with the muzzle break and the large boom that the 300 RUM makes she was still standing there. If you watch the video you'll see her run down the same gully that the spiker falls down. I collected some meat and made it back to the lodge to hear how the good ole hunter had got on and we had a hot meal before we hit the hay for the night.
Up at 0500 this morning we were back into it. The usual method, climb high and glass, glass, glass. Usual outcome a couple of deer about and we decided to take another yearling hind. The good ole hunter lines it up at around 400 yards and drops deer two for the weekend. We drop down into the creek and climb up to where we think she'll be, based on a flag I'd dropped onto my map on the iPhone. Sure enough there it was and we began the butchery session.
We walked back to the hut and packed up for the bumpy ride back. What a great two days hunting in some pretty hard county.
Who knows who'll win the cricket, but this good old hunter will be going hard for a few more years yet!
Here's the video with some of the extra action.
https://youtu.be/eo03UzpoEYA
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