It is something of a family tradition to hunt on the Queen's Birthday holiday weekend and when at a local hunting club I learned the holiday Monday was free I jumped at culling some venison on that day.

Sunday evening was spent making sure one of my rifles was ready and I had some ammo for it. I checked the zero on my .30-06 and damn it was way out. Zeroed it and then worked out some dickhead had put two different loads in the same box (me

) from the headstamps and that is why it was hard to get it zeroed. And I used up all the loads I wanted to use. Back to the reloading bench later to fix this up.

Second rifle. My BLR in .308. Zeroed nicely, a bit of fine tuning and I actually had spare ammo. So that would get a workout.

***

Sunday night was blowing a gale with very heavy rain. Some houses were actually de-roofed across the State that night. Good weather for hunting!

Up in the early hours and drove the hour or so to the hunting property. Made a wrong turn and lost some time getting there while the dawn was lightening. Not worried about this as it was only a cull and I only had to find one doe as a cull.

A couple of does and a stag were spooked by the vehicle. And some more were feeding around a bend behind some trees unconcerned. Was thinking this might end up being a fiveminute hunt. However the property owner turned up and after a quick chat these deer had moved on. Hunted them through the low bushes and had a couple of opportunities to take an off-hand shot but wasn't steady enough at the ranges. I wanted minimum meat spoilage and a good shoot through the lungs but not hitting the shoulder. The wind was behind me and strong but angling past them. After about 20 minutes they cut across the wind and disappeared in a twinkling.

Checked out a paddock but the wind direction was a problem. Found another small group of does, or perhaps the same one and they were suspicious and moved into some high and noisy weeds in a large paddock, which made following them a worthless proposition.

Checked out another bushy paddock and about this time the first rainy squall hit. I did have polarfleece and a ranproof hunting coat plus hat but lightweight cotton trousers. Found a thin tree to shelter behind as the rain was moving sideways in the strong wind. This area is only a short distance from the sea and the sea is the Southern Ocean. It can get cold.

The rain kept up for a hour and then decreased. Hunted back towards my vehicle and sighted the main herd of deer. All nice sunning themselves in a spot I could hunt and could approach but not so easy to get a carcase out of.

This time headed off to the far side of the property aiming to hunt directly back. Ended up walking in a weedy paddock where the weeds were dry and dead but about 9 feet high. Good cover. Spooked a doe. Kept walking and spooked the same doe again. She stopped after rising hoping I hadn't seen her. The BLR up and fired taking a brain shot. Down she went. Very unphotogenic so no photos. The 150 grain having quite a spectacular effect on the skull.

Back to the car and back again to gut the animal and off home to finish skinning.

Ended up being better than a 5 minute hunt and some venison for the freezer courtesy of the Queen's Birthday holiday.