With our family Christmas having been disrupted due to COVID sickness I found myself in the unbelievable position of having a leave pass to head for the hills as soon as Xmas lunch was dusted.
That’s where my luck came to a screaming halt. Next minute I’m bed ridden with the shit myself. Merry Xmas. I’d promised to take junior on an adventure and he was climbing the walls. Not feeling like walking anywhere put pay to all usual spots. I needed a plan b.
Studying the topo map and doing a bit of research a plan was hatched. Still feeling like shit but even more over being house bound we loaded the quad on the trailer , threw some gear on board and hit the road yesterday afternoon. 4 hours later had us in a promising looking spot on a mint evening with a fly camp set up. We headed up stream into the wind and had not gone 20 mins before 3 deer were spotted. They were 900 yds away. We continued to stalk closer closing the gap to just under 400.
Meanwhile they had fed out of sight. Junior not impressed. We had done everything right and I was confident no deer were spooked. We found a nice flat elevated rock to lie on and continued glassing. It wasn’t long before the swaros picked up a stag on the bush edge bedded down chewing his cud. He was well within range. I had him lined up but he didn’t want to move. Meanwhile mr 8 with the binos was getting more and more impatient letting me know how many times over he could have shot the stag etc etc
Attachment 213251
After 10 minutes of this I was over it. Just wanting to hit the sleeping bad tbh. So I lined up and regrettably let strip. At the shot he lurched to his feet and took off downhill. The sound of a solid hit drifted back. Suddenly he appeared again wobbly on his feet and tipped over.
Something didn’t feel right to me. When we got over there the stag was trying to regain his feet. A quick shot under the eye put his lights out for good. This will be the last deer I shoot that’s sitting. It must have been the way he had his leg tucked under him. Basically I hit him where I aimed. The bullet went through the chest travelled the length of the body and trying to exit through one of his rear legs and smashed the femur in two. No wonder he was crook.
Attachment 213253
Anyway the boy thought it was still the best thing ever. After a few photos I took every scrap of meat I could with camp being 20 mins away. Just as we were finishing up two more deer walked within 40m of us in the half light before realising the danger and bolting.
In the last ten minutes of light we seen 5 others on the walk back to camp. Lucky for them I was not up to much more.
So meat hung up. Fire raging. Billy boiling. Kid fed and watered. Up at sandfly o. Lock this morning we had the meat boned out and we’re home in time for lunch. Good overnight hunt with lessons learnt.
