Thread: First Hunt For 2024. First bullet. First Fallow Stag

Yesterday a client phoned to say, "There are 8 - 10 goats in the QE11 Covenant. Can you come?"

I'm supposed to be on holiday and am building a kennel and cage for our new puppy, but my wife said, "FFS! If you're going to go, you better go today because it's going to rain on Monday!" (God she is so perfect!)

So I packed the Weihrauch HW60J in 222 Remington, a Thermos of heated curry and rice and a second of tea and away at 1.30pm.

So after checking out the clear grass farmland ridges on the bush edge, I dropped down into the degenerating pine forest with native regrowth under canopy that borders the QE11.

As I sneaked along the river terrace, above the steep drop-off down to the river, I stumbled onto two fallow stags at ten metres! They were laying on a grassy patch, chewing there cud, obscured from my view by the waist high ferns and low pungas.

First I knew was when the spotted stag stood up! My usual lightning fast reactions deserted me in a WTF moment!!! Then I had a flashback to the old NZDA rules on not shooting stags in velvet! Then I came back to present moment in time to see the white stag stand up and the spotted stag bolt up the hill! The white stag was a bit slower, but never presented me with a clear shot. At one stage it stopped, side on at 25m, for about 60 seconds, obscured and only partly visible through dead pine foliage.

A 30 calibre 180grn projectile might have busted its way through the scrub, but the 55grn triple would have fragmented, so no shot there. Got the photo though!

So the deer went left, I went right, thinking they would head for the back bush and I would cut them off on the ridge. No such luck!

Going right also put the wind in my favour as I dropped back down to the clear paddock on the ridge. I hunkered down in the pines and watched the paddock for about 30 minutes, nothing!

I was getting hungry, so I retraced my steps back to the car and grabbed my nose bag.

Back up on the ridge I settled the triple onto the bipod, put another layer on as it started drizzling, then cracked open the curry. Literally as I unscrewed the lid, a white ghostly shape floated out of the bush. I dropped the curry and got down prone behind the scope in time to see the spotted stag also materialize in the dusk.

Waiting for them to clear the bush, I decided to hit the spotted one first, then try for the white one if there was time.

Neck, breathe, squeeze, boom, whack! All over rover! The head went up, the legs went out, and spotty rolled down the hill past whitey. Whitey bolted! Time 9.01PM

I'm happy with that result because there is a possibility of picking up a white trophy, in hard antler, later this year. Also the white gen might carry on in that area.

The stats: 90 metres, Hornady 55grn #2266 BTSP W/C 18.5Grns ADI AR2207 primer Russian??? Velocity not known but probably 2600 - 2750ftps

I got the ute up almost to the clearing and recovered the whole body.

Home and in bed by 1.30am. It's been a good start to 2024!

And of course that allows me to say, "The triple two Remington is the best all around calibre for New Zealand hunting! And then the fight started....