Thread: A major goal achieved - first deer!

Well done. Hope you kept the spikes off your first one. They are a great reminder of your first deer.

Awesome - great write-up and photos. You've got your eye in now

Nice photos and well done on a successful trip.

Nice photos and well done on a successful trip.

I personally enjoyed the 3am stargazing whilst packing out the chamois. Really cool up in these places without any light pollution

Well done, I could ‘read’ your excitement in the way you wrote that post.

Thanks for all the great feedback ��
@vietnamcam and @craigc - I gave the piece of back strap to my good friend Morgs for his dining pleasure. He had decided not to remove the silver skin even though we advised him to. It was still delicious! I'm trying to encourage him to come out hunting to shoot his own deer soon. He's another import like @Pommy who just chimed in about stargazing.

I hadn't mentioned the chamois and the associated long walk in the pitch black as that definitely qualifies as its own tale of note - hint hint!

Awesome photos and story mate! Tops

After bagging the last couple of deer on previous outings, it was only fair to let @Steelisreal have first crack at the animals this time around. Deer were the primary target, we didn't care how many points it did or didn't have, so long as it's ethical and edible. And after spotting and filming deer on our first jaunt up into the block, things were looking promising. There was a possibility of finding Chamois too but they were further down the menu.

For the second outing, I picked us a route that took us up onto one of the tops and brought us into a position overlooking a very large gulley by the middle of the day. This thing was far too big to shoot across and so if anything emerged on the far side later on then we'd be SOL. The feed was generally lower down too and so we'd have to drop down a bit to get into range of anything coming out to graze. But for the meantime we were set. It was a good spot for glassing with time for some lunch (sausage butties if I recall?) and even a quick bit of shuteye before prime time began. The sun eventually started to dip, and not wanting to be out too late past his bedtime, steelisreal started making his way down the steady slope that we'd spent the day making our way up behind. All we'd seen at this point was a kārearea (which was amazing, but not exactly what we were after), and so my initial optimism was fading as I caught up with him. Not long after though, he spotted a mob of chamois in the gulley down to our left. Not deer but definitely beats going back with nothing - it's on.

We duck down, go silent, hold in the farts, and try not to look like humans. The animals are spread out between ~340m and ~370m away and closing the gap would mean crossing mostly open ground around the inside of the gulley towards them - what little I do know about chamois includes them having fantastic eyesight so that's simply not gonna happen! The shot's being taken from where we are or not at all. I try to get my camera set up on its tripod looking through the tussock to film the action, whilst steelisreal searches for a patch that's a) spaniard free to lay down in b) gives a line through the tussock c) allows him to get a rest off of his bag and d) won't cause him to roll down the hill. This was a futile endeavour and after a couple of minutes shuffling around, he gives me a frustrated signal that he's giving up. I am officially tagged back in, promoted from camera duty, and I'm free to have a crack at the animals if I can.

Rather than trying to get a shot through the tussock, I flip out my super-extendo bipod and sit up, it's not ideal but at least I have a clear view over it. I'd estimated earlier in the day that any shot might be around 300m and had my scope set to that range. A few more clicks up for ~350m. I acquire the animals and now just need one of them to turn broadside and right on queue, a decent sized nanny hops across the slope towards us and turns, poking its head into a bush and leaving its body exposed. Perfect. Crosshair on the crease and a 147 ELD-M is immediately sent on its way with a loud bark. The rifle jumps a bit and I don't see exactly what happens but when I reacquire the mob, they're all stood upright wondering what all the commotion is. I line up on a nanny and fire again. I see the hit this time and it takes off across the face at full speed, leaving a spectacular blood trail. I rack the last round from my magazine and track it. It runs past another (mental note) and makes another few metres before tumbling down. Bugger it, we're meat hunting, I track back and line up on its friend. I'm looking down at the top of it's back but luckily for it, I rush and accidentally pull the shot a fraction left. All of the animals scarper as soon as the round strikes the rock. I grab more rounds from my bag but last one disappears just as I throw a 4th into the chamber.

Sweet, first chamois!

Steelisreal makes his way around to where the mob was and I guide him in via radio. We don't know whether the first shot was a hit or not but he can't see anything in the vicinity so he makes his way over to the one confirmed kill and promptly gets to business with the knife. I head on over to search for the other and fortunately I don't have to look long. It had been completely poleaxed and had simply slid down about 10m out of sight from where he was stood. The coats on these things are amazing and if it weren't getting dark, I'd have really wanted to skin it properly - but no time - straps and 4 legs into thepack - which was tricky enough on the loose scree. Head torches on and we were off. It's already gone 9:30pm. Getting back was a simple matter of bashing through a treeline and back onto the slope, making our way straight down, and following the stream out. Easy right? Yeah nah. Got to bed around 4am... Beautiful clear night though. The following day was a write off for steelisreal.

Haha, the excitement, and then the realisation of having to carry it out "Woohoo! Oh shit!". Love it. Congrats, thanks for the read, and wow, those photos are stunning.

Nice going , good to get into the action. Lots of firsts in those hunts.

great effort. enjoy the venison.

Love the follow up story @Pommy

Congratulations on your firsts mate, an pretty awesome distances to get em too

nice write up, enjoyed it - hope to get my first deer sometime soon too!