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My first deer shot, processed and carried out: Puketeraki Hunt
In what has become an annual tradition @mopheadrob, @uk_exile and I headed in on a 4-day hunt into the Puketeraki area. 3 years ago on this trip, I shot a deer using @mopheadrob's rifle but could not retrieve it myself.
On this trip, I backpacked carrying my own rifle and the gear I needed and we hiked, fly-camped and hunted and came back out on the 4th day.
On the morning of day two, we climbed from the river camp with day packs up to the open area above the bush. We saw a hind over the next spur at 260m and decided to close the distance by about 100m. She started to bust us, with her head up looking at us, quartering toward us. I decided to quickly line up the shot balanced on Rob's shoulder, as there was no good rest and there were shrubs around us. I rushed the shot and missed and she darted downhill but stopped broadside 3 or 4 metres lower. I changed to bracing on my knee while sitting, lined up more calmly, shot better and she went down!
A pretty amazing moment. The hind dropped straight away!
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We found the hind no problem and where we had seen her fall. I had shot her just behind the shoulder and out the far shoulder. After high fives and photos, I harvested the meat and carried the back legs and backstraps (We had already had success on the trip, were confident of more and were trying to plan to survive the future carry-out) back to camp back down the hill.
For 4 years I have worked towards achieving the capacity and skill to do this. I still have much to learn and become more competent at, but this was a great achievement. Thanks to @mopheadrob who has made all of this possible and @uk_exile who has shared his knowledge of camping and bushcraft with me as well. Also thanks to all the forum members out there that have passed on bits of gear or shared their encouragement or knowledge freely on the forum.
