What a long week at work this week. School is coming to and end but the work is piling up!
I was so happy to jump in my car at 6pm and head home. But just before leaving I had an idea to ring a local farmer and ask if my son and I could again go onto his property for a hunt. It was about 3 weeks ago we struck it very lucky and I got two fallow spikers as they grazed towards a small creek at about 6:30 in the afternoon.
I got home first with my son riding his bike home from school. I grabbed my gun, knife, range finder and quickly threw on my hunting gear. Not long later we were both sitting just under the bush line in almost the same spot we were 3 weeks ago. There were a few goats here and there and after about 45 minutes of waiting I had decided to line up a couple of goats that were 400 metres away just to see how it felt. I really wanted to wait until dark to see if a deer might sneak out of the bush again. I really didn't rate my chances though given that there are hardly ever deer in this spot. The goats were moving away from me and must have been 450 metres away now and they did look very small in my scope. So I turned around and wiggled back towards my range finders which were on the ground beside my son. It was at that moment we both saw something brown in the paddock across from us just under the bush line. He grabbed my binoculars and I flipped the gun around to see a young stag in velvet looking straight at me.
I could not believe my eyes. There just 250 metres away was something I have dreamed about for a long time. Seconds after identifying this target I heard a deer bark in the bush line above me. The stag must have heard it too as he turned and started trotting towards the bush.
Given that he was so close and not going particularly fast I lined him up on his shoulder as he moved. I waited and he stopped for just long enough for me to gently squeeze off a round. he dropped on the spot having been hit hard a little high but just behind shoulder. My first 6 point stag (in velvet) but I am not going to be fussy now! Both his lungs were obliterated however both front shoulders don't seem bruised.
I could barely stand up having to crawl up the hill a bit and then use one hand to push off to a standing position. Goodness knows what I am I going to do if I get a really big old stag somewhere a lot further from the truck!
Well, this stag makes it 4 deer in 3 trips so either the pennies dropped as far as hunting is going or the hunting gods are smiling on me. I know most of the people reading this will be wondering why I would bother writing about shooting a 6 point stag but for me it is a first. I would have put up some pictures but my camera is flat at the moment. I will put some up as soon as I can.
Thanks for reading. Cheers
