Double Down
Kai had started to wind about 20 minutes from our campsite. We went on a bit of a tiki tour off-piste, which resulted in finding a fresh pile of deer poo steaming away. No doubt where the animal had quietly watched us stalk in. Now soaked, I decided to pull him off the scent, in an effort to make our time up and get to camp before dark. Kai wandered ahead as we moved along the trail. I noticed he’d moved to the side off a mound, winding to my left. “That’s interesting” I thought. I peered through the foliage and picked up movement about 30 metres ahead. Obscured by the mound, we stalked in. Sneaking a peak around a tree, we made out two deer gracefully feeding at the base of a fallen tree, completely obvious to our presence. Pulling up the Browning, I wavered, opting to take a neck shot that presented, at about 20 paces. The deer appeared hit, but boosted.
The rain had started up again, and I was anxious to find the deer quickly before last light. So I put Kai in front, and we pushed forward. “Stop being so hasty.” I ignored the thought. I had all the time in the world to place a shot on either animal. I was kicking myself. We got to the spot, and found no blood, and Kai started to trail. Not good. Now was the time to sit and wait, but in my impatience we pressed on. We trailed the deer, crossing a stream, before we could sense them close. Impatiently I pressed forward again, cracking sticks with my boot, muffling the to sound of hoofs departing just ahead. Bugger. Stupid. We didn’t find the deer. I was gutted. My sense was I’d nicked it and returning to the shot site, I found a big tuft of hair on the ground. Being impatient, I’d bumped the deer. I should have waited. We’d come back the next day.
The next morning we found a rather lovely punga gut that just screamed “little piggies”. We’d bumped a decent porker on the walk down the newly found trail. Soon it started to rain, and hard. Soaked, Kai locked up and pulled in behind me. A good wee black porker trotted completely oblivious in front of us. I quickly dropped the hammer and fired through the vines. Thirty minutes later, Kai had taken me around in circles, reluctantly trailing the pig. I’d fired straight over the top. I couldn’t believe it. We made it back to camp absolutely soaked. Kai had developed a nasty hacking cough. The rain set in for the remainder of the day, and we stayed under cover. I kept Kai warm under the quilt. We’d have to do a follow up on that hind from the first day, on the next morning. I wasn’t confident with all the rainfall. Easy Animals 2 - Snoop 0. I wanted to give myself an uppercut. But, based on present form, I’d probably miss.
The weather sorted itself out for the final morning. Sunny with no wind. A quick test fire at 25 paces confirmed everything was bang on. We’d investigated further north, Kai stopping to take us across a creek and up to a bench where I prepared morning coffee in the sunlight. As I sipped, Kai continued to show interest, picking up scent on the wind. After packing up, we quietly crept forward, eventually reaching a point where he locked up. It was thick, and a few metres ahead I could see the bench jut down to a dark, gloomy creek. “Nothing in there” I thought. “Far too cold.” Taking a step forward… Boom - out a big deer busted up out of the creek and over the other side. I just couldn’t get a bead on the animal through the foliage. Hum, deer are where they are. “Good dog” as I gave him a pat, and off we trundled..
The dog sniffed at the spot where I thought I’d connected with a hind on the first day. He started to move forward, winding. Hum, hopefully there is a dead deer parked up somewhere ahead. He continued to catch scent on the wind, but took me on a slightly different path than the first day. It was then I caught movement about 40 metres ahead. A big brown bum, moving slowly from left to right through a window in the bush. A big pig? Deer? Unable to see the animal through the trees, I opted to step forward and to the side about five paces. It was then I noticed two deer, starting to pick up to a slow canter, again obscured. Not spooked, but starting to move. Spotting a gap in the trees about 10 metres to the right, I held the rifle and waited. Sure enough, both animals cantered through the gap. I squeezed the trigger on the first, which appeared to be a hind, the second following possibly a yearling. Comfortable with the shot, we sat down. Well I did, Kai had to be told a few times to get in behind. The bang stick had sounded and dog burnouts had begun. But, quiet time was needed.
It had been a minute or so, after settling Kai down, he quietly whimpered on the naughty spot. It was then we heard a “crack” behind us. Something was moving in. Whirling around at about 15 paces a stag pulled into view, quartering on. I raised the lever action, and settled the red dot on his front leg. Squeezing the trigger, nothing. Oh, no round. I hadn’t ejected the first round. Cycling the lever action while keeping a tight view on the animal, I sent a pill on the way. The stag haunched, and crashed off. We heard an audible “whump” of something going down a few steps later. Well.... that was an interesting 60 seconds.
We opted to wait another 10 minutes or so. I marked our spot on the gps, and put a wet wipe up on a log to act as a visual flag for location. Moving back to where the stag had been shot, Kai moved in and trailed. A couple of minutes later we found him piled up. A young stag, perhaps I should have passed him up, but I’m not quite there yet in terms of meat hunting.
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We then made our way back to the spot where we’d shot the first animal. Kai took me on a bit of a hikoi about probably 80-100m, where we found a young spiker stone dead on a mossy track, next to a hunters camp with the preverbal discarded can of tuna. What is it with hunters leaving their rubbish behind?
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The remainder of the day was spent processing. After hanging and boning out the meat we (well I) had a big carry out the next day. On the walk back to camp, Kai winded off our trail into a gut below. Pretty tired, but interested, we sat and waited. We heard animals moving below but couldn't make anything out. What a cool way to end the day. Garlic pita pockets warmed up in a pan of butter for dinner, with a big slice of cheese, so hot bbq sauce and home made venison and pork burgers. Yum.
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The next day Ifilled a meat bag to the brim, and opted to carry the head out as well. Took front and hind quarters, back steaks, tenderloins, rib meat and neck meat, and hearts from each animal. I had to discard one shoulder on the stag due to bullet damage. Glad to have the meat shelf, which when the meat was properly centered and strapped in, along with the deer skull, made for a manageable trek out. Stoked.
It had been an interesting few days. I’d gone for far too many hikois instead of focusing on hunting, but the pup had seen to it that we didn’t walk past too many animals. The areas of interest had certainly been identified. The next trip would be all about going slow, and just be about sneaking around quietly, and listening!
