Thread: First DOC animal down

So I finally got my first Doc land animal on the deck. It’s taken A LOT of leg work but every time I’ve been out I’ve added to the knowledge bank and of course I’ve seen some pretty stunning country. On this trip I headed back to the spot where I’d passed on a couple of deer hoping that I’d see something I’d be happy to pull the trigger on. I allowed myself 2 nights this trip figuring that it takes so long to walk in it’s a shame to have to walk back out the following day. It’s a good job I had the extra time to be honest. So the first night I arrived at my location sorted some water and then started putting up the tent. Every so often I was scanning a face across from my tent site and was thinking “That green patch just out from the creek looks perfect for a deer to feed on” and literally as I’m thinking a deer strolls out from the bush right onto it! To be honest I had to rub my eyes and take another look. It appeared to my naked eye that it was a spiker, just what I was looking for. Unluckily though by the time I got my rifle to give it an assessment a dirty fog came up from the valley below. Having not done much hunting in the hills I’d never seen this before and it happened super fast. It seemed to set in so disappointingly had dinner and an early night.

I was up at 5am the next morning and was relieved to see clear sky. I waited until it was light enough to check my surroundings before heading off for a walk into the wind. I went straight to where I’d seen deer previously but to my disappointment nothing was seen. I was a bit surprised to be honest as the conditions were favourable. I decided to head back to camp for some breakfast. It was about 8am by this point and figured that was it for the morning. While setting up the jetboil I figured I’d keep my eyes on the creek where I’d seen the animal the previous evening. I couldn’t believe my eyes as a spiker broke out of the bush in what looked like a hurry. He suddenly stopped and started sniffing the air at which point a small breeze blew over my shoulder. At this point he ambled back into the bush. Not thinking for a second he was going to come back I thought I might as well have the rifle handy because you never know. As luck would have it he came back out just as I was putting my rifle down beside me. I got myself set up for a shot as he was coming up towards me, how lucky was that! It got to within about 100m and started sniffing the air until it locked onto me. At this point I figured it was now or never so took the shot. It stumbled and fell out of site. The shot felt good so was confident I’d find it not far away from where it was standing. It had actually either got a second wind or it had rolled right back into the creek about 200m away. I now have a greater appreciation for when people say “The hard work was about to begin”. It started with the flies, my goodness I’ve never seen flies as bad. I don’t know where they came from because I hadn’t really noticed them on other trips. I tell you what too, as soon as you have a scent of blood on you they hassle you for the rest of the trip! After frantically taking as much meat as I could I started the grind back up out of the creek. I didn’t have the foresight to take my game bags or even my pack down to the creek, it would have made the retrieval a lot easier. Even though I was doing my best to keep the meat clean it still ended up with a few ‘herbs and spices’! It took a long, long time. I hadn’t had anything to eat at this point so had a coffee and some breakfast before removing the meat from the bones and throwing it into my games bags. The next mission was to find somewhere cool to store them. I was absolutely knackered by this point so decided to stay another night. I wanted the meat to set as best as possible too. I managed to find a rock overhang that was shaded enough for one of my bags and then dug another sort of shelf near another rock. It was surprisingly cool considering it was the middle of summer. Throughout the day I’d check the meat and wipe off any fly eggs that ended up on the bags. I’m pretty sure if they’d turned to maggots they wouldn’t have been able to get to the meat but didn’t like the thought of them getting to that point.

I had a good sleep and was up at about 5:30am so I could get a good start before it got too hot. Having not carried a decent amount of meat with all my other gear I wasn’t really prepared for just how much heavier the pack was. The good thing was I only had to bust my gut to get to the tops and then it was a fairly easy trip, mainly downhill. In saying that though the downhill was killer on the knees. I started using a pole a few years ago and it still is one of my best investments.

The feeling of satisfaction of walking out with a pack load of venison is one of absolute delight. Once at the truck a couple of cans of coke were destroyed in next to no time and the venison took their place in the chilly bin. All the way home different recipes were running through my head but the first one was a piece of fillet fried and then eaten with some garlic butter. I can tell you that the meat tastes so much better when you know the slog it’s taken to get it to the plate. The other thing that I’ve enjoyed with the meat is giving it to town folk who either aren’t in a position to go hunting or have no interest in it.

Bloody good work and well done. The final photo is making me hungry...

Well done, first of many.

Well done. Enjoy that veni.

Well done! I feel like it gets easier after that elusive first one too.

Well, done and deserved plus a few lessons learnt on the way. Plenty more deer to come.

good one, learn something everytime.
PS buy good thick mutton cloth/ meat bags or pillow slips as Ive seen plenty of flys get through the cheap stuff.
Z

maggots get through mutton cloth too..pillow cases are great,summer weight ones. the photo wit hextra herbs n spices..meat is on a plastic bag and meat looks damp......both are BAD for keeping meat...dry is good and being able to breath is better..many a hard earned bit of vennison has gone off by being put into plastic bags.
may this one be the first of many....you are learning as you go..... you learnt more lessons when got deer on deck....lessons that will help next time.
something like 80% of the good meat is in back wheels and back steaks.... cut animal across spine below ribs after taking out back n eye steaks and give the backwheels n hips a shoulder ride like you would a small child...leave skin on untill back at camp.... if bigger animal I often fit boned out front end into daybag and back wheels come out as shoulder ride.... keeps it all clean.

Well done. Keep that walking stick handy. Enjoy the feeds to come and then go get another one.

Well done man, the first one will always be one of the hardest ones, every trip has new learnings which makes it easier.

Good effort on your first deer.Plastic bags will bugger yr meat quicker than any thing.Pillar slips are good,air will still breeze thru them to cool yr venison.

Good effort, well done.

Take you breakfast with you and eat on the trail, morning and evening hours are when it all happens.

Yes eat while you watch.

Excellent. Been following your progress with interest, so it’s great to see you on the board! Yeah, i got the meat from my first completely filthy as well…

When i started using pillar slips,i have a couple in my right pocket.After i cut back leg off holding leg in my left arm.My right hand puts pillar slip over and up around deer leg.Deer leg got no chance of getting dirt on it.