Thread: Tekapo #3

The same crew as last trip https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....apo-2-a-77778/ headed back to the same place last Saturday morning. Weather forecast was excellent with the promise of some different areas to investigate. We set off for a recce about with an arranged meet up just after dark two of us wandering the matagouri clad valleys on foot while the other two did a drive, scoot and shoot.

It was a zero for both of us on foot by the scheduled meetup, but as the sun was dipping below the horizon I started to see movement and tracked down a wobblie to nail with the 223 followed shortly by a couple of bunnies just as the wagon arrived. Gadget was on the board.

With everyone aboard we headed over to the other side of the farm where there had been good success the previous trip. It didn't take long till we were into it, moving from grassy patch to grassy patch, popping rabbits and wallabies at a reasonably regular pace. We noted that most of the wallabies were pretty young.

I spotted some different 'reflectors' beaming back at us at one point so we made our way over that way. It turned out to be a fallow spiker but it kept wandering into cover. We made our way round the scrub and spotted it again, still moving. Mate and I hopped out and followed the fallow, it was constantly moving,, into cover and out of cover. Finally it wandered into the open at about 140m and mate was standing there trying to take a freehand shot when I dropped to my hands and knees and suggested he use my shoulders as a steady. That worked well with the shot making the sound of a solid hit at about 9:00pm. Once we found the animal, dropped on the spot, we set to cleaning out the carcase to discover the shot had split the heart open.

After cleaning up we got under way again. Shortly after we were into a good pockets of rabbits and wallabies. About midnight I snotted one right between the eyes as it hid on the matagouri. It looked a little odd so a couple of us got out to see, and it turned out to be a big wallaby, no ...., don't believe it, another fallow spiker. Gadget has his first deer. Cleaned it up and added it to the roof rack.

A few minutes later and we come across another spiker which AJ deals with and adds to the roof rack.

A very good trip with 104+ pests dealt with and some meat to take home as a bonus. Not many pests got educated which is how we like to operate.