Thread: Close.....but no cigar!!!!!

Went for a hunt in the Whirinaki Forest at the weekend, I had enjoyed being in there for the ‘Forum Rusa Hunt’ which got changed
From Galatea to ‘Rushy’s Roost’……checked with Rushy first to make sure he would not be there that weekend, cheers mate!
Went with forum member ‘woodsyboy’, my hunting mate, usual story of drive down Friday night, set up camp (I slept in my truck)
Couple of cold ones to take the edge off and into the scratcher….

Up at sparrows, quick cuppa to get things warmed up and ‘into it’, for the guys who were on the above trip, we went straight in from camp
Following the possum trappers trail for easier access! (two dead rats in traps, and one possum, sweet!)
The conditions were perfect IMO, hardly any wind, in my face when there was some, and light rain which would help to muffle our noise!
Picked up a game trail with sign (real deer shite this time guys, not berries!) and started to really slow down and stalk…
When WB and I hunt, if we don’t go solo, the lead guy on point has one up the spout with the safety on, 2nd guy is unloaded, this is what
We do, so please don’t hijack this thread with your personal safety procedure, were not going to change!!!!
As I was negotiating a steep sided gully hanging off a tree root, I got around it and was in the process of gathering myself, when…..
‘Fuck me with a rubber banana’….there’s a red ‘spiker’ staring straight at me from about 25 mtrs…..could only see his head behind a deadfall,
Now it what seemed like a lifetime but would have been less than 2 seconds about a thousand ‘things’ raced through my mind…..i can remember these....

‘A deer, fukin shoot it’

‘Its true, they just stand and stare at you’

‘Wow, what a beautiful looking animal’

‘Remember to take the safety off, you dumb cunt’

I slowly raise the barrel towards my target, slipped the safety off, went to close my left eye to line up and….he went into ‘warp factor ten’ mode…..
As he crashed downhill to my left I let go a ‘hail mary’ shot and of course, missed!!!!!!
Woodsyboy shit himself from the rifle crack, he told me later his first impression was that I’d done an accidental discharge……but he quickly
Chambered a round when he heard him crash through the bush, but didn’t get a shot off….

Now….after a couple of nights sleeping ‘on it’ and after running it through my melon a thousand times, I have no doubt my dangly bits were in the
firm grasp of the hunter’s nemesis known as ‘buck fever’…..as I have yet to shoot a wild deer, as soon as I saw it, my very first thought was ‘get it!’
now I have mulled over the moral high ground of saying I would not ‘head shoot’ or take a running shot….but the ‘fever’ had me big time and I badly
…..AND I MEAN FUKIN BADLY wanted to put that lad on the ground……..

He was the first Red I have ever seen, and although I have spooked 3 Sika’s in the Kaimanawas, that was the first shot I have let off, always thought, at least
To myself I would be more composed when ‘it’ finally happened……FAIL, big time

I only took up hunting this year at the ‘tender’ age of 55, so I knew I had a big learning curve ahead of me, but it’s the challenge I have set myself, lesson learnt…..

Note to self, engage brain before weapon!!!!!!!!!!