I was all booked in to hunt Sika last Thursday - Friday and then along came the big snow dump and messed up my plans. After re evaluating the forecast it was hard to say no to what the weekend had instore with this big high sitting over the country so I promptly re scheduled some hunts much to my wife’s displeasure.
Saturday morning found me head north to meet up with GC @Kelton who took me out for a handy fallow hunt with my four year old daughter Taylor. Cresting a small clearing right on first light we bumped a few of the critters and my 260 made sure the unlucky one was staying with us. We carried on for a sneak around some pines and bumped a few more animals along the way but didn’t manage another shot. Back in town we met up with @25 /08 IMP who had generously brought down some powder and equipment for me in his travels south. Great little morning.
The next morning I hit the road with my mate Brad bright and early to get up into Sika country. Fair to say it was blardy freezing. Getting into our chosen location right on first sunlight we started spotting animals out getting the first rays of sun. Unfortunately the wind betrayed us and within a moment all the deer in the gut below were hightailing it out of there.
We sidled further down with the intent of getting a better angle on the wind for the next gut. As we crested the rise we could see the entire gut was frozen solid with a band of sunlight just hitting the northern face. Within a moment Brad spotted a goodie and it was clear he was a shooter. The stag had come halfway out of the scrub and was soaking up those first rays. We were skylined with the sun on our backs with a finnicky wind so the pressure was on to find a shooting position without giving ourselves away. Being too good to resist, the stag moved further out and turned broadside in the sun right as we got set. The 7mm rem mag did what it always does and sent a 162 ELD-X square through his shoulder at 390 yards. He went no more then 30m before jumping over backwards into the scrub dead.
It wasn’t until we got over to him that I realised the quality of his character. Both his brows were broken and a rough measure put each beam at around the 32” mark making a bloody cool 7 pointer. He is my new PB and I am bloody stoked! Enjoying the sun we made a brew, dealt with the stag and trudged back out ready to reset into a new area for the afternoon.
Brad had some new loads in his 6.5mm running the 135 Berger Classic Hunters that he was keen to try out on some hinds. Despite our efforts, every hind we came across ended up in a stuff up. Later on I spied a stag at around a kilometre away feeding. We stirred on the decision to chase him until eventually he bedded down within view so we decided he would become the test dummy. Closing the gap to 340 yards the waiting game began. After about an hour he finally stood up and it was action stations waiting for him to present his shoulder in the scrub. When the time was right Brad squeezed off and the classic hunters absolutely anchored him on the spot.
He turned out to be a battler of an 8 pointer with some nice timber. We sorted him out, loaded up and began the trudge out before the drive home in the dark. Winter hunting on crisp clear days like this is one of my favourite things. Another awesome day in the hills.
