Finally.....father and son success
So my Dad has recently retired but for some time has been showing interest in hunting with me on some of the easier hunts I do.....by easier I mean easier to find deer not necessarily easy to recover.
One of the blocks I hunt has a good track right through it right up on to the tops so whenever I am lucky enough to get up there I invite my Dad as the chance of finding deer is quite high, getting close enough for a shot not always as high (very open country that although has good numbers gets hunted pretty heavily so the deer are quite smart).
Anyway I have taken my Dad up here a few times and honestly I rarely come home without at least seeing deer and usually bring the goods home.
I swear my Dad wears deer repellent the only time I found a deer with my Dad present I didn't want to shoot it till he could see it, now bear in mind my father is 73 years old and his eyesight aint the greatest, well the deer buggered off into the scrub before he could spot it never to be seen again.
So I put a call in to the the land lease holder and asked if I could take my Pappy for a mid week afternoon hunt...permission granted.
We were on our way, bearing in mind my own fitness is a bit lax at the moment and Dad being a septogenarian I picked I spot where we could watch a couple of clearings I know to hold the occasional fallow (easy carrying and very tasty) it also didn't hurt that the recovery from these clearings was not too bad so I was confident if we took our time Dad would be all good to come, even still I bought another mate Hamish along who was low on venison and fitter than me so there was 3 of us all up.
We sat glassing me assuring everyone we had a good chance of spotting a deer from our perch....an hour passed then another hour...nothing it was starting get late and I said to my Dad and Hamish "I'm gonna quickly pop over the next saddle and see if I can find a deer over there.
Well bugger me there feeding out in the open about 1000 yards away was a red deer.
I jogged back to where Dad and Hamish were sitting....probably mocking my hunting prowess :D and they knew immediately I had found a deer, everybody grabbed all the gear and we beat a hasty set of tracks back to where I parked the truck.
I mentioned this block has good access right :yaeh am not durnk: we where able to get to within 500 odd yards of where the deer was by truck so parked up, looked at the terrain wich had us down hill below a bit of contour that looked like we should be able to close the gap on the deer to about 150-200 yards without being seen and nothing too strenuous just a little climb and a bit of side hilling.
Right everyone filled in on the plan, grabbed the rifle, the range finder and my hill stick and we set off at a fairly brisk pace under the fading light.
We took the higher ground so we could keep tabs on where the deer was feeding but being careful to stay out of its line of sight.
We got to a point where we had to drop elevation and loose sight of the deer so we could get close enough for a shot.
Well when we got to where I thought we would have a clear shot the contour threw us a suprise we were completely blocked by a slight ridge between us and the deer, now only a week earlier I had a similar situation and I flunked it and spooked the deer so I wasn't keen to get any closer especially with 3 of us we were a big moving conglomerate of objects that would be easy to see.
I took out my range finder, I ranged back to where I parked the truck....280 yards as the crow flys, I then ranged to the scrub behind the ridge we knew the deer was feeding on....140 yards as the crow flys, I looked at Hamish and Dad and said "lets go back to where we can see the deer and I'll shoot it from there" I knew I was confident in my ability to shoot at that kind of range and so we headed back across the face we had just sidehilled around.
We stopped a few times trying to relocate the deer and finally we got to a spot where we could see it and the ground was flat enough for a prone shot.
I ranged the deer at 380 yards he had retreated a little and was just on the bush line but still very visible. I checked my streelok and dialed in the elevation correction, I then ranged again to be sure and was happy with the result.
I got comfortable behind the rifle and warned Dad and Hamish I would shoot as soon as I had a good shot.
Well the deer just stood looking sort of in our direction but I don't think it knew we were there, he started to feed again but was still front on to us, by this stage light was fading and I knew if we wanted to get some Venni I would have to get a shot off soon.
I waited the deer put it's head up again, I was very comfortable behind the rifle I lined up on its neck and squeezed off....boomfa !!!!
All hell broke loose as 3 other reds we hadn't seen came bolting out of the scrub, Dad said the one you hit is still standing but doesn't look good, I regained the sickly looking red who was now obligingly fully broadside in the open and slipped another round into his shoulder.
I watched him tip over legs up job done.
We had made 1 error in our haste to get close enough for a shot we had left our head torches and packs at the truck :pissed off:
Not a huge walk back but unnecessary and more time in already fading light.
We made our way over once again and quickly located the deer who although completely wasted was not dead it was quite a steep tussok face we were on and on seeing us the deer mustered enoug strength to kick enough to cause him to roll down hill another 100m bugger.
We slowly approached and sure enough he was dead. Been a while since I've had to put 2 rounds in a deer been even longer since I have found a deer not stone cold dead too.
The neck shot had miraculously not hit anything immediately fatal, it surely would've died but it missed all bones. The shoulder shot turned the close side shoulder into jelly which certainly anchored him.
I got to work quatering the deer out and loading the legs, back steaks and inner fillets into my pack and Hamish's pack, wasn't about to make my Dad carry he was already putting on a brave face and valliantly offered to carry once we regained our elevation.
we slowly made our way back up the steep and slippery tussok face and got to a point where we could side hill about 800m back accross to the track where the truck was parked up.
Even though the sun had dissappeared quite some time ago we had plenty of light only having to utilize our head torches from the last 300m .
I was so stoked to finally show my Dad a live deer, I was even more stoked to be able to shoot it with him and Hamish, the venison will be shared equally and feed 3 families.
I am also proud to say that I have christened the Benelli Lupo.
I know with my Dad being the other side of 70 his days of doing ths kind of stuff are limited so I took great satisfaction in being able to share this moment with him and to see the way he looked at me with pride and respect was incredibly humbling.
We didn't get many pics due to the fading light time factor but I'll load a couple up shortly.
