Thread: A hunt for Capt'n Ron

I am lucky to have a local farm l have been helping to "Game Keep" their deer problem for over a decade now ,mainly managing the Fallow they have roaming in & out as like many land owners going back through the ages, they like the look of a few wandering around the place. I am normally called to help guide various relatives/friends etc on to a nice head when they feel the need & keep the numbers down & remove any problem animals.

What l normally do is keep the choice cuts & make my own sausages & salami out of the rest & keep the owners supplied with snags & nibbles for their summer/xmas BBQ season , something they are always grateful for & has lead to being asked by other farms to do the same on their land .

With the lock downs of late limiting hunting by the owners visiting relatives & friends , l have been called in to remove a few stags of late as they moved into unwanted areas & the owner is worried about attracting poachers (removed that White Fallow Stag a while ago because it was taking up home on a hillside visible from far away & poachers have been using drones for last couple of years) .



I got the call a few weeks ago that the owners had unsuccessfully been trying to remove a problem Fallow Stag for months & had only succeeded in training it in how to avoid humans ,so as l normally hunt the land as spare time permits ,which with it being only 45 mins from my farms front gate to be glassing , means usually at least once a week ,with a meat animal taken on the regular, that we share with the neighboring farms families.

So after locating this cunning bugger skulking off into the bush line a couple of times after getting spooked by the wind or birds ,l looked around & tracked him so l could work out his favored spots .I decided this morning to head out for first light & catch him sunning himself across a valley ,l had already ranged the most likely spots from where l could get a good clear shot into various likely sun bed spots ,with ranges varying from 280-520 meters.

A while ago a client who became a close friend died in America & by complete surprise l found Capt'n Ron had left me various rifles , most were pretty similar to what l already owned so l decided to just leave them set up as he had them & use them for "special" hunts mainly ,he was a life long Military man who had a long & distinguished career around the world at the highest levels ,so he kept meticulous records on all his rifles & selected loads . So on this hunt l decided to take out a custom Remington 700 Sendero SF 2 .300RUM with Vortex HS LR 6x24-50 he left me & use that , with one of his selected light 150grn loads ,that l found shot into 14mm after testing, to hopefully take the Stag & l would keep the Head & Skin in Capt Rons memory ( l am not much of a "trophy" hunter any more).



So after timing it perfectly so l was creeping into position under false dawn light, l settled in with a warm thermos of coffee to start glassing & waiting, after around 30 mins l could see movement behind the veil of bush across the valley & sure enough the cunning buggers head materialized through the bino's , as he stood warily surveying the surroundings from behind his bush screen, before he would cautiously step out in to the open .I quickly ranged the couple of most likely sunny spots l guessed he would head for & he eventually made his way out to a spot 335 mtrs away with a fair breeze coming up the valley, once he moved into my favored side on position for a shoulder shot ,aiming to punch through to the off shoulder ,l sent the Swift 150grn Scirocco pushed along at 3480fps & he dropped like a sack of spuds.

I have to admit something got in my eye & l just had a sit & coffee while l sat next to the Stag & l reflected on my decades of hunting & running amuck with Capt Ron around the world ,he was a keen diver, motorcycle rider & sky diver like me so we had many adventures & funny times together not just hunting ,but more than anything he was one of the most important male figures in my life, a loyal friend & a valuable mentor.

He would have enjoyed the morning on the hill .

Nice looking bucks there, that 150gr is fair honking along.

A nice way to honor your friend. Great write up and thank you for sharing.

My regular fallow spot had a white hind that I saw on several occasions over a couple of seasons. The farmer banned me from shooting it which was perfectly OK with me. Even if I'd seen it prior to his conversation I wouldnt have shot it. Area was immune from poachers though.

Just read yr hunting story twice over a couple of double bourbons.Nice bit of history with yr old mates rifle,look after his rifle.Just got told yesterday i gota have some big sun cancer removed off my cheek near my left eye bugger it gr.So your story was a nice stress relieve to get me out hunting soon.

Nice write up. Capt Ron would be happy with such an outcome for a morning roam

What a great yarn to remember your old mate. Nice sized bucks.

Enjoyed that.
Thanks.

That was a good read, nice to see your plan came together after a bit of scouting. That 300 Rum of Capt Ron's is a fine looking rifle he would have been happy with the end results. Well Done.

Originally Posted by Trout

Just read yr hunting story twice over a couple of double bourbons.Nice bit of history with yr old mates rifle,look after his rifle.Just got told yesterday i gota have some big sun cancer removed off my cheek near my left eye bugger it gr.So your story was a nice stress relieve to get me out hunting soon.

@Trout Wishing you all the best with the treatment mate ,amazing what they can do now .I spent a lot of time in the tropics running Dive boats & driving open jeeps in the Top End of Oz & Africa & have to have spots cut out of the back of my hands where they were exposed on steering wheels for so long .Would always cover up the head & wear sun screen on the face etc ,never ever really gave the back of the hands much thought & any sunscreen on them quickly rubbed/washed off.

Capt Ron was involved in most of the conflicts we grew up with & plenty we never heard & had Commies World wide of all sorts after his scalp,but in the end it was good old Agent Orange from the Vietnam War & his time going into the Run Sat Special Zone on missions in 68/69, that included mapping the freshly sprayed AO saturation reach in the mangroves & jungles thickets ,their Levis would go stiff from it & get thrown out. When they did research on it decades later they found even the local laundry women on base died of it from handling their contaminated jeans etc .

Glorious

Originally Posted by XR500

Nice write up. Capt Ron would be happy with such an outcome for a morning roam

@XR500 Sure would mate ,Capt Ron was nearly 2 Decades older than me ,but was one of the Fellas who came on the Cambodia/Laos motorbike expeditions we did & we rode where they hold Baja & the cross country US ride l did on my chopper , l talked about in the bike thread. Loved his bikes like us

you did your old mate proud bud...good on you.

Great write up, loved it

Excellent write up, nicely done