I'm blessed in so many ways. Family, friends, and ok health. And even to the extent of being asked to home sit a sheep station homestead on the coast for 10 days. "feed the dogs, feed the horses, feed the chooks, look after the stock water pumps and get rid of some deer" were my instructions. Its a tough life.
Its been as hot as hell and to be honest although Ive been hunting for 3 evenings I have only seen a few deer and nothing suitable to shoot - does with fawns and a good velvet buck. There are meant to be too many deer around, so I have suspected that they have been coming out after dark in the cool. There is a ton of grass so they are under no pressure for a feed.
So last night my 2 lads came out to join me. Craig's a keen hunter, the other l(#2) loves fishing but is a bit over shooting stuff (can you believe that??). But #2 has fantastic eyes and is a supreme deer spotter. It was a lot cooler so hopefully there would be more deer moving around.
So at 5pm we headed off to a scrub block that I had sussed out previously. On the way out #2 spotted a deer sneaking back into the scrub which we noted for later. As soon as we got to where I thought might be a good spot #2 straight away spotted 2 Fallow laying next to a clearing.
Spot the deer:
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So Craig and I snuck down to 240 yards to get a closer look and saw that they were a couple of yummy yearlings. I dislike trying to synchronise shooting but we managed to get our shots off at the same time. And they both ran off! So Craig went over and checked while I headed back off up the hill to meet #2. Eventually a message came from Craig "blood where Dad's was and Ive tracked it and found it". It had travelled about 80 yards with a 140 SST in behind its shoulder.
Here's Craig where he found it.
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And here 'tis. Not Big.
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When we had fired our 2 shots they disturbed 2 bucks and a couple of yearlings that ran past #2, and he had spied a couple more through the binos - so we were seeing a few.
As evening set in #2 and I sat down and started glassing in earnest (while Craig was carrying my deer back up) and I soon spotted a nice red coated little buck where #2 had seen one one on the way up. So I headed off to get a crack at him while #2 spotted. It was about 600 yards away. While I was sneaking down #2 called up and said that 2 black bucks were there too but 200 yards further on, so he directed me to where they were.
I popped over a rise and there on a clearing was one of the bucks carrying a spindly head - on the alert and facing me - so I wasted no time in putting a 140 sst 7-08 into his chest. 230 yards. He collapsed and rolled into the scrub. The bullet exited between the shoulders and made an awful mess. 2 deer now for the evening.
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Fat
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#2 came down to help me with the load and we carted all of the legs and good bits up to a ridge and set off back to meet Craig - who in the mean time had shot a yearling at 200 yards with his 7-08 as he was coming back to meet us. It was a really pretty one.
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We now had 3 deer, but had the luxury of a side by side bike so we assembled all the meat and loaded that up. A rare treat, and the trip home was a breeze.
#2 son wanted plenty of venison for himself and a mate so Craig just kept a young HQ and I kept the buck's back steaks and he took the rest back to PNth (he had brought out a heap of fish for me so it was a fair trade. Plus I love him. :) ).
A good haul.
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Ive still got 4 nights here :)
Life is good.
