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The final hunt - solo night mission 5 deer down
With just three days left before the private block gets sold, I had been requested by the current landowner to bomb them up, and so out I went on a solo night mission armed with my 7mm rem mag, night vision clip on with IR torch and thermal handheld.
Starting to walk across the farm a couple hours after dark I quickly got to my glassing spot, and it wasn't long before I spotted something coming out of the public forest, it promptly sat down in the middle of the paddock chewing cud. Eyes on and it's a spiker at 360m, with it looking pretty relaxed I thought I'd leave it for a bit and see what else comes out. That was until I hear the distant sound of a quad on the neighbours and I know there's only one place they're going at that time of the night - on the paddocks right next to me. So before he spooks, I quickly dial up, get the IR torch on him and let it rip. Picking up the thermal I see him tumbling down the hill, success.
With the neighbours now spotlighting next door and letting two shots off I walked to another section of the farm to see what I could find. Coming over a ridge slowly I see a deer in plain view at 450m, but it was skylined. By the time I climbed up a hill to get a better angle and a bit closer it had moved into a little gut at the back, from experience I know waiting here yields little results so I ditched the pack and stalked in. Coming up over the ridge with thermal in hand, I see the familiar bright shape of a deer. At about 60m I quietly sat down and rested the bipod on my knees, it's a hind. I line up with her neck and she drops. Walked another few metres and I see another deer standing below her, unsure what to do. It's a spiker, and down it goes with the neck shot. Another deer, this time a yearling, runs up inbetween the two on the ground, in less of a steady position I went for the chest and it promptly tumbled down the hill.
With all the rush over I got to gutting and then walked back up to my original glassing spot where I shot the first spiker. Lo and behold I spot a deer on the next ridge over, ranged at 490m. With recently having practiced at long range I figured now was as good as time as any, so I dialed up again and got into a nice steady position and let the 162gr ELD-X fly, I heard the familiar and reassuring 'thump' but looking through the thermal I see the deer running up the hill with a smaller deer below, they stop at the bush edge and then jump, no signs of any struggle. I pack up and make my way over to the first spiker, gut it and then start heading back to the car. On the way I stopped where I estimated the deer at 490m to be standing, and there was a nice speck of blood. Following the trail up to the fence there was a big splatter of blood on the ground, a good sign surely. The blood trail continued through the bush with big patches of blood getting closer and closer together until about 50m from the bush edge I found him, a nice even 8 pointer taken out with a lung shot.
After gutting him and dragging him through the bush to the farm edge I finally headed home for a quick nap before heading back in the morning to go collect them with the farmer and throw them into their chiller. We've had a few successful missions over the years collecting 3 twice and 4 once, but getting 5 solo was a pretty good send off for this awesome property I've had the privilege of hunting over the past few years.
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