xphunter
Handloader
- Sep 15, 2005
- 1,118
- 1,951
I really thought that I had posted this before.
A number of years ago, my wife and I took a vacation to New Zealand. She told me that I could do some hunting for 2 1/2 to 3 days while we were there. I knew a guy that did some outfitting in New Zealand, and when he hunted in Africa, he would hunt with a specialty pistol. I contacted him and made an agreement that I would hunt for a silver medal stag. After a very long flight, we made it to the north island, and then waited about an hour or so, and then hopped on another plane to go to the south island where I would be hunting. We had not slept, hardly at all for many many hours. We drove for a while, and then got a bite to eat around lunchtime, and then headed to the bed-and-breakfast where my wife and I would be staying for several days. After we got unloaded, I immediately changed clothes, and went outside on the front lawn and dry fired the guides RIFLE a few times. It is illegal to hunt with a handgun in New Zealand, so I just decided to use the guides rifle, instead of trying to haul one of my rifles around the country for the rest of our vacation. My wife and I then hopped back into the guides truck with his helper and now we begin making our way toward the hunting area for a afternoon/evening hunt. It was probably around an hour drive, and we got to the location and we were seeing some animals but nothing that we were looking for. We ended up getting on a high ridge and was glassing toward the north in the wide open country with beautiful mountains in the background. We saw a herd that had two stags in it. I really didn’t know what a silver metal red stag would look like, but I knew that the two stags I was looking at were definitely not silver, they both were big. I was pretty content that we would not be doing any shooting that evening, as the day was coming to an end. The Guide asked me what our price agreement was for the silver metal stag, and I went back and showed him our agreement that we had talked about that I had say via messenger. It’s the number that he thought, then he completely surprised me. He said I’m gonna do a good one, I’m gonna let you take one of those gold medal tags for the price of the silver, that we agreed on. I was literally in shock . He asked me which one I wanted to go for, and I told him the freak. He had dropped times and was just weird. The problem was, is that these animals were over 600 yards away, and the guy that told me before we even came over that all shots would be limited to 350 yards and under.
He knew that I did some distance, shooting with my specialty pistols beforehand as well.
We were in such wide-open country, I was trying to figure out a way to get to the animals before we ran out of light. I gave a suggestion, and he kind of looked at me, and then walked away, and headed toward his truck. He then grabbed the gun case out of the back of the truck, took the rifle, which was at 338 Lapua, and set it up at the very edge of this flat area that we were on, and announced that I would shoot it from there. I thought to myself, well, this is a certainly a change of plans from what I expected. I had already downloaded all of the information that he had given me about the Rifle and its ballistics and put it into my ballistic software that I had on my phone. The stag was right at 624 yards. I dialed up to compensate for drop, and then we begin talking about wind. He disagreed with my assessment and only told me to add a quarter minute right. I was convinced the wind was more than that, but this was his area not mine, and so I complied.
He wanted to wait until the animal got completely broadside, and he wanted me to double shoulder shoot him. I expected the wind to carry the bullet back into the heart and lung area, which I was fine with as well.
If his win call was right, I would shoot him through the shoulders.
Either way was a win-win.
At the shot, the 285 grain Long Range AccuBond did its job. I punched a hole right through the top of his heart, and there was like a water hose of blood flowing out of him, the guide said.
He was ecstatic. Sometimes I should keep my mouth shut, but when the animal dropped, I told him, “I told you there was more wind than that.” He just smiled and laughed, and said something to the effect of, that he kept forgetting that I shot at distance.
The stag was behind and a little bit to the left of that tree. You see the tree on the right side of the picture.
A number of years ago, my wife and I took a vacation to New Zealand. She told me that I could do some hunting for 2 1/2 to 3 days while we were there. I knew a guy that did some outfitting in New Zealand, and when he hunted in Africa, he would hunt with a specialty pistol. I contacted him and made an agreement that I would hunt for a silver medal stag. After a very long flight, we made it to the north island, and then waited about an hour or so, and then hopped on another plane to go to the south island where I would be hunting. We had not slept, hardly at all for many many hours. We drove for a while, and then got a bite to eat around lunchtime, and then headed to the bed-and-breakfast where my wife and I would be staying for several days. After we got unloaded, I immediately changed clothes, and went outside on the front lawn and dry fired the guides RIFLE a few times. It is illegal to hunt with a handgun in New Zealand, so I just decided to use the guides rifle, instead of trying to haul one of my rifles around the country for the rest of our vacation. My wife and I then hopped back into the guides truck with his helper and now we begin making our way toward the hunting area for a afternoon/evening hunt. It was probably around an hour drive, and we got to the location and we were seeing some animals but nothing that we were looking for. We ended up getting on a high ridge and was glassing toward the north in the wide open country with beautiful mountains in the background. We saw a herd that had two stags in it. I really didn’t know what a silver metal red stag would look like, but I knew that the two stags I was looking at were definitely not silver, they both were big. I was pretty content that we would not be doing any shooting that evening, as the day was coming to an end. The Guide asked me what our price agreement was for the silver metal stag, and I went back and showed him our agreement that we had talked about that I had say via messenger. It’s the number that he thought, then he completely surprised me. He said I’m gonna do a good one, I’m gonna let you take one of those gold medal tags for the price of the silver, that we agreed on. I was literally in shock . He asked me which one I wanted to go for, and I told him the freak. He had dropped times and was just weird. The problem was, is that these animals were over 600 yards away, and the guy that told me before we even came over that all shots would be limited to 350 yards and under.
He knew that I did some distance, shooting with my specialty pistols beforehand as well.
We were in such wide-open country, I was trying to figure out a way to get to the animals before we ran out of light. I gave a suggestion, and he kind of looked at me, and then walked away, and headed toward his truck. He then grabbed the gun case out of the back of the truck, took the rifle, which was at 338 Lapua, and set it up at the very edge of this flat area that we were on, and announced that I would shoot it from there. I thought to myself, well, this is a certainly a change of plans from what I expected. I had already downloaded all of the information that he had given me about the Rifle and its ballistics and put it into my ballistic software that I had on my phone. The stag was right at 624 yards. I dialed up to compensate for drop, and then we begin talking about wind. He disagreed with my assessment and only told me to add a quarter minute right. I was convinced the wind was more than that, but this was his area not mine, and so I complied.
He wanted to wait until the animal got completely broadside, and he wanted me to double shoulder shoot him. I expected the wind to carry the bullet back into the heart and lung area, which I was fine with as well.
If his win call was right, I would shoot him through the shoulders.
Either way was a win-win.
At the shot, the 285 grain Long Range AccuBond did its job. I punched a hole right through the top of his heart, and there was like a water hose of blood flowing out of him, the guide said.
He was ecstatic. Sometimes I should keep my mouth shut, but when the animal dropped, I told him, “I told you there was more wind than that.” He just smiled and laughed, and said something to the effect of, that he kept forgetting that I shot at distance.
The stag was behind and a little bit to the left of that tree. You see the tree on the right side of the picture.
