Thread: kaweka hunting

Picked up petree this morning to check out some Sika habitat. He was buzzing from his first Sika kill yesterday but thats his story to tell.

The weather looked great on the way up, 6-12deg celcius for the day and no wind. A dusting of snow in the hills making the place eerily quiet. A walk with Binos out gave us a good look around and before we knew it midday arrived. An apple and some Le Snacks disappeared and it was time to move on. After checking more Sika sidling tracks to feed faces it was time to burn some powder.


Sitting in behind the binos i pointed to a small orange clay clearing waaaaay up the hill (1020yrds), there was/is a small white rock just left of its centre (you could not see it with the unaided eye) I casually mentioned it was petrees turn to shoot and got that "WTF" look

In behind the Nightforce he settled, getting the eye relief just right petree adjusted the parallax and putting some shoulder into it the 6oz trigger got the usual dry firing treatment. Making sure the crosshair never left the 4 inch rock when the sear dropped i started inputting data to "Bulletflight".

1018yrds, 12deg C, 27.90 InHG, 19.9 deg shot angle, I let the slight R to L air current cancel out the spindrift.

Petree was comfortable behind the rifle and had bunched my pack up with his left hand making a super stable rear rest under the stock, a couple more dry fires and he was ready.

I stood 10ft behind him and called out "ready". Watching the pressure trail i saw a hole appear in the orange clay 2 to 3 inches above the 4 inch rock, impressive shooting. He had never shot the rifle before or at that distance, had it been a deer we would have it hanging in the chiller.

Sleety showers slowed the late afternoon down but with 5 Sika seen for the day who can complain !!!!