Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone. I spent the 30th, 31st, and the 1st in the mountains. I brought in 2011 hunting in the mountains with my dogs, and spent the last day of it there as well. 2012 has now begun with a fun, tiring hunt.


I went out today with my youngest brother and Baron. After getting all the gear ready, we decided to let Baron choose which ridge we would hunt. Got to the first one, and Baron was already scenting and looking up at a spot where there are often deer and boar. Okay then, that decides it, and Baron is released. He took off and was gone in a flash.

We slow humans did our best to keep up, and he spent the next 40 minutes chasing game in a criss cross through the ridge we were in. We did get sight of the deer he was chasing a couple times, but in the end the deer won, and we moved on.

We climbed higher and further into the mountains, Baron picking up scent every now and again, but nothing definitive. Finally as we came to the back end of the ridge where it forms a U, Baron perked up, and moments later we heard a deer's warning bark. I glanced ahead and saw two does moving running up toward the ridge. I had time for one fairly decent shot, but it was at a distance of around 70-80 meters, and ended up missing.

We moved around the U, up the ridge in the direction the deer had gone, again, further into the mountains. As we came around a bend, Baron perked up again, and I glanced down in the direction he was pointing and saw a group of deer running through the bottom of the ravine. There were quite a few boulders, and a very small window of opportunity. There was a spot between two boulders that I saw the first deer move through, just as I lined up on the second I saw the buck coming in third, lined up on him and fired. One shot and he buckled and went down.

We three scrambled down toward the buck, with me sliding half the way down on my ass. Baron completely missed the fact that the buck was down, for a second following the scent of the does. He turned around and realized the buck was still there and jumped on him. The buck had a fairly decent size and rack for a Nihon Shika, and Baron held it while I dispatched it. My single shot had been off target, but the slug had done its job.


It was all fun and excitement till we realized that we were 2km into the mountain, at the bottom of a ravine. To make a long back breaking journey short, we ended up taking around 6 hours to finally have the buck out of the mountain and all the meat butchered. He was a heavy animal, and my brother and I were/are exhausted. Baron for his part thought it was fun to randomly attack the buck as we were carrying it. During one of our breaks, Baron took off up a ridge and got on a boar, I was so tired I could barely bring myself to load my shotgun and head after him. He did a decent job, but the boar was pretty clever and managed to slip away.

All in all, an extremely memorable day. I'm not really into hunting deer with my dogs, and this is the first year I have taken any deer, and that mostly because boar numbers have plummeted in this area near my brother's house. I'm planning on checking out my old stomping grounds from last year next time I hunt, in the hopes of getting Baron on some boar.

Comments

  1. Happy New Year! Glad you are having an adventuresome holiday with family. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, experiences, and pictures. Hope your 2012 is a healthy one for yourself, your family, and litters to be born.

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