Thread: First for 2013

Yesterday I went for a walk in one of my old haunts, just for a bit of a change of scenery. I arrived at the gentlemans hour of 9am, planning to sleep next to the car for the night. I got some gear set up then grabbed my daypack, rifle and the mutt and went up the track.
Not in the mood for a serious mission, i ducked off the track about 20 mins in and went towards a few areas i have seen sign before. The dog got wind of a deer up on a spur but there wasn't a constant breeze so she couldn't give me a direction. We went up and crested a spur and I could smell deer and so could the dog who was trying to find out which way it went, but with the swirling wind we couldn't locate it. Must have heard us coming with the crunchy ground.
We carried on down towards a stream and the dog was getting a good scent drifting up the gully, I thought it may have been on the other side so we crossed over and went up the side a bit. She was still interested but without a constant breeze couldn't pin point the direction. We continued stalking forward and coming through a thick-ish patch it opened out nicely with 40+ metres visibility. Looking across in the sun i instantly saw a deer in its summer coat which stuck out like dogs balls, so I lined it up, trying to pick a spot as there were a few braches in the way of the shoulder, so went for a neck shot. I knew I hit it as it stumbled around and ran off.
Going over there i found a bit of blood on the ground so we began tracking it. Bella was just in front and led me along the blood trail brilliantly, and after 150 metres we found the deer!
Cut em up and cruised on back to the truck and then home...
The pics,
Bella winding:


The blood trail:


Dog + deer:


Team photo: