Out of lock-down, DOC land open, so there was only one thing to do...
This morning I took my 11 year old son out with me to an Otago tussock block where I've been successful in the past. After about an hour of sidling around the hill, I spotted a black shape a few ridges over. A quick spy through the binos confirmed it to be a fallow buck. My boy had a good look at him, I ranged it at 514m and a plan was made. The first part of the stalk we were exposed to him, so I had quick chat to the boy about keeping low and stopping dead still if the deer put its head up from feeding. Eventually we dropped in to some guts where we were able to get along quite quickly out of sight of the buck, and there was a need for speed as the boundary fence was not far away and needed catch up with him before he jumped over to the private land.
We eventually made it to where we had last seen him and I figured he would head over the ridge and down into the next gut. We slowly stalked over the ridge, keeping low, and there he was on the opposite face feeding happily, at about 130m. I tried to get a good rest but with waist high tussock and scrub made it pretty damned hard. We moved forward about 20m to more clear spot for the shot. 110m off my knee is a bloody long shot for this bush stalker, and the bullet hit with a hollow whack, the buck ran about 40m, wobbled a lot and down he went.
High-fives and hugs. First deer I've got with the boy in tow so we were pretty stoked.
As I suspected the bullet was a bit far back and went through the gut bag, but the angle was enough for it to go through the back of the lungs and existed just behind the off shoulder, not best shot I ever made and it was all quick enough.
Photos, and a butchery lesson and off we went. Celebrated with a stop for a Jimmys pie on the way home. Now at his grandparents place for the weekend, and hopefully some more "freedom photos" for the small game section to come...
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