Thread: Always check your gear...

Sunday in Hawkes bay was pretty crappy weather and some of us lunatics decided we would go for a hunt. Up at 4:30m as daylight savings had kicked in. After a coffee and a few bullshit stories we headed off to our hunting spot. We arrived to gale force winds, but as we had made the effort to get there we thought we better give it a good go. The wind was SE direction and the worse possible breeze for the block. After a a slog up a few hills and into some prime country we waited for a stag to make some sort of noise. The rain was pouring down and the stags were silent. We decided to go into some pines nearby and hoped we would maybe see or hear something in there. After a pointless stalk through the pines we decided this was crazy and started to head back to the car. Being the stubborn bastard I am, I thought nope we are here lets try one last ditch effort to get a stag roaring. Out with the horn I proceeded to bellow out enough noise that my mates started to laugh at me. We were drenched in rain, standing in a wind that blowing right up our backsides and there were no stags. My brother put his gun down and I took off my pack to have a drink. We sat in the drizzle thinking about our next move. My brother made the call to leave the block head home and get dry. I put my pack on and my brother picked up his gun. We started to head to the top of the ridge when we heard a crash. Thinking nothing of it we continued up the ridge. Its funny because right at this moment the rain stopped and as I wear glasses I decided to get out a peice of toilet paper to wipe the drizzle off my glasses. No sooner had a done this we heard a thunderous roar that made me almost shit myself. A stag had come in on us and was less that 30 or so metres in front of us. We could see bushes moving and a set of white tips moving through the shrubs. It was my brothers shot and I had lost a previous game of paper scissors rock to him. The stag moved in on us only 15 or 16 meters away. My brother loaded up a round and slowly lifted his gun. IN all its glory the stag was standing 10 metres in front of us. I can remember the noise of my brothers rifle going off and watched in disbelief as the staged reared up and ran to the left crashing its way through the bush. What the *&%#@$ happened there! My brother had no idea why he had missed, and I've always considered him a crack shot. On careful scrutiny of his gun one of the lock nuts that held his scope on was loose and his scope was not secured...........He was a solid big 12 point and one of the biggest animal I have ever seen. Hence the title......always check your gear

oh man that has got to rip your undies man better luck next time

Im picking your brother hit him, and possibly hit him well, did you do a search for any evidence of a hit, blood, hair etc? Or do a search for him in the direction he ran? Could be laying there dead somewhere?

Did you GPS mark the spot, or could you go back to the exact spot, id be going back to look for him, of course all this rain will have washed any blood away, but he may be there crumpled up in a heap.

If he reared up he's probably hit and from 10 m it wouldn't matter too much if the scope was a bit out, from that range its pretty much just point the barrel in the general direction and pull the trigger. Either your creative story telling is exaggerating things a tad or you should be out there looking for him because he's probably dead.

If it happened as you said, and the stag reared at the shot, it is highly likely the shot hit where it was pointed! Where was your bro aiming? A chest shot sometimes doesn't drop them on the spot at close range like that. Go back and search for him, the stag deserves it at least.

Originally Posted by Bavarian_Hunter

If he reared up he's probably hit and from 10 m it wouldn't matter too much if the scope was a bit out, from that range its pretty much just point the barrel in the general direction and pull the trigger. Either your creative story telling is exaggerating things a tad or you should be out there looking for him because he's probably dead.

I agree, especially if the stag reared up, normally a good indication of a good hit to the vitals. Probably bolted a short distance but dead on his feet?

We searched for over 3 hours, found no blood only his tracks where he had fled into the shrub. The tracks where he skid down through the bush. They were very clear and defined. We followed these tracks for about 100-120 odd metres and then these tracks went into the pine block I spock of earlier and up over the ridge where it went into long green grass and we lost all sign and evidence due to the rainy conditions. Funnily enough where we found a make up camp and a pile of goat heads. We scanned the area for blood and hair or anything that would be a sign of any kind of hit and found nothing. I am a firm believer it tracking down a injured animal and can honestly say we put in a huge effort. The distance we covered in search for this animal was close to 400 metres or more up some hearty country. If he was hit there would have been some kind of anything really......but the tracks just kept going and going.

Originally Posted by GWH

Im picking your brother hit him, and possibly hit him well, did you do a search for any evidence of a hit, blood, hair etc? Or do a search for him in the direction he ran? Could be laying there dead somewhere?

Did you GPS mark the spot, or could you go back to the exact spot, id be going back to look for him, of course all this rain will have washed any blood away, but he may be there crumpled up in a heap.

It is family land which I have hunted for a few years and know it pretty well. I am no Navajo indian but cant track pretty good as well. I'm quessing clean miss. The rearing up may have been him seeing us I am not sure. It wasn't the pull back type of rear you see when an animal is hit...more like the one when they get a fright and try to run...

Originally Posted by Drewski

We searched for over 3 hours, found no blood only his tracks where he had fled into the shrub. The tracks where he skid down through the bush. They were very clear and defined. We followed these tracks for about 100-120 odd metres and then these tracks went into the pine block I spock of earlier and up over the ridge where it went into long green grass and we lost all sign and evidence due to the rainy conditions. Funnily enough where we found a make up camp and a pile of goat heads. We scanned the area for blood and hair or anything that would be a sign of any kind of hit and found nothing. I am a firm believer it tracking down a injured animal and can honestly say we put in a huge effort.

Probably should've said that in the first place then Its a real bugger losing/missing an animal, especially a nice stag.

Fark, what a bummer.....really feel for your brother, he must be as sick as!!!!!

are to going into the same area soon, to try an call him in again???????

Yea your right...JoshC. It would have been the best stag taken in the block in many years so we were pretty gutted. Its my brothers second miss in his 20+ years of hunting. He is/was not a happy man. We had a 3rd member in our party who is in logging and can climb hills like an antelope. Even he was tired after our search.....

Will try again Sat morning.....fingers crossed!

Yeh I'm still not convinced, my brother shot a red once and we looked and looked and looked for him (and this was semi open stuff) he was sure he hit him but we just couldnt find anything. 3 weeks later we found him rotting 150 m from where he was hit, had doubled back around and ended up where we didnt even think to look. As for no blood, I've had that happen plenty of times, all it takes is for the round to not pass through and to bleed internally to see no blood.

Just seems strange as I've never seen nor heard of deer rearing up without being hit. Usually their legs stiffen up and they crouch low to the ground before taking off. For me when a deer rears up I breathe a sigh of relief and know I've got him...maybe I'll have to just make sure next time and keep firing!

I will search again this weekend, but that's all you can do. We did a 3 man sweep of the area and covered alot of ground. I will know for sure on sat if they are roaring as there are only 4 stags in the block. You can only do so much I suppose.

If you know someone with a good dog take him along. At ten meters you could almost shoot from the hip and be pretty confident.

Good luck, don’t give up yet.