Thread: First ever deer hunt....

Go easy on me guys, this was my first ever un-guided hunt.......solo, so 'the boss' didnt want me to 'go bush' alone......STILL CANT UPLOAD PICS...GRRRRRRR

As I went to a ‘deer farm’ for my first ‘kill’, I don’t really consider that as a ‘hunt’….i mean, lets get real, they were fenced in FFS!!!!!

So I decided to go on my first ‘real’ hunt at the weekend, as im a complete novice, I thought I would go for open tussock and not ‘bush’ for safety reasons!!!
Being on my own, i still took my PLB and usual safety stuff, bright ‘blaze orange’ hat and vest…..

Left after work Friday night for the 4 hour drive down to Tongariro park, got there and climbed into my ‘scratcher’ bag in the back of my X-trail…..
FFS, half an hour later a DOC officer is banging on my window with a torch saying I’m not allowed to ‘car camp’….

Moved to the hotel (Skotel) car park further down the road, im in a deep sleep, same thing happens again! 1-30 in the fukn morning, different guy!!!!!
So I now have to drive to ‘National park’ village, found a quiet, dark backstreet and finally got my head down…..

Alarm went off at 5-30, just wanted to stay in my bag, it was fukn freezing!!!!!...got up, made a cuppa, had some grub and im finally off….

Got to trail head, head torch on, pack on, checked I had my bolt & ammo in my back pack and im away, about an hour in and I find a big ‘slip’ on my left
Just where I need to go, (I had prepped my hunting location beforehand) this would be ideal……felt good, wind was on my nose, perfect, got no further than
20-30 meters, when I saw my first hoof print (there were to be many!) looked ‘fresh as’ to me (?) edges nice & sharp, mud inside darker colour that the ground
Around it, head torch off, as quite as I could be, bolt in, put 3 rnds in the mag box (takes 4) and closed the bolt on an empty chamber for safety reasons……

Stalked up the slip like a fukn deranged ninja, trying not to laugh at myself…….got to near the top of the slip, dropped my backpack and crept to the top so I
would not silhouette myself, chambered a round and……….fuk all!!!!!! Gave out a ‘roar’ with my ‘roaring horn’ (top off a traffic cone?) no response…..
Carried on to the next ridge (there were to be many!) same result, and the next & so on……

finally came to this high volcanic lava flow ridge overlooking a small forest with a steam along it, great ‘kill zone’ thought I (WTF am I on about?) set up my bang stick
and sat it out, ‘glassed’ the fringe of the bush line with my bino’s, after dropping down about 10 metres so I could not be seen on the ridgeline….

so to cap it all off I had a big long walk through fantastic scenery, didn’t
see one deer the whole day, they were probably all around me laughing!!!!!.....but we all have to start somewhere, must have fell over about 6-7 times, its incredible
where a rifle bolt handle can lodge itself!!!!!! Will just keep going till I finally get one….after all, its called ‘deer hunting’ NOT ‘deer shooting’……

will be back in soon, with a mate, so we will hit the 'bush' this time!!!!!!!