Thread: Last few trips

Been getting out a fair bit lately mostly up the kaimais and a couple private land trips. Bought a camera off @Curtis27 and was keen to get a live deer pic so about a month ago headed up the kaimais to kauritatahi hut with the mutt heading in from thompsons track. Track was rough as guts so I took the waewae Express rather then the ute. Met a few other hunters on the way who were all planning on hunting the hundred acres and surrounding area so I walked straight past all that to the hut. No one had been through in ages by the looks of it track was overgrown as fuck. Not the usual supplejack filled bush I'm used to up there so cool to see new country. Bumped an animal just at the turn off to the hut and tracked it with the dog until it led us to a vertical looking cliff edge so carried on. Huts nice good view from there. Woke up late and headed out to look at some open clearings but nothing was about so packed up and heaed out. Got to a spot I had been keen to check out and stopped to have a look about thinking surely there will be a deer out here enjoying the sun but saw nothing. Just about to move on when I took a look up a bit higher on some rocks and spied a yearling out in the open having a munch about 200m away so got the camera put and took a few snaps then decided I should probably shoot it so got the rifle set and went to put it on target but all I saw was a white bum walking into the bush. Was actually relieved as I was not that keen on carrying more weight on my leisurely stroll out haha. Got home and had a look at my photos and saw that there was the yearlings mum right above it but I was so focused on the young one I didnt notice
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Next trip was private land a couple of weeks ago. Got up to overlook a spot where occasionally deer walk out on the grass but weather was miserable so headed into the bush so try locate one. As soon as I got into the bush my hound moki picked up a scent and started getting excited. Hes found me a few shot deer by now and been with me when we've snuck up on live ones but hes never actually taken me to a live one yet so I was wondering if It was a deer he was smelling or just one of the many animals that hang about this area (goats,turkeys,peacocks,pigs) but I had faith in him so followed as he tracked. He worked bloody well doubling back a few times to find the scent when he lost it and never walking to far ahead. After about 300m of this he took me up a ridge and when we got to the top I spotted a yearling ahead of us about 50m. I contemplated letting moki track right up to it but I had a couple of friends I had promised venison so up came the 308 and I squeezed off at its shoulder. It stood there swaying like they usually do before tipping over but a lot longer. I thought about going for head shot but I was sure it was about to fall over so left it. It took a few wobbly steps into the bush below so I left it for 5 minutes then walked up the where it had been. There was a tree directly behind where its shoulder had been so I had a look for blood but all I found was a bullet hole in the tree all covered in deer hair and a bit of skin and fat but no blood. Tracked it with the dog but lost the trail where it crossed other paths a couple hundred meters away. Grid searched the area for a couple of hours but found no blood so figured I mustve fucked the shot up and clipped it low which is some embarrassingly shitty shooting. Moki was annoyed at me for not bringing him home any tasty meat but soon forgave me at home when I gave him some frozen goatsickles.
Last weekend it was off to spot x in the kaimais with a mate. Left work early so was up at the hut with a bit of light left to sort my shit out before dark. Early night and It was a casual late start the next morning heading out for my hunt at 8am. Wind was blasting through the bush in 5 directions at once as it usually does and there was a but of rain but I was keen as so there was no stopping me. Hunted hard for 6 hours through some really fresh sign and followed fresh hoofprints for aaaaages but only heard one animal walking away in the thick shit then later one bark 100m ahead of me. By 2pm my brain was fried from concentrating so hard on every noise and every bit of Bush moving and was sick of the wind so decided to move off to another area so started stomping off not worrying about noise. Not to long after I left a deer exploded out of the bush only 4m in front of me and I instinctively let out a fawn call hoping it would stop. It did just behind some bush so I took a few steps to my right and saw it standing between 2 pungas so quickly let rip at 7 metres and it rolled over down a bank. Waited a few minutes after it stopped thrashing and went over to check it out. Tasty little yearling with some impressive kaimai trophy quality antlers

. Decided to carry the whole thing back to the huts meat safe since it was such a handy size. Back to the hut after an hour and jumped in the stream to get cleaned up fuck that was chilly! Had brought up a backsteak from the last deer I shot and some garlic break and onion and my mate had bacon so we had a beautiful feed that night. Backsteak wrapped in bacon followed by fresh eye fillets accompanied by garlic bread and bacon/onion gravy all cooked over the red hot embers of the huts fire beeeeeeaaaaaauuuuuuutiful.

Next day took my mate to some spots that seem to be good for sunny mornings and wasn't let down as we saw 2 but my mate had forgotten to close his bolt on the first one and was a bit too slow on the 2nd. Will have to catch up with them next trip
Fuck this yarn got a bit long but hope you enjoy
Peewoks

Nice one.

Bloody good yarn and a tasty feed you.Good on ya.

Great stories, well done.

chur bro! thanks for the write up.