Thread: TREE THIEVES

A friend gave me some native trees that he had grown from seed out of the Trararuas' to plant at a place I hunt (Matai, Kahikitea etc). Yesterday's forecast was terrible so I drove up, collecting the trees on the way. I had a mutton to kill while I was up there too.

It was to be a non-hunting trip...but I had put my rifle into the truck anyway - like you do.

After I had killed the mutton and then planted the trees it was 4pm and my friend the farmer came along and said "now its your job to keep the deer out of them, I hope you brought your rifle". So, what could I do but grab my rifle and dog and head off??

Right on dark and almost out of shooting light I spied a deer about 200 yards away on the edge of the scrub, and then there were 4, 2 hinds and 2 yearlings. Tilly and I snuck down and she was winding furiously. As we crested a little rise I could see her staring intently so I up with my binos and made out a deer about 25-30 yards away. It was by itself and I hoped that it was a yearling and not a hind - it was hard to tell in the dark and without something else for scale.

A 300saum and 168 grn Nosler BT at 3.1K is pretty harsh medicine and at the shot the deer disappeared. Back to the binos and I could see a big hind standing where the one I had shot at had been. Bugger! Had I missed? I thought to myself that the last thing I wanted was 2 deer and I didn't want to shoot a hind really so I let her run. The result of my shot was going to be one deer or no deer.

I sent Tilly off and in flash I could see that she had found a deer in the rushes. Not so good was that it was a mature hind (bugger), but at least I had eliminated a tree thief. It was hit in the middle of the shoulder and the in and out holes were considerable.

I had a wet and shitty carry back to my quad and I recon I fell over and had to haul my sorry arse back up with my load on about 10 times. That took about an hour but it was worth while.

A big day, and I got home at about midnight.

she,s a great mutt thats for sure.......one of these days she will break your heart Mate.
give the wee lass a pat from me will ya bud?

I was thinking going by the title some fuckers had nicked off with your natives ! well done

Originally Posted by Boaraxa

I was thinking going by the title some fuckers had nicked off with your natives ! well done

+1

Nice work!

Well done

Nice one!
Sure is plenty of red stuff on the grass!

Originally Posted by Boaraxa

I was thinking going by the title some fuckers had nicked off with your natives ! well done

Had me going too I was already for a @Tahr rant about how some low life's had run off with your plantation that you had planted main moons ago as a we wipper snapper. But no here have him out bludgeoning some poor dear with his over sized canon
Top management plan you have there
Hope the dividends taste nice

Originally Posted by Gibo

Nice one!
Sure is plenty of red stuff on the grass!

@Gibo I always stick them in the thorax and turn them downhill to bleed them out properly, so that throws some blood around. I don't like blood in pics much but its a natural consequence of putting holes in things. What I hate more though is people sitting on deer in pics and deer's tongues hanging out in pics.

Tough job having to keep those tree thieves at bay but somebody has to do it. well done.

Originally Posted by Boaraxa

I was thinking going by the title some fuckers had nicked off with your natives ! well done

+2, will pm you about that load about to get my saum back

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

she,s a great mutt thats for sure.......one of these days she will break your heart Mate.
give the wee lass a pat from me will ya bud?

Yeah Micky, I'm steeling myself for that. She's 9 next April so if we have 3 years more together I will be thankful for that. I will be 72 then so she's likely to be my last dog.

165grain?

Originally Posted by Gibo

165grain?

168 grn
@Huk Am using R17. 3.1k and .75" @ 100. l have one pound of it. N550 gives me 3k with same projectile so its a good fall back. 20" barrel. Wonderfully efficient cartridge

THANKS