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A Grand Day out with a new friend.
A while back while on the forum I noticed a post from Josan from the Netherlands. He was coming to NZ with his wife for a holiday so I had a talk to Beeman and we sorted out a hunt for him while here. The date was set for the 8th Dec which soon rolled round and they arrived on the afternoon of the 7th.
The weather had been up and down with a bit of rain but the forecast was good for the Saturday so it was off to bed with a early rise at 3.45 am. At Beeman's we loaded up his ute and headed for the hills ever hopeful a few deer were running about. After an early cruise round some of our hotspots and little sign being seen we were a bit worried but we still had the camera lines to check and that was a hunt on it's own. Jo was carrying my 243, and being a crack shot with PCP air weapons back in his country I had no doubt he could handle it with ease.
On my line I have 7 camera's to check so we took off with high hopes, the first had several pics of a nice velvet stag with 11 points, the next nothing since my last visit as was the next. Little sign being encountered along the way.
As we carried on down the spur towards an old overgrown skid site we put a stag up out of a bed, both of us caught a glimpse as he hot footed it down into the gully the next camera was in. No chance for a shot Bugger!!
At the next camera we had several deer on it plus a stag captured only minutes before, yep it was the stag we had bumped out of his bed.
The rest of the cameras had deer on them, the wallow had some excellent footage of PD wallowing in all his glory in the middle of the day.
Back to Beeman's for lunch ( Chicken and Chips ) yum then we relaxed a while before our evening sortie. First stop was a few shots for Jo with the 243 at 200 yards which were good enough for the task at hand. We cruised around in the early afternoon and once again sign was a bit scarce until we found a heap of sign along a new clear cut.
As the wind wasn't the best for this spot Beeman decided that the "Lookout " would be a likely spot and generously gave Jo and I the task of staking it out.
It must have been around 6.30 ish when we climbed up to the top and set ourselves up for an evening of glassing. At about 7.30pm I spotted a rusty red shape, on closer inspection we established it was a nice looking stag with big wide antlers. The range was 440 yards which was doable but Jo wasn't to confident at that range in the gusty wind with the 243, I offered him my 300 Win Mag but having limited experience with high powered rifles he declined.
I ranged a closer knob which if we could get there undetected would take about 170 yards off the range. I said to Jo lets give it a go and took off down the spur then across to the new vantage point. By the time I got there the stag had feed down a bit and was now at 237 yards. Several minutes later Jo caught up and we started looking for a stump to rest on for the shot. With one sorted we crawled in a bit but to my horror I noticed the big boy had picked up our movement and was staring at us. With a bit of urgency I told Jo to shoot ASAP but he was having difficulty picking up the stag. Then he ran up hill about 20 meters and stopped broadside, Jo still was having problems and couldn't find the stag in the scope, Jo said "shoot him I can't see him" so I hastily rest on a skinny little pine tree and let strip dropping him with a base of neck shot.
Time was marching on shadows were lengthening so it was a quick bash and crash across to the stag to find a humungus animal with a massive 9 point head, this stag was one of the biggest I have shot and estimated him to be at least 120 kg gutted(actual weight 125 kg). When Jo arrived he was buggered so after photo's he made tracks for the road before full darkness set in, I removed the head and radioed Beeman to tell we had our work cut out and would pick him up shortly.
Job done ( gutted and head remove it was off to the road which was about half a km away across slash and crap ) I then meet Jo and off to the truck then down to pick up Beeman then back to the stag. In full darkness we headed up and then tied on our ropes for dragging the animal back with. What a mission we sweated blood, shit he was a heavy sucker no way one person could move him, Beeman broke his stick on his rope four time during the haul.
Finally after much effort we had him on the truck and we were on the way out ….time 11.30 pm!! , at Beemans place we tidied up the stag then it was home for Jo and I arriving there at 1.00pm and into bed by 2.00pm after showering and a bite to eat.
What an end to an epic day out on the hill with a new found friend and me old mate Beeman, until the next adventure we will keep a few bullets nice and sharp.
The stag had no eye teeth and was missing several teeth on the lower jaw he was obviously a very old stag and the tops of his antlers were showing the start of the decline. The velvet is pretty much hard right to the top tips which is surprisingly early, this stag would have been real cracker a year or two earlier but still one I am very happy with.Attachment 100462Attachment 100463Attachment 100464Attachment 100465
The antlers at a quick measure are 35 long by 39.5 wide.
