Well guys its Easter weekend,the most dangerous time for a Kiwi to go hunting,there always seems to be some poor mug who cops a round due to misidentification/lack of identification.
didnt go out on Friday,Saturday morning stayed home to take care of sick wife.
by lunch time the looks the dog was giving me did the trick,slowly got my shite together and reluctantly headed out the door.
Seems strange to have lack of enthusiasm but public land hunting at this time of year just doesnt spin my wheels since becoming a Dad 19 years ago.
drove up to my spot and shouldered my pack with overnight gear in it and headed off up hill looking like a nuclear smurf with my blaze blue Tshirt and bright blue knee length tights/thermals (under rugby shorts for discretion).
only got 500 yards along fenceline and bumped into a younger fella headed out stopped and had a yak,turns out he hadnt gone far,basically walked the fenceline, so that was a bonus.
Meg was getting fidgety with all this time wasting so we parted ways and carried on.
we headed up and had quick look at our lookout spot,nothing doing,carried on and ran smack bang into a fellas possum line,set traps and four footed deerdetectasaurous's dont go very well together so Meg and I had wee chat and she tucked in behind me and avoided any issues. we came across another 6 traps before guy had turned off our route.
Meg was doing great avoiding them,a quiet "leave it" was all she needed to avoid the scented flour lure area.
we passed through first Jelly fern clearing with light fading we had to find place to pitch fly pretty darn quickly or we would be getting out torch. a nice wee hollow area was found ,stag had been polishing antlers on tree at one end(hopefully hadnt peed all around it) and pack was dropped gratefully.
5mins saw sleeping arrangements taken care of,fly pitched,down bag fluffed up,flash new poofter pad inflated SLIGHTLY ( put too much air in first one and popped it much to my mates amusement),Meg tied to tree right beside saw that side of things sorted, I laid ontop of my bed roll and boiled my billy for a chai latte and settled in for the night.
sleep came easy as was super comfy if a little cold,the howling NW wind dropped and stags down below on farms could be heard moaning.
at about midnight a possum decided to serenade Meg much to my disgust
a quick shins of the light shut him up for a time ,this went on for hour of two before I drifted off to blissful nights sleep.
the alarm woke me at 6am...still too dark so back to sleep we went
woke up at 7...shiscabab nearly slept in!!!!!
got up slipped on socks/boots and gaiters , had dingos breakfast and was off up the hill further,Meg was keen as to get going and 80 yards up hill I found out why when a "something" took off above us,quick whistle kept Meg back with me...BUGGER didnt think we would have animals that close so werent in full stalking mode yet.
carried on up hill a lot slower now lesson learnt... what the heck was with that animal being that close?????? the dogs snoring and farts should have kept anything well away from where we were camped...you live n learn I guess.
stopped for morning constitutional (this has become a good sign as have encountered deer 4 times in last year very soon after "taking care of business") with that taken care of we carried on up the hill being very cautious to keep noise to minimum, Meg was still keen so I kept her in close ,no more than 5mtrs in front suits me so we got int our groove and moused on up,as soon as we hit ridge proper we got into and through a thick patch of crappy bush with meg still keeping close (she has learnt to wait as I cant just duck under crap like she can) we hadnt gone more than 25 yards up ridge when a noise was heard out to our right/uphill/upwind so we stalked carefully towards where noise came from along a freshly used deer trail for about 50yards,movement ahead!!!!
dog stopped , looking carefully
,yip deers bum #1 tick
deer walking #2 ticks
its a female #3 ticks
come on stop and give me a shot....... she moved off up through light cover.
I let out a "meew"
she stopped and looked back #4 live deers head with swiveling ears tick
hammer drawn back crosshairs onto neck (I love the wee 4x loopy) bang thump flop
stop dog...... walk quietly in with her under control
yip there it is "way ya go" Meg lept on it and gave a wee chew
nice fat red fawn perfect eating and carrying size
give dog a pat ,take quick photo and whip out the poohs n wees bits. chuck animal across shoulders and let dog lead me back to camp.
8;30 saw me sitting down boiling billy and sending txt to some of my hunting buddies (sorry Radar couldnt resist )
had cuppa and packed up camp.
boned out front half of animal leaving meat attached to skin,slipped knife through spinal column in front of hips leaving back end intact,slid whole shebang into large plastic bag and placed in bottom of pack adding the rest of my stuff ontop.shouldered now slightly heavier pack and slipped off down the hill.
Meg hadnt forgotton the way or traps ,we avoided them easily and she really gave the possum caught in one wide birth (yippee thats great sign as possum loving dogs are pain in the arse)
back to car by 11 and home before lunchtime
life is great
keep on ticking those boxes guys n gals.
will add photo when got them off cell phone.

Great stuff Elvis, and Meg of course. I take it there isn't any night hunting in NZ mate? I would be a little wary about making camp like you did if they are likely to be hunting.

spotlighting or using thermal imaging gear on public land is not legal...very much frowned upon nowdays whereas it was pretty normal 30 years ago.... big case hit news a few years back with woman being shot while brushing her teeth in roadside area...turns out some led headlamps shine up a lot like reflected deers eyes...a tragedy all around as fella who pulled trigger will never get over it either. I was safer where I camped 1hr from nearest road or track than driving up there in the car.
venni eye steaks and heart sure were awesomely tender for our tea last night.

Elvis, glad you had a great time. What's a "dingos breakfast"?

hehehhehehehhehehehehe a "dingos breakfast" my ol Mate is a pi wid lea
urination and a look around

plurry dark at 07;40

update well over due,up in the open tussock country january 2018

this one has been the easiest deer from my usual block

Nice mate, very nice...and well done Meg.

Elvis, Its great you can take Meg with you hunting! Nice Job!

yeah mate it gives me a heap of confidence as she getting pretty darn good and finding the dead ones...the last one she never saw untill 25-30mins after it died yet she went straight to it once I got her to withing 30 yards of where it had been when I fired,she caught whiff of blood then straight to it.

Talk about getting pretty darn good. Elvis, your picture posting abilities have improved. They are top notch and straight up!

this morning my good wife brought me in a cuppa tea at 05:00 as she getting up for work,I eventually dragged my sorry butt out of bed and got ready to head out door by 06:00 headed off up the road with trusty hound in tow. got up there just before 7 and headed off up hill.My good mate Dan couldnt make it today but had given me sage advice the night before "slow down and WATCH THE DOG" hes a good chap and I couldnt fault his logic.
Meg and I hadnt got very far from wagon and started to see loads of sign....tracks and poohs... some of the tracks were very fresh as had knocked the moisture off long grass from the day befores snow..... slowly and watch the dog I went.didnt get very far up along bush edge when I had the urge to ask our good Lord for some assistance dont ask me why as I dont know I did remember not to ask directly FOR SOMETHING but asked God to help me out with some guidance...now believe me if you will not even 30 seconds had passed before a noise was heard not far away in the thick scrubby bush beside us...I looked at Meg and cant print what she said but was along the lines of "hurry up you dozy old man there is a deer in there" so I back tracked 50 yards and entered the thick stuff...bush lawyer,wineberry,mingimingi,crown fern fallen beech,standing beech poles...yip it was thick alright but determined not to let the side down I kept in low low gear and carefully picked my way in.Meg has got pretty good at guiding me through thick stuff,she knows Im a clumbsey chap and cant just scoot through like she does so she will pick easy path way for me to follow I kept her in very close as knew animal wasnt far away and kept moving slowly and quietly...got in about 20 yards and turned 90 degrees and kept stalking back towards where I thought sound had come from (with older hearing direction isnt as good as it once was)Meg was dead keen to keep going but we managed to stay at slow pace for about 50 yards more,my eyes were on stalks trying to pick out anything vaguely deer like in the tight undergrowth,saw a lighter patch of fawny brown ahead,put scope on it fern I think two steps more might just look at that again....the fawny patch sort of heart shaped and its got a big brown bit off to left that has another big brown bit upright off the end of it that has EARS AND BIG BULGY EYEBALLLS LOOKING AT ME bolt goes down crosshairs onto shoulder and Mr Hornadies finest is sent on its mission.

reloaded,stopped Meg who was nearly turning herself inside out by now with pent up excitedness gave her a pat and started moving forwards.....no way was Meg going to hold back today...after the last few hunts being a bust with deer moving off our frustration levels have got a bit high...I knew my shot felt good and Meg was dead keen to find animal with or without me...I kept her in semi control and followed her as best as I could.now normally Im pretty anul about this bit and MAKE her slowly walk me into animal BUT everything was as wet as a shag going fishing so scent wasnt going to hang around for long so I let her go and did my best to keep up..she went about 50 yards then came back,back to same spot tail going flat out and back to me..led me down to one very dead stag piled up against a tree....yeeeeehaaa finnally the drought has been broken....got out phone for quick snapshot (will post later) did the whole poohs n wees onto outside bit,txted a few chaps to wake them up as it was only 8am Sunday morning then had brain fart and decided as we so close I would carry out whole....got my carry strap all set up,got deer set up,stood up with deer across my back/hips and thought to self.....hmmmm this going to be interesting its a tad heavy.... got all of 20 yards before waking up to fact Im now 46 and dont have 18 year olds body to do the donkey work anymore dumped animal down and got out knife ,took back wheels off at 3rd rib and boned out front end into daybag...lost 1/2 of one front shoulder...not bad for 30ish yards pill had gone through both shoulder blades(about 3" too high I know) and pulped one lung completely and made mess of the other. the damaged offside shoulder had hole big enough to put fist into...I rather fond of these 180grn round noses out of .308 put daybag of meat on back,grabbed back wheels and hoisted them up for a shoulder ride,picked up the rifle and got Meg to lead me out of the crappy scrub back up onto fenceline 50 yards away,a nice gentle stroll from there to car all of about 500-600 yards saw me covered in hair n blood
home in hot shower by 10:30
life is good, God is great.

Great story of a great hunt!

Nice one mate - I'm hoping to get out for a roe deer next week, before i head out over the Pond.