Well this year I decided to take a week off work for the roar and spend it up in the Hills chasing Stags and dreams, camping the whole 9 yards.
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Well this year I decided to take a week off work for the roar and spend it up in the Hills chasing Stags and dreams, camping the whole 9 yards.
So we had planned to get into our block in time for an afternoon/evening hunt on Monday.
The weather was less than ideal it was blowing 40 bastards nor west, not ideal tenting weather.
We also were a lot later getting in than planned, so had to search for a sheltered valley out of the wind and set up camp in the dark, not fun but part of the experience.
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The wind blew until about 330am and at times even in our sheltered camp I thought the tent was gonna lift off. Then all of a sudden it just stopped and I drifted off to sleep listening to Stags roaring.
That morning at about 0730am we walked around the ridge we were camping on about 300m from camp to glass the face we thought the stag we heard the night before was on.
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View from the tent
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The face we were glassing.
The Stag was no where to be seen and had gone silent, we spent about 15 minutes glassing then caught glimpse of a dark fallow doe feeding out into the open.
Well hadn't shot a fallow on this block before let alone a deer for a few moths so the decision was made to harvest her.
Ranged at 250 yards my mate lay down using his pack to shoot off and the 270 sent the medicine bang on target the fallow was pole axed on the spot.
A quick side hill mission and she was recovered whole and we took a couple hours to take her back to hang in the chiller. She was probably around 2 years old so great eating less than 1 hour after crawling out of our sleeping bags. No stag but a great start.
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If you look real close you can see my hunting partner on the recovery mission roughly center screen
So after dropping the fallow back to the chiller to hang we decided to visit another face that I had shot my first boar on some months ago.
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We waited and watched for about 40 minutes, nothing no roars no pigs no deer.
Then just out of luck I saw a familiar orange hue. I had looked up just in time to see his arse dissappear into the scrub.
We waited and watched knowing he would come out again and probably feed onto the tussock face opposite us.
Well about 30 minutes later he did and we quickly ranged him at 450 yards.
By my standards a long shot a very long shot, but having successfully shot my rifle out to over 500 yards on steel to confirm my drop charts. Then be dipped into the scrub again..... Oh the frustration.
We waited and waited and waited.... 40 minutes go by and nothing.
We started discussing setting up camp as it was getting late in the day and we didn't want to set up in the dark again. I Decided to have one more quick cursory glass. Literally put my binos to my eyes and couldn't believe it I was looking at a nice healthy red spiker still at 450 yards.
It was my turn to shoot, I consulted the drop chart and dialled up the elevation, lay down across my pack and chambered a round, my mate was spotting so when he was ready I squeezed a round off....... The spiker dropped on the spot, not a single step literally his legs just folded under him and he never moved again.
Now of course the problem with shooting an animal at 450 yards across a valley is it's a bloody long way to go and retrieve it, luckily we could drive around the ridge and drop in on the face from the other side, when we got there it was going on 430pm and we knew we had a long hard slog to get fown there and back before dark. We packed our head torches just in case and started the decent, it was steep slippery tussock face but we made reasonable pace and were on the spiker @ about 5.30pm.
Work to do....
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The prize
We made a plan to be headed back up the face by 6pm and my mate set to quartering the spiker taking off the fillets, back stakes and anything we could trim off into our packs.
Here's a quick pick of the entry wound a little high in the right front shoulder
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And here is the exit wound lower on the left shoulder
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But here's the real damage a 145 eldx can inflict at 450 yards split the left shoulder in 2 and snapped the bottom off it completely.
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The biggest supprise was the hydrostatic damage to the lungs they were completely destroyed.
Sorry I'm waffling here's a couple quick pics of my mate quartering the spiker, he makes it look easy and he's strong as an ox.
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Then to my supprise he puts all 4 quarters into his tatonka bison pack and only the fillets, back steaks and trim go into my pack, I can't say it enough my mate is a beast he throws the pack on and we start powering up the tussok face steady pace at first as the light was as already fading, then 20 to 30 meters at a time, then 5 minutes rest then the next 20 meters. Small achievable goals
Here we are on one of many rests on the way up.
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Not far from the top...
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Then finally as the sun was setting we made the top had a drink and a feed to replenish our tired bodies.
At the top
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The last time I attempted a decent and climb like this I had a bad fall and had to be helicoptered out.
This day was a huge confidence builder. We made it.
We made our way off the hill and hung the quarters in the chiller.
2 deer on the deck in one day was a pretty good effort we slept in our own beds that night after a hot shower planning to go back on Wednesday but unfortunately some animals had busted through the fences on our block so we had to stay off the hill whilst they were mustered off, we were worried about the effects of ag bikes and barking dogs but it couldn't be helped and we would go back on Thursday.... To be continued
Can't wait for part 2
Thanks for the read
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sako851
But wait there's more, unfortunately I'm operating on about 3 hours sleep in the last 48 hours and I'm making a few mistakes, I'll finish this story off tomorrow :thumbsup:
man thats an awesome block you have got onto....keep mum about its location and look after the landowner,come hell or high water... enjoy your vennison and have a go at a roar or two....in a spot like that it might just get stag to poke its nose out into open....your shooting is spot on and he could be in power of trouble.
Cheers @Micky Duck yup it's a pretty good block and not too far from home, I've worked hard to build relationships and trust to be able to use it, it's not got huge numbers but there are enough on there.
It's certainly not easy paddock hunting but that doesn't appeal to me anyway (nothing wrong with easy ones, just wanna hunt the tops whilst I still can).
Any way as mentioned last night I was tired and making a few mistakes, here is a pic of my mate carrying the fallow he shot the last few meters.
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So whilst having Wednesday off we boned out the red spiker I shot and dropped everything bar the fillets, back steaks and heart off to be processed into sausages the fallow was already at the butcher and received the same treatment.
