Took a half day last Friday to get into it as early as possible and get the travel part of the trip done. Got up to Raumati South for 12pm to meet up with a mate and headed off towards Taihape. We have access to a station about 20 minutes from Taihape – amazing place with a great little hut, comfortable and warm enough considering it’s above 1,000m. After a quick chat with the farm manager, and dropping off of the customary beers, we headed off.
We separated towards the end of the journey and hunted in towards the hut. Nothing much was doing – there was no sign, which in comparison to previous trips when there’s generally been loads was a little concerning. (The last time we were there, on our first hunt a helicopter flew right above us, very low, proceeding to take eight or nine shots (on DOC land, not the station. Two days later I found multiple deer innards all together in a pile – looked like the helicopter had driven the deer as close to the fence-line as possible, shot them, then landed in the paddock on the farm, dressed them, hooked them up and flown off – so it was worrying that they had been back in the area and cleared it out). Anyway, I digress…
We made it to the hut and got ourselves sorted out. Had an evening hunt but there was nothing about. Up at 6am the next morning and out while still dark. We decided the night before to separate and hunt two different areas. My mate went to an area he hadn’t checked out before, but suspected was going to be a likely place deer where coming out of the bush in the morning. I stayed up higher and positioned myself so I could glass down across multiple areas, some of which had crops – hard for those deer not to jump the fence and have a munch!
My hunt was pretty dire – I didn’t see anything other than a couple of paradise ducks that let all of Taihape know that I was there – little sods! Mid-morning I made my way back to the hut in the hope that my mate had seen something. He didn’t disappoint – two sightings of a hind with her yearling and a spiker. He took a shot at the spiker but missed. In hindsight he thought he should have waited longer and attempted to get in closer – it wasn’t a massively long shot, particularly in comparison to some of the distances people are shooting out to on this forum, but a bit passed what he was confident of.
We had a feed and talked through the morning’s hunts and put in place a plan for the evening. You can climb about another 250m from the hut up to the top paddocks, which we thought would be a good spot to check out. We’d been up there on the last trip, and while nothing was seen, plenty of sign was about, so we figured we’d have a look.
We made it up there about 6:30pm, walked through a field of sheep that went ape-shit running around, through some paddocks to where we thought would be a good vantage point. We decided again to spit up and double the chances of seeing something. I stayed put, my mate went up a hill behind me which provided a better view. I glassed for about an hour and all was quiet. The weather was touch and go and we had gotten a pretty good soaking on the way to the spot I was in. I had been sitting on a log, and my arse was beginning to go to sleep, so I decided I would stand for a while. Purely by chance I looked to my left, which I had not been able to see clearly while sitting due to a tree being in my way. I immediately saw a spiker, and set my rifle through some tree branches so I could watch him through the scope. I later found out my mate had actually already been watching him for around half an hour, wandering around the paddock getting a share of his 5-a-day!
After about five minutes I decided I was going to take a shot. The rain had started again and was coming down quite hard. My thinking was that he was not going to hang around, so I chambered a round. I got myself ready, lined him up and squeezed off a shot. I took a minute orientating myself against a landmark so that I could go over and see what was happening. I turned to get my day-pack which was behind me on the ground. I picked it up, and as I turned back towards the direction I had taken the shot in, I saw the deer had run up the fence-line and had now taken about a third of the original distance away. All I could see of the deer was head and neck due to the lay of the paddock – behind it was the Douglas Fir, so I was completely confident it was a safe shot. The deer was looking straight in my direction, but I was pretty sure it didn’t know exactly where I was positioned. I was pissed I had obviously missed the original shot, but happy I was being presented with another opportunity. I put the bag back down and moved my rifle to another position, again resting through a ‘v’ in some branches of a tree. I chambered a round and again lined up. Squeezed off the shot, which felt good, but because of the paddock I had no idea whether I’d hit him. Again I orientated myself and crossed the paddock to the fence-line, making my way up to where I imagined the deer had been.
The adrenalin was pumping as I walked up the fence-line, then I saw something that didn’t look like it belonged – I got closer to see the deer was down. My mate arrived shortly after and he had watched the whole thing from up the hill behind me. The bullet had smashed straight through the deer’s neck, killing him instantly and dropping him on the spot. Amazing result! He was in great condition – not fat but a great coat and he had obviously been helping himself to the crop regularly.
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I got on with dressing him (already done in the picture above) and got things tidied up ready to get him back to the hut where there’s a tree in perfect position for hanging deer. We got him back and up there – it was a very cool evening and too wet for any flies to be about so perfect. Man my hands were hurting from the ropes and getting him up in the tree! The next morning we were up and into it, getting him boned out ready to take him back to the truck down at the farm. All round a successful trip and awesome fun!
I’m still pretty new to this hunting malarkey, and learn something new on every hunt, whether it happens to me or someone else. This time the main thing was that it’s important to be patient on morning hunts and stay in position for a while after the sun hits a spot you think a deer may come from. The hind/yearling and spiker that were seen didn’t come out of the bush for a good 30-45 minutes after the sun had hit it – presumably they wanted to give it a chance to warm up. It had been raining the night before, so I imagine they were in search of not only food, but a bit of sun-bathing.
The other thing that struck me was in relation to the deer that I shot. It was raining pretty hard, but it didn’t seem phased by getting wet – too busy munching on those irresistible crops!
Finally, the deer came out of bush that is growing Douglas Fir. We never expected a deer to come from there, and always thought they would only come out of native bush. The farm manager actually told us when we caught up with him before making our way to the hut that he had seen them around there – perfect advice that resulted in some prime meat for the freezer.
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