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Solo hunt in the longwoods
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Headed out the gate a bit after 5am after stuffing down a coffee and toast. Got to the Longwoods about 6:15 and was surprised how quick the days have shortened up. Ended up siting in the ute till after 6:30 so I could actually see anything.
The fist couple of hours were fairly uneventful but tons of sign was present. I Parked up on a small ridge in the bush with a bit of a view out over the ferns and creek when after 5 mins a lone Hind wandered into view. She stopped, perhaps sensing me but luckily there was a tree between her and me leaving me out of view. Unfortunately for her, her whole torso was in full view so I let fly with the 270. She did a 180 and crashed off at high speed off into the ferns and out of sight.
I waited for what I thought was a couple of minutes but in reality was probably about 20 seconds and i run along the ridge to try get a bead on her for a second shot. Then about 20 metres away behind me the bush erupted and a deer crashed off. I thought the deer I had shot had headed up the ridge and was now behind me and heading for the hills. I initially decided to go start checking for blood up the top since i thought I knew where it had headed saving my self some tracking time. Luckily I flagged that and went down to the point of impact to start the search there. I soon came across blood in large quantities and found the animal only about 50 meters away still at the bottom of the cliff. There had been a second animal up behind me the whole time!
The hind was definitely traveling solo and when i was doing the gutting I noted that her udder was dry.
The carry out was a bit of a mission with a steep bank and a creek to negotiate. I took my pack and rifle first trip and came back for the deer. Id like to thank my Garmin GPS for the waypoints for finding my way back to the Hind. Definitely a time saver.
Im finding that time in the bush is the best way to improve my Bush hunting skills. Im learning something new every trip.
