Wild and free,all of them and no long range 1000 yard shots were even thought of either although there were plenty on offer.There is nothing that can compare to getting in tight with your game animal imo.

I flew up to an old mates place in Northern NSW and we drove west for 6 hours to a small run of 5-6000 acres surrounded by other bigger places.My mate had been hunting there for a few years and the trip was a catch up with him for a few beers with a hunt as well.He was unfortunately sick as a dog for the first two days with the drizzlin`s and barely moved from camp so I worked the place out on foot doing many many miles of hill walking.
After three x 10 hour days of sneaking about and seeing hundreds of deer in all the miles and being constantly thwarted by the mountain winds I found that young red buck in the pics below and after 30-40 mins of watching and photographing him he finally moved off and I had an idea that there would be other bucks nearby as they were still together and hadn't separated for the rut.
I soon found the black deer down below me at about 80 metres or so. He was well alert as the red buck had trotted past above him with tail held high and that posture had Mr Black really studying all around him.

It took five minutes to work out his antlers from the tree branches and after carefully considering all the angles and the bullet path through the tree branches one shot from the Brno 30-06 smacked him down instantly but he rolled a few metres out from under the bush cover edge. Above where he lays is a real thicket of heavy cover..a favourite spot for the Fallow deer that and up high!





































Sleeping fallow does x 3 very hard to catch unawares,you should have seen them go when I announced my arrival..lightning!



some of the 400 odd goats seen,we dont worry them at all.

Nice Trophy and its refreshing to see some small pigs alive in photos.

Yes OzH I dont see the need for a bomb up on the little ones except on eradication orders for the property owner,or if one was needed for the camp oven (see below)
Same with the goats,there were quite a few billys amongst them but if on a mission for game (fallow buck) I dont take a shot at anything else..even if there "is nothing fkn here" I said this to a mate the other day that go`s hunting for such and such and will take a crack at a fox on a deer hunt.

Nice live shots Gryph. Nice country as well.

Really very cool. Red fallow are my favourite!! Congrats on the beaut buck.

Nice animals and great country Gryph I'm afraid I would have too much trouble controlling my quivering trigger finger there.

That control you speak of is why I ended up with Mr Black...I did think about Mr Red quite a few times as in " eff it I`m here to hunt,I cant go home with nothing " but I held off.. three times i went back to him and took more pics...that red bloke will pay off in a couple more years if he`s still there.He has a bit going for him so far.

And not far from your roots either Matty.

quote:

Originally posted by gryphon1:

And not far from your roots either Matty.

Yep... sure looks like it.

Nice one gryph!

What happened to the red ribon that was tied to the deer?

Magnificent photos thanks.

And congrats on the great black buck, a real nice one. Looks like a great stalking property. They are just getting going over here, an exciting time of year.

blacks

Tim they weren't going much when I was hunting,sure there were a few croaks here and there and one buck way up a gully one evening was giving an account readily but as you can see they are hardly piss stained if at all and the bucks were still together mainly.I actually wanted to beat the rut this year.I have a few pics of some I would like to meet next year though.

One of the runners above after i made a few silly calls.

I loved that hunt report! It is great to make the time to slow down and really enjoy the weather, the land and all the beasts.

Dean

Thats right on Dean,too often the hunt becomes an obsession on hunting for the biggest and best and a lot of the small but valuable things are unseen.
I love the whole picture of hunting from that drop of dew hanging on a grass stalk to the sunrise and the game itself.