Von Gruff
KNIFE MAKER
I have had a longstanding invitation to hunt a local property of about 3000 acres but have been so busy enjoying making my knives that I have kept putting it off, so gave my friend in Invercargill a ring last week and set us up for this week after clearing it with the property owner to designate this morning as D day (that is Deer day)
The property is just 20 minutes from home so met Foster (who drove the hour and 40 min from Invercargill) at the turnoff to transfer his gear to my vehicle after which we headed down the gravel road and arrived at the first gate at just on 8am on a cold clear morning. A very still morning and as I had already decided on where two "older gentlemen" might stalk without the stress of hard walking, we started our stalk up a very long gully toward where the feed crops were on the top of the hill country. The morning air is constant in moving up hill as the day warms so we were hopefull of seeing one of the many fallow that have been seen coming from the forested areas within the proterty to feed on the winter feedcrops through the night and late into the morning.
There was a reasonable amount of mud and wet areas on the walk up so this made for some effort expended with the result that my glasses kept fogging up so it was a constant wiping off and after about a 1/2 hour of slow walk and glass we came toward the basin at the head of the gully and saw the herd hind coming quickly down off the hill through the gully and dissapared into the forest. There were about 10 in the group with her but ehre was no slowing down for them, let alone stopping so no shot was offered. There was an uprooted tree and I quickly layed my rifle over the dirt and root system but with a lot of underbrush there was very little time to get on to them and they soon dissapared from sight. A quick wipe of my glasses and another group of 4 with a very nice buck sporting a decent head, but again there was no oportunity to take a shot with any sence of certainty. After another minute or two three animals doubled back with two stopping in the middle of the cut over area at 169m -185 yds, so a quick wipe of the fog on my glasses and I was able to get a reasonably steady hold and touched off the 140gn privi bullet at 2800fps. I saw the animal drop at the shot with the second one making a beeline for the ridge so Foster was not able to connect with it but having the one to carry out was going to be enough for the day so we made our way up to find him where he had dropped. It was a very large bodied spiker in excellent late winter condition with all the easy feed he had been on. He was a decent weight so it required a number of stops on the way back down to the truck with Foster and I taking turns to carry but even then these two older gentlemen were in no hurry so there were a couple of rest stops as well. Two of my knives got to mix it with hair hide and meat today with the light hnter I carry on the hill doing the field work and my skinner doing duty back home in the shed. The boner and slicer will complete the work when the deer has hung for a week.
The rifle was one of the ones I have built for myself over the years and being the last one I did is rather special in that the walnut blank is one of the most spectacular pieces of wood I have had the priveledge of working on and with more complications in the stock tan any of the other 30 or more I have done was exceptionally pleaseing to get right. I have a Lee Speed I am about to start on a 1896 MLE action and it looks like I have a ZG47 to do toward the end of the year.
For those who may be interested in how a rifle stock comes out of a solid blank this is the thread on my other home forum showing this 6.5x57 build. Initially it was going to be a 7x57 but due to barrel issues I changed horses and went with the 6.5x57 which is a very good cartridge for NZ hunting up to the largest animal we have here in the wapiti (elk). There are a few ferel cattle in places but for them I would carry the 400 Lee Speed I built https://www.africahunting.com/threads/a-1916-erfurt-small-ring-project.26236/
The property is just 20 minutes from home so met Foster (who drove the hour and 40 min from Invercargill) at the turnoff to transfer his gear to my vehicle after which we headed down the gravel road and arrived at the first gate at just on 8am on a cold clear morning. A very still morning and as I had already decided on where two "older gentlemen" might stalk without the stress of hard walking, we started our stalk up a very long gully toward where the feed crops were on the top of the hill country. The morning air is constant in moving up hill as the day warms so we were hopefull of seeing one of the many fallow that have been seen coming from the forested areas within the proterty to feed on the winter feedcrops through the night and late into the morning.
There was a reasonable amount of mud and wet areas on the walk up so this made for some effort expended with the result that my glasses kept fogging up so it was a constant wiping off and after about a 1/2 hour of slow walk and glass we came toward the basin at the head of the gully and saw the herd hind coming quickly down off the hill through the gully and dissapared into the forest. There were about 10 in the group with her but ehre was no slowing down for them, let alone stopping so no shot was offered. There was an uprooted tree and I quickly layed my rifle over the dirt and root system but with a lot of underbrush there was very little time to get on to them and they soon dissapared from sight. A quick wipe of my glasses and another group of 4 with a very nice buck sporting a decent head, but again there was no oportunity to take a shot with any sence of certainty. After another minute or two three animals doubled back with two stopping in the middle of the cut over area at 169m -185 yds, so a quick wipe of the fog on my glasses and I was able to get a reasonably steady hold and touched off the 140gn privi bullet at 2800fps. I saw the animal drop at the shot with the second one making a beeline for the ridge so Foster was not able to connect with it but having the one to carry out was going to be enough for the day so we made our way up to find him where he had dropped. It was a very large bodied spiker in excellent late winter condition with all the easy feed he had been on. He was a decent weight so it required a number of stops on the way back down to the truck with Foster and I taking turns to carry but even then these two older gentlemen were in no hurry so there were a couple of rest stops as well. Two of my knives got to mix it with hair hide and meat today with the light hnter I carry on the hill doing the field work and my skinner doing duty back home in the shed. The boner and slicer will complete the work when the deer has hung for a week.
The rifle was one of the ones I have built for myself over the years and being the last one I did is rather special in that the walnut blank is one of the most spectacular pieces of wood I have had the priveledge of working on and with more complications in the stock tan any of the other 30 or more I have done was exceptionally pleaseing to get right. I have a Lee Speed I am about to start on a 1896 MLE action and it looks like I have a ZG47 to do toward the end of the year.
For those who may be interested in how a rifle stock comes out of a solid blank this is the thread on my other home forum showing this 6.5x57 build. Initially it was going to be a 7x57 but due to barrel issues I changed horses and went with the 6.5x57 which is a very good cartridge for NZ hunting up to the largest animal we have here in the wapiti (elk). There are a few ferel cattle in places but for them I would carry the 400 Lee Speed I built https://www.africahunting.com/threads/a-1916-erfurt-small-ring-project.26236/
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