Dylan with his buck – a nice trophy and a very satisfying reward for his patience and careful shooting
“ I sensed there must be another deer – and sure enough …” raised the rifle to his shoulder for a standing shot, but with the weight of it I could see the barrel start to move in ever-increasing circles …
Peter decided to stay put while Dylan and I headed to the north end. With the wind behind us we didn’ t waste time hunting but we did look for sign in a couple of likely spots and picked a couple of cast antlers lying on the ground no more than 3 metres apart. And, true to Murphy’ s Law, after having only seen one deer for the morning we spooked a spiker and a doe and disturbed another animal as we made our way north.
By this time it was around 4 pm. We climbed a small knob and sat down to glass a large area of 4 – 5-yearold pines. I heard an animal crashing off through the young pines – and spotted a doe that must have been bedded down nearby. Then after a further half-hour of glassing I picked up a doe feeding among the small pines. As I watched her she kept turning around and looking back in the direction she had come from. I sensed there must be another deer. Sure enough, after 5 minutes a black buck materialised from behind a small pine tree. I quickly ranged the distance at 550 metres with my Swarovski EL binoculars. We would have to stalk much closer and had a quick discussion about it. There was a big pile of logs on an old skid site between us and the buck, about 150 metres from him, so we quickly set off, weaving through the pine trees and keeping out of sight behind the log pile. Once we got to the logs I told Dylan to load the Sako. 270 and quietly stalk forward.
I stayed about 20 m behind him as he slowly stalked towards where we had last seen the buck. He hadn’ t gone far when he indicated he could see it. I couldn’ t see it myself from where I was standing, but I mouthed the words“ SHOOT IT!” I watched as Dylan flicked the safety off and
“ Dylan kept a cool head …”.
What happened next really impressed me. Dylan realised he was too unsteady to take the shot but he kept a cool head. Slowly he bent down on to one knee to steady himself. At this stage I poked my head around the side of a young pine and saw the buck looking down at him from a small rise. Dylan squeezed the trigger and I heard the whack of the bullet as it hit the animal. The buck jumped in the air and disappeared behind some young pines and toitoi. I noted where the buck had been standing and ranged the distance with the Swarovskis – 120 metres. Then we waited a couple of minutes and cautiously climbed up to where the buck had been.
NZ Hunting & Wildlife 196- Autumn 2017 11