Thread: Blue sky minter of a day…

It seems like eons ago since I last hunted under a blue sky.

These past four days have been a soul repairing escapade for this rain weary old bastard. And a few more good days to come it seems.

First thing in the morning and last thing in the evening isn’t too farkin’ flash though….. Jeez its been cold. Not just a good hoar frost but cold enough to freeze everything abso-farkin-lootly solid. Crunching through the frost in the dark at 6am to give yourself a chance at a deer at first light can be somewhat taxing.

But days like today are what it’s all about. A cold ride up the hill on the little Big Red, followed by a lung buster hike. Cresting the ridge, I spot a hind and last year’s fawn waaay over there, requiring a long stalk in open country with bugger all cover to get within range. I’m bum sliding down frosty open faces in clear line of sight to the deer, trying to look like a pig rather than a human. Honestly can’t believe I pulled it off. I really want to get both hind and fawn, but the last shooting position with a smidge of cover is still well over 300m away from where they are grazing the new grass. The last 50m to get there is a right bastard of a steep scramble up a muddy, slippery slope onto a wee knob that I’m pretty sure will give me the shot.

When I poke my head over the top of the scrubby brow, they’re still there, head down, bum up. Range 320m. I’m blowing like a bastard so I take a couple of minutes to chill out and think about what’s coming next. Take my time crawling onto the knob, I know I’m not skylined and there’s no indication the deer are on alert.

BANG! BANG! Success! Both animals take a short stagger and then tumble downslope. I wait a couple of minutes, glassing to make sure nothing gets back up. Time to get my shit together and set off for the long walk back to the bike. It’s a hard, slippery ride up the hill on the backtrack, but I can get the bike within a short drag downslope so no complaints whatsoever about the convenience of the field dressing. No carry-out required. Can’t believe there’s still blowflies in this cold...

Makes me feel like I’ve earned my brown ale.

I hope the rest of you have been able to get the best out of this welcome break from the shit weather.

Good to see ya back Dave nice effort sneaking in on a couple tasty ones

Excellent all round!

Your first pic though... you could have composed it to get less grass and more of that glorious blue sky!

The old South African “Wolffpakk”. I bought these plastic modular packing boxes in 1994. They have provided convenient packing throughout Southern African bush trips and on an excellent adventure from Cape Town to the Sudan and back again. Followed many years later by an equally excellent adventure throughout the entire Australasian continent. And many short trips in between.

And here we are 29 years later and they are doing sterling service on the back of my 1995 little Big Red. Both boxes are full of meat plus legs on top. I admit that drilling three small holes in each box felt like sacrilege, but needs must.

1994/5 was a great year for plastic packing boxes, Honda quads, and Britpop. They don’t make plastic boxes or quads like this anymore… or music. Oasis’ Definitely Maybe, for example. I am definitely getting old.

Haha - better getting old than the alternative. Great result and yarn!

Thanks for sharing, after the wet summer, autumn and early winter we're been having there will be a lot of others hoping for some of your Blue Sky.

Simply bloody well done.

Originally Posted by Flyblown

It seems like eons ago since I last hunted under a blue sky.

These past four days have been a soul repairing escapade for this rain weary old bastard. And a few more good days to come it seems.

First thing in the morning and last thing in the evening isn’t too farkin’ flash though….. Jeez its been cold. Not just a good hoar frost but cold enough to freeze everything abso-farkin-lootly solid. Crunching through the frost in the dark at 6am to give yourself a chance at a deer at first light can be somewhat taxing.

But days like today are what it’s all about. A cold ride up the hill on the little Big Red, followed by a lung buster hike. Cresting the ridge, I spot a hind and last year’s fawn waaay over there, requiring a long stalk in open country with bugger all cover to get within range. I’m bum sliding down frosty open faces in clear line of sight to the deer, trying to look like a pig rather than a human. Honestly can’t believe I pulled it off. I really want to get both hind and fawn, but the last shooting position with a smidge of cover is still well over 300m away from where they are grazing the new grass. The last 50m to get there is a right bastard of a steep scramble up a muddy, slippery slope onto a wee knob that I’m pretty sure will give me the shot.

When I poke my head over the top of the scrubby brow, they’re still there, head down, bum up. Range 320m. I’m blowing like a bastard so I take a couple of minutes to chill out and think about what’s coming next. Take my time crawling onto the knob, I know I’m not skylined and there’s no indication the deer are on alert.

BANG! BANG! Success! Both animals take a short stagger and then tumble downslope. I wait a couple of minutes, glassing to make sure nothing gets back up. Time to get my shit together and set off for the long walk back to the bike. It’s a hard, slippery ride up the hill on the backtrack, but I can get the bike within a short drag downslope so no complaints whatsoever about the convenience of the field dressing. No carry-out required. Can’t believe there’s still blowflies in this cold...

Makes me feel like I’ve earned my brown ale.

I hope the rest of you have been able to get the best out of this welcome break from the shit weather.

Attachment 226270

Attachment 226271

thanks for that the quad looks like a quad should hind quarters poking out the back now a beer and BBQ

My favourite days of the year these crisp clear still winter days

Originally Posted by stagstalker

My favourite days of the year these crisp clear still winter days

Im with ya there.
The soft crunch of frost underfoot. Misty breath rising up. Low angled sunrise glinted off everything.
Truly a serene moment.

Originally Posted by SoreLegs

Im with ya there.
The soft crunch of frost underfoot. Misty breath rising up. Low angled sunrise glinted off everything.
Truly a serene moment.

The moment the Sun peaks its head over the ridgeline is pretty special. The bird song, the rising mist as the frost melts.

However there is a downside to this glorious weather, which is the temperature differential between the bottom of the valley when you set off (around -4°C) and the tops in the midday sunshine (around 22°C). It’s tricky getting your clothing right so that you don’t end up having to carry loads of bulky stuff you were wearing when you set off.

If you stay up on the hill into the evening after a sweaty middle of the day, you can get cold real quick once you’re out of the sun, because your undershirt is all damp.

To that end I praise the modern wonder that is the packable down filled puffy jacket! These jackets are wonderful - it packs down to no bigger than a pint glass and is really light, yes it does an incredible job of keeping me warm. Love ‘em, couldn’t be without it now.