Here at Cleaky HQ we consider the sense of adventure to be one of the most important senses. And sense of humour. But then so's the sense of smell. Sight's up there as well.

Actually. most senses are important. Especially the sense of adventure.

We've managed to instill a sense of adventure in our son, and since having a Thai student called Sun stay with us 2 years running, we've managed to instill a sense of adventure in our Sun too. His favourite food is venison steak so he was as keen as mustard to see how we harvested it.

There'd been a growing excitement in the HQ as we headed towards the roar, then we realised that the prime roar period had a whopping great Easter holiday in the middle of it and every muppet and his dog would be in the bush ... a quick phone call to a very understanding and generous mate had us access to a private block for Easter weekend. You beauty!

We tooled up on Easter Friday and headed for the block. A wee hike had us up in the head of a scrubby gully with the wind in our faces and the binoculars clamped to our eyes. A quick roar and up popped a hind's head. We watched her and her youngster for a good half hour and I finally made the decision to take her. I figured with a suppressor we weren't going to disturb the block too much, it was early in the piece too so plenty of time for things to calm down before evening. I really wanted Sun to experience the whole process so a quick setup and a 200m shot and we had a deer on the deck.



We got down to her, got her sorted and started the lug up the hill to where we could recover the meat a bit later and in no time flat (actually bloody ages) we were heading back into the shrubbery looking for a stag.

The wind turned as we were heading to a vantage spot so we hightailed it down there and over there and into a gully to wait for evening, hoping that our scent hadn't disturbed the opposite faces too much.

A great afternoon followed, glassing, relaxing and answering questions, so many questions! ... soon enough it was getting late in the arvo and it was time to go for a look. We stalked back up into the wind along a good scrubby face on our side and kept an eye on the opposite face. A distant roar had the boys excited and a quick answer from me and a reply from up the valley had them wound up like clockwork toys ... not me though, I was as calm as a calm thing in Calm Land on National Calm Day.

We headed to where I knew there were some rocky outcrops that we could glass from and where the wind would be ok. Bugger me if we didn't arrive at the aforementioned outcrops and spot a stag. We froze, he didn't. He moseyed off into the beech gully and was lost from sight. Oh well, he can't have gone far, it's pretty much deer o'clock and he's bound to show his face again I told the boys. We got settled in and in behind the binos again. Oh look says I, there's some antler tops waving around just over there. The boys had binos each and I settled in behind the rifle to watch. Soon enough he fed out into the open and proceeded to head into a shitty, head high fern and scrub basin. A quick roar had him interested enough to feed back into the open and away from the crap and we were in business.

He turned broadside on at 220m and I squeezed the trigger. The stag looked around wondering what the flock that thing that just went screaming past was and headed slowly back down towards the bush edge. My rifle must be crook I thought, I never miss. I let out a last ditch roar and he looked straight across the gully at us, front on. A crosshair appeared on his brisket and a 120gr BT was sent over to meet him forthwith. My rifle had magically sorted itself out in the last 6 seconds and the shot was good. The shakes hit me as I clicked that I'd just shot my first stag and the boys let out a whoop having watched the whole thing through their binos.

It was heading towards dark now and with half an hour of light left and a 20minute scramble through the beech gully to get over there, we packed up our gear quick smart and headed over to find him.



Because he'd dropped where he stood, we walked straight on to him and started making like camera happy tourists.



We soon had him chopped up and loaded on and off we went on the trek out. Having a breather halfway up the hill we turned the headtorches off and had a roaring contest with the stags in the surrounding area, the grin on the boys faces hearing their first roaring chorus was awesome.

Adventures. They're the best!

That's certainly a great sense of adventure young fella and an even greater result.

Congratulations on a nice stag, particularly it being your first.

I have really enjoyed watching your journey progress over the years.

Great to hear a story with the young ones so involved Cleaky.  Haven't had that success, with either of my two boys yet, but we are still enjoying the adventure.

Good stuff Cleaky mate, you have been taught well Grasshopper. Thje lads would have been stoked...after all, I saw how happy they were when you stopped outside the Whatawhata Pub one Sunday and they both suggested it was "beer o'clock"...

very 

Great times having your son and sun with you when popping your cherry

Good the younger fellows saw some action,good on you cleaky.

Sweet story, glad your gun decided to sort out its issues and well done  on the zen calm.