No better way to spend an afternoon
Well yesterday I got a call from a mate with an offer to go for a quick afternoon hunt, now after my performance with @akaroa1 the other day I was a bit dubious but some wise words stuck in my head "you can do it, you just don't know you can"
I took the lessons learnt from last trip and made sure I was prepared with a pack for the carry if we came accross an animal.
There was a steady wind blowing which limited our choices as far as sheltered guts went, but soon enough we were sitting on a scrub line looking at 3 deer.
We assessed them and were confident there was a older hind a yearling and a young smallish bodied stag.
We decided to leave the hind and yearling as there was likely a fawn tucked away in the scrub somewhere.
Out with the range finder and the stag was ranged at 230 yards an easy shot for my mates 270win, while he got set up I watched the hind an yearling melt back into the scrub, the stag was totally oblivious to our presence and was flat out feeding.
My mate said he was ready so I blocked my ears in anticipation of the report from the mighty 270.....boomfa !!!!!! Followed almost immediately by the unmistakable thud of a solid hit which immediately rendered the stag to the dead cockroach position in a patch of shitty looking gorse.
It was around 5pm so we laced up our boots and strapped on our packs in preparation for the revovery knowing we had ample daylight hours.
Despite my mediocre performance the other night I was keen and feeling good, so we set off side hilling around the gut to the opposite face then dropping down to where the stag was on his back in the middle of a patch of gorse (at least it wasn't Onga onga).
We managed to drag him accross into a more open area on the slip and kicked out a bit of a hollow to stop him rolling down hill whilst quatering him out.
It was bloody steep and very loose slip but it was better than the gorse patch, we made quick work getting the back legs off laying them in the shade, shortly followed by the back steaks, fillets, front legs and heart.
We had a rest for 10 minutes or so whilst we caught our breath and let the meat cool, then packed the meat into our packs and started making our way up and accross through the scrub it was thick with matagouri and gorse in places but we made good progress skirting round it as much as possible and pushed up above the scrub line which made our progress even quicker and easier.
Soon enough we were in sight of where we'd ditched our rifles and binos it was all down hill from there :D
We collected our gear and made our way over the ridge back to the truck unloaded our gear and had a drink and some not stale jet planes.
I felt a lot better about how the recovery went and definitely made much easier by having a good pack instead of having a pillow case slung over my shoulder putting me off balance and tying up one arm.
It's amazing how having a lower center of gravity and 2 free hands makes for a much easier recovery, all in all a great success and more venni for the freezer.
