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Rileys first deer and a character stag
It's been a while since I've done a quick wright up so here goes. After selling our house, moving into Sika country and having a very successful Christmas and new year period as far as hunting is concerned, It was time to get my boys out and hopefully get my oldest an animal. Up at 0430 with a 10 and 5 year old was a bit of a mission, getting them fed and all the food and lollies to keep them entertained whilst we were out made the pack rather heavy. Off we went in the Navara arriving at our spot just on daybreak, a short walk through the Tussock and Manuka had us in position, time to get out the Binoculars! It wasn't long before animals were spotted, but they were quite a ways off. Your talk on's have to very good when trying to orientate the kids onto the deer, but we got there in the end. Big smiles as they watched a few hinds and fawn feeding away. Shortly after another family group popped out on the opposite face below us around 200yds away. Riley has shot goats at 100yds before but, this was quite a stretch for him. By the time we got set up they had fed off the clearing, oh well at least we were seeing plenty of animals. The boy's attention span had waned a a bit so out came the lollies, stay here, I said as I went about 10m to get eyes right down to the bottom of the creek. As I looked up I saw a young sika hind by herself, and she had seen my movement, busted! I remained still watching trying to get the boys attention as she tried to work out what I was. I slowly crawled back to the boys and whispered "Deer, 160m away, are you confident Riley?" the reply was yes! I set up the rifle and bipod, dry cycled the bolt and let him dry fire to build his confidence, click he was happy. We chambered a round and the young Sika barked, she's going to go mate just squeeze off when you are ready! Saftey came off Bang the .270 spoke and resulted in a direct hit. I couldn't hide my excitement, after the rifle was made safe, huge hugs, high fives yahoos and hand shakes went down, a very emotional moment, Riley had just shot his first deer at 160m, he bet his old man by 5 years! Down we went and a lesson in gutting and carrying was conducted. It was quite a steep climb out and as my son is rather slim the deer probably weighed as much as him if not more so, I got suckered into carrying her out. Both boys did extremely well with minimal complaints on the steep scrubby walk back. An excellent hunt with17 deer seen, one that we will never forget!
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Fast forward to this weekend and Dad was out for a quick morning hunt to track down a couple of stags I had seen previously. It didn't take long until I had spotted an animal but it was only a spiker. About 20 minutes later I spotted movement, after confirming with the binos it was an old stag that I had seen before and the decision to set up for the shot was made. The wind was quite strong at roughly 20km and gusting close to 30km. Range to stag was 401yds TBR, I made the adjustments settled in behind the .270 and held 2 moa windage on the windplex reticle. Once comfortable I fired and dropped him on the spot. he didn't even take a step bloody good! Off down to the bottom of the valley I went and stalked in on the same spiker I had seen earlier, silly bugger! I stalked in with the camera and got a photo at 40yds before he spotted me and ran off, exciting stuff! A short climb up there he was, it was definitely the stag I had seen before, a real old boy with coronets well down and very worn teeth, a real cool non typical Sika head. Looking at the shot placement the projectile struck well forwards on the shoulder almost at the neck, I was pretty stoked with my wind call. After dealing to him it was a steep climb back to the truck. Another successful hunt and back in time for lunch, can't complain with that!
Stay safe
James
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