Had occasion to revisit a spot up the St Jame’s for the second time to replenish the freezer in a rare fine couple of days amongst the rain over the Xmas break. Loaded the Dog, rifle and tent and picked up a mate who hadn’t been up there before. Easy walk in and a leisurely camp set up left us time for a snooze in the shade of some matagouri until things started to cool off a bit. Puffed our way up an a hour or so up the ridge to a likely looking glassing spot around 4pm. Having boasted about the easy animals I found on the last trip was looking forwards to seeing mobs of deer offering themselves up for the taking. We sat and waited… and waited. Was starting to wonder if it was going to be a complete bust when we picked up a lone hind around 1.5km away across the valley, watched her feed for a bit before she disappeared back into the beech, presumably back to her fawn. Another hour ticked away and nothing but a pair of grumpy Falcons warning us to clear off. Another hour later as the shadows started to get long was relieved to see a hind and spiker pop up out of the beech around 800m away across the valley. Still too far to take a confident shot but could be targets for the morning if they stuck round. Must be getting old as a couple of years ago would have seen us charge down the steep bluffy slope to try and get close enough for a shot then and there but we decided to hold tight to see what else popped out.
The sun was now low enough to put the far faces in shade and with nothing moving so was just about to shift on to another glassing spot when ‘hello’ - a fat staggy walked out directly down slope around 500m across the gully from us. Patience rewarded! Mr Stag was in no hurry and wind was in our favour do decided to drop down to close the distance and get a better angle. Found a primo spot at 425m and lined up but the low sun angle was right in my eyes and couldn’t see bugger all through the scope. Took a few minutes of shuffling round before managing to get a sight view by throwing a fleece over me to get some shade. A moment of panic thinking Mr Stag had walked off over the ridge while I stuffed round before I found him nicely broadside a little further across the slope. Squeezed off the rem mag and heard a good thwack. He jumped a few meters before putting his head down, swaying before finally falling down the steep slope into the creek below. Sweet.
Recovery took a while with a steep walk down and up before finding him piled up in the scrub beside the creek. Much further and he would have been in a tricky little chute which might have been tough to get into. Shot had gone forwards of the shoulder point of aim by a good 8 inches taking out the blood vessels in the neck but luckily sill a pretty clean kill. Probably a combo of some inconsistencies in the SST loads I am using, a bit of cross wind and me being a bit jittery after all the stuffing round. A lot of bruising in the fore-quarters so in the interest of lead minimisation just took back steaks and hind quarters which was still a pretty decent weight. Was interesting to see how much blood was still in his system when we took the legs off, meat was also a lot darker than normal. Did feel a bit of guilt as he had the makings of a decent 10 point rack but with a few bbqs coming up he will be put to good use.
Lucked out with finding a game trail down the valley that bypassed some gnarly bluffs and managed to get back to the tents at a very civilised 10pm. With weather set to pack in the next morning we decided to have a leisurely wake up and bail home before things got too wet.
All in all a good wee trip, good reminder that a bit of patience can go a long way.
