Yesterday seemed as good a time as any to go check out the pines to see if the bucks have started to mark their stamping grounds, historically they will mark the same areas provided they survive the rut.

Last year I had found the scrapes but never heard or saw any bucks, so I headed to the same area and straightaway found a manuka bush that had had a recent thrashing, the wind was good so was in the process of skirting a swampy gut when the german girlfriend gave a couple of huffs and damn me at 3 o'clock in the afternoon this guy popped up about 100m away.



Solid little sucker, fat as mud took me a couple of hours getting him back to the scooter.



I'd be lost without the mighty 300, reckon it's extended my hunting career by many years, helps us poor old gold card folks no end.

Cheers

Good bit of work there...and hey nothing wrong with a German girlfriend either...

Nice