I went for a hunt in the rain yesterday. Started at 4pm in the drizzle and ended up being poured on from 7pm to 9pm. But it didn't dampen my spirits.
After about an our of hunting a finally spied a bit of colour across a gully at 400 yards and it appeared to be a deer's neck and head. So I stalked closer and at 158 yards could clearly make out a hinds head poking up out of the scrub and a little bit of neck. There was no wind so I settled behind the 6.5prc and took a very careful angled neck shot a couple of inches under her jaw. At that range the bullet was going to be about 3" high.
An "ouch, that hurt" whop came back at the shot and she disappeared. Up with the binos and I could see a bit of white belly or something. Time for a retrieve.
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By the time I had mucked around boning it out and taking pics the rain had picked up so I decided to walk straight back to the quad with my load, but I couldn't resist a little detour and gander which filled another hour so it was 7pm by the time the quad came into sight. It was parked at the same place as a week ago when I shot a deer a couple of hundred yards from it.
This time I was approaching it with my load from a different direction but I happened to glance up from my toils and blow me down there was a stag not far from where the deer was last week. It was totally distracted by something (I thought scoffing grass) and its posture looked strange but I didn't think anything of it.
Round up the spout and down onto the bipod. No need to range (turned out to be 149 yards), and it drooped where it stood. Solid front of te shoulder shot.
I detoured to the quad and parked it as close as I could get to the deer and walked the 150 yards up to it. A young solid stag with his antlers still on. And immediately I saw what he had been doing. He was pawing and sniffing the patch were I had dealt to last weeks' deer - and he had landed right on its head when he dropped (pic). What are the chances??
I had a hell of a job getting him up onto the quad and it took me about 20 minutes of buggering around. He weighed 71kg on the hooks gutted. I got back to the ute well after 9pm, wet as a duck but happy.
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