Well, since we bought Arnie a new scope, I have taken him hunting numerous times since then.
Most times I couldnt get him onto a deer, and when I did, his 86yr old body and eyes would let him down.
So yesterday I rang him and invited to accompany me to the farm to check the horses and told him to bring his rifle.
Got up there at 3pm and after feeding the horses I assesed the conditions like wind ( it was blowing around 20knots and was cold).....I figured out that we needed a sheltered spot out of the wind where we cold sit and wait till the deer came out in the late afternoon. Sarah's wet Patch was ideal, so after 'tooling up' we walked about 400m to a vantage point.
It took us 45mins to find a spot out of the wind and was comfortable for Arnie to take a shot if one presented itself. Due to his physical condition ( 86yrs old) I found a small mound where we set up his rifle so he could shoot prone, but after 15 mins of laying there he started to stiffen up. So, we left the rifle all set up and retired about 20 metres to the rear into a small gully where we could sit comfortably and sat quietly chatting .........every 10-15minutes I would poke my head up to see if anything had come out onto Sarahs Wet Patch.
About 90 mins later I walked forward and had a look....I saw a white head about 165m away which had just stepped out of the big pines and was standing in a patch of lupins. Looked at it with the rangefinder and saw a nice white Fallow stag with a smaller black stag moving slowly towards the grass. Backing up I told Arnie to crouch down and move forward to his rifle as there was a deer waiting for him.
He got on the rifle and I pointed out the 'white patch' and told him it was a Fallow buck! It took him a few seconds to spot it and then he moved his rifle and sighted in on it. I told him to take the shot and then waited for the gun to go off. 30 seconds......40 seconds.... (I am lined up with a standing shot to back him up and my Tikka was getting heavy!)
Then Boom!.
I saw the impact about 8" behind the bucks right shoulder ( it was quartering away from us) and expected it to drop DRT..........., But at the shot, it jumped about 2 feet off the ground, spun around and leapt the fence into the pine trees.....
It then ran down the fence line at full throttle......
I could see blood pumping out the exit hole in my scope but it didnt seem to affect the deer much...so I touched of a finisher which missed completely....racking the bolt I gave the buck a bit of lead and at my second shot he crumpled to the ground about 175m away.
Success finally!!!
The range when Arnie shot was 168m and it was a perfect lung shot.......but I wanted to make sure it didnt make it into the pines where we had to track it cos it was getting dark.
We walked over to it and saw a mature buck that had shed its antlers about 2-3 weeks earlier................
Climbing over the fence I tried to lift it into the paddock but it was too heavy.....so Arnie joined me and we could only get it half way up the fence. I managed to get a knee under it and we then rolled it over the fence into the paddock. I congratulated him on his success and apologised for taking the finisher and explained my reasons why. He was over the moon!!!
Its the first deer he had shot for about 7years and he was shaking with buck fever.
Here is the pic....and his grin says it all!
Bloodhound had heard the shots and 5 minutes later he drove up to us in his Hilux.
We loaded the buck into the back and retired to a sheltered spot where I could hang and field dress it.
The insides were just liquid.....His shot which was quartering had taken out the lungs and part of its heart and came out just behind the sholder on the off side........my finisher was about 3" forward of his exit point on the front of the shoulder.
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It took just over 2 years and it cost us a new scope for him but it was worth it seeing his face and the joy it gave him......
This is one of the best hunting reports I have done in my view.
