Jast gasp effort

The Title is meant to be Last Gasp Effort.

Yesterday I jumped into the ute and drove North determined to get one roar hunt in before the curtain comes down.
I was lucky with the weather and it was still and overcast.

I camped out and at about 4pm I spotted 3 Fallow (I think a doe, yearling and fawn) so I watched them for an hour thinking that eventually a buck would come and check them out, and one did, but he was pretty ordinary.

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So I moved on and at about 7pm I heard a moan down in a big scrubby gully (the first I had heard) so I sneaked in to have a look. He shut up and wouldn't answer a roar so I carefully stalked into where I thought he was. At about 70 yards I spooked him and he bolted but I had time to get a shot into behind his shoulder. There was crashing down the face he was on and then silence. I waited for 5 mins and than Tilly and I tracked in which wasn't hard because we found a good blood trail and lumps of fat on the forrest floor. I use the 20" 300saum and 168 Nosler during the roar and they are great big hole medicine. He was a really nice shaped 9 pointer with a bit of age on him. After butchering him I hung his HQs and shoulder in tree and carried the head and back steaks with me.

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On the way back to camp I was flashing my torch around and saw 5 deer before I decided enough was enough and lay down and shot one at about 75 yards. It turned out to be a real yummy. What I had in mind was that I would drop meat off on the way home to anyone who wanted it for over the next month (I got my wife to ring ahead) so a couple extra deer were going to be handy.

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At midnight I was serenaded by 2 stags quite close to my tent but they shut up after an hour and that was all of the roaring I heard.

This morning I was up early and all I saw was a single hind by herself and a hind and fawn. The single hind (she turned out to be dry) copped it at 200 yards with a neck shot. More meat. Her coat looked like she had suffered a knock back at some tome - maybe her fawn had been shot.

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The rest of the morning was spent retrieving the stag and carrying the hind back to camp. I had taken a quad in and it was rather loaded up for the trip home :) Poor old Tilly looks a bit bedraggled because when I was butchering the stag it rolled down the steep slope through the scrub and skittled her. It jazzed up her saw hip, but she will be ok.

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By the time I got home from the 2.5 hour drive at 4pm today I had given away 3 legs and 2 back steaks to people who appreciated the meat for the enforced stay-home ahead. One was a forum member. The rest is in my fridge and my wife has committed that to half of our street. :)

So that was it. Now to hunker down, avoid bugs, and hopefully emerge eventually to a safer NZ and more hunting.

Good on ya Tahr.

Good work, you are a good fella alright hope the people receiving the meat appreciate it. Stay safe.

Thanks for being stuffed.:thumbsup:
Always enjoy your write ups.
Thanks and stay well.

Great stuff guess we will all be counting down time till we can get out again

Awesome and a nice stag too! Stay safe

you enjoy the time with that wonderful dog...you two deserve a bit of a rest.... get out the reloading gear and read that book youve been meaning to do for ages....thankyou for all your contributions to the story section...I look forward to each of Tillys adventures....bit rough getting skittled by a carcase...hope she gave it another good chewing...the cheek of it!!!