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Self explanatory tale from a Sunday morning hunt posted elsewhere by my hunt mate.

After an early 3.15 AM start to the day I drove to Griff`s joint and we had a quick coffee and a bit of a yarn about the plan to go into one of the secret spots that the weather that morning was perfect for with the wind direction of utmost importance being a primary factor in selecting the approach with the anticipation of deer coming up from the creek mouth about 1.5 clicks below.

After arriving 1/2 hour before daylight at our valley entry point we descended into a wide deep gully that had suffered in the recent fires and which had left exposed countless round stones on the steep slope that made the going pretty ordinary in the dark. Finally reaching a game trail above the the valley bottom we made our way slowly down valley expecting and hoping to see an animal at any time. On reaching the next spur I spotted movement and Griff saw me answer him with a "hind signal".

He couldn't see her from his position so he came carefully came back the five metres to me and promptly announced after a quick bino look "its a real fat velvet spikey shoot the bastard! Then I saw another deer 50 metres above and to its right which Griff picked up and identified as a 15 inch stag that was rough as guts in the antler dept.

The two deer were slightly down and opposite us on the other side of the creek around 180 yards away and were moving in and about heavy fern. At times I could see them and other times only Griff could. I then wanted to make my way to a tree about 20 yards away to use as a rifle rest but was warned that they would more than likely spring us as we were still in open burnt bush on our side with bugger all undergrowth around us. It was still fairly darkish under the forest canopy at 7.20 AM in this gully but the risk of noise was too great to move deeper down.

After watching them for 15 minutes waiting for a good target opp eventually the spikey became a none target due to the heavy fern cover and tall trees mostly obscuring him so the decision was made for me to take the shot at the stag instead. He had a real mongrel head on him but looked fat also and then at times we could see him rubbing a black wattle which was great to watch although he was often covered by the foliage of other bushes while he moved around the tree.

Griff had already passed me a 6 foot long stick by this time,it was about an inch in dia and had me use it as a monopod shooting stick ,mind you with the words "dont fuck up" haha so I planted it firmly into the ground rested my 30`06 Ruger on it after having already turned the Leupold 2.5 x 8 to 5 x and as the stag turned side on facing slightly away and looking uphill I sent one of the new Hydro 180 grain projectiles into him with the pill driving in from behind the left side shoulder and into and out of the opposite shoulder. The stag dropped instantly as if a semi trailer had landed on his back and rolled five metres down slope through the ferns and came to rest above the creek,Griff gave me a 'well done' with a hand shake congrats for the top kill shot and we sat there for another 15 minutes just watching and waiting. The remark from Griff about the bullet performance was summed up in a few words, something like ' that was devastating!'
The other deer the fat velvet spikey had intitially jumped at the shot sound and bolted into cover and stood waiting for his mate and then sneaked off unseen some time later.
I stood shotgun on my side of the gully while Griff went upstream and crossed the creek and found the deer in the ferns and I then made my way over after his whistle and was feeling pretty good about the whole show of watching sambar deer feeding and rubbing and then taking one out especially using a projectile made by a great mate.
Incidentally Griff had his 358 NM loaded with the Hydro`s as well.

After the obligatory photo sesh and meat carve up and the usual banter we loaded up for and dreading the 45 minute "straight up" climb of about 1200 metres to the ute and headed back for a couple of thirst quenching stubbies back at Griffs around 11 AM.

The little mongrel is rough alright,one brow is a pimple like lump protruding out of the beam and an all over the place set of antlers meant he was a good one to take out. He went 15 and a 1/4 inches btw with nothing big about him but the day was just one of those ripper days out in the bush. Eye fillet steak tonight!

I will add myself that the Hydro bullet was indeed devastating and from the shot entry/exit I`m not so sure a normal old ave hunting bullet would have done exactly the same thing.Griff.