Thread: Fallow in the Waikato - Rut timing?

We managed to get onto one - I posted a picture in another thread: https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....4/#post1439813
Tried on Saturday evening which turned to rain on sunset, no movement. NE wind which means wind going downhill and it swirls terribly in the gullies and the faces we have over watch of were quite exposed.

Had intended to go out Monday morning but woke up to a horrendous southerly at my place so decided some more sleep was a better option that looking for anything coming out into the open. Went out just after lunch on Monday. Strong (25-30kph) SE wind persisted but it was downhill and consistent so great for bush stalking where we were being able to stalk downhill with no wind swirl. The strong wind certainly covered our noise but also meant we'd have to spot the fallow in the bush before they spotted us, hearing was a bit of a useless sense at this point.

Stalked down a gully/ridge system each and the missus picked one up in a warm north facing bush edge out of the wind. About 15m inside the bush edge she had been stalking down the inside of. The dog let her know it was there first sniffing intently to her left and a few steps forward revealed the buck about 20m away. Shot it once with no reaction so she shot it again upon which it dropped on the spot dead. First shot had gone forward of the onside shoulder and exited behind the offside shoulder. Second shot broke the onside shoulder exiting not far behind the first shot. Both good kill shots and the only difference being the second shot broke the shoulder which dropped him. He would of dropped pretty quickly after the first shot (in fact when I found the entry and exit of the first shot, I'm surprised he didn't drop on the spot) but she initially thought she must have missed the first shot given the total lack of reaction, a prudent course of action was a quick follow up shot.

In my little gully I was tracking something through the bush with very fresh footprints leaving a rut pad heading downhill so was in super slow sneaky mode, I had just sat down to spend some time looking over a bit of a sunny patch inside the bush the tracks lead through when I heard the shot which was a couple hundred metres below me, so turned around back uphill and went and got the ute to bring it as close as possible to help carry the buck out, which turned out was quite close so managed to drag him out slightly downhill to a handy vehicle track. I wish my luck played out like that more often! Missus had him mostly gutted by the time I got there and we got him out fairly quick.

I believe he was the main buck in the block but I know there's at least another two, one slightly smaller, and another with just one antler this year.
Have found at least 5 different rut pads around the block now.
Still no croaking heard.