Sam's mum was a colleague of mine in a previous life (for the both of us), she went off to bring up Sam, and for 13 years has been doing a damm fine job of it - he's a great kid. But there's only so much a mum on her own can do, so I've taken Sam shooting a few times, both at targets and game (last time he shot rabbits and a Wallaby). We'd had a deer mission but without enough time it was unsuccessful.
Anyhoo with school holidays coming up and me not having been properly hunting for a good 12 months I thought I'd better get off my arse and organise something. Forumites have been bloody good to Sam with donated gear etc . . ... but this time "the forum" aced it with an invitation to try for a deer on a very large and well stocked (with deer) South-eastern Otago property. I wish I could identify it, the family who own it are doing a fantastic job,it was such a pleasure to see a family going about their work with such results -a model operation really.
After the arrangements were dusted off and the available dates sorted, bugger me it was one day before school actually finished . . ..but Sam's mum decided he'd be better off hunting - bless that woman!
I collected Sam off the bus and it was back to work for an hour to finish a job - the fencers lot is never done haha! After that away to the range to check rifle zero's. Sam shoots very well, the two three shot groups he laid down at 100M with the 6.8SPC were both under an inch! Home to pack up!
Nek morning we had an hour to kill so Sam shot all the old line marking cans I'd been saving, it was bloody awesome how much fun he had plinking them with a 22 (one that will be his soon) and then away to the farm with @Kiwi-Hunter and his son.
Big mistake on my part at that stage, forgot to feed 13 year old Sam lunch. We arrived at the property, got a nice breeding from the farmer and headed out the several km's to his woolshed to set up "camp" (some camp, power hot showers etc).
Away out the back for a recce - big expansive country, you could walk along way ..... but we had two 4wd's Back to the shed to cool our heels till it was time to go for a stalk. Mistake #2 on my part, didn't feed Sam a proper meal.
Too be fair there were a lot of distractions in the form of a HUGE flock of magpies, bloody cunning ones at that, sitting mostly 250M plus from the woolshed at all times -hard to nail in the wind with a 223, very difficult with the K-Hornet, only a couple were harmed in the making of a multiple shot movie.
Our evening stalk proved to be a bust, we checked a couple of spots but nothing was moving. Kiwi-hunter saw an animal after shooting light (for Sam and I) but it didn't come home with us. A few hares did make their way to the back of the truck on the way back though - a very tired and hungry Sam scoffed up spuds and venison stew and fell into bed. The next morning was spent attacking more magpies, then we met up with the farmer, who was genuinely upset we'd not seen anything - he was as invested in getting Sam a deer as anyone. So after a lengthy discussion (did I mention these guys are excellent farmers, including that essential rural skill, yarning!) we were directed to the "home blocks"with very specific maps drawn!
We waited and waited until it was time to go hunting but Sam was up for it. We decided to split the teams up, Sam and I went "up the road" to a very long winding bush edge facing onto paddocks with a hell of a lot of ewes and lambs on them- grass up to their ears! We were still too early but we worked out way up through the sheep on the down-wind end of our "beat" and checked out the sign. There was quite a bit,but it was apparent that the deer were only coming into the paddocks to play - a hell of a lot of feed/grass between the bush edge and fences. The worked ground was full of wheelies etc -deer at play. Bear in mind in these parts it is still light till at least 9.30 -so we waited. Finally about 9.00 I felt it was time to move.
Well bugger me, we'd only gone 100M and a nice spiker still between the bush edge and fence (about 5M in most places) skunked us. If we'd be literally 2 minutes later we'd have likely gotten a shot at him in the paddock -oh well!
The next 500-600M of carefull stalking around the bush edge (while avoiding the sheep) took us till last light and we broke into our "last paddock" with it practically dark - about 9.50PM. We scanned and saw nothing and were about to break cover to move when a very breathless Sam said "THERES ONE". But old fool couldn't initially locate it. A few seconds went by and I did spot it - a really big animal with very decent velvet - out playing and only 200M away! Man he was jinking about, cavorting and jumping. In the few seconds I took to get Sam organised the stag had started to run right towards us. Buy the time Sam had the rifle up and cocked (he prefers the Contender single shot 6.8) the stag as only 100M away. Sam, bless him, had the worse case of buck fever I've seen, I tried the shoulder grip shake but no effect, he wasn't going to hit the side of a barn. Meanwhile the stag skylined itself at 80M and was about to disappear, so I threw up my own 6.8 and took the shot as it paused for a moment. Bang Flop, the stag never saw us. It never moved, we could just see the tip of one antler against the sky.
Here is the picture -one tired but very happy boy,about to take home to mum his first venison .... life is good,enjoy it guys
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