Thread: Second deer (Deserving person trip)

I was one of the very fortunate recipients of a hunting weekend that @gerald. offered to a deserving persons https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....persons-76050/ The offer was hunting and jetboating in the Paringa river area of south Westland. I really didn't expect to be chosen but was really appreciated the opportunity. Further to that a couple forum members contributed towards the costs too. Thank you so much! Really appreciate your donation and will certainly pay it forward in some way.

So here’s the story of an epic 4 day hunt after weather postponements over the past year and then not being able to away due to work and family commitments.

Plan was to meet in Hokitika on the Wednesday evening and head south Thursday morning. Well the Thursday was my 32nd wedding anniversary so a little plan tweak to come over early morning. Slight glitch was I’d left my wallet, with FAL in it, at bach the weekend before. So early celebration with my Mrs and 5am start to be in Hoki by 9am.
Met with gerald., his mate G from Nelson, plus another recipient, the young hunter @creaky_pack and his dad B from Auckland. They’d travelled down to Hokitika Wednesday via Christchurch.

The forecast was poor, 4 days of rain, so poor gerald. had considered postponing again but in the spirt of adventure it was still all go with plans A, B, C and maybe D in place. Jet boating was to be when river conditions allowed.

Day 1 we travelled south and checked into some accommodation. As creaky_pack had never shot anything more than an air rifle he did some dry firing practise under gerald.’s guidance as I listened on. We then went to a safe location and he put holes in a trophy cardboard box and cans. I did the same with my T3X 7mmRemMag so then it was meet up with a local friend of gerald. for a yarn or two and then as sunset approached off to a Paringa hunting area (pretty early time given the near constant rain and drizzle).
Creaky_pack and his dad don’t have FAL so gerald. went one way with them and I walked opposite direction with G.
Wind was all over the place and rain threatening however the light drizzle and bush edge seemed like a good place to be hoping deer would come out onto grass edges.
Lots of puddles, minor streams, wet trees, wet grass so it didn’t take long to get soaked through. It also wasn’t too long before we saw two deer about 100m away but they were well onto us and disappeared almost before we had a chance to confirm what we were actually seeing.
A bit of a walk later G spotted another deer about 60m from us. This time it stood looking at us and I began to get ready, however as I chambered a round it went into a small stand of trees. Within it seconds it and another deer shot off out the other side of the trees and gone. Bugger.
Light was disappearing fast so was starting to think oh well, not today. However then just over the small brow I spotted 2 deer standing near some short reeds. G couldn’t see them initially as I got ready.
Steadied myself on the bipod gerald. had loaned me and squeezed trigger.
I knew instantly it’d disappeared out of scope but wasn’t 100% if sure lying where it stood behind the reeds or it’d run. High 5s from G and as we walked up there is was less than 20m away. My spiker. Just behind shoulder lung shot so happy as it’d not suffered. Not a trophy but my second deer and it had antlers. Smiles and then realisation G and I had to deal with it as Gerald. wasn’t there to guide us. We joked about we should YouTube it but then just got stuck in and G, with a little help from me, did some ‘butcher’ butchering removing the gut sack. (Reminder to self: watch many more how to butcher properly videos)
After that it was a drag to an area where gerald. could meet us.
Found out creaky_pack had also been successful getting his first deer, a yearling hind.
Back to accommodation, celebration drink, a hot meal and I think that was the first time gerald. pointed out he had dry feet courtesy of his gumboots while the rest of us had very wet feet in boots. Shower and bed just after midnight. Day 1, right from pre 5am to midnight was EXCELLENT!

Day 2 was what coasters call ‘damp’ i.e. pouring rain, so a visit to a salmon farm then a butchering lesson as creaky_pack and I discovered that breaking down a deer is quite a lot of work.
Lunch was eye fillets in a marinade gerald. had prepared. Soooo good!
Tried hunting similar area again in evening but in the rain, thunder and lightning we didn’t see anything. Seems the deer were smarter than us and stayed somewhere sheltered.
Clever deer, stupid hunters! I’ll blame the weather for lack of hunting success on day 2.
Again gerald. returned with dry feet.

Day 3 it was dry enough to jetboat up the river, something creaky_pack and his dad G had never done. Was awesome fun boating up to some grassy flats and gerald.’s jetboat. Goes great and he calls it his Tractor (it’s for sale if anyone if keen for a versatile river and sea boat)
We again split up with G and not seeing anything except lots of sign on the ground. Was just too damp we think, plus the 4 V6 and V8 jetboats pleasure cruising up and down wouldn’t have helped at all. I’ll blame the weather for lack of hunting success on day 3.
That evening we travelled to Bruce Bay as we’d heard about a fundraising bingo night for school transport van. Fun night had and a couple of times heart rate rose as we got oh so close to the yelling Bingo (reality is had we won we would have donated the cash prise back to school anyway)
Looking at weather forecast for break in rain had been an almost constant occupation the last few days to when the forecast promised Day 4 to start with 3 hours of dry or near it at sunrise that determined the plan.
5am start, jackets on as not quite dry. As we split up lots of good luck, hope you see some, etc. Any that we did. After about 750m walk G spotted 2 just before I did. They were onto us but we froze and they stood looking. About 120m away and I was confident of a humane shot with my fatigued arms so I slowly laid down. Unfortunately may water droplets on scope and as I tweaked zoomed to see clearer they bolted. Bugger again. If I’d been faster, or confident of standing shot would have got one. Oh well, better to not wound one, or miss and make lots of noise spoiling the morning.
Walked on, scanned river bed for a minute and started to move on. Instantly movement on far side. Damn, a deer that had been drinking. If only we’d scanned river for 2 minutes rather than 1. Lesson learnt of look more, move less.
G and I moved slowly on along the edge of and in the bush edge expecting to see a deer at any moment. We were generally looking left towards the small grass flat were we expected the deer would be grazing and not so much to the right into the dense bush. That didn’t work out as there was a sudden clatter of rocks and noise from 2 deer heading in different directions. They would have been no more than 10m from us before they moved! Even so all I saw in a small gap in foliage was the tail end of one rapidly moving away. No way could I have positively identified the target even if I’d been extremely quick raising the rifle. And that was it. No more seen as the day got brighter then G and I walked back for pickup.
Creaky-pack, B and gerald. had a bit more success than us, quite a bit more. They saw a herd of deer, estimating up to mid 20s! Story goes they were almost 1km away so they snuck in as far as they dared. Creaky_pack then shot his second hind. At a mere 350m! Seems he’s a natural at shooting and a quick learner.
Oh, and of course gerald. had dry feet again. Got to get me some hunting gumboots!!!!

Apology for the lack of photos. Didn’t take many and promised not to revel spot x
Here's the Tractor

and you can see some photos in creaky_pack's story https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....st-deer-88313/

Why was I chosen? You’d have to ask gerald. however I expect it’s a combo of the good and bad.
- The bad stuff. 5yrs ago my wife admitted she was mentally struggling and saw a GP. Tried a few medications. Not much improvement. 4yrs ago she had to immediately cease work one day as she couldn’t cope. She’d been hiding a lot of stuff for years and it’d all became too much. With many medications trials and a little bit of counselling she seemed to improve. 3yrs ago (when I was away for my first overnight hunt having got FAL and hunting gear for my 50th birthday) she made a committed suicide attempt. Wrote letters to family and contacted no one. No last minute call for help. A proper committed attempt. Took 50+ pills as she thought we’d be sad for a few weeks then would be better off without her. I found out next day while in Hunter hills looking for wallaby. In her head she ‘knew’ we’d be better off. Fortunately she survived and no permanent physical effects. She now ‘knows’ we would not have been better off without her around. It would have been years of shit. Her actions kicked in almost daily counselling and proper diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder, Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, long term Anxiety and Depression. Changed meds, more counselling and ACC acceptance of a permanent disability from some childhood, teen and recent work things. Has left her with practically zero chance of working normally again. Occasionally part time is ok. Because we’re married and because she’d stopped work about 18mths months prior to that assessment and we’d been living entirely on my salary she’s not eligible for sickness benefits as they’re a percentage of wages in the 12 months prior. We’ve been married 32yrs now and I’d always thought there was some extreme reactions to minimal issues. Suspected but never really knew it was at diagnosable illness level. While the suicide attempt was not good she’s probably in better place now than possibly she has been the whole time I’ve known her. Has a lot of self knowledge and acceptance. Is even future looking now and that used to be a struggle. As a partner it’s been rough. 24/7/365 concern. What did I do or say, what didn’t I do or say, etc that either lead to her attempt, or if done might have stopped it. That’s eased a bit but hasn’t gone way and until a few months ago there’s been a lot of loss of freedom and felt like needed to stay close as much as possible. Loss of freedom hasn’t been ideal as does lead to loss of self motivation. If you can’t go why bother wanting to go. I’ve had a bit of that type spiral. However it’s all significantly improved recently with ability to get away for nights, hence able to do the hunting trip. Things are looking up. I do need to work on my fitness now though!. Way below where I was a few years ago when I was doing multisport, Coast to Coast, adventure races, rogaines, etc
- The good stuff. 11 years ago I did a 21 day course at Outward Bound Anakiwa via a post Chch quake scholarship, partially being chosen due to my volunteer clean-up efforts. The time at OB changed me. A break from quakes and a chance to think. Since then I’ve been back every 2-3yrs volunteering for 8 day courses to assist with physically or intellectually disable teens and young adults. Awesome fun and really rewarding. Prior to Outward Bound would have never ever thought of giving up my holidays to help other people. It does use a week and half annual leave though so while I'd love to I can’t do it every year and still give my family the time they deserve. I’ve also become a volunteer rural fireman and recently completed my crew leader qualifications.

I was definitely fretting in the week leading up with forecast... ibwas due back from sea the Wednesday and had to work until 3pm... I had done zero actual planning or organization..
With the forecast up n down and eventually 150mm predicted for the weekend it was touch and go hownto go about it... but it turned out well...

My feet are still dry hahaa

what a beautiful place...any access by quad or a jeep to it?

Kudos to you uk_exile for opening up and talking about the challenges you have both had. Not an easy path mate and well done for helping your wife though it all. Warm wishes and good luck to you and yours.

It is a shame you couldn't keep ya feet dry. But it sounds like the trip was something a doctor should have prescribed.

great write up haha can't forget geralds dry feet

Originally Posted by Black Rabbit

what a beautiful place...any access by quad or a jeep to it?

Yes and no. On foot, horse or jetboat much easier though

great stuff buddy...and its AWESOME to hear the wee lady is on the mend... enjoy your venison... lace up ashley gummies are about $140 from wrightsons..

Great yarn. Good to hear there’s another firefighter on here (there’s a few of us). I’m currently a Group Manager based in the Wairarapa, like you I came from a rural background. What brigade are you with?

Originally Posted by craigc

Great yarn. Good to hear there’s another firefighter on here (there’s a few of us). I’m currently a Group Manager based in the Wairarapa, like you I came from a rural background. What brigade are you with?

@craigc Lake Clearwater. Because its a holiday location there's very very few call outs. We must have one of the highest training to event ratios of any brigade. Also means our social activities ratio is favorable ;-)

I did `t read the rest of story yesterday, because I was cooking. Sorry for you wife...one of my family has same issue long time ago, but she was `t that lucky. All I can say is if you can..be with her more, do something new in her life, leave usual place for awhile, give her some attachment to her daily, a dog, cat, goats...I recommend for a cat since cat is different, they can comfort people `s mind in their way. But if you are cat shooter, then skip this. medication would `t help much, but a gym workout could be, anything can pump the heart over 110 Rpm, sweating for an hour, and then a good sleep.

Originally Posted by Black Rabbit

I did `t read the rest of story yesterday, because I was cooking. Sorry for you wife...one of my family has same issue long time ago, but she was `t that lucky. All I can say is if you can..be with her more, do something new in her life, leave usual place for awhile, give her some attachment to her daily, a dog, cat, goats...I recommend for a cat since cat is different, they can comfort people `s mind in their way. But if you are cat shooter, then skip this. medication would `t help much, but a gym workout could be, anything can pump the heart over 110 Rpm, sweating for an hour, and then a good sleep.

I hope our family has found peace with whatever happened. Not easy to go through.
Agree, movement is good and importantly something regular to do each day, even if its not a job. Routine helps. She's pretty good now. Most people wouldn't know, however they don't see the typical 90mins morning routine of cup of tea, quick check of news and socials, some mindless TV followed by another cup of tea, breakfast, medications and shower. Ready for day. Take time but works reliably. I'm so please she's found what works. Prior to that the spa pool got a good regular use. Think it was more the white noise than the warmth. Foudn it a good place to try meditation recommended by councellors.
Neither of us are cat people but know what you mean. We'd love to have a dog. Problem is her (& my) happy place which we go to most weekends is our off grid bach and it's in a dog free part of conservation park, so dogs a no no. Considered a weekday dog that lives with our daughter and her hubby at weekends but know that'd be a disaster with different rules and would just confuse the poor pup.

I am so stoked you had this opportunity because you totally deserve it! I have appreciated hunting with you and our trips together and this opportunity couldn't have happened to a better guy. thanks, Gerald for being a great supporter.
Also for sharing the journey a bit in a good and safe way to normalise the stuff so many people are struggling with.

Hope we can put a trip together again soon!