Lesson learnt chasing deer
Last weekend I went down to Canterbury with Dad and Grandad for some hunting, this place has a real pest problem - last time we went we shot 5 deer and a pig for the freezer. Anyway, it was windy, raining, and snow had settled in the high part of the hunting ground, so it was pretty unpleasant, but we thought we may as well push through. I came around a corner too sharply and spooked a fallow hind no more than 50yds away - bummer. I was on my tip toes going slow from then...
Another 13 kms later I had a go at a fallow on a rock face 260m away, but missed all 3 shots - not my best work. I felt like I was out of form for the day.
Dad and I walked through the pruned flats, very open space and I spooked two fallow just the other side of a Manuka shrub, 2.5m away, this was a shocker. I couldn't believe how badly I was hunting.
Fast forward to yesterday morning, I went for a walk through a low bush track, very dense stuff. I saw two cats feeding on a pig carcass so shot one, his friend didn't want to stick around after the 7mm-08 blew a hole through him. I thought 'oh nah there's not gonna be any deer close after that' so proceeded to go around a corner, another 20m down the track a palmed fallow buck saw me and ran off, he was no more than 10m away from me then...
Lesson learned..? Patience, and be more alert. We took two chilly bins with us on the plane and both came back full of wet boots, no meat.
