A plan was hatched and a day taken off work to join a mate and his father on a hunt for the day. They were keen to take a new boy out and see if they could find him a deer.
Alarm was set for 4.30am so naturally I woke at 4am ready to go :) Left home at 5am to get their house at 6am. A quick chat and we were off in the ute off to start the adventure. I was really looking forward to the day ahead.
We were lucky enough to have access to a bit of land out the Wairarapa Coast, and it was a great day for a walk.
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The guys had seen a stag the night before so we started off in the same spot. We heard a few stags roaring in the bush but did not see the one from the night before. First time I had heard a stag roaring and I was amazed, and excited. In the clearing where we were, we saw a couple Fellow deer heading in to the trees and a spiker a bit later on, but no stags. They were not too far away though. Was a great experience for me to watch these animals move around in front of us.
My mate and I headed in to the trees to see what we could find. We headed along a trail and came across a couple hinds with the stag seen then the night before. He was a bit of a ugly guy with different antlers on either side, but he was a good size. My mate gave a roar and he stopped and roared back only 30 metres in front of us, the hinds with him didn't like us so they were off and he followed.
We walked a bit more and sat for a while thinking of what to do, we got up and a Spiker headed out 20 meters in front of us. He looked at us and was trying to figure out what we were, he moved around for about a minute looking at us trying to figure it out. I was happy just to experience this :cool:
While he was doing that a stag come out in front of us. I alerted my mate to what was heading our way. I got the OK to shoot and I waited for the stag to move in to a good place to take my shot. He walked around and stood broadside, I pulled the trigger. Boom, the mighty .308 was fired. He had a bit of a leap and he crashed down. My first deer was down! I was shaking a little bit from the excitement and we went to have a look. He was a pretty good looking younger stag and did I mention my first deer! He was gutted by my mate as I watched on trying to take it in. I had a little bit of a carry to do which was a little bit of a struggle for the new guy :) They don't make the most comfortable backpacks.
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We got him back to the house and he weighed in at 57kg. He was boned out and meat put in to the fridge. We mucked around the house for a bit and then went to check a game camera in another area before we headed out for the evening to see if we could find the bigger stag seen previously.
We headed to the same spot as earlier and had sorted out a bit of a place to sit and wait to see what happens. We heard a bit of roaring and my mate decided to go for a walk in another direction to see if he could flush anything out. A hind came out to the clearing and we watched her for a bit.
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We could still hear the roaring and it was starting to get closer. The stag that we had seen earlier in the day came out. He walked down the hill and I was given the go ahead to shoot. Shit again, shit, twice in one day, shit, he is big I thought, shit... I lifted the rifle up and watched him walk down the hill, he stopped a few times but I was not feeling great about my shot. I had to move to a better position. My mate was watching me from the distance, the way the stag was moving. He was ready to fire in case I left the stag to move on further down the hill, or if he bolted. I sat down and rested my rifle, I felt better and then he stopped, boom… the .308 was off again, his legs buckled and he went straight down. He was still moving a bit once he was down so a second shot was needed when we got to him. I had hit a couple inches higher than intended. He was much bigger than the first….
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We stood around for a bit and checked out the stag and talked about the day we had had. He was gutted out and we decided leave him there as it was dark. We walked back to the ute and headed back to the house. I packed up my gear and headed home. I got home at 10pm and tucked away the rifle for the night.
The deer was picked up by my mate and his dad the next morning and he weighed in at 140kg.
It was a great day, and one that I have been looking forward to for some time. Can't wait for the next!
Cheers
Daniel
