Thread: Got too be philosophical!

Originally Posted by whanahuia

Another week, another new area explored.

This time a bit further afield. My brother and I wanted to push up towards the western side of sumner area and see if any or many deer coming over the top. We got to road end and then saw the posted 1080 signs from Sept. Oh well. Packs on and we made out way upriver until we felt it looked like a good area. Just as we were mid river crossing i looked up to see the arse end of a deer disappearing through some Kanuka, about where we wanted to camp.

Bugger but at least we saw one early.
We set up camp and chilled out a bit waiting until 5pm before splitting up and hunting.



There was a shocking strong wind heading up valley, So Mike headed down river while I cut inland into bush and stalked my way for a couple of hours up and around to come out up valley and hopefully not having disturbed the country close to flats in the process. An unmistakeable smell lead me too a dead deer from the drop. As luck would have it I came out right at the beginning of some stunning clearings, which I camped on until 30 minutes before dark.



Then I stalked and explored my way along their edges until I hit the river again.



There was deer tracks along the clearing edges and a couple of beds under the trees along the same edge, but little to no shit. It looked like what deer were here were staying very close to cover and not spending long on the clearings.

As it got darker I made my way out onto river flats and glassed my way back to camp, Finding one more dead hind, until it got too dark to hunt.



I met Mike at camp, and the consensus was We were camped right on the spot with the most fresh sigh. When we come back we will camp across river to avoid storing it up with our scent and activity.

Beautiful Valley worth another look in a year or two I think, But deer numbers low enough right now to make it hard work.

A hand held thermal spotter might be useful to help map their habits.