Hobbling the hills

Well for any of those in CHCH you would have felt the big southerly front that slammed through on Friday evening.
With this in mind and a clear forecast on Saturday predicted, it was an ideal time to get out and be on the hill at first thing Saturday morning.
After a phone call to the farm manager, I was given the nod to get out and have a hunt......you beauty !

Now I must point out here that I tore my achilles at the start of Jan and this was the first time I was to venture out. My plan was to really just head out for a look, I certaintly wasn't going to cover the usual miles or terrain that I normally would.

Now after arriving at the property I loadad up the quad and started heading up the track. In the past I've always gone straight to the hot spots where I know deer frequent, this time I wanted to check out some new areas so took a gamble and went somehwere entirely new.
After parking up I slowly started walking/hobbling along the track with the dog and foot. The dog was breaking his neck to cover the ground quicker and kept on giving me the "whats the hold up" look?? It wasn't long until he was winding down a gut which made me sneek over a ridge to have a decent look. Low and behold I see a decent sized porker heading downhill. Now part of the deal with hunting on this property is that the manager is a mad keen pig hunter. Basically this means that pigs are off the menu for me but the manager has no interest in shooting deer so its the platform for a great relationship!
Now back to the story......Well one pig turned into 3 and then into 8. I sat down and filmed them rooting about for a few minutes and took plenty of reference points so I could tell the manager exactly where they were so he could go back and hit them with his dogs later. Well I wasn't going to shoot a deer while watching pigs so snuck off undectected and carried on with the hunt.

I was just getting to the stage where the achilles was making itself known and I thought it must be time to turn around and head back. After convincing myself to check out just one more gut I casually hobbled over a ridge. F*@K ! the wind is now blowing up my arse and I've been sprung! I see a fallow bounce off back into some scrub followed by another. I forget about my physio's advise and leap over the fence in a single stumble. I am now hoping that there are possibly more fallow tucked up that are a bit slower out of the blocks than the first two. It was my lucky day as I scanned the matagori, 3 heads were sticking up and staring straight at me. I dropped to my arse and took a sitting shot. Bang...Wack. I watched one fallow hobble (much like myself really) out of the matagori and towards the scrub. Another shot followed by another wack one the same fallow sent it cartwheeling down hill. I scan back over the matagori and there are still 2 more heads poking up. I think to myself that these are right for the taking but whats the need so grabbed the video camera. Now I would have thought that they would be keen to exit the death scene but instead they were quite happy playing hide and seek. Despite my shots indicating that they weren't so well hidden and I knew where the were, they stayed for a few minutes until they decided to eventually depart.
Letting them go for another day - YouTube

Down to my deer and the matagori and tussock had swallowed it up. I let the dog off and he made short work in tracking it down. I'm watching as my dogs head is burried into a matagori bush with his tail going flat out when out comes the deer from the other side! As the deer trys to escape, the dog hits it hard and pins it down. I'm now having to run downhill (which I must admit the physio has downright outruled till our next visit) and dispatch the deer. Well job complete and now all I have to do is walk back uphill to the track and along to the bike. Its was at this exact moment I realised that I had no hill fitness at all and the lungs and legs were fair screaming.

Once back at the bike I cruised back and went to see the manager. I showed him the video of the pigs and he made immediate plans to head out that night to give them a hurry up. A text from him later revealed that he had a succesful night so all in all everyone was happy....except my fallow and the pigs.

Well that was my Saturday done and dusted and with the fitness confirmed to be lacking I may have to take a closer look at Phillipo's stepping vid and give that a crack.

Cheers

Al

Good stuff.
Fallow look cool when they spring on all four like that.
What the physio doesn't know won't hurt them;)

finally found the fallow i see....they are good fun to chase around...perfect deer to work a pointer on...

Are you inviting yourself along for a hunt there Hori. Last time we went out with Tikka he fell face first into a duck pond and came running back with the fear of god up him!:XD:

he was only six months old then...he didnt realise that shiny looking piece of ground was wet and cold :P

Nice write up there Al.

Look forward to those veni sausies at the roo shoot ;)

If you need a carrier who hobbles only a little less than you, look me up. I live in Rolle.

sounds like a primo spot right there....you southies have got it all....