Kaimais:
Sunday was a great day for a walk up the tops. The temperature was noticeably cooler at 7am in the morning, and to me that hopefully meant animals were on the move and not resting up in the heat of the day. Before getting into the bush I glassed 7 deer out on a farmers paddock in the distance. Mostly hinds and last years fawns grown up. I always drool over those little ones ;)
I had decided to do a stag recon mission, and if a suitable deer got in my way, it would receive the pill I had up my spout. The wind was working well coming into my face, the bush a little tight and noisy in places, so I started to get into my rhythm of 10-20 paces then stop for 30 seconds and listen. I had a full 11 hours of hunting to do before I was to meet up with Bushhunter at his place and then do a fallow hunt in the morning. Any way, hours went by and I was seeing plenty of sign mostly old. I got onto one deer which was super sneaky as I could just make out its movement some 20m away in a creek bed. The amount of supplejack and punga between us meant the deer had the upper hand. Leave it and move on Rusky. Finally I had reached some good area with plenty of fresh sign. I was just about to tell myself to take a pause when I heard an animal 20m to my left make a bit movement. My eyes locked onto a big deers arse, then it turned its head around to face me. Big Hind! I don't want that I was telling myself, but the bolt had magically closed itself and my rifle was now resting on the shoulder/neck area with finger on the trigger. Don't do it Rusky! ;) She then turned her head away and ran off with a young one which made me feel better. Seldom do I not pull the trigger once the finger has touched the trigger. After that I found my wallow I had been looking for, or should I say was expecting to find. Big clumps of mud had been thrown around it which were still wet from either the night or evening before. Marked it on the GPS and moved on.
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I was really enjoying the walk knowing I had ample time to cover a small area and not drive back to Auckland. Then when rounding around a ball of supple jack and walking away from it, 2 animals took off from behind it. Cheecky buggers let me walk right past them from 10m knowing they had enough cover. The afternoon was getting on, and I had chosen to walk the last 1km in more open country which stretched the eyes a bit. Unfortunately a hunter and his partner had the same idea, so we had a friendly chat and said our farewells as he pointed me in the direction of the trail which would lead me back to the main track. I followed this for 2 minutes and rounded a small bend. There before me was a small deer side on 5-6m away in the middle of the track! :O_O: Had to blink a few times to make sure it wasn't my mind playing tricks on me. It too got a fright, but didn't move. Quickly as I could, bolt closed, rifle to my eye, deer neck, squeeze! Dropped it there. Skip and a hop and she was at my feet. You don't get them much closer then that. This young one (I'm gonna say yearling) obviously had the boot from mum as no other animals were heard.
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Gutted it there, and was in the proceeds of boning it out when the couple I met came along for a nosy. They said they would have walked within 20m of it upwind about 10 minutes ago. Luck was on my side I guess. They gave a hand to bone it out, then something was said about a beer and before I knew it I was in the pub having a few handles and chat with this couple. Bloody good people, and stories/lies were exchanged. Went to Bushhunters place, exchanged venison for Marlin (YUM) and decided our plan for the morning.
Fallow Hunt:
Sleep was restless that night and the guts a bit crook when the sun came up. I created a nice morning smoothie for BH but he didn't wan't any bar of it :( Bushhunter was leading the way and when we first spooked our first fallow of the morning. No sigthing of it though in the bush. We moved on and heard more deer near the track but couldn't see past the thick bush. We then ventured off the track into open areas with ample deer sign, including several scrapes and rubbings on trees. Whats the deal with these scrapes, is it just one buck doing it or several? Do they piss in it?
Any way, just a few more deer were spooked but again no sighting of them to send a bullet there way. Forgot to mention the bush was like walking on cornflakes. Highlight of that day was finding a green gecko. It was a 12 hour hunt and I was a bit tired at the end of it. Bushunter was out there today again trying to find a fallow so he'll hopefully have had success.
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