A couple of days ago, not having been for a hunt for 5 days I was of course getting itchy feet :)
I had a relatively new spot to go to which is closer to home (2 hrs drive) than usual. Brian was busy and Craig working so I had to go by myself which I don't mind and do a lot of. Seeming as the stags are still in the velvet and the hinds with fawns the scope is a little limited in terms of shooting big deer, so I decided to just take the little Savage light weight .223 and try out some Nosler bonded 64 grain projectiles that shoot really well but I haven't shot anything with.
It was 36 degrees as I drove through Masterton and probably the same when I parked the truck. Sweltering. The wind was a stiff N/Wester which meant I would have to change my plan and hunt pretty much from the road rather than go to the back of the block and hunt back. So I didn't have to go far before I could sit in the shade and start glassing for deer. My plan was to hunt towards the back of the block and to walk back from there in the dark. Hopefully I would get something a bit handier than that though.
By 8.30pm I was only about 500 yards from where I had started and I spotted the first deer at 700 yards. It looked like a hind and although it was in a bugger of a place to get to I thought if I got closer there might be something else near by or it might actually be young without a fawn.
It was 9.15pm by the time I had crossed several creeks and gullies and navigated my way to a bare little knob I thought I could get a shot from (by ranging to the deer, and then the bare knob, I had worked out that it would be about a 250 yard shot). Anyway, when I finally huffed and puffed my way there and cautiously peeped over there was nothing in sight. The hind must have been in a little fold on the hill side.
I got my binos out and started scanning and straight away spotted another deer in the scrubby bush feeding. Range 225 yards. At first I was convinced that it was a big hind but after a lot of looking it turned its head and I could see that on its off side it had a good spike of velvet and on the close side just a stump. Action! I had to boot Tilly away because she had her head under my arm as I was glassing (she does that), and get set up. As I pushed her away she knocked my rifle off its bipod so there was a bit of fluffing around but I eventually got set up for the shot.
I could have neck shot the spiker but I wanted to "test" the Nosler bonded's penetration so line up on the bottom shoulder joint (allowing a few inches for the wind) and let rip. The spiker reacted as if hit and then ran and disappeared. At the shot the hind came barking down a clearing and ended up standing 30 yards away. I put the cross hairs on her brisket and then put the rifle down - common sense prevailed (for once) - she was a 2 year old so quite suitable.
It was dark when Tilly and I got to where I thought the spiker had been. There was no blood and she wanted to go the opposite direction to where it had ran. So I pulled rank and made her follow me, albeit that she kept looking back over her shoulder and shaking her head. After hunting around for 20 minutes Tilly and I had a conference and I agreed to go the original way she wanted to go. So she led me to where it had really been when I shot it (80 yard from where I thought it had been) and then straight down hill towards a creek. There wasn't a drop of blood. Tilly stopped after about 100 yards and we both stood there looking perplexed. Then her head went up and she ran down hill and disappeared. I stood there listening and then heard some splashing and her scuffing a deer up.
I couldn't see her or the deer but followed the sound in the dark and and ended up on a steep bank and there they were in a sharp little gutter. I would never have found it without the dog, even although the deer had been dead on its feet and hadn't travelled a big distance.
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I couldn't get the spiker out of the gutter and completely out of the water it was in so had to do the disassembly where it was. The bullet had hit where I had aimed and penetrated well into the chest cavity. The shoulder was well broken and floppy. The rib entry hole was not large and I didn't open the chest up but the projectile appeared to have worked pretty well.
He was an odd looking thing. But in pretty good nick and ideal for the soup kitchen I donate meat to.
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So I got on with the knife work and boned out the hind legs and a shoulder, took the back steaks and inside steaks (for me) and chucked it into my excellent pack frame (man that makes carrying easy).
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It took about an hour and half to haul my old arse and its load out of there. After about an hour though I hit a good farm track so the last 30 minutes wasn't that difficult but the first hour had been all steep up hill.
There was a thermos waiting for me back at the truck and a couple of fresh bran muffins, so that was a treat. Then it was the drive home, clean up, and into bed. That happened at 2am.
Today Im delivering the boned out and cleaned up hq's and shoulder to the soup kitchen and the back and inside steaks can remain in the fridge maturing for me. Life is good.
