Thanks to @craigc Charlie was stoked with his new secondhand Tatonka ( just like dad but smaller ). We took took off on Friday afternoon. The wx was unbelievably hot. Having the bright idea of taking a shortcut to camp we were still pushing through windfall and shit at 10:30 pm. Well and truely missing the evening hunt. He’s a trooper my 9 1/2 year and after a character building walk we made camp at 11 pm 5 1/2 hours after leaving the truck.
Fast forward to 5 am and the alarm goes off. Cmon mate get up. I think I will stay in bed he says. 5 minutes later ok I’m coming. We head d off through the bush until we came to the river. Glassing it was just getting light enough to pick out shapes. Nothing here. Heading further down and came to the next spot. The swaros picked up three straight away. “ right stalks on- be quiet “. “ Can I just shoot it from here?” -“ no we are getting closer “.
Quietly we worked forward to the bush edge and sidled down. I motioned to the hound to sit and stay. Creeping forward there was a deer broadside 40 m away. I turned and motioned for Charlie to come forward. Handing him the rifle I whispered “ safety is on use my shoulder as a rest”.
I was watching the deer intensely. It was doing the same staring in our direction. I was silently thinking HTFU when I hear the safety click. The deer heard it too as its eyes went like dinner plates. Craaaack. The 223 spoke and it dropped like lightening had hit it. I wound the boy up a bit -“ did you get it ?- I didn’t hear a hit “. “ I got it dad it’s over there”.
I looked at my watch 5:40 am. The old adage the early bird gets the worm came to mind. Arriving we found a tasty fat red stag. There were still 2 other deer 300 odd yds further down standing around wondering what the fuss was about.
A few pics and the autopsy began.
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The young stag was in prime condition. He’d been aiming for the crease in the shoulder. He’d hit it a little high and further back but it didn’t matter. You’d think lightening had hit it. The 69gn TMK smashed a hole through the ribs. It had taken out a bit of lung and turned the liver to jelly. The shock had broken the spine and the bullet was embedded in the skin on the far side. Will weigh it later and report back.
So junior is really starting to stack them up. He thinks he is a deer culler and Dick Hart is his idol :thumbsup: good times.
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