Thread: Don't stare a gift horse in the mouth

The weekend before, out of the blue, the wife said 'why don't you go hunting next weekend?' She had a girls night sorted for the Friday, taking our little girl into town to stay with the grandparents so she could still get out and do her own bits and pieces over the weekend. She completely caught me on the hop with this one so I actually had to think about it for a minute!

Um sure. Great idea.

Checking the forecast (a couple of times during the week) because it feels like Spring proper only just arrived. Well it looked like I'd be ok for Friday evening, Sat morning, then rubbish due Sat night, Sun morning clear again. Righto, that should work. Come Friday I still had a couple of hours work to get through in the morning before knocking off but plenty of time for the drive over, walk in and setup camp then a good few hours for an evening hunt. The plan was to then hunt the Sat morning up high, then retreat down lower to the hut during the day and sit out Sat night there before a Sun am wander.

Well Friday evening hunt came to an abrupt close when the clag started rolling in and visibility down to bugger all. And Saturday morning wasn't that much better either, although I could do a bit of glassing in small breaks in the passing cloud. Did go for a walk through a new little valley to scope that out and it looks more promising than it does on paper/satellite so wasn't a complete waste of time.

Got down to the hut after lunch and of course it was blue skies by then but nice to put the feet up and have a relaxing lunch. By mid arvo the hut had gone from 1 (me) to 8. But a friendly mix of people. Later on as most of them were busy cooking their dinners I popped out with the binos for a bit of a look around. The temp had dropped significantly and the weather was looking threatening. So very happy to be at the hut. I was just about to head back in for a brew when I had one last look down the river flats. Hello. There's a deer bounding out from the bush edge right out into the open. No caution there. Then I spot it's mate already out on the flats. With the poor light from the heavy cloud and distance I'm not sure I would have spotted the other deer. It was only catching that movement that gave them away.

Five minutes later I'm kitted up again and sprinting down river. Well, you know the sort of sprint I'm talking about. Kind of stooped, trying to use your mind powers to create a cloak of invisibility, scanning ahead for any feature you can get up to then pop your head up for a quick check on the situation. Checking ahead too in case there's another deer about that you might bump and blow the whole thing. Then the wind started to swirl a bit. Shit. Then it started spitting. Glad I put the heavy coat on right at the start now. A quick range check on a big prominent boulder I'd seen by deer #2, still 500m to go. So I need to cover about 300m before I'm in the game. A couple of handy little bumps ahead so I only had about 40-50m of hands and knees crawling along to a good looking spot at the end. Got there and the deer must have picked up on something because the bigger one is heading back towards the bush. Not in a hurry but certainly a determined fashion. But the trailing one stops for a look towards me. Thanks very much. Fell where he stood. This was the first deer I've shot with the DPT on and the first time I've actually heard the thump from the bullet strike. Very satisfying. Then, just as I got up to the deer, an almighty hail storm hit. Hmmm. I just told myself that the upsides outscore the downsides right now no matter how friggin cold I'm getting and unpleasant this is becoming. Namely, I get a sleep in now, the meat's going to be well chilled so I can get going as soon as I'm packed in the morning. And the fire is going back at the hut so I'll warm up quick.

All in all a very enjoyable weekend. So next time the offer is thrown at me, I hope with this little training exercise my affirmative response will be a bit quicker.

Cheers all.