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A few lessons here for new and old hunters alike
Now I don't post much about my hunting exploits.
Hunting is a life long passion for me, but I do it for myself and I keep it pretty much to myself
But yesterdays hunt had some good learning in it for experienced and new hunters alike
I did my first day of paid work for the year yesterday and being a quick DoC job I found myself in a decent spot where there might be some handy deer
Being a hot windy day and with the biddy bid season in full swing I didn't have my GWP Josie with me ( mistake 1 )
I had seen a lot of stags in velvet pre Christmas and hoped to maybe catch up with one of them again.
As stated it was bloody windy so I took my 300 wsm ( cancels out mistake 1 I guess )
Saw a yearling hind very early and handy but walked on to look for a stag.
The wind really got going and it was going to be a total waste of time where I wanted to hunt
So after a long walk away from the yearling I made my way back into the sheltered gully she was seen in earlier and thought it was just as likely to have a stag in it.
I eventually found her lying in very long grass with just her ears and top of shoulder visible.
I watched her for over an hour from 300m and she never moved from that spot.
But I did see a mature hind at 600m
Anyway light was starting to fade and with the amount of feed around I decided she might not get up again until it was too dark to shoot.
So I got sorted and tried to decode how she was lying, what the wind drift might be and where my point of aim should be.
I had had a long clear look at her from 400m several hours earlier and was certain it was a yearling.
So took the shot with light fading fast.
Low light and wind noise left no clues of a hit ... but you always follow up the shot
Now it seems to coincide that I'm getting older and the deer in the South Island are definitely getting bigger !
It's been a cool, wet and changeable summer in Canterbury with a lot of growth.
After a very dry mild Winter
So there are some big well few deer around and I did see some very promising stags in velvet
Back to the hunt
It took me a while to get over to the distinctive tree the hind had been lying by
Very steep slope, very long grass in places and very taller bracken as well.
Fully dark and headlight on full now.
Found the deers bed but no deer
Absolutely not a spot of blood !
Tracks everywhere but no blood on any of them
And my dog is sitting at home ( found out later ) fretting that I went to work without her
So the search goes on for about 15 minutes before I find a skid mark on the hill, but no blood
Follow the skid mark down for about 100 vertical meters, but still no blood
Eventually find the yearling hind in a tiny little hole on the very steep hillside about 30 minutes after starting the search.
Now sadly she has fallen a long way in wrong direction from where I have to climb to get back out to my truck !
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Great relief to find her
Tricky to break her down in such a tight spot and no option to shift or she would have probably gone another 100m until stopping even further from my way out.
Entry wound was pretty close to where I had intended to hit. So no reason for the lack of blood there.
Eventually I get to the off side shoulder and there is the projectile under the skin.
Now that's a bit of a surprise to find a 180 grain accubond from 300wsm that started out at 3000 fps
That would usually be a full pass through on a yearling hind at 300m
But she was lying down flat on the ground up against a small bank and I'm wondering if that stopped the stretch of the off side skin from breaking through ?
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So the lesson here is always follow up your shots and give it plenty of time
This yearling only moved about 10m from where I had hit her before sliding 100 vertical meters
Similar things do not always behave similarly as this recovered projectile shows
If she had been standing broadside it would have been a pass through
I made two full round trips back to the truck and recovered all the meat
But the real prize was recovering that projectile and unpicking what might have happened and being reminded that you are never too old to learn if you keep your eyes open and stick at it
cheers
