The easy way.

Just returned home from an awesome trip to the lodge.

Four days of mixed weather couldn't dampen the excitement after 12 months anticipation.


Long story short, after waking I popped the rifle on the table just in case some goats were taking advantage of the morning sun.
After warming myself in the spa I spied a couple of decent Billy goats on the rocks 400 yards away so I set up the camera and knocked one over.

My mate Dave had gone for an early walk keen to get some venison for the freezer.
He had devised an elaborate plan the previous night by himself and the land owner with careful instructions about where to look, climb and avoid.
Dave had been gone a few hours when a spooked hind ran across the face in front of the lodge about 100m away.

After fumbling with the rifle (a mix of zero practice and ability with the scope also set to max zoom and 400yd parallax and a magazine that doesn't feed the last round) I managed a simple shoulder shot and the hind dropped on the spot.

10 Mins later a very tired and dishevelled Dave came down the lane telling us how he'd seen Fallow and Red only to spook a "really good" Hind down the valley.

"This one?" the land owner asked. "Yeah..... that one, you wan*ers"......


The funny this is I had joked that he would spook a deer down my way and I'd shoot it from the deck with zero effort :thumbsup:

The Lodge is a truly incredible place. Thermal hot spring that feeds the spa on demand. Wonderful native bush and hillsides. Zero network coverage and amazing, generous friends that always bring a smile to the face.

12 months until the next trip... can't wait.


Attachment 198211
Attachment 198212

Rifle is standard Tikka T3 Super light with one of Kens stocks - 140 ELDM

Nice , gentlemen type hunting, how good was the Billy , horn wise?

Nothing to him really. Good for meat only so he hung in the chiller.

Nice one, got to take the easy ones now and again. Got a couple of easy ones last Tuesday, didn't even have to shoot or gut them.
The Bach owners in conjunction with DoC put in money to shoot ungulates from the Marlborough sounds. They where using a pest control company and happened to be shooting near a salmon farm I manage. The good buggers from Trap and Trigger dropped 2 hinds off for us.

yip enjoy the easy ones when they come...almost makes up for the gut busters.

Yeah fair point!

Had a nasty retrieval a few years back on a stag that dropped in a gorse patch. Took us 4 hours to move it 200m to the truck!

Well done, enjoy the meat

Too easy, well done. Enjoy.

Hey SS, I hope you didn’t have to drag the hind too far to get it to the tractor?
Sounds like a mint spot, it’d be pretty cool to shoot something from the spa!