Just spent another week up in the mountains near where I grew up. It was nice of course but BLOODY hot for this time of year, we should have had VERY mild/cool days and cold nights. We had a couple of cool mornings and one mild day but the rest were uncomfortably hot.

The area is also very very rain deprived. The tanks at the hut are very low and the place really needs rain (it has been nearly 8 weeks since anything of significance).

The Fallow Rut was just starting while I was there and the bucks had established rutting stands and were beginning to grunt. The girls still didn't want too much to do with them. I took next to no pictures this trip, it was all about the hunting. The bucks (the bigger ones anyway) were all up high and that made for some long tough walks. I would generally ride my bike into the base of one of the hills or a bit up if a track was accommodating then set out for a walk. The wind was also playing havoc with the hunting. One moment it is strongly in your face the next it is at your back and you see a buck decamping the gully in front of you.... grrrrrrrrr.

I did get to watch a couple of great fights between rival bucks, one seemed to go on for ages (I walked in on it having heard the clack clack clack of the antlers colliding) and I followed them up after what appeared to be the larger buck (body and antlers) took off at a run with the other buck in pursuit !!! I managed to get back in on them about 20mins later and saw the larger buck totally stuffed, he was limping badly and his tongue was hanging like a hot dog, the smaller buck was trotting along about 30 metres behind making sure it was over. I almost think I should have hunted that older buck as he had a great head, hindsight etc.

Anyway, I spend most of the week walking into one area up high where I had seen a couple of good looking bucks, I was a good hour into the late afternoon walk and to be frank was a bit knackered... at times I was using tussocks to pull myself uphill in the steeper parts. I was working my way into a grunting buck and finally got a look at him, in the end I only had a couple of minutes to size him up before I decided to shoot (he was already starting away from me - albeit not bolting). So I shot from about 90yds out and while hit solidly he took off UPHILL. I climbed (ran) a bit higher and saw him come out of a gully about 120yds away he was pretty unsteady on his feet and was going down but I put a final shot into him and that was that.

He was a bugger of a walk to get to, and was laying precariously on the slope. While not the greatest Black Fallow head around he is not too bad at all...





Excuse the pics as they are taken with my pocket camera, the SLR is a bit much to carry uphill when I may have to carry something back out as well.

I spent the next hour or so getting the cape and head off (along with the back straps) all the while fighting gravity as it was trying to carry me and the buck back down hill. By the time I had it all up on my pack the light was fading and I had a mongrel of a walk back downhill. Still not sure how I didn't fall part of the way but luck was on my side !!!

I got back to the hut well after dark and spent the whole following morning finishing up the cape and taking the skullcap out. Accomplished all of the above with my B4 and Skeleton Key.

By the end of the week I had taken the buck and another six does for meat/culls (we have to lower the number of deer in the area or they are going to helicopter shoot it).



As for the B4, as usual it did a fine job, I can honestly say it now needs to be sharpened. I bought it new (2012 or 13 maybe ?? whenever they were released) and have lost count of the number of deer it has dressed now, along with hogs etc. I have done NOTHING other then strop the original edge Beef added at the start and it has always returned to shaving sharp with little effort. I did knock the edge around a good deal caping the buck. I stropped it back up and cleaned the doe above with no issue but when I got home and was cutting some meat and such it was notably lacking. No complaint however ...

The only other interesting pic I took was of this little guy....



....who was crossing a track and heading for the creek (and some remaining waterholes).

I have managed to collect a sinus/ear infection that has killed my equilibrium, stepped out of my truck at a roadhouse on the drive home and went down in a big pathetic pile. Dizzy and nauseous last night and dizzy today, seems I can't clear my ears/nose still but its better then yesterday.

Still, I managed to provide for the pack...





OK... off to boil the skull cap out in the front yard....it keeps the neighbours entertained..