All's Well that Ends Well
After no more than 4 hours sleep it was a little hard to coax ourselves out of bed but with the anticipation of a nice morning hunt we didn’t need much convincing. It had rained a bit over night but had cleared perfectly as the forecast had predicted.
As my wife Des and I set of on our hour and a bit drive there were already signs of light coming over the ranges, but being a cool clear morning and the likelihood of the sun not hitting the clearings we would be watching for a good couple of hours, we were happy with our timing. The drive to our destination was full of anticipation, but there was just a little concern over the massive crack that had suddenly made its way across the hilux’s windscreen after a head on with a wood pigeon a few weeks back.
We parked up and got the rifles and gear ready before a short walk to the lookout point. Although we hadn’t seen anything much at this spot for quite a few trips, we still had high hopes with it being such a nice morning.
We sat down and started glassing just as the sun was hitting some of the clearings. Within seconds I spied a young red hind at 396 yards. Not wanting to waste any time, I quickly confirmed the range again and did what was needed to dial my scope to be zeroed for the shot. During this time Des had setup the video camera and the deer was standing perfectly side on. With one last check that we were ready to go, I squeezed off the shot with every bit of confidence. A solid whack came back after the shot but as the deer came back into my scope I was astonished to see her still standing there. Something was seriously wrong here! Once again I ranged the deer and it was still 396 yards. I checked the drop on my ballistics app and confirmed that the scope was dialed correctly. With the deer still side on I composed myself and squeezed off another shot, but the result was the same. Feeling very disheartened and confused I began trying to work out what was going on. The deer had moved off to the side but was still mostly undisturbed and even carried on feeding! It was at this time that Des said I should use her rifle. I was still in a puzzled state but figured I might as well. As I sat up however, the sound of animals running could be heard. Then Des hastily whispered “There’s deer right there!”
A group of around half a dozen fallow deer, who had obviously been spooked by the shots, were running towards us from the left and then passed through below us. I immediately grabbed my rifle and dialled it back to zero in the hope that they would stop for a look. A spiker stopped about 50 yards below, just behind a Manuka branch, but the top half of its shoulder was clearly visible. I lined up the shoulder and fired. The group carried on down and disappeared into the scrub but I couldn’t tell if the spiker had dropped or not. By now I was getting fairly pissed at my shooting, but I just couldn’t work out what was wrong. I had recently checked my rifle out to 500 yards and it was spot on.
We checked that the red deer had left the clearing, which it had, and then Des carried on in the direction that the fallow had headed while I looked for the spiker I had last shot at. I went to where the deer had been standing but there was nothing. I carried on lower and looked into the small manuka gullys but found no deer or blood. I headed back up to where the deer had been standing when I shot and eventually found a bullet hole right through the Manuka branch that was covering the bottom half of the spikers shoulder. The branch was a good 6 inches thick but the bullet had managed to pass right through.
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I searched around again but found no blood. I carried on around to where Des had headed and she told me she had spotted one of the fallow but opted not to shoot as she wasn’t 100% certain where I was at that point. I played back the video footage of the shot at the red deer and could clearly see both bullets hitting the same spot just below the deer’s front foot. The windage was fine, but the elevation was miles too low! I started to put two and two together and as I looked at my scope again I suddenly realised what was wrong. My scope was a full revolution down! I still to this day can’t work out how this had happened but it had. It also explained why my shot at the spiker had gone so low and hit the Manuka branch. To make matters worse, had I not thought to dial my scope back to zero before the off-hand shot at the spiker, it would have been closer to the mark!
We continued stalking through the scrub in search of the group of fallow but eventually gave up and decided to head back up to where I had shot from. While I looked around again for the spiker, Des headed off in another direction for a look. I went back to where the bullet hole through the tree was and searched around for blood again. There was a spray of tiny bits of wood everywhere but no blood. I thought about it some more then moved 3- 4 meters back from the tree and that’s when I found a tuft of deer hair. I got down on the ground and searched through every piece of hair and nearby grass. This is where the wannabe forensic investigator in me kicked in and I have to admit I love searching for clues and trying to find blood. I searched and searched and was not really expecting to find anything more than the hair but on a blade of grass was a droplet of water from the nights rain with a reddish discolouration to it. I ran my finger over it and saw the blood colour on my skin. Now the question on my mind was, did the bullet graze the deer’s skin or was it more than that? I managed to get a txt message through to Des to say I had found some blood and was going to begin tracking it. Her reply was “wait for me”. I began searching the vicinity of the blood drop; looking around the hoof marks left behind by departing deer. About 3 meters from the first drop, I found a few more drops of blood.
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I was starting to get excited now but was hoping that either it was a superficial flesh wound that would heal or a decent hit which would bring the animal down as quickly and humanely as possible.
I looked back in the direction Des had headed to see if she was almost back and to my surprise I saw the flash of a deer running downhill. I thought about it for a second and tried calling Des, but there was no answer. I decided to move out of the bushes I was behind and watch an opening down below me in case it came out down there as it would be a safe shot. As I came out from behind the bushes I heard a whistle. It was Des and she signalled with her hands for me to stop. It turned out she had also seen the deer and it was directly below her but she wasn’t going to shoot unless she knew where I was. Now that I was clearly off to the side and out of the way she could take the shot safely. Although I couldn’t see the animal myself, I got to see her take a free hand shot with her 7mm08 at about 60 yards. After the shot I met her near where the deer had been standing and we found a very dead fallow spiker! After the morning’s events and having been disappointed by stuffing up two deer, my wife had just got the job done with a well-placed shot. She was super wrapped too as it was her first free hand shot at a deer and it couldn’t have been any more spot on.
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After some photos we set off back up the hill with Des on deer carrying duty (I did offer) and me with the gear and rifles. Once back up at the top of the hill I left Des to have a rest and I grabbed her rifle and went back to carry on the search for blood from my spiker. It didn’t take me too long to find the original blood and then I carried on the trail. Further searching revealed more blood, this time with bits of flesh and another substance from something more internal. I was hoping the 162 amax had managed to do enough damage to put the animal down as quickly as possible. At times the blood seemed to disappear and I would have to back track to the last lot and then try a different angle. There did seem to be more of it in places though.
If you can imagine me with my face close to the ground searching for blood, then you can understand the fright I got as I crested over a bit of a lip and found a very dead spiker just on the other side of it! It turned out he had only gone about 80 yards and had been mostly hidden by the edge of the bank and some manuka. On closer inspection there were 3 main bullet entry wounds. The amax had gone through a 6 inch manuka branch and split into 3 main pieces. One had gone just behind the front shoulder and severed the lungs, another one had gone straight into the middle of the deer and the third piece had entered just in front of the back leg. Upon skinning the animal later, I also found a fragment in the back steak and another in the rump.
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I took a couple of photos and then carried the animal up to where Des was. What had started out as a disappointing morning, hadn’t turned out bad after all. I was still disappointed about the shot at the red though and I still don’t understand how my scope turret had ended up a full revolution too low. Perhaps I had somehow dialled it back a full revolution too much after checking it at 500 yards? It still doesn’t seem that possible but is likely the only explanation. Either way a lesson was learnt, and at least the red deer got to live another day and wasn’t injured due to my error.
It’s a satisfying feeling putting a deer into the back of the truck, but even better when there’s two. We couldn’t have asked for much more at the end of the hunt, a deer each and another awesome day spent together doing what we love.
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