A few firsts in fairlie

After a couple of reschedules due to lockdowns finally managed to check out a private block in South Canterbury, sounded like a pretty sweet setup with 4 bed hut and plenty of fallow and wallaby to be had so invited 4 friends along - a veteran expert with decades of experience, a chef and myself with few years hunting under our belts and two new hunters - a chap of similar vintage to myself and a young lass (who swears like a trooper and is a very experienced tramper). Both, despite several trips over the last year had still not got their first animals on the deck.

Generally my trips are into public land involving long steep walks (many of which end up being armed tramps) so this was pretty deluxe with vehicle access right to the hut and easy farm tracks to get around.

I was looking forward bagging my first fallow with my new xbolt 7mm rem mag (thanks @NZHunter) but decided to take the trusty suppressed .308 as first option as she is a bit less antisocial in company.

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Rolled up to the hut mid afternoon in perfect weather, dumped our gear and eagerly pulled on the boots for an initial look around while the dog gamboled round with sniffer working hard. All tracks led up through a series of river terraces into rolling hills of mixed Manuka scrub and pasture spared by steep gully systems. First animals seen were the usual hares that I was pleased to see Rue the dog ignore. After 30mins walk we started hitting the tussock and decided to start glassing and within a couple of minutes spotted a trio of fallow on a fresh dozer track. After taking my mate on several multi-hour missions to the tops to find animals seeing these at 3pm in the afternoon 30mn from the hut had him just a little bit excited.

We slipped across a shallow slope to a fenceline around 200m from the still grazing deer and with some advice from our veteran expert got the new fella lined up on one of the animals while I targeted one of the others. On his shot I squeezed off the round confident that I'd scored my first fallow only to see a cheerful puff of dust above it that sent it scarpering towards the scrub. To ad insult to injury it stopped broadside at the bush edge trying to figure out what was going on and I took another shot that went well high again. It got the message and bolted for cover. Meantime new fella's deer took a couple of unsteady steps and collapsed in a heap with a perfectly placed shot behind the front leg.

There was a bit of hooting and hollering at finally popping his hunting cherry and I volunteered to go help butcher it while the veteran took the lass over the ridge to check out the next gully. New fella fair floated over to the dozer cut where the pooch eagerly led us to the animal. It was yearling and in moult so not the most impressive looking thing compared to the reds we have typically been taking but still very cool to see all the perseverance finally pay off for my mate - even if I muffed my shot.

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As we were finishing up we heard a shot from the next gully that sounded promising so headed that way and was stoked to see the other two bush bashing across the gully to a very dead deer on a small clearing on the opposite face. We hung out a wee while admiring the views over the valley, not being particularly quiet given the shots probably put the wind up any animals in the area. Getting bored we stood up and was bemused to see another animal out on the dozer track not 5m from where we just butchered the first. Couldn't really say no so repeated the stalk to the fence-line and watched my mate do another 200m 'bang-flop.' Traipsed back around and butchered the animal into the now full pack. Not bad for an hour and a half's work and it wasn't even dusk yet. Seeing the other guys headed back down the hill with a hind quarters over the lasses shoulders we decided to follow suit and headed back to the hut for dinner and a cold beverage. A couple of shots ahead of us marked the first wallaby sighting with the 7mm08 putting a rather large hole in an unwary buck.

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Not feeling confident in the 308 after the two misses I put out a target at 100m and found it was shooting well high - likely after a wee tumble it had on the last trip. Was relieved to know it wasn't just crap shooting on my part!

Felling pretty good about this gentlemen's hunting malarky enjoyed watching the dusk roll in from the couches under the large covered deck. The Chef was due to turn up in time for the dawn hunt so hit the hay ready for a morning hunt. The dog decided to cheat on me and abandoned my bunk in favour of the lasses - wasn't too upset as she (the dog) snores and groans in her sleep so nice to have some space for a change.

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Woke to a gorgeous mild morning, feeling a bit cocky given the early success took our time with some coffees and bacon butties and eventually hit the hill with the Chef with us this time. Having plied him with stories about how the hills were seething with animals crested the hill and blow me down if there wasn't a third deer on the same dozer track not 10m from the bodies of his compatriots along with another group of three below in a clearing on the valley floor. The group of three were going to be hard to get a bead on over the tall scrub so the Chef lined up from the now well worn shooting spot on the single animal. Like me managed to pull off a convincing miss well above the animal that jumped into the scrub. With no other animals now in evidence we decided to split up to check out other parts of the block. After several hours we spotted only one other mob of deer on our circuit but by the time we got near they were well gone as the heat of the day kicked in.

We met the other guys back at the hut who similarly had only seen a few long distance animals well out of range. A casual lunch with a swim in the river and a bit of re-sighting of the Chefs gun that was also shooting high had us set for the evening.

We headed back to deer ally and was pleased to see a few mobs of deer across the valley but at 400-500m range and an extra couple of hours walk to retrieve they were safe for now but I was already scheming to come back to introduce them to my Xbolt RM.

Had a good poke around the upper flats where we had got the previous animals but nothing aside from three deer a km further up the valley amongst a big mob of ewes and lambs that would have made a stealthy approach nigh impossible. I decided to head back down the track to see if the deer across the valley had grazed down slope in closer range but no such luck. Still feeling a bit hard done not having shot anything yet I glassed back up to where the others were staking out the dozer track and could see a mob of 3 or 4 deer grazing just 50m over the ridge from them. Having cell reception I sent an elaborate photo with stalking diagram on it and watched waiting to see someone in high viz put the sneak on but sure enough a few minutes later they came trotting down the track not having checked their phones. Oh well figured they would still be there in the morning.

As we got close to dropping off the last terrace I glassed across a gully and spotted a big fat hopper in a clearing, 'right you bugger' I thought - time to beak my drought and nail something. Ranged it at just of 300m so got the 308 set up and let rip, dropped it but still wriggling so put a finishing shot into it which flushed out a larger buck above it that I managed to pop a shot into through some trees. Feeling pretty good to have the rifle dialled in finally was just unloading when I noticed 3 deer crossing a clearing just below where the roos were - bugger, too slow! waited for a few minutes while it got proper dark but they didn't show themselves again. Headed back to the hut deciding to hit the hill again in the dawn for a last shot to see if we can get the Chef and I on the board with a fallow.

Woke to a slightly overcast misty morning, geared up and 4 of us headed back upto deer ally this time I took the RM thinking I could have a poke at the animals on the far ridge if needed. We had a mature animal run in front of us just before we got to the action area but no one was ready. Figured it was a good sign so Chef and New fella decided to staking out the deer ally and the lass and I headed over the ridge. A few minutes later we heard a shot and not having seen anything handy I decided to go check out the far ridge. Sure enough there were around 6 animals out grazing on the bush edge at 450-400m range so found a semi-flat area to set up on. The RM has one of the BDX scopes on it but had not had the chance to try this on ranges longer than 200m so was feeling a bit tentative and did a few range checks against the drop chart holdovers to make sure the tech was working properly - just over 5 Moa which seemed to correlate with the holdover that the scope was giving me. With no wind and cell phone reception allowing calibration for elevation and temp through the app it all seemed good to go when the clag rolled in. Bollocks. Waited for 5 minutes expecting Murphys law to have bitten me on the ass but luckily it thinned enough to see the slope again and while the animals had all started to head to the bush line one animal was still broadside at 400m so figured here goes nothing and sent 154 gr Fiocchi across the valley. Felt like a good shot but was stoked to see the animal drop on the spot, moderated by the extra 2 hrs walk I had just booked in.

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Walked back to see what the other lads had got and found new fella had just dropped his third animal after they spooked a mob that ran up to a ridge and stopped at about 100m giving him just enough time to send a seated shot into one of them. Very cool to see the confidence boost for someone who was pretty tentative about their hunting skills previously. Decided to head back to the hut for breakfast and dump all the gear to go an retrieve my animal. Sun of course decided to pop out so was a pretty hot walk back up the hill and was starting to doubt the wisdom of my decision to take the shot but was rewarded with a nice wee buck that will make great eating. The shot placement was spot on but pretty heavy damage on the relatively small animal so left the front legs and headed backdown the hill.

A quick swim to freshen up, hut clean and threw everything in the vehicles and headed back to civilisation with the obligatory stop for a Fairlie Pie on the way. Great trip and while the scenery was not as wild as some other destinations I reckon these easier hunts have their place to help get people into the game. Personally found it really rewarding to see new hunters being successful and feeling confident to get out there again.

Ta for reading!

That whole area riddled with deer, needs a cleanout, good work.

Great report, well written. I really like the look of that hut.

sounds awesome...great to hear you fellas re checked zero...nothing worse than no confidence in it.

Nice looking spot.
Good write up cheers for posting.

Sounds like an awesome time of it and always great to help someone onto their first critter :)

Thanks for the feedback, I enjoy reading others stories so figured I should do my bit.

Post script - fallow ribs are pretty good but need a load of them to make it worth while!
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Well done team,good little freezer fillers.But you need a few ah.

Awesome trip plenty of action. Those ribs look tasty alright. Good to see young folks out there getting their first animals on the ground, great story well done.

That was a great read, thanks for writing it up and well done on inducting a couple of new bees.

Ps...got to love a good sailors tongue [emoji106]

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