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.