We had an eventful evening together yesterday. Shot some deer and enjoyed each others' company.
I shot a doe standing on the scrub edge at 100 yards. She looked hard hit by the .223 but bolted whence she came and disappeared. Bella quickly found where it had dived back into the scrub and started tracking. Typical of the .223, no blood. But Bella's body language told me she was confident.
After 30 yards we came to a steep drop off and she tracked back and forth in front of a Manuka on the edge.
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Then she disappeared out around the ledge and I could soon hear her pushing into scrubby shit directly below me.
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So I grabbed a stout Manuka and lowered myself down above where she was. Ah haa... nice, Bella.
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It was well dark by the time we had done that so I set up the Sytong day/night vision that Im trialling and put it on stand-by for the trip back to the truck. I stopped and had a scan at a known likely spot and sure enough at 100 odd yards there was a spiker, about 10 yards from the edge of a large dam. I had to shoot off my knees, but no matter I whacked him with a pretty good shot - and he lunged forward and disappeared into the water. :) Bugger.
I cut down the hill and when I got to the dam this is what greeted us. Bella was intrigued.
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While I joined bits of string together from my belt pouch and added the rifle sling for extra length Bella went out and tried to retrieve it :) She thought she was helping but her wake just pushed it further out.
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Eventually after several tries I got the rope with a carabiner on the end of it for a weight across its spikes and carefully drew it in.
Bella was fascinated by the whole process but she was no use when it came to hauling the heavy wet thing up out of the water.
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We shot 4 deer for the charity. It was a big but rewarding night. Made all the better by having Bella with me.
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