As promised here goes my hunting report from this mornings activaties.
dreaded alarm clock went off well before sparrows fart 0clock so dragged me sorry butt out of the scratcher(bed)and downed a hot cuppa tea and porridge and headed out to wagon as my old hunting mate had arrived.Some of you may have read about Les before,lets just say he is an absolute legend as far as hunting goes a real old school gentleman who just "has the knack" of finding game.
in his younger days he worked for the NZgovt as a deer culler so has probably shot more animals than we will ever see...some of that experience has stuck and everytime we hunt together we get onto something and I learn a heap(this old dog still learns too)
ok so where was we??? alright out the gate I drive and away we go....3/4hr into trip thereis big fat red hind standing on roadside proudly despaying her eartag.....hmmmmmm sure looks tasty but the old boy made negative noises so we drove on (wise man that,they get shot all the time,the taking of it not so much a problem legally wise its the shot fired from vechile or on public road that can get you in doodoohs big time)
another 1/2 hr later we stopped wagon and set off on shanks pony (on foot)there was approx 2kms (mile and a bit) of farm edge to get around before we in gully we intended to hunt,that bit over we started to wander up gully craning necks to keep eye on surrounding countryside incase game was about.
we were very fortunate that a large flood had been through recently and scoured a lot of the matourgouri and toot from river bed (matagouri a nasty tangled low growing scrub and toot a scrub that poisonous to cattle at certain times of the year but also used in maori medicine)with lovely deposits of silt and shingle(small stones) in heaps almost like a pavement in places we made good time wandering upstream.rounding a bend in gorgy section Les made call to head upwards a little to look around us and see what was about.
it took old boy a good 1 minute to spot hind upstrean crossing ridge on skyline...he still hasnt seen the yearling that was with it
we made plan to head back into creek and continue up around gorgy section hopefully to get around past where deer had headed into and we would be able to look across and shoot.
so we headed off again with wind doing its usual swirly up the jacksee type directional thing
got upstream a bit around tight section and climbed up of gorge to look across only to see nothing........ at this point I was ready to just sit and glass but then spotte deer feeding and moving upstream about a further km ahead..the old boy reckoned it was same deer as he sees them do this often,not stopping just feed on the move...so he says"its time to run" now Ive sort of got an arrangement with running.....it doesnt bother me so I dont bother running
I said I was happy to stay put and glass around so the old boy sets off like a dog shot up the jacksee (brisk pace)up stream in hot pursuit of the now out of sight deer.Meg(my big black bitch) and I climbed a little higher to get better view and sat down with binos....no sooner had I seen Les hightail it up stream that I spot origonal deer right where it should be straight opposite me.not having any set plans with Les we waited for a bit till he off round distant corner...hind still happily feeding so Meg n I set off down and across to interupt her morning,across creek up through more matagouri and up onto spur where I reckoned we would see her from we went with wind now fair square up our gungas(same as jacksee)blowing towards deer,we crest spur half pie expecting to see rapidly departing animal only to find her happily feeding still..the breeze must have been going up hill on her spur too... over the spur we went and down a little closer to nice semi flat spot somewhere between 250-300 yards away from now broadside feeding hind.Meg sitting up to side of me,daybag under forestock of the mighty poohseventy,crosshairs on shoulder crease and away goes some of Mr Hornadies finest....the deer jumped instantly (sure sign of hit) and ran flatstick down hill TOWARDS US you just got to love hunting with a suppressor... she crossed wee side creek and up unto face we sitting on then got the wobbles and fell over.... this was just bout too much for Meg to stand but I managed to call her back BEFORE she reached deer and made her sit and wait before leading me into well dead animal in controlled manor. took a couple of photos (yes will post later) and whipped out a svord mini phesant knife to do the messy bits...I had stopped for "pit stop" at roadside facilities on drive up so had taken sheath knife off waist only to forget to put it back on
knife was semi sharp...will fix that soon... so didnt have too much bother boning out hind legs nd removing back steaks and eye fillets,not forgeting heart for tonights dinner. Meg was offered some titbits of meat which she proptly dug wee hole and buried "for later on"
placed all the meat in my pikau (now this one will stump even Vman....sack with a lump in each bottom corner,mine has tennis balls...with a long strap tied to both corners the middle of strap gets formed into a larkshead knot...same as clovehitch except folds are opposite.. which is looped over mouth of sack to form crude backpack...mine made out of polarfleece so super quiet in bush.)and off we set trudging slowly back the way we came,keeping an eye out for the old boy(the thought crossed my mind if hunting with an older pigdog who doesnt return you just carry on and they find own way home)...no sign of him so I left some arrows scratched in creekside sand so he knew we headed back down if he came that way...we got down to gorgy bit and I decided it was a tad dodgy so headed back upstream and climbed 80 odd meters up side of shingle fan before crossing it at pace and decending back down to creek below gorgy bit.
it was funny/nice/educational/relaxing walking out as Meg just loves heading home the same way...for the 4 km return journey she only veared off our incoming track 3 times and each time she stopped and waited to see which way I wanted her to lead me,the rest of the time she led off 5-20 meters in front,tail wagging happy as a pig in poop.
we got back to wagon at 11;30 only to descover the old dog had beaten us back meg greeted him with an aweful mutton fart (as she had eaten some fatty flaps the night before) poor old Les was just about gagging. we packed up and headed off only for the young dog (Meg) to teach the old dog (Les) a new trick no less than 6 times on the way home....meg would let rip in rear of wagon and Les would quickly hang head out side window for some fresh air...rather like you see dogs doing
trip home unevenfull and veni all processed and about to be put in freezer.

photo as promised

It looks hard to walk through that stuff, thanks for a great story!!! Picture of your pikau would be interesting.

Suz

"Shanks Mare"

Good lookin' Lab.

It's snowing here.

geez Bushy....dont let her hear you say that or she may bite ya....only half lab on both sides,gsp and beardie collie make up the rest...but the way she panted yesterday in the heat it wouldbe easy to think she was a lab,doesnt have the food thing of a lab infact she is the most dainty eater of any dog Ive ever seen.

ok Suz here is a pikau...
mine is built lage and works better than expected

thats2" wide seatbelt strap and as said the bulgy bits in corners are tennis balls which should give you idea of size.

Oh ok....yes the tennis balls, the 2" wide nylon strapping...actually what you're demonstrating is your lack of a sewing machine. If you used an old pair of pants and just tied off the legs at the bottom you'd have a two compartment pikau. You could open the zipper and stick your head through the waist band....I'd love to see that too.







sorry.........
couldn't help
myself


love you.....
Suz

Suzanne wrote:

If you used an old pair of pants and just tied off the legs at the bottom

This is how we made a floatation device if we went over-board without a life preserver. It worked pretty good!

Hey yeah I remember boot camp in the swimming pool....what fun we had. I should have suggested to Elvie that along with a 2 compartment pikau he'd also have a ready made life preserver (should the need arise).



Suz
depilation
can be fun

“Suz The Worry” wrote:

... Suz depilation can be fun

Now that is a worry Suz

tennis balls float.......
my good wifey sewed the bag THE WAY I WANTED IT DONE...... its an old school design that works really well,it started way back when Adam was still a cowboy (that before Michael Jackson wasnt black) and some of us still like the simplicity of the design....besides,when the straps come off the polarfleece bag goes through wasning machine without tieing itself in knots...and the strap is removable and at about 7' long could be very darn handy in a tight spot not to mention its real other purpose..... you put a slit in last section of all four legs of your deer etc and thread strap through all four sort of like a hobble then sit down beside animal which has all four legs in air and place your arms through between front legs on one side and back legs on the other,you now have 2" wide strap over both shoulders,you stand up and deer is across kidney region without boney bits digging in and your arms are free,you have strap knotted at front so you can release it if needbe in tricky spot,Im told you can comfortably carry two fallow at once this way.your daybag etc can be stowed in body cavity as it cant fall out.
Im yet to carry whole deer out this way but have tried it short distance before boning out and it sure beats the old style backpack method we have used for years.

Now it makes sense!! If only you'd said that in the first place, I thought the tennis balls were only there to tie the strap to, but it's to carry out a deeeeer. Now i get it. So it's not just some ole pillow case you decided to make a back pack out of (in a weird way). You guys are such fun, it's hard to describe..


Suz

Snicker...Chuckle...LOL.

we used sugar bags and bit of string back in the day.....now its a flasher version...and a pillow case is too small LOL.