Thread: Trialing the Red Torch and blooding the 6mmCreedmoor

I was going to add this as a post to the https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....7/index10.html thread. But it ended up way too big! I wouldnt even think of posting about a private block meat hunt like this but i started typing about using the L21B Red torch and couldnt stop.

I bought the L21B Red torch light from Jacob @ Piercing The Darkness a month or so ago. Bloody nice torch! Bloody great service too! Bloody good price! Thanks Jacob!

I took the torch out for a hunt to give it a test run if we didnt shoot the deer we wanted before dark. Also to blood my 6mm creedmoor and D's new-to-him 6.5creedmoor.
It was on private land in steep as punga & manuka scrub and re-planted pines country.

We got onto some red spikers 45mins before dark 250m down the hill. My mate D and i got above them on a old skid site, but the wind was blowing straight down the gut at them. Some close fallow we hadnt seen spooked below us at 100m and then spooked the reds. My mate is not very experienced and had lain down too far back and 'just' couldnt see the deer over the lip of the hill, but didnt have time to move. I shot a red spiker in the top of the neck (where i was aiming) quick as he looked back over his shoulder before they disappeared. Now D could see a fallow that had run higher around the face and paused, but missed two shots @280m-290m as it was all too rushed for him, the second missed by alot so the rifle was now considered 'questionable' (i was spotting the shots). D had done some great shooting out to 900m with me a few weekends before but deer are different to targets, especially under pressure.

I shot this red spiker @ 270m in the top of the neck with the 6mm creedmoor 108gr ELD-M (first kill for the 6mm)


We went down, i gutted the spiker, put it on my back and i carried it up the steep replanted pines hill At the very steep bit at the top edge D helped pull me up with a tie down strop. Bloody made it super easy! Wish we had done that from further down the hill! Good tip to remember to have a mate help you carry up a steep bit. Could have used that idea years ago!


It was well dark by the time we got it in the truck and met up with my father who had gone a different way to look for a fallow. He missed a easy headshot with his .222 on a fallow yearling he said (he's shot alot of deer like this but hadnt hunted much in the previous year and he reckoned it showed).

Off we went again around the track on the steep scrub hill face in the dark. I was lighting with the torches -L21B Red and a cheap 10year old Coast HP7? torch which is ok to about 100m. The guys had their rifles. The L21B was too bright and too tight a beam for anything closer than 80m but was great further out. I was using the Coast torch while cutting into the guts on the hill and the L21B for looking across at any small clearings up to 250m. No deer seen as the wind was wrong for that area. Just possums and rabbits, which all got checked in the binos as i hadnt seen any animals in a red light before. Bloody good eye reflections off them!

I'd parked the truck on the middle ridgetop track, which headed up around the gulley head and along the opposite ridge heading out. When we had made it back to the truck i thought i'd just light up the track out and in the gully between(which was bloody steep and bluffy and we wouldnt have shot anything down there anyway).
Blow me down there was a pair of large eyes just walking into view on the track, way bigger than the possums. Bino check for what it was and a range. Red stag walking around the track at 300m! I could easily see his body and that he had some antlers in the red L21B beam. The deer didnt even notice the red light beam on it and kept walking around the track which lead to us.
This was too far for the .222 and D's rifle wasnt trusted for a neck or headshot at that range after the earlier misses. We didnt want him heading over the edge of the track either so body shot was off the cards. I raced the 30m to the truck and whipped out my Tikka 6mm creedmoor. This is a bloody accurate rifle and i have been shooting it out to 900m, i bought the rifle off the forum from @keengunNic for shooting steel targets, I rebedded it and did up a load of 108gr eldm @ 3000fps.

We decided to walk around the track with no lights to close the range on the deer. After 100m up the track we lit up the far side again but couldnt see the deer. He was gone. Must have heard us or seen a briefly flicked on headtorch. Bummer. I delayed heading back to the truck but my old man was keen to get going.
We walked 50m back chatting away and then i lit up the far side again while saying "hunting is mostly patience and persistence, so ill just check again". On the 10m bluff above the track cutting i spotted deer eyes again. There were big pines on the ridge top and down the other side, the deer was standing at the base of a big pine tree which was behind it.

I quickly laid down and got it in the scope, couldnt see the reticle so switched it on, too bloody bright now! Turned that down to two brightness. Turned up the magnification. I could see it had spikes or antler stubbs but no other detail as to if it was 'the' stag or a different deer. Guesstimate clicked up for 280m but hadnt actually re-ranged it, no wind to speak of.

Lined between his eyes up, which seemed quite far apart!
'Boom'
'CRACK!!'
"yeah boys thats a hit for sure"

Ranged it at 250m, lucky i didnt go over the top of it!

Didnt see any movement after the shot and couldnt see the deer as it was in the gorse on the pine edge.
Dad stayed in place with the red L21B torch to concentrate on where the animal was. Me and D headed up around the track to find the animal. We got to the head of the gully and my headlight picked up eyes coming up the track where we had last seen the stag. I called out to Dad to light up the track again but he miss interpreted and light waved the shot animal location!

It was a panic for my mate to get ready with his rifle as the deer was coming around the bend to us but the high gorse on the track edge was causing issues. The deer ran towards us from 150m after my call out (i shouldnt have called out) but paused at 70m as it cut up the bluffs into the pines where i'd just shot the other deer. D was having trouble seeing through his new scope as he'd left the magnification high. I drew a bead on it and could have shot but didnt as i'd shot two already and wanted him to shoot one. Turns out it was a red stag. We thought it was the first stag that must have run back down the track earlier and decided to walk back up again for some reason. It was now gone in the pines.
We followed it up as thats where the shot deer is anyway. Along the steep 1.5m wide top edge in the gorse with big pines towering over us heading for the red light beam.
Sure enough there was the deer! Right on the top edge against the pine trunk, big bastard! Best antlers i've shot too! Pity it was shot in a light. His skull was smashed with the right antler loose. A 1m drag and dropped him onto the track below!
Turns out i'd shot the first stag and the last deer was a similar stag following his tracks. This second stag clealry hadnt noticed the red beam shining across the gully toward it from 300m either.




Lucky because there is no way i'd carry that deer! He was at least twice my weight!
Hung them at home in the garage overnight before skinning. So neat and clean with no bloody holes in them, half the reason i like head/top neck shooting! We took them to the chiller for the week to hang! The BEST meat like that!
Thats the first deer i've shot in the light for many years! Wouldnt have got the stag without that L21B as we'd have gone home at dark!

Awesome read mate! Good stuff, happy the rifles living up to what i believed it was capable of(and was doing for me too). Those 108eldms will be hard to beat from that gun mate. Good work

Good story. With all the thermal and night vision stuff around, spot lighting almost seems gentlemanly nowadays.

Originally Posted by Tahr

Good story. With all the thermal and night vision stuff around, spot lighting almost seems gentlemanly nowadays.

Yeh I often think that too, I spent many years behind a spotlight for my job, great times, wonder if it would be easier with thermals etc, a lot more expensive that's for sure.

Forgot to add Good story and a nice stag for your PB. Well done.

great work