Thread: While you were sleeping...

The alarm rang out at 3.55am which was my wake up yesterday morning to throw my gear into the ute and meet my son at 5am for our day’s hunting in public land 2 hours away.

As I drove out of town I was surprised at how many other utes and trucks were on the road so early, which prompted me to comment to Craig that the car park was going to be full. As it turned out it was empty so they must have been all going somewhere else.

The light was just creeping in when we hit the track so we only needed our torches in the bush for about 30 minutes. Our first look out spot yielded nothing so we pushed on steeply up hill to the next spot, where Craig explained “pigs”. They were a KM away so we scurried up hill and down dale to where we could get a shot at them. We sneaked over the ridge and peered into the basin, for Craig to make his second monumental exclamation since saying “pigs!” This time it was “F’ken cattle!”, “no wonder they looked so big”. Escapee’s from a nearby station.

We glassed this basin for a while and then decided it would be a good idea to walk another 2 hours or so on top of the 3 hours we had done so far and explore some new country. So off we headed to the promised land.



The promised land turned out ok, and between 11am and 3pm we saw 6 different deer – all within a range of 500 yards. There was a bit of a stiff breeze and we had a big walk back to the truck so were content to explore, watch and to take photos.





We moved off at about 3pm and headed in another direction (away from the truck for heavens sake) and glassed another basin, and then had a conference about where to now. We agreed that if we were going to shoot a deer it should be closer to the truck, so at 4pm that was the direction we started to head.

About 2 hours from the truck we stopped on a nob to glass some sunny scrub faces below us (Craig knows this country well) and my Tilly winded furiously all of the time I sat there. Nothing appeared so we moved off and Craig stopped so that we could glass into the same area but from a different angle. Nothing, and it was 4.30pm so Craig started to get ready to move off. I stood up, and said “one last look”...and put my binos onto a hind and yearling right where Tilly had been winding into. Action stations. Well action after Craig had set his camera up for a vid and he had cleared the jam from his rifle.

They were 358 yards away. Craig had his 300RUM and I had my 270wsm so were well gunned (and slightly cocky).

1-2-3 whoomph, the 2 shots went off as one. One seemed to drop and one bolted straight down hill. The vid from Craig’s camera revealed 2 solid hits.

I stayed put while Craig went around the creek head and tried to find them while I guided him on the radio, and then I went over once that was done. I had hit mine a bit far back but it was still deadly medicine.



Here's the 130 grn Federal TBT covered from the hind leg of my hind.


Being a good lad Craig carried about 2/3 of the meat and I carried the rest.

There were lots of ups and not many downs on the walk back to the truck but we kept at it without any real stops and made it back to the truck by 7pm. I was home by 9.30pm.

It took me a while to settle after getting home. I was buzzing about the day with my lad and exploring new country. Buzzing about seeing plenty and shooting a deer each and satisfied that I had rammed one up the nay-sayers who assume I only hunt private land.