Dream becomes Reality

[Stephen Cohen]

Finally at 58yrs of age, I bag my first deer a nice young buck. I thought the climb up the steep mountain in this heat was bad, Untill I had to carry him out to where vehicle could get to him. All in all a very good day and many things learnt, I need to loose 10 pound get fitter and lighten my 10 pound 375 Whelen. My buddy and I were also asked to clear a property of Rusa deer as they are destroying crops.Since deer are classed as vermin in this country the land owner has responsability the keep numbers down, or gov will charge land owner the cost to cull them.

[David2011]

Good for you! Although I've been a shooter all my life, I just got my first deer 2 weekends ago and I'm also 58. Are you shooting cast boolits in the .375 Whelen?

David

[Hamish]

"My buddy and I were also asked to clear a property of Rusa deer as they are destroying crops"

Darn the bad luck,,,,,,,,,,,,:lol:

[**oneshot**]

Congrads on your first deer! Wish I could hunt deer as vermin.

[JeffinNZ]

That's fantastic if for no other reason than I have 15 years to spare. I have yet to SEE a deer in the wild and I live in one of the best hunting countries in the world.

[1Shirt]

Good on ya! 1 down many to go! Good luck!
1Shirt!

[MtGun44]

Jeff,

How could it be that you have never seen a deer in the wild???? I know you shoot rabbits and wallabies (I think - don't know my
southern hemisphere marsupials very well) and similar. Are the deer somewhere else - entirely different habitat? They are
darn near like rats around most of the US, some auto insurance companies pay for meat processing if the meat is donated to
charity to encourage shooting to minimize the very large number of car accidents. Somehow the whitetail deer has
figured out how to live in a HUGE variety of different temperature zones and types of vegitation and very close to man.

Of course, maybe this is some entirely different kind of deer. I saw some spotted deer (chital) in India that were a good bit
different in the headgear dept, and the larger sambar a bit more like our elk. I have absolutely no clue what a Rusa deer is,
will have to look it up on the web.

OK - looked it up - apparently somewhere between the chital and sambar deer, it doesn't look a whole lot different
from a whitetail, but did not see a set of antlers in the short piece I read. The article mentions that they do well in
their native tropical habitat and in dry Aussy habitat as well. Seems like they'd be all over NZ, unless hunted hard, I suppose.

I know that they are not native, but are they "wild" as in free roaming and not owned and controlled by landowners?

Bill

[starmac]

Everybody wants to hunt where I live, and the closest thing I have seen to a deer is a reindeer. lol

[smoked turkey]

Good for you Stephen. Its OK that you are a little late for the party. May the Lord grant you many many more seasons to make up for lost time. Congratulations. I hope you get to eat the critter. They are some good eatin. There are many good cooks here and many good recipes.

[Dennis Eugene]

From MtGun44
Are the deer somewhere else - entirely different habitat? They are
darn near like rats around most of the US, some auto insurance companies pay for meat processing if the meat is donated to
charity to encourage shooting to minimize the very large number of car accidents. Somehow the whitetail deer has
figured out how to live in a HUGE variety of different temperature zones and types of vegitation and very close to man.
By the tail end of the Great depression it was rare to see a whitetail deer. It's not that the white tail has learned to live around man it's just that man has not been real hungry and broke for a very long time.

[xs hedspace]

At my age, I always try to hunt uphill, so I can drag downhill... Other helpful hints: Turn down yer hearing aid if you want to stalk quietly, Take a V***** before going in the woods, to keep yer boots dry when you need to pee, and take gingko to remember which pocket you have the cough medicine and which pocket has the buck lure bottle.