10 Attachment(s)
Book Ending the year - A Ruahine Hunt
I was looking back through my diary and I saw that I shot my first two deer this year in the Ruahines off Topgrass Road, so thought it would be a good idea to finish the year the same way. I contacted the original crew and most of them could make it, so a plan was hatched.
We all took Friday off work and arrived at the car park full of hope and excitement, especially the dogs! A quick walk over some farmland and then we were ready to hit the Ruahines, a place that will always be part of my hunting DNA as I shot my first deer in the Ruahines, as a teenager.
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We slopped our way up the creek, trying to keep our feet dry, passing plenty of fresh deer sign and very little evidence of other hunters. Making our way the ridge we usually climb up, we paused and loaded up with water, it was at this stage I missed my son James, who would normally carry the eight litre bladder, I didn’t even bring it this time!
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We bashed our way up the ridge, pausing to glass at a few handy spots, but not seeing anything. It was so good see no boot foot prints and anticipate what may lie ahead of us.
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We got to our camp site and set up the tent and fly, I’d opted to go lightweight and had my Siltarp2, that I thought would be plenty for myself and the two dogs. After a cuppa and quick feed we wandered off to the first lookout, to search for some Ruahine Rats. We’d only just sat down when James said ‘there’s one’, I replied yep see it and he set up for the shot with his 7mmRM. It looked like a good hit at 350 yards, but it ran to towards us a the shot and disappeared into a gully. I left James and his dad with Pipi and took Maggie off to another lookout. I hadn’t been there long when Pipi joined us too!
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I located a couple of deer, but thought I’d find something closer if I waited a bit longer, and sure enough a yearling popped out at 150 yards about an hour later. I leaned up against a tree and followed her in the scope as she picked her way across the face. Just as I thought she might disappear I sent a 124 Hammer Hunter into her left shoulder and she fell to the ground. I quickly grabbed my binoculars and scanned around, locating another yearling at 350 yards. I watched her for ten minutes before the radio crackled and Colin asked what was going on. I explained the situation and he said, shoot it! Not being one to disappoint I lay down and shot it, as instructed. We agreed that it was a back steak only mission so I dumped some gear, radioed and said I’d be back at the bivy well after 10:00pm and set off.
Pipi located the first deer and I dragged it down to a clearing for dismantling.
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I’d hit it a bit higher than I’d like, so I decided to break protocol and take the back legs as well. I left them all laying on the clearing to cool off and wandered off to the other dead deer. Once again Pipi located that and I removed the back steaks and let them cool down. As I was finishing the clag started to roll in and most visibility disappeared.
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Even though I broken the rule about taking back legs I paused in the creek and picked up another four litres of water, to make the steep up up hill climb a bit more of a challenge! As predicted I arrived back well after ten and grabbed a quick feed before retiring to my sleeping bag, with Maggie to keep me warm!
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We woke early the next morning and after a quick breakfast cruised off to the lookouts to find some more deer, James hadn’t managed to recover his stag the day before and Colin quickly found him another as the sun warmed up the feed faces below us. He had all the time in the world and made no mistake this time, dropping a nice fat stag.
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Both boy and dad were pretty happy and we boned it out, again breaking the back steak only rule again, as it was in such great condition. I couldn’t believe that I had to walk up that steep face again so quickly but the walk was worth it as we made it back to the camp site for bacon, eggs, cheese and garlic pitta breads for brunch!
A quick midday sleep and then it was track maintenance time. We recut the main tracks and remarked the intersections and tricky spots. Once that was complete it was time to get Colin a deer. We all sat a glassed at the same slip, seeing quite a few deer, but none close enough to shoot. I popped around the corner to another slip and soon spotted a yearling at 150 yards that would be perfect for Colin, I radioed them up and told them to come around. They took a ‘shortcut’ that didn’t impress the dogs and off the deer went. We all returned to the oringal lookout for a while until I returned to the second slip to glass until it got dark. Ten minutes into my glassing session another deer popped out just above the one we’d mucked up earlier and I radioed the boys with strick instructions on how to get to me. I grabbed both dogs and kept them quiet while the boys made their way down to me. As the deer was so close I gave Colin my .260 and suggested he lean against a punga and shoot the deer, job done! Pipi soon located the deer and the butchery begun.
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Back to the camp in the dark, we enjoyed some hot meals and went to sleep feel weary and satisfied that we’d seen and shot enough deer to call this trip a success.
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The next morning it was a case of dividing up the venison and walking out down the ridge, along the creek and out to the ute. We saw around 26 deer and shot five, removing four. My gut feeling is there’s too many deer there and I’ll take the 300 RSAUM next time to knock a few over, at 600ish yards to help reduce the population. It’s a great spot, but these levels of deer will ruin the environment and create a poor heard.
As per our usual protocol we stopped for a great post hunt feed at Cafe 66 in Woodville and the weekend was complete!
I’m thinking we’ll start 2025 with a trip back to the same area, man I love it there!
