After replying to the thread help for a newbe hunter William made contact with me and a tentative plan was hatched. The idea being trying to get him his first deer. The idea of two heads being better than one Meathunta tagged along too.
Where to go ? We picked a likely looking spot on the topo map and away we went.neither of us had been here previously. It was just good looking DOC estate. Arriving at the Carpark at 4 pm we shouldered our packs and were off. Two hours later we reached our destination and found a likely looking campsite.
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I don't know why I took the bivy actually. I ended up sleeping under the stars it was such mint weather. Grabbing our hunting gear we headed up some beautiful river clearings. Just the spot at this time of year. There was a bit of sign around but nothing too fresh. The grass is still yet to come away in the high country proper.
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Another 500 metres we came to a huge area of clearings and shrubbery with 1000 yds visibility in most directions. We mounted a small hill to get some elevation, Snuck through a beech stand a set ourselves up just inside that. The waiting game was on. It was 7:30 pm and right into the golden hour but still nothing was spotted. Meathunta changed position to glass a different area further down from where we were sitting. Time ticked on and I started to get a tad nervous. William was waiting patiently. It was starting to cool down and the gloves and balaclava came out. I had a false alarm summoning William to get behind my rifle. Just as well I checked it through the scope on 14 power(dark log).I was wanting to see a deer and the mind was playing tricks. Still the Leicas scanned and came up empty. It was starting to get dark now and I was getting cold and pissed off. I rechecked the face in front of us and as they do a deer materialised out of nothing. Deer I hissed . I starting getting the rifle set up. It sensed something wasn't right and ran across the face in front of us. It made the fatal mistake of hesitating for a minute. Unfortunately it was now or never. 221 yds I lined him up and 7mm08 spoke. He ran again two metres and stopped. Shit had I missed ? Surely not. I chambered a second round and let strip again. This time it dumped him and he rolled down the hill. It was pretty much dark as we made our way over
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William was stoked although he didn't get a shot away it was the first wild deer he had seen. We all took part in the butchery process and all the meat was taken. It turns out I had shot him twice. The first had punched clean through without connecting bone. He wouldn't have gone far at all. The second however had broken a leg and made a real mess. Dead on arrival. No need to bleed this one. I've found the 140 gn ballistic tips superb hunting bullets. It was well after dark when we strolled into camp and got the meat hung up.
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Meathunta and William headed out this morning but had no luck. I stayed in the scratcher as the pressure was off and I was still full of the flu. A 2 hour walk out in the heat with the extra weight soon blew out the remnants of that.
A good hunt. We will get you a deer yet William....
