Guns & Outdoors Forum

..........I did a hunt report! Have shot/culled quite a few deer over the the last 10 mths........something like 20+.
Woke up this morning and decided to brave the 80+km/h winds and heavy squalls and go up to the Horse farm to check the horses and see if there were any deer poking their noses out of the sheltered bush.
Took the quad bike as I was going solo.
Got to the farm and the weather was mild with wind gusts to about 35km/h and cloudy but fine.....and the deer were taking advantage of it by wandering around getting a feed. Watched 5 big Fallow bucks sparring with each other but their location was not accessible for the bike.
Went to the other end of the farm and parked the bike intending to stalk a few clearings in the bush.

Was just unclipping the 7mm08 from the rifle rack when I looked up and saw a pair of antlers coming towards me over a ridge about 250m away. I ended up crouching in front of the bike using it for cover while I untangled the sling from the rifle rack.
Next minute 2 Fallow bucks walked over the ridge and started feeding down a hillside towards me.There was a mid sized black buck with a small set of velvet antlers and I figured he would be good eating....didnt pay much attention to the second buck which was a ginger.
While hiding behind the bike I got my mob out and took this pic.
You can see the ginger buck walking behind some bushes in the left of the pic.

Took another pic as they got closer and still didnt pay much attention to the ginger one as my focus was on the black. They moved to within 150m before the black buck noticed the bike ( I was parked in the open and stuck out like a pimple on a pigs arse!).
He stopped and looked at the bike for about 3 mins before resuming feeding.....I then lay down in the grass using the bike for cover, extended the bipod and got set to take the shot....but he continued walking towards me at an angle.....forcing me to adjust my position 5-6 times.
I took the opportunity while he was moving to check out the ginger.......He was half as big again than the black buck and had a good spread to his antlers which were still in velvet! I decided to leave him to develop as BH's son was wanting to shoot a good head and figured that in a couple of months he would be a worthy candidate.

Finally the black buck found something he liked and stopped, extended his neck to nibble whatever he saw and I dropped him DRT with a neck shot. Range was 126m, 120gr Sierra poleaxed him and he just slumped to the ground.
At the shot, the ginger looked at his buddy, then ran over to him, sniffed his body, ran away...then turned and ran towards me. I grabbed my mob again and got some video of him as he came within about 50m of me.....

Here is a screenshot of him from the video..... Got a second video of him slamming the brakes on, looking straight at the bike then wheeling around and heading for cover.

Here is the black buck with the T3Lite in 7mm08...
No trees handy to hang him while I dressed him out, so I parked the bike with the front on the edge of the track where he dropped and hung him off the winch down the bank and dressed him out.
No sign of an entrance wound.... but when I rolled him over there was an exit wound....his neck vertebrae was just a mass of broken bone and the only thing hold his head on was skin and sinew. His gut cavity was laden with fat and he will make for good eating.
Got almost finished dressing him out then the sky went black, the wind picked up and I could see a thunderstorm approaching from the west. Finished field dressing him, struggled to get him on the quad and tied down, packed up my gear and made a dash for the jeep at the other end of the farm. Got there and had just managed to untie the deer when the rain started.... got drenched loading the bike on the trailer and threw my gear in the jeep and took shelter under the tailgate. 20 minutes later the storm passed and I headed home.

Gotta like when you have to use the quad for cover and they walk towards it, must be your new aftershave

Nice report, Alec

Thank you! I miss you hunting stories

Chiro1989 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 26, 2026 12:46 pm Gotta like when you have to use the quad for cover and they walk towards it, must be your new aftershave

The whole time I was hiding behind the quad, I was thinking "These deer are stupid, normally the sight/sound of my quad has them heading towards the hills."
I think maybe the storms over the last week with torrential rain and winds up to 100km/h+ had kept them laid up in cover and they were more interested in getting a feed rather than concentrating on any danger signs.

Well done!!

Nicely done Alec...

Thanks....
Buck has been hanging in the chiller for 6 days, will skin and cut it up either today or tomorrow.