One my partner's and my goals in life is to make sure our dog thinks we're awesome.
So we've taken the week off to take him on adventures.
First we went to a nearby farm to look for some fallow. Early start and a few hours glassing was enjoyed by our boy by sleeping cuddled up next to us.
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Sunday called for some chores around the house and at our rental so the dog got a good rest.
Then on Monday we tramped into the Pureoras for a few nights. The strong westerly was a bit unpleasant up there but persisted with a few hunts in breaks in the rain. Shot a pig, but I hit it in the lungs and even with a patchy blood trail and hearing it do some death throes in the bush about 50m away. It ended up in a really dense and log strewn area and we couldn't find it. The dog has zero interest in pigs so he's not useful tracking pigs. Bit of a bugger not to find an animal but that happens sometimes I suppose.
The constant strong westerly made stalking into the creek heads where the deer sign was quite fruitless as the wind whipped over the ridges and swirled with reckless abandon into the guts. We decided to walk out Wednesday afternoon.
Our little buddy carries his own food, blanket and fleece jacket for overnight. Trooper. Doesn't slow the little bugger down much!
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So today with quite tired legs and achy knees after a long tramp on steep and slippery ground we decided to go find some more steep and slippery ground. So we headed off this morning to a DOC block in the Waitomo area that we've been scouting. A nasty 250 odd vertical metres of Waitomo's finest supplejack and slippery ground takes us down to a beautiful and very secluded grassy valley.
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We knew goats and pigs were abundant in the valley and we suspected fallow too. This suspicion was rapidly confirmed when we crouched down to look at a goat and a fallow about 100m away was spotted through the undergrowth. It saw us at the same time and pranced away. This did mean for the remainder of the grassy valley the goats were safe.
A km or so from the first encounter we rounded a bend and spotted another fallow, this one hadn't seen us. My partner knelt down and the dog did the same, he had winded it by now. I snuck through a bit of punga and shot the fallow, on the shot another appeared, but the one I shot was moving off so I kept eyes on it. Hit hard it made it about 20m before doing that weird backwards fall over thing, straight into the creek.
I knew where it was, but called the dog over. "Where's bambi" and he's off like a shot straight to it laid up in the creek. Once I got to it, it twitched, so I shot it in the head to be sure. Was superfluous but I tend to take a no such thing as over kill approach.
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It was quartering towards me, the shot when through the onside shoulder joint, heart, lungs and didn't exit. Leaving a rather large window through the vitals on the entry side under the shoulder. Amazing it made 20m! .308win Sierra Gameking 150gr.
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Didn't bother leaving much for the pigs...I dragged the carcass into the bush after this, don't like leaving bits and pieces in the open. Even if I'm pretty sure this place isn't getting much traffic.
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The goats in this valley definitely aren't being hunted.... these dopey buggers just hung around while we walked past. I may have questioned their intelligence loudly several times... Young eaters so I left them for next time. Lucky they weren't mature billies otherwise they'd have had some final education. We probably should have just shot them, but I think I'm getting soft.
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Dog was happy as always.
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One of the last climbs through the supplejack. Real tie your eyelashes on type country, no traction in the slippery mud and ridges interspersed with steep drop offs to navigate.
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Made it to the road, and the dog knew the ute was just around the corner.
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Kimber got a bit muddy! The trusty bushy 3200 scope still going on this one. The missus one got foggy in the Pureoras but was still taken on this trip "A little bit cloudy but good enough for short range" apparently... thanks for the suggestions for a replacement in my other thread all.
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Then back at the ute. Not only did my partner help carry a substantial amount of meat, she had a thermos of tea sorted. Legend..
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Has been an awesome few days with my partner and our dog. The dog is knackered, the missus isn't... Marathon running legs definitely outlast mine!
The dog will get a rest for the next few days as it's off to the pistol range tomorrow and tidy up all our gear strewn all over the place to dry. Then Sika show Saturday.
