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So after a rough night getting nearly zero sleep thanks to a mouse in our bedroom (which we finally managed to trap @0430am my alarm went off @ 0500am signalling it was time to get up and get ready for another day's hunting. By the time we packed the truck and sorted our gear we were on the road by 7am a little later than we wanted but OK as we hit the block just on sunrise.
Awesome mate, great result......:thumbsup:
So our intentions for the day where to hit the tops and search for one of the many stags we had heard. After our success with the fallow the other day we decided to stop and glass a couple faces around where we shot the fallow on Tuesday. Normally we wouldn't even look and just head straight to the tops.
Literally still in the truck and we spotted 2 dark fallow below us, the wind was light to non existent and in our favour they hadn't spotted us or heard us and were head down feeding.
My mate made a comment about how odd it was to see a sheep feeding with the 2 fallow... Then realisation hit, it wasn't a sheep but a white fallow buck we ranged the group at 250 yards, an absolute gift.
Now it was cold maybe only a couple degrees and we had the heater cranking in the truck and the mag for the rifle had been sitting on the dash getting very warm.
We were totally unprepared and I fumbled trying to load the magazine but due to it getting heated up it had expanded just enough that the force of the spring kept pushing the rounds back out past the feed lips, funny but not ideal and lesson learned.
I decided to top feed single rounds as we didn't have time to muck around as the fallow would be on to us any moment we were out in the open and clearly visible.
I chambered the round and once again the 270 delivered a devastating blow, the white buck tipped over on the spot, I quickly fed another round incase we could take one of his girlfriends but they bolted and there was no ethical shot, so we went about sidhilling around the open tussock face to drop down the 200m to retrieve the buck, not the worst recovery but I did question why we never manage to shoot animals on the flat or above us (oh well).
A quick descent and we were on the buck. Not a record breaking trophy but a nice representation with an even rack, I was stoked as this is my first buck and my first animal with proper antlers (I must stress I'm not a trophy hunter by any stretch but it was still pretty cool to get a nice head) we decided the whole animal would be carried out, he was considerably larger than the fallow earlier in the week but we wanted to use everything off him, the skin will be tanned and gifted to my mates parents and I will euro mount the skull, all the meat will be harvested.
Not even 20 minutes into our day and here I am sitting with my buck
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Here again my mate makes short work of field dressing
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A better shot of the head
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Well it only took about 10 minutes to drop 200m down the steep tussock to the buck but with my mate again taking carrying duties we spent the next hour climbing back out to the trucks.
My mate the pack horse
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The view from the top
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Good shit @dannyb you're doing well out there!
Excellent breakfast reading! Well done!
I really appreciate the photos of the ELDX performance. Always good to see how animals are poleaxed on the spot which is so important in the kind of country you're hunting. Yes it might of been a bit high but that high shoulder shot position is a guaranteed bang flop every time. Some will say you lose meat, which is a fair comment, but it's a lot better than losing the whole animal to a long dead run in shitty terrain which is always a risk with tradtional behind the shoulder shots, especially if you're a dog-less hunter.
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This picture is taken with no zoom from the shooting position where I shot the red spiker
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Excuse the crude editing I'm not that tech savvy.
This shows our mission.
The red X at the bottom right is where I first spotted the red spiker.
The blue X is where I shot him.
The purple dotted line is our route down and back up the face, it's a lot steeper than it looks especially the top 1/3.
The orange X at the top right is where we parked our trucks just behind the brow of the saddle.
Awesome. Pretty cool to see the white stag
So in summary.
I've had a great week, I've gained trust in my ability behind the rifle and that my load and drop charts are spot on.
This is very important as @Flyblown has mentioned, a runner in this terrain would be less than ideal. We don't hunt with dogs so bang flops are ideal.
Every shot I took hit exactly where I wanted it to, results speak for themselves 3 bang flops no runners.
The confidence this has given me is great, we have passed on animals at similar ranges to the red spiker I shot because we weren't confident in our ability to make an ethical shot at that range.
I will point out I have spent a lot of time practicing my technique, confirming my dope chart and shooting paper or steel out to over 500 yards, I do not condone practicing on animals at all. This has taken time and experience gained from this forum and through friends much more experienced than me, you can buy all the fancy gear you like but that doesn't mean you can shoot at longer ranges ethically without putting in the time and effort to become consistent at those ranges.
Sure we heard a lot of Stags, but I'm a meat hunter first and as much as I'd have loved a stag I'm happy with my weeks efforts.
We did get to sit and watch a few stags within easy shooting distance but they were on the wrong side of the boundary of the block we hunt on and we are not poachers.
It was bloody awesome just to sit and watch them for a while and even throw a couple roars at them to watch there response.
Well that's probably all the deer hunting I will do till after opening weekend on the ducks, after a bit of a dry spell my freezer is full and my soul is recharged. Warm barrels everyone.
I'll leave you with some wise words given to me before I went on my roar hunt that really helped me.
"Never pass up an animal at the begining of your hunt that you would be happy with at the end"
That's some long shots bro, but great to see you are doing it in a controlled and practiced fashion. :thumbsup:
Very well done fallas.
What an excellent week you guys had, your mate is a legend doing the hard yards. Excellent results with those 145 gr ELDX bullets, they work a treat. Enjoy your venison and the antlers of the Buck, who knows there could be a bigger one waiting next time you are up there.
great stuff....if I can offer one gem of wisdom???? your mate is a machine of a pack horse......look up and learn about the Alex Gale carry strap method of carting out an animal....a 8 foot length of seat belt works a treat and makes the carry out in open country MUCH easier of old backs.
Thank you I'll look in to thatQuote:
Originally Posted by Micky Duck
