I haven't chased any Reds this year, since shooting my first Sika last year I must admit they now consume any hunting time I get with my young family.
Its been a typical April for me, book leave a year in advance to have young ones get sick as my leave starts and then of course "when are you going to landscape the front of the house!"
Duly finishing daddy day-care duties and grounds keeping duties I then got sick myself. Finally feeling better from a few days of feeling average mother nature has her say and dumps a load of snow and closes roads..Its a cruel thing having a pass to go do something and then snow and access says, not today.
Well may as well roll some loads for the 308 and go out to the farm and foul the barrel.
Sitting at the reloading bench I started to doubt my bullet selection, reading forums does that to you. I persevered and continued to load what has always been reliable out of my short 308.
Happy with enough loads to re check zero and shoot a substantial amount of Sika stags I went to the farm and shot two groups of three - at 70 yards (my happy place for the bush) all but 1 of the 6 were touching the others, magic.
Yesterday 1pm rolled around and I saw the rain forecast , well its not snow, if I don't go now I'll lose anther day and I'm not hunting on the weekends.
Day dreaming as I drive "boots..boots..BOOTS!"... turn around and go home to get boots...
About three hours later I get in to my chosen spot and park up, light drizzle , light breeze, cold..perfect.
As I walk toward a stream area I shot last years stag in my mind flicks to trail camera pics and the amount of deer and sign I have seen in the last few trips. A small clearing and a yearling trots off into the thick manuka , I give a mew and its starts conversing with me for a few moments. Sharpen up Andrew.
I walk down toward a vantage point where I'm going to sit and hopefully hear a stag that I can chase in the morning, but its a little more windy. I decide to push further into a stand of Beech and scrub, there's a lot of fresh deer tracks.
With about 45 minutes of light left the scrub opens up a tad, a good place to sit.
"Meeeeeyaaaaawwww" I roared (or m-oared?) I checked the time and got comfortable on the wet forest under floor. A few minutes went by, I lack patience - not a good trait for an aspiring Sika hunter.
Resisting the urge to roar again or move I let out a mew.
Drizzle almost stopped I felt a delicate breeze on my face from below, happy I kept scanning. I checked my watch, 12 minutes since my roar, in my mind I'm already planning the mornings hunt when a flash of antler catches my eye.
On a mission with an arrogant strut a Stag glides in from below, I can see some length to his antlers and decide to shoot if I get a chance. He's moving quick from my right to left but is unaware of my gaze. I mew again and he stops, through the fork of a beech tree I can see a piece of antler, an ear and the top of his left shoulder... I look through my scope and adjust from 2 to 4 power.
He was frozen about 60 yards away, happy that it was a stag and with my shooting from 4 hours earlier being solid I decided to shoot, safety off, light squeeze and with that a large flame illuminated my field of view.
Silence.
I exhaled a steady breath, steam confirmed there was snow near by.
Silence.
Getting to my feet I listened and could not hear anything, no crashing, no kicking just silence.
I took a visual reference and walked toward where the stag had last been.
As I pushed through some lawyer I saw a shape that was out of place, beauty. Stag down and on the board for less than half an hours hunting!
Attachment 85684
He is relatively even and better than a kick in the pants for me.
Attachment 85685
Attachment 85686
Attachment 85687
Running out of light I began to break him down, pretty fat and while mature not too old.
The 165 SST had gone where it was told too, tidy entry and about a two inch exit. It had absolutely pole axed this deer, can't ask for more than that.
Attachment 85688
Attachment 85689
Walking out the rain began to pick up, I re evaluated my plan deciding that the area is not really too disturbed and that big eight might be yodelling on Monday, instead I retreated to a mates place on the Napier Taupo road for the night..
Really happy and the bonus was being able to call in and re tell the story to a mate who lost his leg four weeks ago in an accident. We had planned to hunt together this roar but now its going to have to wait.
Cheers
Andrew
