Thread: waitangi weekend

ok so took @thatguy away for a weekend hunt on thursday........
chasing his first deer

4 hours after arriving
so fricken hot we had to come home early before the meat spoiled
hopefully he will give a decent report in due time (im not a good story teller)

Awesome

That was a short weekend, better than losing the meat though.

Originally Posted by Mooseman

That was a short weekend, better than losing the meat though.

ye the butchery was pretty rough and ready took out the backsteaks and all four quarters in a hurry shot taken at 3pm on a clearing shot placement was great , decimated all the internal organs filled the cavity with blood and mush (chest entry between the forequarters and exit just behind the ribcage) no damage to the good meat .
oh and it was the dogs first too she did well was quiet didnt spook the deer and followed the blood trail (wasnt far )

Haha was just about to jump on and give the report, but @scotty beat me too it!

It was supposed to be a 3 day expedition, not thinking we'd get lucky on the first walk, 4 hours into it (including stopping to set up camp).
When @scotty took me under his wing last year, he told me to look at aerial photos for clearings etc. He told me about this clearing in the Pureoras (one of many) which I then went ahead and marked on my Topo Maps app, on my phone.

Walking down to this clearing was pretty steep country, through some thick stuff, I was hoping it would open up a bit before we get closer to the clearing, so we could try make less noise.
Sure enough it did, and @scotty held back a bit so I could get in closer to the clearing with minimal noise.

When I first got a glimpse of the clearing, I was about 40 metres away and couldn't see much so walked very slowly. As I closed in further on it, I managed to poke my head up slightly and see over a fern, and sure enough, this hind was standing there. Now to be fair, this was only the 2nd time I've ever seen a wild deer in NZ, so I honestly couldn't believe my eyes. I mean, you work so hard to try and find them, and then boom, there it is.
It was staring in my direction and I knew, I would only have a second or 2 to take a shot. At this point it was about 30-40 metres away. Only its head, neck and top of chest was sticking out. I would probably have to aim a bit lower than that so aimed into the fern, right about where its vitals would be and squeezed the trigger. When the round went off, she took off to the right and much to my surprise, there was another hind next to it that also bolted.

Keeping in mind, this was my first deer, and thought I must have missed, since she didn't drop on the ground. To be fair, a lot of deer don't just drop, but anyways, she was gone.
We waited a bit and then went onto the clearing to look for blood and when I saw the first drops I was pretty happy, but when we saw more, and just how much it was, I knew it wouldn't get far. Much to our surprise, she was down on the ground, still on the clearing, about 20 metres away.

It was an amazing experience and different to what I thought it would be. NZ, public land, bush hunting is not easy, which I figured out a year or so ago, but what I didn't fully grasp was the amount of work that comes after you put a deer on the ground. A lot of learnings again!

Big shoutout to @scotty. He's a good sort and I'm pretty thankful there's still guys willing to pass on some knowledge to us young ones from the city, wanting to get into hunting. Can't wait for the next one mate.

Originally Posted by thatguy

Can't wait for the next one mate.

just watching the way you stalk thru the bush and now youve been able to put the noises and smells together to get a result ... im sure the next one wont take long......might need to hurry up and get that freezer sorted out.....NO BEER GET THE DEER .....it works