It had been 3 months since I had been out for a hunt. A back injury at the beginning of December had forced me to take it easy and spend a bit more of my down time on the end of a fishing rod and a lot less behind a rifle. I had returned to work and been out in the field a bit so I thought it was time to test the body and see if I could find a bit of venison to fill the pack.
My wife and I set out yesterday and headed for the tops. The forecast looked good for our overnight mission and I was keen to blood a new rifle. We set up camp late afternoon in a favorite spot. You can see the tent above the right hand side of the tarn.
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It was hot and too early to head out to look for an animal so a couple of hours were spent lazing around the tent. For some reason I took a photo of the view out the tent door. Little did I know at the time the significance of the shot.
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About an hour before dark I set out with high hopes of seeing some game but arrived back at camp after dark not having seen a thing. Not even a hare. Dinner was had and into the sleeping bag I crawled. We was woken over night by short periods of rain on the tent which we weren't expecting but it had passed by dawn.
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The light was still low when I set off but that made no difference to the thermal spotter. Within minutes of leaving the tent a couple of bright spots were seen on the face opposite our tent. I made my way towards them in the half light to a rock that I thought would make a good rest and waited until I could clearly see what those spots were through my binos. Turned out to be a hind and young one. I ranged them at a bit over 300 yards and proceeded to put on a show of very average shooting which had my wife (back at camp) wondering how much we would be carrying out! If she had been looking out the tent door (first photo) she would have been looking straight at where the deer were. End result was a hind down and a young one that ran off to live another day.
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First blood for the new 243win.
I returned to camp to tell my wife the good news (only one deer) and have some breakfast before we both went off to retrieve the meat. While butchering the hind we spied another couple of animals down the valley in the spot I had intended to go. They will keep. Back at camp we packed up and began the slog out. It was by far the most exercise I had done for a while and the legs were feeling it. We bumped a mob of chamois on the way out which was a great distraction and arrived back at the wagon just as the weather began to turn and it started to drizzle. Good timing and end to a great trip.
