I organised a hunt for the weekend for our local NZDA members and as per usual you start with a good handful of guys keen to go, but Friday was shit weather a couple of them bailed.
Never mind there was myself and 4 other victims keen to have a look around, 3 of them had not been to this spot so it was all new and exciting for them. I got a text saying it was pissing down at 1 30 and they would see me when I got there. I was thinking I hope they understood my directions to get there.
I left home after work in the rain thinking I hope the weather guessers had the forecast right. All the way up wipers on until I got past Gumboot town and then it was down to a drizzle.
Got to the car park and only a couple of vehicles and one of them was the guys, which is a good start.
A quick trip in on the red horse and set up camp.
Saturday morning and we talked about who was going where and the guys that hadn’t been in before followed me, suckers.
We had a look down one track but the place had a bit of a beating with weather recently, probably Gita. A slip across the track put a stop to progress so we turned around and had a look down the main track. This place has a lot of history and we stopped and had a look at a bit of the remaining sites.
Further down we had a bit of fun getting bikes through some of the washed out creeks but got to where we wanted to be for a hunt.
More of the old settlers remains from yesteryear.
We walked along the main track for a while and split up to increase our chances of getting an animal, sat and watched a big clearing after getting the others sorted out on where to have a look.
Glassing the clearing I watched a family of goats come down and graze then feed back into the bush, they were safe from me. Just before last light I saw a pig feed out onto the grass which got my attention I ranged and 412yds by the time I opened Shooter then dailed it was gone, Bugger.
I walked down the track a bit, glassed and it had come out again at 302 yds I looked up and bugger me i had lost it again, by now it was getting pretty dark so I moved down the track and with one last sweep with the Binos bingo there it is, no mucking around with range this time I guessed about 200 and heard the thump come back after the shot, you beauty.
Down the steep slippery bank I found a place to cross the creek and now the fun part try to find the pig in the dark which turned out to be pretty easy as it had only rolled over at the shot. A guesstimate of a 60ib boar, yes it looks small in the photo.
Got back to the bike and the others hadn’t seen anything. All the washed out creeks were even more fun in the dark and by the time we got back to camp it was 10pm. One of the other guys scored a 10pt red.
And the weather guessers got the forecast right for a change.
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