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Finally got there... Again
So I got my first deer in January. Other than that have only shot a few goats & hares. A mate of mine took me into a local block he hunts a fair bit to try get me onto one. Saw a few animals while we were in there, & could've shot a few of those. But one decision in particular made all the difference. Had my crosshairs settled on a nice eater of a wild sheep, was going to pull the trigger & at the last second decided I'd leave it alone to focus on trying for a deer. We move on & only get about 100m when my mate spots a lovely yearling hind feeding along the rivers edge about 100m in front of us. If I'd shot that sheep she'd have bolted & we'd never have even known she was there. Ultimately, that was the only deer we saw that trip, & the decision not to shoot that sheep meant I got my first deer.
Since then, with the exception of a few months over winter where I buggered my back, I've been putting the miles in myself to try nab myself number two. Done the research & done plenty of trips, but no luck. Learnt a lot in that time though, & enjoyed some great time in the hills. Spooked a couple & managed to see a few more. But it finally changed yesterday.
Me & my brother in law Vinnie (experience level about the same as me) decided to do a day trip into the same block I got my first deer. I've hunted the same block a bunch of times since I got my first one, but have made a point of not going back to the same part of the block unless invited by my mate as he's put a lot of time into learning that area, & haven't wanted to just raid his spot X. So I've focused on trying to apply what I learnt from him to other sections of the block.
We left the truck yesterday early yesterday morning, followed the track track down to the river, crossed, & worked our way towards the tops. After a couple of hours we made it to the first big clearing, & sat just inside the bush edge watching for about half an hour while we had a snack, but no sign of life.
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There's a few small scrubby clearings on either side of the big one, so after a snack we moved off to scope out the western ones. Vinnies dog Poi was picking up on something ahead so we slowly followed some trails down but never saw anything. Onto the next clearing we approached from the northern end to keep the wind in our favour, but just as we came up to the clearing spooked a deer that was feeding out of sight behind some scrub. Back up to the main clearing for an hour to glass a string of clearings that stretch off towards the south from our position. After a while we spotted a mob of wild sheep emerge on one of the farther clearings away. As these were the first animals we'd seen we figured we'd go after them, but as we had to pass through a bunch of other nice clearings to get there figured we'd take our time so as to not barge in & spook any animals that were between us & the sheep. 90mins later we'd closed the gap & stopped for another glass on the highest clearing of the lot so we'd have a good vantage point. By this time it was about 1pm, getting really warm & sunny, & the sheep had since moved off the clearing, so we stopped for lunch & napped for a couple hours in the sun.
Vinnie napping in the tussocks
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Glassing again, & low n behold, there was a mob of seven sheep feeding a little further down the face from where we'd first spotted em earlier. Back on went the boots & up with the rifles. We figured we needed about 15-20mins to stalk down into a good shooting position. Slowly moving down towards em, & I peek out onto a clearing that had only been half visible from our previous spot, & there about 20m away is a lovely yearling hind, head down feeding. I could see her whole body, except for her head which was obscured by a bush. Silly thing, out feeding in the open in the middle of the afternoon. Lined up a shot & she dropped right where she stood. Waited for a few minutes with another round ready, just in case she still had something left. Moved around to the left so I could see her better as I moved up on her, & all of a sudden another yearling burst from the tussock a couple metres from me & off into the bush. Must've been bedded down, but stayed hunkered down & didn't bolt when it heard the shot.
So after a fair amount of trying finally nabbed number two.
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Gutted the deer & hung her in the shade. We couldn't see the clearing with the sheep from there, & thought they'd probably bolted at the shot, but figured we'd head down & see if they were still there. As expected, no sheep to be seen, but we decided to give it half an our & see if they'd re-emerge, but instead of sheep three pigs popped out instead. But they were just passing through, & headed across the clearing & down into the bush reasonably quickly so no chance at one of them. Back up to break down the deer, & a few hours walk back to the truck. As we headed back the way we'd come earlier we came across 3 sheep on one of the clearings, but knowing how unpleasant an uphill climb we'd have for the last hour, more so considering we already had a load of meat, we left those for another day. But was fun to stalk right in close on em.
So a great day out. We walked about 20km up & down the hills. Pretty bloody sore now, but was well worth it to finally see all the effort pay off & come home with a nice load of venison... Again. & just in time for Christmas too!
