Now a "dit" is navy slang for a story. It has many variations "gen dit" is a genuine story, as opposed to a "shit dit" which is untrue. These are two gen dits from the last couple of weeks.
An easy one at last.
"Hey mate, I'm coming down for work Friday and flying out Saturday. Can I crash at yours? We could even go for a walk?" I said as I invited myself to stay at Casa de Craig. "No worries. See you Friday" was @craigc's response.
I made the most of the opportunity and called in on a couple of forum members Friday afternoon. I dropped off a safe for @Brian and since @ANOTHERHUNTER was handy called in on him for a cuppa and a catch up on my way to Craig's place just up the road.
Things weren't looking great for an evening hunt when Craig's wife arrived home from work and told me he would be in the shit if we went hunting. After a couple of wines her tune changed and she encouraged us to go for a quick walk. We made the short drive to our chosen spot, arriving with only 15mins of light left. Our intention was to get a look at some deer coming out into the open through the thermal imager and if we happened to see a shooter in the right place before dark then that was a bonus.
Not long after arriving I saw a hind step out of the bush and pause on the right side of the fence for a few minutes before jumping into the paddock and grazing casually away to safety. We decided to make our way round there and see if we could catch another crossing in a similar spot. As we not so carefully wandered along the 4wd track I caught a glimpse of a deer's arse as it stepped off the track into the bush, not 30m ahead of us. I quietly told Craig what I had seen whilst I chambered a .308 round and half-cocked his T3. As I quietly snuck up the track I could hear deer moving on both sides of the track just inside the cover of the bush. I carefully peered into the bush where I had seen the arse disappear. I could make out the silhouette of the deer quartering away slowly less than 10m into the bush. I quickly raised the rifle to my shoulder, placed the crosshairs at the back of the ribcage (aiming for the offside shoulder), closed the bolt and squeezed off a round. The DPT can did an awesome job as the muffled crack of the rifle barely registered. At the shot, the deer bolted off to it's right. I knew she was hit but was a bit concerned that she didn't drop on the spot. Eva (Craigs 8yo 1 eyed bitch) gave chase briefly but a quiet whistle had her in at the heel almost immediately. I could hear the deer moving parallel to the track still in the cover of the bush so we continued to move quietly along the track. We hadn't gone 20m when I saw her move unsteadily onto the track in front of us. I put another two rounds into the engine room to make sure of the kill (turns out the first one was on target and she was pretty much dead on her feet).
Because there were three holes in the front end there wasn't much left on the front shoulders worth recovering so we whipped off the back wheels and back steaks and made our way home not long after dark.
I have spent countless hours busting my arse for little or often no reward so I reckon you gotta take the easy ones when the opportunity arises. Cheers to Craig for guiding - He even did the butchering.
An early start
I managed to get a leave pass from SWMBO for this weekend just gone. I touched base with a couple of forum members to see if they wanted to go but both had work on so I hatched a plan for a late start Saturday morning. I was going to sleep in and head into the southern Ruahines to bush stalk over my dog (Harley) from mid morning. A call from @Shootm put paid to that plan. He had managed to clear his work schedule and wanted me at his place by 4am to try catch one out and about at first light.
Being the last work day of the year for many (not me), my neighbour decided to have a BBQ and a few beers. Great for him but his BBQ area and back porch is literally 10m from my bedroom window. My plan to get to bed early and get a good night's sleep went to shit pretty quickly with loud music, drunken celebrations and crashing of bottles going into the night. My alarm went off at 3:15am and I was out of the house by 3:30 having barely slept. A handful of the die-hard revellers were still drinking next door when I left!
Harley and I picked up Ross at just before 4am, and not too long after we were in the bush en route to our first glassing location. We arrived at our lookout in good time and watched as the first bit of colour began to fill the landscape. Nothing appeared with the first rays of light so we made our way along to the next lookout. Before we had even sat down to glass I spotted a hind out feeding in the open. I ranged the deer while Ross set up his braked T3 and punched the numbers into his ballistic calculator. At this point he tells me that I'm doing the shooting - Who am I to argue?
I settled in behind the rifle and wound the March scope up to 20X for the steep downhill shot as the hind fed blissfully unaware of our presence and it's impending fate. Once I was steady and comfortable with a good broadside shot I eased the bolt closed and settled the crosshairs high on the shoulder. I gently squeezed the trigger and dutifully sent 168 grains of sculpted lead in her direction at an impressive 3250fps. The shot reported a hit with a resounding "whack", as the hind tumbled in true bang, flop, roll fashion.
The hunt had been relatively easy thus far. We had started at 4am and had a deer on the deck before 6am. Now though, the hard work was to begin. In order to get to the deer we had to drop about 200m of elevation to the creek and then climb about 100m on the other side through some rather thick stuff laced with supplejack and undergrowth. It turned out to be quite an effort to find the slip having initially climbed too high up the opposite face and sidling round above the slip. On doubling back and losing some elevation we found the slip and the spot where the hind was when I shot. On first inspection we could see scuff marks and some crushed vegetation from where she rolled, but there was not a drop of blood. Not a drop! WTF?
Harley tracked the ground scent from where the deer rolled, she led me all the way down the slip and into the bush. By this point I was thinking there was no way the deer had rolled this far, the path was straight through bushes and scrub that surely would have stopped a rolling deer. We still hadn't found any blood and I had lost any evidence of where the deer had gone. After standing at the bottom of the slip bemused for several minutes I turned to the dog and gave her the command to lead on. She did not hesitate to continue straight down, switching between winding and ground scenting so I was confident she knew where we were going. Eventually, after probably 70 vertical metres, I saw the dead hind wedged in behind the base of a tree.
After a couple of photos we butchered the deer and made our way out via the stream. About 90% of the way back to the known track home we got gorged and couldn't navigate the waterfall so had to back-track and climb out of the creek. Having buggered that up we climbed back up the way we had come in and made our way out to the car.
I was home, exhausted, by not long after midday for a shower and a hard earned sleep. Cheers @Shootm for a bloody good hunt.
